Warhammer 40,000/10th Edition Tactics/Thousand Sons

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This is the current 10th Edition's Thousand Sons tactics. 9th Edition Tactics are here.

Why Play Thousand Sons

Pros

• The only army with the ability to cast universal spells through any psyker, letting you do things such as shutting off armor saves or moving a unit twice.
• Easy access to mortal wounds should you ever feel the need to shift someone quickly.
• Lots of Infantry shooting with your psykers being shooty as well now that spells have weapon profiles again.
• A fairly large number of invulnerable saves on most units in the army, letting you survive heavy hitting weapons now and then.
• Inferno Bolts on every unit that has a bolter, from your infantry to your tanks, increasing your AP by a pip.
• The trimming of psychic powers also trimmed lots of anti-psychic abilities, giving you more breathing room.
• Perils of the Warp is more or less gone, so cast till you pop.
• Thematically, you can have a sorcerous lord and his servants going around terrorizing people if you feel like being space Saruman.
• Ability to use your Tzaangors and MVB in 40K and AoS. Should you fold in Daemons of Tzeentch too, you shouldn't have much issue flipping between the two games.

Cons

• The trimming of psychic powers hurts you pretty bad.
• Your psykers leading your forces aren't just targets for being leaders, they're also your only source for Cabal Points. If they die, you'll potentially lose access to entire rituals.
• Almost all of your Leaders can only join Rubrics, limiting your bodyguard options to only them and forcing you to bring a rubric unit for every sorcerer should you want to keep them around.
• Fairly limited and small roster of units to pick from.

Faction Rules

• Cabal of Sorcerers X: At the end of your Command phase, each unit that isn't battleshocked gives you X Cabal Points for you to spend on various rituals during the round. Each one can be applied to a specific Psyker model in your army. These can't be saved for anything big, as the Cabal Points reset to zero at the beginning of your next command phase, so you'll need to really pick out how you're going to blow these. Each Ritual can only be used up to once per phase.
  • Weaver of Fates (2 Cabal Points): Start of any phase. Until the phase ends, one friendly faction model whose unit is within 18" of the psyker can re-roll a failed save.
  • Temporal Surge (5 Cabal Points): Start of your shooting. One friendly unit within 18" of the psyker that isn't engaged can immediately move normally, but they can't charge afterward.
  • Echoes from the Warp (6 Cabal Points): Start of any phase. One stratagem targeting the psyker's unit will cost 0 CP and can be used even if already used. Expect to use this a lot, since it allows absolute bullshit like firing Overwatch twice with the same unit.
  • Doombolt (7 Cabal Points): Start of your shooting. Target one visible enemy unit within 18" of the psyker and roll a d6. On a 1, the enemy takes d3 MW, on a 2-5 they suffer d3+3 MW, and on a 6 they take d3+6 MW, so 1-9 MW, average 5.
  • Twist of Fate (9 Cabal Points): Start of any phase. One visible enemy unit within 18" of the psyker cannot make any armour saves. They better hope they have a good invuln to rely on...

The most Cabal Points you can plausibly need for the above rules per round is, therefore, 12 for Temporal Surge and Doombolt (as you'll only get 1 shooting phase), 27 for Twist of Fate (your shooting and both fights), 6 for Weaver of Fates (enemy shooting and both fights - you can need to make saves during other phases, but it's so rare there's no sense worrying about it), and 60 if you really wanted to just spam stratagems every single phase, for a total of 105. Practically speaking, you won't need anywhere near that number.

Detachments

Cult of Magic

Special Rules

• Kindred Sorcery: During each Command phase, you can pick one of the following rules for your psychic weapons.
  • Malevolent Charge: Gain [Lethal Hits]. Good for pushing high AP weapons through, garbage on powers that need to roll to wound to shine, like Warpsmite. Better than Sustained Hits 1 only when you wound on 5s and 6s. Does not work at all on Torrent weapons.
  • Psychic Maelstrom: Gain [Sustained Hits 1]. Better than Lethal Hits only when you wound on 2s and 3s. Does not work at all on Torrent weapons.
  • Wrath of the Immaterium: Gain [Devastating Wounds]. Necessary when your target has a good invuln save, and the only one of these three buffs that works on Torrent weapons.

Stratagems

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• Devastating Sorcerey (1 CP): One of your psykers can re-roll to hit and wound with any psychic weapons they may have.

