Top 5 Units You Must Have In Your Thousand Sons List

Analysis, April 18, 2021

Building another Thousand Sons List? Make sure you have these units in it.

We all hate top X lists, I get it. Thinking about this article though, there just wasn’t a way to present it any better. So, dispensing with the formalities, these are the units you need to seriously consider having in your next Thousand Sons list. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Saturday pickup game, weekend RTT, or the next Major; it won’t guarantee you a win, but it will surely give you fighting chance.

5. The “Brick” (Rubric Marines)

Everyone is familiar with Rubric Marines since just about every army needs to have a Troop choice. The Brick, if you are new to Thousand Sons or just unfamiliar with that term, refers to a big block of 15-20 Rubric Marines. Ritual of the Damned introduced a new stratagem called Risen Rubricae, which adds a whole new dimension to using Rubric Marines.

What makes them good?

While Risen Rubricae is probably the biggest boon Rubric Marines received, there were a plethora of other tools awarded to them in Ritual of the Damned. Let’s take a look at a couple ways to take “The Brick”…

The Flamer Brick

First up is a squad completely equipped with Warpflamers. This is going to cost you 387-517 points depending on if you take the 15-man or 20-man variants. As mentioned above, Risen Rubricae gives you the opportunity to infiltrate your Brick into the middle of the field to counter your opponent’s plans. Even more aggressively, you could deploy them as close to your opponent’s deployment zone as possible, ultimately boxing them in from any movement on turn 1 in the scenario where they go first. To envision this, imagine deploying 20 Rubric Marines in a line (coherently) along and 9” away from your opponent’s deployment zone. This is a great first move to make as you can take advantage of them not having any models deployed yet that may also be able to infiltrate the field. Beware, good players will know of this strategy and will likely take action to prevent or minimize your actions early on. Ultimately, taking 20x (AP-2) Flamers to your army first turn is a huge issue to deal with and even worse, charging your marines into combat with things you want to hold at bay (like locking up your opponent in boxing) is another option available to you.

Unfortunately, Warpflamers only have an 8” range at the moment. While other flamers in the game have been bumped to 12”, this really makes it tough to use without being able to either go first or take some damage before getting used. It’s expected that when the new Thousand Sons codex drops, these flamers will join the others with a 12” range, and when they do, this version of The Brick will get saucy(er).

The Bolter Brick

Next is a 270-360 point variant of the Brick that takes all Inferno Bolters. Everything holds mostly the same as when you take flamers only you aren’t quite as efficient. You also lose the potential to Overwatch your opponent (badly) should you just be trying to use them as a speed bump early on. Additionally, you also need more Command Points available in order to use one of the other options - Infernal Fusillade (which lets you shoot the bolters twice if they don’t move). While this option is less efficient, fitting a full 20-man Brick into your list gets much easier with the reduced point cost over the Warpflamers.

Combos / Tools

• Indomitable Foes - placing The Brick in your opponent’s face immediately makes them a primary threat. You’ll almost certainly need this stratagem to maximize their defense when your opponent responds.
• Infernal Fusillade - shoot twice, but you need to sit still. Really good if you go first.
• Weaver of Fates - works with Indomitable Foes and gives you an even greater advantage when they are attacked. Does have the drawback of requiring you to go first.
• Glamour of Tzeentch - provides even more durability to your marines by reducing the effectiveness of any incoming attacks
• Prescience - improve your chance to hit with bolters
• Cult of Duplicity - competitively, this is a must take. It allows you pivot before the game starts should you not go first - redeploying your Marines back to a safe location so that you can buff them and then “jump” them into place when its your turn using the Duplicity spell.
• Veterans of the Long War - will boost your ability to wound whatever you’re attacking both with Flamers and Bolters
• Cult of Time - brings back dead Rubric Marines with Cult of Time’s spell
• Sorcerus Infusion - can bring back an additional Marine if you roll good on your spell

4. Magnus the Red

Magnus has always been an X-factor model, even in 8th edition when it was common for him to get punted off the table before you even use him. 9th edition tossed Thousand Sons players a bone by allowing them to place Magnus in strategic reserves. While this does come at the cost of 3CP, you do kinda get that back by way of making Magnus your Warlord in a Supreme Command detachment. In addition to that, Thousand Sons have the Magister stratagem available to them in Ritual of the Damned which makes it so you don’t miss out on that all-important Warlord Trait you need. What really makes Magnus so great is that he’s something your opponent has to deal with. Sure, they can tar-pit him however, it means committing units to him in combat to do so and those are units that would otherwise be somewhere else, freeing up the rest of your army to work less opposed.

