Previewing Thousand Sons Codex - The Hot Take

Hobby, May 27, 2021

Some new information was previewed about the Thousand Sons codex this morning. Let’s get that hot take flowing..

Where Do I Start?

It’s been a Long LONG time since the Thousand Sons have gotten a proper overhaul. The last time we saw new units introduced to the legion’s arsenal was way back in 8th Edition when our current Codex: Thousand Sons dropped. This introduced the Mutalith Vortex Beast and other AoS cross-over units. Roughly 18 months ago Thousand Sons received a supplemental update introducing 9 cults (sub-factions). Since then, these have been very well received and did a great job bringing the army back to it’s core flagship unit - Rubric Marines.

That brings us up to date, where Thousand Sons players are scrambling with their lists these days to overcome a few big hurdles:

  1. Limited options in areas other than HQs
  2. Limited rules/layers of rules to support non-psyker units
  3. Aged/Out-Dated stratagems that have since been out-matched by newer codex changes

Now, don’t get me wrong, there are still some gems you can find. With each new book (codex) that has dropped in 9th edition so far, these gems have become less and less shiny. Which is why it’s great news to now know Thousand Sons will be receiving their new codex within the “next couple months.”

Land Raiders

First things first, the Land Raider is getting a very-much-needed point drop of about 20pts from it’s current cost. For Chaos Space Marine players, this is probably good news as it’s a nice upgrade over the Rhino and lets you transport Terminators (which are seeing a lot of play). For Thousand Sons however, this is probably a bit less interesting. Why? Well, what exactly are we supposed to put into a Land Raider? 5 Struggle Occult Terminators? 10 Rubric Marines?

Look, the points reduction is a move in the right direction but there are a few things that are wrong with the Land Raider:

  1. T8 is over-valued - on all units
  2. There are no other weapon options other than Lascannons
  3. It offers nothing unique over a Rhino
  4. They don’t have an invulnerable save

Skipping the part about how over-priced Rhinos currently are, I don’t see Land Raiders getting a lot of play after these changes. Chaos Space Marines might have some options since they have access to Dark Apostles and give the Land Raider what they need - a 5++. But then your investment is just that much greater to make a unit even slightly viable when it should have that rule to begin with.

What do Land Raiders need?

  1. 5++ (Invulnerable)
  2. Assault Transport rule
  3. Capacity for 11 units or 5 Terminators + 1 non-Terminator

Even then, you still need to bring the model cost down further - it needs to be down in the low 200’s, with these rules to get into the realm of being viable in a competitive format.

Points Updates Elsewhere

The good news here is that they were clear in the article that the points presented in the new article are only to hold us over until the new Codex drops. Obviously, with events in the world, these books were delayed from when they were originally going to get launched. Which suggests that they may have originally intended to squeeze in further point updates/adjustments to the army after the launch of the codex within this new Field Manual.

For now I think this means we take these points as simply a copy/paste of the existing points and we roll forward with whatever comes our way in the Codex & Chapter Approved. There’s one big issue I see however, in that by missing this window of being the new Chapter Approved, the time-frame to get adjustments afterward becomes a much longer/wider window. For example, lets say they really mess up the points of a model and it need a point increase/decrease. Theres really only that first month-or-so after the codex where they will have a window to fix that. Which means, we have a high risk of getting stuck with some things that are either too expensive or too cheap for a very long period of time (1 year).

Cross your fingers and pray to Tzeentch they get these right…

The Infernal Master

This is where I think my frustration starts to build. Really GW? Another HQ unit? Not even a tease of a bigger release either? I guess I should be grateful that the most anemic codex in 40k is getting some craps here, some HQ to bolster an already option-packed detachment slot in a game where HQ counts have been squeezed down. We’re already fighting for ways to pack in 2x HQs alongside Ahriman. Now we have yet-another option to chose from.

Okay so, lets set aside that frustration and consider whats positive here. To me, Infernal Master sounds like it has something to do with Demons. Perhaps its a version of a Master of Possession that is tailored to the Thousand Sons. This would, in fact, be a great addition to the army. (even better if it was in another slot other than HQ) Could we see this unit be a bridge between Tzeentch Demons and Thousand Sons? Perhaps he boosts our capabilities to summon or grants a bonus to nearby Tzeentch Demon units. Obviously this then applies to stuff like Demon Engines, Demon Princes, anything on a Disc of Tzeentch.

I guess we’ll have to just sit tight and see what else GW has in-store for the Thousand Sons.