Starting advice

[UniWolf]

Hi guys and gals,

I’m thinking of starting a sons army and just wanted to know pros and cons of the army and what works, and what doesn’t.

[WarriorFish]

There's a lot of answer you could have, so it'd help if you could clarify with what you might be after in the army? I've only had a bit of experience with my Sons so until an expert comes along I'll fill you in on the basics

 

From a modelling point of view, no other range can compete with the detail and style of the Sons in my opinion. They're great models with great bits, and a really strong and consistent theme. More so if you like the ancient Egyptian aesthetic :P The Exalted Sorcerers box is a gold mine for bits you can put to use to enhance and alter Aspiring Sorcerers etc. They can take longer to paint accordingly, but even an average painter like me can have them looking great

 

On the table top, they're a heavily shooty army which is good in 8th Ed. They're more on the elite side of the spectrum, which is unfortunately not so great in 8th - but they do have some decent rules and tricks that can mitigate this. Plus you can include non-Rubric units to shore up numbers and add some combat heft. Last but not least of course are the psychic powers, as the Thousand Sons have a lot to play with. Not massively offensive generally (though you can't go wrong flinging Mortal Wounds out) but quite a few neat buffing and tactical powers to employ.

 

 

If you do start some Sons (there's a Start Collecting box coming soon too), what colours might you go for? The traditional blue, Heresy red, or create your own DIY Thrallband?

[UniWolf]

Yeah I kind of figured that it was a large, rather open ended question. I haven't bought the codex yet and I know everyone will say buy the codex first then ask questions, but I don't see the point in buying it if I decide that I don't want to invest in the army. Do Thousand Sons have access to generic chaos units like havocs? If you guys were going to start you army again, with the luxury of hindsight, what units would you buy first? Are Tzaangors any good?

I really like the heresy red colours. I am also a SW and want to repaint tanks I have for them, so with the use of magnets for symbols, I think I can work out a good vehicle colour scheme. 

[The Yncarne]

Thousand Sons cannot take havocs specifically, and there are other chaos codex units not in the Thousand Sons codex.

 

I started 8th edition building a Sons army, and found them limited in terms of unit choice and build options. However, I don’t care for the Tzaangors, so if you do, you’ll have more options than me.

 

If you want a small model count army with an emphasis on characters and power armor combined with the option of taking big blocks of cheap ‘gors, Thousand Sons are for you. If you like the idea of a warband, Thousand Sons are for you. If you want an army with a lot of variety and diverse models, you may want to look elsewhere.

[WarriorFish]

I must be doing it wrong as I didn't tell you to buy the codex It's Rubrics, Scarab Occult Terminators, and Sorcerers for infantry. If you branch out to the bird men you have some more options - in particular decent close combat ones - but like Blood Raven I'm all about the Marines so I can't offer much detailed help there. I gather they're a pretty solid addition to a force so if you're interested in them they'll be worth getting

 

I'd start with Rubrics and the Exalted Sorcerer box set. Rubrics will be your bread and butter, or at least a core unit, so an obvious start. The Exalted box set is amazing, and will give you three Exalted Sorcerers (or used as normal Sorcerers if you're on a budget for your list, but still looking boss). It'd also give you spare bits to spruce up your Aspiring Sorcerers so they look nice and varied.

 

One thing to consider is that Sons aren't particularly long ranged, as they're not big on heavy weapons. Close range is where they're at, and they will punish most foes accordingly when they get there. Hitting hard against tougher opponents is a bit of a limitation too, while spamming Mortal Wounds helps it's not amazing and short ranged, some support in this regard is worthwhile. I'm considering a couple of lascannon Helbrutes, or maybe going with Predators.

 

The Heresy red is a great choice, and always looks good. There's two types; the classic red and the metallic ruby red - both look great with gold trim

[UniWolf]

didn't mean any offence when I said about buying the codex, just seen a few times that when anyone asks for advice the normal response is buy the codex and see for yourself. 

