Preview of Thousand Sons 10th Edition Rules

Competition, June 04, 2023

It’s been a year of slogging through 9th edition doldrums but we’re finally on the precipice of a new edition. How are Thousand Sons going to stack up?

The 9th Edition Ride

In prepping this write up, I noticed that I hadn’t written anything since the spring of last year (over a year). It reflects the abyss that had become trying to play Thousand Sons competitively over the course of 2022. From under-performing, to over-performing, back to under-performing, it was a wild ride.

We had a good run when Daemons were released based on two things:

1. Flamers were bonkers
2. Thousand Sons secondaries were in a great place

Those two things combined to push Thousand Sons winning percentages into the 70% range, which is far too high for any army to be called “balanced”. Despite this, Thousand Sons still could not be put over the top - placing well but never really dominating the winners seat.

Predictably, Daemons (Flamers) were hit heavily right before the last Chapter Approved. To add insult to injury, the secondaries for Thousand Sons were hammered down badly, creating quite possibly the biggest plummet in win rates ever seen. After the updates, Thousand Sons had fallen to the upper 30’s - at the very bottom of the meta.

Win Rates (9th Edition)

Predictably, in March, the WHC article called out exactly what we were seeing as a result.

On the other hand, the Thousand Sons and Deathwatch are languishing at the bottom. That’ll change come April, when the next Balance Dataslate is published (shortly after AdeptiCon).

Then came the Balance Dataslate…

Disappointment

Typically the balance dataslates are a patch-up to the current rules. They don’t tend to make large-scale changes like points or profile changes unless it is an exceptional situation. Clearly, languishing with a 38% win rate was not exceptional enough to make the types of changes that Thousand Sons needed to get back in the game. Only Imperial Fists (38.69%) and Deathwatch (38.46%) had worse win rates and when you get down to it - it’s splitting hairs between the three for who is the “worst” of the lot.

Whats more puzzling is that it was the last chance for any update to be made in 9th edition - why not thrown them a bone? Yet, the only thing done to try to fix the problem was a small adjustment to how Abhor the Witch could be scored and, as the stats show, they’ve had no effect on the current win rates.

At least this much is certain - the end is here.

Time for 10th Edition

If you play Thousand Sons or Grey Knights your world is about to change in a big way. 10th Edition is launching this summer and the Psychic phase is no more. The reality of this means that these armies will not feel as “special” as they did in 9th edition. While this is a rough one for fans of the psychic phase, for much of 9th (and 8th) editions, most opponents would have to sit back for 10-15 minutes while Thousand Sons and Grey Knight players went on unobstructed doing things they had no clue about. “You’re casting something on something else….okay let me know when you’re done with all this stuff”

At the end of the day, removing the mechanics for psychic powers will be a good one and making playing the army a whole lot more approachable for everyone. It also won’t require your opponents to have “read up” on the armies powers, how they work, what they can be applied to, and so on. This means games will move along much more smoothly and be more enjoyable no matter what format you’re playing.

It’s a good change - but one that comes with a cost. While many of the psychic powers will now just work, redundancy and list crafting will now get driven much more by what powers are present on the given characters. The army is also going to function just like any other army without any real interaction with psychic powers other than how they are applied as abilities now. I don’t think you can do this without losing the flavor we’ve had, even if its for the best. This should lead to a much more balanced army that doesn’t suffer the swings in win rates as we saw in 9th.

Thoughts on Whats to Come

The biggest thought I have right now is that taking a balanced approach to your list building early on is going to be a key in being able to adapt quickly. Thousand Sons are making one of the largest shifts in this edition and we’re all in the dark as to how the meta is going to shake out.

A common theme right now, based on whats been previewed, is that a vehicle-heavy meta is expected to emerge. Tempering this a bit, we have no idea if this is actually going to happen or not as we’ve still not seen all the datasheets. If the rumors hold true and they are trickled out over the next two weeks, we’ll slowly get a picture of how the meta is likely to shake up.

Many players are going to start by looking at how well certain weapons are able to kill; or how cheap certain things are. This would be a mistake. The real guts of the game will start with the missions - how do you score points? We won’t know this until they release the full GT pack missions and secondaries. From there, the question becomes - how do Thousand Sons score points? While we’re answering that, everyone else with every other army is search for the same answer.

Points are going to play the second most important role in the equation. Points drive the balance of the game and determine how much a good thing you can have. Its impossible for GW, or anyone, to be able to predicatively set points perfectly for all units where there would be no one unit that sticks out as having an issue.

Suggestion #1 - Set Expectations

1. There likely are going to be units/armies with strong rules
2. Even the strongest armies have a weakness
3. We may or may not have ways to exploit those weaknesses when we need to

Suggestion #2 - Build to Score Points

1. Focus on a balanced army build that can give multiple options
2. Don’t start with a “skew” build just because that’s what works in 9th
3. Build to score points as many ways as possible, as strongly as possible

I’m planning to start with something along this lines:

• Magnus
• Some other HQs
• Some Rubric Marines
• Some Cultists/Tzaangors
• Some Terminators
• Some Enlightened
• Some Vehicles / Mutalith

It’s a little of everything and the idea is to sample as much as you can as quickly as you can to pivot your list as you need.

What to Expect

We’re going to see one or more armies emerge as a challenger for the top spot in the meta. I’ll be honest - I’m not expecting Thousand Sons to be one of them. A big change like they are experiencing is not going to happen without teething problems. It means we could be in for a rough ride for at least a year until the Codex comes out. This doesn’t mean they won’t be able to patch some holes this winter after we’ve seen the first round of tournaments close out.

The armies with their Codex rules will likely perform stronger than those without. If you knew it was going to be a year plus before your codex is out, I wouldn’t blame you for picking up one of the other armies and trying to make it work.

We’ll find out more in the next couple weeks.