Warhammer 40K: This Week’s Meta Hotness – Scarab Occult Terminators
The best unit in the Thousand Sons book is the Scarab Occult Terminators. A few updates and changes and you got the backbone of the current best “chaos” list right now.
If you are frustrated about painting a lot of armor trim then I wouldn’t look towards the Thousand Sons. They resemble a sea of Blue and Gold armored warriors as they march across the battlefield. They are driven by the Legion Sorcerers to kill their enemies, hold their objectives, and just be a pain in the butt to remove. It is crazy how a few small tweaks to the rules can bring this army from the upper middle tier towards the top end of the game. This the unit that got the most from Armor of Contempt and it shows with some good finishes in last weeks events.
Scarab Occult Terminators
You have a terminator body with some extra rules added on top. They get a Sorcerer in their unit that can do things like heal them, teleport them, throw out some mortal wounds, or just buff them in some different way. It generates a Cabal point too so you can force your spells out and dominate the psychic plane. On top of that they have a decent close combat with some powerful weapons and decent ranged weapons. They really are the best Terminator unit in the game right now.
Why Are Scarab Occult Terminators Good?
They have a decent set of wounds on top of a few defensive stacks of abilities. All is Dust allows them to gain a point of armor if getting hit with a 1 damage firepower. You mix that with some stratagems to force damage down again to allow this ability to stack. On top of that they also get Armor of Contempt which can be very scary for any 1 damage but High AP army to try and chew thru. You throw them into cover and it becomes a nightmare to remove without some kind of Mortal wound output or High Damage + High AP weapons.
On top of all of this they also gained Objective Secured which is just a cherry on top of a unit that already saw some play. It makes this slow unit just move up the table and hold the middle forever. Plus you can’t just assault them due to their power weapons they are carrying. Then you have a caster that could have a slew of different options to try and kill you with mind bullets or malefic auras of doom.
Sample List
Mike Porter won the Da North West in Horwich, England. It goes all in with 2 big Scarab Occult Terminator units backed up by all the things to boost them up, Cabal empowered spells, powerful rules, and just sheer grind of Thousand Sons. If you are not playing 2 big bricks of dusty armored warriors you are not doing it right in the current meta.
++ Battalion Detachment 0CP (Chaos – Thousand Sons) [16 Cabal Points, 98 PL, 2,000pts, 9CP] ++
+ Configuration +
Cults of the Legion: Cult of Duplicity
+ Stratagems +
Sorcerous Arcana [-2CP]: 2x Additional Relics
+ HQ +
Ahriman [3 Cabal Points, 9 PL, 180pts]: 12. Glamour of Tzeentch, 21. Presage, 22. Weaver of Fates, Disc of Tzeentch
Exalted Sorcerer [3 Cabal Points, 9 PL, 165pts, -1CP]: 11. Tzeentch’s Firestorm, 13. Doombolt, 6. Aetherstride, Athenaean Scrolls, Dilettante, Disc of Tzeentch, High Acolytes, Inferno Bolt Pistol, Prosperine khopesh, Thrydderghyre
Infernal Master [2 Cabal Points, 5 PL, 90pts]: 31. Empyric Guidance, 5. Glimpse of Eternity, 6. Malefic Maelstrom, Umbralefic Crystal
+ Troops +
Rubric Marines [2 Cabal Points, 6 PL, 115pts]: Icon of Flame
. Aspiring Sorcerer: 23. Temporal Surge, Inferno Bolt Pistol
. 4x Rubric Marine w/ inferno boltgun: 4x Inferno boltgun
Rubric Marines [2 Cabal Points, 6 PL, 115pts]: Icon of Flame
. Aspiring Sorcerer: 23. Temporal Surge, Inferno Bolt Pistol
. 4x Rubric Marine w/ inferno boltgun: 4x Inferno boltgun
Rubric Marines [1 Cabal Points, 6 PL, 129pts]
. Aspiring Sorcerer: 23. Temporal Surge, Inferno Bolt Pistol
. 4x Rubric Marine w/ warpflamer: 4x Warpflamer
+ Elites +
Scarab Occult Terminators [1 Cabal Points, 21 PL, 445pts]: 2x Hellfyre missile rack
. Scarab Occult Sorcerer: 23. Temporal Surge, Inferno combi-bolter, Rites of Coalescence
. 7x Terminator: 7x Inferno combi-bolter, 7x Prosperine khopesh
. Terminator w/ Heavy Weapon: Soulreaper cannon
. Terminator w/ Heavy Weapon: Soulreaper cannon
Scarab Occult Terminators [1 Cabal Points, 20 PL, 430pts]: 2x Hellfyre missile rack
. Scarab Occult Sorcerer: 22. Swelled by the Warp, Inferno combi-bolter
. 7x Terminator: 7x Inferno combi-bolter, 7x Prosperine khopesh
. Terminator w/ Heavy Weapon: Soulreaper cannon
. Terminator w/ Heavy Weapon: Soulreaper cannon
Tzaangor Shaman [1 Cabal Points, 4 PL, 70pts]: 1. Arrogance of Aeons, 23. Temporal Surge, The Change-wrought Chalice, Warlord
+ Fast Attack +
Chaos Spawn [5 PL, 115pts]
. 5x Chaos Spawn: 5x Hideous mutations
Chaos Spawn [4 PL, 92pts]
. 4x Chaos Spawn: 4x Hideous mutations
Tzaangor Enlightened [3 PL, 54pts]: Aviarch, Divining spears
. 2x Enlightened
. . 2x Disc of Tzeentch: 2x Disc blades
++ Total: [16 Cabal Points, 98 PL, 9CP, 2,000pts] ++
Using the Scarab Occult Terminators
This is the slow wave of death as these armored warriors move forward and grind you down to dust. They are going get where they want even if it takes them a while. The mixture of extreme toughness, large swath of wounds, and just damage output makes them a nightmare for so many armies to deal with. We’ll see how the CP update affects them as well as losing To the Last Secondary. The list above would burn 4 CP due to the Warlord Trait plus 3 Relics it is taking so it might have to change a few things to work. We will see next week when the book comes out.
BULLETS FOR THE MAGIC GOD!
Let us know what units you think are hot right now, down in the comments!
