++ The Brotherhood of Dust - A Thousand Sons Community ++

[GreaterChickenofTzeentch]

Had an 1850 Maelstrom game against World Eaters + Renegade Knight two days ago.

 

He was running Warband + 2 Spawn, with Khârn, some CSM objective holders, 3 big bike squads, a buffed out bike lord with the Talisman, a Hellbrute, minimum Terminators to DS on objectives, as well as a Renegage Knight w/Ironstorm and Two Battle Cannons.

 

I ran Ahriman on foot, Lvl3 Sorcerer with the Astral Grimoire, and 10 Scarab Occult as a deathstar (1 Hvy Warpflamer, 1 Soulreaper, 2 Hellfyre)

10 Rubricae w/Warpflame Pistol, Meltabombs, Soulreaper

2 Maulerfiends w/Cutters

Allies: 1 Lord of Change w/ML3, Staff of Change, Impossible Robe, 11 Blue Horrors.

 

WE got first turn and tried to overload one side with 2 bike squads and Khârn. I counter deployed with 2 Maulerfiends and the LoC in front of Khârn, termies in the center, Rubricae behind. I decided to deploy somewhat close because this was Maelstrom and he could sweep forward onto pretty much all of the objectives with a good Blood Mad roll. Figured I could hold first turn in combat and then power up and roll him back.

Sure enough, he got really good Blood Mad rolls (average 8-9) and we ended up in combat on Turn 1 with him using individual Spawn to soak overwatch, which was horrific, actually (Yay AP3 Wall of Death and twinlinked Inferno Bolters).

 

He won due to bad Maelstrom flips on my part and the fact that I was horrifically failing key psychic powers, in some cases even with a Familiar. I was also taking wounds left and right on the LoC, despite the Robe. This was largely due to the fact that I kept failing Cursed Earth (even on 3-4 dice) and then getting denied when I did succeed because my opponent would roll crazy 6's....and I couldn't take off to Swoop because he was in combat from Turn 1 on. Trying to get ANY casting to work in order to keep my stuff alive ate up all the WC I would have used to Summon.

 

Example: Casting Endurance, I throw 7 dice and get one success. Familiar reroll ends up with NO successes.

 

The good news is that I was still able to get off Enfeeble and Force pretty regularly, I also rolled well in combat thanks to the "reroll 1's" from War Cabal....and the Lord of Change did WORK with the Staff. At one point it took out four bikers due to winning a challenge against the champion, cleaving through into another guy, and killing two more with the Warpdoom explosion.

 

The Rubricae and Horrors (in ruins) also survived the attentions of both rapid-fire Battle Cannons for 3 shooting phases and didn't lose more than one or two models until Turn 3 when my luck finally ran out.

 

I lost one Fiend early, but its wrecked corpse created some nice blocking terrain and the other fiend went HAM on an epic charge into the melee, killing Khârn and the Chaos Lord while they were focused on trying to kill the LoC. The LoC proceeded to murder one entire bike squad, while my terminators wiped out another in two assault phases, then received charge from a second and killed THEM too (overwatch claimed two bikers, despite Jink, and then Enfeeble + Power Swords put paid to the rest while my Terminator Sorcerer won a nail biting challenge against the Biker Champion (who had a Power Fist to my Force Stave).

 

By the end of turn 2, I had destroyed the main strength of his army. By the end of Turn 3, his Terminators were dead, and he was down to a crippled Helbrute 2 5-man Marine squads, and the Knight. He killed the LoC with a Heavy Stubber from the Knight after I finally won free of Assault on my turn. Once again, the Robe failed me (rolled 3 double ones and a pair of twos over the course of the game).

 

The game store ended up closing at the end of Turn 3, so we called time. He had 3 Victory Points (First Blood, 2 Maelstrom Objectives), while I had 1 (Warlord) and had constantly drawn objectives that were out of reach, or had requirements that were prevented by convenient casualties (like my horrors going to ground so they couldn't move and losing the two models closest to an objective I had to hold for 2 turns for one of the Supremacy objectives).

