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Hi people ! I was just wondering what units would be fluffy in a Thousand Sons army (besides Sorcerers and Rubric Marines). Any ideas ? I thought that some Chaos Spawns might be nice, but then I remebered the Rubric of Arhiman which got rid of all mutations within the Legion, so...

More Rubric Marines. Rubric Terminators? Tzeentch Daemons, some sort of bird-critter. I'm holding out for a Brotherhood of Sorcerers unit of Screamer-mounted cavalry.

It's be rather nice if the "Thousand Sons" codex was somewhat of a "Tzeentch Deamonkin" in disguise. There was a thread a week or so ago about Tzaangors coming to 40k. It would flesh out the line with plenty of units to choose from.

Yeah, must admit the model of Magnus the Red kinda gave me the idea. Also, I was reading old scans of The Lost and the Damned and Slaves to Darkness.

 Warzoner wrote:
Hi people ! I was just wondering what units would be fluffy in a Thousand Sons army (besides Sorcerers and Rubric Marines). Any ideas ? I thought that some Chaos Spawns might be nice, but then I remebered the Rubric of Arhiman which got rid of all mutations within the Legion, so...

The current codex doesnt really do Cult armies particularly well, as true Cult units dont exist outside of the Tac equivalent units. There is no Rubric Terminator option for example, as a Terminator with an MoT is not a Rubric Terminator just as a CSM with a MoT isnt a Rubric Marine.

In general however, in addition to Rubric Marines and Sorcs, tanks and some daemon engines would seem to fit, as would Dreadnoughts. Bikers, raptors, or things like that however are generally not seen as organic to Tsons forces, there are no Rubric Raptors for example. If there were provisions for it, Rubric Terminators would be great. Tzeentch Daemons also have their place obviously. Obliterators could be made to fit in some way I suppose but not in their default guise.

"Rubrics+Sorcerer" version of any normal CSM unit.

Havocs with inferno heavy bolters maybe.

Rubric Termies.

PA and Termie all-Sorcerer Chosen with Brotherhood of Psykers rule.

Cultists with Brotherhood of Psykers.

Sorcerer Helbrute.

New vehicle upgrades.

There are not much units to take in a fluffy TS army.
Rubic Marines, Rubic Terminators, Sorcerer as unit leaders, HQ and elite units
Human support troops and renegade Liberians as aspirants
Vehicles with demon engines are all in
nothing with mutations of any kind (no hellbrute), no raptors, bikes or havocs (the TS never had such units, so there is no Rubic version either)

everything else would be an ally of some kind (daemons, warptalons etc)

 kodos wrote:
There are not much units to take in a fluffy TS army.
Rubic Marines, Rubic Terminators, Sorcerer as unit leaders, HQ and elite units
Human support troops and renegade Liberians as aspirants
Vehicles with demon engines are all in
nothing with mutations of any kind (no hellbrute), no raptors, bikes or havocs (the TS never had such units, so there is no Rubic version either)

everything else would be an ally of some kind (daemons, warptalons etc)

Do you think that they might bring back the Chaos Dreadnought to take the place of the hellbrute?

The TS had their own troops of psionic controlled robots
So there is still the chance that dreadnoughts will be back

Thinking this is a case where the Black Legion supplement would suit the fluff.

Take a couple Cyclopia Cabals. Load them up with Malefic psychic powers to summon as much stuff as you can. Shroud of Deceit doesn't hurt with the free dice.

Get some TS squads. You are probably best off with smaller squads due to the cost of each.

Helbrutes modelled as Dreadnoughts would probably be your friend. The Forgeworld ones are nice.

On the table, summon as much stuff as you can. Find ways to double the number of units in your army and drown your enemy in smaller attacks.

I dunno, about the spawn thing. Sure they wouldn't be TSons who had turned to spawn, but Tzeench is very spawny and they live on a sorcerer planet do they not? So plenty non TSons to turn to quivering lumps of flesh to be bought and sold as slaves to darkness.

Also you could think about the Space Marines that Ahriman was trying to get together, the prodigal sons? (forgive me though I've not read the Ahriman series yet). But there would be zero original Thousand Son's geneseed kicking about. Other than Magnus'. But some sort of Psychic Scouts/hidden ones? Long shot I know.

They didn't historically have much in the way of heavy tanks though they did have Dreadnaughts. Who could be a really smart way of bringing them back into play and people buying the models.

But they were never a largely populated legion, so smaller numbers of troops than other legions. Would love to see them come out with something that fits the psychic fluff, rather than just overpriced suits of armour with ap3.

