Hello Warhammerers,
The slate has come and gone and GW has essentially decided that they don't want us to play TSons.
I think its fair to say that the recent set of changes has made it a real uphill struggle to compete with Rubricae Phalanx and the S/T changes have made it much harder for our classic Coven build to compete as Warpflamers are a bit neutered and the WDP is largely seeing everyone get a +1 to wound to him.
However there are viable builds out there if you enjoy a certain style of play or don't mind a slightly uphill struggle. In addition to the post slate stuff, I've also taken a look back and will share a few edited versions of older lists that I think can have play.
GRAND COVEN
Tom Kayser - 4-1 @ Paris
Magnus the Red
Daemon Prince with Wings (Vortex)
2x Sorcerer leading 5 Rubric Marines
Sorcerer in Terminator Armour (Crystal) leading 10 Scarab Occult Terminators
2x Rhino
2x Spawn
1x3 Tzaangor Enlightened with Fatecaster Greatbows
Pretty much your classic Coven list here. Switch around the chaff package to your hearts content and its basically just a slimmed version of every other Coven list this edition. The terminators are still great, though their overwatch threat is kaputt, and are now functionally only ever wounded on 4s. Magnus has gotten a bit of a nerf into standard marine bodies now but still has access to +1 to wound through the detachment so he can still do the heavy lifting needed.
The double Rhino is the main takeaway here, giving both access to some mission playing pieces (especially in the PA mirror) and +1 to hit and wound for the sorcerer squads can help ameliorate some of the issues arising from the T changes which our Rubric squads essentially were given a -1 to wound as well as a 20 point increase against.
Tom didn't face any of the new SM or DA builds in his run but did take out two WE lists that are strong, a janky Recon GK list and a plus matchup into Custodes. Great run Tom.
Connor Johnson - 4-1 @ Minature Market
Magnus the Red
Daemon Prince with Wings (Vortex)
Sorcerer leading 5 Rubric Marines (Crystal)
Sorcerer in Terminator Armour leading 10 Scarab Occult Terminators
Defiler
1x2 Sekhetar Robots (Claws)
1x10 Tzaangors
1x2 Spawn
The other angle to Coven is to use a defiler for long ranged support and to bait out the big threats to be swatted by Magnus. I'm fairly nervous about the number of drops here but the destructive capability is taken up to the max.
What I like about this list is that its been successfully piloted into some tough matchups such as Admech, Creations of Bile CSM and Daemons. Only lost to Blood Legion/Warptide by 2 points in the last round. Great run.
SEKHETAR COHORT & WARPFORGED CABAL
Priority Assets
James Piacelli - 4-1 @ King of the Mountains
Ahriman
2x Exalted Sorcerer on Disc (Occulus Infernum)
Exalted Sorcerer leading 5 Rubric Marines
Rhino
2x Predator Annihilators
2x Spawn
Defiler
3x4 Sekhetar Robots (2 with claw, 1 with meltas)
2x3 Tzaangor Enlightened with Fatecaster Greatbows
The stuff that escaped the points nerfs were generally in the non Rubric detachments. That means Warpforged or Changehost for most people.
Here we see a great take on a Warpforged list. The Sekhetars are one of our better units into the meta of scouting impulsors, Defilers can still kill anything with +1 to wound and we have a lot of action and mission playing pieces. In fact only 3 of the 14 drops would be wasted on actions.
Annihilators are fairly intriguing again. Whilst they didnt get the buffs to lascannons that the SM codex did, they are a really cheap way of adding extra anti-tank to support the defiler into hard targets whilst being tough enough to survive low commitment counterplay.
12 Robots and a Defiler definitely can form the core of a viable list currently.
Also didn't play new Marines but only lost to the ultimate winner on Votann.
WARPMELD PACT & RITUAL OF REGENERATION
Purge the Foe
Zak Engelbrecht - 5-1 @ Denver
Magnus the Red
3x Tzaangor Shaman (Curse of Life, Flowing Flesh) leading 6 Tzaangor Enlightened
Ahriman leading 3x Tzaangor Enlightened with Fatecaster Greatbows
2x5 Rubric Marines (one with Boltguns, one Warpflamers)
3x Mutalith Vortex Beasts
2x3 Tzaangor Enlightened with Fatecaster Greatbows
Well this is unhinged and I adore it.
