Efficiency in Action: Thousand Sons!

Getting the most bang for your buck
In my series on Winning Games I mentioned figuring out which units are most efficient for your army. I gave some examples of both offensive and defensive (survival) efficiency and showed fairly quickly how it was done. I wanted to include it in the series, because it can be very important to winning games, but I didn't want to spend too much time on it, since I had so much other ground to cover. Looking back on it, I think that I got the idea across, but I'd like to show how to do it on a larger scale, that of the whole army.

How do I work this?
What we are going to be doing is comparing all the choices available in a slot to see which one is best at a particular task. We will then repeat the process on each slot available. When we go to choose our army list, we'll pick the choices that are the most efficient at a given thing first, then if we need more, we'll take the next most efficient and so on. For example, if I've got an Elite unit that is more efficient than all the other Elites at close combat, I would probably take it. However, if there's an HQ unit that is even more efficient, I'd take that one first, then add the Elites if I needed more close combat in the list. There will be some times where you may need to take something that is less efficient at one task because it has a special ability that you need, or because it is also good at some other task your army needs. That is acceptable, just be aware of what you are potentially giving up to get that special ability or that secondary task.

Chaos Subcodex: Thousand Sons
While I wanted to do a whole army as an extended example, I did want to limit the number of choices available, so this article wouldn't be too long for anyone to read. I also decided I wanted a bit of a challenge, an army that is generally regarded as being too limited to have good success in tournaments or even one-off games. I have been intrigued by several Chaos army ideas over the years. One of the most appealing was the Thousand Sons armylist. Of all the Chaos armies, they are the ones with the most interesting (to me) background. They researched magic and psychic powers and were loyal Space Marines. Until the Primarch, Magnus, found out about the plans for the Horus Heresy. He had to use magical means to try to contact the Emperor, but because of the magic he used, the Emperor deemed him a heretic and sent the Space Wolves after the Thousand Sons. To make a long story a bit shorter, the Space Wolves destroyed the Homeworld of the Thousand Sons and forced them to retreat into the Warp. This is interesting to me because it turns the betrayal issue somewhat on it's head. Magnus was attempting to warn the Emperor and was hunted down because of it. It's not that they betrayed the Emperor, the Emperor betrayed them!

The List
The Thousand Sons have a fairly limited army list, here is the Force Organization Chart... HQ Greater Daemon: Lord of Change
HQ Chaos Lord with Mark of Tzeentch
HQ Chaos Lieutenant with Mark of Tzeentch

EL Chaos Chosen with Mark of Tzeentch
EL Possessed Marines with Mark of Tzeentch
EL Rubric Terminators

TR Rubric Marines
TR Horrors

FA Screamers

HS Predator
HS LandRaider
HS Defiler
HS Dreadnaught

Explanations
Rubric Marines are those non-sorceror members of the Thousand Sons Legion. To stop fast-spreading mutation, the sorceror Ahriman cast a spell now called the Rubric of Ahriman. It turned all non-sorcerors into dust, sealing them inside their armor. Rubric models have 2 Wounds and the Slow and Purposeful rule, but may not upgrade their weapons from the basic ones provided by their armor. They also have the option of Sorceror Aspiring Champions.

HQ
These slots don't need a lot of explanation, I think. They must have the Mark of Tzeentch, which automatically makes them Sorcerors and both the Lord and the Greater Daemon are 0-1 Choices, so you may not have more than one in a given army list.

Elites
Rubric Terminators have 2 Wounds and are armed with Combibolters and Power Weapons. One model may be a sorceror (aspiring Champion upgrade) and has access to wargear, gifts and psychic powers.
Chosen and Possessed Marines with the Mark of Tzeentch are all automatically Sorcerors, so these units have a lot of possibility for power, but they are very expensive and are pretty fragile compared to Rubric Marines, having only one Wound, yet costing more even before you buy the powers for them. They do allow some interesting options, though.

Troops
Rubric Marines. 2 Wounds, 3+ Armor Save, can move and fire Bolters out to 24 inches. On the other hand they are slow and can't get any weapon upgrades and they cost 24pts each. Like the Terminators, however, they can get a Sorceror (Aspiring Champion) who has access to the Chaos armory. These guys are expensive, but very tough.
Horrors. 2 Wounds for an expensive, shooty Daemon. They have a power that lets them fire 2 bolter shots at 12" as an assault weapon. For 6pts more you can upgrade them to Flamers, which gives them an 18" range Heavy Bolter equivalent.

