Thousand Sons Update

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, just been trying to get things sorted out but life happened which meant I didn't have much free time to post here. However, all the free time I had was spent planning what's next for my Thousand Sons - though it may be better if I rename the project as it's turning into something a bit bigger!

I've been busy sourcing the last bits of my legion roster and I can now tell you exactly what I've added since the Horus Heresy Doubles ToS:

• 3x Castellax-Achea (not built yet)
• 10x Ammitara Occult Cabal (partially built - needs some green stuff work and bases)
• 6x Bolter Marines (built - so my veterans can be fielded as 10 man tacticals)
• 4x Heavy Bolter Marines (built - inc. sergeant, so my heavy bolters from my veteran squads can form a heavy support squad)
• 10x Scarab Occult in Tartaros (built but needs bases)
• 1x Legion Command Rhino (built, awaiting spray day)
• 2x Legion Omega Tank Destroyer (1 featured at the event, 2nd unbuilt, both still have work outstanding)
• 1x Fire Raptor (built, awaiting spray day)
• 1x Vigilator (built but needs base)
• 1x Champion (built but needs base)
• 1x Master of the Signal (built but needs base)
• 2x Xiphon Pattern Interceptor (not built)
• 1x Osiron Dreadnought (not built)
• 1x Magister Amon (not built)
• 1x Magnus the Red (not built)

As you can see, that's quite a bit to do and I've managed to progress some of it too so you can look forward to more progress on these over the next few months.

Also, as I mentioned before, this is turning into a bigger project - the doubles event has inspired me and I've decided to scrap my Mechanicum project entirely however I will be using the Skitarii torsos and robes as the base of a huge conversion project instead. I'm planning on making a small Prospero Spireguard army that can be used as an allied detachment or a small scale army in its own right so we can do Prospero themed scenarios in the future.

I'll have a lot to show going forwards and hopefully won't be incommunicado for as long. I still have my Adeptus Titanicus things to do on top of all this after all so certainly got a lot of things in my backlog!

Until next time!

Hector Cephas

Thousand Sons - Throne of Skulls Review

Hi all,

Our team up of Thousand Sons and Solar Auxilia ("Athanean Rhapsody") unfortunately ended up not winning a single game at the Throne of Skulls event last weekend.

This surprised us quite a lot as I think overall the list we took worked alright - a couple games there were clear cut winners whilst others it went right down to the wire and I'm pleased to say that we enjoyed every one. There were some really fantastic lists - such as the World Eaters and Iron Warriors pure infantry list we played in our first game which highlighted how terrifying the World Eaters can be when they have long range back-up and the Talons of the Emperor and Alpha Legion list in our final gamd which I quite liked as that was the first time I've seen Sisters of Silence on the field combined with Alpha Legion forcing us onto the backfoot with some clever infiltrations.

If you've considered going to a Horus Heresy event at Warhammer World but have been put off by the idea that people will bring win at all costs style armies, don't be too worried about that and come and play! These aren't like grand tournaments so you don't see many armies like that, the community is fantastic and do it for the love of the hobby and the setting. We lost every game this time but we still very much enjoyed it and we will definitely be back for the next Throne of Skulls whenever that will be!

Now, despite this, I'm going on a bit of a gamer focused tangent as this was the first time I really played Thousand Sons (my first game with them was on Friday afternoon to refamiliarise myself with the psychic phase!), I'm going to do a critique of the units and how I played them and what I'd do differently now that I've got a better feel of the army rules - its one thing to know the effects of things but actually experiencing in a game is quite another (failing self-inflicted pinning tests in the psychic phase really hurts!!!). Before I dive in proper, here is a reminder of the army list:

HQ:

Legion Centurion (Delegatus) - "Galileo" (the Lord Marshell in the Solar Aux force is called "Figaro")
 - Artificer Armour
 - Refractor Shield
 - Psychic Mastery Lvl 1
 - Arcane Litanies
 - Force Axe
 - Cult Arcana: Athanean
 - Master of the Legion (Chosen Duty)

Troops:

Legion Veteran Tactical Squad
 - 10 men
 - 2 heavy bolters with suspensor webs
 - Sergeant (Artificer Armour, Power Sword)
 - Vexilla
 - Melta-bombs
 - Psychic Mastery Lvl 1
 - Cult Arcana: Athanean - Rhino

Legion Veteran Tactical Squad
 - 10 men
 - 2 heavy bolters with suspensor webs
 - Sergeant (Artificer Armour, Power Sword)
 - Vexilla
 - Melta-bombs
 - Psychic Mastery Lvl 1
 - Cult Arcana: Athanean - Rhino

Legion Tactical Support Squad
 - 10 men
 - Volkite calivers
 - Additional close combat weapons
 - Cult Arcana: Athanean - Sergeant (Artificer Armour, Power Sword)

