Starting Thousand Sons

[Imperial Commander Gent]

Hi, im starting thousand sons soon and am just looking for some help. I only otherwise have imperial armies and decided to do an army that noone else has at my gaming group so i decided on thousand sons. Im buying a friends minis and he has 40 rubric marines, 5 aspiring champs for the squads, 2 predators with interchangable sponsons, and 2 sorcerer lords. I just am looking for a hand on a list and anything else i could pick up. We have recently been playing games ranging from 2000 to 4000 points, so i would like to be able to do that many points. So, any help wuld be greatly appreciated!

[DeAd_cOmMaNdO]

well, its a good thing youre planning on playing large games, because thousand sons are very expensive!

its best to know from the beginning: thousand sons are a very difficult and rewarding army to play with.

best thing to do is to look at your strengths and weaknesses as a TS player:
Pros

• Tough: two wounds each means each squad is effectively twice as hard to kill with basic weapons. look out for S8+ weapons - youll feel their effect very well!
• Rapid Fire: slow and purposeful is great for shooting with rapid fire weapons at 24" while moving. but the real strength is when you get to 12" - let rip with those rapid fire shots
• Fearless: thousand sons are fearless and this is generally a good thing (it may be bad in combat at times if youre loosing very badly)
• Sorcerers: you have access to many sorcerers (all your rubric aspiring champions are sorcerers) and you can have a kick-ass (if very expensive) chosen unit filled with them. choose your powers (and thralls and talismans ) wisely and theyll do well.

Cons

• Expensive: first things' firstm these models so not come cheaply - 24 points for a marine with 2 wounds and fearless is expensive and if used carelessly, not worth it.
• Slow and Purposeful: this is good for shooting with, but can be bad for movement and combat. just make sure you never forget this, and not engage in needless assaults. Also, rubric terminators with power fists are that much better because they strike at I1 anyway.
• Small: the thousand son army is one of the smallest ones you can make. make good use of this to refuse your opponents flank. this may be easier said than done, but the army is quite mobile (insofar as rubric guys can move and shoot at 24", even if they move slowly

also remember vehicles and dreads in paricualr, which have access to many things you otherwise wouldnt have.

remember daemons - they are relatively cheap (the cheapest thing you can field in fact) again, play their strengths (relatively tough, shooty) but be willing to sacrifice them if need be (since they are smmoned they tend to get into a favourable assauty position before the rest of your guys - you can assault them into combat to shield your models form enemy fire.

3-4 chosen with the tzeench shooty power (the name escapes me) three thralls each and a talisman of tzeench (used to reroll failed to hits or wound rolls) are a very good unit. quite pricey but three four sorcerers can shoot 8 S8 Ap(2ish i think) shots a turn, with either a reroll to hit or wound - which is plain nasty!

[Imperial Commander Gent]

I think its the Bolt of Change that is strength 8 AP 2 but im not entirely sure. I am liking slow and purposeful. Moving and firing 24" can do a lot.


About them being hard to work with, i started with tau in 40k and have been playing for 4 years now! Im fairly confident in my strategy, but am expecting to lose my first few games, but am looking forward to a new challenge.


I had some challenges with all my armies when i started (most notably my blood angels!), but i got extremely good in the end. Well......My blood angels get extremely scary at times. Most games i expect 90% casualties, but i harldy ever lose. I only ever lose to 3 chaos armies, Slaanesh, Khorne, and alpha legion. Im getting there though.

Thanks for the points!

[DeAd_cOmMaNdO]

and rubric termies are extremely tough, though the high proliferation of sniping lascannons in many armies can be a detriment. and a unit of shooty termies with the tzeench banner are very good, easily capable of crippling any unit they shoot. these guys laugh in the face of howling banshees!

[Imperial Commander Gent]

ok, things are starting to come together so im getting a better understanding.


Thank you guys for everything so far.

[Imperial Commander Gent]

ill be posting a preliminary army list later today and possibly, if my friend shows up with my army, my first battle report! I should be on most of the day and cant wait to get this going!

[Imperial Commander Gent]

well....its been rough. My friend still hasnt shown up with my army and so that means no games yet!

ill be at my local gw tomorrow and i hope he is there, but that also means i can get my chaos book!

So tomorrow i will have an army list posted!

[experiment 626]

another fun trick with tzeentch is to look at the rules for the chosen of ahriman! granted you'll need opponent's permision and they're not usually tourny legal, but it's simply good wholesome fun teleporting entire squads of rubric marines around the table! (well, it's fun for the chaos player at least...)

you might also want to look at getting a defiler as they can really help out in the anti-meq department, since your marines compleatly lack any form of weapon upgrades...

units of flamers can make a mess of anything not wearing power armour or better too! (and all told, are fairly cheap pts-wise too!!!)

tzeentch lords can be just as killy as most other chaos lords! i like the bedlum staff myself - it's like a thunder hammer on steriods! (though it does lack the high S of a real thunder hammer...)
however, striking in I order and the nasty side effects of getting whacked by it are pretty nice for hunting big nasty things and enemy characters... plus, with d.strength you'll still wound most things on a 3 so it's still tasty! (you can get S6 if you go for stature...)

cheers!

[Imperial Commander Gent]

ok, the chosen of arhiman are in chapter approved, so doesnt that make them legal?

