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Scarab Occult Terminators are the Elite choice for Thousand Sons armies, and while the rubrics did not get as much as I would have liked the Scarab occult Terminators while only getting one significant boost and their abilities to survive did get a significant boost with that one thing.

I've already gone over the spells you should bring in a rubric Squad the same basically applies with this squad so if you're interested in finding out that go to that thread. Suffice to say Scarab occult sorcerers are in a slightly better position because if they do parallels and you don't have a reroll they have a chance of surviving and you're only going to lose one additional model on top of your Scarab occult sorcerer.

Scarab occult terminators come with a Inferno Combi Bolter and a Power sword. Don't let the Power sword full you they do not belong in close combat. Scarab occult terminators start at 5 models per unit and can bring up to 10. They have everything you would expect a Terminator to have with the all is dust rule included.

The biggest change for Scarab occult terminators is the glamor of tzeentch which gives any squad shooting at a unit benefiting from the spell a - 1 to hit spell which while increasing the chance of things like plasma rifles of killing the model firing it not to mention reducing the number of hits is Squad will score.

Scarab occult terminators benefiting from the glamor of tzeentch spell will perform much better then a 20-man rubric Squad. This isn't the only area Scarab occult Terminators have an advantage over a rubric Squad. Rubrics squads are very vulnerable to morale losses when they take heavy casualties in a single turn. this on top of the fact that Scarab occult terminators have a much smaller footprint and are able to take advantage of cover means you are much better off bringing Scarab occult Terminators where you would normally bring a 10-man squad of Rubric Marines. Additionally, Scarab occult terminators cost almost the same as rubric Marines however they come with a deep strike capability and are better and close combat. Overall, Scarab occult terminators are the same unit as rubric Marines but can do everything better.

The most effective way to implement Scarab occult sorcerers is to bring them in a unit of 10 adding Hellfire missile racks and casting prescience glamor tzeentch and Weaver Fates on the unit. this will make the unit very difficult to kill this will make the unit very difficult to kill and have it hitting on 2 +. This means you will miss with almost nothing and will become almost unkillable. the enemy will have to devote a large amount of Firepower to remove the unit and it will be able to do a large amount of damage prior to being removed due to its ability to deep strike.

adding the Hellfire missile racks will make them effective against light and medium vehicles and they're Combi bolters will cut through most enemy units. Using the veterans of the long War stratagem you can make them even more effective and get almost four points worth in a single turn.

One of the things to consider when deploying this unit is to think about its durability. you're going to want to take advantage of cover as you should with any unit that can actually do so. Scarab occult terminators have a 2 + armor save versus AP - 1 and a p - 2 weapons while in cover with Weaver of fate you will have a 3 + invulnerable save against any damage 1 weapons multi damage weapons you will have a 4 + invulnerable save against multi damage weapons with High AP.

Overall although Scarab occult terminators only got one real boost from one spell it was the one thing they really needed to make them more viable. Because of this they are much more powerful on the board and combined with other stratagems and Relics they will be able to have a large impact on the game when used properly as long as everything goes just as planned.

Could you do us all a favor and keep all the Thousand Sons junk in one thread. We don't need a dozen different discussions going on about the same subject.

I'm happy with multiple threads.

I want to know about each unit, not search through 70 pages of posts to see if there's anything about a unit.

 techsoldaten wrote:
I'm happy with multiple threads.

I want to know about each unit, not search through 70 pages of posts to see if there's anything about a unit.

Then Ask about the unit on the most recent page?

The amount of posts he is making is bordering on spam at this point.

SOT are weird now. They are cheaper, which is much appreciated, and with the reroll 1's to hit they can be mainstay damage output in range. However, All is dust is worse on them than it is on the Rubrics, because it's counter intuitive. They are multiwound models, so it makes sense for the opponent to shoot them with multidamage weapons. Whilst the Rubric All is Dust makes the opponent deliberately make suboptimal shooting allocation. Also, it feels to me that the SOT sorcerer should be stronger than the rubric sorcerer. In the previous edition he was a beast, practically rivaling an actual HQ sorcerer. now he's just an aspiring sorc.

