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Was brainstorming over how to make them not only more unique, but also moar fwuffy.

New statline for Thousand Son Marines WS-2 BS-2 S-2 T-5 W-1 I-2 A-1 LD-10 Sv-3+ INV-4++ PTS- 25?
New statline for Thousand Son Sorcerer WS-4 BS-4 S-4 T-4 W-2 I-5 A-2 LD-10 Sv-3+ INV- 4++ PTS- 50?

4-20 Marines, 1 Sorcerer. 150 points base. Max cost of 550...

Reasoning-
Like typical Undead, their souls are mostly gone, what is left is tenuously linked to their suit of power armor. They have trouble doing anything on their own, requiring a Thousand Son's Sorcerer to command them. However, a sorcerer can only give them basic commands and cannot aim or fight a melee for each squad member. They do not have an actual body inside of their suits, making them quite weak, yet much more resilient.


Marine Wargear-
Bolter with Inferno Rounds

Marine Special Rules-
Fearless, FNP 4+, Slow and Purposeful, Night Vision, Immune to the effects of Blinding and Concussion, Adamantium Will.

Ambling- The unit always counts as moving through difficult terrain.

Inferno Rounds- At the start of each Shooting phase in which any model of the unit shoots roll a D6-
1- Reroll Cover Saves (Had Ignore Cover, but too OP?)
2- AP-3
3- AP-4 (Had AP-2, AP-3)
4- S-5
5- BS-5 (Decided against a straight reroll- From 66% to ~83%, +1.5 hits/ 9 shots [On second thought, perhaps a reroll would be better?])
6- Reroll Invulnerable Saves


Pretty much a move and shoot unit that has quite a bit of staying power, but can only tarpit in CC. Versatile, yet random Inferno Rounds keep things interesting.

Now for Sorc Rules-


Has all the rules and options in the Thousand Son entry in the codex plus:

The Sorcerer Commands-
If the Sorcerer is killed via Force Weapon/ Perils of the Warp/ Any other psychic weapon or psychic power: Every Marine in the squad rolls a D6- on a 4+ the psychic backlash causes Instant Death with no saves.

The Sorcerer can give commands to the squad. They are not psychic powers, you do not need to test to use them. However, every phase in which you use a command, you may not use a power. All commands can be used at any point of either players turn, and continue to be used until declared as turned off, or a power is used. (Note that this means that you could use Guide Aim at the start of your first turn and never 'turn it off' until the game ends. However, you would not be able to use any psychic powers as you would be using a command.) Each Sorcerer can use one command per turn. Each Sorcerer can use any of the four commands.

Guide Aim- Reroll all failed to hit rolls during this phase.
Animate- Ignore Ambling, WS, S, I increase from 2 to 4.
Shield Sorcerer- Any number of hits allocated to the Sorcerer may be reallocated to a model in the unit. Roll to hit and wound as normal, but use the INV of a chosen Marine. If passed, the Marine takes the wound, if failed, the Sorcerer takes the wound.
Re-Animator- Any Marine killed by a non Instant Death weapon, while this command is active, is laid on it's side either on the board or off to the side. At the end of the turn it is put back with the unit on a D6 5+, as long as the Sorcerer is still alive. This command does not need to be active at the end of your turn. You could activate it during the enemies shooting phase and then use Warptime during their assault phase, and still roll to resurrect your Marines.




These rules can also be used for Terminators. Just take the standard cost, rules and upgrades for the Terminators, change the profile to the above Marine one and add 15 points. The Sorcerer can take a suit of Terminator armor for +15 and has the options of a Terminator Sergeant.



A little rules heavy, I know, but the way the game has shifted...

Animate for when you need to move quick and/or have the slightest chance in hell of winning an assault.
Shield Sorcerer is designed to protect the Sorcerer from the new wound allocation rules. One Precise Shot can halve the combat value of this costly unit.
Re-Animator is just fwuffy :3

Interesting. Great ruleset.

I like your interpretation of Rubricae, though I don't really agree with it *only* because I happen to enjoy some fiction such as Atlas Infernal and Battle of the Fang. Have you read those?

If not, I'd like to point out some things I got from reading those without spoiling the books for you or others reading.

Thousand Sons Rubricae are not necessarily slow. It's just that they're blind. Their bolter fire is some of the most precise and accurate *manual* fire suppression in the entire universe. Rubricae are also just as fast as normal marines. I don't think wraithsight (eldar) is a good mechanic to suggest, but it's a start. They are terrifying to other marines because they still function as full Astartes even in melee. I was always upset that GW "slows them down"

I like the mechanics, but they shouldn't need to be given abilities to make them shoot well. They do so already.

Hopefully not too much of a spoiler, but there was a lone Rubric guided by Ahriman in Atlas Infernal. Ahriman was not even on planet. So they can operate on their own quite well, though still requiring some guidance. This is where your commands come in. I think they're a great start and I will try to use them in a small game tonight.