Heavy Support:

Sicaran Omega Tank Destroyer (no upgrades)

I'll start with my Sicaran Omega Tank Destroyer - I got this tank because it looked really cool but I think I gave it way less credit than it really deserved. Don't get me wrong, I think there are definitely better tank destroyers than this one but this wasn't a slouch when it came to making an impact early game. My main problem is that I brought it as a "distraction carnifex" but really it was just a "carnifex" - whenever I lost it (turn 1 normally, otherwise definitely gone by the end of turn 2) I really missed it as my army lacked that punch. Given my experience with this tank, the changes introduced in book 8 (aka, making it cheaper and also able to squadron up) make so much sense and I think you really need to make use of squadrons to get the best out of them.

My volkite squad was effective but not in the way I was expecting it to be - it took out a World Eater Assault Squad in close combat! In terms of their actual purpose though they were ok - I think a more complimentary Cult Arcana would have really helped them out here (a.k.a. Corvidae) as they were a very static, sit and hold an objective unit. Overall, they were useful and effective but more often than not i needed them to be filling another role instead - I may have been better taking something else instead such as a squad of terminators and have my Delegatus join that unit instead.

My Delegatus was pretty good whenever I needed him to step up to swing a combat in our favour but ultimately was anchored to the volkite squad due to my army composition - in hindsight, I would have made room for him to join one of the veteran tactical squads and maybe give them apothecaries too or otherwise as mentioned before put the Delegatus in with a terminator squad and advance them up the table with the rhinos.

My veteran tacticals were great - I would change their loadout a bit though. I found that I seldom needed the meltabombs (I simply wasn't getting up the field quick enough to be decisive with them and we had other more options to cover that role) and probably would have been better off with extra armour on the rhino and asphyx shells on them to improve the quality of their shooting. Corvidae would also help here (as they have access to Divination rather than the cult rule itself) but I didn't really regret choosing Athanean as them having access to Psychic Scream helped them punch above their weight against high toughness units.

I found that with my army, I had quite a low risk of getting a Perils of the Warp and it only happened three times over the weekend:

1. Galileo had a perils once when manifesting Psychic Scream and negated it with his arcane litanies
2. Galileo's unit was shot with psyke-out grenades causing two Perils, one negated, one not but as he was fearless that game and my veterans were in their rhinos it had no effect as they autopassed their pinning tests
3. Veteran Tactial squad caused a Perils - this then caused the other veteran tactical squad and Galileo to be pinned; the original squad was fine as it was in a rhino at the time but that got blown up and then they failed a pinning check for that so they ended up being pinned too which was hilarious and deserved :P

Very much feels like a low chance but high impact rule, I was expecting it to happen more frequently than it did but not be as impactful; getting pinned in your own psychic phase is utterly devastating as the effects last until the end of your following turn!

All in all, I really enjoyed the army and I want to do more with it. I feel I made my list like it was one of my Imperial Fists infantry lists and expected it to do as well as them. Its not how they roll and I'm looking forward to the hobby challenges I have and the weird and wonderful things I can do with the Sons of Prospero which I haven't really been able to do with my Fists or World Eaters!

Until next time!

Hector Cephas

Thousand Sons - Throne of Skulls Doubles Update

Hi everyone,

We are two weeks away from the Horus Heresy Throne of Skulls Doubles so I thought I'd get be an update on what I'm planning on taking. Each player can take 1250 points each so I'll be taking a small selection of my Thousand Sons and my playing partner is taking 1250 points of Solar Auxilia to fight alongside the XVth legion.

HQ:

Legion Centurion (Delegatus)
 - Artificer Armour
 - Refractor Shield
 - Psychic Mastery Lvl 1
 - Arcane Litanies
 - Force Axe
 - Master of the Legion (Pride of the Legion)

Troops:

Legion Veteran Tactical Squad
 - 10 men
 - 2 heavy bolters with suspensor webs
 - Sergeant (Artificer Armour, Power Sword)
 - Vexilla
 - Melta-bombs
 - Psychic Mastery Lvl 1
 - Rhino

Legion Veteran Tactical Squad
 - 10 men
 - 2 heavy bolters with suspensor webs
 - Sergeant (Artificer Armour, Power Sword)
 - Vexilla
 - Melta-bombs
 - Psychic Mastery Lvl 1
 - Rhino

Legion Tactical Support Squad
 - 10 men
 - Volkite calivers
 - Additional close combat weapons
 - Sergeant (Artificer Armour, Power Sword)

Heavy Support:

Sicaran Omega Tank Destroyer (no upgrades)

 

I haven't decided which cult I want these guys to be - any suggestions? I could go Corvidae but I think that might be a bit much and I'm interested to see what you guys would like to see being played. Athanean maybe?