But anyways, i have my dex and here is my preliminary army list. (2500 points)

Demon Prince - Demonic Stature, Aura, Resilience, flight, strength, armor, essence, mark of tzeentch, Bedlam Staff, 200 points

Lord of Change, 160 points

8 Rubric Terminators, Combi-Bolters, Power Weapons, 408
Sorceror with Demonic Resilience, Demonic Strength, Minor Tzeentch Psychic Power, Combi Bolter, Power Weapon, 1 Thrall Wizard

8 Thousand Sons Space Marines, Bolters, Mark of Tzeentch, 262 points
Sorcerer with Bolt of Change, Power Weapon, Bolt Pistol, 1 thrall wizards, (70 points)

8 Thousand Sons Space Marines, Bolters, Mark of Tzeentch, 262 points
Sorcerer with Bolt of Change, Power Weapon, Bolt Pistol, 1 thrall wizards, (70 points)

8 Thousand Sons Space Marines, Bolters, Mark of Tzeentch, 262 points
Sorcerer with Bolt of Change, Power Weapon, Bolt Pistol, 1 thrall wizards, (70 points)

8 Thousand Sons Space Marines, Bolters, Mark of Tzeentch, 262 points
Sorcerer with Bolt of Change, Power Weapon, Bolt Pistol, 1 thrall wizards, (70 points)

8 Thousand Sons Space Marines, Bolters, Mark of Tzeentch, 262 points
Sorcerer with Bolt of Change, Power Weapon, Bolt Pistol, 1 thrall wizards, (70 points)

Chaos Predator, Coruscating Flame, Twin Linked Lascannon, Sponson Lascannons, Mutated Hull, 190 points

Chaos Predator, Coruscating Flame, Twin Linked Lascannon, Sponson Lascannons, Mutated Hull, 190 points

Well, There it is!


I like the list but i want your criticism so please feel free to rip it apart!

[experiment 626]

well, unfortunately you're over your daemonic pts limit... daemonic gifts, gifts of the gods and daemon weapons all count against your 100pts limit. (3rd printing change i believe!)
just drop d.armour... you're going to be shot at by lascannons, plasma, lances & rail guns so you really won't get much use out of that armour anyways! trust to your invulnerable save.

also, i'd drop warp flame from your preds as they're ment to sit back and shoot... they've got enough protection in the form of mutated hull!
if you really want them to be nutty, try for parasitic possession! i can't think of anyone who won't moan when supposidly destroyed lascannons grow back!!!

you might want to look at adding some daemons in place of a squad of chaos marines, simply to bulk out your numbers abit...
- flamers have insane fire power and are easily expendable! your opponent will go to great lengths to get rid of them simply because each one has the equivalent of a shorter-ranged psychic heavy bolter!!!
- screamers offer a superb fast assault unit, and can be used to quickly engage the enemy, plus they have the furious assault skill! granted they won't survive, but it's better having your opponent wast valuable resources dealing with them instead of nuking your much more pricey marines!

and finally, you should look into getting some psychic powers for your prince!
- gift of chaos with warp focus can catch an opponent off guard when you start turning their models into chaos spawn at 3-8" range!
- wind of chaos can thin out aproching hoards...
- twisting path can go hand in hand with a support vehicle with a blasphemous rune!
- avoid the minor psychic power as they're really not that great and far too random as well...

as for the chosen of ahriman. most tournaments don't allow them (if i recall, they are still trial rules...)
but for friendly play, as long as you ask/inform your opponent and have a copy of their rules, i really can't see very many people not letting you use them! (they're really just expensive lieutenants who can teleport a unit with them...)

hope this helps,
cheers!

[Imperial Commander Gent]

ok, so what im thinking is we drop the coruscating flames on the preds and instead take parasitic posession, in order to allow the xtra 10 points, I can remove the minor psychic power from the sorcerer in the terminator squad. Then i remove the demon armor from my prince and give him gift of chaos. How does that sound?

I dont want to drop a squad in favor of demons mainly because i cant afford to pick up the demons right now, im already getting all the other models and today picked up my demon prince. I cant afford to get any demons.

[DeAd_cOmMaNdO]

coruscating warp flame is really only any good on dreadnoughts - and theyre great on them! other vehicles are better of with some sort of possession. Im not really a fan of parasitic possession, but i see how others can. its just a matter of taste. i prefer daemonic possession personally

[Dan296]

parasitic possesion is one of the best, yet most underused, vehicle upgrade in the (dare i say it?) game!
combined with deamonic possesion, your vehicle has to be killed or its going to keep on truckin =]

[DeAd_cOmMaNdO]

its also quite expensive to get both on one vehicle, but certainly good

[Imperial Commander Gent]

Well, should i give my preds demonic posession or parasitic posession?

I dont know which one to do, but one of them for sure.

[Dan296]

i would say deamonic possesion, cause if it gets shaken or stunned then its useless, but its immobilized its not really a problem and if a weapons blown off its still usable.

[Imperial Commander Gent]

ok, so thats one vote for daemonic!

Im really considering it because i do need those lascannons firing every turn so!

[r4wr89]

Originally Posted by Imperial Commander Gent

ok, so thats one vote for daemonic!

Im really considering it because i do need those lascannons firing every turn so!

yea i'm gonna vote the same way. parasitic is cool, but i don't feel like it protects the tank as a whole as well as the rules for daemonic possessed tanks.

-ant

[Imperial Commander Gent]

ok, so daemonic it is!

[experiment 626]

Originally Posted by Imperial Commander Gent

ok, so daemonic it is!

just to be a kill-joy, my vote is for parasitic possession!

the reason being, you already have mutated hull for the armour bonus, coupled with the long range of the lascannons should be pretty good protection...
parasitic is also a bit of a psychological effect gift because your opponent will likely become quite agitated when destroyed weapons and/or immobilised results repair themselves!

and besides, if your opponent is shooting all his/her lascannons and other S8+ guns at your tank, they aren't instant killing your marines now are they?!

cheers!

[Dan296]

see stitch, THATS why i, on my pred, take BOTH!!
you have to kill it or its comin back to haunt you.

[Imperial Commander Gent]

i dont have the points to get both, otherwise i would.