Thousand Sons Sorcery

I went a little mad, and attempted to paint my entire Thousand Sons army in one night. I basically painted from Friday night until Saturday morning, without break or rest...8 hours and 45 minutes straight, from 11pm all the way until 7.45am, and that wasn't counting the approximately 3 hours that I spent painting in Dreamers Vault prior to that.

I'm never doing that again. I swear. Painting over 50 models in the space of a single day was a nightmare. It was frustrating, and at some point I just gave up. I didn't bother to finish painting the Cultists because, really, it was almost 9 hours of doing absolutely nothing but painting, painting and painting.

Why did I drive myself that far, you ask? Well...because there was a tournament on Saturday in Dreamers Vault, a 1,650-point tournament. And I wanted to get my Thousand Sons done and ready for the tournament. Like hell I'm going to bring unpainted models (even if they're all primed black). I want them at least presentable. I like the Thousand Sons color, especially the Thousand Sons blue, and I used Balthasar gold for the trim. But yeah, it was a nightmare to paint all of them at once, and I almost threw up blood near the end. Like I said, I just gave up on the Cultists and left them as minimally painted, and took them as they were to the tournament.

Like I said, it was a 1,650-point tournament, and I decided to bring a Thousand Sons Battalion consisting of two Sorcerers in Terminator Armor (both with familiars), 5 Scarab Occult Terminators, 5 Rubric Marines with warpflamers, 5 Rubric Marines with inferno boltguns, and 10 Cultists. The Sorcerers in Terminator Armor were my Warlords, and I used the Cult of Magic, so the real Warlord had the Warlord Trait to deal extra moral wounds, and the Arcane Lore as his Relic, while the other who I purchased a second Warlord Trait for had High Magister for the +1 to psychic tests (same as my other Warlord). Allying with the Thousand Sons was a Chaos Knight Super-heavy Detachment featuring a Knight Despoiler armed with a thermal cannon and a rapid-fire battle cannon and two Armiger Moirax with dual volkite veuglaires, and I purchased the Tzeentchian Pyrothrone to turn my Knight Despoiler into a Psyker who knows Smite, as well as the Warp-tainted Hull Warlord Trait to allow him to deny two psychic spells and have a 5+++ Feel No Pain against mortal wounds during the psychic phase. Rounding them out is a Patrol Detachment of Blue Corsairs (yes, they are basically Red Corsairs, but in Thousand Sons blue) consisting of a Dark Apostle, 5 Chaos Space Marines with boltguns and lascannon, and 5 Chaos Space Marines with chainswords. That gave me 1 Command Point, for a total of 12...which was reduced to 9, because I bought 2 Warlord Traits and an extra Relic. That was usually reduced further because I used Risen Rubricae Stratagem with my warpflamer Rubric Marines, and Webway Infiltration with my inferno boltgun Rubric Marines.

Round 1

The first mission was Crusade, and I played against an Adeptus Mechanicus/Imperial Knight/Blood Angels list that featured 3 Skitarii squads (4 transuranic arquebuses), 2 Tech-priest Enginseers and a single Skorpius Disintegrator, 3 Armiger Moirax with lightning locks (pretty funny considering I was using 2 Armiger Moirax with volkite veuglaires) and a Blood Angels Vanguard with a Smash Captain from Death Company, 2 squads of 8 Sanguinary Guard, a Sanguinary Ancient, and a Contemptor Dreadnought with 2 twin lascannons. He got first turn, and wrecked my Knight Despoiler before he could fire a single shot or get a psychic spell off (though my overwatch and Titanic Feet managed to kill a couple of the Sanguinary Guard in return). Well, I say that, but he had to spend 3 Command Points to get them to fight twice, and after already spending Command Points for the Blood Angels' 3D6 charge, he had none left. I tried to blow him up, but wasted the 2 Command Points when I rolled a 3. It was not looking like a good game for me. Not only that, he had also destroyed my Chaos Space Marine squad with the lascannon with the Moirax with Lightning locks as well.

