Thousand Sons versus Baneblade!

Today I managed to get a game with one of the kids I'm friends with, and he brought a Baneblade. Having just built my Thousand Sons army, I couldn't wait to try it out...and I completely forgot to bring my Contemptor Dreadnought. Damn. I also haven't squeezed the Alpha Legion allied detachment with Havocs inside, so without anti-tank I was pretty much fighting an uphill battle against the Baneblade list.

My opponent brought an Ultramarine Battalion Detachment with 2 Intercessor squads (or 3?), an Inceptor squad, a tactical squad, a Hellblaster squad, an Ironclad Dreadnought, Sergeant Chronos in a Rhino (the Warlord), a Space Marine Captain who he upgraded into a Chapter Master with the Stratagem, a Librarian and a Terminator squad. He then allied the Ultramarines with a single Baneblade (because Baneblades are awesome, and screw the fluff). Uh, I think that was about it. One of the Intercessors were in the Rhino along with Sergeant Rhinos.

On the other hand, I brought my newly built Thousand Sons army. Daemon Prince of Tzentch, Ahzek Ahriman (the Warlord), an Exalted Sorcerer on disc, an Exalted Sorcerer on foot, 2 squads of normal Rubric Marines, a squad of Rubric Marines with flamers in a Chaos Rhino, Scarab Occult Terminators and 3 squads of Cultists, and a Hellforged Deredeo Dreadnought. Since I forgot to bring my Contemptor Dreadnought, I had 147 points left. I decided to proxy my Kastelan Robot as a Daemon Prince without wings by removing a flamer from one of my Cultist squads and voila! Daemon Prince of Tzeentch from the Chaos Codex that...well, I summoned through Daemonic Ritual and summoning. Now that I think about it, I should have just put him in my Battalions instead of summoning him. Stupid of me. In other words, I brought 2 Battalions for a whooping 13 points. Not that it helped me much because my opponent went first, and I was basically destroyed and crushed by the power of the Baneblade.

First turn, I lost my Deredeo Dreadnought and 7 Cultists but somehow didn't lose anyone else. My opponent scored First Blood. I retaliated by killing his Ironclad Dreadnought through lots of shooting and combat with my Daemon Prince, Smited the Inceptors to death, killed a bunch of Hellblasters but didn't managed to kill all of them, and...that's about it. Oh, well. The Daemon Prince and Ahriman consolidated into the Rhino with Sergeant Chronos

The Intercessors disembarked and the Rhino fell back. The Baneblade fired and killed Ahirman right away despite his 3++ invulnerable saves. I failed most of my invulnerable saves, and I rolled really, really badly this game. The Daemon Prince with wings also went down to a combination of shooting and combat when the Librarian slapped him into oblivion with his force stave. He also Deep Struck his Terminators in my backfield and shot at my dual sword Exalted Sorcerer on disc, but failed to kill him. My opponent now had 5 Victory points to my 2, thanks to slaying the Warlord and First Blood. I did my best with my psychic mastery and killed the Intercessors and Librarian that had slain my Daemon Prince with Smite and other stuff, then finished off the Hellblasters with my Rubric Marines. The warpflamer Rubric Marine squad disembarked from the Chaos Rhino that was locked in combat with the Librarian and Intercessors, but had nothing to shoot at since they all died during the psyhic phase, and did a few wounds to the Chronos Rhino. My Scarab Occult Terminators shot down 3 or so Intercessors in the backfield after Deep Striking, and did 2 missile shots into the Baneblade, dealing a whooping 6 damage in total. However, my Exalted Sorcerer got cocky and charged into combat, only to fluff his wound rolls or the Chapter Master made all his Iron Halo saves, and...yeah. The Exalted Sorcerer died after the Chapter Master struck back and killed him. Damn. So my opponent had 6 victory points while I had 5. Still trailing behind.

The Baneblade did a number on my Scarab Occult Terminators, taking out one of them for some reason. The Terminators advanced and took out quite a few warpflamer Rubric Marines, along with the Baneblade's many heavy bolter shots. Despite have 2+ saves from All is Dust, I kept failing tons of saves and losing 6 Rubric Marines. Bloody hell, Tzeentch has something against me, I know it. Funnily enough, when the Chapter Master charged my warpflamer Rubric Marines, they killed him with overwatch. 4D6 warpflamer auto-hits with AP-2 is really awesome. On the other side, the Terminators destroyed my Chaos Rhino in combat and consolidated into my poor warpflamer Rubric Marines. That gave him 7 victory points to my 6, and my warpflamer Rubric Marines passed their morale. I think my Daemon Prince was wounded, left with 1 wound, but no matter how many times I used Temporal Manipulation to heal him, I either Perils or failed - for 2 or 3 turns in a freaking row. This was getting ridiculous.

