Even before they threw off their allegiance to the Emperor and embraced the gifts of Chaos, the sons of the Primarch Magnus the Red were steeped in sorcerous power. Their limitless curiosity and innate psychic gifts made them natural wielders of the whirling energies of the Warp, and now their bond with the Chaos God Tzeentch has transformed them into the greatest cabal of sorcerers in the galaxy.

They are the Thousand Sons, matchless magicians whose depth of knowledge is second only to their mastery of the empyrean. Their endless quest for ancient secrets wreaks a technicolour path of destruction from one end of the Imperium to the other, twisting mortal men into unholy abominations and scouring the earth with blasts of spectral flame. Here’s everything you need to know if you’re thinking of starting an army of these enigmatic enchanters.

Thousand Sons Explained

Like the World Eaters, Death Guard, and Emperor’s Children, the Thousand Sons are one of the original Space Marine Legions that rebelled against the Emperor’s tyranny, though unlike the others their fall came before Warmaster Horus declared his war against the Imperium. Magnus the Red, the Primarch of the Thousand Sons, had used his immense psychic power to try to warn the Emperor of the impending schism, but in doing so broke an accord against the use of the Warp and had the Space Wolves sent to bring him to Terra in chains.

Through misunderstanding and manipulation, the Space Wolves instead laid waste to their homeworld of Prospero, devastating the Legion and forcing the few survivors into the Warp. There, on the Planet of Sorcerers, they began to rapidly mutate, and once the Horus Heresy had concluded a small cabal led by Chief Librarian Ahzek Ahriman sought out a solution to this renewed curse.

The spell he and his disciples cast succeeded in preventing the flesh-change from corrupting his Legion, but at an unimaginable price. The Librarians of the Legion had their psychic ability increased tenfold, but those warriors of little or no psychic ability had their body crumble to dust while their spirit remained locked inside their armour.

Now the dreaded Rubric Marines, those unfortunate souls who were reduced to mindless automatons, are in thrall to the will of the remaining sorcerers. Following this failure, Magnus banished Ahriman’s cabal, who spread out across the stars in search of powerful artefacts and ancient forbidden knowledge to try and reverse the curse.

This disastrous change only heightened the Legion’s reliance on ranged weapons and powerful psychic abilities in combat, sorcerers supported by elite groups of Rubric infantry, Terminators, and hordes of daemonic allies. Though they have been known to use many of the armoured assets common to other Chaos Space Marine warbands, such as Helbrutes and Land Raiders, they are rare, and what few serve under the banner of Magnus are infrequently maintained. 

As a result of their pact with Tzeentch and their frequent manipulation of the Warp, daemons are a common sight on their assaults. Screamers and Flamers whirl down from rift-riven skies as Pink and Blue Horrors bound across the ground, hurling gouts of empyrean flame between the legs of the towering Lords of Change. These allies are far from expendable, and often prone to their own eccentricities, but nonetheless valuable additions to an armoured march of Rubric Marines.

On the battlefield, the Thousand Sons prefer to keep their distance and whittle their foes down with firepower and psychic might rather than get stuck in a bloody melee, where their all-important Sorcerers are far too vulnerable. Their hollow nature makes Rubricae a naturally resilient bulwark, each able to absorb more punishment than a regular Space Marine, while the ensorcelled rounds spat from their inferno bolters punch right through the thickest armour – far more than a regular boltgun.

The sons of Magnus the Red supplement the lockstep advance of Rubric Marines with devious tricks and inventive plays, with each of their Detachments giving players plenty of Enhancements and Stratagems to favourably twist fate. It’s a rare game where a magical blast doesn’t turn an Ork to ash or sap the life from an Aeldari, and if guile doesn’t get you all the way, you can always deploy Magnus himself to seal victory with brute force and overwhelming psychic might.

A Thousand Sons army will appeal to players who love to make plans, break plans, and then claim everything all worked out regardless of the outcome. Their armies provide a fantastic mix of durability and hitting power, coupled with an even more elite feel than regular Chaos Space Marines, which is backed up by a whole sackful of tricks and beautifully ornate miniatures.

Combat Patrol

Combat Patrol is a game mode perfect for beginners and veterans alike, in which smaller forces clash in fast-paced, balanced games. The Thousand Sons bring a versatile force to the table bursting with magical power, with battlefield rituals that guide the attacks of allies or propel warriors towards their foes in a great temporal surge.

The Prism of Zadophon are led by their eponymous Daemon Prince, one of the most powerful single miniatures in the Combat Patrol format. His immense durability and powerful attacks make him the natural centrepiece of your force, surrounded by a loyal cadre of Rubric Marines and their attendant Aspiring Sorcerer.

On the swifter side, the Tzeentch-blessed Tzaangor Shaman Kaa’skrek commands his own psychic abilities from atop a floating Disc, flanked by three elite Tzaangor Enlightened who spear foes while zipping around the battlefield on a never-ending hunt for knowledge.