The half-finished Thousand Sons army I was working on years ago was going to include Obliterators, modeled as Terminator-armor-wearing sorcerers firing bolts of energy from their hands, using effects like this:

 kodos wrote:
The TS had their own troops of psionic controlled robots
So there is still the chance that dreadnoughts will be back

A Thallax-sized monstrous infantry unit might be cool too.

 Grumzimus wrote:
.
They didn't historically have much in the way of heavy tanks though they did have Dreadnaughts. Who could be a really smart way of bringing them back into play and people buying the models..

They had Heavy Tanks, driven by their human support troops but they used them
They also had their own Warhound Titans

Isn't there a story of heresy era Thousand Sons performing what is essentially a suicide sorcery, where they had to channel a spell, and unleash a devastating psychic blast, but losing their lives in the process? That could be a cool mechanic on the table top, provided the results were powerful enough, and reliable enough. Stand still in movement phase, WC 2 or 3, with re-roll 1s because Tzeentch, and then a massive/appoc blast S * ap1 (10, D not sure on strength) at some reasonable range (24" 36")
other wise, many supplemental demons, or being able to focus witch-fire enemy models into a choas spawn in CC. They won't have wide army variety type, and be slow, and expensive, but it should hit like a truck.

Cultists, daemons, monstrosities of imprecise origins, aliens, other legionnaires hired by the coven leader, etc etc.

What you actually include is mainly going to be a matter of how big the force is supposed to be.

To follow the fluff:

No TS really "likes" tzeentch, so I would hope for a lack of daemons outside of MAYBE summoning
NO mutations of any kind allowed
Anything that was available to the TS as a legion would show up (so basically every form of generic power armour in the chaos codex)
limited vehicles (TS always had a small motor pool)
a Clear line between Ahriminian Thousand Sons (blue) and Magnusite Thousand Sons (red)
a better trained cultist equivalent (in reference to the spire guard maybe?)
a representation of the TS cults maybe?
regular dreadnoughts (non-helbrutes)
A reference to the automita they had access to maybe?

I am excited about a possible Thousand Sons mini dex though not too familiar with the fighting force besides the basics.

What close combat options would they have? Would beast men possibly fill this role if they are included?

What kind of load outs for rubric termies? I saw some cool kit bashed rubric termies with cool glaives when I googled them but that might be someone's custom preference.

I hope Soul blaze applies to all weapons if the Icon returns like flamers, heavy flamers and combi flamers. Gargoyle heads give Soul blaze to all tank weapons so why not infantry?

Possessed vindicators and predators with warpflame gargoyles seem appropriate with maybe a marked warpsmith. Also a Heldrake for my 1000 Sonnforce.

Maybe warp talons. They seem a sorcerers creation in some ways and could fill the FA if IRC

Interesting to see if any tzeentch cultists will be in and what they might do. Maybe a limited brotherhood of sorcery ability giving a bump in wc. Some of the powers sorcerers get access to, like endurance, can buff 20 to 30 cultists a something fierce.

I like hel brutes with thunder hammers and lascannons for Tzeentch for some reason.

Would like to see some dynamic mechanics with sorcery or little things for a legion like this. Like all sorcerers start at ml2 since they were augmented by the Rubric of Ahriman. An overhaul of the Tzeentch discipline is a hope. Perhaps cultists adding to the warp phase in some way as mentioned above.

Bikes would seem silly to me for rubric marines but what do I know? Was their ever such a thing?

Also with Magnus, perhaps LoC and the possibility of various Tzeentch demons would they bastardize the chaos dex and include Tzeentch demons in 1000 sons dex? Probably not though will be interesting to see what they do with demon summoning demons.

Sorcerer Dreadnoughts?

Personally, I always liked the idea that Thousand Sons Sorcerers accomplish their objectives by taking a small entourage and joining another Lord's warband but completely subverting that warband through lies and manipulation in order to suit their own needs.

Just grabbing a bunch of mates to punch things in the face until they give back an overdue library book just seems so wrong.


Qualm aside, If you were to go pure 1k sons I think there are probably big differences in how Ahriman's lot operate compared to Magnus, and I don't think there would be so much cross over between the two.

The first step would be deciding if you are a red or a blue fan. The next step would be working out how to get cool stuff like Sorcerer Dreadnoughts and Rubric Terminators into the army.

I read on this thread about Ahriman attempt at starting a Prodigal Sons legion and your points are valid on the differences between the top 2 baddies


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Though Magnus is cool and I will probably get him I will probably utilize Ahriman as my warlord hopefully with a LoC. Will have to see.

Ooh.. What does ahriman's warlord trait do again?

Mastwr of deception. Infiltrate d3 units. Great for rubric marines with inferno bolts.