Anyway, I killed the Terminators in my backyard through lots of Smite, killed another 2 Intercessors with my surviving Scarab Occult Terminators as they slowly advanced forward. The Daemon Prince and warpflamer Rubric Marines charged at the Rhino with Sergeant Chronos, and I absolutely fluffed my attacks. I rolled 5 ones despite hitting 7 times. I don't understand. Tzeentch definitely has something against me, I know it. Well, I had 7 victory points and caught up with him or something.

However, his Baneblade killed 2 more Scarab Occult Terminators and wounded one of the remaining one. I think that was about it. My Daemon Prince then charged and finally destroyed the damned Rhino, while my 2 remaining Scarab Occult Terminators smited the last Intercessor in that squad out of existence and killed maybe 1 Intercessor in another squad. That gave me 9 victory points, but Sergeant Chronos survived and disembarked the destroyed Rhino. The next thing I know, in turn 5, my opponent killed my Daemon Prince and wiped out both the warpflamer Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators to give him 11 victory points. It was my loss...except that I stubbornly dug in and moved my 2 surviving Rubric Marine squads forward with the Exalted Sorcerer on foot. I managed to kill Sergeant Chronos, netting me Slay the Warlord and giving me 11 points, but I failed to kill either the Intercessor or the tactical squad. It was a draw, but we rolled and continued on to turn 6.

His Baneblade fired and killed the 3 Cultists that survived the turn 1 bombardment, and he pulled ahead on 12 victory points to my 11. I tried to charge up but despite killing most of the Intercessors and tactical marines, each squad stubbornly had 1 Sergeant remaining, and I failed to earn the 2 victory points I needed to win the game. Needless to say, they passed their morale. I rolled, and the game did not go on to turn 7. Wouldn't have worked for me since the Baneblade would have wiped out my Rubric Marines and earned him more victory points anyway.

Wait...what? I just remembered I had Linebreaker since my units were all in his deployment zone. So it actually means it was a draw! I can't wait to see the expression on the kid's face when I tell him that on Monday...that we forgot Linebreaker and it was a draw. Nah, I might just keep quiet about this and let him enjoy his victory. It's just a game, we both had a lot of fun, and despite facing a Baneblade I managed to survive and draw with him or gave him a run for his money (11-12, if excluding Linebreaker) even though I had no anti-tank weapons whatsoever!

Well, we'll see. As always, I would appreciate advice on how to improve my game (I doubt I'll get it, and even if I do, most likely I'll get cynical remarks telling me not to field Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators but buy and field lots of Tzaangors instead). The terrible roll costed me a lot, but I guess it's not meant to be. At least the both of us had a blast, especially the kid! :D That's the most important thing!

List building for Thousand Sons

Damn, after a few things happened today (overslept, rushed to USPS and was a minute late. Consequently I couldn't send my ebay stuff out to the buyer and have to go to another USPS office tomorrow, ugh), I wasn't able to go to Dreamers Vault to continue painting or playing. It sucks, but that's life. Stupid things happen, mostly because it's my fault (I have weird sleeping hours). Well, I'll make sure not to repeat that mistake tomorrow.

Anyway, since I have nothing better to do or post, I might as well write on my current Thousand Sons list. I've ordered a bunch of Forge World lascannons, combi-plasma and power axes so that I can kitbash normal Space Marines into Havocs, a Chaos Lord and a Warpsmith. The power axes are going to be useful for doing a Techmarine and converting into a mechatendrils. Or something. We'll see. I hope I can kitbash him the same way I did for my Daemon Prince of Tzeentch.

So what do I have now? Basically a 2,000-point list (once I finish building my Havocs).

