Thousand Sons in Kill team

[Prot]

 

I was really hoping for axes on the A.S. I have the perfect blade and was hoping to make Khayon and his brothers

Its strictly what comes in the box. So even the plasma pistol is gone. Plus I think Khayon is a bit better than your average Aspiring Sorcerer.

A question I have from a roleplaying aspect are people adding demeanors and names to Rubrics and Tzaangors. I wonder how much of their former self is still inside the dust and how much an Aspiring Sorcerer cares about the Tzaangors he leads.

I have not. Every other member is fleshed out and named. I really should be naming my Twistbray though.

 

It’s my personal feeling that most Thousand Sons have a bond to those that are dust, and those that truly serve them. Overall I feel like Tzaangors are a tool. But even then, thee is room for respect among those that serve at the highest levels. Daemons are a different story to me (even though they aren’t relevant to Kill Team).

 

I always remember a moment from a short story after the Indomnitus Crusade where we see the Ynnarri display life from death for the first time....it is a trick to distract Ahriman. Anyway in that moment a few Rubric Marines are completely restored to their former selves.

 

This happens to the Rubrics as if time stood still. Immediately they are confused, this time and moment really don’t make sense to them. They turn to Ahriman whom they respect and know from thousands of years ago and they ask him what is gong on. Shortly after that moment they are whisked away by Eldar treachery.

 

Ahriman is consumed by recovering these warriors.... the Eldar distraction works. But this moment served to remind me how much that time, and those warriors meant to Ahriman.

[BitsHammer]

Yeah, that connection Ahriman has to his brethren and how it drives his quest to restore him is a large part of what makes him so interesting to me. I see much of the legion having ties to their old brothers, forming bands out of their old squad mates and friends in order to hold onto them and in some respect maintain and protect them.

[Kite Senet]

We should keep in mind who we're talking about when we consider the category of Aspiring Sorcerers. The actual Thousand Sons have largely ended up either as Rubrics or Exalted Sorcerers or Daemon Princes; the Aspiring Sorcerers in contrast are largely drawn from aspirants from outside the original Legion (though there are many from the original legion as well -- just don't expect much talent in sorcery from them if they're still at such a low rank 10,000 years after the Horus Heresy, plus/minus Eye of Terror time distortion). These ambitious aspirants are unlikely to have such attachments to their Rubricae.

 

Furthermore, I suspect that the concern for the Rubricae's original personage is mostly a quirk of the Ahrimanite subfaction, and this sentimentality has been purged from the larger Magnus contingent of the Sons, who have no more concern for the Rubricae than one would have for pawns on a chessboard. (And that's one reason why I like Ahriman and his exiles much better than Magnus.)

 

That said, I definitely intend to use Kill Team as an opportunity to build up fluff for my Rubric Marine models; I have some for the HQs in my army and a bit for my Aspiring Sorcerers, but very little for the Rubricae's backgrounds themselves. I only wish the name generation tables were a bit more complete.

[Prot]

Maybe it has been purged from a larger Magnus contingent.... I really don’t know for certain but the story lone I cite is to give some validity to the opposite so that we, with our Kill teams, can explore it if we wish.

 

I still see Magnus as someone who cared, who got caught up in his own destiny, but still carries a very large debt of guilt about it. The Wolves have been the largest recipient of that guilt and anger, but it does leave the door open for us! We are the story tellers here. Let’s have fun with it.

[BitsHammer]

I've had a story idea rolling in my head about an Exalted Sorceror who had a brother who became a Rubric due to Ahriman and now loathes Ahriman and has spent the last 999 years visting 999 planets in 999 different systems in order to create a galaxy spanning spell in an attempt to restore his brother back to flesh.

 

And at the height of the last moment he has to deal with Skitarri and the Great Rift ripping his spell in half. Because Thousand Sons aren't allowed to have nice things. 

[The6miles]

Love backstories. My tsons are from the thrallband The Prophets of Hauhet, from the cult of time. Their aim is to create a temporal paradox that will unravel the universe back to formless primordial chaos.

[Raven1]

Played a game yesterday. My kill team was 7 models

Asp Sorcerer- Force Stave and warpflame pistol

Rubric gunner- SRC

Rubric- I. Boltgun and IoF

Rubric- Warpflamer

Twistbray- tzaangor blades

Tzaangor autopistol/chainsword, Brayhorn

Tzaangor autopistol/chainsword

 

In the future the board is small enough that getting across it isn't a problem and I still am not a big fan of the AP/chswrd and will probably just got with Tzaangorblades.

 

The soul reaper cannon didn't do a whole lot of damage most of my heaviest hitters were the warpflame toting guys. The IoF didn't go off but if I have the spare point I would take it again just in case.