Fast Attack
No Raptors, no Bikers (as they'd become Rubrics and suffer from the Slow and Purposeful rule) which leaves us with...
Screamers: A Daemon with Flight and Furious Charge for 15pts. These are fast and can do some damage, but they are fairly fragile and the Hit and Run rule means they can't tie anything up or stay safe in close combat.

Heavy Support
Havocs would simply become Rubric Marines, and thus lose all their weapon options, but the other choices are still feasible.
Predator. Tank. Lots of Guns. What's not to like?
LandRaider. Bigger Tank. More Protection. More Expensive.
Defiler. Tank-ish walker. Big Gun, limited protection.
Dreadnaught. Walker. Medium Guns, light protection, can do close combat.

Efficiency
Okay, now we know our options, lets take a look at each Force Organization Slot (HQ, for example) and compare the efficiency of various options and units to see which one does which thing the best. As most of my opponents play some version of Meq (Marine Equivalent, so Space Marines, Chaos Marines, Necrons, Grey Knights, etc. T4 and 3+ Armor save, roughly.) I'll be designing all my calculations here against them. If you find yourself surrounded by Imperial Guard, Eldar and Orks, your calculations will be different. The idea here is to find the most efficient unit for a given task (antitank shooting, for example) which will be the one that gives the most return for the least number of points.

HQ: Shooting
There are really two options for our shooting here. A Kai Gun is a Daemon Weapon that is great at killing Space Marines and other things with 3+ armor saves. Wind of Chaos is a Psychic Power that acts as a flamer template. It wounds on a 4+ and ignores armor saves, so it can be quite effective as well. To represent the longer range of the Kai gun over the Wind of Chaos, I have assumed that the Kai Gun will fire twice and that the Wind of Chaos will only be used once, though I have given it an average of 6 models under the template.

Lord with Kai Gun 95pts: 4(shots)x5/6(chance to hit)x5/6(Chance to Wound) with no armor save. 2.77 DSM (Dead Space Marines) which works out to an Efficiency of 34.3pts per DSM.
Lord with Wind of Chaos 90pts: 6(Models under Template)x1/2(Chance to Wound) with no armor save. 3.0 DSM Eff: 30pts/DSM
Lord of Change (Greater Daemon) with Wind of Chaos 160pts: 6x1/2=3.0DSM Eff: 53pts/DSM
Lieutenant with Kai Gun 80pts: 4x 5/6 x5/6=2.77DSM Eff: 28.8pts/DSM
Lieutenant with Wind of Chaos 75pts: 6x 1/2=3.0 DSM Eff: 25pts/DSM

This tells us that the most efficient HQ choice for shooting down Space Marines is the Lieutenant with Wind of Chaos. Now let's look at the options for assaulting with our HQ.

HQ: Assault
There are only a few really good options here as to weapons. Dark Blade (a Daemon Weapon) Twin Lightning Claws and a simple Power Weapon. Of course, the Lord of Change or a Statured Daemon Prince don't need special weapons, but here goes...

Lord of Change 160pts: 4(attacks)x2/3(Chance to hit)x5/6(Chance to Wound) with no armor saves=2.22DSM Eff: 72pts/DSM
Lord w/Dark Blade and Pistol 96pts: 5x 2/3 x 5/6=2.77 DSM Eff: 34.6pts/DSM
Lord w/Twin Lightning Claws 100pts: 5x 2/3 x 3/4=2.5DSM Eff: 40pts/DSM
Lord w/Power Weapon and Pistol 86pts: 5x 2/3 x 1/2=1.67DSM Eff: 51.5pts/DSM
Lieutenant with Dark Blade+Pistol 81pts: 5x 2/3 x 5/6=2.77DSM Eff: 29.2pts/DSM
Lieutenant w/Twin Lightning Claws 85pts: 5x 2/3 x 3/4=2.5 DSM Eff: 34pts/DSM
Lieutenant w/Power Weapon and Pistol 71pts: 5x 2/3 x 1/2=1.67 DSM Eff: 42.6pts/DSM

Okay, so if we take a look here, the most efficient is the Lieutenant with Dark Blade, followed by the Lieutenant with Twin Lightning Claws, just barely squeaking past the Lord with Dark Blade. Since Dark Blade is a Daemon weapon and you can only have one per list, you couldn't have both the Lord and Lieutenant with a Dark Blade. Thus, the most efficient combination would be to have 2 Lieutenants, one with Dark Blade and one with Twin Lightning Claws.
Obviously, there are many other options that are available on the Lords and Lieutenants, but most of them won't help much in either the damage-dealing or damage-taking scenarios, so they actually lower the efficiency of the character. That's the thing about efficiency, if you take a bunch of things "just in case" you end up paying more points for things that aren't useful to you as often. For example, none of these really stands a good chance against a Wraithlord, with it's Toughness 8 and 3 Wounds. To give them options against a Wraithlord, it would cost a lot more points and possibly make them less effective. A better option would be to make sure that they don't go up against a Wraithlord, leaving that to a model or unit that would have a better chance of dealing with it as part of their primary mission. (For instance, shooting it with a bunch of Lascannons from an antitank unit.) Okay, let's move on to the Troops options.

