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

=Counterplay=

===Imperium===
====Space Marines====
Probably the most versatile faction in the game, able to be ran for shooting or melee, massed infantry or a handful of tanks, Generally speaking, Space Marines will have all flavors of weapons and psychic bullshit that can screw with you. If your opponent doesn't bring a Chaplain or a librarian, they're practically handing you the win. Notable subfaction specific stuff shall be listed below, though it would not hurt to go to their tactics page and get an idea of the chapters, generally speaking. 

*'''Black Templars''':Worse than Grey Knights in some ways, with a flat 5+++ against mortal wounds, meaning they'll be getting plenty out of it against you and are fans of massed infantry that wanna run up and melee you. Grimaldus has a built in +1 deny the witch, and they have a Warlord trait that allows them to do that as well on a separate character. They have relics and squad upgrades that can reduce your +1 to cast or screw with your psychic tests. In short, they live up to their hatred of Psykers. You're in for a slog, but keeping the Templars at a distance is solid advice, as your shooting tends to be better. Remember that Templars rely on tons of buffs to otherwise weak weapons like Chainswords to snowball into giant death blobs. However, keep in mind that those Chainswords will be less effective against you thanks to All is Dust. 
*'''Dark Angels''': Similar to above, minus that they have ways of outright denying psychic powers once per game. Bear this in mind when making a critical roll. Their Deathwing Knights justly deserve their reputation for being utterly terrifying in melee, but in general you'll outshoot anything in the Deathwing. Ravenwing and Greenwing will give you the most trouble, as they are able to bring as many invuln saves as you with Ravenwing while being faster. Oh, and Greenwing can be faster, but also bring tons of highly accurate Plasma weapons to negate all is dust on your Rubricae.
*'''Blood Angels''': Utterly insane melee, and standard marine pros and cons. However, Blood Angels rely on several psychic powers to go off in order to use flying librarian suicide Dreadnoughts of doom to rip your line a new asshole early game. The one benefit to being an army of psykers is you can deny with ''everything''. Death company of any flavor are fat nopes in melee, and are also incredibly resilient to damage of any kind, though mortals will chew through them like a drill through wood. Don't stay in melee too long either; most Blood Angels players worth their salt will pack Inferno Pistols as canned "fuck you" for anything stupid enough to charge them and not kill them.
*'''Space Wolves''': Those fucking furries are ferocious in melee, with +1 to hit on the charge and exploding 6's in the assault doctrine. What they lack is shooting, but they make up for this by bringing Bjorn/venerable dreadnoughts with Blizzard shields. Generally speaking, you'll outshoot them, but the challenge will be keeping them out of melee with you. All is dust will protect you early game from Blood claw chainsword spam, but don't stick around for their thunderhammers to laugh at your rules. Wulfen are tough, but thankfully we have psychic powers, so they aren't as much of a death sentence to armies like Sisters or Tau.
*'''Grey Knights''': Technically they have their own codex but they're still space marines for the most part, and are something akin to your loyalist counterpart. You are simply not having fun. Period. That being said, you do ''slightly'' outcast them, but they have slightly better melee options and powers that work well for getting stuck in, something our Scarabs don't enjoy. Psycannons will fuck you over because everything is a Psyker.

====Not Marines====
*'''Astra Militarum''': We used to bully Guardsmen because their lasguns [[Troll|only made our armor stronger]], but now Guardsmen are actually poised to outshoot Space Marines, a just reward given by their Adamantium Balls. Their default Regimental Tactic lets them autowound on 6s to hit, which given their proclivity for [[DAKKA|massed fire]], is going to be a lot; most of those autowounds actually have a chance of punching through now, because all Guardsmen can be ordered with +1 to hit and an additional point of AP; the very special and unique Kasrkin can get up to AP-4, autowounding on 5s to hit, and causing up to 6 Mortal Wounds ''with'' every one of those autowounds. What took your sorcerer decades to master in the arcane arts a group of ten cadians did with a volley of extra-spicy lasgun fire, and even then he's subject to RNG (3+D3 MW v 6). Custodes weep salty tears that their Emperor-given S5 T5 alchemically-enhanced physique is not as tough as -1 Damage Ogryns wearing Tank Tracks; if you get your terminators into melee with them, it's actually a going to be a long fight that you may need to spend CP on. Guard Vehicles are a bigger problem for you now, because they copped All is Dust with Armoured Tracks and have received army-wide Toughness and Armor buffs. All their tanks are 2+, and the new Rogal Dorn has a T9 2+ profile like the CSM's ([[Fail|but not yours]]) Landraider, ''but'' with one wound higher. Killing armor has always been difficult for Thousand Sons, and because they can reduce damage with a CP and shoot out of combat with their main weapons ''naturally'', you can't cheese your way through with Tzaangors or Khopeshes. 
**The quick and dirty solution against Guard is to kill their officers and watch them flail around without orders. Targeted spells from Ahriman or from deepstrike will really hurt their top characters and deplete their Command Squads; they are also the ideal targets for Tzaangor Enlightened. Guardsmen shooting is now actually a threat, but guardsmen themselves aren't, so continue to bully and wipe whole squads with Rubric Flamers and Scarabs; so long as you have ObSec and they don't, you have the advantage. 
*'''Adepta Sororitas''': An army that wants to get in close to mess with you - bolters, flamers and meltas tend to be their big three ranged options but they're more than happy to close the distance proper and get into melee. The Nuns learned well from the Templars, having an inbuilt deny the witch in most of their army on a 1d6. It only really matters if they roll a 6, which automatically denies the power, though combined with Valorous Heart this can present a challenge. The Condemnor Boltgun can deal mortal wounds to your basic Infantry, and can be found on most Squad leaders. However, their main weakness comes in the fact that they're ultimately squishy T3 single-wound bodies in power armour, meaning that your standard guns are more than equipped to chew on through them. They also don't have much in the way of bodies much like marines, meaning you can wreak havoc on 'em with mortal wounds too.