 

We went ahead and rolled out what would have happened when his Knight charged the terminators (was set to happen next round). My attached PA Sorcerer with a Melta Bomb (the guy with the Grimoire) ended up killing it after 3 assault phases, resulting in a Strength D explosion that covered everyone auto-killing 2 Terminators and forcing some saves on others that really didn’t do much (I had FINALLY managed to get Warp Fate off consistently). However, by that time, I wouldn’t have been able to reach his Marine squads who would have been reaping points from other objectives close to him and/or in midfield, depending on how the cards went.

 

Overall, I kicked his teeth in, but he hugged two important objectives, captured a 3^rd long enough to get Ascendancy (for a bad roll of 1pt) and prevented any forward movement by me long enough to pull out the victory. I could have deployed further back and pushed onto the objectives, but that would have put 5 of them in his hands on turn 1, with the rolls he got, and his large amount of ObSec would have meant he could have been grabbing huge piles of VP early, depending on the way the cards flipped.

 

Kind of funny that the Thousand Sons basically shattered a WE army in CC and forced it to hug markers to pull out the win.

[Dolchiate Remembrancer]

Hey chicken, what were your total allied points? This is some good info and id love to see if i can tweak what you brought to the table

[GreaterChickenofTzeentch]

Hey chicken, what were your total allied points? This is some good info and id love to see if i can tweak what you brought to the table

 

My Allies were as follows:

 

Allied Detachment:

HQ-Lord of Change: 230+ ML 3 (25) + Impossible Robe (25) + Lesser Reward (10-Swapped for the staff) = 290

 

Roll all 3 on Daemonology. If you get Cursed Earth, you have a 2+ Rerollable Invuln unless you roll like me. :)

 

1 Troop: Blue Horrors-10 (50) + 1 Extra Horror (5) = 55

 

So the total for allies is 345.

 

If you feel that you need more defense/board coverage as opposed to the sledgehammer of that LoC,  I'd encourage the same load of Blue Horrors, plus 9 Flamers and some point wheedling somewhere else to get you the extra 10 points you'll need for an ML 3 Herald. You'd also get 2 more WC in the bargain.

 

As pointed out earlier, Flamers are absolutely evil as bubble wrap.

[Prot]

Chicken, that's quite a surprising result.

 

Most of my last year of Chaos has been with Khorne, and I would have almost assumed a victory if there was anyway I could reach my opponent in T1. Though I will say I still think KDK > World Eaters. Still... Khârn is kind of hit and miss but against Psykers he's darn good with that 2+ Deny. Plus he typically annihilates vehicles for me... I can't believe he got wrecked by a Mauler. The truth is though I did lose Khârn to a charging Carnifex from its Hammer of Wrath! Khârn is a bit of a glass cannon.

 

But the fact you hung in there with apparently such bad dice rolls.... wow.

 

Personally I'm trying to do this without Tzeentch, but more often than not I'm reading successful (long term) lists seem to have at least a sprinkle in there. 

 

If you didn't have the Tzeentch element, what Thousand Sons would you add? Or would it be too different to keep the core you had?

[Prot]

The exalted box may keep me in Thousand Sons. Not sure. But again I just look at the three guys I built and even though they are bog standard I am blown away by the kit. The robes, heads, capes, the hand articulation and ornate staves are just phenomenal.

 

I think the Thousand Sons are easily the most aesthetically pleasing army in my eyes, which believe it or not is a factor for me.....

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Just an update:

 

Had a game vs Tau. It was not cut throat and the group was random pairing but no super heavies allowed!

 

I went back to my Tzaangors and scarab occult core with 2 vanilla mauler fiends which is my default with World Eaters.