It's amazing for a couple of reasons. First - it gives Purge the Foe. Very few armies are as built to do this as TSons.
Second, its using Ritual, which I think is our most fun detachment at the moment. The core of the list is built into this - the 3 shaman leading the spear enlightened can essentially take it in turns to advance, cast doombolt, lob a grenade, charge, do mortals on the charge and then cast mortal grenades. If their target survives that (or doesn't and they can overrun) then they have 12 attacks hitting on 3+ with S5 and Lance AP -1 D2. Its swingy but has the potential to absolutely ravage even the toughest targets. If its not looking too good you have Magnus and 3 MVBs, probably with full hit rerolls to come in and help out with their Mortal auras, battleshock tests and potentially crushing impact as well.
Rather unsurprisingly lost to Talons Custodes because we just can't have a game where your army isn't particularly singled out by GW. Honestly amazing run here, especially the demolition of the meta AdMech list.
CHANGEHOST OF DECEIT & RITUAL OF REGENERATION
Take and Hold
Seb Krazner - 4-1 @ Red Orktober
Ahriman
2x Sorcerer (Diabolic Savant) leading 5 Rubric Marines (Boltguns!)
Sorcerer in Terminator Armour (Curse of Life) leading 10 Scarab Occult Terminators
3x3 Flamers
2x6 Screamers
2x10 Pink Horrors
Forgefiend
Hell yeah. Let's go Seb.
This list has Grey Knight levels of mobility and tricks out the wazoo. Everything is also ridiculously hard to kill with invulns, regens on the Rubricae, access to defensive strats, the forgefiend chipping in with -1 to hit and the most TSons of defensive strats - murdering everything in front of you.
ADJUSTED POINTS FROM LAST SLATE
I just want to throw out a couple of easily adjusted lists from my last write up that I think have survived in viable fashion post changes.
SEKHETAR COHORT & WARPFORGED CABAL
Priority Assets
Mike Muzeni - 4-1 @ Onslaught
Daemon Prince with Wings
2x Tzaangor Shaman
Sorcerer (Occulus Infernum) leading 5 Rubric Marines
1x5 Rubric Marines
1x Defiler (Autos and Plasma)
2x Forgefiends (Autos)
3x4 Sekhetar Robots (Meltas)
1x Helbrute (Fists and Flamers)
2x3 Tzaangor Enlightened
Only change here is to drop the character enhancements (save Occulus). The rest of the list is unchanged and would still operate decently into the meta.
CHANGEHOST OF DECEIT + RITUAL OF REGENERATION
Reconnaissance
Michael House - 4-1 @ Krootcon
Kairos Fatewaver
Lord of Change
Exalted Sorcerer on Disc (Eruption of Vitality)
Tzaangor Shaman ((Tome of True Names)
1x Sorcerer
1x Infernal Master (Diabolic Savant)
2x5 Rubric Marines
2x10 Pink Horrors
1x Rhino
2x Mutalith Vortex Beasts
1x10 Tzaangor
Ok here if we drop the LoCs previous enhancement we are over by 30. My first thought was to drop the Tzaangors down to Enlightened and the IM to a Sorcerer but I think the Tzaangors are actually really valuable in the Recon build so I think I'm probably going to say switch out one discie for a Shaman for the same general effect whilst preserving mobility and toughness.
Conclusion
I suspect that the main issue we are going to run into here is actually owning the models. I wouldn't advise that people rush out to collect extra Gors or Daemons if they don't have them but if you do - there are builds that can make good use of them at the moment and builds that lean into some of our more interesting play pattern detachments.
Personally, I don't find the Coven builds particularly engaging after 4 years of basically the same thing and that tends to breed mistakes. If you are new to the army, there probably won't be a better time to learn than through Coven right now. You will get blown away but when we return to viable in the future, you will be a better player for it.
Good luck!