Fortunately, because this was Crusade, I was going ahead on objectives, my Armiger Knights, Cultists and Chaos Space Marines (and Dark Apostle) camping on them, while my Risen Rubricae killed 4 Skitarii Rangers with warpflamers. My rolling and shooting were pretty bad, and I didn't kill a single unit for First Strike, unlike my opponent, but I managed to continually get more objectives, while my Armiger Moirax killed all but one Sanguinary Guard. My rolling was just terrible, ugh. I think he destroyed 1 of my Armiger Moirax Knights this turn, while his Sanguinary Guard charged into my Dark Apostle and died from a single failed save (2 damage Accursed Crozius is awesome!). His Sanguinary Guard failed their charge, so too bad, as did the Ancient, and the Smash Captain - all of whom arrived this turn.

With most of my army dead, I was relieved when I was finally able to call in my reinforcements. I got 3 Victory Points because I commanded at least 3 Objectives. My Sorcerers in Termiantor Armor and the squad of Scarab Occult Terminators arrived at where the Sanguinary Guard were, while my chainsword CSM squad continued advancing the table, and my Rubric squad Deep Struck where the Dark Apostle was, though the latter had advanced toward the Smash Captain. Time for the Cult of Magic to work their magic! Combined with shooting, I managed to kill all but one or two Sanguinary Guard, and wound the Ancient to 1 wound left. The smash Captain survived the inferno boltgun onslaught while the CSM squad failed their charge because I rolled two ones. Damn it, Tzeentch. I did manage to kill one Skitarii Ranger, leaving them stuck in combat with the Tech-priest Enginseer and another squad of Skitarii. My Dark Apostle and the smash Captain began trading blows, with onee taking a wound and the other taking a couple of wounds.

My opponent failed to kill my Scarab Occult Terminators, who had both Glamor of Tzeentch and Weaver of Fates cast upon them, He would eventually lock the other Armiger on combat with the Sanguinary Guard, but other than that my Terminators were extremely hard to kill, and he couldn't get much objectives, pulling only to 5 or 6 (I had 6 at this point, I believe). The Smash Captain and the Dark Apostle continued trading blows, as did my Rubric Marines and Skitarii, while one of the Armigers retreated to shoot the poor chainsword CSM squad off the board.

I had one Sorcerer in Terminator armor retreat back toward the Sanguinary Guard and Ancient and pretty much nuke them with magic (ha ha). Well, I killed the Ancient with Smite, and then shot the last surviving Sanguinary Guard to death with his inferno combi-bolter. My Scarab Occult Terminators and Warlord also moved forward and did more damage to the Skorpius Disintegrator with magic, the Astral Blast also catching the poor Tech-priest Enginseer and doing 2 mortal wounds to him. On the other side of the table, my Rubric Marines finally killed the Skitarii and Tech-priest Enginseer and secured the Objective. Yay. Oh, he never touched my Cultists at all, which were helping me accumulate a lot of Victory Points as the game went on. Eventually my Dark Apostle killed the smash Captain (who was also taking mortal wounds from the Rubric Marine squad over the last couple of turns, and I rolled an 11 to deal D3 mortal wounds once). I then charged the Skorpius Disintegrator and damaged the poor thing quite heavily, right after I shot his third and last Skitarii squad off the board. I think that was about it...but I managed to get 4 Victory Points this turn, bringing me up to 10 versus his 6. Even though my army was decimated, I was leading on Victory Points.

In the fourth turn, he destroyed my Armiger Moirax, while his Skorpius Disintegrator retreated and he reshuffled his Armigers Moirax. He did kill my warpflamer Rubric Marines, who had just emerged victorious from the fight against the Skitarii and Tech-priest Enginseer from earlier. Didn't get many points, probably just 1 or 2 because I killed most of his troops and controlled most of the objectives. Again, he failed to do any damage to my buffed Scarab Occult Terminators, who were now in cover and were extremely hard to remove thanks to 2+ armor save, cover, and All is Dust. I gained like 3 more or so to get to 13, and with magic, I destroyed his Skorpius Disintegrator and also his Tech-priest Enginseer with Astral Blast. Hah! His Armiger Moirax had charged into my Sorcerer in Terminator armor and failed to kill him. My Rubric Marines then killed his Tech-priest Enginseer to claim the objective uncontested. I then went up to 13 points versus 8 or so, with so many of my dudes holding objectives. I managed to kill the Contemptor Dreadnought with magic alone (my Warlord), while my other Sorcerer tried to heal himself, and only got one wound left, after taking so much damage from the Armiger earlier. I kept my infantry mostly hidden, and focused on gathering points from objectives. At this point, all I had left was Cultists, a Rubric Marine squad, a Dark Apostle, 2 Sorcerers in Terminator armor and 5 Scarab Occult Terminators. I had almost nothing that could challenge his three Armigers Moirax still running around uncontested on the board.