The Serpent Strikes

Thousand Sons Battalion

HQ

Ahzek Ahriman 166 (Warlord)
Daemon Prince of Tzeentch with wings and malefic talons 180 (Dark Matter Crystal)
Exalted Sorcerer on disc with plasma pistol 147 (either Helm of Third Eye or Seer's Bane)

Troops

5 Rubric Marines 107
5 Rubric Marines 107
10 Rubric Marines with warpflamers 330

Elites

5 Scarab Occult Terminators 238

Total: 1,275 (5 Command Points)

Alpha Legion Battalion

HQ

Chaos Lord with combi-plasma 89 (Blade of the Hydra)
Warpsmith 76

Troops

10 Cultists with flamer 49
10 Cultists with flamer 49
10 Cultists with flamer 49

Heavy Support

Havocs with 4 lascannons and combi-plasma 180
Deredeo Dreadnought with butcher array and greater havoc launcher 233

Total: 725 (5 Command Points)

Total: 2,000 points (13 Command Points -> 11 after spending 2 Command Points for extra relics)

The list is flexible in that I can easily swap out units for others. So if I want a Contemptor Dreadnought with 2 butcher cannons, I can swap out 5 Rubric Marines with warpflamers, or the Havocs (and replace the Warpsmith with another Chaos Lord with combi-plasma if I swap the Havocs out), or I could swap the Scarab Occult Terminators out for the Contemptor Dreadnought and Chaos Rhino (while removing a flamer from one of the Cultist squads). The Contemptor Dreadnought will be Alpha Legion while the Chaos Rhino will be Thousand Sons. But those are pretty minimal changes and won't alter much of my list...or so I hope. I don't know. What do you think? What should I swap out for the Contemptor Dreadnought, or should I even try to put a Contemptor Dreadnought in the first place? We'll see, I guess?

There's also the weird alternative of moving the Rubric Marines into the Alpha Legion Detachment instead. So it'll look like this:

The Serpent Strikes

Thousand Sons Supreme Command

HQ

Ahzek Ahriman 166 (Warlord)
Daemon Prince of Tzeentch with wings and malefic talons 180 (Dark Matter Crystal)
Exalted Sorcerer on disc with plasma pistol 147 (Seer's Bane)
Exalted Sorcerer 121 (Helm of Third Eye)

Elites

5 Scarab Occult Terminators 238

Total: 852 (1 Command Points)

Alpha Legion Battalion

HQ

Chaos Lord with combi-plasma 89 (Blade of the Hydra)
Warpsmith 76

Elites

11 Rubric Marines with warpflamers and soulreaper cannon 363
6 Chosen with combi-plasma and 5 lascannons, plus 1 power sword and 5 chainswords 240

Troops

10 Cultists with flamer 49
10 Cultists with flamer 49
10 Cultists with flamer 49

Heavy Support

Deredeo Dreadnought with butcher array and greater havoc launcher 233

Total: 1,148 (5 Command Points)

Total: 2,000 points (9 Command Points -> 5 after spending 4 Command Points for extra relics)

Well, I don't have a lot of Command Points in this list, which worries me a lot. Of course I can skip the Seer's Bane and stay on 7 Command Points instead, but I just don't know. Maybe this is a better list than the fluffier one on top. Especially since I'll be using Forward Operatives for the Rubric Marines and...that will bring my Command Points down to 4/6 again. Hmm...

What do you guys think? Which list should I go for? 2 Battalions for lots of Command Points, or trying some sneaky shennigans with my Rubric Marines in an Alpha Legion Detachment? I doubt I'll get any replies on here, but whatever. Might as well ask and hope for the best.

Painting my Sorcerers

I finally managed to return to Dreamers' Vault to paint today. So I bought a new Chaos Black spray can (because the old one ran out of paint) and turned all of my Rubric Marines, Scarab Occult Terminators, Exalted Sorcerers, Ahzek Ahriman, Daemon Prince, Chaos Rhino and even a Tech-priest Dominus, Belisarius Cawl, Ministorum Priest and a missile pod (supposed to be the Ironstorm missile pod) black. Yay!

The painted dudes

Yup, that's exactly what they look like now. Once I was done spraying them, I did a haphazard job of painting my Sorcerers. I worked on the Tech-priest Dominus, missile pod, Ministorum Priest and Belisarius Cawl first, since they're meant to be for my Imperial armies (Adeptus Mechanicus, Imperial Knights and Astra Militarum) and there were fewer of them - thus easier to complete painting. With them done, I moved on to my Thousand Sons, but because of time limitations, I decided to work on the Sorcerers and Rhino first. So now they look like this.

Random Imperial dudes thrown in to be painted alongside the Thousand Sons. Daemon Prince leering at them in the back. How scary.

