To check out the previous article in this series, please go here.

Planning Ahead
As I said in the last installment, I'm winding up the Constrictor Swarm. I'll still be playing with it and tweaking it for a while, but I'm starting to plan out my next army. I'm going to want something as a break from the Swarm. As I said last time, I want something with a low model count that I can really go all out on the painting. I also want something with mobility and/or something that requires a bit of finesse to use. (Ie: not just slam forward into the other guy.) I also want something that is not Tyranid in nature. Last time I looked at Elite Veteran Night Lords with lots of Veteran skills and good equipment, but no vehicles. The remaining armies under consideration (at the moment) are Thousand Sons, Ravenwing and Suit-Heavy Tau. This week we'll take a look at Thousand Sons. (Note: these pics are used without permission)

Ashes To Ashes
Thousand Sons armies are widely considered to be the least powerful of the Chaos armies. Although they have potent Sorcerors and very resilient Troops, they are usually very slow and don't have a lot of punch in their units. (In a standard Troop squad, the only one that can take a weapon other than a bolter or an upgrade of any kind is the Aspiring Champion. The others are 2 Wound Space Marines with Bolters that cost 24pts each!) The Aspiring Champions are also Sorcerors, meaning they have access to some pretty decent powers such as Bolt of Change (Medium range S8 shot that is useful against Heavy Infantry and Armor) or Gift of Chaos (chance to turn target in base contact into a Chaos Spawn that will fight for you!) or Wind of Chaos (Flamer that ignores armor saves!) In addition, standard Rubric Marines (the Troops with the Mark of Tzeentch) can be upgraded to Terminators, meaning you can have guys with a 2+/5++ save and 2 Wounds! Chosen and Possessed Marines all become Sorcerors, with the powers listed above, making for some very potent units with multiple powers. The rest of the list, however, is conspicuous for what it lacks. Any unit that would incorporate Chaos Marines (Havocs, Bikers, Raptors, for example) cannot be taken in a Thousand Sons list (They've all been turned to dust, you see.) The Troop Daemons are pretty shooty, but they are awfully expensive to be so fragile and not be safely stuck in an assault during the enemy shooting phase. The Fast Attack Daemons are very fast and fairly good, but they are expensive and fragile and they have to hit and run, meaning they don't get to hide in combat during enemy shooting, either. Aside from that, the rest of the options are more or less the same stuff available to other legions (save for Obliterators, you'd think the Lord of Change would like these guys!) Given the expense of the Mark of Tzeentch and the limitations on the list, it's definitely got a small enough model count. Even though the individual models are pretty resilient, there are so few of them that you generally have to play with some finesse. Mobility, on the other hand, could be a problem.

Brainstorming
Well, I took a look at all of my options and tried out all sorts of possibilities to see what it might look like. I played around with the idea of a small squad of Possessed Sorcerors each with Gift of Chaos and Daemonic Flight. The idea would be to fly them up to the nastiest enemy unit and turn them into spawn quickly. 5 Assault Terminators and a Chaplain? Great, you've now got 2 Terminators left and I've got 4 spawn on my side! It would be a very expensive unit, but it would be a nasty surprise and great for taking on characters or even Monstrous Creatures. (Okay, I've got 5 attacks on your Carnifex, if any of them is a 6, it'll turn into a Spawn, regardless of it's armor save or number of Wounds left!) While it could be a lot of fun, it would be awfully expensive. I won't totally throw out the idea, I'll put it on the shelf for now. I also tried working out different ways to use Flamers (Troop Daemons) as a move and fire Heavy Bolter seems pretty worthwhile. Unfortunately, it's actually got very limited utility due to the poor resilience of the unit. 2 Wounds and a 5+ invulnerable save just doesn't cut it against any army with decent shooting. The standard choices for Thousand Sons HQ units are the Lord of Change (Greater Daemon, also referred to as Death Chicken) or a tooled-up Daemon Prince with Stature (or both.) Unfortunately, these will set you back 180+ points each. I toyed around with different ideas for my HQ. Eventually I decided the best bet would be to keep them relatively cheap and give them good mobility and damage potential. They won't be superfiends, able to shrug off Battle Cannon rounds and go into the teeth of the biggest enemy unit out there, but they'll be fast and will be able to do lots of damage. For a lot fewer points you can get a Lieutenant that does as much damage and can be hidden more easily to offset the greater vulnerability. Thousand Son Terminators don't seem like much at first. They are Terminators with I4 Powerweapons and 2 Wounds. On the other hand, 2 Wounds in Terminator armor is nothing to sneeze at and I4 powerweapons in an army with few upgrades are golden. Add in the possibility of Deepstrike and you have something! I decided that I needed mobility in my squads, so I gave them all Rhinos. This lets them get closer to the enemy lines more quickly, and their Wounds and armor should keep them pretty safe if the Rhino gets blown up. Finally, I knew I'd need some good antitank, so I played around with different options including Land Raiders and Defilers and Predators and even Bolts of Change on my squad sorcerors. Eventually I settled on the 3 Lascannon Predator as the best combination of antitank effectiveness and price.