Again, he tried to shoot but...found nothing. I think one shot at my Rubric Marines, but with a combination of cover and All is Dust, they survived with maybe one or two casualties. The Sorcerer in Terminator armor continued to survive, while he couldn't see my Scarab Occult Terminators at all. Eventually the score went to 16-10, because I was just holding so many more objectives than he was, had Slay the Warlord (thanks to killing his Smash Captain), and my dudes were all hiding out of line of sight of his Armigers. Mostly. After turn 5, we rolled, and...the game ended because he rolled a 2. As it turned out, I won on objectives alone, even though I could do nothing about the Armigers Moirax running rampant in my backline (though I also got Linebreaker, so that cancelled each other out).

First victory!

Round 2

The second mission was Ascension, and this time I had the fortune of playing against a friend who fielded a Militarum Tempestus army with lots of Taurox Primes, deep-striking Scions with plasma, melta and hot-shot volley guns (2 Battalions) and 1 Fast Attack of 3 Sentinels with lascannons, led by a Primaris Psyker. This time, I got to go first, and I went and captured all three Objectives. I couldn't see anything on my opponent's deployment zone, and my shooting was...pretty lackluster. I was lucky to fire my rapid-fire battle cannon into a Sentinel and destroyed it, earning First Strike.  I also had 3 Victory Points from claiming the Objectives.

My opponent then moved his guys about and pretty much butchered my Cultists, killed my chainsword CSM squad, and assassinated my Dark Apostle. Damn. He also destroyed a Armiger Moirax as well, with lascannons from his Sentinels, and the misiles from one of the Taurox Primes (the only one with missile launcher, the rest had twin gatling cannons). The first turn was great for him, and he practically shot half my army off the table, but other than First Strike, he didn't manage to get any of his units on the Objective. And I did.

On the second turn, I had Deep Struck my Rubric Marines right on the objective where my Dark Apostle got smoked, while my Knight Despoiler moved up to claim the objective that my opponent had just shot my Armiger Moirax off. My Scarab Occult Terminators Deep Struck right in the center of the map, where the Cultists were massacred, and I began casting powers on them, and he denied Weaver of Fates, but I got off Glamor of Tzeentch - which would turn out to be HUGE. Unfortunately, my Sorcerer in Terminator Armor (the Warlord) periled, and despite me re-rolling with Command re-roll, I rolled another one and he took 3 mortal wounds. Ouch. Anyway, again another round of pretty bad shooting. I failed to destroy any of the Taurox Primes...well, I did destroy one with my Knight Despoiler's thermal cannon, but everything else didn't do anything. I did destroy two Sentinels, though, with my Scarab Occult Terminators and lascannon Chaos Space Marine taking them out (Hellfyre missiles from my Terminators), while my Rubric Marine squad killed a squad of Scions who had disembarked from their Taurox Prime to mow down my Cultists earlier. Again, another 3 Victory Points for me...based on Objectives alone.

The bottom of second turn showed up with my opponent's Scions all Deep Striking right in front of my Knight Despoiler or Scarab Occult Terminators. The 2 melta command squads pumped 8 meltagun shots into my Knight, and I used Rotate Ion Shields. But I rolled a bunch of 6s for some reason, and at the end of the day, I took 11 wounds, bringing him down to just 13 wounds. Phew. The plasma Scions all fired into my Scarab Occult Terminators, but at least 4 of them died because Glamor of Tzeentch made their plasma guns overheat and explode on 2s, and I lost about 3 Scarab Occult Terminators. Ouch. The Taurox Prime charged to steal the Objective from my Rubric Marines, but failed to kill them at all, because they were in cover and had All is Dust...ha ha ha ha ha! And so the Objective remained under my control because my Rubric Marines had Objective Secured.

