Planning on running Thousand Sons Army.

[Rommel44]

Well mates, after playing nothing but fantasy for the past 4 years, I have finally decided to play 40K again as most of my friends want me to and said I need to get back into it. However, as they dragged me to the gaming store, they where pressuring me to go Grey Knights since they all play Imperium and want another ally to there list since (not trying to brag) I have done very well with running my Empire Fantasy Army when many people consiser it to be weak. Needless to sya, they didnt appeal to me, but when a friend of mine pulled off a box of Grey Knight Terminators off the shelf to show me, I saw a box of Thousand Sons and I liked how they looked and wanted to know more about there background. Needless to say to my friends dismay, I decided to get a Chaos army of pure Thousands Sions since I love there background about how they did everything for the Imperium but where betrayed and assulted, leaving them no choice but to join Horus and how they refused to become mutated by Chaos and cast the Ruberic of Ahriman in a attempt to prevent the mutations from corrupting there humanity any further. Whats not to like! Anyways, looking for veteran Chaos players on how good these guys can be and what would be the best way to run them, and from what I heard a lot of people like running them in Rhinos for better mobility but they Idea of a squad of 20x Thousand Sons does sound pretty cool. At the moment, I have:

 

* Ahriman

 

* (25x) Thousand Son Marines (including 3x Sorcerers).

 

* Dreadnought w/multi.-melta.

 

*(6x) Terminators (aka Obliterators)

 

Not too bad of a start, however I'm still not sure if I really want to run a mechanized or a footslogger list at the moment, however most people tend to run them mechanized so any good ideas on where to build my list from here? Appreciate the help mates.

[Khestra the Unbeheld]

I would dump Ahriman and replace him with a winged Tzeentch Daemon Prince with Warptime and Bolt of Change. He's cheaper than Ahriman, is tougher, and is Eternal Warrior. Ahriman was a beast back in the previous Codex but now a Librarian with a psychic hood can neutralize him.

 

Your Rubric Marines are Slow & Purposeful. I recommend Rhinos for every squad if you expect them to get anywhere even reasonably fast. Just be warned: a pure 1K Sons army has some severe deficiencies in antitank, in mobility, in close combat capability, and in number of models per points value. You also have an extremely expensive Aspiring Sorcerer to have to buy, so bear that in mind. You might want to take maybe two squads of actual Rubrics as a core, and then take squads of Icon of Tzeentch CSMs to help boost numbers and antitank capability for cheaper. I know it's like watering down the whiskey and all, but Cult troops are not cheap and the numbers are not on your side, especially vs more current Codices and the fact that some storm shields make your AP3 inferno bolters basically worthless.

 

The Obliterators you're going to need, badly.

 

The Dreadnought is a gamble, since he's still crazy and is liable to shoot your Rhino or your squads just as much as he is to shoot at the enemy. You'd probably do better picking up a Generic Greater Daemon but that's pretty much your call to make.

[the jeske]

yep you want mecha . you also want 2xDP and no ahriman . 24 1ksons is 3 squads so 3 rhinos . 3 more "terminators" and your done with the list . Good for modeling[some awesome stuff can be made by mixing 1ksons stuff with the WFB khemri model range . awesome looking obliterators , rhinos made out of those constructs they have . realy good looking demon princess etc] not so good as an army , but that is life with the GAv dex.

[Excessus]

Even though TS are SnP and thus relentless, they'll still need a rhino. It's at 12" they really make up their worth with those ap3 bolters, and the rhino also helps in getting around cover to catch the enemy marines in the open...

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

I forth the recommendation of rhino's, even on an objective sitting squad as I always take havok launchers if I can on rhino's, as it helps against hordes (something thousand sons can have problems with.) I would say get either another sorcerer or a daemon prince for a hq in lower games, I have only used Ahriman once, he did okay but with his points cost only bigger games would be a good place to take him, I'd say sorcerers are as good as Daemon princes as the times I have used one he just gets shot up by about turn 2 due to most of my opponents having a fair bit of long range anti tank and him being the priority target for everyone, is nasty in combat thought if he can get there, so wings are good.

On heavy Support I use two predators with autocannon and lascannon spnsons, they do okay but the last few games they have been less then impressive, considering dropping one for another squad of havoks (My third HS is a squad of 5 with 4 autocannons(alpha legion allies, though I may convert some thousand sons wielding heavy weapons..) Obliterators I have never had much luck with, but people say they do well and you can model them as terminator or artificer armored sorcerers.

I'd say take the dreadnought, it's what I do (in plasma cannon and missile launcher variant), yes he can go crazy, but with positioning the risk can be reduced.

[Renegad3]

I must say that I will be making a Black Legion army, but I'm waiting for the new legion dex before I do. You may want to consider this because it is due sometime next year I believe. I would rather wait for that than build an army now and then go back to the drawing board within a year. Of course I'm bias because I'm a kid with very little money and I don't want to have to buy a new army within a year from my old one because I don't have the money for that.

 

Renegad3

[Warp Angel]

What you want to do depends on your definition of "pure". I've got a "Less Strict" Thousand Sons that I play from time to time with decent success. It's definitely a "general's" army that is very unforgiving of play mistakes and has some bad matchups, but can be solid.

 

- Strict Thousand Sons would consist of nothing but Rubric Marines, Sorcerors, and Sorceror Lords, Dreanaughts, and Space Marine Tanks.

- Less strict, you could run with Obliterators, Defilers, summoned Greater and Lesser Daemons, Daemon Princes, Tzeentch Marked marines and terminators.

- Anything else, is more or less just "Tzeentch Heavy".

 

The closer you are to "Strict", the greater these challenges are going to be:

- Hand to hand because Rubric Marines are Slow and Purposeful, have no pistols or ccw, and the sorceror cannot upgrade the S of his weapon. Also, no grenades.

- Anti-Vehicle because you have no heavy or special weapons in your troops choices aside from limited psychic powers and not even krak grenades when you get close

- Movement because slow and purposeful means you're not getting there quickly.

- Survivability against massed basic shooting is a problem because your troops are no better than other space marines against it.

 

I get around the hand to hand weaknesses by the careful use of Defilers and Daemon Princes, and occasionally marked terminators.

I get around the anti-vehicle by utilizing Defilers and Obliterators - it can still be a problem.

I get around movement problems by making sure I've got mechanized squads and by using summoned lesser daemons to act as objective holders and contesters, limiting my need for movement.

I get around survivability by utilizing summoned lesser daemons to tarpit enemy units and reduce the effectiveness of their long-range weapons by being a threat to them.

 

It's a hard army to play well. You're never going to table your opponent, and it's unlikely to win any major tournaments, but it's fun and fluffy. It will probably get much better if/when the new Legions codex comes out as well.

[Brother Nihm]

Topic moved to the correct forum.