Post by voodoo on Mar 1, 2017 10:26:19 GMT -5
A bit of history is a good place to start. When I first started playing 40k (back in the change between 2nd & 3rd Edition) I saw the Chaos Space Marines and thought “damn, that’s the army for me”. So I picked up a bunch of models and the Codex and began pouring over it; learning everything I could about them, out of the 8 armies to pick from one stuck out.
Thousand Sons; I loved the (limited amount) of lore behind them, the look of the models, everything. And from that day till this very day the Thousand Sons have always been my favorite army. I played them in the Club Championships in both 2017 and 2015; and if you’re still with me after the small amount of rambling at the beginning I’ll get into what I’ve found and what worked for me.
Tzeentch Specific Unit Overview:
Rubric Marines: The bread and bottle backbone of any Thousand Sons force; at 20+3 points each they’re not cheap, BUT they come with a 4+ invul save, Ap3 bolters and now thanks to the Traitor Legions Supplement they get some other added bonuses which we’ll cover later. Adding any flamers to the unit isn’t worth the points expenditure in my opinion, except MAYBE the assault cannon-like thing. The flamers are a complete waste as a bad roll will give your opponents a buff. I normally never take them in squads larger than 7 so I can embed some characters into the units and still get them into a Rhino. Not taking a full unit has the added bonus of not putting too many eggs into one basket. Thousand Sons are an expensive army to run, taking them in huge units will inhibit your ability to cover the board; conversely though your opponent will love you for grouping up all your points in a very slow moving unit.
Rubric Terminators: I only have on-paper knowledge of these guys as they didn’t fit into the army I put together. I’ll say this, they’re expensive, but if supported properly could function as a slightly more melee centric version of the Rubric Marine star that I’ll expound on later.
Tzaangors: Utterly worthless, everything they do can be done by cultists for cheaper. Unless you absolutely love the models avoid these like the plague because they don’t have Veterans of the Long War and as such don’t gain any of the great benefits that your marine units will be able to run with nearly all game.
Exalted Sorcerers: Expensive and dubiously not worth their points but they do serve as a nice mini-Ahriman to prop up a Rubric Star. The Lord of the Silver Tower ability is a good one to catch people by surprise with, especially from an HQ.
Ahriman: Absolutely essential to a properly functioning Psyker Star as I’ll expound upon later. He’s pricey at 230 points but when properly supported he becomes an absolute beast.
Magnus: Again, paper only knowledge. I have the model, but in all of my list building I can’t see him being useful in a Thousand Sons force. Initial reaction is that he’s mainly going to be seen in his formation with Daemon Princes or in a Tzeentch Daemons army as they’ll be able to absorb his points cost better than the already points expensive Thousand Sons.
Thousand Sons On The Table AKA How I Got the Rubric to Work For Me:
My list for the Club Champs operated on a very simple premise; flood my own psychic phase with enough Mastery Levels of Psykers that I could reliably get the powers I needed to successfully power up my entire army. I won’t put the entire list up here, because the units that aren’t listed were just to prop up my shooting phase so I wasn’t 100% reliant on a single phase because if you don’t roll the powers you need, you’ve got to have a backup plan, the tanks and plane I brought were the contingency if the shit hit the fan in the Psy Phase. In retrospect, I could have left the Havocs at home and brought something different but hindsight is always 20/20.
For this I had:
HQ:
Ahriman
Exalted Sorcerer (Warlord): Mastery Level 3, Staff of Arcane Compulsion
Troops:
7x Thousand Sons – Rhino
7x Thousand Sons – Rhino
6x Thousand Sons
Cyclopia Cabal Formation: (This is a Black Legion formation so they don’t gain from the VotLW bonuses that the Sons get, but they’re buried so far into the units that by the time it comes to allocate a wound to them you’re pretty well hosed anyways.) They come built-in with a special spell that allows them to take over a non-vehicle enemy unit and fire with it as if it was in your army. It’s a nifty trick, but of the two times I managed to cast it in the champs it was stopped once and the other I managed a single wound on an adjacent riptide. Not game changing by any stretch but in a pinch if you have spare dice then it’s a good one to attempt for.
Sorcerer – ML3, Spell Familiar
Sorcerer – ML3, Spell Familiar
Sorcerer – ML2
All added up I had +18 warp charges per turn, a good start and once the spell hunting began easily became more as I’ll talk about in a second. Each of the 3 units of Thousand Sons played host to 1-2 of the characters and looked something like the below loadout:
Ahriman, 7 Sons, ML3 Cabal Sorc
Exalted Sorc, 7 Sons, ML3 Cabal Sorc
ML2 Cabal Sorc, 6 Sons
The Rhino’s were there to shield the units in case I went second as the Thousand Sons are extremely fragile if they aren’t powered up as they’re literally just expensive marines with a 4+ invul save. The unit without a Rhino counted on it being the weakest of the 3 stars often being placed further back to hold an objective, or behind some cover to encourage shots on the more juicy targets that held Ahriman and the Exalted Sorcerer. When rolling psychic powers at the beginning of the game it became really easy to figure out which tables to roll on.
