Beginner's Guide to playing Thousand Sons

All right, so you've read all the awesome lore on the Thousand Sons, beginning with A Thousand Sons by Graham McNeill and culminating in Ahzek Ahriman's amazing exploits in John French's Ahriman Collection. Or perhaps you enjoyed how the Thousand Sons kicked the Space Wolves' asses in Chris Wraight's War of the Fang and Wrath of Magnus. Whatever the case, you've fallen in love with the Thousand Sons' lore and psychic mastery, and plan to run an army of Sorcerers, dusty automatons and warpbound Daemon Engines.

Unfortunately, you have no idea where to start, or how to begin crafting your army. You see, building a Thousand Sons army requires finesse, intelligence and skills. Just like the scheming cult of Scheming (uh, okay, that was redundant), you'll need to plan each and every aspect of your army to the most intricate detail...okay, maybe you don't. This a tabletop game, after all, so don't take it too seriously. Anyway, this here is a guide for beginners to have an idea of what the army can do, and how to start. building their Thousand Sons army.

A couple of disclaimers before I begin. This is an article for the beginners to the Thousand Sons faction. In other words, if you're looking for tournament-winning netlists, if you're trying to chase the meta and craft the strongest list, if you're attempting to min-max, if you're intending to build a super-competitive list that will crush every opponent in your friendly local gaming store, or if you're searching for the ultimate cheesy list, then you're out of luck. This place is not for you. And if you're a beginner, here's my first piece of advice: don't chase the meta. Play with what you like. Buy the models you love. Before you even dream of participating in tournaments or ITCs or the Las Vega Open or whatever, play a few games with whatever you like. The meta will always change, but your love for the army had best not change...otherwise you'll be wasting a lot of time and money when the next FAQ or Chapter Approved drops. Besides, you ought to learn to crawl before you run. Before you even think about jumping straight to tournaments, make sure you know what you're doing in casual and friendly games first.

Some of you might be unfortunate enough to wander into areas where the meta is super-competitive and where everyone is a win at all costs player. My advice for you if you're in that situation is...well, find a new local gaming store and make new friends. Honestly, this whole competitive, win at all costs attitude and mathhammering bullshit are unhealthy. Not just unhealthy for the hobby, but also detrimental for socializing and having fun. Warhammer 40,000 is a game. The point is to have fun, not to scream, argue, rules-lawyer, squeeze out as many advantages as you can, min-max to the point where your opponent becomes frustrated. This is a tip that is relevant not just to Thousand Sons beginners but to all beginners. Make sure you come into the game with the right attitude, and not just seeking only to win and crush everyone you meet. Otherwise, a couple of months into the game, and you'll find that nobody wants to play against you. Don't be that guy. Even though Imperial Knights are dominating the tournament meta right now (at least until the last couple of weeks), don't go and buy a bunch of Knights because chances are, you won't be able to find an opponent in your friendly local gaming store. Unless your meta is full of Knights and uber-competitive players who are seeking to practice for their next tournament...then good luck. But that's not an environment for a beginner, so best to get out of there and find a more beginner-friendly environment.

Now that advice is out of the way, let's begin with Thousand Sons proper. So what exactly distinguishes Thousand Sons from the other armies?

That's right. Our psychic potential. The whole point of playing Thousand Sons is because you love their psychic powers. We have the most psychic powers in 8th edition, with access to not one, not two but three psychic disciplines: the Discipline of Change, the Disciple of Tzeentch and the Dark Hereticus Discipline. We can even out-cast the filthy Aeldari or Craftworld Eldar. We have more psychic powers than our Loyalist brethren. If you've read the lore, you should know that this makes sense. The Thousand Sons is a Legion of Sorcerers, of Warlocks, of Psykers. It was this reputation that saw our Primarch and Legion censured at the Edict of Nikea, and we were banned from using our psychic powers since then. However, prior to that faulty judgement, the Thousand Sons Legion was among the most powerful Legions. With potent psychic mastery, we could smite any enemy with nary a thought, lift tons of boulders with our minds alone, and wreak apocalyptic havoc on entire worlds with our willpower. Nothing could stand in our way.

