Thousand Sons - LVO 2019

Competition, February 05, 2019

This year I’m taking my Thousand Sons to LVO and my list has changed substantially.

Introduction

If you’ve been following along, I’ve been documenting how my list has changed through the 2018 ITC season. And, as you’re probably aware, the season comes to an end this week in it’s penultimate event - the Las Vegas Open. There are over 700 people registered for the championship tournament kicking off this Thursday. So, here’s what I’m taking…

The List

Battalion Detachment +5CP (Chaos Space Marines) [89 PL, 1375pts]

Legion: Alpha Legion

HQ

Chaos Lord [5 PL, 78pts] Chainsword, Power sword, Mark of Nurgle

Sorcerer with Jump Pack [7 PL, 124pts] Force sword, Power sword, Mark of Slaanesh

Troops

Chaos Cultists [3 PL, 50pts] x10 Chaos Cultist, Cultist Champion, x10 Autogun, Mark of Slaanesh

Elites

Hellforged Contemptor Dreadnought [10 PL, 144pts] Havoc launcher, x2 Butcher Cannon, Mark of Slaanesh

Heavy Support

Hellforged Deredeo Dreadnought [14 PL, 198pts] Butcher cannon array, Greater havoc launcher, Mark of Slaanesh, Twin heavy bolter

Obliterators [10 PL, 195pts] x3 Obliterator, Mark of Slaanesh

Battalion Detachment +5CP (Thousand Sons) [39 PL, 625pts]

HQ

Ahriman [7 PL, 131pts]

Sorcerer [6 PL, 98pts] Force sword, Inferno Bolt Pistol, Warlord

Troops

Rubric Marines [7 PL, 96pts] x5 Rubric Marines, Aspiring Sorcerer, x4 Inferno boltgun, Force stave, Inferno Bolt Pistol

Tzaangors [4 PL, 70pts] x10 Tzaangor, Twistbray, x10 Tzaangor Blades

Dedicated Transport

Terrax-Pattern Termite Assault Drill [8 PL, 134pts] x2 Storm Bolter, Mark of Tzeentch

How I got to this list

The last major tournament I attended was Wargames Con (Austin) months and months ago. If you recall from my other posts, I was big on a huge wall of Plague Bearers with Thousand Sons smiting from behind. Overall that list did quite well but it struggled in an area I need to improve on this year: Scoring. A lot of this falls on my shoulders as a player and being able to maximize my army.

My conclusion after running so many Plaguebearers was that they make a great introductory list, like training wheels if you will, to getting your feet wet with competitive play. You have so much durability to keep yourself in just about any game. But you’re also going to run into what I did and that is a huge lack of mobility. The more games you play at the competitive level the more you realize how important being able to move tactically becomes. I say tactically because its is more than just being able to move quickly. Tricks like Tide of Traitors and Dark Matter Crystal can offset an army’s apparent lack of outright speed.

So, that brings us to today, where the meta has clearly moved into the hands of Knights and by the looks of the lists, could be headed into the favor of Orks. Many of the top players are making the switch to horde-based armies. But you’re still going to have to deal with Castellans and those pesky soulbursting Reapers.

This list is designed to be able to handle all of it, some better than others. It also was mainly designed around the point reductions Dreadnoughts received in Chapter approved.

But it’s not actually Thousand Sons!

Yep, the list is not classified as a Thousand Sons list, and thats okay. This is my first LVO and I’m not even close to being in the running for top faction this year. So, I thought it would be good to just build a list that I liked and roll with it. Originally, it didn’t even have Thousand Sons.

The true origins of the list were 3x Contemptors, 3x Deredeos, and the Obliterators filling out a CSM Brigade with some Bikes splashed in. That list actually worked out pretty good and I was even impressed with the Bikers. The new Bolter rules should make those guys worth another look. However, I found myself really wanting that second Sorcerer and the points were too tight to make it work with the 3rd Deredeo. So, I started experimenting and finally realized that if I drop the bikes, I could switch to two Battalions picking up a Thousand Sons detachment with Ahriman, Rubrics, a Drill and even some Tzaangors. This ended up being a much better formula and I settled on it after a good number of practice games.

Key Concepts

The core of the list are the Butcher Cannons found on all of the dreads. They hit at strength 8, -1 AP, with 2 damage. I think a lot of people look at this and scoff at the fact that it’s only ap -1. I think that actually works out really good in a lot of situations, where you have just enough AP to knock really tough units off top save and onto an invuln if they have it. The 2 damage is key, where you’re doing enough to punch even the biggest targets hard and units with FNP (like plaguebearers) hate having to pass 2x 5+++. Obviously, the Chaos Lord is going to be keeping them company and helping out if they get assaulted.

Threat 2 are the Thousand Sons. The Tzaangors are mostly to help screen, since I only have 10 of them. But they can also get flung across the table with DMC if the situation calls for it. I have the Termite drill to help lower the drop count a little, where I can throw Ahriman, the Sorcerer, and 2x Rubric squads into it. I also get a free deepstrike with them all if needed.

Finally, threat 3 is the Obliterators and Slanesh Sorcerer. These are really here to deliver a knockout blow when it’s needed - either to finish/kill a Castellan or just try and mop up a tough unit. We know Obliterators are good, they have been for a while. They are typically accompanied by the sorcerer - who in some cases can take the Murder Sword to help him deal mortal wounds to a tough target. This works out great against things like Hive Tyrants, Castellans, Smash Captains, and pretty much anything you want dead.

Expectations and 2019

I’m going into LVO knowing that some big changes are in the works for my main army in 2019. My goal is to try and crack the top 100, which out of 700 entries would be a pretty good accomplishment for my first trips to Vegas. I’m also trying to watch and see where the meta is headed, since this will be the first big tournament in quite a while and should shake out some big changes if they’re legit.

We’ve seen the GSC previews and already they look really good on paper. The time of the Knights might be coming to an end, but we’ll find out soon enough. I’ll have some thoughts on where I’m going with the list coming up on the next Podcast.