How to get the most out of the Thousand Sons, just as planned

The Thousand Sons are the latest Chaos faction to arrive in Warhammer 40,000, with a shiny new Codex and some fearsome new robots. Magister Adam Camielleri of the Forge the Narrative podcast is here to discuss his two favourite Detachments: Rubricae Phalanx and Warpforged Cabal.

Hello fellow seekers of forbidden knowledge, and welcome to an exposé on the mystical and magical! Codex: Thousand Sons is building power in the Warp and is entering the 41st Millennium with a much changed, but rewarding and powerful, army rule. 

In lieu of the old Cabal points, you now have a four-pack of powerful Rituals to successfully activate once at the start of every Shooting phase. Select one unit from your army with the Cabal of Sorcerers ability to manifest your Ritual of choice, roll two dice, and consult the Warp Charge value of the selected Ritual. If you want to secure a clutch ability, you can elect to roll three dice – but you risk D3 mortal wounds if you roll any doubles. Trying to harness such power comes with risks!

Note that every Character and some other units (Scarab Occult Sorcerers and Aspiring Sorcerers) have the requisite keyword. What’s more, if you fail you can try again with another unit, making the abilities very reliable for a canny general who can line up redundancies and contingencies (Tzeentch wouldn’t have it any other way).

Every Ritual has two break points. My favourite of the bunch is Destiny’s Ruin, which has a Warp Charge value of 5+ and allows you to select one enemy unit in line of sight within 24”. If manifested, your entire army can re-roll Hit rolls of 1 against them for the phase – but should you roll 10+ your entire army can re-roll all Hit rolls against that target.

Now I’ve given you a taste of the army rules, let’s delve into my favourite of the five new Detachments.

Rubricae Phalanx 

Rubricae – Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators – have long been the dusty core of the Thousand Sons faction, and this Detachment gives them the chance to shine. All is Dust adds a stunning level of durability to your units, with +1 to their armour saves when targeted with Damage 1 weapons, both in shooting and combat! 

When you factor in the Terminators’ new ability (-1 to opponents’ Wound rolls against a unit that contains any Psykers) you start to see it come together. 

One of my favourite new combos involves taking a unit of Rubric Marines, whose inferno boltguns have gained additional AP, placing them in the best damned Rhino the Eye of Terror has to offer, and attaching an Infernal Master for Sustained Hits 1. The Infernal Fusillade Stratagem will grant any inferno bolter variant Strength 5 and Psychic, which works with the Rhino’s ability to give the unit’s Psychic attacks +1 to Hit and Wound rolls when they disembark and fire at the same target as their transport, while the Destiny’s Ruin and Twist of Fate Rituals grant re-rolls to hit and up to 2 AP!

Extend your assault further with the Inexorable Advance Stratagem, which allows you to ignore any modifiers to your Move characteristic or Advance rolls and grants Assault to ranged weapons. 

The Risen Rubricae Enhancement allows you to give Infiltrators to two units of Rubric Marines or one unit of Scarab Occult Terminators, who can additionally benefit from a powerful 2 CP Stratagem called Implacable Guardians that reduces incoming Damage during the enemy shooting phase. When coupled with their aforementioned ability and the +1 armour save against Damage 1 weapons from the Detachment ability, Scarab Occult Terminators have never been better!

Warpforged Cabal

This Detachment is all about Vehicles, adding both reliability and consistency with a slice of downside, which is oh so Tzeentchian. 

The Detachment ability is Warpfire Infusion, which gives each Vehicle unit one re-roll to Hit, Wound, or Damage when you shoot or fight. If said unit is within 6” of a friendly Psyker model, you can re-roll one Hit roll, one Wound roll, AND one Damage roll instead. 

Now here’s the rub – which is very cool and thematic, to be fair. If a friendly Vehicle unit is destroyed while within 6” of a friendly Psyker, it will Deadly Demise on a 5+ instead of a 6+...

Every Enhancement is legitimately worth considering, but I like Warp-cursed Runemaster, which will add 6” to the range of any Rituals while manifesting within 6” of a friendly Vehicle. Sling them from the backline while giving maximum re-rolls to a battery of long-range tanks!

Perplexing Cloak simply gives an Infantry model the Lone Operative Ability when within 3” of a friendly Vehicle. This is amazing for keeping your Psyker models safe to continue buffing the Vehicles.

Warp Syphon is a game-changer. It allows you to re-roll an additional D6 when manifesting your Rituals, before checking for any doubles or triples, which allows you to dodge additional damage when you wish and reach high for those second breakpoints! Sure, a nearby Vehicle takes a mortal wound, but they have plenty.

As for Stratagems, the spicy Cyberspirit Machinations will allow your Vehicles to Fall Back and shoot or charge within 6” of a friendly Psyker. Hex-Marked Armour reduces incoming AP by 1 for attacks against a friendly Vehicle. 

Lastly, Ensorcelled Infusion is the one you want to make sure you budget for every turn. It grants a Vehicle within 6” of a friendly Psyker +1 to Wound rolls and Psychic for your Shooting phase. When combined with the re-rolls from the Detachment rule, you can see some very powerful units becoming even more potent! 

Thanks, Adam! The Thousand Sons Codex, Battleforce, Combat Patrol, and extras will be on pre-order this Saturday. Just as planned.