Thousand Sons popularity and usage at different events

[Sonoftherubric21]

Do rubrics ever use jump packs in the fluff? Because a squad of them with something like tzaangor blades would be AWESOME. And I'd love to see some TS style jump packs!

 

There is no precedent for it, Basically its just "walk around with guns and combat blades" if were talking fluff accuracy. 

 

Its assumed (not confirmed) they do not have the reflexes needed for jump packs or bikes..... but then again they are confirmed as pilots in Black Legion as long as the Sorcerer is present....so thats a question in of itself. 

[Tyriks]

Maybe an assault squad where the sorcerer has a spell that only affects the squad but makes them move more. Give it potential to be faster than jump packs but you have to actually cast it. Make them look like a more "modernized" Khenetai Occult Cabal. I'd buy a ton of those!

[Panzer]

They could have more infantry options but honestly most solid lists don't use more than 2-3 different infantry units all the time anyway. The rest gets supported by vehicle and characters.

[Xenith]

Urgh. I don't want Rubric jump packs. I know they speed up and come more 'alive' when theyre in battle, but they're still not combat afficionados. 

 

What would be good is a rubric havoc squad. We can make a pseudo support squad with warpflamers, but squads of guys with soulreaper cannons, or inferno heavy bolters would be sweet. 

[Tichinde]

I seem to recall the first Rubrics the Wolves encounter in Hunt for Magnus/battle of the fang are able to fight quite adequately and go toe to toe with the Space Wolves.

 

and we don't know what happened to the Khenetai Occult.

[Panzer]

Just keep in mind that there's always the possibility of GW adding more to the Codex with later supplements and campaigns like for any other army out there.

[Heliomanes]

I always loved these images. Having a 40k equivalent, corroded and warped by the Rubric and the passing of aeons would open up for some really interesting modelling opportunities. Maybe with different versions - some being essentially squads of aspiring sorcerers, fluffwise, with connections to the Khenetai and the martial psychic disciplines, while others are lumbering rubricae that still act out the specialization they had when the Rubric hit.

http://img5.fotos-hochladen.net/uploads/5647tv8cifkx6.jpg

http://riotpixels.net/wp/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Ahriman.jpg

[Ahzek451]

I have to disagree with the line of reasoning; while we do have some definite missed opportunities, I don't feel that GW really shortchanged us. 

 

That's why I said by a little. But that's just how you feel I suppose. It seems like a lot of sons fans felt the same about missed opportunities since post codex we witnessed a pole, numerous facebook posts and whatnot. Another example is look at our exalted kit. Beautiful kit. Oddly packaged with 3 models that make up single characters but so much room for customization. You would think we might get more options as far as rules are concerned, take for example the death guard release. A ton of new character options with unique rules. You would think that the exalted kit would get similar treatment. I feel this is a missed opportunity. And as far as what more could fans want? As mentioned, soooo many posts about wanting a psyker dread. Why not havoc rubrics? How about a unique land raider or tank that utilizes twin soulreapers, or heavy warpflamer cannons? Or some kind of new magic-based weapon? How about a new flyer that is a new version of the model from epic, the doomwing? Heldrakes are fine, but everyone (minus death guard) has them. How about they bring back twisted magically driven battle automaton from 30k? (fluff be retconned). It would add further to the rubric golem aesthetic and bring more love to the actual thousand sons portion of the army. Not the goat/critter/monster half. OR even take a page from khorne and bring in our own unique LOW besides a primarch like a small splinter off of a silver tower. These things used to be in epic. Perfect opportunity. Let the imagination run wild! I don't think we need a rubric version of existing units like bikers and jump packs. Death guard didn't follow suit, they received new concepts via the mortor tank, drones, and haulers. Rubric havocs make the most sense as it would fit in with the age old 15th legion tactic of "keep the enemy at range". But the doomwing, robots, new vehicle, and tower could all be 15th legion specific and completely unique to us. 

 

Going back, I think that's why a lot of people felt short-changed. When death guard came out, they had more death-guard unique models, units, and warmachines. They got 3 types of vehicles and lots of characters, plague zombies and then some. 

