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I have no idea how to make a decent Thousand Sons army, so any list on how to do so would be great.

Thank you!

That's risky any way you slice it. T Sons are overpriced and underpowered.

Consider all other options for an army unless you just want it for show, because you can bet GW won't fix them.

I would like to play as them, but i really like there look which is why I want there army. any ideas for what would be a decent army?

Lots of infantry!! I like the look of them also, I started some of my own just to get the models you basically have to spend twice as much...
Im running:

Ahriman

x10 Terminators
x2 Chainfists
x2 Reaper Autocannons
x4 Lightning Claws
Mark of Tzeentch

x9 Thousand Sons

x9 Thousand Sons

x9 Thousand Sons

x9 Thousand Sons

x2 Obliterators

x2 Obliterators

Not ideal and still hasnt been playtested but the redundancy of the list, along with Ahrimans ability to infiltrate D3 units every game make it powerful in that people dont know what you are doing with it lol. No armor and the oblits could deep strike if need be depending on who you are fighting to help avoid giving up first blood. The anti tank isnt as heavy as other lists out there but with the amount of anti everything else it shouldnt be a problem. Vehicles cant deny objectives in the end (unless its the heavy mission) and can only kill so much themselves relying on slow but heavy hitting guns, which your invul saves across the board coupled with cover should never be a concern.

The thing about thousand sons is they are slow and weak to lots of small arms fire, because they will die to it just as easily as normal marines, but they cost twice as much.

Some rules to live by:

All Tsons squads MUST be in rhinos
Your army must have several fast moving threats to take pressure off your thousand sons until the last turns
daemon allies can add a lot to your list
Get your Tsons into rapid fire range ASAP!
If you take sorcerers, 2 is strongly recommended and telepathy is usually the way to go
If you take Ahriman:
He must fire 3 witchfires per turn every turn he can
You must tailor your army to be able to infiltrate 3 squads and put that to good use, (not just oh well guess ill inf these guys) but also not be dependent on it (still have the squad be able to move up, like in rhinos)

So heres an example:

10 tsons- rhino
10 tsons- rhino
ahriman and 5 havocs with 4 plasma guns- rhino
5 chaos spawn- MoN
Herald of Tzeentch- disk, ML3, exalted rew, grimoire
10 pink horrors
9 screamers
Heldrake- baleflamer
Heldrake- baleflamer

See how many threats this list has? Right away, you have the screamer star and spawn moving up into your face, with 1-3 rhinos full of dakka. A turn or two later, the heldrakes come in and gak gets real messy. Each Tsons squad on average kills about 7 marines per turn. Is your opponent going to worry about them, or everything else in your list?

 Shadowblade07 wrote:
Lots of infantry!! I like the look of them also, I started some of my own just to get the models you basically have to spend twice as much...
Im running:

Ahriman

x10 Terminators
x2 Chainfists
x2 Reaper Autocannons
x4 Lightning Claws
Mark of Tzeentch

x9 Thousand Sons

x9 Thousand Sons

x9 Thousand Sons

x9 Thousand Sons

x2 Obliterators

x2 Obliterators

Not ideal and still hasnt been playtested but the redundancy of the list, along with Ahrimans ability to infiltrate D3 units every game make it powerful in that people dont know what you are doing with it lol. No armor and the oblits could deep strike if need be depending on who you are fighting to help avoid giving up first blood. The anti tank isnt as heavy as other lists out there but with the amount of anti everything else it shouldnt be a problem. Vehicles cant deny objectives in the end (unless its the heavy mission) and can only kill so much themselves relying on slow but heavy hitting guns, which your invul saves across the board coupled with cover should never be a concern.

I like this list, the above person posted. I would only suggest running 9 termies and then get a bastion. Put the Bastion middle of the board with the door facing the enemy. And with Ahrimans warlord trait throw the Termies in it, you are out of line of sight so you can deploy 12" away (which would be the bastion on the edge of your half of the table, the enemy can;t win a roll to infiltrate first and then try to deploy in your bastion FYI). If you roll a 2+ for his warlord trait, throw Ahriman in their as well. Turn 1,walk out the bastion and have fun from the building and have fun.