All you need to deploy the Prism of Zadophon is a few dice, a ruler, and the downloadable rules below – the Core Rules show you how to play the game, the Combat Patrol Datasheets provide a balanced army that’s ready to play, and the Combat Patrol Missions give you some thrilling objectives to fight over!

Painting

The Thousand Sons are most frequently armoured in vibrant blue battle plate with intricate gold details, but the fragmented nature of their modern-day Legion means warbands are often adorned in a kaleidoscope of colours as befits the ever-shifting whims of Tzeentch. Silent squads of Rubric Marines often fight in whatever state their mercurial leaders last left them in – worn and weathered as their masters concentrate on far greater concerns – but they are equally likely to march gleaming and colourful into their next battle as a show of the sorcerer’s importance.

To help ease your miniatures onto the battlefield with a simple, achievable colour scheme that works across a wide variety of units, the Warhammer 40,000 Painting Team have put together a list of paints for the Thousand Sons found in the Combat Patrol box. 

This is by no means an exhaustive primer, however, and you’re fully encouraged to come up with your own Thousand Sons colour schemes. In fact, such is Tzeentch’s aversion to stasis and routine that it’s entirely appropriate for elements of your army to sport wildly different colours to their comrades!

Next Steps

Once you have a few Combat Patrol games under your belt and you’re ready to bend the shackles of fate to your will, you might be wondering where to go next. 

Your first stop is Codex: Thousand Sons – the essential companion to the faction, containing plenty of background lore and a showcase of gorgeously painted miniatures, as well as rules for 34 different units and plenty of different ways to play them. Together with a copy of the Warhammer 40,000 Core Book, you’ll have all the rules you need to start playing full-size games of Warhammer 40,000.

The Combat Patrol provides a great selection of units that give you powerful leaders, dependable infantry, and speedy skirmishers, so adding a hard core of hard-hitting elites is a great first step. Scarab Occult Terminators excel at punching through heavy armour with a mixture of inferno combi-bolters and crackling Prosperine khopeshes, backed up by the heavy firepower of soulreaper cannons and hellfyre missile racks.

Sekhetar Robots are infused with sigils of obfuscation and left to guard sites where fate has grand designs, standing silent vigil until enemy movements activate their programming. Then, these durable sentinels open up with a sudden barrage that can wipe entire squads from the battlefield in moments under a hail of empyric missiles and searing flame.

Herds of Tzaangors are a great way to bulk out your body count with cheaper – but still perfectly capable – shock troops, armed with vicious chainblades and the ability to slip away from the battlefield before returning when your opponent least expects it. Codex: Thousand Sons also includes rules for adding a colourful contingent of daemons to your army, when Tzeentch’s watchful eye graces your efforts.

Yours isn’t just another warband plying the galaxy for secrets, it’s an assemblage of the Legion’s finest, and so the presence of Magnus the Red is a foregone conclusion. The Primarch is nothing short of the greatest psychic warrior in the galaxy, sweeping entire squads off the table with a swing of his enormous staff while heroes, tanks, and rampaging monsters all wither into desiccated husks under his shape-twisting gaze.

When the time for complex strategies is over and you just need something smashed really hard, the insanity-inducing Mutalith Vortex Beast can switch between slaughtering infantry and crushing tanks on a whim, and even getting near it is a lethal hazard for your opponent. 

Should your sorcerers summon daemons to aid them, there is no finer general for the personal cohorts of Tzeentch than Kairos Fateweaver, greatest of the Lords of Change. His twin heads simultaneously look backwards and forwards at the flow of time, giving him a masterful knack for strategy backed up by overwhelming magical might.

Fiction

You’d be forgiven for thinking that a Chaos Space Marine Legion populated almost entirely by silent, soulless automatons would be rather tight lipped when it came to stories, but luckily the Thousand Sons have one of the most dynamic and entertaining Black Library characters on their side: Ahriman. 

The former Chief Librarian of the XV Legion has spent uncountable years searching for a way to reverse the calamity he visited upon his brothers, and his quest spans both time and space, taking him from the far corners of the galaxy to the mysterious Aeldari Webway. The tale begins as the exiled Ahriman lurks disguised amongst a marauding warband, only for a mysterious voice to draw him back into action in Ahriman: Exile by John French. 

His continued search drives him towards the fabled Athenaeum of Kallimakus – purported to contain the very same words as the legendary Book of Magnus – in Ahriman: Sorcerer. Then, it all comes to a head in Ahriman: Unchanged, as after long years of preparation he is finally ready to attempt a ritual that should spell an end to his Legion’s hollow existence. 

You can get all three of these books bound together in Ahriman: The Omnibus, and the supreme sorcerer’s adventures don’t end there. A further two books by John French continue his adventures – Ahriman: Eternal and Ahriman: Undying – while a wealth of short stories and audiobooks give you more to read than the average Thousand Sons sorcerer.

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