 

It was a Maelstrom and I had no ObSec and the tau had quite a bit of ObSec. Tau had a double CAD with stealth cadre which is always annoying when you run armour. He had a riptide and a commander with breachers in vehicles and their battlefield bowl with that rail Cannon mounted to it. I forget the name... I just call it a Sushi Bowl because he crams as many Tau in there as he can for the rerolls and cover.

 

I had such a weird game. My rolls for powers were so incredibly bad. Bio on Ahriman was terrifically bad. Bio on my exalted was equally horrid and the rest of sorcs rolled poorly on Tzeentch. I can't believe how many of them got Breath and Siphon which were mutually useless against a turtled opponent.

 

Those powers plus the amazing amount of failed tests reinforced my feeling of needing so many WC's for Thousand Sons. And the benefits of a simple War Cabal for rerolls on the odd Witchfire I actually passed.

 

Cutting to the chase I had none of the bonus survival normally afforded me by having two sorcs roll on Biomancy. Instead they buffed them selves and the rest of the army defaulted to Tzeentch's Firestorm which was the only thing that worked. Even the beam was jinked constantly.

 

Tau stole the initiative and I think it was a good thing. I had to reassess my approach after getting smoked in T1.

 

I shifted my hole army to the side. Tzaangors had the best game followed by Maulerfiends. I admit my horrible Psychic luck was almost countered by the stupid luck my Maulers had. The first turn Tau could see one, he went down but absorbed a lot. His brother went to town though chewing away while the Tzaangors took off smoking fish until they were exhausted. The mauler was epic killing all he touched until he hit the riptide, caused two wounds failed by invulnerable saves and FnP. The riptide ran off the table lol.

 

Ahriman, and a scarab Sorc split to hit multi groups. For one turn I had one wound left in Ahriman and I did get him up to T8 and let him take all the combined overwatch. It was a big but calculated risk, but that's what we do right? Well Ahriman died to a single melta overwatch to the face, giving up Warlord. The scarab occult Sorc failed his charge and my wounded maulerfiend was stuck in the open.

 

It was touch and go as the stealth cadre opened up using rear shot ability on the mauler. He had trouble penetrating the rear of the mauler (no obvious jokes there eh?). And the one pen was saved by the invulnerable! He only took a glance.

 

He put so much into killing Ahriman and the attempt on the maulerfiend it gave my goat herd on the left flank with Sorc a shot at3 victory points winning me the game 13 to 10. The Tau gave up warlord on my turn to the mauler as well and conceded as he did not have enough models to prevent getting tabled. A very lucky outcome and very weird game with the Psychic phase having minimal effect.

[GreaterChickenofTzeentch]

Chicken, that's quite a surprising result.

 

Most of my last year of Chaos has been with Khorne, and I would have almost assumed a victory if there was anyway I could reach my opponent in T1. Though I will say I still think KDK > World Eaters. Still... Khârn is kind of hit and miss but against Psykers he's darn good with that 2+ Deny. Plus he typically annihilates vehicles for me... I can't believe he got wrecked by a Mauler. The truth is though I did lose Khârn to a charging Carnifex from its Hammer of Wrath! Khârn is a bit of a glass cannon.

 

But the fact you hung in there with apparently such bad dice rolls.... wow.

 

Personally I'm trying to do this without Tzeentch, but more often than not I'm reading successful (long term) lists seem to have at least a sprinkle in there.

 

If you didn't have the Tzeentch element, what Thousand Sons would you add? Or would it be too different to keep the core you had?

Khârn died because he was b2b with my Lord of Change when the Mauler charged into the OTHER side of the combat and did four wounds. Killed a biker, then the Lord, and then Khârn failed his invuln. So Khârn never got to swing at that Mauler. He handily killed the first one earlier in the fight.