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• Destined by Fate (1 CP): When one of your psykers fails a save, that attack's damage becomes 0.
• Psychic Dominion (1 CP): One of your units caught in a psychic blast? Grey Knights Grand Master about to tear your wizard a new one? Pull this on and now not only will their psychic weapons suffer [Hazardous] for the entire phase, but your guys will also get a 4+ FNP against all psychic weapons!
• Sorcerous Might (1 CP): One unit's psychic weapons increase their range by 9".

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• Ensorcelled Infusion (1 CP): Before one of your psyker units shoots, all of said unit's inferno bolters, inferno combi-bolters, inferno bolt pistols, inferno combi-weapons become S5 and gain [Psychic]. See Kindred Sorcery? Now it applies to the unit's inferno guns.
• Warp Sight (2 CP): as long as one of your psykers can draw line of sight to a single unit, all of your other psykers psychic weapons gain [Indirect Fire] and [Ignores Cover] against said unit.

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Enchancements

• Lord of Forbidden Lore: Psyker only. The bearer can be selected to use a Ritual even if another Psyker from your army has already been selected to use that Ritual this phase.
• Athenaean Scrolls: Psyker only. The bearer grants an additional Cabal Point for each Command phase where they're on the board and not battle-shocked.
• Umbarlefic Crystal: Once per battle, in your Command phase, you can remove the bearer’s unit from the battlefield. This can be set up during your next Reinforcements step of your next Movement phase, going anywhere on the battlefield that is more than 9" horizontally away from all enemies
• Arcane Vortex: Bearer's psychic weapons gain +1 to Strength and Damage.

Equipment

Ranged Weapons:

• Inferno Boltgun: 2 shots at 24" with S4 AP-1 1 damage.
• Inferno Bolt Pistol: Same as above but 1 shot and 12" and gains [PISTOL] rule.
• Plasma Pistol: 1 shot at 12" S7 AP-2 1 damage with [PISTOL] or supercharge it for S8 AP-3 2 damage with [PISTOL, HAZARDOUS]
• Warpflamer: D6 shots at 12" S4 AP-1 1 damage with [IGNORE COVER, TORRENT]
• Warpflame Pistol: same as above but S3 and gains [PISTOL] rule
• Soulreaper Cannon: 6 shots at 24" S6 AP-1 1 damage with [DEVASTATING WOUNDS]
• Warp Vortex: The MVB's special. Pick one of the following:
  • Blast: D6+3 shots at 24" S9 AP-2 2 Damage with [BLAST]
  • Beam: 1 shot at 24" S18 AP-4 D6+6 damage with [DEVASTATING WOUNDS]
  • Torrent: 2D6 shots at 12" S6 AP-1 1 damage with [TORRENT, IGNORES COVER]

Melee Weapons:

• Close Combat Weapon: Your unarmed rubrics slap enemies twice at S4 AP0 1 damage.

Psychic Weapons:

All of the following weapons have the [PSYCHIC] rule as expected

Ranged:

• Warpsmite: The standard Aspiring Sorcerer spell doing 2 shots (3 if scarab occult sorcerer) at 18" S4 AP-3 D1 and [ANTI-INFANTRY 4+, DEVASTATING WOUNDS, PISTOL].
• Psychic Stalk: Ahriman's only spell. One shot at 18" S6 AP-1 D6 damage with [PRECISION] rule letting him target characters.
• Astral Blast: 18" D6 shots S6 AP-2 D3 damage with [BLAST, DEVASTATING WOUNDS]
• Arcane Fire: 18" D6 shots S6 AP-2 D3 damage with [IGNORES COVER, TORRENT]
• Coruscating Fire: 18" 3 shots S4 AP-3 2 damage [ANTI-MONSTER 4+, ANTI-VEHICLE 4+, DEVASTATING WOUNDS]
• Fires of the Abyss: 12" 2D6 shots S5 AP-1 1 damage [PISTOL, SUSTAINED HITS 3]
• Screamer Invocation: 18" 2D3 shots S6 AP-2 1 damage [TORRENT] or supercharge it for 2D6 shots and [HAZARDOUS]
• Gaze of Magnus: 24" 3D3 shots S9 AP-2 3 damage [DEVASTATING WOUNDS]
• Tzeentch Firestorm: 24" D6+3 shots S5 AP-1 2 damage [BLAST]

Melee

• Force Weapon: swings at S6 AP-1 D3 damage. Number of attacks varies per user.
• Black Staff of Ahriman 5 swings at S7 AP-1 3 damage.
• Blade of Magnus: has two modes, strike: 7 swings S16 AP-3 3 damage with [DEVASTATING WOUNDS] or sweep: 14 swings S8 AP-1 1 damage.

