Nine Things for Ninth Edition
A new edition of Warhammer 40k is weeks away. Let’s take a look at the top 9 things we’re looking for with Thousand Sons in the next edition.
9 - Summoning
Let’s be honest - the summoning rules in 40k suck. You compare them to Age of Sigmar (AoS) and they are just out-classed all day long. Theres so much opportunity for the Demon armies to get their mojo going with how AoS does summoning. Since they’re on a kick of adopting AoS rules in 40k lately, I wouldn’t be surprised to see these come over with it at some point.
Thousand Sons could flourish with some adjustments to summoning, as the Tzeentch Demons actually fit great roles where they are lacking - fast attacks as an example.
8 - Would the Real Codex: Thousand Sons Please Stand Up
Tzaangors were brought over from Age of Sigmar to bolster the Thousand Sons troop options, giving them a solid troop choice to assault the enemy with while your slower Rubric Marines could get into position. At launch, they were strong, right up there with Bloodletters in big numbers….
- Then came the restriction that you could not use Warptime after arriving from reserves.
- Then came the restriction that they could not come in from reserves turn one - but we still had the Darkmater Crystal
- Then came the point increase in Chapter Approved 2020
- Then came the boost to Rubric Marines in Psychic Awakening
Ever since the launch in 8th, you can see that the army has been (forcibly) shifting from Tzaangors to Rubric Marines. To fans of the Thousand Sons this has been met with joy - as now the army feels like what it should feel like at it’s core. But that doesn’t mean Tzaangors are in a good place.
What the army really has right now is a mini-identity crisis where you need Tzaangors for their role in the army but cost so much you’re punished in what other models you can take. Ninth will be the first update to Thousand Sons point costs since Chapter Approved and this will be the first opportunity for this balance of Tzaangors and Rubric Marines to shake up.
7 - Scarab Occult Terminators
Terminators….did not enjoy 8th edition. Perhaps the only ones seeing some action were in Deathwatch and Chaos Space Marines due to their weapon options in both cases. Terminators throughout the whole game suffered from an identity crisis. They exist as elite infantry but are out-performed by regular infantry. That has to change in 9th edition if Terminators of any flavor are going to see serious play.
Scarab Occult Terminators suffer, perhaps, the most of any Terminators in the game. Their AP-2 bolters are an alluring trap for many players. Most who take them regret it and never do so again. Theres enough firepower in the game now to eliminate them very quickly - and they’ll never get to use that awesome All is Dust rule since everything has 2d or more these days (aka Stalker Bolt Rifles).
They cost more than 2x Rubric Marines offering no real upside/advantage. Their Power Swords are far-surpassed by other melee options for fewer points. Their range is a paltry 24” and they have no upgrades/options they can take to change this.
Here’s hoping they see some improvement in 9th.
6 - Magnus the Dead
In the early throws of 8th we saw Magnus as a prime weapon, together with Mortarion in the “Bash Brothers” concept. Those days are long gone, banished during the time of Knights. Now, in the late twilight of 8th, we have just about every army capable of tabling Magnus off the board turn 1 with ease. There are no stratagems to hide Magnus turn one, boost his save, ablate wounds to other units, or even revive him if fallen. Those 445pts (25% of your army) are gone without any return on them just for going 2nd.
We know the new terrain rules will not allow him to hide behind buildings with the Obscure keyword, as he (currently) has 18 wounds. There are a lot of options for what they could do but the real question is if they will do anything. If I had to place my hope in something, it would be in the possible options to Outflank him within the new 9th edition deployment process.
5 - New models
Something flying under the radar is the announcement of new models coming in 9th. Now, theres no reason to get excited about something new coming to Thousand Sons but it does give you hope that they may be under the microscope for some additions. We’ve seen Admech updated recently and now Necrons are getting a big influx of new toys.
Could we see some units on discs? How about Tanks and Demon Engines? Maybe a bespoke Flyer?
4 - Codex: Supreme Command
Thousand Sons have been known through all of 8th edition as “Codex: Supreme Command” - named for the common detachment choice of bringing Thousand Sons in a Supreme Command with any other Chaos army. Credit to them, they’ve been there from the start in this form and survived all the way through the edition.
Now that we know that Command Points and army construction is completely changing in 9th edition, a key to the army’s viability will be in how their troop and other options pan out. While Souping will still be an option, will it be the best one? Will you go with Rubric Marines or Tzaangors? Do you need any Tzaangors? What about Cultists?
All of this will play a big role in how Thousand Sons look in 9th edition.
3 - Tzeentch Soup
The recent Psychic Awakening update for Demons brought with it a minor upgrade to Tzeentch demons.
- Some stratagems for each of the specific demon units: Horrors, Screamers, and Flamers
- Special rules to make your Lord of Change even stronger on the table
These rules had a chance to be pretty impact-full with armies souped with Demons. I say had because we’re not going to see any serious 8th edition games with these rules really getting tested and souped because these rules are no where near enough for Tzeentch Demon armies to stand on their own feet.
The big thing in 9th appears to be a push to get armies back into their “mono” build, which is to say that all models taken in your army are from a single codex. Is this going to put a damper on lists where Thousand Sons mesh well with Tzeentch Demons?
We haven’t seen enough of the army building rules to really know yet, but this is an important thing to watch now that the move to mono-armies has been unveiled.
2 - New Forgeworld Books
New books for Forgeworld are expected to drop in late 2020. Theres been no words or leaks about what to expect in these books. They could be developing bespoke faction rules or just reworking things like the Hellforged rules that have been with us since the inception of 8th.
One of the big things to look for here with Thousand Sons is what could happen with some of the models currently in the 30k range for the army. While some of the “upgrade” products offered by Forgeworld have been slowly vanishing from their catalog (such as Rhino Doors), it’s possible that they decide to fold options like the beautiful dreadnought sculpts into their legion rules.
Could we finally see a psychic dreadnought?
1 - Points
The hot topic right now for 9th edition is obviously the re-work of points for all units in the game across the board. The last time we had this done was the launch of 8th edition years ago. All in all, that process worked out pretty well compared to what we saw in 7th.
What we know is that games are going to get smaller from a raw model count perspective. There are two ways you can do this:
- Decrease the cap on points per game
- Increase the cost of everything
Obviously, the easy thing to do would be just decrease game sizes from 2000 pts to say, 1750. However, by doing this you’re essentially “buffing” units that are already very strong at their current point cost. It’s like shrinking the pool size and leaving the big sharks in it.
On the flip side, what they’ve decided to do is increase the cost of everything, while also in the process of adjusting costs (like they did in yearly Chapter Approved cycles). This will be much healthier for the game because it adjust costs according to the size of the pool.
So, what about Thousand Sons? First off, the core of the army is not in bad shape from a cost standpoint. Not many people are going to argue about the value you get in Ahriman, Demon Princes, and Sorcerers. While theres debate about the troop choices, they aren’t as bad as some other armies. The real issues lie in all of the other options they have (for what they do).
With Rubric Marines finally seeing some play competitively, the important thing to watch for in the points is how much certain units increase in points. It’s far too difficult to speculate right now what the 9th edition costs may be.