Thousand Sons: FAQ 9th Ed

[Skerr]

I get the sense they really like 1k Sons though not as a regular army that they play regularly though try to feature what factions they can.

 

A couple years ago I asked Frontline Gaming why they never feature Sons. Reece responded they would love to as they love the faction but no one currently played them or had an army.

[Prot]

In general I find most people don’t like to play chaos, but like playing against it. 
 

I really miss when FLG used to do batteps, because Frankie is the only way we could see what i call ‘traditional’ chaos armies. He would have been the only hope of seeing TS played. 
 

I find most TS players are too casual for my personal meta. There’s nothing wrong with that as the army certainly suits that. But it is why I believe we see so many battle reports that seem deflating for the army. The beard looks like a great, fun guy to play, but you know he is playing purely a narrative game. 
 

i used to be a subscriber there but aside from the odd Black Legion game, the chaos stuff is all pretty distant, and super casual. 
 

I have played a fair amount of ninth now, and I see a lot of play testers messing up important rules, especially Coherency. It’s an ugly rule in ninth and many people seem to subconsciously ignore it. Of all my armies, I find the psychic phase the hardest hit of all. 
 

shooting looks extremely potent still... assault on smaller tables certainly helps, but I found psychics took a small step backwards. 
 

I am still figuring things out and I keep saying this but table control is massive to me. Deep strike and outflank is actually quite difficult in many games. I struggle with TS and the new detachment rules, but I think our strength is our troops. So many chaos troops are just bad. And here we have great ObSec choices though I think we need more damage than ever from the psychic phase without leveraging Smite. Otherwise I hate to admit a lot of my damage comes from forgeworld. 
 

points wise I personage no idea what we’re looking at but I’m super happy about Exalted sorcs. 

[Ulfast]

Very intersting analys Prot. I like it.

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

The Thousand Sons discord is pretty lit with hype for all the exalted sorcerers it now makes sense to bring whereas before they saw play in pretty much just casual armies.

We have a discord?

 

I admit I was leaning towards mainly using my Vostroyans and EC in 9th, but am tempted to try my thousand sons as well.

I am having a really hard time justifying anything but cult of time really now we only have one detachment most games.

[Quixus]

I am having a really hard time justifying anything but cult of time really now we only have one detachment most games.

Why not Cult of Magic?

 

[Xisor]

 

I am having a really hard time justifying anything but cult of time really now we only have one detachment most games.

Why not Cult of Magic?

 

 

I thought Cult of Scheming and Duplicity seemed like the much more viable things for 9th Edition.

[DarkPhoenix]

I love the cult of duplicity for repositioning units.

[Xisor]

Scheming for Seeded Strategy (can shoot/charge even if Falling Back) and the Warlord Trait (w/in 3" count as ObSec, or count as 2 if already ObSec) seem like possibly very valuable ones.

 

But that's pure speculation, as I've not reasoned it out properly against objectives/missions/army-formats, but it strikes me as potentially a huge boon.

 

Where I've been feeling a single Big Rubricae block is 'manageable' in 9th Ed - it becomes hugely flexible with Seeded Strategy, as it could rarely be pinned down. 

 

So much so I'd even consider (as in 'contemplate', not 'am buying and building') a second Big Rubricae block to lay on the pressure.

 

Even with only one, it could be potent. Getting a few small Rubricae units with Duplicity ready to psychically bounce around to objectives or key battlefield sites could be quite potent too.

 

But I suppose Seeded Strategy is in competition with Sorcerous Facade as the Cult spells don't work across cults...

[Archaeinox]

I have found in 9th games that lists with a 15, 18 or 20man RuBrick unit work best if that unit's cult is Scheming, provided the Warlord stays buried within them. 

 

Otherwise, 10man units seem appropriate. With Duplicity and Magic patrols in 2000pt games, I've found that 3x10, 4x10 or 3x10 and 1x5 configurations of rubrics are great.