So what does that mean when translated into the tabletop? Well, you want to begin your Thousand Sons army by first creating a core of Sorcerers. You can bring Ahzek Ahriman. Thanks to John French's Ahriman Collection, and even his sympathetic portrayal in Graham McNeill's A Thousand Sons, I've really taken a liking to the guy and I would never field a Thousand Sons army without him. You don't necessarily need him though, if Named Characters aren't your thing. Keep in mind that Ahriman can cast 3 psychic spells and deny the witch 3 times, and he gets a +1 for both tests. This makes him one of the most potent psykers in the game. Never leave home without him, but of course even without him you still have a strong array of options.



If you're invested in the competitive scene, you'll probably know that people spam Daemon Princes of Tzeentch (but if you already know that, why are you here reading a beginner's guide? Shoo! Go away! Go play in your tournaments and get into Best Coast Pairings!). There is a very good reason why they do so - Daemon Princes are extremely powerful and can rip things up in combat. Most people would advice that you take a second set of malefic talons instead of the sword, because you get another 3 attacks. And in this addition, volume attacks are king. That said, the sword does do 3 damage and the axe grants the Daemon Prince more AP and more Strength, so pick whatever you will. The malefic talons would be most useful for all situations, though, especially since you're going to cast Diabolic Strength on the Daemon Prince anyway. What? You didn't forget that Thousand Sons is a psyker-heavy army, did you? Of course you're going to be buffing your units. More on that later.

However, spamming 3 Daemon Princes of Tzeentch is not going to earn you any friends. Take 2 if you must, though 1 is a good number in terms of theme, fluff and access to the Daemon discipline. After all, there won't be many Daemonic powers you'll want to take from Disciple of Tzeentch. Gaze of Fate is undoubtedly the most versatile, effectively granting you a free command re-roll for your turn. Infernal Gateway is a bit niche and can backfire, and Bolt of Change is a bit expensive at Warp Charge 8. Boon of Mutation isn't going to be very useful for most of your army, and you probably have nothing to cast Flickering Flames on - sure, you can cast it on your Forgefiend or Heldrake, but if it's the former, you don't want your Daemon Prince sitting back in a gunline and just buffing your Forgefiend. There's an argument to be made for the Heldrake, certainly, but if you're not having that in your army, then Flickering Flames is pretty pointless.

Also take note that despite their appearances, Daemon Princes are Characters. In other words, as long as you have something between your Daemon Princes and your opponent, like...say, Cultists or Tzaangors, Heldrake, Maulerfiend or a Leviathan Dreadnought, they'll be forced to shoot at those instead of your Daemon Prince. Always make sure your Daemon Prince has a bunch of meatshields to protect him from your opponent's shooting. Snipers are another thing altogether, but there's no avoiding that, and his high Toughness means that most sniper shots are just going to bounce off his thick hide anyway.

So the rest of your HQ slots should be filled by Exalted Sorcerers. That's where the Exalted Sorcerer box comes in useful. It gives you three Exalted Sorcerers, and you don't even have to run all of them as Exalted Sorcerers. Normal Sorcerers, or use the bits for Aspiring Sorcerers...it's entirely up to you. Don't feel forced to build and field 3 Exalted Sorcerers just because they all come with the box. If you're planning on running 5-men Rubric Marine squads, you ought to save at least one of them to be an Aspiring Sorcerer. But make sure to build at least one on disc, and the other two on foot can either be an Aspiring Sorcerer or a gunline Exalted Sorcerer to provide re-rolls for hit rolls of ones.

Whatever the case, Ahriman, Daemon Prince or Exalted Sorcerers (or even Sorcerers in Terminator armor with a Familiar) should be the core of your army. You're playing Thousand Sons for the psychic powers, after all. Brotherhood of Sorcerery grants us an extra 6" to our casting range, so we have 24" Smite! Make full use of it! Additionally, as I said earlier, psychic powers can be used to buff your units. Diabolic Strength on a Daemon Prince will allow him to tear even an Imperial Knight apart. Or you can just use it on an Exalted Sorcerer with dual power swords. Yes, there is an option for Exalted Sorcerers to take two power swords - it grants them an extra attack. Nonetheless, don't forget to buff your Characters or units with Diabolic Strength, heal them with Temporal Manipulation, or keep them alive for longer with Weaver of Fate and Glamor of Tzeentch. Again, you're playing a psychic army. Make sure to maximize the use of your psychic powers. Otherwise you're pretty much wasting the potential of Thousand Sons. Always remind yourself during your psychic phase - who has cast his spells, and who hasn't? Is there any power that I forgot to cast? Who needs what buffs? How many more mortal wounds can I throw? Stuff like that. SORCERY is the name of our game, so spam those psychic spells, fellow brothers!