 

If I was going only KSons, I would drop the Rubricae down to 5 men, giving me 460 pts to work with once the daemons were gone. That's enough for two reasonably buff ML3 Sorcerers (160 ea), one of them leading a CAD. The rest of the points (140) would go into 2 throwaway squads of Tzaangors (70 ea). They would have Obsec and could be used with Ahriman's WL trait to grab objectives. Warpflame pistol would also be dropped from the Rubricae and that should combine with other points to allow a Rhino w/dozer for objective grabs.

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

So facing Blood angels on tuesday, 1850pts, here is what I am planning to take:
Grand coven
War cabal 
Ahriman 

Exalted sorcerer Zarathustra Suicune (level 3, spell familiar, I'm thinking either third eye helm or the scrolls)
Sorcerer Ensarhaddon Raiku (Level 3, Terminator armour with force axe, familiar, astral Grimore, MOT and Veteran of the long war)
Sorcerer Sargon (level 2, force axe, aura of dark glory, MOT, familiar)
Scarab Occult Squad Mithrandir (Hellfyre missiles)
Rubricae Squad Belshazzar (3 extra, Rhino with havok launcher)
Rubricae Squad Curunir (4 extra, Rhino with Havok launcher)
Legion armoury
2 Chaos Vindicators (one with combi melta) 
1850pts
I'm not sure on psychic disciplines to go for, I've had a fair bit of luck with Heretech, so could keep with spamming that, but have had some success with the dabbles I've had with sinistrum and Ectomancy and have been thinking if I go with third eye helm on the exalted going for Divination could be fun.

[GreaterChickenofTzeentch]

So facing Blood angels on tuesday, 1850pts, here is what I am planning to take:

Grand coven

War cabal

Ahriman

Exalted sorcerer Zarathustra Suicune (level 3, spell familiar, I'm thinking either third eye helm or the scrolls)

Sorcerer Ensarhaddon Raiku (Level 3, Terminator armour with force axe, familiar, astral Grimore, MOT and Veteran of the long war)

Sorcerer Sargon (level 2, force axe, aura of dark glory, MOT, familiar)

Scarab Occult Squad Mithrandir (Hellfyre missiles)

Rubricae Squad Belshazzar (3 extra, Rhino with havok launcher)

Rubricae Squad Curunir (4 extra, Rhino with Havok launcher)

Legion armoury

2 Chaos Vindicators (one with combi melta)

1850pts

I'm not sure on psychic disciplines to go for, I've had a fair bit of luck with Heretech, so could keep with spamming that, but have had some success with the dabbles I've had with sinistrum and Ectomancy and have been thinking if I go with third eye helm on the exalted going for Divination could be fun.

Heretech could work. If you're planning a deathstar with the sorcerers and termies,I'd suggest lots of Sinistrum. It's worth it just for Warp Fate.

 

Not sure if I'd go with multiple Vindis without being able to field 3. Do they have anything besides that one combi? Vindis tend to need a dozer or siege shield in my experience.

[Dolchiate Remembrancer]

Hail Sorcerous Brethren!

 

I was curious, what naming convention do you follow for your Thousand Sons? Latin first name with egyptian last name? All egyptian? Do tell!

[Xenith]

Hail Sorcerous Brethren!

 

I was curious, what naming convention do you follow for your Thousand Sons? Latin first name with egyptian last name? All egyptian? Do tell!

Looks more like a Pokémon last name to me

[Leonite]

HAIL BROTHERS!

 

Admittedly, I mostly represent myself as Word Bearers... but given the release of the new army and the fact I already had a foot mounted Ahriman and Rubricae, I decided to take on full Tzeentch... and given that I WAS planning on going Horus Heresy Tzeentch, I actually have parts enought o make 6 Exalted Sorcerers from that one kit.

 

My question to you is thusly: How do you arm your Rubrics and Scarabs? I got two boxes of Scarabs and a new Rubricae over Xmas, so that means I have 10 Scarabs, 17 Rubricae total, and 2 Rubricae Sorcerers. HQ wise I'm sorted, I have a Pre-Heresy conversion ready for an exalted Sorc (planned to be complete in the same colour scheme), Ahriman (twice) and as I said, 6 potential more Sorcerers. As well as a Hellbrute, two Predators, two Rhinos and some sizable levels of allies from the other three Chaos Codexes and two of the three suppliments. I'm just curious about the Bread and butter of our forces.