What makes him good?

Simply put, Magnus has some of the best offensive output in the game from a single model. First, the amount of mortal wounds you can dish out with Magnus is still tops in the game. The key is you want the big 2d6 Smite or a D6 Infernal Gateway depending on the situation you have. Use the board edges with strategic reserves to your advantage here, placing Magnus where you need him to be. You also want to get a couple other Psyker units within 6” so you can boost that important spell by as much as +4 using the Cabalistic Focus stratagem. Tossing Doombolt, Gift of Chaos, and/or Deathhex on Magnus are all great secondary powers as you’re stacking important or high-cost spells on your best caster. Don’t forget about Magnus’s ability to re-roll 1s for Psychic tests.

Second, whatever survives the psychic phase is able to be dealt with in the fight phase, as Magnus hits like a freight train. You’ll be working with 8 attacks; wounding just about everything in the game on 2+; and, unless they have an invulnerable save, dealing upwards of 24 points of damage if you roll perfect. Only models with a 2+ armor save will have a chance at saving some of the wounds with a 6+.

Finally, Magnus needs his spell-buffs to really make him work. Use this to know when it’s right to bring him into the game. If you have other models/units that need the buff and can survive a turn, it might be worth waiting until turn 3 before Magnus arrives. A good example of this is if you’re using The Brick, as described above.

Combos/Tools

• Strategic Reserves - explained in detail above, you can certainly start Magnus on the table, but you need to know your matchups to know when it’s best to hide him until turn 2-3.
• Weaver of Fates - gets Magnus down to a 3++, making him a tough nut to crack
• Glamour of Tzeentch - giving Magnus additional durability by making attacks hit less
• Cabilistic Focus - get your cast bonus up to +4
• Temporal Mutation - heal Magnus; but put this on another unit so you can save Magnus’s casts for the important stuff
• Sorcerous Infusion - heal Magnus some more, and reliably with his cast bonuses

3. Demon Prince

The Demon Prince has been a staple in Chaos lists for a long time. Thousand Sons Demon Princes take that to another level, with their access to more powers and ability to cast 2 spells vs the 1 from their Chaos cousins. Demon Princes also benefit from the new Cults introduced in Ritual of the Damned so, they now have even more tools to work with.

What makes them good?

While the Sword and Axe options are tempting, the Talons still represent the best options giving you more attacks with good AP and good Damage. While taking them fully loaded with Wings and Talons brings you out to 200pts (a hefty price) they still should make up for it in just about every game. While a 4++ is also good, don’t rely on it to make your prince invulnerable, as most of the stuff that will go after your Demon Prince will hit hard enough that 50% of the wounds getting through would be an issue. Otherwise, Demon Princes are an incredibly strong unit still and very capable.

To take Wings or not?

The big debate now with Demon Princes is if you need to take them with Wings or not. Plenty of people still swear by the 200pt winged option as you can move them with Warptime all over the place and get them into combat (where they want to be) fairly easily. The non-winged alternative however, is gaining traction. The key to this is the introduction of Cult of Duplicity’s spell, which lets you effectively “jump” a unit to anywhere on the battlefield. Why do things the hard way when you can simply put him where you need him? Not to mention, this saves you 35pts, which is quite a lot, and can help get more units into the army.

Combos/Tools

• Aetherstride (WLT) - this is overlooked a lot because people see that you get to advance and charge and stop reading. But in addition to that you can also re-roll your charges. Whether you take the winged option or not, this WLT is very effective on your Demon Prince as you can reliably get them into combat.
• Cult of Duplicity / No-Wings - put him where you want, even turn 1
• Hourglass of Manat (Cult of Time) - automatically revives your Demon Prince when he dies the first time. Even better is that you get him back at the end of the phase and he’ll be outside of 1”, this means you have free reign to go where you need and charge (again).
• Temporal Mutation - heal up
• Sorcerous Infusion - heal up some more
• High Magister (WLT) - give your Demon Prince a better casting bonus, these are hard to come by
• Undying Form (WLT) - reduce the damage your Demon Prince takes

2. Ahriman

Ahriman, the auto-take. While he may not get any of the Cult bonuses from Ritual of the Damned, he still sports a ton of value that that helps optimize your (now) limited HQ options. We’ve gone over and over Ahriman’s values over the years and not much of them have changed all that much. What has changed recently was an update in the core FAQ to how Warptime works in relation to Advancing.

The key here is these changes ultimately make it so that you cannot Warptime and Advance. This plays a little into how you may ultimately decide to take Ahriman in your army.

What makes him good?