 

But I feel like it makes sense that we got what we got. From what I understood, thousand sons being the first release, GW used us as a test bed to see how well chaos legion armies would sell. So instead of investing more into the initial release, they went with rubrics, exalts, SOC, ahriman, and magnus to see how things went. Holy crap! they did well! Ok then....roll out the death guard!....and throw the sons a bone and give them some existing kits via the tzaangor line. I hope the combination of death guard sales and messages from fans have started a few of the model designers on some more T.sons projects....I mean...I am just recalling last year. While things have settled out now, there was a lot of comments from fans hoping for more t.sons stuff over the goat people stuff. 

 

 

To put it into perspective:

Thousand sons release:

Magnus

Ahriman

Rubrics

SoT

Exalted

Added existing models:

mutalith

enlightened

tzaaangors

shaaman

 

Death Guard release:

Morty

Typhus

plague surgeon

lord felthius

tallyman

putrifier

blightspawn

blightbringer

plaguecaster

Plague marines(multiple variants)

poxwalkers

plagueburst hauler

bloat drone

deathshroud terminators

blight lord terminators

blight hauler

[Raven1]

@Azhek451,

 

Death Guard got a larger release but they are also one of the flagship armies this edition si it makes sense in my mind. I mean sure they missed the mark with Exalted Sorcerers. Execellent box and minis but are underwhelming in the actual game, just completely overshadowed by their other options. Personally i would give them access to the same familiar sorcerers have, terminator armor, and maybe like a cult buff sort of thing that Ahriman, DP, regular sorcerers dont have access to.

 

Still i dont think we have a bad codex, fluff, or poor choices in general. Things could be improved but certainly at terrible.

[Kite Senet]

I'm intrigued by the jumppack Rubric concept, but it feels a bit undignified and brutish for the Sons of Magnus to leap around the battlefield like that, especially when they could simply teleport about with sorcery. It's a similar premise mechanically, but it feels more appropriate to the 1k Sons. I'm not sure how you'd model that, though.

[Prot]

Could you imagine if the 3 Exhalted Sorcs were the equivalent of a Foul Blightspawn (Mega Warp Flamer), Biologus Putrifier (exploding magic bombs) and a Plague Surgeon (healing magic)?

 

 I read that the models are presented to the rules team,  then it's in their hands to convert them into rules. No matter how you look at it, that box is a beautiful kit, and another missed opportunity.  (Oddly enough they've slept on the Lord Felthius release as he has no specific rules which probably would have lead to a marked increase in sales.)

 

This, in part, is why I feel let down with the codex.... models exist, or can easily be 'converted' in the case of a Libby Dread. Instead the new codex almost ignored every one of those opportunities to push AoS goats on the player base.

 

A large part of why I enjoy Death Guard so much is the versatility. They don't have a terribly big winning percentage in tournaments. Actually it's not good (below 50%). But they variety in list building thanks to that list of characters keeps the hobby juices flowing!

[Ahzek451]

@Azhek451,

 

Death Guard got a larger release but they are also one of the flagship armies this edition si it makes sense in my mind. I mean sure they missed the mark with Exalted Sorcerers. Execellent box and minis but are underwhelming in the actual game, just completely overshadowed by their other options. Personally i would give them access to the same familiar sorcerers have, terminator armor, and maybe like a cult buff sort of thing that Ahriman, DP, regular sorcerers dont have access to.

 

Still i dont think we have a bad codex, fluff, or poor choices in general. Things could be improved but certainly at terrible.

 

When it comes to exalted, I think the root of the disappointment is wanting just a tad more out of these guys so Ahriman isn't an auto include. 

 

Agreed, not terrible at all. I think my enthusiasm for wanting more is due to the years of stagnation the sons have had. And I simply want to bite GW while the getting is good. We are in a glorious age where GW is listening. And after over a decade and 7 editions of playing sons, I am going to be vocal for once. Change for the change god and all that. Over that time, the sons have had very little change in fluff. For the most part, it is been a broken, scattered and small inactive legion. Many fluff folk would argue on how much of a legion we actually were. I think it was around 3rd ed. when things really took off and chapter approved introduced legion terminators and legion rules. White dwarf gave us the key spell(though you had to ask for permission). 3.5 came around and then the legions really took off. It was a fabulous time to be a sons player. And then....4th ed through the better half of 7th it was the same boring, limited, non-legion crud. Now we have new fluff, our legion has reunited, magnus is active in the greater universe, our legion is renewed and bigger, a damn codex for once! There are so many possibilities. It's just truly amazing to go from scattered and broken to this. I recall reading forums like this denouncing the possibility of a codex or even any kind of unification.  And here we are. It's awesome. I for one, will keep asking GW for more, because as they say....the greasy wheel gets the lube. And its been a long time coming. 