I always started with the 3x ML1 sorcerers I got for “free” in the Thousand Sons Units. They each only get one die, but you’re hunting/desperately hoping for Siphon Magic on at least one of them. If you get two, then that’s all the better. Siphon Magic is a blessing that targets the Psyker, if he successfully casts it; any friendly Psyker within 18” of him gets a bonus die for EACH successful power they cast.
Next were the Cabal Members who were hunting one spell and one spell only – Warp Fate, blessing that allows re-rolls of all saving throws. Once they got Warp Fate their job was done. If I got lucky and rolled it first then they’d hunt other utility spells like Invisibility or another spell that could be usefully relevant to the army I was facing.
Ahriman and the Exalted Sorcerer were the heavy hitters and were hunting for useful witchfires. Tzeentch has some really good ones now and their job was to grab a few as they were the ones who often turned their gaze outwards from the units. The exalted had to “throw away” one of his spells each game on a Malefic Daemonology power to validate the Infernal Relics from Imperial Armour 13.
It was a rinse and repeat that; because of all of the tries at getting the powers I needed was extremely reliable. Whichever of the units that got Siphon Magic went in the middle. Roll his power first and get the Psychic train chugging out of the station. Once Siphon magic is out then go to your cabal members to toss warp fate. Since Warp Fate targets the Psyker’s unit it activates the Thousand Sons ability of getting a +1 to their invul save whenever they’re targeted by a blessing making them instantly 3+ invul with a re-roll, they grab some bonus dice, add force to the unit to discourage melee threats and then Ahriman and the Exalted step up to the plate and start blasting away with spells.
Yes, you’re on foot, but you don’t care. You’ve now got a 3++ re-rollable save and possibly Invisibility to boot, you’re super durable and advance across the table slowly but surely removing threats as they present themselves.
The downside to the 3x psychic stars is this: It has the distinct ability to remove your opponent from the game. It becomes incredibly un-fun for your opponent as you’re units are so incredibly durable that you’re basically playing a game by yourself with other models in the way of the objectives. It won’t get you any friends, and by the end of playing it a few times it won’t be fun anymore and you may (or may not) wish you’d have never brought it in the first place.
Support units for the Thousand Sons that work well are any of the armor options from Imperial Armor 13: Warmachines of the Lost & the Damned. They’re very powerful and as I stated before fill very good roles in the shooting phase in general, but moreso if things go very badly for you in the psychic phase. They are pretty well the ONLY defense you’ve got against a Culexus assassin as you’ll need to fire your entire army at that thing in order to remove it from the board as soon as possible turn 1.
This got longer than I wanted, but that’s my two cents on Thousand Sons and how to make them work competitively.
Thousand Sons; I loved the (limited amount) of lore behind them, the look of the models, everything. And from that day till this very day the Thousand Sons have always been my favorite army. I played them in the Club Championships in both 2017 and 2015; and if you’re still with me after the small amount of rambling at the beginning I’ll get into what I’ve found and what worked for me.
Tzeentch Specific Unit Overview:
Rubric Marines: The bread and bottle backbone of any Thousand Sons force; at 20+3 points each they’re not cheap, BUT they come with a 4+ invul save, Ap3 bolters and now thanks to the Traitor Legions Supplement they get some other added bonuses which we’ll cover later. Adding any flamers to the unit isn’t worth the points expenditure in my opinion, except MAYBE the assault cannon-like thing. The flamers are a complete waste as a bad roll will give your opponents a buff. I normally never take them in squads larger than 7 so I can embed some characters into the units and still get them into a Rhino. Not taking a full unit has the added bonus of not putting too many eggs into one basket. Thousand Sons are an expensive army to run, taking them in huge units will inhibit your ability to cover the board; conversely though your opponent will love you for grouping up all your points in a very slow moving unit.
Rubric Terminators: I only have on-paper knowledge of these guys as they didn’t fit into the army I put together. I’ll say this, they’re expensive, but if supported properly could function as a slightly more melee centric version of the Rubric Marine star that I’ll expound on later.
Tzaangors: Utterly worthless, everything they do can be done by cultists for cheaper. Unless you absolutely love the models avoid these like the plague because they don’t have Veterans of the Long War and as such don’t gain any of the great benefits that your marine units will be able to run with nearly all game.
Exalted Sorcerers: Expensive and dubiously not worth their points but they do serve as a nice mini-Ahriman to prop up a Rubric Star. The Lord of the Silver Tower ability is a good one to catch people by surprise with, especially from an HQ.
Ahriman: Absolutely essential to a properly functioning Psyker Star as I’ll expound upon later. He’s pricey at 230 points but when properly supported he becomes an absolute beast.
Magnus: Again, paper only knowledge. I have the model, but in all of my list building I can’t see him being useful in a Thousand Sons force. Initial reaction is that he’s mainly going to be seen in his formation with Daemon Princes or in a Tzeentch Daemons army as they’ll be able to absorb his points cost better than the already points expensive Thousand Sons.