All I have left is my Rubric Marines, Scarab Occult Sorcerers and Daemon Prince. I'll work on them tomorrow but we'll see. I have no idea how they'll turn out. Oh, and I received my Deredeo Dreadnought and Contemptor Dreadnought yesterday, so I'll be running them as Hellforged Deredeo Dreadnought and Hellforged Contemptor Dreadnought for my Thousand Sons army. I say Thousand Sons army, but I'll eventually branch out and get Alpha Legion allies, so it's kind of like The Serpent Strikes. The Ouroboros and the Hydra, working in concert to sow discord in their enemies' midst and overwhelming them with psychic sorcery. Of course, they're still (secretly) loyal to the Imperium so they will minimize conflicts and contact with the Imperium and work hard to eliminate threats to the Imperium by battling other Chaos factions and xenos. Right...I'm butchering the fluff. Sorry.

Black Rubric Marines! Sons of Shadow

One of the few things I had in mind for my Thousand Sons warband is that they used to be a loyalist Chapter called Shadow Seekers, who were forced to turn Renegade when they were about to get destroyed, but were saved by Ahzek Ahriman and the Thousand Sons Legion. So they ended up getting absorbed into the Thousand Sons Legion as new recruits. What I was thinking was that they were attacked by the Death Guard, and most of the Chapter were infected with something that could overcome even their superhuman immunity and render them into near-living zombies. Ahriman proposed a solution to halt the infection and contain it, but the Chief Librarian of the Shadow Seekers ended up sneaking into Ahriman's Library (or whatever) and attempting the Rubric, accidentally turning all his infected/half-zombified Brothers into Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators. Hence they end up being Thousand Sons. The survivors of the Chapter are mostly Librarians who became new Thousand Sons Sorcerers (like Astraeos). I mean, come on. The Thousand Sons have to recruit from somewhere, right? They have been losing Sorcerers left and right, casualties sustained when attacking Fenris and the Space Wolves, or infighting (Ahriman killed Sanakht and Amon). They must have some way of replenishing their numbers, right? I kind of imagined that they recruit Librarians from Renegade Chapters into their ranks and induct them as Thousand Sons Sorcerers. The Rubric Marines too.

Black Scarab Occult Terminators! Sons of Shadow again!

Now the Shadow Seekers have become known as the Sons of Shadow, or the Shadowy Sons. Or whatever. You know, to go with the whole Sons theme of the Thousand Sons. Anyway, the surviving non-Librarian members (and there are quite a few of them) end up becoming Havocs or Devastators, operating the lascannons and heavy weapons that the Rubric Marines are unable to operate (for some reason). There is an entire regiment of Draconian Defenders who followed the Shadow Seekers in flight when they were attacked, and these Renegade Guardsmen now serve as the Sons of Shadow's mortal troops. Well, you could say they ended up being part of the new Prosperine Spireguard. So the Shadow Seekers join the Thousand Sons Legion and an entire regiment of Draconian infantry went over to become Prosperine Spireguard (reflected in my army as Cultists - though I can probably branch out to Renegades and Heretics with Chimeras and Leman Russ tanks in bigger games). Then you have a Techmarine who attend to the Chapter's automata (which is the reason why they were excommuniated and hunted by the Inquisition before turning Renegade). The automata are reflected by the Dreadnoughts - the Contemptor and Deredeo Dreadnoughts. So these surviving members continue to fight using the Shadow Seekers Chapter's original tactics, literally fighting and attacking from the shadows, and this is reflected in them using the Alpha Legion's Legion Trait. The Draconians-turned-Prosperine Spireguard are now learning from their Shadow Seeker allies how to fight from the shadows as well, and the training has been quite effective.

...I guess that makes for a convincing background for my Thousand Sons warband? Or...not? Oh well, in any case, the Sons of Shadow are here to stay with their Traitor Guardsmen allies and Hellforged automata. Yay? So the non-sorcery/non-psychic aspect of the Chapter is represented by the very few Devastators/Havocs that survived the Rubric, while the Librarians in the Chapter are now Thousand Sons Sorcerers. The zombified dudes are now Rubric Marines or Scarab Occult Terminators. I guess? That should work, right?

Maybe I should write something about this, but we'll see. Tomorrow I'll paint up my Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators and Daemon Prince and I'll post them up tomorrow.