Next, the bread and butter of our army. Rubric Marines. Soulless automatons, silent golems, dust trapped within power armor. You should know the fluff by now. In trying to save his Legion, Ahzek Ahriman cast the Rubric and accidentally turned all of the not very powerful psykers into dust. At least they're no longer mutating into Chaos Spawn...bleagh, I mean that which must not be named. Ahriman cured the Flesh Change, even though it wasn't in the way he expected.



Since this is a Thousand Sons army, you'll definitely want to get these guys. What's that? They're not competitive? Hey, you're supposed to be a beginner, right? Why the hell are you talking about competitive already? Get out of here. Ahem. Anyway, these guys are indispensable for any fluffy and thematic Thousand Sons army. How can you have Thousand Sons without Rubric Marines?

Even though most people will tell you that Rubric Marines are not competitive, blah, blah, blah, I will once again stress that you're just a beginner. You're not here to chase the meta or look for advice on competing in a tournament. You're not going to the Las Vegas Open or any ITC in the near future. You're here because you want to start a Thousand Sons army, and that means starting a fluffy, thematic, actual Thousand Sons army. Remind yourself why you want to start Thousand Sons again. Is it because you want to compete in tournaments? You want to win trophies and competitions? You want to crush every opponent you meet at your friendly local gaming store (good luck finding a game in future)? If not, then screw all that hyper competitive nonsense. If you love Rubric Marines, get them and field them. Period.

But don't worry, all hope is not lost. Rubric Marines aren't rubbish or hopeless as some of the win at all costs crowd would have you believe - and they mostly exaggerate and rely on hyperbole. So if someone tells you Rubric Marines are garbage, chances are, his mentality is garbage and you'll do well to avoid playing against someone like him. As a beginner, your goal is to have fun, and to build a fluffy and thematic army, not to chase the meta. In any case, Rubric Marines can still pull their weight in most environments, especially that of your friendly local gaming store. They have AP -2 boltguns, which will help mow down hordes with low armor saves, deal very well with power armor units such as Space Marines and their equivalents. Particularly against other Space Marines, Veterans of the Long War synergizes very well with your AP -2 inferno boltguns to utterly raze them to dust. Make sure you do not forget All is Dust. It is very easy to underestimate Rubric Marines because of the amount of multiwound weapons such as autocannons and supercharged plasma guns, but keep in mind that the vast majority of small-arms fire are still lasguns, boltguns, autoguns or their equivalents. Meaning you'll get that +1 save against those. Hell, you'll get a 4++ invulnerable save even against the T'au's AP -3 plasma rifles. This means your Rubric Marines are not only elite Marine equivalent killers, they are also extremely resilient against small-arms and will take a lot of attacks to put down. I once had a squad of 5-men Rubric Marines who weathered wave after wave of Cultists attacks (about 40 Cultists with chainswords) and survived for 3 turns. That's how sturdy they are. And there was one time I frustrated an opponent because they were having 2+ armor saves in cover against his Primaris Intercessors' AP -1 bolt rifles. Yep, that's right. 2+ armor saves in cover against AP -1 bolt rifles. Don't ever underestimate All is Dust. Also, don't forget that your Sergeant is an Aspiring Sorcerer. In other words, your Rubric Marines have a psyker hidden within them! Make sure to cast baby Smite, or at least make use of the psychic potential to do Discipline of Change spells such as Tzeentch's Firestorm! Again, you're playing Thousand Sons because they are an army of psykers! Don't forget that your basic troops also can cast psychic powers!