Troops
Let's take a look at anti-troop shooting, first...

Rubric Marine 24pts: 2x 2/3 x 1/2 x 1/3= 0.22DSM or 108pts/DSM
Doombolt Sorceror 47pts: 3x 2/3 x 2/3 x 1/3=0.44DSM or 107pts/DSM
Bolt of Change Sorceror 57pts: 1 x 2/3 x 5/6=0.55DSM or 103pts/DSM
Horror 17pts: 2x 1/2 x 1/2 x 1/3=0.16DSM or 72pts/DSM
Flamer 23pts: 3x 1/2 x 2/3 x 1/2=0.33DSM or 69pts/DSM

The Daemons are the big winners here, though they do have other issues, such as being much less resilient than the basic Rubric Marines. Let's take a look at assault now...

Rubric Marine 24pts: 1x 1/2 x 1/2 x 1/3=0.083DM or 289pts/DSM
Sorceror with Powerfist and Pistol 52pts: 4x 1/2 x 5/6=1.66DSM or 31.3pts/DSM
Horror 17pts: 2 x 1/2 x 1/2 x 1/3=0.16 or 102pts/DSM

Obviously, the Sorceror with Powerfist is by far the most efficient, but having one means bringing a squad of the Rubric Marines, the least efficient ones. How do you work that out? Well, the minimum squad is 5, and one of them can be a Sorceror, which leaves 4 Rubric Marines. That gives us a squad that costs 148pts and gets 2 DSM, which translates into 74pts/DSM. That easily beats the efficiency of Horrors. Adding more Rubric Marines will decrease the efficiency of the squad, but will increase their survivability. Simply adding 1 more will only slightly alter their efficiency, but will boost survivability (by roughly 22%) and will give advantages in terms of Victory Points and Scoring Unit Status. (Since a squad gives up VPs or loses Scoring status when it drops below half, a squad of 5 would have to lose 3 models to do so, while a squad of 6 would be fine until they lost 4.)

I've mentioned survivability several times. Obviously, the more Rubric Marines we have in the squad, the better chance it has of surviving, since they are very tough. If you were planning on using a unit to tie up the enemy in a long, drawn-out combat or to take several charges from the opponent's assault specialists, it might be worth it to take a full squad, or at least the Favored number of Tzeentch, 9. Such a squad would be incredibly expensive, but it would be able to stand up to almost anything. Now that we've got a good idea of what our Troops are good at, let's look at Fast Attack.

Fast Attack
Well, there's not much here, but we might as well take a look at the capabilities of Screamers. They are very fast, being summoned onto the board, then having Flight to get them zipping around quickly. They also get Furious Charge, which gives them a High Initiative attack and a good strength. All this for 15pts! So how do they compare with the others?
Screamer 15pts: 2x 1/2 x 2/3 x 1/3=0.22 DSM or 68pts/DSM.

This is better than all of the Troops options except for the Sorceror with Powerfist. On the other hand, since they can't stay safe in close combat due to their Hit and Run ability, they aren't very resilient.

Heavy Support
Okay, now it's time for the big guns! Let's see what we can do against troops and against tanks. Troops first... Predator Autocannon +2 Heavy Bolters 110pts: 2x 2/3 x 5/6 x 1/3 PLUS 6x 2/3 x 2/3 x 1/3=1.25 DSM or 88pts/DSM
Predator Autocannon +2 Lascannons 125pts: 2x 2/3 x 5/6 x 1/3 PLUS 2x 2/3 x 5/6= 1.47 DSM or 85pts/DSM
Predator Twin Linked Lascannon +2 Lascannons 145pts: 8/9 x 5/6 PLUS 2x 2/3 x 5/6=1.84 DSM or 78.9pts/DSM
Dreadnaught Twin Linked Heavy Bolter + Missile Launcher 115pts: 3 x 8/9 x 2/3 x 1/3 PLUS 2/3 x 5/6=1.15 DSM or 100pts/DSM
Dreadnaught Twin Linked Lascannon + Missile Launcher 135pts: 8/9 x 5/6 PLUS 2/3 x 5/6=1.3DSM or 104pts/DSM
Defiler Battle Cannon 150pts: 4 x 1/2 x 5/6*=1.67 DSM or 90pts/DSM

Okay, the all-Lascannon Predator is winning the day here, but it's not by a huge margin. Ultimately, though, we're starting to get the picture that the Thousand Sons army isn't all about shooting people down at longer ranges.
*I counted the Battle Cannon as hitting 4 models on average and missing or scattering too far 1/2 the time.

