Editing Warhammer 40,000/9th Edition Tactics/Thousand Sons (section)

==Why Play Thousand Sons?==

As one of the founding Legions, the Thousand Sons have, along side their pantheon opposite the [[Death Guard| Sons of Mortarion]], been promoted to full Codex Status. Alongside this there has been a small release of new models (some being shared with [[Age of Sigmar| Age of Sigmar.]]) If you love [[Just As Planned|Convoluted Schemes,]] [[Beastmen_(40k)#Tzaangors|Tzaangors]], [[Rubric Marines| Robots,]] Space Wizards with Mind Bullets, or [[/d/|Twisting Bodies in Unnatural ways]] then this is the army for you! 

Boasting some of the most powerful psychic powers in the game, Thousand Sons armies are for the connoisseur of Chaos Space Marine commander; encouraging play with trickery, deception, and multi-layered planning. The army allows you to manipulate the dice, the board and even your opponents units. This encourages you to play with finesse, rather than purely brute forcing your opponent into submission. Alternatively you may simply believe that [[Magnus the Red| Magnus Did Nothing Wrong.]]

===Pros===
* Almost every unit has a way to cut through armour saves. As the Inferno Bolt offers a reliable AP-2.
* As Masters of Magic you get a +1 to cast on all your powers; so you can buff/debuff/shoot mind-bullets easier.
* Exalted Sorcerers act as a mid-way point between a Choppy Murder Lord and Flimsy Spellcaster.
* Fairly fresh sculpt-wise and also contains the first Primarch to be introduced to Modern 40k (Magnus).
* Invulnerable saves everywhere, even your humble Rhino.
* Lets you take the fight to the [[Primaris Space Marines|Space Chads]] as you have ascended to become [[Mary Sue|An Enlightened Mage Warrior Riding on a Disc of Magic.]]
* Nine Sub-Factions to select from that influence your play style.
* Stratagems, Relics and Powers with the Ability to Deep-strike pretty much everything.  
* Two BIG Psychic Disciplines, each containing 9 powers and Nine Cult powers to choose from, and multiple Psykers across the army as Sorcerers lead the rank-and file troops. The Thousand Sons are true masters of the Psychic Phase with access to a large toolkit of powers for any situation. Even Eldar, who have more psychic powers but less casters on the board, will watch in envy as you cast into the double figures.
* You have the unique ability to modify psychic powers from giving them bonuses to casting, to increasing the range, to increasing the damage and even making them undeniable.
* Tzaangor models (except those with Chainswords and Guns) as well as the Mutalith Vortex Beast can also be used for an Age of Sigmar Tzeentch army. Letting you eke out extra mileage for what you paid for.
* Secondary objectives that require you to destroy units in the psychic phase or complete rituals will be a breeze for you due to how many potent psykers you have.
* You have 2 wounds minimum on your marines. This means that suffering perils, while a problem, is less likely to remove multiple models, if any.
* Speaking of perils, you now have a stratagem to ignore them.

===Cons===
* Although the sculpts are quite good, the overall range of units to choose from is small.
* Consistently miss out on new releases due to keywords, leaving you frustrated to see other Chaos getting new toys you can't use.
* Magnus is a huge investment of money, time, and points.  He costs a lot, and you will want to put a lot of buffs on him to make sure you make the most out of him, otherwise he's just a gigantic target for your opponent.
* Reliance on your Psychic synergy means anti-psyker units like Sisters of Silence, Culexus Assassins, GSC unwilling orb and Tyranids (''especially Hive Fleet Kronos'') will give you no end of problems if not eliminated quickly.
* Some models were ported in from Age of Sigmar in lieu of getting new stuff like the Death Guard, which is a con due to the fact that the models don't look at all like they belong in a 40k setting.
* Your HQs are your biggest threat as well as the linchpin of your buffs, meaning most people will focus on them first. If this happens your army can take a huge hit very quickly and struggle to recover.
* The Thousand Sons have a very limited armoury and find it hard to access plasma and melta weaponry. Also, they lack any real anti-tank outside of tanks and daemon engines, with their primary alternatives consisting of either literally just smiting them to death (which, while awesome, is not recommended) or an enmassed, Malefic Maelstrom'd Wrath of the Wronged Scarab Occult Terminator squad (which is argued to be the second strongest anti-tank in the army besides the Vindicator Laser Destroyer; thanks to swinginess of other available options).
* You can also cripple your army on your own, as constantly casting means a high chance of rolling Perils of the Warp and blowing yourself up. Though this had been mitigated with a 1CP strat.
* Possibly the biggest con of the Thousand Sons in 9th is a couple of the secondaries: Abhor the Witch and Assassinate are ''so'' strong against the Thousand Sons that they have been consistently described as "a free maxed-out secondary". With so many of their units being psykers, Abhor the Witch is often comically easy to score, and many of our psykers being characters (and often bringing 4+ of them) makes them both count for more points for Abhor the Witch and valid Assassinate targets (and yes, you absolutely can score both off of one model).