 

I haven't found myself using the RuBrick very often now. That's a pretty big change from 8th for me, in particular. I like that 10man units are viable.

Edited July 31, 2020 by Archaeinox

[Raven1]

All my lists right now are Cult of Duplicity. The ability to reposition pre-game and Da Jump and/or warp time just seems like the way to go. My only question is do I run multiple 5 man rubrics or fewer 10 man.

 

I'll have to test get some test games in at some point. Stupid COVID.

 

I just feel like 5-man Rubrics are just too easy to remove.

 

My other thing I want to try is 10 man SOT. With Malicious Volley and Infernal Fusillade that's 80 shots S4 Ap-2.

 

If you have the right HQ, Prescience, and VotLW it's sounds crazy. But what do I know.

Edited August 1, 2020 by Raven1

[DarkPhoenix]

All my lists right now are Cult of Duplicity. The ability to reposition pre-game and Da Jump and/or warp time just seems like the way to go. My only question is do I run multiple 5 man rubrics or fewer 10 man.

 

I'll have to test get some test games in at some point. Stupid COVID.

 

I just feel like 5-man Rubrics are just too easy to remove.

 

My other thing I want to try is 10 man SOT. With Malicious Volley and Infernal Fusillade that's 80 shots S4 Ap-2.

 

If you have the right HQ, Prescience, and VotLW it's sounds crazy. But what do I know.

Sounds food to me.

 

For the squad sizes, I’d say it depends on your game size. I’m just starting the army and teaching the game, so play more combat patrol games than the others, so smaller squad sizes make sense. If you’re closer to 1000 or 2000 points, I’d think more 10+ model squads are better.

[Sorceress]

I have concerns with big bricks in 9th. Between the more punishing moral rules and blast weapons. 20 rubrics are tough but getting hit by a rapid fire battle cannon for 12 shots will hurt.

[Archaeinox]

I should also mention that I have been running Magic less. 

 

WIth so many objectives spread around, good players are doing the same. As such, you won't be clipping 3-4 clustered units like you might have in 8th ed with Astral Blast. Against new players clumping up, you'll smokecheck them. Magic is too much against a new player unless you prompt them to avoid it and no one likes a GOTCHA

Edited August 2, 2020 by Archaeinox

[Xenith]

Is it just me or did Smite change from doing D6 MW on 10+ to 11+? That seems an unecessary change.

[DarkPhoenix]

It was always eleven or greater.

 

8th Ed rulebook: If the result of the Psychic test was more than 10, the target suffers D6 mortal wounds instead.

[Archaeinox]

so do we expect BRB faq to have anything substantial this next weekend? 

 

Perhaps Ahriman getting Supreme Commander keyword.. but beyond that, just some character/monster duo clarifications and no multi-smite from the same psyker, among various typo fixes

[WarriorFish]

I'm still adapting my lists to 9th... keeping up is hard work :lol: I'm not expecting much I very much get the feeling that armies will be waiting for their new codex for proper attention which is unfortunate if so but we shall see.

[Archaeinox]

Tabletop Tactics says they were not involved in the core rules or points and they were involved with 'other things that are coming soon' which will allow every decision to make sense. Hopefully that means they worked on codex stuff because they sure seem excited to share when the time comes lol.

 

Every batrep they do for 9th they tell everyone "dont worry this is just the "indexes in 8th" period.

[Quixus]

Perhaps Ahriman getting Supreme Commander keyword.. but beyond that, just some character/monster duo clarifications and no multi-smite from the same psyker, among various typo fixes

That would be nice, but I doubt it. If Ahriman gets that keyword a lot of other units should get it too, like Dante, Seth, Logan, Huron etc. I think even generic chapter masters/chaos lords could get it then. They are the ones in command of their forces after all. Edited August 3, 2020 by Quixus

[Archaeinox]

Yeah. In any case, the BRB FAQ is the time to assign that keyword to units that aren't Primarchs for sure. Prob wouldn't do much for Ahriman since he'd have to be the warlord... big oof for cults