You'll want at least 1 box, 2 if possible. With the Exalted Sorcerer box from earlier, you can make 2 5-men squads of Rubric Marines and use one of the Sorcerers as an Aspiring Sorcerer. Keep a spare with soulreaper cannon just in case you feel like running 10-men Rubric Marine squads with soulreaper cannons one day. If you can get a second box, great! Since we have the option to swap all inferno boltguns for warpflamers, that's exactly what I did with my second box. Hence I have 2 five-men Rubric Marine squads armed with inferno boltguns, and a squad of 10 Rubric Marines, 9 of them armed with warpflamers (the Aspiring Sorcerer has a warpflame pistol to fit with the theme). You don't necessarily have to follow me. You can just grab a single box of Rubric Marines and do 2 five-men squads with 2 warpflamers each. Or just run 20 inferno boltguns. Or do a 20-men squad and put them in Webway Portal. Use your imagination. It's your warband - customize and find your own strategic style!

The second Troops choice we have are the Tzaangors. As much as I personally don't use these guys, Tzaangors are pretty cool too. Thousand Sons may be an elite army, but they do have the option to field hordes of Tzaangors to compensate for their otherwise low model count. You probably might have heard people complaining about the codex being Codex: Tzaangors instead of Thousand Sons, and how Thousand Sons is more an army of Tzaangors and less that of Rubric Marines. Well, once again, don't listen to those people. You're not here to build a competitive list and dominate your friendly local gaming store scene. You're here to learn how to start a Thousand Sons army.



That said, Tzaangors are pretty useful. They can hold objectives (though you might as well get cheaper Cultists or even an allied Battalion of Brimstone Horrors if all you want to do is to camp in cover and hold Objectives). But the reason you're bringing them is because of the sheer volume of attacks they can put out. Bring a 30-men horde of them, use Dark Matter Crystal and teleport them across the table, and have them charge whatever you want dead. Make sure to spend 10 points for a brayhorn to reduce the charge distance by 1". Once they get in, they'll probably deal an insane amount of damage - 30 Tzaangors on the charge is nothing to scoff about. And if you fail to kill the target (a Knight, another horde, or whatever), then spend 2 Command Points on Cycle of Slaughter for your Tzaangors to fight against. Best to equip them with Tzaangor blades (and cheaper in terms of cash too!), but chainswords do provide that extra attack, so it depends on what you really want. I personally think the AP -1 will be more useful in most cases, though.

Normally it's enough to bring a single 30-Tzaangor blob, and fill the rest of your Battalion requirements out with Rubric Marines (especially 5-men squads). Don't feel forced to take Tzaangors, though! If you love them, then all the more you should field them and wreak havoc across the battlefield with these lovable mutants. But if you don't and you prefer to keep your force entirely power armor (like me), then by all means, drop them out of your list and don't buy them. A pure Rubric Marines force is still perfectly viable in casual settings. As I said, if you're just starting out your army, then you should be playing in a casual environment where people aim to have fun and not mathhammer to the point of calling Rubric Marines garbage when they're not.

If you're bringing a Tzaangor army, or at least a horde of Tzaangor, then you'll have the option for more Tzaangor units such as Tzaangor Shaman and Tzaangor Enlightened. Or you can just bring them even without the normal Tzaangors, it's entirely up to you.



Tzaangor Shaman provides +1 to hit rolls of friendly Tzaangor units within 6", which will make a huge difference for your 30-men Tzaangor horde. But you can also hold them back and have them escort a group of Tzaangor Enlightened with fatecaster bows. These guys do an automatic wound on a hit roll of 6+, so with a Tzaangor Shaman buffing them, they automatically wound on hit rolls of 5+. Even better, the Tzaangor Shaman is a psyker. While he normally only has access to the Discipline of Change, you can use the Stratagem Chaos Familiar to swap his power out for Prescience from the Dark Hereticus Discipline. What this means is that your Tzaangor Enlightened, along with buffs from both the Tzaangor Shaman and Prescience, will not do automatic wounds on a 4+ hit roll. Keep in mind that these Tzaangors are relatively fragile and will die to a stiff breeze, so don't over-rely on them. They will do terrible damage, yes, but they have their weaknesses. Find ways to mitigate them - hide them behind a 30-men horde of Tzaangors, for example. Or use Glamor of Tzeentch of Weaver of Fates to improve their survivability! Usually the Prescience and other buffs mean that you would want to take 9 Tzaangor Enlightened in a single unit to benefit from the single buff...but you should already know my stance on super-competitive attitudes by now. I honestly think 3 is enough, just zoom them around and have them be a nuisance. Don't cheese your friends out, okay? If you min-max, people won't find you fun to play with, and you'll have trouble finding games in the future.

