Faction Focus: Thousand Sons

I was so happy when I saw that there is a Faction Focus on the Thousand Sons today, and I eagerly went to read it. But...there was very little info. I think all I got was that Magnus will be as awesome as ever, and the Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators will be tougher and harder to kill, but that's about it.



It's by Frankie, who wrote the Chaos article, so...what was I expecting?



He admits that we have a problem with Thousand Sons right now because of how expensive they are, and how they're not worth taking. He then promises that it will all change for them in the 8th Edition. So I was wondering if that meant we get a point reduction for the Rubric Marines or something?

Well, at least he elaborates on Magnus. To be honest, I think the whole article could just focus on Magnus alone, because...let's just say that's the only "unit" Frankie goes in depth into. Magnus is a boss, has Toughness 7 (hah! My Leman Russ tanks and Imperial Knights are still tougher!), 18 Wounds (that's a lot) and 4++ invulnerable save. I'm assuming the invulnerable save still works the same way as they did in 7th Edition, so sounds cool there. He's still quite the awesome psyker, but instead of being a Level 5 Mastery Psyker he can only manifest 3 psychic spells per turn. On the other hand, he gets +2 to casting psychic spells, so they are much more likely to go off. Awesome!



As usual, he's a beast in close combat, able to deal 7 Strength 16 (what?!), AP -4 attacks that deal a flat 3 damage each. He's going to wreck my poor Imperial Knights in combat. Oh, and he can move 16". Not to mention he buffs Thousand Sons units by allowing them to re-roll their 1s for to hit and invulnerable saves. That's pretty neat.

Scarab Occult Terminators are as tough as ever, get the 2 Wounds and can Deep Strike (now called Teleport Strike) like all other Terminators, but they have the awesome All is Dust ability, which gives them a +1 to their armor save roll if the attack has a Damage characteristic of 1. Nice! They're still Relentless, no change from 7th Edition.



No change for their weapons either. Huh? Apparently they have inferno combi-bolters now, which is Rapid Fire 2, Strength 4 and AP -2. Basically the same as before, except that you have Rapid Fire 2 instead of just Rapid Fire. Okay, that's new. I think. And being combi-weapons, these guys can bring other ranged weapons, apparently, like something that deals D3 Damage with AP -3, but Frankie being Frankie doesn't say.



So...are they cheaper? Can the Scarab Occult Sorcerer manifest 2 psychic powers? Nothing on that.

We have Rubric Marines who are slower than normal Space Marines, but they also have the All is Dust ability that makes them hard to kill. Wow, they're essentially Terminators with 2+ save against any weapon that only deals 1 Damage to them. This makes them more awesome against my Imperial Guard and their lasguns. Except that I don't use infantry but Leman Russ tanks instead, but that will hurt my Leman Russ Punishers.



Same inferno boltgun with AP -2 (the new AP 3), so no change there. Soulreaper cannons return with the same old Heavy 4, Strength 5, AP -3, but I don't think Rubric Marines are still Slow and Purposeful (basically Relentless), so they might suffer a penalty from moving and shooting that. I'm a flamer guy (come on, just look at my Company Command Squad, 1 Heavy flamer and 3 flamers? What am I smoking?) so I'll take the AP -2 flamer instead, thank you very much.



Wait. That's it? Hey, Frankie! You said something changed about them being expensive! So are they still expensive, or are they cheaper? Don't leave us hanging! They still look pretty expensive, judging froom the power rating! How does this change anything? And Thousand Sons are not just Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Sorcerers! What about psychic powers? Has the whole Change or Tzeentch discipline been removed and replaced with something new? How does psychic powers work for Thousand Sons now? Hey!

Edit: Thanks to Jesse, who is a lot more informative than Frankie in his "official" Faction Focus, it seems that Rubric Marines have a price reduction! They now cost 20 points per model (18 plus 2 for inferno boltguns) instead of the former 23! And a squad of 5 Rubric Marines is 125 points as opposed to 150 in the last edition. Thank you, Jesse! Apparently inferno warpflamers have gone up in price, and rightly so given how strong flamers become in this edition, but that's all I know.

You can't have a Faction Focus on the Thousand Sons and say nothing about psychic powers! I mean, it's great you talked about Magnus being a potent pysker, but what exactly are his psychic powers? I heard Ahriman can also manifest 3 powers a turn! But that's it! How do Exalted Sorcerers work? Do Thousand Sons gain a +1 to their psychic rolls like Magnus's +2? Come on, dude, this is a Thousand Sons army! We want to know about how they dominate in the psychic phase! Especially since the psychic phase has been totally transformed in 8th Edition! How do Thousnd Sons fare in the psychic phase now, do they gain any bonuses for psykers, and what kind of powers do they have access to?

Ugh...no, instead Magnus is a badass psyker...and this is not from Frankie but from a leak I know. Basically Magnus has an ability called Wrath of Magnus, which allows his Smite to deal D6 Mortal Wounds instead of D3. Yeah. Nasty. But Frankie says nothing of that, and it's up to me to inform you. Sigh.

Oh. And that last line where Frankie claims each squad has a Sorcerer who can deal Mortal Wounds? That's basically Smite, which can be casted by all psykers. I want to know how differently Thousand Sons play as psykers, because if all I want is Smite, I can just take Primaris Psykers for my Imperial Guard army. Ugh.

Anyway, sorry about all the raving and ranting, and I'll let you guys know more when I find more information.

Edit: So the Facebook page says something about the psychic powers of the Thousand Sons.

When will Thousand Sons get their unique psychic discipline?

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Warhammer 40,000 All of the Factions will be getting loads more attention when their codexes are released in the future.

In other words, we will have to wait for an actual codex for the Thousand Sons before we finally get to see new, unique psychic disciplines. From other sources, it appears that they can only use 3 powers, and it's not worth it because the Aspiring Sorcerer will more than likely end up nuking his own squad. Yeah...

In other words, the Thousand Sons is basically an army that spams nothing but Smite now. According to those other sources, it's not even the full Smite, but a lesser Smite (whatever that means).