Tsilber wrote:

 Shadowblade07 wrote:
Lots of infantry!! I like the look of them also, I started some of my own just to get the models you basically have to spend twice as much...
Im running:

Ahriman

x10 Terminators
x2 Chainfists
x2 Reaper Autocannons
x4 Lightning Claws
Mark of Tzeentch

x9 Thousand Sons

x9 Thousand Sons

x9 Thousand Sons

x9 Thousand Sons

x2 Obliterators

x2 Obliterators

Not ideal and still hasnt been playtested but the redundancy of the list, along with Ahrimans ability to infiltrate D3 units every game make it powerful in that people dont know what you are doing with it lol. No armor and the oblits could deep strike if need be depending on who you are fighting to help avoid giving up first blood. The anti tank isnt as heavy as other lists out there but with the amount of anti everything else it shouldnt be a problem. Vehicles cant deny objectives in the end (unless its the heavy mission) and can only kill so much themselves relying on slow but heavy hitting guns, which your invul saves across the board coupled with cover should never be a concern.

I like this list, the above person posted. I would only suggest running 9 termies and then get a bastion. Put the Bastion middle of the board with the door facing the enemy. And with Ahrimans warlord trait throw the Termies in it, you are out of line of sight so you can deploy 12" away (which would be the bastion on the edge of your half of the table, the enemy can;t win a roll to infiltrate first and then try to deploy in your bastion FYI). If you roll a 2+ for his warlord trait, throw Ahriman in their as well. Turn 1,walk out the bastion and have fun from the building and have fun.

You have basically taken one of the worst units in the codex and decided to use them in the worst method possible. They are twice as expensive as a normal marine, but die just as easily; they need the protection of rhinos. They also need to make their points back by getting their bolters into range - for which they need the speed of rhinos. Chaos terminators are most useful as suicide units of three deepstriking with meltas, not in big blobs of nine slogging it up the field. Obliterators are nice though.

I decided to go with a fully mechanized list with lots of dakka and lots of soulblaze to annoy the enemy units. It's a fluffy list, not intended to win major tourneys, but should do well in the local meta.

HQ Chaos Sorcerer
Termie armor
psyker level 3
MoT

(4) Chaos Terminators
icon of flame
MoT

Chaos Landraider
warpflame gargoyles

Troop (5) Thousand sons
icon of flame
Rhino
Havok launcher
warpflame gargoyles

Troop (5) Thousand sons
icon of flame
Rhino
Havok launcher
warpflame gargoyles

Heavy Forgefiend.

Heavy Vindicator tank
havok launcher

Heavy Predator tank
Autocannon
LC sponsons
warpflame gargoyles

Fast (3) Chaos bikers
Icon of flame
MoT

1501 points

The HQ and the Termies ride in the LR, the three Heavy units sit back and shoot stuff, the bikers zoom forward, and the rhinos take objectives. I decided to go with thousand sons for shooting because of their AP3 bolters, they can rapid fire AND assault, and they have a 3+ 4++ save. Every vehicle has warpflame gargoyles for soulblaze and every unit has the Icon of flame for soulblaze. (3) Havok launchers for some vehicle killy goodness.