[Sonoftherubric21]

HAIL BROTHERS!

 

Admittedly, I mostly represent myself as Word Bearers... but given the release of the new army and the fact I already had a foot mounted Ahriman and Rubricae, I decided to take on full Tzeentch... and given that I WAS planning on going Horus Heresy Tzeentch, I actually have parts enought o make 6 Exalted Sorcerers from that one kit.

 

My question to you is thusly: How do you arm your Rubrics and Scarabs? I got two boxes of Scarabs and a new Rubricae over Xmas, so that means I have 10 Scarabs, 17 Rubricae total, and 2 Rubricae Sorcerers. HQ wise I'm sorted, I have a Pre-Heresy conversion ready for an exalted Sorc (planned to be complete in the same colour scheme), Ahriman (twice) and as I said, 6 potential more Sorcerers. As well as a Hellbrute, two Predators, two Rhinos and some sizable levels of allies from the other three Chaos Codexes and two of the three suppliments. I'm just curious about the Bread and butter of our forces.

 

rubrics I tend to ignore flamers sadly. I own 40 rubrics, and out of the 40 only 6 have flamers, let me vary in some games. 

 

Most are just bolters, soul reaper per ten, and the aspiring. 

 

Scarab Occult i tend to go with reaper and hellfyre in a 5 man unit. Generally a good idea. 

 

Scarab Occult are generally better then Rubricae on a 1-1 basis, both for shooting AND casting. (as well as general survive ability) 

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

 

Hail Sorcerous Brethren!

 

I was curious, what naming convention do you follow for your Thousand Sons? Latin first name with egyptian last name? All egyptian? Do tell!

Looks more like a Pokémon last name to me

 

Aye, fluff wise at the core of my Warband is the Zarathustra Suicune, Ensarhaddon Raiku and Ashbanipal Entei :P Most of the others are a mix babylonian, assyrian and egyptian.

So won the game, Ahriman with doom bolt was very helpful as the enemy force was 10 sniper scouts with locator beacons, 2 furioso dreads and alibrarian one all in pods, 2 shooting termi squads and  lightning claw squad and a custodes squad.

Between several units being destroyed by deepstrike mishaps, or just continuously being delayed, after I was able to wipe the scouts turn one, I was in  relitvly good position.

I would have been very, very screwed if he'd had even one more unit turn up though.

[Leonite]

 

HAIL BROTHERS!

 

Admittedly, I mostly represent myself as Word Bearers... but given the release of the new army and the fact I already had a foot mounted Ahriman and Rubricae, I decided to take on full Tzeentch... and given that I WAS planning on going Horus Heresy Tzeentch, I actually have parts enought o make 6 Exalted Sorcerers from that one kit.

 

My question to you is thusly: How do you arm your Rubrics and Scarabs? I got two boxes of Scarabs and a new Rubricae over Xmas, so that means I have 10 Scarabs, 17 Rubricae total, and 2 Rubricae Sorcerers. HQ wise I'm sorted, I have a Pre-Heresy conversion ready for an exalted Sorc (planned to be complete in the same colour scheme), Ahriman (twice) and as I said, 6 potential more Sorcerers. As well as a Hellbrute, two Predators, two Rhinos and some sizable levels of allies from the other three Chaos Codexes and two of the three suppliments. I'm just curious about the Bread and butter of our forces.

 

rubrics I tend to ignore flamers sadly. I own 40 rubrics, and out of the 40 only 6 have flamers, let me vary in some games. 

 

Most are just bolters, soul reaper per ten, and the aspiring. 