Forge World in the United States

As promised, Forge World has finally opened up to the rest of the world. You can finally buy Forge World products in US dollars and get faster shipping!

Apparently, you also get free delivery if you order above $120. Awesome, I guess?

However, do take note that the prices of Forge World products are at a bloody premium. Apparently someone accused them of raising the prices by 300% (not true). But it is a steep increase. For example, the lascannon set used to be 10 Great British Pounds, which is about US$13, but now it costs US$21 on Forge World. So the shipping costs got offset by the nearly 100% increase in price. Ugh. The good news, though, is that we get our stuff much faster than before. So instead of waiting for 3 weeks or even a month for our products, we get them in 3 to 7 days. That's the tradeoff, I guess.

Oh, and the Deredeo Dreadnought and Leviathan Dreadnought are still in increased demand, so if you order those, you'll get them in...35 days or something. Not worth it.

Anyway, just bringing you guys news on Forge World, especially those living in the States. A head's up, in other words. You can order Forge World stuff and get them faster in the States now! Whoopee, I guess?

No news on Fires of Cyraxus, not even at Warhammer Fest Europe, so I'm guessing we'll either never see it again, or it'll take years before we ever hear about it. Sucks, but it is what it is. Well, anyway, I'll see you guys next time.

Thousand Sons army completed! (Almost)

I've finally completed my Thousand Sons army! ...almost, anyway. Now the only two things left to add to my army are the Deredeo Dreadnought and the Contemptor Dreadnought. Given how nobody else is bidding for them, I think it's more or less assured that they are mine. Once they ship over, I can begin to field a 2,000-point Thousand Sons army! If not, then...I'll still be able to field a 2,000-point Thousand Sons army. I just need to adjust my list and field Renegades and Heretics by throwing in a couple of Leman Russ tanks. Or a Leman Russ tank, a Valkyrie and Renegade Marauders. Or a Spearhead Detachment of a Renegade Commander, 3 Leman Russ Executioner tanks and Cultists. Depending on whatever I need, I'll just shift the Cultists to the Thousand Sons detachment and combine the Rubric Marines squad to get the Soulreaper cannon. But that will be cool, the Renegades and Heretics providing Rubric Marines with much needed armor. Honestly, I should be fielding Leman Russ main battle tanks instead of Leman Russ Executioner tanks, but whatever.

In any case, this is what I have now. A Daemon Prince, which I kitbashed into a Daemon Prince of Tzeentch or a Thousand Sons Daemon Prince, an Exalted Sorcerer on disc, an Exalted Sorcerer on foot who can double as a normal Sorcerer if I don't have enough points, 2 squads of 10 Rubric Marines - one armed with inferno boltguns and soulreaper cannon and another armed with warpflamers, a Thousand Sons Chaos Rhino with havoc launcher to transport my warpflamer Rubric Marines, Horus Heresy Ahzek Ahriman who will double as an Aspiring Sorcerer should I need to split the 10-men Rubric Marines up into 2 squads of 5, the actual Ahzek Arhiman on disc who will basically be my Warlord, and 5 Scarab Occult Terminators. Adding to that army are 30 "Traitor" Guardsmen who will double as Cultists with flamers and providing the 3 necessary Troops for a Battalion. So yeah, looks good to me. I might get a Maulerfiend eventually, depending on what happens to my Forge World Dreadnoughts.



Speaking of which, this is my kitbashed Daemon Prince of Tzeentch! Or a Thousand Sons Daemon Prince! He's a former Thousand Sons Exalted Sorcerer who has ascended into a Daemon Prince after quite some shennigans or something. Or maybe he's an unfortunate Sorcerer (former Librarian) who was possessed by a Daemon and is now restrained by my Thousand Sons army, waiting to be unleashed on the enemy. I got the idea from the Ahriman Collection, where one of the Renegade Marines who was a former battle-brother of Astraeos, Cadar. Poor Cadar. Then again, there might be a difference between a Daemonhost and a Daemon Prince...I think. Oh well. We'll see.



And I also kitbashed one of the Exalted Sorcerers to carry 2 power swords instead of a force stave! The FAQ or errata said that an Exalted Sorcerer may replace his force stave with 2 power swords, so I went with that option. That adds 1 to his Attack Characteristic, so he's a dual-wielding Exalted Sorcerer with 2 swords! I might give him Seer's Bane and have him fly around on his disc to smash into infantry or go Character Hunting, especially since Seer's Bane doubles his Strength Characteristic. Awesome.