Oh! and while we're at resurrecting.. How about a unique spell "Soul Implantation", or something? Each time the SORCERER kills an enemy non-vehicle model, he may add a Rubricae model to the unit with a Psychic Check (only if his squad has lost a model already). Or maybe some sort of token system.

IE- You killed 2 models in the game so far? Hold onto 2 tokens. At the beginning of your turn you may take a Psychic Test and if successful, the sorcerer's unit recovers as many Rubricae as you have tokens for, provided the squad has suffered enough casualties to do so.

I haven't read ANY TH fwuff D: With the exception of that in the Game books, and even then, I haven't read it in quite a while.

I was influenced a lot by TK here, so I pretty much just ported TK style play into a marine unit. And I used the Sorcerer as a Warlock type buffer.


Instead of editing the original, I'll leave that open for review for others, so I'll post suggested revisions here-



WS, BS and I changed to 4. Should S be increased too in your opinion?

Remove Guide Aim, remove Animate.

Remove Slow and Purposeful, remove Ambling.

And now that I think about it, I had designed them as a shooty unit, but made them BS2... D'oh.



I'll be doing Ahriman soon, he is one of my favorite characters.

Also, I'm thinking of how to go about making a non-TH, but still Tzeentchian dedicated marine unit. If you have any ideas that would be great.



RE: Soul Implantation~~ I could see the Sorcerer using the soul energy to help him Reanimate fallen TH. Maybe for every unsaved wound he causes, allow a free Reanimate roll at the end of the turn. Can be used to reroll a failed Reanimate roll also.

And if you could tell me how that game goes, that would be great! I'm not good with pointing units, so that 25 pts is just a guess.

If I'm honest I wouldn't change the statline. Besides that it seems good to have a fresh change to 1kSons.

no! just no! haha i just like thousand sons nothing against the rules there pretty kewl but i cant imagine my precious sons as weakling zombies!

There's not much reason to develop new rules for Thousand Sons when they'll have new official rules in a few weeks.

Well, besides the whole "playing the unit how I want to play it," thing. Not that fun is any reason to have a hobby.

AHRIMAN FOR THE WIN!!-

WS-5 BS-5 S-4 T-4 W-3 I-6 A-3 LD-10 Sv-3+ INV-3++ PTS 300?

Mastery Level 3

Master of Sorcery- Knows the powers in the Codex, plus three Primaris powers. He can exchange any power for any other Primaris or roll on a chart. He can exchange any two powers to pick a power from the first three of any discipline, or exchange any three powers to pick one power from the last three of any discipline.

The Black Staff of Ahriman- Force Stave. Allows him to use three psychic tests per turn. The staff also starts the game with D6 Warp Charges. These do not regenerate.

Talismans of Protection- Eternal Warrior.

Guile- Redeploy D3 units after setup and Infiltrator placement, but before scouts.

Arcane Defenses. Ahriman may expend one Warp Charge to give any friendly unit a 4+ Deny the Witch roll. Or to let them reroll a failed one.

Curse of Ahriman- Using similar magic to the Rubric, Ahriman turns those who oppose him to dust. 36", Malediction, 4 Warp Charges. Models from one enemy unit have to pass a T test now and at the start of each of your turns. Each time they fail the T test, their Toughness is permanently reduced by one. If reduced to 0, the model is removed. Only Invulnerable saves may be taken. (too much bookkeeping?)

Tzeentchian Summoning- 6", Conjuration, 1-9 Warp Charges. Roll a D6- 1-3 3D3 Horrors 4-5 2D3 Screamers 6 D3 Flamers. Place one model within 6" of Ahriman. Place the other models like they are Deep Striking around the first. For each Warp Charge expended, the range increases 6", the number of models increases by one. If you're lucky and roll a 6 for the Warp Charges of the Black Staff, you can use up to 9 Warp charges on this power. If you do, substitute three of your rolls to determine what daemons you get, and you summon a Lord of Change with Breath of Chaos. Yum.

You may not exchange Curse of Ahriman or Tzeentchian Summoning when purchasing psychic powers.


Ahriman may purchase a Disc of Tzeentch for +30 points.






Bonus-

The Black One.

A black feathered Lord of Change whose origins and purpose are as yet unknown.

WS-6 BS-6 S-6 T-6 W-4 I-5 A-3 LD-10 Sv 3++ PTS 460? 365 for LoC with all options. +WS +BS

Aura of Timelessness- All models friend or foe within 6" must pass an INV or have their WS,BS,S,I reduced by 2 each, minimum of 1. ~40

Incomprehensible Change- The ground and air around him is constantly in a state of flux. At the beginning of each friendly movement phase D6 Horrors are added within 6" of him, forming their own unit. Additionally, friend or foe in Base Contact take D3 S-4 hits during the Assault phase. ~40

Has all options available to a Lord of Change.

Well thought out.

Would replacing Slow and Purposeful with Relentless do much?