Then the third turn, and I let all my magic do the talking. With just smites and Astral Blast alone, I decimated the plasma Scions, practically killing the entire squad with mortal wounds. Holy...oh, my. After that awesome magic session, I began taking apart all of his Taurox Primes with missiles and lascannon, while my Rubric Marines and surviving Scarab Occult Terminators (along with the Sorcerers in Terminator Armor) wiped out the surviving Scions. My Knights...needless to say, the Armiger Moirax and Knight Despoiler killed all the melta squads and a couple of Taurox Primes to boot, and it looked likely that my opponent was going to get tabled because he had almost nothing left, except two Taurox Primes, one of which was going to get charged by my Rubric Marines. Faced with such a predicament, he conceded the game, and I won the second round as well. Phew!

Round 3

Round 3 was against Necrons, of all people. The mission was the Four Pillars, and just like the first roound, I rolled Dawn of War again. My opponent had the first turn, and I hid my Knight Despoiler behind a building and out of line of sight so that his Doomsday Ark wouldn't see him.

My opponent had almost his entire army roll forward, Immortals, Warriors, Tomb Blades, 2 units of 3 Wraiths, 2 units of Lychguard, along with a Cryptek. Jesus Christ, it was as if a wave of undead was about to wash over my forces. They...mostly advanced, and so didn't do much damage...maybe 1 damage to my Armiger Moirax from Tesla shots, but that's about it. His Doomsday Ark fired the lasers and I rolled 2 fives, so the ion shield saved my Armiger Moirax from being blown up. Phew! His Wraiths then charged, and I think I didn't do anything with overwatch. I did have my Dark Apostle Heroically Intervene, and while the Wraiths didn't do much against my Armiger Moirax, I managed to do 2 damage to one of them. Oh, the Tomb Blades and others fired on my poor warpflamer Rubric Marines, and killed 2 of them, but good thing I had All is Dust and cover, or I would have lost 4 instead.

My turn came, and I had my Knight Despoiler move forward to capture one objective. My Rubric Marines strode upward to confront the Warriors, while my Armiger fell back from combat while my Dark Apostle remained lock in combat with the Wraiths. My shooting wasn't so good, but I did take 7 wounds off a Night Scythe and maybe a couple of wounds from the Doomsday Ark. I killed a bunch of Lychguard with the other Armiger Moirax, to no avail, but fortunately my Rubric Marines killed a bunch of Warriors, and then they charged in and finished th survivors in melee, thus claiming me a second Objective. My Cultists had charged forward and gotten a third, and so I had Victory Points for controlling more Objectives, First Strike, and no Prisoners. My chainsword CSM charged and joined my Dark Apostle in battle, and killed one Wraith while injuring the other, but I think that's about it.

Turn 2, the rest of the dudes crashed into my lines, 2 squads of Wraiths locked my Armiger Moirax in combat, while one Lychguard also locked my second Armiger Moirax in combat. The second Lychguard attacked and charged my Cultists, but were surprisingly unable to kill them even in melee. How in the...?! Even funnier, I had been killing one or two of them with nothing but autoguns, both during my shooting phase earlier and during overwatch. That was so weird. The Warriors and Immortals (the former disembarking from the wounded Nightscythe) fired at my Knight Despoiler, along with the Doomsday Ark, and the Annihilation Barge, but for some reason I made all my ion shield saves and survived the onslaught. The Armigers Moirax survived as well, though my Dark Apostle heroically intervened and killed one of them as well. I don't know what the hell happened, but somehow I managed to kill one or two Wraiths in combat, even though they failed to kill any of my Armigers. Hmm...my Armiger Moirax was reduced to one wound because of the Lychguard, while the Annihilation Barge brought my Knight Despoiler down to 11 wounds because of close combat. Ouch. I stomped him back and did absolutely nothing (I think). The Tomb Blades raced over to the objective and killed 2 of my Rubric Marines, leaving the Aspiring Sorcerer alone on the objective.

