Warhammer 40K: The Thousand Sons – Conjuring Army Fixes
The Thousands Sons are in a weird spot but Psychic Awakening: Ritual of the Damned is coming soon to help them out. Here’s a few ideas to get them going.
When you look at the Thousand Sons army, it’s clear they have some issues. They have two of the best Psykers in the game with Magnus and Ahriman. They even some really unique and interesting unit options that differentiate them from regular Chaos Space Marines. That said, the Thousand Sons are in a really tough spot. They have some issues which we are going to list out here and then some ideas on how to tweak them to make them better. So let’s get in there before we turn to dust!
Rubric Marines Are Too Expensive
As a core unit of the army, Rubric Marines should be the main force for the Thousand Sons. This unit is iconic with their unique helmets and style. So why don’t players actually use more Rubric Marines? They cost to many points! On pretty much all fronts, they just don’t do enough for the points investment. Offensively, they are decent with their weapons not game breaking. They are a Psyker as a unit, but their Smite is…problematic (more on that below). Defensively, they do have a cool ability but they still only have 1 wound and aren’t super tough. They are just a weird mix and don’t have the staying power or offensive output to justify the cost. Plus, they are slow…so, that’s another problem.
The quickest fix is pretty simple: lower their points. But this feels like a bandaid on a missing arm. No, there should be a holistic approach to making the core unit of the Thousand Sons (Rubric Marines) something you want to include instead of avoid in your list building.
Damage Output Is Lacking
So you’ve got Magnus and you got Ahriman as your heavy hitters. But what if you want to build a list without them? What else does this army have? As mentioned above, Rubric Marines are okay but they can’t win that gunfight vs modern armies. Are you counting on your Tzaangors to win the day in Close Combat? Maybe some Daemon Engines to support your army? Then why are you playing Thousand Sons and not just plain ol’ Chaos Space Marines? “Because I liked the Rubric Marines” but, you don’t take them because they get in the way (points-wise). So what’s a way we can make their damage output good for every Rubric Marine unit?
Well, along with the a point drop, let’s make their Inferno bolt weapons better. In the next book, how about a stratagem that allows them to hit more or shoot more with their Inferno Bolters? Say 1 CP that causes all 6s to do additional hit (or two) similar to tesla weapons or other “exploding 6s” mechanics. It’s not like we haven’t seen GW implement some of the fixes for armies in the stratagems section, right? So give the Rubrics something scary at the cost of CPs!
Smite Needs A Re-work
I am not advocating for the return of Smite Spam. Just to be clear, Smite Spam is bad and should not return! That said, the Thousand Sons and Grey Knights both have, well, crappy versions of Smite for their units. These rules need to get completely reworked. Allow the to cast their Smite-lite power as a unit ability on a 5+ on 1D6. And it only does 1 Mortal Wound. If every unit could shoot a random single mortal wound off on a 5+, that seems way easier to implement vs allowing each one to take a psychic test on a sliding scale. Leave actual Smite casting to Ahriman and Magnus – let the mini-psykers toss out a single mortal wound and call it a day.
The Army Has A Glass Jaw (aka a durability problem)
“A 5+ invulnerable and All is Dust messes with their saves – what are you talking about?!” Yep, they got that going for them for sure. But all it takes is a bad round of saves and the army goes *poof* because they can’t take a real hit. Again, it goes back to the points of the army. They are just too expensive per model, which means you either avoid Rubrics or you take a ton of Tzaangors for bodies. They have a “Glass Jaw” in the since that when they do take that hit, they go down hard and can’t really recover. All their protection is on the front end but if you can get past their armor saves, they aren’t any harder to wound and only have 1 wound (Rubrics specfically).
The solution? Other than make them cheaper, how do you fix that kind of a problem? An extra wound? More toughness? Another Stratagem that allows them some more protection? Honestly, I could go for 2 wounds each. But these guys are Dust, right? How about something else that’s more unique for chaos – let’s allow them to spend CP to recover lost models. Here’s an example:
2 CP – For each model lost in from a target Rubric Marine Unit this phase, roll a dice. On a 4+ they are returned to the unit and must be placed within 1″ of an existing model in the unit.
This would allow them to spend the 2 CP to help in a single phase when their dice really failed them. You probably wouldn’t use this if you only lost 1 or 2 models, but if you had a bad round and lost 5-6 models, spending 2 CP to have a 50/50 shot to return them seems solid. And again, if they get completely wiped out, you can’t bring back the whole unit. Just a thought…
What are some problems you have noticed with the Thousand Sons and how would you try and fix them?