 

Scarab Occult i tend to go with reaper and hellfyre in a 5 man unit. Generally a good idea. 

 

Scarab Occult are generally better then Rubricae on a 1-1 basis, both for shooting AND casting. (as well as general survive ability) 

 

What about Exalted Sorcerers? Like, do you take the Rubrics in units of 9 for any poor footsloggers? I ask because... well, I have the one unit of 9 from the OLD kit.

[Sonoftherubric21]

 

 

HAIL BROTHERS!

 

Admittedly, I mostly represent myself as Word Bearers... but given the release of the new army and the fact I already had a foot mounted Ahriman and Rubricae, I decided to take on full Tzeentch... and given that I WAS planning on going Horus Heresy Tzeentch, I actually have parts enought o make 6 Exalted Sorcerers from that one kit.

 

My question to you is thusly: How do you arm your Rubrics and Scarabs? I got two boxes of Scarabs and a new Rubricae over Xmas, so that means I have 10 Scarabs, 17 Rubricae total, and 2 Rubricae Sorcerers. HQ wise I'm sorted, I have a Pre-Heresy conversion ready for an exalted Sorc (planned to be complete in the same colour scheme), Ahriman (twice) and as I said, 6 potential more Sorcerers. As well as a Hellbrute, two Predators, two Rhinos and some sizable levels of allies from the other three Chaos Codexes and two of the three suppliments. I'm just curious about the Bread and butter of our forces.

 

rubrics I tend to ignore flamers sadly. I own 40 rubrics, and out of the 40 only 6 have flamers, let me vary in some games. 

 

Most are just bolters, soul reaper per ten, and the aspiring. 

 

Scarab Occult i tend to go with reaper and hellfyre in a 5 man unit. Generally a good idea. 

 

Scarab Occult are generally better then Rubricae on a 1-1 basis, both for shooting AND casting. (as well as general survive ability) 

 

What about Exalted Sorcerers? Like, do you take the Rubrics in units of 9 for any poor footsloggers? I ask because... well, I have the one unit of 9 from the OLD kit.

 

 

foot slogging rubrics either NEED a rhino, or something like cultists/tzaangors to absorb a charge. basic rubrics really need a Rhino. Bolters need to be around 12 inchs away. Ahriman, Rhino, or Astral Grimoire are good ideas. The Astral Grimoire really makes one unit shine as a single unit can jump, pepper a unit, then charge to finish it off (dependeing on target) 

 

Heck; get a box of new rubrics, make it a 19 man unit (find an extra figure, make it 20, 2 soul reapers and a melta bomb) put a sorcerer nearby and astral grimoire them to make them jump 12 inchs, and double tap a unit to death. That + divination or the War Cabals guidance will cripple an opposing squad, and the stuff that would "normally" take care of a huge marine unit (cannons, low ap blasts, plasma, grav) does very little to Rubricae..... Granted that is a 550 point unit ;-) 

 

I Love exalted sorcerers. 1 "usually" makes its way into my lists, sometimes 2! 

 

I ran Ahrimans Exiles with 4 exalteds and Ahriman. its horrific on the table (as in good) 

 

Very scary though thats most of a 2000 point list ;-) 

[Prot]

I like the idea of a large Rubric squad bouncing around with Astral Grimoire. It's just unfortunate that would be such a crazy expensive squad, but it would be nasty against marines. I've often debated the flamers for myself but it's such a hard sell.

[Charlo]

The flamers would be worth it if they were like 1 per 5 and AP3.

 

AP4 and Warpflame is just... Too Risky, especially as it stacks with other sources of FNP (I think? Maybe just with itself).

 

Plus being SnP, you can't wall of death with them :|

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

Beautiful mode,s but their cost and warpflame makes them pointless really unless you know it will kill the opponent.

[totgeboren]

I'm kinda happy the flamers turned out the way they did, since now I don't need to redo any of my Rubricae.