I though the limited unit choice was the case, might look into a regular chaos army with metallic red and gold paint job

[The Yncarne]

There are one or two Sons warbands using red or red and gold schemes. You could certainly build a nice detachment using the codex then dip into the Hereticus Astartes or Chaos Daemons for diversity.

[SickSix]

You could always include an allied Herectic Astartes detachment to include some other chaosy units. I have a list I came up with just to inlcude the new Havoc models with the Rubrics and Sekhmet.

[WarriorFish]

No offence taken, while having the codex does help of course as you pointed out it's not useful advice if you're trying to figure out if you want to buy it! :P

 

Yes, don't forget you can include some Thousand Sons in a C:CSM army and the option of dabbling in another codex with an allied force is always present (though be warned that they often grow...) :)

[Zodd1888]

First three purchases:

 

Exalteds or a Daemon Prince

Start Collecting

Tzeentch Arcanites Battleforce.

 

That gets you an infantry heavy battalion, enough HQs, and a few interesting options (Enlightened and Shamans).

 

I think that's what I would have done if I had started now.

[MegaVolt87]

That's easy, do a devastation battery with havoc's from one of the CSM codex Tzeentch renegades to go with the TS main force. Its in the Vigilus 2 book. There are your 12 las cannons for anti tank. 

[BolterZorro]

I just started with the opportunity to get 30 tzaangors and 30 rubric (all un mounted yet) and the mandatory Ahriman. 

My question is about being something like futur proof in this 8th edition. I like to play many builds, not rellly super competitive but fun and efficient. I already have many chaos things compatible with TS (maulerfiend, hellbrute, 2 daemon princes rhino etc... and many pure chaos SM Discordants, venoms etc...)

 

Is 30 rubric enough? (I can eventually get +10 rubric and +10 tzaangors).  To play (almost) pure TS. To play MSU rubric etc...

[Zodd1888]

30 Rubrics, as they currently stand, is more than enough. 30 Tzaangors, could use more goats.

[WarriorFish]

I agree, 30 Rubrics should be plenty for most needs currently but easy enough to add more if you need (as only Tzeentch knows what the future holds!) :)

[BolterZorro]

My worrying is about the different builds and weapons on the srpues. I think that I won't magnetize. So, I'd like to have enough builds to make several types of armies. My problem is that I don't know enough the TS codex.

30 rubrics is 6*5. But is there enough heavy weapons? enough wizzards? etc??? 

In clear, are those 10 additional rubric a good idea to have such diversity ready to pick up and play....or are they useless as the 30 give that already?

[WarriorFish]

Each Rubric squad comes with lots of bolters and flamers so you won't be short of them. There's only one Soul Reaper Cannon and Aspiring Sorcerer, but you can easily kitbash some up with spares from the excellent Exalted Sorcerer box. A squad can only have a single SRC so you probably won't be running short on them.

 

If you want to play around with several smaller squads, or numbers of warp flamers then an extra box to give you plenty of bodies and bits to work with would be a good idea so you don't run short :)

[Raven1]

So in the itc there was/is a guy running MSU rubrics, but he mostly hides them out if LOS and using secondary objectives like Engineers to get points by making his "Engineers" one of the Rubric squads because they are LOS they cant get hit by weapons that get passed the durability and when targeted by LOS ignoring weapons the extra durability is useful.

 

Long story short 30 Rubric marines is enough unless you are planning around them with a very specific tactic. 30 Tzaangors us good, but 10 more wouldn't hurt. Right now, at least, until Warhammer Legends is official or an FAQ you can buy Tzaangors an Instrument of Chaos from the Index and a Brayhorn for +2 to advance and charge. It is a bit back handed and sneaky but legal and I reserve it generally if I'm playing "that guy."

 

Other than that you want Ahriman on and off a disk really. I would suggest magnets and getting the 30k version. One is utility and the other is a decent model that can be found relatively cheap.

 

I would also suggest a pair of demon princes as well.

 

If you are planning on pure TS good luck, it's not easy. I run mixed chaos with demons (at least they are all Tzeentch demons...for the time being) and Chaos Knights (these guys, imo are just awesome, good rules and amazing models).