===Getting Started===

The Thousand Sons were one of the middle releases of 8th edition, and experience has shown this to have been a negative rather than a positive. Now, in 9th edition, the army has received some updates to match the other 9th edition codices. You should get your hands on the following in the listed order:
====Main Books====
These are your necessary books that you need to even start playing the army.
*'''Codex Thousand Sons''': Released in Aug 2021, this book contains the main bulk rules of your army, the faction's core book.
*'''The Most Recent FAQ and Errata''': For rules clarification and fixes. [https://www.warhammer-community.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/djrQBhGf6Lkf78BE.pdf '''Here''']

====Supplements====
Should you wish for more units beyond the codex or wish to ally with other Chaos armies, these could be on your radar. Do keep in mind that allying in units from a codex other than yours takes away Cabalistic Rituals and possibly more bonuses away depending on how you build the army.
*'''Imperial Armour Compendium''': For all your Forge World needs, with its subsequent [https://www.warhammer-community.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/TG5TwX0VYl8BM5pK.pdf '''FAQ'''].'''
*'''Codex Chaos Space Marines, Version 2''': Released in April 2019. Allows you to Ally in some CSM and their toys.
*'''Codex Chaos Daemons''': Should you wish to add in some daemons.
*'''Codex Chaos Knights''': You ever want a big stompy robot to join your guys? This is the book for that. 
** Further rules for CSM, Daemons, and Chaos Knights can be found in Warzone Charadon Act 2 and Engine War.
*[https://www.warhammer-community.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/25553ac3.pdf '''Thousand Sons: Legends PDF''']: For 'Legacy Units' and Wargear options (eg. Combi-Plasma's and force axes on the non-terminator sorcerer.)

====Boxes====
Boxes, boxes, boxes! Currently there <s>are two sets</s> is one set that you can buy to make ok-ish savings compared to purchasing the kits individually.
*'''Start Collecting: Thousand Sons:''' A good launching off platform for new players. Contains Ahriman (weird for a named character but there's not much else), 1 unit of 10 Rubric Marines, 1 unit of 10 Tzaangors, and 2 Tzaangor upgrade kits, in case you want them to have the chainswords and pistols (you don't). '''No longer in production.'''
*'''Combat Patrol: Thousand Sons:'''  A box containing the Infernal Master, 5 Scarab Occult Terminators and a lot of Tzaangors at 20 of them. An alright set, but you're gonna want more than just that, consider it an addition to the Star Collecting Thousand Sons box.
**Alternate Opinion: You can take one unit of Tzaangors for each Rubric/Scarab, and no more than that; this box comes with 20, so it's only good value if you're going to max out this one unit, or devote yourself to an army of Birdmen. The Infernal Master, like a lot of the "box exclusive HQs" are <s>kinda trash and gimmicky</s> tricky but potent, has brutal debuffs, a Cabal/self psychic test booster, and longer ranges for the two buffs it DOES have. Buying a Demon Prince and Scarabs separately is cheaper and more useful.
**Secondary Alternate Opinion: This is a pretty potent start for a Thousand Sons army. '''Infernal Masters''' are brutal force multipliers thanks to just having Malefic Maelstrom and Glimpse of Eternity, and Scarab Occults are the backbone of most Thousand Sons armies. While you can only use one 20 man unit of Tzaangors from this box, the Tzaangors themselves are at least usable. If you are in need of Tzaangors (especially with the Warpmeld Army of Renown for them), a unit of Scarab Occults and an Infernal Master, there's worse you can do. Besides, nothing stops you from [[Proxy|just using the Infernal Master as a fancier Sorcerer.]]