Okay, now for shooting at some vehicles. The target here is the chance of a Penetrating hit on AV13. Being able to nail AV13 is a good target, since that gives us some of the heaviest tanks out there, and anything that can Penetrate AV13 will be able to nail a lesser target as well. Without further ado... Predator Autocannon +2 Lascannon 125: 2x 2/3 x 1/3=0.44 Chance of Penetration or 284pts/Penetrating Hit
Predator Twin Linked Lascannon +2 Lascannon 145pts: 8/9 x 1/3 PLUS 2x 2/3 x 1/3=0.74 Chance of Penetration or 195pts/Penetrating Hit
Dreadnaught Twin Linked Lascannon + Missile Launcher 135pts: 8/9 x 1/3 PLUS 2/3 x 1/6=0.41 Chance of Penetration or 329pts/Penetrating Hit
LandRaider 2x Twin Linked Lascannon 250pts: 2x 8/9 x 1/3=0.6 chance of pen or 416pts/Penetrating Hit

The all-Lascannon Predator wins really big in this competition. Admittedly the choice of AV13 ruled out the effectiveness of Autocannons and limited Missile Launchers, but AV13 is what most heavy tanks have, except for Leman Russes and LandRaiders, which are 14. With the All Lascannon Predator winning both challenges in the shooty category, it would be foolish to take something else, unless you have a very specific plan in mind. (An example of this would be taking a Dreadnaught with a Dreadnaught Close Combat Weapon and the Corruscating Warp Flame power for use in tying up hordes of Tyranids or Orks, then slaughtering them with the combination of the Flames and the CCW while they are locked in combat with it.)

Elites
I left Elites for the end because there are several really different options and a lot of flexibility. Rubric Terminators, at 42pts for 2 Wounds and Terminator saves are by far the toughest option here. With I4 and Power Weapons all around, they are pretty choppy, too.
Possessed and Chosen, on the other hand, can be very choppy, with each individual having the option of Powers and Wargear. They only have one Wound and usually a 3+ armor save, even though they can cost something like 57pts each before gear! With all the powers they can get, they can be a nasty surprise, but expect the enemy army to focus everything they can throw at them as well. With all that said, it's pretty clear that the Rubric Terminators, with or without a Sorceror, are going to be more efficient at killing Space Marines in close combat. Although they could get multiple Bolts of Change, these squads are really going to be too expensive to use as simple anti-troop shooting squads as well. Let's compare their shooting options against tanks, though...

5xChosen, each with Bolt of Change (S8 AP2 24" Range Assault 1) :285pts.
6xChosen 2xLascannon, 4xBolt of Change: 352pts.
5xPossessed w/Flight and Bolt of Change: 385pts.
All of these would be fairly effective antitank choices, though the Possessed, despite their expense would have an advantage by being able to move and shoot. Ultimately, though, both Chosen and Possessed are so expensive that there's definitely something else in the list that is more efficient than they are at any task.

Tactical Notes
It just wouldn't be me if, while obsessing about an army, I didn't go to various websites and forums about the army and take a look at what the veterans of the army are saying. I did a lot of reading and research and a few things stood out, both from their discussions and from my reading of the material.

1. Gift of Chaos can be very effective at taking out specific models, it's sort of a sniper weapon in this way, like Mind War. Even super characters and Monsters can be taken down with this one, since the number of Wounds doesn't matter and neither does their armor save. Pick a model within 2" and roll against it's toughness. Whether that was a Veteran Sergeant with a Powerfist or a Wraithlord or a Carnifex or a 200pt Librarian, it's got a good chance of going away. 1/6 chance to take out a Wraithlord. 1/4 Chance to take out a Chaplain. Nice.

2. Wind of Chaos is extremely effective at evening the odds on short notice or even taking a Wound off of something nasty, since it wounds anything on a 4+. Since it isn't reliant on Strength, this is something you can use against Wraithlords and Monsters. It's also a flame template, which makes it very effective against hordes. Nice all-round power.