Unit Analysis

As per the Daemon index, you can have 1/4 of your army in points be Chaos Daemons but only Tzeentch Deamons. As per the Adeptus Titanicus index, you can have up to 1 Chaos Titan model. As per the Chaos Knights index, you can have up to 1 titanic or 3 war dog Chaos Knights models in your army. See those tactica pages for an in-depth analysis, but remember, in both cases anything you field will lose its Faction rules (what happens in terms of Detachment rules will still be Detachment-specific, but you'll have to pick a CSM Detachment).

The CoS on each entry indicates how many Cabal points that unit generates.

Characters

• Exalted Sorcerer^{CoS 2}: Your main wizard lord, giving your rubrics an ever-necessary 4++ to keep them alive. If you feel the need for a power weapon that isn't subject to any anti-psychic shenanigans (of which you're not going to find many), you can grab a Prosperine Khopesh as a sidearm.

<tabs> <tab name="On Foot"> His offensive spell is Astral Blast spell, which he can use to hit mobs. Very important since he comes with a unique power (with chance of backfiring) that lets him restore a restores one model on a 2+ and two on a 6. With how often they'll go down, you'll need to keep your squad as full as possible. </tab> <tab name="Disc of Tzeentch"> While given a bonus wound and speed bump, he remains just as able to join his rubricae. His offensive spell is Arcane Fire, a super-powered heavy flamer, while Binding Tendrils allows him to slow down enemies by halving the movement of an enemy within 18" while taking -2 to any advance and charge rolls they make. </tab> </tabs>

• Infernal Master^{CoS 2}: Gives your rubrics [Sustained Hits 1] on all their weapons and once per turn can make a single hit, wound, damage or saving roll you make for him into an unmodified 6, which would've been a lot better on anyone other than him. Has Screamer Invocation spell, quite literally making him an actual Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Master now

• Thousand Sons Daemon Prince^{CoS 2}: A big beatstick of a daemon wizard with a solid combat loadout, with his hellforged sword/axe/claw being a monstrous set of force weapons.
  • A note on their weapons: unlike the other sorcerers, the DP doesnt have any offensive spells, but its hellforged weapons are Psychic, which can be boosted by Kindred Sorcery, but also makes them vulnerable to opponents with a resistance to Psychic attacks.

<tabs> <tab name="On Foot"> A bit tougher not just on account of being T10, but also because of their 6" Stealth aura to protect fellow sorcerers. He also has a single-use buff that lets a single squad of dustbins gain [Precision] so they can snipe out the most annoying character they see. </tab> <tab name="Winged"> The flying menace of the legion. Anyone he flies over is a potential victim for a bombing run (which, sadly, will be ineffective since it only hits for 1 MW on a 6 and you only roll 9d6), but he more importantly has the ability to fly back into reserves and redeploy elsewhere if you keep him out of too much trouble. For a giant flying monster, do expect to use it to throw off the enemy. </tab> </tabs>

• Thousand Sons Sorcerer^{CoS 1 or 2 for Terminator}: Gives your rubrics [Lethal Hits] to auto-wound anything on a 6 to hit.

<tabs> <tab name="Sorcerer"> Fortunately gives his rubricae the incredible ability to make enemies unable to shoot them from beyond 18". His offensive spell is Fires of the Abyss, a very rapid-fire barrage with [Sustained Hits 3]. This makes him </tab> <tab name="Terminator"> The only hero who can join your Scarab Occult. He has a spell that marks an enemy within 18" for death by letting friendly units re-roll 1s to hit. Coruscating Flames gives him one of the only anti-heavy weapons available to the army, but with only three shots, it'll only be enough for a couple plinks since it requires hitting a 4+ to deal [Devastating Wounds] on those tanks and monsters. </tab> </tabs>

• Tzaangor Shaman^{CoS 1}: The lone hero for your Tzaangors, giving them a 5+ FNP as well as a +1 to hit. Shocking Orbs gives him a shockingly powerful blast weapon that's only let down by lacking any AP, meaning it can be warded off by terminator armor unless you trigger [Devastating Wounds].

Epic Heroes

• Ahriman^{CoS 3}: The great psychic culling has affected many psykers, and Ahriman shows just how painful that feels. His powers got gutted and now all he does is let the unit he leads add 1 to wound rolls as well as a single-use ability to use a single ritual on him for free. The only real weapon he has aside from his Black Staff (not shabby at A5 WS2+ S7 AP-1 D3, but not something you'd want to throw into all fights) is his Psychic Stalk, a [Precision] 18" A1 BS2+ S6 AP-1 D1d6 power that lets him snipe out enemy characters. That said, he does provide 3 Cabal Points.
  • Ahriman on Disc of Tzeentch: See above? Same except moves 10" and has 6 wounds and FLY. He can still join a rubric squad for protection.