I'll adjust my story accordingly, but basically I'm having a bunch of Librarians from a Chapter that was destroyed by (no, not the Grey Knights) some Legion (probably Death Guard or something) get saved by Ahriman and they pledge their loyalty to him and become part of the Thousand Sons. In order to save their brethren from the Death Guard's plague that somehow overpowered their superhuman immune system, they gave into the sorcery of Ahriman to hold them in suspension, but the protagonist tries to be too smart and ends up recasting the Rubric and transforming most of the survivors in his Chapter into Rubric Marines. So the remaining Librarians end up becoming Thousand Sons Sorcerers controlling these Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators. I'm also trying to bring back the automata thing. This Chapter - let's call them the Shadow Seekers for now (or Shadow Slayers Chapter) were targeted by the Inquisition for tech-heresy because they have been relying in automata that are dangerously close to being self-aware and...basically, artificial intelligence. So caught between the Inquisition and Death Guard, their only salvation was Ahriman and the Thousand Sons. Or something. Yeah, I read too much of John French's Ahriman novels, so never mind. That leads to them controlling automata like the Contemptor Dreadnought or Deredeo Dreadnought and eventually Leviathan Dreadnoughts. The Marines within these Dreadnoughts have been reduced to dust, and the Dark Mechanicum essentially transform these Dreadnought suits into intelligent machines, possessed by Daemon spirits rather than Marines. These Dreadnoughts are then controlled by the former Shadow Seekers, now Thousand Sons Sorcerers. Something like that?



Well, I look forward to seeing how this will play out eventually, but I can't wait to field my Thousand Sons army on the tabletop and play them! Will they be as fun to play as my Imperial Guard? Admittedly, a good chunk of my Thousand Sons army is made out of former Imperial Guardsmen (Traitor Guardsmen, basically), so...I'm pretty much playing the same thing. Perhaps more so, if I choose the Renegades and Heretics route over the Dreadnoughts route...if I do that, the focus will be the Shadow Seekers and their Imperial Guard allies forced into Ahriman and the Thousand Sons' side against overwhelming odds. Well, the story won't change much, but the Inquisition will no longer be a factor, and I don't foresee the Dark Mechanicum being added in. That might be a little sad because it'll make for an awesome story. Anyway, we'll see! I might add a Maulerfiend to replace my Contemptor Dreadnought (I don't know what to do with the Contemptor Dreadnought, probably sell him). Like I said, we'll see. Anyway, that's all I have today and I'll see you guys next time!

More Thousand Sons!

As I said yesterday, I went and expanded on my roster of Thousand Sons. I managed to get myself a second squad of Rubric Marines, but I armed them all with warpflamers because I can. No, seriously, I like warpflamers, and the idea of a whole squad of them armed with nothing but warpflamers appealed to me. Hence...9 Rubric Marines with warpflamers and their Aspiring Sorcerer armed with a warpflame pistol.

Thousand Sons infantry complete! Ahriman, Sorcerer, 2 squads of Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators!

In case the firsst picture wasn't clear enough. I'm so bad at taking photographs, sorry.

 This means I have a squad of Rubric Marines with inferno boltguns and a second squad with warpflamers. I can split 1 squad up into 5, using my Horus Heresy Ahriman as an Aspiring Sorcerer. I can also use my Guardsmen as Traitor Guardsmen/Cultists, so that's another cool option. With the modern Ahriman on a disc and a squad of Scarab Occult Terminators, I can already play a Battalion of Thousand Sons by using Horus Heresy Ahriman as an Exalted Sorcerer and 10 Guardsmen as Cultists (the 3rd Troops choice). But I don't plan on doing that. Instead, I'm going to grab myself a box of Exalted Sorcerers and a Daemon Prince and kitbash the Daemon Prince into a Tzeentch Daemon Prince or a Thousand Sons Daemon Prince. We'll see. As for the others, I'll get an Exalted Sorcerer on disc, and a normal Exalted Sorcerer on foot, who can double as a normal Sorcerer in case I don't have the points for an Exalted Sorcerer. I hope that will rarely be the case, though.

And if infantry wasn't enough, I've added a Rhino too!