I will be playing them a lot.

topaxygouroun i wrote:
SOT are weird now. They are cheaper, which is much appreciated, and with the reroll 1's to hit they can be mainstay damage output in range. However, All is dust is worse on them than it is on the Rubrics, because it's counter intuitive. They are multiwound models, so it makes sense for the opponent to shoot them with multidamage weapons. Whilst the Rubric All is Dust makes the opponent deliberately make suboptimal shooting allocation. Also, it feels to me that the SOT sorcerer should be stronger than the rubric sorcerer. In the previous edition he was a beast, practically rivaling an actual HQ sorcerer. now he's just an aspiring sorc.

I will be playing them a lot.

Yea. They really should gave all is dust on damage 1 and 2. I don’t think that would be broken and would make them better worth their points. (Although all terminators are like 5 points to much)

topaxygouroun i wrote:
SOT are weird now. They are cheaper, which is much appreciated, and with the reroll 1's to hit they can be mainstay damage output in range. However, All is dust is worse on them than it is on the Rubrics, because it's counter intuitive. They are multiwound models, so it makes sense for the opponent to shoot them with multidamage weapons. Whilst the Rubric All is Dust makes the opponent deliberately make suboptimal shooting allocation. Also, it feels to me that the SOT sorcerer should be stronger than the rubric sorcerer. In the previous edition he was a beast, practically rivaling an actual HQ sorcerer. now he's just an aspiring sorc.

I will be playing them a lot.

Yea bit of a pickle.

I'm trialing them with a mutalith and DMC.

Give them S5 swords, and/or reroll charges and get them stuck in. They do alright in CC as long as you don't get them bogged down against rubbish, but their guns usually help with that. Besides charging gives free movement and melee weapons are more often D1 than not.

topaxygouroun i wrote:
SOT are weird now. They are cheaper, which is much appreciated, and with the reroll 1's to hit they can be mainstay damage output in range. However, All is dust is worse on them than it is on the Rubrics, because it's counter intuitive. They are multiwound models, so it makes sense for the opponent to shoot them with multidamage weapons. Whilst the Rubric All is Dust makes the opponent deliberately make suboptimal shooting allocation. Also, it feels to me that the SOT sorcerer should be stronger than the rubric sorcerer. In the previous edition he was a beast, practically rivaling an actual HQ sorcerer. now he's just an aspiring sorc.

I will be playing them a lot.

They are a bit odd. In so far as the all is dust rule dosent really benefit them due to multiple wounds as you pointed out. They have very high durability and when properly buffed can become very difficult to move when you put them some where, even for you. When you drop them in simply target the enemies units that can best remove the squad first. Namely D1 ap -3 or more weapons or multi damage weapons that are AP-2 or higher. It's usually a good idea to try and bring something that can distract or shave a few wounds off the unit you need to get rid of prior to DS the SOT.

In the times I have played Scarab Occult I have found that with Scarab occult its an "all or nothing" approach.

Generally my list for them includes almost no chaff, maybe some cultists hugging a home objective in cover or something but generally its all either Big nasty, or scarab occult.

I have used a list akin to this;

-Ahirman
-DP
-Sorcerer termie if points allow

-Scarab x10, all 4 guns
-Scarab x5, both guns
-Scarab x5, both guns.

The rest of the list is Walkers and engines, along with a Disco-Pred.

95% of the list is multi-wound, 100% is if you drop cultists. The entirety of the list has invul saves barring a tank or dread.

Daemon Engines are very tough and require multi-wound shots, Scarab occult are practically immune to ap -1 D1 or D1 shooting with their base stats so thats a minor concern for them, If you fire a ton of multi-damage weaponry at scarabs your ignoring the large bundle of engines and walkers striding toward you plugging holes in your line, If you focus the engine the scarabs will handle that issue right quick.

The engines roll up the field with the other walkers and cause havoc, shoot, fight as needed (often this module is the prince or exalted on disc with 1 mauler/ 1 forge hades / 1 defiler) forming a solid care that cannot be easily killed along with a huge number of terminators landing turn one. top or bottom, generally you dont care although first is preferable.

With the added Mutalith vortex beast for SO cheap for its statline and what it does those auras will prove quite useful once it makes its way up the table closer to the Scarab Occult lines.

I used this list pre-codex and It did quite well, I imagine it will only do better now with a substantial points drop for what we are getting as well as all those buffs and access to daemonforge and blasphemous machine.

The list is CP light however at only 5 beginning of the game, 4 first turn if you take an extra relic or deepstrike someone, though this list doesnt need it due to all the innate deep-strikers, though third-eye will help tremendously to fix that issue mighty fast.