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So, despite my previous rant against 30k, I have been persuaded to join the ranks by my local group. As such, I'll be grabbing a FW calth TSons upgrade bundle as a starting point, but before I commit to building anything specific, I'd like to throw a few ideas out around how I'd like to run my dudes and hopefully some of the more experienced members can point me in the right direction;

- I know their book is coming out soonish so it's all guesswork and could be invalidated when they finally get their rules, I'm more looking for assurance that the overall idea is solid
- Every army I've got (bar Daemons) for 40k is mech, so I'd like to stick to footsloggers, doubly so since this will let me make use of psy powers rather than just being restricted to witchfires
- We have Iron Hands, Ravenguard, Sons of Horus, Imperial fists, Alpha Legion and I think a World Eaters (who would have been my second choice) player along with a knight army and almost assuredly there will be one or two space wolf players when they get their rules
- Stuff like Gorgons and Iron Father in a Flare shielded Ceramite Spartan is common, as are things like Storm eagles/Fire Raptors and Leviathan dreads
- Pretty much everyone has at least 1 superheavy available (almost always a glaive) from what I understand
- Zone Mortalis is a fairly frequent thing

With these limitations, would something along the lines of the following be playable against these guys, aiming for ~3k points:

3x Librarian HQ's (I'm assuming that either a Praetor will be able to be given mastery levels or librarians will be a compulsory HQ choice), one probably with a jump pack to go with the assault squad
15 - 20 man tacs
15 - 20 man tacs
15 - 20 man Assault squad, power weapons, combat shields
Fire Raptor
Legion Heavy support squad, probably lascannons to deal with heavy armour?

Allied (Dark) Mechanicum
Magos Dominus
6+ Thallax (probably with plasma fusils, but I could be convinced on something else)
Maybe a Castellax or some Vorax
1x Thanatar

I figure that the 30 marines from Calth with upgrade bits should provide me with the tactical base for the core, and I'm pretty keen on the mechanicum side of things as replaceable troopers as well as the idea of a big assault squad for chopping things up

Not a huge fan of the contemptor model and am assuming any Terminators will be Scarab Occult so the Cataphractii will probably be on shelf duty as well unless the SO turn out to be an upgrade kit instead of a new unit.

As I understand it, word is that the TSons will get some sort of robots that are psychically controlled as one of their specials anyway, so the mechanicum side may mot be required (but the Thallax and Thanatar models are bloody awesome, so I'll be keen on picking some up anyway).

So, yeah, am I on the right track? I've heard nothing but bad things about assault squads, but I just can't help myself.

it looks fine as a general list to expand from (ignoring that TS never worked with Dark Mechanicum because they were loyalists ) The bad things you've heard about assault squads probably has to do with their current price, which is something that will be updated in the next book, supposedly.

As for the TS special units, Scarab occult is a most likely, as for the robots, that's a bit iffy. the problem is there's so many routes TS could go for their second special unit (assuming they don't get the UM/WB treatment and get multiple special units)

It would also be best to assume the worst and make one of those Librarian a praetor in case, for some reason, FW doesn't let praetors be psychic :(

Brennonjw wrote:it looks fine as a general list to expand from (ignoring that TS never worked with Dark Mechanicum because they were loyalists )

Not sure what you mean by this. The poster never mentioned Dark Mechanicum. TS made extensive use of robots prior to turning traitor (and nothing says they wouldn't work alongside Dark Mechanicum after Prosperous, depending on the time period the poster is shooting for).

It would be very strange of FW to not provide a psyker as a praetor-level character for the TS too.

 CalgarsPimpHand wrote:

Brennonjw wrote:it looks fine as a general list to expand from (ignoring that TS never worked with Dark Mechanicum because they were loyalists )

Not sure what you mean by this. The poster never mentioned Dark Mechanicum. TS made extensive use of robots prior to turning traitor (and nothing says they wouldn't work alongside Dark Mechanicum after Prosperous, depending on the time period the poster is shooting for).

I think he was making a joke.

It would be very strange of FW to not provide a psyker as a praetor-level character for the TS too.

I agree

The list does look pretty solid

Ahriman will definitely be in the Thousand Sons HH book, so there is one named "Praetor-Level" guy. I would also be stunned if they can't upgrade a generic praetor to a Psycher.

As for your list, the Thousand Sons in both HH novels seemed to be foot-sloggers most of the time, so large tactical squads make sense. They will probably get some sort of Brotherhood of Psychers type rule.

I would recommend a list like this:



This is a pretty solid list that has what you want It comes to 2997 points

Thanks for the responses guys, will grab a Calth & upgrade set and wait impatiently for them to release some rules.

Cheers