Next is the Sekhmet Conclave, or the Scarab Occult Terminators. You probably heard countless times about how terrible Terminators are this edition. I'm not going to argue because I'm too tired, but I'll reiterate. Buy them, play them if you love the models. Scarab Occult Terminators are gorgeous and they look awesome. That's more than enough for me. I honestly would get at least one box of Scarab Occult Terminators, regardless of the meta or what other people say. Sure, they'll die in any competitive meta, but you're a beginner and I'm a casual player. We'll find ways for Terminators to work in our meta. Another thing is that our Scarab Occult Terminators are a lot more survivable than other Terminators because of our Discipline of Change that can improve the invulnerable save or give them a -1 to get hit. Stack them with All is Dust, and you will have a really resilient unit that will not die unless you roll a lot of ones. Even so, their inferno combi-bolters are downright insane. Deep Striking about 9" away means that you'll be in rapid-fire range most of the time, and that's 4 shots per Terminator. They can also take a soulreaper cannon for every 5 in the squad, and these things dish out a nasty amount of Strength 5 AP -3 firepower. Wow! Not convinced yet? The Scarab Occult Sorcerer can cast a spell. And they all have AP -3 power swords. Combine that with Veterans of the Long War, and not many enemy units will be able to survive melee with them. I'm serious.



The one other unique unit to the Thousand Sons will probably be the Mutalith Vortex Beast. They are good, with a bunch of different powers. Do take note that they will be a gigantic target so you will want more than one of them if you do bring them. They have a bunch of fancy powers that range from dishing out mortal wounds to buffing your units in melee (again Tzaangors, which is why people complain about the codex, but honestly, it's just a couple of units). They are also a good threat in melee, but that's not why you take them. You take them for the Mutalith Vortex powers!



Don't forget that the range of his powers doubles when he's at less than half his wounds! But he will sort of degrade in terms of getting the powers off. Aw...

Now, the last things to consider are the tanks and Daemon engines that the Thousand Sons have access to. As much as they will be useful, don't go too crazy on them. Yes, you can field an armored Thousand Sons list with 3 Predator, Land Raiders and Vindicators, but that will take up most of your points and you won't have enough left over for psykers. You might as well play Iron Warriors instead or something if you want to play armor. That said, they can still be useful. The Mutalith Vortex Beast, for example, will buff your Maulerfiends and Defilers in melee. As mentioned, your Forgefiend and Heldrakes will benefit from your Daemon Prince's Flickering Flames (or you can use Chaos Familiar to swap out a power for your Exalted Sorcerer to Flickering Flames). Plus they all have access to the Stratagems Blasphemous Machines and Daemonforge! Don't underestimate them - they definitely have a place in a Thousand Sons list, and synergize well with many of our psychic powers and buffs.

Predators, on the other hand....yes, many people take multiple because one Predator is going to get shot off the table before it can fire back. But 3 might be overkill...even if you're taking them for the Killshot Stratagem. That said, you can take 3 Predators if you want to. Just make sure you remember why you're playing Thousand Sons. Don't get too carried away with armor or Killshot that you forget the main strength of your army. Vindicators are too short-ranged for my liking, and honestly, the damage they deal could easily be covered by the sheer number of mortal wounds you put out during the psychic phase. You would probably need a Predator more than a Vindicator, but remember that you don't necessarily need a Predator. You have a ton of different options at your disposal. But if you love Vindicators, just bring them along. They have their place, I guess? Find a way to make them work, have them push upward in front of your Rhinos.