Crystal-Maze wrote:

Tsilber wrote:

 Shadowblade07 wrote:
Lots of infantry!! I like the look of them also, I started some of my own just to get the models you basically have to spend twice as much...
Im running:

Ahriman

x10 Terminators
x2 Chainfists
x2 Reaper Autocannons
x4 Lightning Claws
Mark of Tzeentch

x9 Thousand Sons

x9 Thousand Sons

x9 Thousand Sons

x9 Thousand Sons

x2 Obliterators

x2 Obliterators

Not ideal and still hasnt been playtested but the redundancy of the list, along with Ahrimans ability to infiltrate D3 units every game make it powerful in that people dont know what you are doing with it lol. No armor and the oblits could deep strike if need be depending on who you are fighting to help avoid giving up first blood. The anti tank isnt as heavy as other lists out there but with the amount of anti everything else it shouldnt be a problem. Vehicles cant deny objectives in the end (unless its the heavy mission) and can only kill so much themselves relying on slow but heavy hitting guns, which your invul saves across the board coupled with cover should never be a concern.

I like this list, the above person posted. I would only suggest running 9 termies and then get a bastion. Put the Bastion middle of the board with the door facing the enemy. And with Ahrimans warlord trait throw the Termies in it, you are out of line of sight so you can deploy 12" away (which would be the bastion on the edge of your half of the table, the enemy can;t win a roll to infiltrate first and then try to deploy in your bastion FYI). If you roll a 2+ for his warlord trait, throw Ahriman in their as well. Turn 1,walk out the bastion and have fun from the building and have fun.

You have basically taken one of the worst units in the codex and decided to use them in the worst method possible. They are twice as expensive as a normal marine, but die just as easily; they need the protection of rhinos. They also need to make their points back by getting their bolters into range - for which they need the speed of rhinos. Chaos terminators are most useful as suicide units of three deepstriking with meltas, not in big blobs of nine slogging it up the field. Obliterators are nice though.

I agree. I'm trying to stay polite here, so I'll just say that list is not very good. Running that many tsons with no rhinos and then having half the rest of your army be a gunline is a recipe for disaster.

I've played the 9 termies, 18 inches from your enemies table edge turn 1 quite often, they did very well. Combo melta up, 4++ will draw a lot of attention.

I disagree, 1000 sons do not need to be in rhinos. It helps, for a turn to get you 6 inches closer, well unless your opponent goes first then you just gave him free kill points.

Play test it out, Chaos terminators are great, problem is the delivery system. You dont want to deep strike as you take the chance of them not coming on, and not being in hand to hand at least till turn 3. And you also do not want to pay the points for a land raider. So take a Bastion and infiltrate em up, trust me works great. You could even add a relay to the top if you decide to run heldrakes.

Good luck with the list, let us know how it plays for you.

Ahriman

No termi

1 squad of 20 tson with ahriman attached. And i am sure if he gets infiltrate then the squad gets it to. If not then you are infiltrating one less squad.

2 squads of 10 csm, 2 meltaguns, trade bolters for ccw, rhino, dirge caster, dozerblade. Out flank them if you can.

As many Oblits pairs with MoN or MoT

Get as many warp talons with MoT or spawns with MoT.

I have to agree with BladeTX: Thousand Sons are underpowered and overpriced.

Now having said that, I'm a HUGE fan of fluff. I will gladly play against a Fluffy army any day. You use units you wouldn't normally use, and you have to be more imaginative with your tactics.

Here's some basics:
Ahirman: Simply must be in the army. He IS Thousand Sons.
Daemon Prince, Wings, Power Armor, MoT, Mastery 3
three to four 9-man units of Thousand Sons
Dreadnought. They are part of the TSons fluff. Use the Helbrute rules, but an original Dreadnought model (Forgeworld has as awesome one)
You could put in Heldrakes and/or Forgefiends (I've seen plenty online painted in blue and gold colours)
Personally I like Rubric Terminators, especially if you're willing to buy the resin upgrades on Ebay.
You could use the heads to make Rubric Oblits as well.

No matter what, just have fun. Enjoy playing the fluff. Seek out players who play fluff as well. Good luck

If you play Thousand Sons, the most important thing is to give the army the image that you interpret from the fluff. It's a hard army to play, so you had better reward yourself by learning how to convert and paint well. It makes it worth it.

