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So, just recently, a few friends and I decided we were going to get into Warhammer 40k. We're all completely new to war gaming, but I found myself enthralled by the Thousand Sons faction of Chaos Space Marines. I'm going to be ordering models fairly soon, but I wanted to get some advice on how I set my army up so I can make changes accordingly. Please note that I'm trying to keep the army relatively fluffy, in keeping with how the Thousand Sons tend to view the art of war. Also, we decided to start with 1000 point games to start, and will eventually upgrade from there.

HQ: Chaos Space Marine Sorcerer with two extra Mastery levels, a gift of mutation, sigil of corruption and a combi-plasma

Troops: 9 Thousand Sons ((8 and the Aspiring Sorcerer)), gift of mutation and an icon of flame
9 Chaos Space Marines ((8 and the Aspiring Champion)), close combat weapons, gift of mutation, Mark of Tzeentch and an icon of flame

Elites: 5 Chaos Terminators ((4 and the Aspiring Champion)), 2 combi-meltas, Mark of Tzeentch, icon of flame and gift of mutation
2 Obliterators and Mark of Tzeentch

The logic behind the Chaos Space Marines instead of Thousand Sons is to have them soak up some of the melee. It doesn't look like the Rubric Marines actually have close combat weapons, but this might change if they do.

I would really appreciate any advice that anyone is willing to give. I'm looking to keep more of a shooty army with the fluff consistent. Thanks everyone!

I would use the Thousand Sons to soak up melee, that's what your Chaos Terminators are for. Your Thousand Sons are a shooting unit with those nasty AP3 bolters, so you want to be shooting as much as possible. You only want to get into assault to tarpit a enemy unit or if desperate. Really you should bolter something to bits and weaken enemy units so Terminators can pile in and smash face.

I started playing Thousand Sons about 10 years ago, and have lots of experience with the new codex. Here's what I've found out:

HQ- Just take Mastery Level 3.

Elites- You will be disappointed with Icon of Flame and Gift of Mutation.

Heavy- Obliterators should probably have Veterans of the Long War to try and keep them on the table a little bit longer.

Troops- The CSM have no purpose besides glorified bolters and a few bodies that will probably lose combat and be run down. Consider using all the points dropped from dead weight on other units and turn the CSMs into more Thousand Sons. Or, drop the CSMs and add Cultists to have more points for either more Tsons or more Obliterators since you seem to be looking for a "melee screen". With a Level 3 sorcerer rolling on Telepathy, you're bound to get Mental Fortitude and that is "lols" on Cultists. If not that, you probably have Invisibility or Hallucination... Even better.

List list suffers from positioning issues. Consider Huron for Master of Deception. At least he has "sort-of" access to Divination, which makes him a fluffy counts-as sorcerer HQ for Thousand Sons. If you can manage to get Huron in, you can sometimes be Infiltrating the Terminators, Thousand Sons, and Obliterators while the cultists hang back on an objective.

Hey there,

I recently put my first attempt at the new Chaos Codex after 6 years of playing with other gods mainly, and got some great feedback. Also you mustn't put up wargear points. So let's see if I can help you:

HQ: Chaos Space Marine Sorcerer (65) with two extra Mastery levels (+50), a gift of mutation (+10), sigil of corruption (+25) and a combi-plasma (+10) = 165

You won't need the Sigil of Corruption if you take Mark of Tzeentch and an Aura of Dark Glory. You need to take MoT as other TS are not Troops. Maybe lose a Mastery Level

Troops:
9 Thousand Sons ((8 and the Aspiring Sorcerer)) (242), gift of mutation (+10) and an icon of flame (+15) = 267

I'd take off the gift of mutation and Icon of Flame, so you can use the point elsewhere.

9 Chaos Space Marines ((8 and the Aspiring Champion)) (127), close combat weapons (+18), gift of mutation (+10), Mark of Tzeentch (+18)) and an icon of flame (+15) = 188

Ditch the CCWs, Gift of Mutation and MoT, swap the Icon to Vengeance and take 10 men with two Meltaguns and Melta Bombs and a Rhino

Elites: 5 Chaos Terminators ((4 and the Aspiring Champion)) (157), 2 combi-meltas (+10), Mark of Tzeentch (+25), icon of flame (+15) and gift of mutation (+10) = 217

Take more Combi-Meltas and lose Gift of Mutation - at these points not worth it in my view.

Heavy Support: 2 Obliterators (140) and Mark of Tzeentch (+16) = 156

Solid Heavy Support choice.


Total points cost = 993

I work out my changes to come to 965pts, giving you points to play with...

Hope this is useful...

 Pluxtheduck wrote:
Hey there,

Also you mustn't put up wargear points. So let's see if I can help you:

HQ: Chaos Space Marine Sorcerer (65) with two extra Mastery levels (+50), a gift of mutation (+10), sigil of corruption (+25) and a combi-plasma (+10) = 165

......

Sorry, but

I meant to put it up as quotes... Now as quotes

it doesn't matter, you shouldn't list points costs anyway

Please don't list the points cost for individual upgrades, it's against forum rules.

The Icon of Flame doesn't actually do anything useful, and the combi-plasma on the Sorcerer shouldn't be seeing much play because he should be using his psychic powers in the Shooting phase; you may want to use the extra points to get better weapons on the CSM and the Terminators.

Thanks for the advice everyone! Also, sorry about the points thing, I wasn't aware that was a rule.

I think I figured it out, more or less. I ran a mock battle against my brother's theoretical Khorne Berserker army last night, and got obliterated, but I think I'm starting to understand the theory behind the army.

Still learning though!