So What Would it Look Like?
I went through the list and took what I decided was essential. (1 HQ, 3 Troop Squads, a Predator.) Then I went back and looked at what I had. With 3 Mechanized Troop squads, it looked like a straight Rhino rush army to me. I made sure to optimize each of the units I'd chosen, then I applied army list efficiency to the rest of the list so that I could see what would be the most effective things for me to add. Another Lieutenant gave me great additional damage potential, and using the two of them together will make them more than twice as effective. Similarly, an additional Predator would give me much needed antitank. With about 500pts left, I needed some additional punch for the army. I could have added another Troop squad, but they don't have a lot of punch. After playing around with different ideas, I took another look at Rubric Terminators. I4 powerweapons give them a lot of punch, and the possibility of deepstrike gives them good mobility. Finally, two Wounds in Terminator armor make them pretty resilient. At this point, a plan began to form in my head. The Troop squads in their Rhinos would set up in the middle or just to one side of center. The Lieutenants would hide on a flank near each other. As the Troop squads advanced in their Rhinos, the Lieutenants would both fly up to the enemy, use Wind of Chaos and then get stuck in. With two of them next to each other, they should create quite a swath of damage and distract the opponent from my Troop squads. Turn 2, the Lieutenants keep working their magic and the Rhinos move up and unload the Troop squads, who Rapid Fire the enemy. Turn 3, as the enemy is starting to focus on the Troop squads and realizing how hard they are to hurt, the Terminators drop in, preferably on the same flank the Lieutenants have been butchering. The addition of 10 I4 powerweapons should take care of that flank pretty quickly, while my three Troop squads are smashing into the enemy, turning them into spawn and pasting them with powerfists.

Other Options
Currently the Sorcerors in my Troop squads have Gift of Chaos. This lets them target a specific model in base contact and attempt to turn it into a Chaos Spawn to fight for me. Instead I could give them Bolt of Change, which would significantly increase the shooting power of the unit. On the other hand, there will only be a few turns each game that they should be free to shoot, so I don't know that this is really a strong option. Wind of Chaos is very effective, being a flamer that ignores armor saves. The difficulty here is the combination of the short range of the template with the Slow and Purposeful movement of the Thousand Sons squads. I'd probably only get to use it once or twice in a game. Admittedly, it would pay for itself just with those uses, but I think that Gift of Chaos, since it lets me target individual models in base contact is the most useful power. It gives me a chance to take out enemy powerfists, or characters, and I can use it in my shooting phase and still use the Powerfist in the Assault phase. My Rubric Terminators currently have no leader. One option that I am considering strongly is to give them a Sorceror outfitted similarly to those in my Troop squads (except in Terminator armor, of course!) This would give the unit more punch and would also give them a little more flexibility in their targets, since they'd now have something that could take on things that S4 powerweapons can't touch or have a difficult time hurting (such as vehicles or Monstrous Creatures or Independent Characters with a good Invulnerable save. On the other hand, that does get pretty expensive, so I'd have to shave some points out of my list to try to squeeze them in. I'll probably end up trying it both ways to see which one works better for me. Finally, I considered dropping the Terminators and a Predator (or both) for Defilers with Indirect Fire. This would let me divide the enemy by fire, which is interesting and fun. Set up Rhinos and Lieutenants to rush one side of the enemy line. Drop large Blast Templates in the center of the enemy line to keep them from reinforcing the side you are crushing. Once you've wiped out the center, shift fire to the far side to soften them up for your Troop squads. It's a fine (and fun!) tactic, but it would leave me pretty vulnerable to vehicles. Ultimately, I think I'll stick with the original configuration, unless I really think I need those pie plates.

Here's the temporary list...
129 LT w/Dark Blade+Pistol, Disc of Tzeentch, Mark of Tzeentch, Wind of Chaos (note: Disc gives Flight and Mutation!)
135 LT w/Twin Lightning Claws, Disc of Tzeentch, Mark of Tzeentch, Wind of Chaos(note: Disc gives Flight and Mutation!)

210 5xRubric Terminators
210 5xRubric Terminators

275 5xRubric Marines+Sorceror w/Powerfist, Pistol, Mutation, Gift of Chaos, 3xThrall Wizard, Rhino w/ExArmor and Smoke
275 5xRubric Marines+Sorceror w/Powerfist, Pistol, Mutation, Gift of Chaos, 3xThrall Wizard, Rhino w/ExArmor and Smoke
275 5xRubric Marines+Sorceror w/Powerfist, Pistol, Mutation, Gift of Chaos, 3xThrall Wizard, Rhino w/ExArmor and Smoke

145 Predator Twin Linked Lascannon Turret, 2xLascannon Sponsons
145 Predator Twin Linked Lascannon Turret, 2xLascannon Sponsons

1799pts

44 Models. A good, small model count. Of course, that's 20 Terminator Wounds, 35 Power Armor wounds and 9 Thrall Wizards, with 5 Vehicles. (That actually sounds like a pretty reasonable size of army!)

All those Wounds in my Troop squads (11 Power armor wounds and 3 crappy ones) gives me some pretty good resilience and will let me make the most out of the Sorceror (both for the Powerfist and the Gift of Chaos.) In addition, the Rhinos get me close quickly and keep my units safer on their way in, which means I have more turns to use the Powerfists and the Gifts. Each of those squads can handle pretty much any target. The Lieutenants can dish out lots of damage against basic troops between Wind of Chaos and their weaponry. They and the Terminators will struggle against Monstrous Creatures and Vehicles, but the Predators and the Troop squads should be able to handle those pretty easily.

Okay, does it fit?
Well, this army does have a low model count and fits the bill for an elite force like I've been looking for. It also offers some tactical challenge in that Thousand Sons are a difficult army to do well with, due to all the restrictions of the list. On the other hand, even though it is mobile (almost entirely mechanized) it is more of a "Smashmouth" army than a finesse. An axe instead of a rapier or a scalpel. I think I'd have a good time with this army, but it doesn't fit all of my criteria, so we'll see. I'll be taking a look at two more armies in the upcoming weeks and see if they are a better fit for what I want.

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