 

The big issue I see is nerve test. Turn 2 I had 2 models out of action and 2 with flesh wounds so I had to do a break test. Not awesome.

 

I'm thinking of switching out a marine for 2 more tzaangors just to have the extra bodies on the table.

 

All of Dust worked awesome, plus with it you don't need to use the heavy specialism as you get the bonus innately.

 

Psybolt is a neat trick, but I think next time I will switch out the warpflame pistol and keep him further back and focus on Smite not getting the Asp. Sorcerer in their faces so much.

 

Or maybe just more Rubrics is the answer and no Tzaangors and try and stay out of combat. Warpflamer with demolitions specialism is definitely a good time.

[Skerr]

Thanks Raven, I have not seen or read to many batreps with all Rubrics. Would like to see how they perform with no goats. Edited August 4, 2018 by Skerr

[Ammonius]

I played in a 3 round tournament last night.

My list was:

Aspiring Sorcerer w/ Force Stave and Warpflame Pistol (Leader)

Rubric Gunner w/ Soulreaper Cannon (Combat)

Rubric w/ Warpflamer (Demolitions)

Rubric w/ Inferno Boltgun and Icon of Flame (Veteran)

Rubric w/ Inferno Boltgun

Tzaangor w/ Tzaangor blades

 

Game 1 was against Death Guard. I had some good shooting luck in the first turn and took out one Poxwalker and gave two more flesh wounds. My opponent focused on killing my Icon bearer first, which allowed the rest of my team(except the Gunner) to move forward. My Aspiring Sorcerer did admirably in close combat, and my Psybolts were very effective. However, a plague marine with a Flail of Corruption and my awful die rolls from then on  carried me to a loss.

 

Game 2 was against Heretic Astartes. Once again, I was able to deploy my gunner on a second floor vantage point. I advanced more aggressively with the Icon and Warpflamer Rubrics, with the Tzaangor running wide around some terrain as a distraction. My opponent charged my Warpflamer Rubric with his leader, and despite rolling 6 hits, I failed the wound rolls. However, my Rubric was able to hang in there and the Icon Rubric joined the fight. My Aspiring Sorcerer took out 3 cultists in Overwatch, Psychic phase, and then Melee in the same turn, which was really great. The next turn, the enemy leader was the closest, so he got Psybolted out of action. The mission put 3 victory points on taking out the leader, so I won this battle.

 

Game 3 was against Orks (and Gretchin...and some more Orks). This mission was an objective-oriented one, with the objectives being scored every turn. Having a Gretchin for every objective was too much for me to deal with, but I did Warpflamer a Burna boy to death in Overwatch, and my Gunner finally got to use his Combat specialism stuff when he got charged by a Burna and a Zealot Kommando backed by some Orky command point usage for 5 attacks on the charge. I lost this one, but we agreed that the mission/ opposition was probably one of the worst to face.

 

Overall, I am happy with the team I built. When I didn't roll handfuls of 1's and 2's, they were fun and dangerous. I think I would like to run 2 Warpflamers in a future list. All is Dust kept my team up and running, and my guys tended to be a full strength until getting killed off all at once, so I avoided a lot of penalty-heavy rolls. If/ when the store runs a campaign, I will be excited to see how the level-up stuff plays out.

 

Here's a photo of my 3rd game. If you squint, you can see my Aspiring Sorcerer shooting spells at Orks from the high ground at center map:

[Ahistorian]

I imagine the warpflamers are ace - I rued facing GK Incinerators with my T3 Ad Mech!

[Prot]

Nice report guys.

 

Next up I’m fielding my Thousand Sons Kill Team after playing some other factions. I will say I used a heavy flamer with Death Guard and it was gold in a Kill Team that does not excel in massed shooting and it made me keep thinking I should up my Warpflamer count to 2 in my Thousand Sons.

 

Originally I took off my Asp. Sorcs flame pistol but after playing a few games I don’t know... a lot of armies are committing mass charges just to move more. I think Tzaangors are best for this with dual blades. You can’t shoot anyway. What I’m doing is using plebs like Tzaangors just to get obscured.

 

I see that Thousand Sons need to keep their distance. There’s not much for CC options like some armies. So stuff like flamers is great for fending off charges. I do think the Warpflamer is superior to heavy flamers on anything T3 or less. The AP modifier is very good against the massed assaulting hordes.

[Raven1]

I'm thinking about dropping the SRC gunner for a second warpflamer.

 

I'm not convinced about the warpflame pistol but as a defensive against charges it might be worthwhile.

[Prot]

Yes my leaders are often charged. It makes sense to me plus you’re avoiding modifiers to hit from fleshwounds or whatever.