 

tbh, I'm not sure I would use them even if they were a free swap. Warpflame is just such a hugely negative rule, and flamers on infantry with SnP isn't really all that either.

You need either the Astral Grimore or the Third Eye in the unit, and then it's just so many points (more than a Knight with the Sorcerer included) in one unit that is essentially used to take out light infantry... half of those points in Spawn is probably much better at the same task, and easier to use too.

[Prot]

Yea that's just really frustrating, and frankly pointless. Why Chaos always gets this weird over priced/may not work/might blow up in your face kind of mentality is beyond me. And no, it's not fluffy. No Chaos Marine would be stupid enough to use something that would empower his enemy. There used to be negatives to taking certain things for loyalist armies but it's all but gone nowadays.

 

The Rubrics must be one of the worst selling kits out of the range. Just every time I look at ways to utilize them I write them off. Even in my testing they usually do poorly.

[Sonoftherubric21]

Yea that's just really frustrating, and frankly pointless. Why Chaos always gets this weird over priced/may not work/might blow up in your face kind of mentality is beyond me. And no, it's not fluffy. No Chaos Marine would be stupid enough to use something that would empower his enemy. There used to be negatives to taking certain things for loyalist armies but it's all but gone nowadays.

 

The Rubrics must be one of the worst selling kits out of the range. Just every time I look at ways to utilize them I write them off. Even in my testing they usually do poorly.

 

Thats why im very much either for a single large squad, or 1 squad for spot removal. using a LIST of rubrics is frankly setting yourself back far to much. 30 points for a marine with a str 4 flamer that HELPS your enemy when they live?

 

The only way to make the flamers work is to take one squad, take the helm, stick them in a rhino or land raider, hop out, and burn 1 squad into oblivion, but as others above have said...its SO many points.  213 for  Rubric 5 man, rhino, and 4 flamers. thats before anything else. Very rough, not a good design choice at all.  (That being said ill still do it in casuals, but in anything even approaching semi-competitive they are a right off) 

 

scarab occult are just better. in pretty much every way. 

 

I own 40 of the guys, and rarely ever do i use more then 10, the blob of 20 on occasion in 1850-2k point games as you can mega buff that and obliterate something you open fire at. 

 

For what its worth I also know for a fact that GW has heard the community complaints about rubrics loud and clear. Lets hope someone from design hears it in time for Chaos 8th. The Facebook page was littered with complaints about rubrics, to the point where GW themselves actually responded to the complaints (there was a FLOOD of them. rightfully so) 

[A D-B]

The exalted box may keep me in Thousand Sons. Not sure. But again I just look at the three guys I built and even though they are bog standard I am blown away by the kit. The robes, heads, capes, the hand articulation and ornate staves are just phenomenal.

 

I think the Thousand Sons are easily the most aesthetically pleasing army in my eyes, which believe it or not is a factor for me.....

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Just an update:

 

Had a game vs Tau. It was not cut throat and the group was random pairing but no super heavies allowed!

 

I went back to my Tzaangors and scarab occult core with 2 vanilla mauler fiends which is my default with World Eaters.

 

It was a Maelstrom and I had no ObSec and the tau had quite a bit of ObSec. Tau had a double CAD with stealth cadre which is always annoying when you run armour. He had a riptide and a commander with breachers in vehicles and their battlefield bowl with that rail Cannon mounted to it. I forget the name... I just call it a Sushi Bowl because he crams as many Tau in there as he can for the rerolls and cover.

 

I had such a weird game. My rolls for powers were so incredibly bad. Bio on Ahriman was terrifically bad. Bio on my exalted was equally horrid and the rest of sorcs rolled poorly on Tzeentch. I can't believe how many of them got Breath and Siphon which were mutually useless against a turtled opponent.

 

Those powers plus the amazing amount of failed tests reinforced my feeling of needing so many WC's for Thousand Sons. And the benefits of a simple War Cabal for rerolls on the odd Witchfire I actually passed.