Rhinos are other transsports are important too. While a Land Raider might be too expensive to field in a Thousand Sons army (but still cool if you really like them!), Rhinos are relatively cheap and can help ferry your slow Rubric Marines across the table. Although you're supposed to camp them in cover to maximuze All is Dust and a 2+ armor save, there are times where you need to bring your Rubric Marines right up to the enemy, and footslogging just isn't going to work, even with Warptime. Particularly huge units of Rubric Marines with warpflamers - they really require the aid of a dedicated transport to bring them to the frontlines where they can incinerate things with their 8" warpflamers. I would recommend that you at least buy a Rhino. Two would be great, but not more than that...Thousand Sons are not meant to be a mechanized infantry army that relies on APCs to transport them around, so don't devote too many of your points into dedicated transports. You want them disembarked to cast as many psychic powers as possible, and to unleash hell with their AP -2 weapons. Otherwise you can just play Iron Warriors or something if you want to go mechanized. Even World Eaters might be a better option for a mechanized lists, since you want something to transport your Khorne Berzerkers up the field. With the exception of warpflamer Rubric Marines, I don't think you necessarily need Rhinos for your Rubric Marines, and you certainly shouldn't be spending points on Rhinos for your Cultists or Tzaangors (in terms of fluff and theme, it's a little weird, even if it does happen - can you imagine Tzaangors riding inside a Rhino?).

Last but not least, I'll introduce you to Forge World units. As you may have notice, the Thousand Sons don't benefit from having a lot of the units that the other Traitor Legions may have. We don't have Obliterators, Multilators, Havocs, Chosen, Raptors, Dark Talons, etc. However, thanks to Forge World, we have a bunch of stuff that's available to us that otherwise wouldn't. Lots of people would praise the Scorpius, for example, as a good source of indirect fire.

However, what I like is this:



The Osiron Contemptor Dreadnought looks awesome, and while there are no rules for it, you can run him as a normal Hellforged Cotnemptor Dreadnought with butcher cannons and soulburner. The Deredeo Dreadnought and Leviathan Dreadnought are als excellent options. They have really cool wargear and weapons! But don't feel like you absolutely have to go Forge World. If you're not a big a fan of resin or Forge World, then the primary codex itself is packed full of options. However, Forge World allows us a lot of options that we would never think about otherwise, and unlocks a ton of armor and mechanized walkers. Again, don't get too carried away and field like 3 Leviathan Dreadnoughts or something. You're playing Thousand Sons, not a Dreadnought or armored army. If you want to play a Hellforged Dreadnought army, you might as well play Alpha Legion instead of Thousand Sons. Dedicate a majority of your points to psychic powers (like Sorcerers). The armor and Dreadnoughts are there to support your psykers, not be the core of your army.

As Thousand Sons are an elite army, you should be able to easily hit 2,000 points just from buying a couple of boxes here and there. Speaking of which, when talking about Thousand Sons, there's the big guy himself. The Lord of War, and the Primarch of the Thousand Sons, Magnus the Red.



Magnus will make a great centerpece in your army. Keep in mind, though, that once again the above advice applies. Don't field Magnus in friendly games and avoid bringing him to casual games unless your opponent is also bringing Lords of War such as Roboute Guiliman, Mortarion or Knights. Magnus will be great against Knights, so if your meta is full of Knights, by all means bring him along (or even ally your Thousand Sons with Knights). Otherwise you'll be deemed as unfriendly if you bring him to a casual game with no Lords of War...and that really sucks, to be honest. But he gets shot off the board quickly by any competent player if you don't protect him, so there is that. Most likely, as a beginner, you'll be facing people with...say, Grey Knights or armies that don't have Lords of War, so go easy with the big guy, okay?

That's all the advice I have for starting Thousand Sons. Always remember the reason why you're playing Thousand Sons. You're not starting the army to dominate the meta and win tournaments. You want to have fun with the psychic powers that Thousand Sons have. Focus on that as the core of your army and build from there. The list should support your pyshic core and potential, not have your psychic potential support your Tzaangor hordes or armored list (though it certainly is most capable of doing that, and never forget to buff your auxiliary units with psychic powers!). As long as you keep that in mind you should be able to have lots of fun with this army.

For the Emperor! Vengeance for Prospero! Even if the rest of the Imperium shuns us, we will continue to remain secretly loyal to the Emperor!