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Hi guys, I'm a new thousand one player and I'm yet to play a game with them.

I currently have -

Magnus
Ahriman
3 Exalted Sorcerors
20 Rubric Marines
5 Occult Terminators
2 Predators with las cannons

Where should I go from here? I only want to stick with the entries that can take the <Thousand sons> keyword.

What are you guys having success with the 1k sons?

You've got a solid start, the biggest thing you'll need from here is a way to keep your units from getting assaulted. Magnus is a big help, because he's a mean mother hubbard, a daemon prince also helps because he passively gives re-rolls of 1s to hit and he's a capable melee fighter. Tzaangors make a nice screening unit, being a cheap troop squad and relatively durable with T4 and 5++ save with the reroll from magnus or ahriman. You could also get a couple Rhinos. Each Rhino can hold 2 five-man squads of rubrics, if you ran each one with like 2 bolters, 2 flamers, and a sorceror with the flamer pistol, then you'd have plenty of charge protection between the transport and the powerful overwatch fire.

Everything you have is optimal for 8th except, sadly, the large number of psykers you have. As it currently stands (keep in mind this will be changing with the codex launch) in Matched Play, the "Rule of One" where you can only try to cast 1 of each non-smite power each turn makes Psykers other than one Magnus/Ahriman kind of redundant. Magnus can cast all three of Warptime/Prescience/Wrath himself, leaving other psykers only using the Smite power. When Thousand Sons get an expanded psychic tree, then more psykers will be useful, but until then it's really only worth bringing more psykers in Narrative play. An exalted sorceror throwing out Smite and Wrath is a decent psychic shooting threat - but just having Smite cuts his firepower in half.

If you were willing to splash into some Daemon allies (they are in the index after all), a Herald of Tzeentch or the Changeling plus some Brimstone/Blue Horrors make a wonderful cheap anti-assault screening unit and another psyker who gets his own daemon powers, and so doesn't have to worry about the Rule of 1. Plus, Treason of Tzeentch is a hilariously fun power! But they're not 100% mandatory or anything, just fun.

You could make a perfect 2000 point Thousand Sons list with the following rough setup:

Battalion Detachment
Magnus
1 Exalted Sorceror
4 squads of 5 rubrics sharing 2 Rhinos
5 Occult Terminators
2 Las Predators

Something I must regretfully tell you is that, as of the recent FAQ, Exalted Sorcerers are criminally overcosted even if you ignore the fact they can only use 1 psychic power for practical purposes. 112 points before wargear.

Fortunately, much of what you have already features the best highlights of <Thousand Sons>; Magnus is good, Ahriman is good, Rubrics and SOT's are good. I agree with scotsman that you should invest in some rhinos for the rubrics to ride around in. I also highly recommend a daemon prince, kitted out with Malefic Talons.

So is it possible to be at least semi-competitive without using Magnus? I like the Tsons models but I can't stand using named characters. Having the same two mighty 10,000 year old primarchs face off and both get killed by lascannons in a thousand different tiny skirmishes kind of ruins the fantasy for me. Not to mention he costs more than 2 daemon princes or a knight, and I don't like his horn-nippled model.

I think it's very possible to be competitive without Magnus, though I would be running Ahriman instead so that runs counter to your no-named characters rule. Unfortunately Exalted Sorcerers are a very poor substitute for their cost vs. Ahriman, prior to the points change I would say you could swing it but now I'm not so sure.

Essentially, IMO I think you need to run Magnus or Ahriman, though both is rather excessive and inefficient because you'r wasting a lot of casting.

I have had some luck with Tzaangors. Almost as cheap as cultists, but much tougher, and can dish it out fairly well in close combat. Plus they are great models.

I'm a 1kSons noob as well, and I think the advice here looks pretty solid, from my limited play experience.

One thing I will say is this: you really should consider buying some daemons! A box of blues & brimstones gives you two meat shield units at a very cheap price (35pts per unit) with a free baby-smite that only fires 1/3 of the time. Great for bubble wrap or holding objectives. The Changeling, while I haven't played him yet, looks absolutely amazing.

