Continuing with Thousand Sons talk

Hey guys.  So lately I have been thinking more on how to run a Thousand Sons list in 6th edition and not be the laughing stock of my gaming group.  Like I talked about in my last post, I love the army and feel that if played correctly, can be a viable option in today's meta.   I just recently signed up for an escalation league at the local flgs and had the pleasure of playing a fellow chaos player who is playing thousand sons in the league.  My opponent shared a lot of tips on how to play the army that I have never thought of before.  Below are some key points that he shared with me.

1.  Maximizing thousand son shooting and survivability by taking large squads - to be honest I was thinking of doing this but found the cost prohibited  but my opponent showed me some of the strengths of running a 18 man squad.  For starters, shooting 17 - 18 ap3 shots from 24 inches is a lot scarier then 8 shots coming from that range. Add in a herald of tzeentch with prescience and the squad will put out the hurt.  Lose a couple of models in a turn and the squad is still scary.  Cast prescience and the squad is re-rolling  hits.  The main weakness of course is close combat however with invisibility and forewarning the unit is going to pull through eventually especially if you are rocking one or two characters. 

2.  Take Ahriman - ok so this I would never consider due to his price tag.  He clocks in at 230 points and in an army where your average points cost per guy is 23 points, makes him a hard pill to swallow.  Lets look at what he brings to the table.  He unlocks thousand sons as troops, he is a level 4 psycher so you are going to get 3 rolls on telepathy or biomancy.  Most importantly though, he automatically gives you master of deception which my opponent used to great effect.  He rolled a 2,and was ableto infiltrate both Ahriman and the 18 man block of thousand sons 24 inches away on my left flank which forced me to have to devote a lot of army to counter it.

3.  Take Tzeentch Daemon allies - I started tinkering with this before my game with my opponent however never realized how good these allies could be.  My opponent took a herald of tzeentch at level 3 and basically maxed his rolls on divination.  He got foreboding which on the surface wouldn't make sense as thousand sons have a 4 up invulnerable but then it hit me... the mark of tzeentch gives you a plus 1 to your invul save... my opponents 18 man blob squad was now rocking a 3 up invul save now!! Imagine this as the unit makes it way up the field..  pretty crazy...The fact that heralds have access to divination open up  a lot of synergy combos that thousand sons never had before. 

I actually played a list similar to what I wrote above and it was a blast to play. I actually ended up losing the game but it was a great game...  I might have to tinker some more to get it just right.