• Magnus the Red^{CoS 4}:

Battleline

• Rubric Marines^{CoS 1}: While they lost their AP reduction, they keep their 5++ as compensation. They remain a pretty decent shooting force with their basic Inferno Bolters going down to AP-1, but at least keeping its AP, shooting twice at 24" without the need to stand still and the Soulreaper Cannon getting made into effectively an assault cannon with Devastating Wounds. Bringers of Change also lets them re-roll 1s to wound when shooting, which upgrades to re-rolling all wounds if the target is near an objective that you don't control. Stacking an Icon of Flame gives another improvement by making critical wounds improve the AP of the hit, although of course an Icon of Flame won't buff a Soulreaper Cannon (or anything else with DW, like Warpsmite).
  • The Aspiring Sorcerer's got their own pistols between the bolt, plasma and warpflame pistols, but they also get Warpsmite as a psychic pistol, a S4 AP-3 shot with [Devastating Wounds] and [Anti-Infantry 4]+ so they can contribute alongside their rubricae in shootng.

• Tzaangors: Most heretics have cultists, you have a bunch of birdmen who dig up Cabal Points when they camp on objectives. That said, they have very few odds to shoot with mere autopistols. Their paired blades give a little bit more hope as their blades pack a surprising punch - one that won't last long without a Shaman to protect them.

Infantry

• Scarab Occult Terminators^{CoS 1}: As with the Rubrics, the Scarabs have been sidegraded, with All Is Dust being replaced with a 4++ invuln and the Implacable Guardians ability, which reduces the WR of all attacks whose S beats their T (5). Yes, this is a streamlined version of 9th's CSM Mark of Nurgle, and luckily can kick in when you're in the Death Guard's Contagion range.

Mounted

• Tzaangor Enlightened: Grabbing Discs make the birdmen much more mobile and give an extra wound. Their loadout is a lot more determinant of what you'll be using them for. Keeping their spears make them focused entirely on melee, given they're power weapons with [Lance] and the surprising bonus of [Precision] to run down a lone character. Sticking with the chainsword+pistol gives a minor bit of flexibility, but nothing to make it worth using. The greatbows make them long-ranged fiends that carry [Precision] and [Lethal Hits].

Vehicles

• Helbrute:
• Chaos Predator Annihilator:
• Chaos Predator Destructor: Starts with a predator autocannon and can be given Lascannons or Inferno Heavy Bolters (AP-2!). The Destructor ability combined with the extra AP on the heavy bolters makes this unit fairly capable of mincing marine squads or most Infantry units that will unfortunately have to face the guns of this tank.
• Chaos Vindicator:
• Chaos Land Raider:
• Maulerfiend:
• Forgefiend:

Dedicated Transports

• Chaos Rhino: Gloriously increased the carrying capacity from 10 transport capcity to 12 so now you can throw in a sorcerer or two into the transport as well. Can repair itself to regain 1 wound and surprisingly lacks Firing Deck 2. Yours has Inferno Combi-Bolters so it has an extra pip of AP.
  • It's worth noting that your disc sorcerers count as infantry as well as being mounted so you can still shove them into one of these if you want

Beast

• Chaos Spawn:

Monsters

• Mutalith Vortex Beast: Stats uncertain, but their Warp Vortex has gained a lot of utility with multiple firing modes between a dangerous S9 AP-2 D2 Blast, a devastating S18 AP-4 D6+d6 beam with Devastating Wounds, and an S6 AP-1 super-flamer with Torrent. As an added plus, any psykers within 6" of the Mutalith actually gets double the range when using rituals.