[Ammonius]

The Warpflame pistol  was a no-brainer for me: It looks cool, and you can't fail to-hit rolls you don't have to roll!

[Prot]

Very true, plus the other armies seem a lot better at CC overall, so I think with Thousand Sons it feels pretty safe you're going to get charged a lot!

 

I found the flamers so good in this situation because you think of an average 40 K game: How many times does an opponent second guess charging you with (for example) 5 marines, because you have a warpflamer in overwatch? 

 

Well how much does that change when it's one dude, charging a dude with a Warpflamer? A lot. lol

 

I just put my Asp. Sorc together with the hand facing palm out like he is casting something, but I imagine I could just paint a glow on it like it's ejecting a flame outward. 

[Ahistorian]

Or add the classic holster of unspecified pistolation!

[hushrong]

My buddy had been giving all his rubrics warpflamers. They advance up, shoot since it’s assault, d6 auto hits that usually wound, and put down hurt.

 

Then if I try to charge them I’m sucking air through my teeth.

[Cognium]

Is it bad that the first thing I want to do is name 4 rubricae after the alchemical stages in the magnum opus? Kill team seems to be a very good thing for me to look into.. -soaks up all the data in this thread- Also a question, How do you all feel Thousand Sons will fair in a campaign setting, seeing as ones going to start soon per GW. Im curious how we would fair long term, and if taking specialists overall is a good idea given alot of the points are gone just to 5 guys. Aware as I am that is normal-ish, I cant help but worry we pay for our robust dustbins. 

[BitsHammer]

Kill Team definitely has some potential for campaigns. Like you could play Kill Team to secure minor objective advantages in larger games (maybe a CP bonus, or extra points towards winning the main game for example). 

 

I mean the ideas for campaign use are nearly limitless, but you could even making a campaign about the small scale events in a larger war effort can be pretty cool.

[Prot]

I was looking for more motivation in here!

 

I'm about to start a campaign and still haven't finalized which kill team I'm entering.

 

To me the big plus is Rubrics are pretty darn decent in Kill Team. the bad news is... well it's just Rubrics and a Tzaangor or two!

[Panzer]

I was looking for more motivation in here!

 

I'm about to start a campaign and still haven't finalized which kill team I'm entering.

 

To me the big plus is Rubrics are pretty darn decent in Kill Team. the bad news is... well it's just Rubrics and a Tzaangor or two!

 

I think seeing it as "just Rubrics and a Tzaangor or two" is a bit too simplified.

It's all the same Datasheet but on the board you can have a very diverse team. Take a Sorcerer, a standard bearer, a heavy weapon guy and a flamer guy before even starting with ordinary Rubrics. At this point we're already at ~75p without any Tzaangors.

Sure there aren't as big differences as between Scouts and Tacticals but each of those models listed above plays differently on the board compared to regular Rubrics (okay maybe the standard bearer not that much I give you that ^^).

Then add a Twistbray Zealot specialist and a regular Rubric and you're already out of points without having a single model/loadout doubled in your team.

Edited August 8, 2018 by sfPanzer

[BitsHammer]

I'll be honest, my painting has stalled a bit recently as I seem to get too burnt out by work to keep painting past Sunday (which is my Tuesday effectively) each week, so my Kill Team isn't making as much progress as I'd like right now. 

 

Anyone got in any games recently to talk about to motivate us lollygaggers?

[Prot]

Well tonight I'm pulling a few teams out.... for the first time I will actually be fielding my Thousand Sons Kill Team. I had to put them together first!

 

Very disappointed that I bought a new box of Tzaangors (wow I never thought I'd do that again!) and I lost one set of legs. So I now have a max of 9 Tzaangors out of that box. Ugh.

 

So the list will be very typical for Thousand Sons, but I wanted to keep an Icon, so I'll only have one Flamer (plus I kept the flame pistol on the leader. I imagine he'll need it)

[hushrong]

Please take some pics and post some battle reports if you can Prot! I always enjoy your battle reports and it's nice to see how games go down.

 

And can you ebay a set of legs?

[Prot]

Please take some pics and post some battle reports if you can Prot! I always enjoy your battle reports and it's nice to see how games go down.

 

And can you ebay a set of legs?

 

Well... I don't know about a batrep. I literally just started painting these guys, they're pretty rough. Plus it sounds like a few new people will be showing up and learning the rules, and some people want to do mutliplayer.

 

I've got about 10 hours in on the squad, and just getting past the 'golds' and moving to the blues and washes... might be a while (I forgot how long these guys take to paint. lol )

 

And the Tzaangor... trust me I've been scouring ebay. Very, very little for any Tzaangor action. :)