Thousand Sons at Adepticon 2018

Competition, April 08, 2018

The dust has settled from Adepticon, the first major where we saw elements of the new Thousand Sons codex in action. We’ll take a look at what we saw and the review the lists that featured Thousand Sons.

Overall Results

We saw new elements from the Thousand Sons codex showing up all over the place, even the final table. Nick Nanavati’s list featured the Tzaangor Bomb I ran a rough stats article on a short while back.

Elsewhere, we saw quite a few lists featuring Thousand Sons. There were a total of 254 competitors in the tournament at Adepticon. If you’re unfamiliar with how the ITC tournaments work, you are scored and ranked on more than just how you do competitively. For the purposes of this article, I’m be looking solely at how the list did on the table.

Place Player Battle Points Strength of Schedule
23Eric Dionne1204190
33Chris Hanes1203122
40Allan Hernandez1204143
54Dominik Tavernaro1123128
81James Morgan915197
99Justin Curtis946216
120Bret Killeen802080
157Neil Applebee584181
243Steve Stoeklen01057
244George Tsemberlis03120

"Your ITC faction is determined as follows: find the the most specific Faction Keyword (which is typically the last Faction Keyword listed on each unit's’ datasheet) shared by every model in the detachment with the most points in it in your army."

ITC Rules

Eric Dionne - 23rd (1999pts, 9CP)

Thousand Sons Battalion

HQ

Troops

Elites

Fast Attack

Tzeentch Daemons Battalion

HQ

Troops

Thousand Sons Super-heavy Aux

Lord of War

Eric’s list primarily focuses on Tzaangors and Pink Horrors in large mobs being able to deepstrike where he needs them. The Fluxmaster gives them some boosted strength and The Changeling adds a 6+ FNP which, for that many models, is not bad at all.

Chris Hanes - 33rd (1997pts, 4CP)

Thousand Sons Outrider

HQ

Troops

Elites

Fast AttackM

Chao Daemons Patrol

HQ

Troops

Fast AttackM

Chris’s list is quite different, taking advantage of the new Tzaangor Englightened, 72 of them in total. He also brings a few Nurglings to help with board control and screening off early, which is an important thing. Also not to overlook the fact that he has a big Tzaangor Bomb, this army is super mobile, something that would unheard of in 7th.

Allan Hernandez (1865pts, 7CP, 135 Reinforcements)

Tzeentch Daemons Battalion

HQ

Troops

≈ HQ

Chaos Daemons Patrol

HQ

Troops

Allan’s list is a departure from the Tzaangor-heavy lists we’ve already covered. It does bring the big Pink Horror bomb along with the Changecaster/Changeling combo. For added measure, he brings a Lord of Change, which helps out with morale in addition to being a beast. Also, don’t overlook the 135pts he has set aside for summoning, which is enough to grab any of the following:

Dominik Tavernaro (1998pts, 7CP)

Thousand Sons Battalion

HQ

Troops

Elites

Fast AttackM

Chaos Daemons Spearhead

HQ

Troops

Heavy Support

Thousand Sons Super-heavy Aux

Lord of War

Dominik’s list focused again on the Pink Horrors in large number however, he brings just enough to get the extra shot per model. He mixes in cc weapons with his cultists along with 3 Burning Chariots.

Analyzing the Top Lists

These lists made it into (roughly) the top 20% of finishers at Adepticon. One thing common to each of them is that they all take advantage of either Tzaangors or Pink Horrors in some way. When they did, they either had something in the army that could Warptime them or they brought Changecaster/Changeling to boost the horrors. Another interesting splash were Nurglings, used for scouting and board control early. Ahriman and Daemon Princes rounded out the common selections taken.

Another clear standout was that if Tzaangor Enlightened were taken, at least 1 Shaman was included.

Overall, it’s good to see Thousand Sons lists making a good showing at Tournaments now. Tzaangors are clearly a strong cornerstone now to any Thousand Sons army.