My turn came, and...my Rubric Marines came out of the webwway to reinforce the sole surviving Aspiring Sorcerer on the Objective and slowly clear out the Tomb Blades. My Scarab Occult Terminators and Sorcerers in Terminator Armor also Deep Struck right in front of the Doomsday Ark and the Necron Lord, and my Knight Despoiler fell out of combat (while the Armigers got stuck in). The Dark Apostle, and the chainsword CSM charged in and killed 1 Wraith, while the Armiger killed the other, which left 1 Wraith each (though they would revive later...I think), while the Cultists continued to trade blows with the Lychguard. During the psychic phase, I blew the Doomsday Ark up with psychic spells and mortal wounds alone, leaving 2 mortal wounds on the Lord and the Scarabs, and then shot the Scarabs off the board with the inferno combi-bolters, while wounding the Lord once or twice with the inferno combi-bolter. The lascannon dude destroyed the Night Scythe somehow, while the Aspiring Sorcerers smite the hell out of the Tomb Blades, and with Veterans of the Long War, killed another few. My Knight Despoiler killed the Annihiliation Barge with Smite and Icarus autocannon, while his thermal cannon, heavy stubbers and Titanic Feet wiped out the Warriors, what with me consuming them with the Stratagem to bring him back to 17 health. I think one Warrior was left, but he fled because of Morale, giving me the Objective. Meanwhile, the Armiger Moirax was finally slain by the Lychguard, and I unexpectedly rolled a 6, which meant he nuked my sole remaining CSM, killed all the Wraiths, and took out a few of the Lychguard with him. That was hilarious. Despite my best efforts, my Rubric Marines couldn't kill the Tomb Blades in melee, but with Objective Secured, I managed to get 2 more Victory Points from No Prisoners and the Pillars. That wasn't all, though. My Scarab Occult Terminators charged and killed the Necron Lord in combat, giving me Slay the Warlord as well.

That was an awesome turn. My poor opponent had no answer to my Smites or psychic spells at all.

Turn 3 came, and my opponent tried to salvage the situation. His Lychguard charged my Dark Apostle and killed him, while the other Lychguard finally massacred my Cultists. The Tomb Blades revived like three more, and they flew back and wiped out one squad of my Rubric Marines, but the Warpflame pistol Aspiring Sorcerer survived. Phew. The Immortals moved toward my Knight Despoiler in an attempt to shoot him off the board, boosted by the Cryptek. Let's just say...it didn't really work out for them. They didn't dare to charge him because...you know, he's a Knight. But they got the Objective, as the Tomb Blades on my sole surviving Aspiring Sorcereer, as well as the Lychguard on the Cultists...except that it's the end of battle round, so he had to survive first.

My Scarab Occult Terminators moved up to capture one Objective, while my Aspiring Sorcerer stayed where he was to Smite and incinerate the Tomb Blades. He had a lot of help from my Sorcerers in Terminator Armor, who killed a few Tomb Blades with their Smites and psychic powers. Cool! My Knight fired what he could and wiped out the Tomb Blades with his Icarus autocannon, and killed a bunch of Immortals, as did the CSM who dropped out of the building to shoot them and contest the Objective. I charged them, and I killed almost all but one from the combined attacks of my Knight and CSM (who did absolutely nothing). The Cryptek, who Heroically Intervened, did quite a lot of damage to my Knight, who dropped down to 11 wounds again. Ouch. This time, my opponent scored No Prisoners, but I had the Objectives (3 versus 1).

In Turn 4, my opponent had his Lychguard fly over the board and kill the Aspiring Sorcerer to grab that Objective, while the other Lychguard grabbed a second Objective. Needless to say, the Sorcerers in Terminator Armors annihilated the Lychguard with a combination of psychic spells and inferno combi-bolters, while the Knight wiped out the other Lychguard while charging the several newly revived Immortals, along with the CSM, to clear them out. At this point, my opponent conceded, because he had nothing left but the Cryptek aand Immortals, who were about to be stomped to oblivion once again (and he had less Immortals than he did the last time, since not all of them were revived). So I managed to win again!

