Right! Time for one of the Arc-Enemies of the Imperium - The Thousand Sons!

This is Warhammer 40,000 the tabletop boardgame and this is the 10th Edition Preview information we have about this faction. This is my personal review of this faction, their abilities.

These posts have really helped me understand all the factions better. When I came back at the end of 9th edition there were so many armies and I did not know them all, but I fell that doing these reviews for 10th edition will mean that I will know everything I need to know in order to play against all the armies I might meet!

Let's get into it!

Eye Candy

The Daemon Primarch Magnus the Red leads his Legion against the Space Wolves in a feud and hatred 10,000 years old. You can see Tzaangor beastmen, Rubric Marines and Rubric Terminators as well as a lot of Sorcerers!

Rubric Marines form a line to fire at the Adeptus Mechanicus while a Felldrake swoops in from behind.

Army Rule - Cabal of Sorcerers

In a nutshell the Thousands army has a pool of special Psychic dice they generate each turn. Units have the "Cabal of Sorcerers" ability followed by a number. Each turn you count up all the Cabal points and you get to use them that Battle Round. Next Battle Round, new points. Whatever are not used are lost.

There is a list of Rituals that can be used by any Thousand Sons Psyker in the army. Each Ritual can only be used once per Battle Round each. There does not however seem to be a limitation on the amount of Rituals that can be used by a single Psyker.

Let's look at the Rituals.

Let's summarize what they do:

Weaver of Fates
2 Points - One re-roll on a failed saving throw within 18" of the Psyker

Simple enough. Seems you just activate it at the start of a phase you expect damage and then allocate the re-roll once you fail one.

Temporal Surge
5 Points - Move a unit in the Engagement Range of enemies out of combat.

Ripping a unit out of combat at the start of the Shooting Phase will allow that unit to shoot at the enemies that had them in combat. As well as rest of the army.

Echoes from the Warp
6 Points - The Psyker's unit can use a Stratagem for 0CP, and it may be a duplicate to one already used.

Effectively 1-2 free Command Points when used this way!

Doombolt
7 Points - A Psychic attack with no chance of damage to yourself. You select an enemy and roll a dice, the higher you roll, the more damage it deals! In Mortal Wounds!

Twist of Fate
9 Points - Turn off all saving throws for an enemy unit!

This is immensely powerful. Basically that unit will get absolutely slaughtered, though it does need a full 9 Cabal Points to pull off, we will need to see how quickly a Thousand Sons army can gather them. There are some hints below.

Detachment Rule - Cult of Magic

Additional to the Rituals being deployed all over the table as above, the Thousand Sons have the Cult of Magic Detachment which can choose one of the following per turn:

• Psychic Weapons gain Lethal Hits
• Psychic Weapons gain Sustained Hits 1
• Psychic Weapons gain Devastating Wounds

This is selected each Command Phase and is active for the whole army.

Unit Spotlight - Ahriman

Ahriman is an Epic Hero, that will be similar or slightly better stats to a Thousand Sons Sorceror.

He has Cabal of Sorcerors 3 and thus give 3 points the the pool per Battle Round and also allows one Ritual to be used for free, once per battle.

He also gives +1 to Wound to the unit that he leads.

Other than that he has a Psychic shooting attack that can snipe Characters and his close combat attacks are not bad at all! I think he will be an auto-include in Thousand Sons armies as long as he is not too expensive points-wise.

Unit Spotlight - Rubric Marines

Rubric Marines are the Battleline soldiers of the Thousand Sons. Their squad Leader is a Sorceror and adds 1 to the Cabal points pool per turn.

Their special unit ability is to re-roll 1's to Wound for shooting attacks and if the target it near an Objective it is a re-roll to Wound (meaning all fails).

The Sorceror has the Warpsmite attack that has the Pistol Keyword, meaning he can do it while engaged with the enemy in close combat. This attack is 2 attacks with Anti-Infantry and Devastating Wounds, meaning on a 4+ to Wound Infantry, it will cause Mortal Wounds!

The unit also has plenty good options for ranged guns that have great stats.

The Icon of Flame is also pretty auto-include and should be a wargear option to give someone an Icon(banner). On a Critical Wound, you get an additional point of Armor Penetration! (This will be useful to the bolters and flamers in the unit and not the weapons with Devastating Wounds)

Weapon and Ability Spotlight - Mutalith Vortex Beast

The Mutalith is a special Daemon Engine used by this army and it looks like there are a lot of reasons why someone would want to field one:

The Gun:

A 3-in-1 gun that is either a really strong flamer, a blast attack for killing infantry and medium infantry and a Beam that is a single high strength shot.

The boost ability.

Thousand Sons Psykers double their Ritual ranges when standing 6" away from this beast. This is rather powerful!

Stratagem Spotlight - Psychic Dominion

Loathe to taste their own medicine, the Thousand Sons can select a unit that is about to hit them with Psychic attacks. Those attacks are not Hazardous and they Thousand Sons gain a 4+ Feel No Pain against those attacks!

Overall this faction looks scary strong and will be especially powerful against any army that fields elite units and will likely be less effective against armies with hordes of infantry.

They can still be out-shot and out-assaulted, but in the Psychic Arena, they are king!

Thank you for reading this post!

Cheers!
@zakludick

Hive South Africa

Source of Pictures