I'm planning on running a blob with my Daemon Prince wrapped by ten horrors (with points left to spawn more as they die) with the Changeling, followed by Flamers and flanked by a Mauler fiend. This gives them all rerolls of ones to hit, makes them all -1 to hit by your enemy, and you get access to treason of tzeentch. The Maulerfiend in particular will appreciate thost bonuses, as he's a monster in CC but can swing and miss too easily, and tends to get focus fired. A really nice assault blob that would actually suit you army too, by the looks of it.

Also bear in mind that a static character can summon a 35pt unit of horrors with ease (low power point cost) to flank, bubblewrap, camp, etc.

Good luck and get dusting.

Real News wrote:
So is it possible to be at least semi-competitive without using Magnus? I like the Tsons models but I can't stand using named characters. Having the same two mighty 10,000 year old primarchs face off and both get killed by lascannons in a thousand different tiny skirmishes kind of ruins the fantasy for me. Not to mention he costs more than 2 daemon princes or a knight, and I don't like his horn-nippled model.

Absolutely!

The best thing about Magnus? Reroll 1s to hit. Well, not entirely, but it creates some great combos with +1 to hit. That ability exists on daemon princes. So while your casting won't be as certain it does the job quite well AND can hide behind other units.

Real News wrote:
I don't like his horn-nippled model.

Nor do I.


I would suggest dropping Magnus for more terminators and daemons. It makes for a cool "Fire and ash" theme to the army.

Thanks for all the advice guys, it's been awesome.

I am playing 1500 points this wednesday against Ultramarines, I am using -

Patrol Detachment

HQ - Ahriman
HQ - Deamon Prince, 2 x Malefic Talon

Troop - 10 Rubric Marines, Aspiring Sorceror, 2 x Warpflamers 1 x Soulreaper cannon
Troop - 10 Rubric Marines, Aspiring Sorceror, 2 x Warpflamers 1 x Soulreaper cannon

Elite - 5 Scarab Occult Terminators - 1 Sorceror, 1 Hellfyre missile rack, 1 Soulreaper cannon

Heavy support - Chaos Predator - 1 Twin-linekd Lascannon, 2 Side sponson Lascannons
Heavy support - Chaos Predator - 1 Twin-linekd Lascannon, 2 Side sponson Lascannons

Looks good, but you might want to pick up some rhinos as soon as you can. Rubric marines need them, especially if you're going to get any use out of their flamers.
I have doubts about terminators with soulreapers. If you deep strike then they're just slightly better than inferno combi-bolters at nearly 7 times the price.

To add another voice to the mass, rhinos are a godsent. Really, Rubrics can't function without rhinos. Not necessarily every unit needs a rhino but you need some so you can spread them across the board.

Furthermore, I'm more prone to running squads of 5 rubrics rather than 10, especially at 1500 points.

My troops look something like this most of the time:
10 cultists
5-man rubric squad - 2x warpflamer + Rhino
5-man rubric squad - 2x warpflamer + Rhino

Screening is paramount in this edition, so having a group of 10 cultists is great to keep your key units from getting assaulted.

Furthermore I really like the synergy between Daemon princes and spawn. Keep your DP behind your spawn and have him cast warp speed on the spawn every turn so they can keep up with his 12". Again, screening is very important to keeping a DP safe. If you manage to get both units in combat, the re-roll to hit helps the spawn do some damage. I run my DP with an axe most of the time, simply because the 2 extra attacks don't add a whole lot when there's also spawn. Str 8 and 3 dmg are good for vehicles though!

Finally, I think the key to 1K sons is realizing that rubrics may be basic infantry by their rules, but act more like vehicles when considering target priority. If you need a squad of rubrics gone, you'll need to fire some big guns because even Heavy bolters aren't going to kill them very quickly, especially in cover. It's up to you as the sons player to use that to your advantage.

Thanks for your advice guys. The next purchase will be a few rhinos (I can always proxy my Horus Heresy rhinos for now)

Each rubric squad has to have a sorcerer right?