Thinking of starting Thousand Sons

[Skywrath]

*a wild Grey Knight appears in a flash of silver, seeking knowledge of chaos*

 

As the title suggests, I'm thinking of starting Thousand Sons, especially with the hexfire box being avaliable to myself as a Grey Knight main player. I've played Imperium factions so far, so I have no knowledge of how Chaos factions play, let alone Thousand Sons. So some questions..

 

1. How do they (Thousand Sons) play? Aggressively, defensively? Just anything about playstyle. Could you compare them to how GK play?

2. Thousand Sons successors - in Imperium armies you can run a successor with chapter traits, is there an equivalent to that for Chaos? 

3. Aesthetic - I'm not particularly a fan of the default TS scheme, however I would want a cool blue/purple as the base, with preferably gold trim? Can you think of any warbands/successors that I could read up on, that fit that scheme?

4. Thoughts on 9th edition so far based on leaks, how strong do you think TS would be as a meta faction? How did TS place in the meta historically?

5. What units should I go for, taking 9th edition in mind? 

 

Thanks in advance :)

[WarriorFish]

Welcome to Chaos In answer to your questions:

1. They're more aggressive than not, but indirectly. Sons are not a long ranged army and need to be close to use psychic powers, especially as they're short on AT generally never mind long ranged AT. So while not aggressive per se definitely closing on the enemy but usually in a controlled manner where you are able to pull back also. They play fairly similar to GK when you consider the psychic element as well, but the devil is in the detail as while the concepts may be largely the same the take is different.
2. No successors, but rather different thrallbands. So if you want to DIY your characters and colour schemes you can - there are no individual traits but instead Cults, but once more this in effect is the same thing with WLTs and Relics etc
3. As mentioned yes, you can have your own colours mine are purple/blue and gold I'm not sure on official band colours but if there isn't one that fits you can make your own.
4. Not too great overall, being a more expensive and limited elite army does not make for a great time in the current game. With psychic powers being a little underwhelming it made for a limited toolbox - otherwise with more experience can elaborate here What we've seen certainly sounds stronger, but the bar isn't particularly high relatively speaking...
5. Too early to say for sure but aside from the general army approach it sounds like Marines are worth taking. Rubrics should be a solid Troop choice with Scarab Occult Terminators providing some real meat (or dust). Otherwise Sorcerers are always useful and Daemon Engines getting a 3+ to hit boost should make them more attractive.

I suppose the TL;DR here is wait until the codex is out and a more complete, albeit without practical backing, opinion can be formed but generally I'd say that the overall play and army structure of Sons will remain the same so you can likely base your opinions on their current incarnation. Arguably this is as much the limited unit choices as anything else, but so it goes. Sons are heavily shooting based and as much as the new SOT and their fancy khopesh rules will offer good combat they will still work as a support/counter attack unit more than not.

 

Aside from the durability of Sons and their capable if short ranged shooting the rest is psychic tricks - it's much more than doing damage (though that helps, especially against armour). We'll need to wait for the full psychic picture before we can comment on how this looks, but everyone is looking forward to it for a reason as much like GK the army will sink or swim on their powers.

 

I'm sure others can provide more detailed help but this should get you going I have enjoyed my expansion to Chaos armies as something both different and not :)