You have basically taken one of the worst units in the codex and decided to use them in the worst method possible. They are twice as expensive as a normal marine, but die just as easily; they need the protection of rhinos. They also need to make their points back by getting their bolters into range - for which they need the speed of rhinos. Chaos terminators are most useful as suicide units of three deepstriking with meltas, not in big blobs of nine slogging it up the field. Obliterators are nice though.

Lol yes I know that, the OP wanted to play thousand sons so I tried to make a fluffy list while at the same time being "decent", like they wanted. And at the same time avoid the net list adds such as mandatory screamer star, heldrake spam... all chaos lists end up looking the same with the one cult troop choice in the middle of the list changing the army from Emperors Children to World Eaters...
all in all however your fellow gaming groups may be different from mine in that they all take the WAAC net lists, this would annoy me to no end and inevitably force me to take one... We would see typhus zombie spam allied with tau riptide wing or something equally nonsensical. My two cents though, I enjoy everybodies input whether good or bad

Tsilber

I disagree, 1000 sons do not need to be in rhinos. It helps, for a turn to get you 6 inches closer, well unless your opponent goes first then you just gave him free kill points.

Glad we are on the same page! I see the value in the rhinos for protecting maybe one or two turns but will inevitably be killed off then you are back to square one just with these other lists you now have less bodies on the field therefore less targets and the enemy (whether good player or bad) will have no choice but to focus fire. Yes buckets of dice at your 1K sons will kill them as easily as normal marines, thats why there are more squads of them. The ten termies was only for the extra Reaper autocannon, Im a sucker for throwing buckets of dice worth of shots down range when playing shooting style never thought about the bastion shenanigan, never seen anyone use it! sadly here the tournaments ban any fortifications...


My normal method of warfare is Khorne!! Raargh! KILL MAIM BURN!!

I believe the list that I'm using is very fluffy and doesn't use the dreaded hell-turkey. Yes, 1K sons die just as fast as vanilla marines, that's why they need rhino's to get them there safely and then use the rhino for mobile cover/gun platform once you're there.

 Shadowblade07 wrote:

You have basically taken one of the worst units in the codex and decided to use them in the worst method possible. They are twice as expensive as a normal marine, but die just as easily; they need the protection of rhinos. They also need to make their points back by getting their bolters into range - for which they need the speed of rhinos. Chaos terminators are most useful as suicide units of three deepstriking with meltas, not in big blobs of nine slogging it up the field. Obliterators are nice though.

Lol yes I know that, the OP wanted to play thousand sons so I tried to make a fluffy list while at the same time being "decent", like they wanted. And at the same time avoid the net list adds such as mandatory screamer star, heldrake spam... all chaos lists end up looking the same with the one cult troop choice in the middle of the list changing the army from Emperors Children to World Eaters...
all in all however your fellow gaming groups may be different from mine in that they all take the WAAC net lists, this would annoy me to no end and inevitably force me to take one... We would see typhus zombie spam allied with tau riptide wing or something equally nonsensical. My two cents though, I enjoy everybodies input whether good or bad

Tsilber

I disagree, 1000 sons do not need to be in rhinos. It helps, for a turn to get you 6 inches closer, well unless your opponent goes first then you just gave him free kill points.

Glad we are on the same page! I see the value in the rhinos for protecting maybe one or two turns but will inevitably be killed off then you are back to square one just with these other lists you now have less bodies on the field therefore less targets and the enemy (whether good player or bad) will have no choice but to focus fire. Yes buckets of dice at your 1K sons will kill them as easily as normal marines, thats why there are more squads of them. The ten termies was only for the extra Reaper autocannon, Im a sucker for throwing buckets of dice worth of shots down range when playing shooting style never thought about the bastion shenanigan, never seen anyone use it! sadly here the tournaments ban any fortifications...


My normal method of warfare is Khorne!! Raargh! KILL MAIM BURN!!

You don't fix the problem of units dying to buckets of dice by adding more of that unit, you fix it by adding a different unit that has high threat and that can take buckets of dice.