In addition to this, I also bought a Chaos Rhino. I converted it into a Thousand Sons Rhino by replacing the Marine on top with a Rubric Marine, so this is an exclusively Thousand Sons Rhino! I got the idea from looking at the codex - they featured a Rhino with a Rubric Marine on top, so I thought, hey, why not? I had a lot of spare bits and pieces from my Rubric Marine boxes, so I used them to convert the Khorne Marine on top of the Chaos Rhino into a Rubric Marine, and he really goes well with the whole Thousand Sons thing!

See that Rubric Marine on top of the Rhino? Credit goes to the codex for featuring a Rhino with a Rubric Marine on top!

Now I'm just waiting on these two (excluding the Daemon Prince and Exalted Sorcerers). If I do get them (can't count my Tzaangors before they hatch), my Thousand Sons army will be pretty much complete. If not, I'll just go with plan B, which is Knights. Yeah, Knights are awesome. Anyway, that's the plan for now. Eventually I'll get a Cerberus Heavy Destroyer, which I'll build by kitbashing a Forgefiend and a Land Raider. Whether people would actually accept it or not, I have no idea, but hey, I'll only use it in fun, casual games (when people bring Knights or lots of tanks or other super-heavies) so I don't think I'll have a problem playing it. I don't know how it'll fare in a tournament setting - do they accept kitbashed models? Huh...oh well, we'll see. Anyway, they do have quite a few stuff they sell on ebay like the Deredeo Dreadnought and Contemptor Dreadnought. If you're interested, please bid for them before they get snapped up! Heh.

Speaking of which, does anyone want the spare Chaos Rhino bits and pieces? I ended up not using the spikes and stuff, so if you want them, please let me know. Otherwise I'll put them up on ebay on Thursday (left it in the store because I couldn't put the box in my bicycle).

Starting Thousand Sons

Now that I have finished painting my Imperial Guard, I'm starting on my Thousand Sons! Right, you can probably see all my painted Astra Militarum models in the previous battle reports. I'm not sure if you've noticed, but they've all been painted! Now that my Astra Militarum army has been painted and built, I've moved on to my Thousand Sons.

Yup, that's what I have right now. I can run a Patrol Detachment of Thousand Sons. Ahriman as my Warlord, 10 Rubric Marines with inferno boltguns and a single soulreaper cannon, and 5 Scarab Occult Terminators. I can even split the Rubric Marines into 2 squads of 5, especially since I've built Ahriman from the Horus Heresy: The Burning of Prospero box. I'm going to run him as an Aspiring Sorcerer for my Rubric Marine squads, so I can swap out the Rubric Marine with soulreaper cannon for Ahriman the Aspiring Sorcerer (of course I'll have to change his name).

I'm planning on adding onto this army and expanding into a Battalion. First, I'll get a second box of Rubric Marines tomorrow, and make all of them carry warpflamers. The Aspiring Sorcerer will be armed with a warpflame pistol to make it more thematic (I don't care if it sucks or it isn't optimal, I like the theme and fluff). I'll also get a Chaos Rhino along with the 2nd box of Rubric Marines, and give it a havoc launcher. The Thousand Sons decals will be useful for the Rhino, so yay. Once I'm done with that, I can proceed to get a Daemon Prince. I'm planning on getting an Exalted Sorcerer box as well, and kitbash the Daemon Prince with one of the Exalted Sorcerers to make him look less like a generic Daemon Prince and more of a Daemon Prince of Tzeentch who was a former Thousand Son. I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I'll figure something out. Definitely gonna use some bits of the Exalted Sorceerer to kitbash the Daemon Prince into one who's more Thousand Son-y. Then I'll get one Exalted Sorcerer on disc, and another who I can run as a normal Sorcerer rather than an Exalted Sorcerer if I'm low on points. We'll see. I hope not.

Now there's two routes I can take for my Thousand Sons army after that. First, I can go the automata or mecha route where I bring lots of Forge World units in the form of Dreadnoughts and pretend they are automata. By this I mean stuff like the Deredeo Dreadnought and the Hellforged Contemptor Dreadnought. And eventually the Leviathan Dreadnought because of how cool it looks and how it'll fit into my fluff about a Thousand Sons Sorcerer controling and commanding a maniple of automata. We'll see. If I do manage to get my hands on a Deredeo Dreadnought and a Contemptor Dreadnought I can run a list that looks like this:

Thousand Sons Automata Army

Battalion Detachment

Ahriman 166

Daemon Prince with malefic talons 180

5 Rubric Marines with inferno boltguns 107

5 Rubric Marines with inferno boltguns 107

10 Rubric Marines with warpflamers 330

Chaos Rhino with havoc launcher 83

5 Scarab Occult Terminators 238

Battalion Detachment

Exalted Sorcerer 141

Sorcerer with plasma pistol and force stave 110

10 Cultists with flamer 47

10 Cultists with flamer 47

10 Cultists with flamer 47

Hellforged Contemptor Dreadnought with 2 butcher cannons 163

Hellforged Deredeo Dreadnought with butcher cannon array and greater havoc launcher 233

Total: 1,999 (13 Command Points)

The Cultists are actually Guardsmen. I'll probably use my Imperial Guardsmen as Cultists, especially since I have them painted differently from Cadians. I mean, lots of Chaos Legions use traitor guardsmen as their massed troops, and these Guardsmen are essentially the contemporary iteration of the famed Prosperine Spireguard. I really like the Prosperine Spireguard so I would like to run them as my "Cultists". Autoguns and lasguns are pretty much the same thing so I don't think there should be any problems or complaints if I run my Guardsmen as Thousand Sons Cultists. They can pass off as the Prosperine Spireguard. I wish I could take Chimeras, Leman Russ tanks or some form of armor though. Ugh. Oh well, I'll just work with what I have. Anyway, I eventually hope to kitbash a Hellforged Cerberus Heavy Destroyer by kitbashing a Forgefiend and Land Raider together. I'm hoping to literally make it a Cerberus tank by giving it the three Forgefiend heads or something, and give it claws to represent its infernal hunger. Heh. This will be cool.

Anyway, this list is assuming I get the Deredeo and Contemptor Dreadnoughts (most likely I will, so I shoudn't have to worry about that). If I don't, then I'll run an alternative list that still allows me to keep my giant robots in. Too bad they won't be Hellforged Dreadnoughts but instead...

...Renegade Knights.

Thousand Sons with Renegade Knights allies

Battalion Detachment

Ahriman 166

Daemon Prince with malefic talons 180

5 Rubric Marines with inferno boltguns 107

5 Rubric Marines with inferno boltguns 107

10 Rubric Marines with warpflamers 330

Chaos Rhino with havoc launcher 83

5 Scarab Occult Terminators 238

Super-heavy Detachment

Knight Errant with stormspear rocket pod 440

Armiger Helverin 174

Armiger Helverin 174

Total: 1,999 points (11 Command Points)

Yeah, this has less Command Points but a lot more firepower in the form of Renegade Knights. Should be interesting. We'll see how it works out eventually! Of course, there are other alternatives. For example, I could run Tzaangors instead of Knights...though I'm not very sure about this list. Oh well.

Thousand Sons Horde Army

Battalion Detachment

Ahriman 166

Daemon Prince with malefic talons 180

5 Rubric Marines with inferno boltguns 107

5 Rubric Marines with inferno boltguns 107

10 Rubric Marines with warpflamers 330

Chaos Rhino with havoc launcher 83

5 Scarab Occult Terminators 238

Battalion Detachment

Exalted Sorcerer 141

Sorcerer with force stave 104

10 Cultists 40

10 Cultists 40

30 Tzaangors with brayhorn 220

Tzaangor Shaman 90

Mutalith Vortex Beast 150

Total: 1,996 (13 Command Points)

This will cost a bit more to build, but it features the infamous Tzaangor bomb. It'll make use of Cycle of Slaughter as well as the Webway Infiltration Stratagem to maximize their effectiveness in combat. Well, that's the plan, but you'll never know. This list features that Tzaangor bomb combo and a lot of Command Points, but as you can see, it is sorely lacking in high Strength weaponry or anti-tank firepower. At least the list with the Dreadnoughts had Strength 8 AP -1 D2 butcher cannons, but this list lacks that. It should be fun to play, though. I hope. And with the amount of mortal wounds I can throw about, it shouldn't be a problem...I hope. I'll give the Tzaangors Tzaangor blades because they give AP -1 and I'm using them for melee, so I don't need the autopistols. That said, 30 extra attacks with the chainsword sounds really tempting...but I think the AP -1 will benefit my Tzaangors a lot more.

Anyway, we'll see what happens on Friday. If I get the Deredeo and Contemptor Dreadnoughts, then I'll go the automata route, which is absolutely fine with me!