Chaos review...Elite #4

The Tzeencth following robots of the Chaos forces, or as everyone else knows them, the Thousand Sons are the next elite unit to talk about. These guys have been reduced to dust filled suits of bolter toting power armor, well except the super magic users in the army. I guess unless you wield phenomenal cosmic power then you are stuck as a pile of dust in a suit of armor in this Legion. Yeah there was this whole Arhiman thing he did that saved the Thousand Son legion by turning them to dust and all that. It was sad affair, but that is what you get when dealing with those fickle Chaos powers.

Anyway, the Thousand Sons boast the usual Astartes statistics (all 4's, 1 attack/wound etc etc etc.). There is nothing super secret there. The unit champion is a sorcerer (psyker) and has access to warp powers/spells, but otherwise he has the same leadership 9 and 2 base attacks. These guys come armed with a bolter and that is all. They don't even trust these guys to carry grenades and that is unheard of for Marines now. The sorcerer comes armed with a bolt pistol and a force weapon of whatever variety you choose. They are all also armed with Inferno Bolt for their guns, have the Mark of Tzeencth, and the Aura of Dark Glory (5++ save). They have the Fearless and Slow and Purposeful rules as well. A standard five man unit will run a sesquicentennial in points. They may add up to fifteen more bodies to the squad at 23 points each.

Inferno Bolts- for those outside the know are S4 AP3. Not to shabby and they make power armored forces take notice quickly.

There are no weapon upgrades for this unit. They can take Veterans O' Long War +1 point each and that is lame since they are fearless and do not want to ever be in close combat. Then there is the Icon of Flame +15 points and that blows so skip it too. So........

A Rhino is an option! Next.........

The unit sorcerer can take the same weapons, flair, Gift and bombs as every other unit I've covered so far and for the same points. The real difference from other unit champions is that he is a psyker mastery level 1. This means he can grab psyker powers from the Tzeencth list or from the main rule book. He can be given some extra shooty powers or .......from the main rule book. Well outside of the primary power it is all random what spell he will get. Boo to all this new randomness, but that is a rant for another day. The sorcerer also has a force weapon and that can be useful if you fancy such things in combat and like a bit of luck.

The Tzeencth Mark and Aura o' Dark Glory make for a fine 4++ save for this unit. That can help shrug off those hits from AP 3 and better weapons. Add the 4++ save and Fearless and you have a unit that has a descent bit of survivability. The Inferno Bolts also worry the power armor community as a Marine with no armor save is never a popular thought for your opponent.

The inability to use Overwatch due to Slow and Purposeful is a sort of a minus to the unit, but not really. Needing a 6 to hit a target is not reliable. I'm sure the Overwatch was too powerful with these guys during playtesting to allow for this. Wait....they playtest this stuff? Right?

I can not really say anything too negative or too positive about the Thousand Sons. They have not changed too much since the last codex. They move slowly and can (possibly) shrug off those low AP weapons. They can also wither away to small arms fire and get crushed by close combat. These guys are shooters and you need to keep them. A nice bit of anti-personnel ammunition, Fearless and a nice 4++ save are the big draw here. The lack of heavy/special weapons, slowness and poor close combat ability are the big negatives for the unit. The sorcerer is a push for me as well. I care not for 40K magic users and what he can and might add to this unit with a random psy power. He is included in the unit, so utilize him however you see fit.

Ideally I think a 7-8 man unit with the sorcerer, who is just taking the bare bones Tzeencth shooting power, works for me. I am not a fan of psykers and don't bother looking at the other schools of 40K magic they could choose from. Then throw them somewhere where their bolters are in range turn 1 (or can be in range after moving turn 1) to start peppering a target with crazy magic bullets. Just keep them away from close combat as long as you can and hope the enemy doesn't get to them quickly. Thousand Sons are not as bad a the Tau in close combat, but they are not made for it either.