It really boils down to few key points:

• His point cost is a bargain
• He has a built-in bonus to psychic tests and deny the witch attempts
• He grants a re-roll 1 aura to other units
• Has a built-in 4++ over the standard 5++

Generally speaking, Ahriman makes a great unit to focus on casting buffs for something else, like Magnus or a Brick. His +cast bonus and 3x casts means you can let other pyskers in your army focus on offensive output rather than juggling buffs. Keep Ahriman back outside of Deny the Witch range of your opponent’s psykers and he’ll be able to buff them without any issues all game long.

The Disc of Tzeentch Dilemma

Circling back onto the Warptime and Advance point above, being able to get Ahriman to safety or in range to cast powers on something is vital. While it might seem like it’s not that much, Ahriman was able to move 6+D6 and then 6+D6 again before this clarification, which gave him a 14-24” range when on-foot. Now that range drops to 13-18” and when you compare it to his Disc version 25-30”, it starts to become a little more tempting. Then, when you consider that the number of HQ options has been shrunk in 9th edition with the new army building structure and you start to be getting a stronger and stronger case to take Ahriman on his Disc.

Still, so long as you can Advance and cast psychic powers, the on-foot options will likely remain the best way to take Ahriman.

Combos/Tools

• Spells - load Ahriman up with Glamour of Tzeentch, Weaver of Fates, and Warptime giving you a reliable way to get your important buffs cast on an important target.
• Temporal Mutation - heal Ahriman; but put this on another unit so you can save Ahriman’s casts for the important stuff
• Sorcerous Infusion - heal Ahriman some more, and reliably with his cast bonuses
• Webway Infiltration - if you take Ahriman on foot, you can deepstrike him, especially if you are bringing Mangus as well. This means you can guarantee to have Ahriman in the right spot with the right range to buff Magnus for simple 1 CP. But, this strategy can backfire if you’re also using something like the Brick in your list and you need those buffs turn 1.

1. Chaos Spawns

Yes. Chaos Spawns. They are one of the best values in the Codex right now and theres a lot of ways to explain why. Mostly, it comes down to their point cost but they are also one of the few “Fast” options the Thousand Sons have access to without having to import other Codexes. On top of that they hit very respectably in combat and there are some tricks the Thousand Sons have to make them even better.

What makes them good?

Let’s start with the point cost. 23pts/model - which is just 5pts more than your standard Rubric Marine. While this might seem crazy when you consider that spawns have 4 wounds, D6 attacks, and do AP-2 damage 2 in close combat; ultimately it makes sense when you factor in that all they have is T5 and a 5+ save to keep each 4-wound model alive.

Next, you can take these crazy dudes in units of up to 5, for 115pts. This really is where things get interesting because as a unit you can cast psychic powers on them to make them even stronger. While Weaver of Fates and Glamour of Tzeentch are fine choices to bolster their defense, there likely are going to be better or more important choices for those spells early on in the game. Prescience however, is a great choice due to the fact that Chaos Spawns only come with a 4+ WS out of the box.

The package gets even better with Chaos Spawn’s built-in ability to boost their stats. The great thing is, it doesn’t matter which option you get, all of them are great. You’re either hitting at AP-4, re-rolling wounds, or each model getting +2 attacks. Just a random awesome bonus each time they fight.

Think we’re done? Nope. Thousand Sons actually have a stratagem, mostly forgotten about, specifically for Chaos Spawns. Fated Mutation lets you not only skip the process above for determining the ability (you get to pick the one you want), but now you also get to re-roll the number of attack each Chaos spawn get. This second part drastically boosts the efficiency of Thousand Sons Chaos Spawns as you’re making a big improvement on the consistency of how many attacks they get.

Finally (yes, theres more), in 9th edition Chaos Spawns get a helpful little boost in the core rules that were an issue in 8th. Since they only move 7”, which isn’t that much for “Fast Attack”, having to move around terrain would make that even worse. Now in 9th edition, Beasts, which is what Chaos Spawn are, get to move through walls like Infantry do.

Combos/Tools

• Cult of Duplicity - hide your spawns and make them jump out, turn 1, 2, whenever. Put them where you need and let them go to work
• Fated Mutation - explained above, make them sing
• Prescience - make them hit on 3+
• Mutalith Vortex Beast - have your spawns re-roll charges, get +1 strength (S6), or improve their AP by 1. Delivery gets tricky however

Conclusion

Look, we’re not working with much right now in the broad scheme of things. The army is constantly at the bottom of competitive “tier” lists and it looks like it’s going to be a while before we get our much needed codex. That being said, a solid list can be put together with the options above, giving you a fighting chance in most games.