Until next time,

Hector Cephas

Mass producing marines

Hi everyone,

I've been building all my marine in preparation for a mass priming session. To try to ensure that all marines are built to the same quality, I've implemented my batch building process again like I did with my titans and this lead to me requiring a bigger organiser case.

Each of the sections a little pots in the new box so I was able to separate out the individual parts (or sets of parts and/or sub-assemblies) and be able to work through each set cleaning and otherwise preparing them prior to building - again to make sure the quality was consistemt through out so was able to remove mould lines prior to building in a more organised and quicker fashion.

All in all, this took about 3 evenings to work through which is quick for me as building 4 sets of marines takes an evening per squad for me. I must warn you though, as you may have already guessed, it makes some of it a bit monotomous (cleaning 40 sets of legs in a row does get a bit tiresome) but its worth the effort.

I've built as a result 3 veteran tactical squads who will ride in my rhinos and be all-rounders and a tactical support squad with volkite caveliers for some slightly longer range anti-infantry firepower holding an objective.

Next up, bases!

Until next time,

Hector Cephas

Hector Cephas - Thousand Sons Characters

Hiya,

Just thought I would show some of my characters that I've put together while I wait for an opportune moment to get stuff primed and ready to be painted and otherwise a quick update on where I've got to.

As you will have seen in my update from last week, I've made this standard bearer for my tartaros terminator command squad - for those who read my previous list of units for my Thousand Sons, yup, the list has expanded to include some tartaros terminators with scarab occult bits to make them look part of the thousand sons legion without being so heavily ornamented that they may not look like normal terminators as I gave myself the option to field a 5 man terminator squad or a 5 man command squad (aka, I have an alternative sergeant model!). I also made some characters from a box of scarab occult terminators anyway as the sorcerer from that set looked like he'd make a great praetor model as an alternative to the cataphractii one pictured at the top of the post. For those interested in the greenstuff work I am doing on this army, I will be putting up another post in the coming weeks covering this conversion plus other stuff that I am doing too.

Another character model that I've converted is the chaplain model from the Betrayal at Calth set. Quite a simple conversion really - I replaced the plasma pistol with a hand from the Grey Knights strike squad set, the robe bits are from the Scarab Occult set (just snipped them off the sorcerer torso and filed them to fit) and pinned one of the spare swords from the Khenetai Occult upgrade set to the haft of the chaplains power maul to turn it into a heka staff like the one on Ahriman.

I've upgraded my separator box for this project - there just wasn't enough slots for all the bits I need for build all of my marines in batch but this one was a lot more accommodating. I've started the process of building everything, it won't be long at all until it is all built!

Speaking of things that are built - now there are three rhinos and their bigger brother will be coming out to play soon too!

Until next time.

Hector Cephas

Hector Cephas - Thousand Sons

Hey everyone!

As you may have seen in last week's weekly progress report, I've started a new legion project - this time I went with the Thousand Sons (#MagnusDidNothingWrong). It was inspired in two parts; firstly I was listening to Thousand Sons in the car after a good while since I last listened to it (or any other Thousand Sons related stories) and it just took me back and reminded me of the tragedy that was the downfall of Magnus the Red and his legion. The other part; well, I went to Warhammer World the other week to play a big Kill Team game with some friends and well, yeah, lets just say I didn't take much convincing!

Now I am the proud owner of around 3500 points worth of Thousand Sons and I'm hoping to have at least 1250 ready for the end of May for the Horus Heresy Throne of Skulls Doubles. My planned legion roster is as follows:

HQs:

• Ahzek Ahriman
• Praetor/Centurion in Terminator Armour
• Praetor/Centurion in Artificer Armour
• Primus Medicae in Terminator Armour

Elites:

• 1 x Osiron Contemptor-pattern Dreadnought

Troops:

• 3 x Veteran Squad (10 men) - heavy bolters, rhino, power weapon on the sergeant
• 1 x Sekhmet Terminators (5 men)
• 1 x Tactical Support Squad with Volkites - sergeant with a power weapon

Fast Attack:

• 2 x Xiphon-pattern Interceptor

Heavy Support:

• 1 x Fire Raptor Gunship

Lord of War:

• Magnus the Red

I already had some of the bits anyway because I really like the Xiphon and the Fire Raptor, I just wasn't sure what legion I wanted to do them for and now they have a home supporting my new legion. I am undecided as to whether I go psychic power heavy or not - thankfully, my roster allows me to tone it up and down as I please. My intention at the very least is to go for a smaller elite army compared to my Imperial Fists where I can throw a lot of yellow bodies at a problem.

What do you guys think? Just remember, all is not yet dust!

Hector Cephas