3. Thralls are the secret. Did Gift of Chaos just not work? Spawn again by sacricficing a Thrall. Did you roll a bunch of ones when you used Wind of Chaos and now that huge unit of Assault Marines is eyeing you hungrily? Flame on with a thrall. Sure, it's a one-shot sort of thing, but for 5pts, you can't beat a second chance in a clutch situation.

Putting it all together
Okay, so now we've broken down the army and found out what parts are better than others and what, exactly, they can do. Now we go back through, decide what it is that we want out of it, and take the most efficient options for that task. For example, if we want to pop enemy vehicles, our most efficient option is the All-Lascannon Predator. While we could use a unit of Chosen with Bolts of Change and Lascannons to pop enemy tanks, the Predator does at least as good a job for less than half the price. Let's pick up two of these bad boys. That should cover our bases as far as knocking out enemy armor. What next? How about some Troops?

Well, we've determined that they really aren't all that good for pure shooting, so let's take some assault guys. We'll go with the 6 man squad of 5 Rubric Marines and 1 Sorceror with Powerfist and Pistol. That gives us 10 ablative Wounds to keep the Sorceror in combat. We'll further improve the Sorceror by giving him Mutation (which gives him an extra attack, so he's even more effective) and a Psychic Power. Let's go with Gift of Chaos, since he can use that in the shooting phase and he can pick the model, so it gives him a chance to take out enemy characters before they can get him. We'll put the whole squad in a Rhino to get them there quicker than walking, and we'll give the Rhino Extra Armor and Smoke to make it more survivable for the trip over. That comes to a total of 202 for the squad and 58 for the Rhino, a net of 260. We'll throw in two more squads just like that so that we can have three cans of nastiness zipping toward the enemy. Just 3 Rhinos does not an assault make, so how do we support these guys? Choppy leaders can be really nasty and can distract people from the Troops rushing toward them, so let's look at HQ.

Okay, we determined that a Lieutenant with Dark Blade and Pistol is the most efficient hand to hand killer, followed fairly closely by a Lieutenant with Twin Lightning Claws. Let's grab both of those guys. We'll give them each Mutation so they can get an extra attack. They won't do much good just plodding along at a snail's pace, however. Daemonic Flight is very effective at letting them hop terrain and zip around in the enemy's back lines, creating havoc. Finally, since we are intending them partly as a distraction from our Troops, they'll likely be fighting heavily outnumbered, at least for a turn or two until reinforcements arrive. Let's give them something to help soften up the enemy first. When we looked at shooting, the Wind of Chaos power came out on top. It also won't take away any of their attacks. Let's give them each Wind of Chaos to help even those odds. With their movement, they should be able to get good use out of those flame templates. What's next? Well, we've got HQ, Troops and Heavy Support and we've got an assaulty theme with some antitank backup. Let's look at the Elites section for some more help with the assault thing.

Assaulting Elites
Of all the Elites, the most efficient in assault are the Rubric Terminators. With 2W and an I4 Powerweapon in Terminator armor, they are a steal at 42pts. In most scenarios they should be able to Deepstrike in as well, which will help them get stuck in where they can do the most damage. We'll take 2 squads of these. One will have 4 Rubric Terminators and a Sorceror with Pfist, Mutation and Gift of Chaos to deal with nasty characters. That'll run us 268pts, about as much as another of our Rubric squads, but will give us a bit more flexibility and punch. With the final points, we'll add another Rubric Terminator squad. We'll keep this to 5 Rubrics and no sorceror, for a total of 210pts.

Tactics
Okay, so we've only got 37 models in 1849pts. That doesn't seem like much. On the other hand, that includes 37 Wounds in power armor and 19 Wounds in Terminator armor. What do we do with it all? Well, the Rhino squads start outside their rhinos or behind cover and zip forward the first turn, popping smoke. Meanwhile the Predators try to nail enemy vehicles that can take down the rhinos, and the two Lieutenants use cover to hop up one side of the board out of sight. Turn 2, the Rhinos roll forward again and disembark the three Rubric Squads near each other, concentrating their fire on the biggest nearby threat. At this point, one of the Terminator squads should become available and will deepstrike near the side of the force that the Lieutenants are gunning for. The Lieutenants, in turn, fly up and use Wind of Chaos to soften up a squad or two (depending on size) and then jump into combat. Turn 3 sees the Rubric Marine squads charging into combat, as well as the 1st Terminator squad, while the 2nd Terminator squad Deepstrikes in roughly the same area as the first one, while the Lieutenants continue to chew through the enemy lines. After this, roll through the enemy lines from one side to another.

Wrapup
So there you have it, an example of using efficiency on a large scale so the whole army can benefit from it. Saving a few points here and there really adds up to something big when you apply it to the whole army.

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