Thousand Sons On The Table AKA How I Got the Rubric to Work For Me:
My list for the Club Champs operated on a very simple premise; flood my own psychic phase with enough Mastery Levels of Psykers that I could reliably get the powers I needed to successfully power up my entire army. I won’t put the entire list up here, because the units that aren’t listed were just to prop up my shooting phase so I wasn’t 100% reliant on a single phase because if you don’t roll the powers you need, you’ve got to have a backup plan, the tanks and plane I brought were the contingency if the shit hit the fan in the Psy Phase. In retrospect, I could have left the Havocs at home and brought something different but hindsight is always 20/20.
For this I had:
HQ:
Ahriman
Exalted Sorcerer (Warlord): Mastery Level 3, Staff of Arcane Compulsion
Troops:
7x Thousand Sons – Rhino
7x Thousand Sons – Rhino
6x Thousand Sons
Cyclopia Cabal Formation: (This is a Black Legion formation so they don’t gain from the VotLW bonuses that the Sons get, but they’re buried so far into the units that by the time it comes to allocate a wound to them you’re pretty well hosed anyways.) They come built-in with a special spell that allows them to take over a non-vehicle enemy unit and fire with it as if it was in your army. It’s a nifty trick, but of the two times I managed to cast it in the champs it was stopped once and the other I managed a single wound on an adjacent riptide. Not game changing by any stretch but in a pinch if you have spare dice then it’s a good one to attempt for.
Sorcerer – ML3, Spell Familiar
Sorcerer – ML3, Spell Familiar
Sorcerer – ML2
All added up I had +18 warp charges per turn, a good start and once the spell hunting began easily became more as I’ll talk about in a second. Each of the 3 units of Thousand Sons played host to 1-2 of the characters and looked something like the below loadout:
Ahriman, 7 Sons, ML3 Cabal Sorc
Exalted Sorc, 7 Sons, ML3 Cabal Sorc
ML2 Cabal Sorc, 6 Sons
The Rhino’s were there to shield the units in case I went second as the Thousand Sons are extremely fragile if they aren’t powered up as they’re literally just expensive marines with a 4+ invul save. The unit without a Rhino counted on it being the weakest of the 3 stars often being placed further back to hold an objective, or behind some cover to encourage shots on the more juicy targets that held Ahriman and the Exalted Sorcerer. When rolling psychic powers at the beginning of the game it became really easy to figure out which tables to roll on.
I always started with the 3x ML1 sorcerers I got for “free” in the Thousand Sons Units. They each only get one die, but you’re hunting/desperately hoping for Siphon Magic on at least one of them. If you get two, then that’s all the better. Siphon Magic is a blessing that targets the Psyker, if he successfully casts it; any friendly Psyker within 18” of him gets a bonus die for EACH successful power they cast.
Next were the Cabal Members who were hunting one spell and one spell only – Warp Fate, blessing that allows re-rolls of all saving throws. Once they got Warp Fate their job was done. If I got lucky and rolled it first then they’d hunt other utility spells like Invisibility or another spell that could be usefully relevant to the army I was facing.
Ahriman and the Exalted Sorcerer were the heavy hitters and were hunting for useful witchfires. Tzeentch has some really good ones now and their job was to grab a few as they were the ones who often turned their gaze outwards from the units. The exalted had to “throw away” one of his spells each game on a Malefic Daemonology power to validate the Infernal Relics from Imperial Armour 13.
It was a rinse and repeat that; because of all of the tries at getting the powers I needed was extremely reliable. Whichever of the units that got Siphon Magic went in the middle. Roll his power first and get the Psychic train chugging out of the station. Once Siphon magic is out then go to your cabal members to toss warp fate. Since Warp Fate targets the Psyker’s unit it activates the Thousand Sons ability of getting a +1 to their invul save whenever they’re targeted by a blessing making them instantly 3+ invul with a re-roll, they grab some bonus dice, add force to the unit to discourage melee threats and then Ahriman and the Exalted step up to the plate and start blasting away with spells.
Yes, you’re on foot, but you don’t care. You’ve now got a 3++ re-rollable save and possibly Invisibility to boot, you’re super durable and advance across the table slowly but surely removing threats as they present themselves.
The downside to the 3x psychic stars is this: It has the distinct ability to remove your opponent from the game. It becomes incredibly un-fun for your opponent as you’re units are so incredibly durable that you’re basically playing a game by yourself with other models in the way of the objectives. It won’t get you any friends, and by the end of playing it a few times it won’t be fun anymore and you may (or may not) wish you’d have never brought it in the first place.
Support units for the Thousand Sons that work well are any of the armor options from Imperial Armor 13: Warmachines of the Lost & the Damned. They’re very powerful and as I stated before fill very good roles in the shooting phase in general, but moreso if things go very badly for you in the psychic phase. They are pretty well the ONLY defense you’ve got against a Culexus assassin as you’ll need to fire your entire army at that thing in order to remove it from the board as soon as possible turn 1.
This got longer than I wanted, but that’s my two cents on Thousand Sons and how to make them work competitively.
