Thousand Sons in Small Games

[Kite Senet]

I recently played a good friend with the new codex for the very first time, and even though it was only 1000 points Maelstrom of War with six units on each side (I played three Exalted Sorcerers and three squads of Rubricae), it took 5 hours before we called it. (It was at the start of round 4 and I was losing quite badly after an Asp. Sorcerer popped, taking out five of his own squad, one from a nearby squad, and a wound off of one of my exalted sorcerers, and THEN my Warlord's plasma gun blew up in his hand and took him out too.) At this point we realized that we probably need to scale down the points costs to make the games quite a bit quicker.

 

What would be essential in a 500 point game using Thousand Sons? I've thrown together a basic list but it seems a bit bare-bones and lacks the model-flooding that I've heard is good in small games:

• Exalted Sorcerer on Disc, with Stave+Sword and Plasma pistol (151pt)
• 10-man Rubric Squad (4 warpflamer, 4 boltgun, SRC, Icon) (277pt)
• Chaos Rhino (72pt)

What are your ideas for efficient and fun 500 point lists? What parts of our arsenal are essential in smaller formats? In particular, what spells and stratagems are most valuable in these smaller games?

[Scammel]

Tzaangors strike me as being especially vicious - 20 for 140pts already seems a steal in larger games, but you can potentially outnumber the opponent's entire force with pseudo-MEQ statlines for less than a third of your total points. Bowgoats are obviously great.

 

Rubrics are a little less appealing, given that their specialised weaponry has less opportunity to draw a bead of the kind of juicy targets you might expect to find in a larger game. They're the best way of getting Smite (much tastier at a smaller scale) into the list though, so a minimum squad would be an auto-include for me.

 

HQs are probably the trickiest slot, as the Sons don't have any that you could truly call efficient at that scale. I'd be inclined to take a bare-bones Sorcerer, and make a beeline for the offensive powers.

 

I'm not sure I'd focus much on specific strats, but simply conserve CPs for re-rolls. With so little redundancy, every charge roll, every psychic test and every Smite result matters, so risk mitigation is probably key.

[Skerr]

Kite, thanks for sharing. I've had games like that and we did scale down in points as a result but 1000 pts and lower can be tough as any All is Dust models will be premium.

 

You could try an ES, 1 MCU and either tzangoors and or cultists to fill troop minimums and see what you can tack on, maybe a helbrute, pred possible doubles or rhinos.

 

If willing to do no All is Dust maybe a DP, tzangoor troops, 1 or more shaman and vortex beast. Maybe a spawn or Enlightened. All kind of things on the cheap actually.

 

Ahriman, 2 5 man Rubrics, a couple rhinos, add flavor to taste... Maybe a couple flamers per squad if you like 'em well done. Another ES perhaps.

 

Also keep in mind that if your looking for quicker games moving lots of tzangoors or cultists around might take a while.

 

Great summary btw Scammel. Using two CPs to attack first when charged was life saving on my SOTs.

[Kite Senet]

For what it's worth, I do think (in this particular case) the Rubrics have some quality targets, as this good friend of mine has a tendency to play massive packs of Fenrisian Wolves together with Terminator Njal Stormcaller; in the last game, with some not excessively lucky rolling, a five-man Rubric squad equipped with warpflamers managed to take that huge 15 wolf unit down 13 models before the last two wolves fled. Furthermore, I suspect Smite may be an excellent way to cut through Njal's invulnerable save, so I think Rubric Marines are actually pretty well-situated in my own primary matchup. That said, I suppose I understand why one would play fewer. Perhaps it would be best to tone it down to 5 or so Rubricae and/or make some room for Tzaangors?

 

Jaws of the World Wolf scares me, as it tends to take massive chunks out of my Rubric squads, which is also why I like having my Sorcerer up off the ground. I was thinking a Rhino might work to shield the Rubrics from Jaws and ensure they get to Rapid Fire / Warpflamer range before they reach melee range.

 

Perhaps I should swap out the Rhino idea for some Tzaangors? Sadly I'll have to drop my Exalted's plasma pistol to afford it, since I was naive enough to equip the Tzaangors with an Icon of Flame and we play more-or-less WYSIWIG, but Tzaangors are pretty amazing, they should absorb a good amount of damage, and I know they also eat wolves for breakfast, though perhaps not as efficiently as warpflame.

 

Another question: what artifacts to use? At this point, the both of us being both quite newbie, I can't quite get my friend to realize that stratagems are in fact a thing, so the Helm of the Third Eye is potentially going to be a bit useless, but I'd guess in the general case that would be the choice? Or would something else be more useful?

[Heliomanes]

Another question: what artifacts to use? At this point, the both of us being both quite newbie, I can't quite get my friend to realize that stratagems are in fact a thing, so the Helm of the Third Eye is potentially going to be a bit useless, but I'd guess in the general case that would be the choice? Or would something else be more useful?

Hahah, just jumping in to say that I love how you phrased that. My sudden burst of laughter scared the wife. Carry on.

[Skerr]

Dark matter crystal of course, you could give your ES for Seers Bane.

 

The others are not bad either if you take Helm out of the equation.  Whatever artifact you are thinking of just determine if it has a role or is simply a wild card.  If it has a role who you give it to and if their purpose  should be aligned. 

 

Seer's Bane for example, you would take this in small games if you plan on getting into CC with your ES but if you plan to sling spells from a distance you don't need it and would be a waste.

[Re'Koleq't]

I love Seers Bane but just be careful as the exalteds are squishy.

 

I recently tried the dual swords on disc (+1A) charging with a winged DP (on low wounds) into Typhus. My opponent countered with the combat interruption strat after DP attacked. Killed him in one go. Shame.

 

I had the +1 invuln in Mag to tank but hindsight is 20/20.

 

Still won though so happy days. :)

[Kite Senet]

Dark matter crystal of course, you could give your ES for Seers Bane.

 

The others are not bad either if you take Helm out of the equation.  Whatever artifact you are thinking of just determine if it has a role or is simply a wild card.  If it has a role who you give it to and if their purpose  should be aligned. 

 

Seer's Bane for example, you would take this in small games if you plan on getting into CC with your ES but if you plan to sling spells from a distance you don't need it and would be a waste.

 

Hm; would Dark Matter Crystal really matter that much in such a small game? I mean, we're playing on a 4'x4' table, so it's not like they have very far to teleport. I suppose it'd be good to teleport a large squad Rubrics a few inches back so they can get another round of Rapid fire inferno boltgun fire though?

 

Seer's Bane is tempting, but it seems a bit hard to find an HQ or a LD9+ unit on the other side of a 500 point game. That said, if I can take out Njal fast enough, I have the entire Psychic phase to myself, which would be helpful.

[Zodd1888]

Dark Matters real benefit, IMO, in small points games is to:

 

A ) If an opening permits, reposition for character to be closest unit to shoot at.

B ) Disengage and counter with an assault.

 

Since Rubrics cost so much both these things will result in some pretty significant strategic advantages. Size of board is negligible regarding movement, simply put utility is the benefit.

 

It is less important if you're fielding Enlightened or other flying units.