Psychic mastery and throwing magic spells around are fun. I'm so glad I stuck to Cult of Magic, it's my favorite Cult and the only reason why I play Thousand Sons in the first place. I mean, seriously, why else would you play Thousand Sons? They are Sorcerers, of course their magic is what appealed to me. And throwing a bunch of mortal wounds around is just so satisfying. Of course, if there were anti-psyker stuff like Sisters of Silence, Culexus Assassin, or even a rival psychic army like Grey Knights, I probably wouldn't have fared as well...but hey, that was a pretty cool tournament!

Unexpectedly, I managed to get first place because I won all of my games (whoa!), and Tzeentch willing, I got a box of Blue Horrors (and Brimstone Horrors) as my prize. Huh...I wonder what I should do with them...



Funnily enough, after the tournament, I went back to painting my Thousand Sons, touching up on the Blue Corsairs, finishing the Cultists (at last) and adding snow and grass to the bases. Now they look much better than before! YAY!



The Scarab Occult Terminators are such beautiful models. They are one of the reasons why I got back to this army - I just love the Scarab Occult Terminators. They are a joy to look at (though painting them was a pain, ugh). Today, they were my MVP for all three rounds. I don't know why people online claim that Terminators are horrible, and keep ordering me to stop using them (you don't tell me what I should play, sorry). They underestimate how durable Terminators can be, especially Scarab Occult Terminators with All is Dust and in cover, buffed with Glamor of Tzeentch and/or Weaver of Fates. They were the absolute star of my list today, Deep Striking in the most opportune places, capturing Objectives, taking out high priority targets, being a nuisance, and withstanding almost everything my opponent could throw at them. In all three games, they performed and exceeded expectations, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that they won me the game in all 3 instances. They were absolute monsters, and I absolutely love them.



Speaking of Cult of Magic, my list wouldn't be as terrifying if it were not for my Sorcerers in Terminator armor. These guys honestly packed a wallop during the psychic phase, throwing mortal wounds right and left and utterly destroying swathes of armies. They proved pivotal in turning the tables against my opponents. All three times I was behind in the first turn or two, but their arrival from Reserve allowed me to pull back from the brink of defeat by surgically striking at my opponent's most vital assets, bombing them with a bunch of mortal wounds, and then crippling their tatics. This is why I play Cult of Magic!



Having my Rubric Marines wander around in the Webway or having them rise from inaction (Risen Rubricae) also grants them much-needed mobility, removed the need for transports (good riddance, I never liked the Rhino) and also gave me an extra dimension of tactical flexibility. I could warp my Rubric Marines to wherever I need them, to capture Objectives anywhere on the board, or shoot my opponents off objectives to deny them it (or charge them, though that was not as reliable), or reinforce beleaguered units (such as my Dark Apostle in the first game, or the Aspiring Sorcerer in the third game).



The Cultists were the MVP in my first game, helping me score 4 Victory Points just by doing nothing except sitting on the Objective. That was just funny. They might not be able to do much, and they were slaughtered in the subsequent two games, but they more than delivered their weight in gold in the first game.

I would love to play further with this army and see what else I can come up with! I can't wait to see what other stuff this army is capable of! Funnily enough, I remember the old hypebole stuff from Facebook, Discord, Reddit and Dakkadakka forums - especially from the Thousand Sons Sorcerer bloke who whined about how Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators were trash, and how people would be winning tournaments with Tzaangors. Well, I won a tournament with no Tzaangors at all, using Rubric Marines and the much derided Scarab Occult Terminators. Okay, I used Chaos Soup with Knights, but I didn't use the Supreme Command Detachment, and I used Scarab Occult Terminators despite all advice to the contrary. Perhaps I need to play several more games or participate in more tournaments to be a better judge, but right now I just love how they play. I look forward to playing bigger games (2,000 points) and seeing if 10-men Scarab Occult Terminators work out better. Maybe...we'll see!