 

Cutting to the chase I had none of the bonus survival normally afforded me by having two sorcs roll on Biomancy. Instead they buffed them selves and the rest of the army defaulted to Tzeentch's Firestorm which was the only thing that worked. Even the beam was jinked constantly.

 

Tau stole the initiative and I think it was a good thing. I had to reassess my approach after getting smoked in T1.

 

I shifted my hole army to the side. Tzaangors had the best game followed by Maulerfiends. I admit my horrible Psychic luck was almost countered by the stupid luck my Maulers had. The first turn Tau could see one, he went down but absorbed a lot. His brother went to town though chewing away while the Tzaangors took off smoking fish until they were exhausted. The mauler was epic killing all he touched until he hit the riptide, caused two wounds failed by invulnerable saves and FnP. The riptide ran off the table lol.

 

Ahriman, and a scarab Sorc split to hit multi groups. For one turn I had one wound left in Ahriman and I did get him up to T8 and let him take all the combined overwatch. It was a big but calculated risk, but that's what we do right? Well Ahriman died to a single melta overwatch to the face, giving up Warlord. The scarab occult Sorc failed his charge and my wounded maulerfiend was stuck in the open.

 

It was touch and go as the stealth cadre opened up using rear shot ability on the mauler. He had trouble penetrating the rear of the mauler (no obvious jokes there eh?). And the one pen was saved by the invulnerable! He only took a glance.

 

He put so much into killing Ahriman and the attempt on the maulerfiend it gave my goat herd on the left flank with Sorc a shot at3 victory points winning me the game 13 to 10. The Tau gave up warlord on my turn to the mauler as well and conceded as he did not have enough models to prevent getting tabled. A very lucky outcome and very weird game with the Psychic phase having minimal effect.

 

I see you still give good battle report, Prot.

[Scammel]

I'm not actually all that down on Warpflame. Weak, numerous squads are likely to fail the test (and are often ideal targets for Warpflame attacks anyway), and tougher, more elite targets will really feel the bite of a failed test, providing they don't have FnP in the first instance. No, I think the big issue with Warpflamers is that they're quite bafflingly overpriced. A completely free swap would be perfectly reasonable, and 3pts might be worth a punt on a squad with one or two backed up by the Grimoire, but 7pts ​must surely be a typo. It's nutty.

[Minsc]

There's so many things wrong with that pricetag I dont even know where to begin. I'd think it's a typo as well, if not for the fact that it says +7 ppm both in TL and WoM.

As it is, I just think it's good ol' GW acting clueless when it comes to pricing again.

 

A regular flamer is +5 ppm on most units, not +7 ppm.

A regular flamer usually doesn't remove the wielders AP3 bolter(!) which is already paid for. (so technically, the warpflamer costs *more* than +7 ppm.)

A regular flamer doesn't give the target FnP.

A regular flamer will most of the time be able to overwatch with Wall of Flame.

 

I think GW went "it's AP4, not AP5, so it should cost more than a regular flamer", which is fair.

Then they forgot (or more likely didn't care about) the rest of the drawbacks that the stupid Warpflamer comes with if you put it on Rubrics.

Heck, the Warpflamer option is the most silly upgrade I've seen since the 4th Ed. Eldar Codex where the Dark Reaper Exarch could swap his Reaper Cannon for a Shuriken Cannon. 

[Sonoftherubric21]

I'm not actually all that down on Warpflame. Weak, numerous squads are likely to fail the test (and are often ideal targets for Warpflame attacks anyway), and tougher, more elite targets will really feel the bite of a failed test, providing they don't have FnP in the first instance. No, I think the big issue with Warpflamers is that they're quite bafflingly overpriced. A completely free swap would be perfectly reasonable, and 3pts might be worth a punt on a squad with one or two backed up by the Grimoire, but 7pts ​must surely be a typo. It's nutty.

 

I do agree with that. definitely.