[Skerr]

Great points all! I am warming up to the idea of cc rubrics. I have some dusty necrons on the shelf and the Lychguard might be a good example. When lychguard first debuted I loved the models but thought they could use an extra attack, though they are better now. I could see Rubrics being similar having a blade to use against charges or as a secondary option, perhaps not cc focused or perhaps a dedicated unit would be awesome.

 

Jump packs might be cool though I would rather see more smoke and mirror shenanigans for movement.

 

As far as vehicles, i dont think we need anything dedicated to our faction like deathguard but expanded demonic possession that maybe boosted movement or even let us upgrade to inferno or warpfire weapons without a cp would be tight.

 

And I gotta jump on the bandwagon that I was hoping for our exalted to have some variation like the DG elites.

 

I also agree that GW is playing it safe using us as a testing ground before rolling out DG as the cover villians for this edition. I am optimistic that we will see some model love in the distant future.

[Sonoftherubric21]

This I can totally agree with!

 

While I personally think Exalted are actually quite good I totally agree they need something to distinguish them from Ahriman and make them unique, the "cults" were an obvious option that GW just.....overlooked.....  Which means they are Sorcerer ++ which is nice, but limits their utility. 

Not entirely certain as to why, but I agree it was a missed opportunity within the codex. 

[Tyriks]

CC rubrics also could just have power mauls (or some variation thereof). Easy to use for mindless automata while still packing some punch.

 

I do wish the cults mattered for gameplay. Even if it was just a relic/stratagem/warlord trait or something.

[Heliomanes]

Agreed with the above sentiments. Again, what we need is some sense of choice. Being able to customise units and characters to give them more character and variety is the underlying theme of most of the suggestions here, and that's simply where the codex ended up being lacking. Again, it's not a terrible codex, but lack of choice lead to threads like these.

[Tichinde]

A 40k Osiron would be quite nice too.

[Zodd1888]

1kS have two auras, one available only to the LoW. Every other faction that I can think of has multiple. Cult auras/abilities extending from Rubrics or Exalted is the answer.

[Skerr]

^^^BOOM^^^

[Skerr]

@Son, glad to hear you still go exalted heavy. A while back I think you said you were going to make a goal of placing 2nd or 3rd in a local tourny using 2 or more exalted in your hqs rather than the standard choice. Anything ever pan out?

[Sonoftherubric21]

@Son, glad to hear you still go exalted heavy. A while back I think you said you were going to make a goal of placing 2nd or 3rd in a local tourny using 2 or more exalted in your hqs rather than the standard choice. Anything ever pan out?

 

I always use several exalted (like 90% of games?) 

 

Due to school and work I have not been able to attend a tournament as I work basically every weekend, combined with full time student.... but at some point I will make due on that!!! 

[Zodd1888]

If I could have it my way:

 

Rubrics provide some type of RR to wound in the shooting phase aura with the Icon as envoys of the Pyrae.

 

Scarabs I'd love to see get some kind of RR Saves of 1 aura as members of Raptora.

 

Ahriman, and Magnus maintain some form of RR to hit as members of the Corvidae.

 

Exalted can take an aura based on the cults or any of the above (Athanaeans could get some kind of aura relating to charges or cover, etc.).

 

There are lots of things to do or try, we just need GW to pull the trigger.

[Xenith]

I'm intrigued by the jumppack Rubric concept, but it feels a bit undignified and brutish for the Sons of Magnus to leap around the battlefield like that, especially when they could simply teleport about with sorcery. It's a similar premise mechanically, but it feels more appropriate to the 1k Sons. I'm not sure how you'd model that, though.

 

Rubrics on discs would be my go to answer. I mean, Tzeentch gives them to any old goat thesedays, and Chaos Warriors in Fantasy used to have chaos knights on discs I think.

 

Give them some kind of polearm and say they're for protecting sorcerers, keeping the rabble down, etc. 

[Panzer]

I haven't read any TSons novels (only the Gathering Storm stuff with Ahriman tbh) but why do people think Rubrics aren't as good in melee as other Marines (as in giving them easier to handle weapons like maces)? Afaik they still have the same WS as other Marines and while under controle of a Sorcerer can fight just as good as any living Marine.

[Ahzek451]

Ah man, how could I forget the icon of flame! Please change this damn piece of wargear GW. Tzeentch almighty what a rule.