Aircraft

• Heldrake:

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Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (10th Edition)

General Tactics	General Weapons Terrain
Imperium	Space Marines (Black Templars, Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Deathwatch, Space Wolves) Grey Knights
	Adeptus Mechanicus Adeptus Titanicus Imperial Knights Imperial Guard Sisters of Battle
	Adeptus Custodes & Sisters of Silence Imperial Agents (Inquisition, Rogue Traders, etc.)
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines (Death Guard Thousand Sons World Eaters)
	Chaos Daemons Chaos Knights Chaos Titans
Eldar	Eldar (Craftworlds, Corsairs, Harlequins, Ynnari) Dark Eldar
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids Genestealer Cults
Votann	Leagues of Votann

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Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (9th Edition)

General Tactics	General Movement Psychic Fortifications Tactical Terrain Weapons Apocalypse
Imperium	Space Marines (Blood Angels Dark Angels Deathwatch Space Wolves) Grey Knights
	Adeptus Mechanicus Adeptus Titanicus Imperial Knights Imperial Guard Sisters of Battle
	Adeptus Custodes & Sisters of Silence Inquisition Officio Assassinorum Rogue Traders
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines (Death Guard Thousand Sons World Eaters)
	Chaos Daemons Chaos Knights Renegades and Heretics
Eldar	Craftworld Eldar Dark Eldar Harlequins Ynnari
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids Genestealer Cults
Votann	Leagues of Votann

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Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (8th Edition)

General Tactics	General Movement Psychic Fortifications Apocalypse
Imperium	Space Marines Blood Angels Dark Angels Deathwatch Grey Knights Space Wolves
	Talons of the Emperor (Custodes and Sisters of Silence) Adeptus Mechanicus
	Adeptus Ministorum (Sisters of Battle and minor factions) Adeptus Titanicus
	Imperial Knights Imperial Guard Inquisition Officio Assassinorum
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines (Death Guard Thousand Sons)
	Chaos Daemons Chaos Knights Renegades and Heretics
Eldar	Eldar Dark Eldar Harlequins
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids Genestealer Cults

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Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (7th Edition)

General Tactics	General Movement Psychic Fortifications
Imperium	Space Marines (Siege Assault Vanguard) Blood Angels Dark Angels Deathwatch Grey Knights Space Wolves
	Adeptus Custodes Cult Mechanicus Skitarii Adeptus Sororitas
	Imperial Knights Inquisition Officio Assassinorum
	Imperial Guard (Armoured Battlegroup Death Korps of Krieg Assault Brigade Death Korps of Krieg Siege Regiment Elysian Drop Troops D-99)
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines Khorne Daemonkin Chaos Daemons Renegades and Heretics
Eldar	Eldar Dark Eldar Harlequins Corsairs
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks Ork Dred Mob
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids Genestealer Cults

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Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (6th Edition)

General Tactics	General Movement Psychic Fortifications
Imperium	Space Marines Blood Angels Dark Angels Grey Knights Space Wolves
	Adeptus Sororitas Inquisition
	Imperial Guard (Armoured Battlegroup Death Korps of Krieg Assault Brigade Death Korps of Krieg Siege Regiment Elysian Drop Troops) Militarum Tempestus
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines Chaos Daemons Renegades and Heretics
Eldar	Eldar Dark Eldar Corsairs
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks Ork Dred Mob
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids

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<tab name="All">

Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (All)

General Tactics	General (8th) Movement (8th 7th) Psychic (8th 7th 2nd) Fortifications (8th 7th) Tactical Terrain Apocalypse (8th)
Imperium (8th)	Space Marines (8th 7th 6th 5th 4th 3rd) Blood Angels (8th 7th) Dark Angels (8th 7th) Deathwatch (8th 7th) Grey Knights (8th 7th 6th 5th 3rd, AKA Daemonhunters) Space Wolves (8th 7th 6th 5th)
	Talons of the Emperor (Custodes and Sisters of Silence) (8th 7th) Adeptus Mechanicus (8th 7th) Adeptus Ministorum (Sisters of Battle and minor factions) (8th 7th 6th 3rd, AKA Witch Hunters) Adeptus Titanicus (8th)
	Imperial Knights (8th 7th) Imperial Guard (8th 7th 6th 5th 3rd) Inquisition (8th 7th 6th) Officio Assassinorum (8th 7th)
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines (8th 7th 6th 5th) Death Guard (8th) Khorne Daemonkin - 7th Edition Thousand Sons (8th) Chaos Daemons (8th 7th) Chaos Knights (8th) Renegades and Heretics (8th 7th 6th)
Eldar	Eldar (8th 7th 6th 5th) Dark Eldar (8th 7th 6th 5th 3rd Revised) Harlequins (8th 7th)
Necrons	Necrons (8th 7th 6th 5th 4th)
Orks	Orks (8th 7th 6th 5th 3rd) Ork Dred Mob - 7th edition (6th 5th) Ork Kult of Speed - 3rd edition Feral Orks - 3rd edition
Tau	Tau (8th 7th 6th 5th)
Tyranids	Tyranids (8th 7th 6th 5th) Genestealer Cults (8th 7th)

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