*'''Imperial Knights''': Big mechs that tend to pack a lot of firepower, meaning you can't really outshoot them. They are however, quite large and your opponent won't have many models on the board. Abusing Terrain will help a lot, and throwing psychic powers at them is the most efficient way to get around their invuln saves. Remember the invuln only works against gunfire, so a Maulerfiend that is blessed enough to get into melee will fight toe to toe with a knight, assuming it lives that long. Play the objective and you'll be fine.

==Chaos==
*'''Chaos Space Marines:''' These guys play similarly to regular Space Marines, albeit with a bit more of melee flavor. Many of the same tactics that apply to them apply here as well. Have some rules that overlap, tend to also quite like flamers. Specific matchups will depend on their legion, much like their loyalist counterparts.

*'''Death Guard:'''Slow and hard to kill, though in a different way to you. They've got a good amount of rerolls they can access, a high toughness characteristic and reduce all the damage they take by 1, along with debuffing anything that gets too close to them. They lack high AP shooting on any of their infantry, with anything remotely good loaded onto their vehicles. Your mortal wound output should help versus their marines and terminators, though if they close the gap then expect your own marines to fold in melee. Having something to screen charges is never an awful idea but it is pretty damn essential versus them.

*'''Thousand Sons:''' Scroll back up, read the article and you should have an idea when it comes to strengths and weaknesses. Your ranged weapons are pretty mediocre versus other rubric marines so save those for any chaff that they might've brought instead, try and get some units into melee with their gunlines and save your denies for any sort of buffs or important powers rather than just smites.

*'''Chaos Daemons:''' A general rule of thumb with Chaos daemons is that they don't give a crap about AP. Instead of typical invuln saves, Daemons have two values for their Armour saves that cannot be ignored or modified in any way (barring mortal wounds, funnily enough) This is exacerbated by their generally lower toughness (T3 infantry on average, Chaos God dependent). To this end, you should prioritize maximizing the number of shots rather than strength. Coincidentally, your Rubrics can also take flamers which put out a good amount of shots. Your mortal wound output is also a blessing to get around their Daemon Saves and you can easily mess with their psychic shenanigans (particularly against Tzeentch, imagine that). Be warned, there are now little if any penalties for souping Daemons together with the new Codex. Each god tends to have a bit of a different theme 
**'''Khorne''' - Notably the only daemon faction without Psykers (given how Khorne [[RAGE|hates]] them, this is unsurprising), Khorne daemons are particularly vulnerable to your psykers and mortal wound spam in general. As an army entirely focused on melee units, they are also very vulnerable to being picked off at range, albeit your best option for deleting their hordes requires you to get into charging distance all the same. Do be aware of their AP, even though you've got army-wide invuln saves they're not much better than the standard -3 that they've got almost across the board.
**'''Nurgle''' - Their painfully slow movement speed will ensure you will have no trouble playing keep away the entire game. With the update, their Plaguebearers are now T5 with two wounds but are insanely pricey for what they do. Their nurglings lack ObSec, but their improved Beasts of Nurgle will automatically heal back to full wounds unless they're outright destroyed. Like necrons, wiping them in one go is your best bet.
**'''Tzeentch''' - A buff to their Daemon save means most of their standard units benefit from a 3+ versus ranged, which is a pain since they don't care about AP at all. However, they'll fold in melee with their pitiful 5+ saves instead. Do keep in mind that their troop daemons can split into smaller ones and can be an absolute pain in the ass to chew through. Focus on their bigger, scary units first. They're much more keen on shooting than the other factions and have more abundant psykers too. Funny how you've both got that in common, isn't it?
**'''Slaanesh''' - Much like Khorne, Slaanesh daemons are dedicated melee combatants, but with a heightened emphasis on speed over power. They'll typically throw out more attacks with less AP and damage. This is actually a good thing, as most of those attacks will have less than 2 AP and also do 1 damage, meaning that your marines have a good chance when it comes to standing up to them in combat. Now, they probably won't survive multiple rounds of melee, so still try to dispatch them before they get too close.

*'''Chaos Knights''' - Evil Knights that individually are more flexible in their loadout than their imperial counterparts. Similarly, their invulns only apply to ranged attacks and your mortal wound output is going to be a good option versus them. 

==Xenos==
====Eldar====
*'''Craftworld Eldar/Aeldari''': A fast, psyker-heavy army that can be deceptively versatile - ranged and melee are both valid options for them and they tend to rely on units that have a designated purpose that they excel in, though they can also be built in other ways. Jetbikes that will cross the board in a turn with little effort, or the very durable Wraith units that are just as slow-moving as you are, to (smallish) hordes of guardians wielding shuriken catapults supported by a compliment of artillery and tanks. However, one universal thing about them is that they will be quite reliant on psykers to make their units shine. You've still got a decent chance to out-cast them, given all their psykers are either classified as HQs or their very contested Elites section. However, unlike your own sorcerers, their big boy psykers get two denies a piece and are immune to perils by default. 
Add on top of that the fact that they will easily outrun you, aspect warriors that can carve through your marines with little difficulty, and a myriad of other shenanigans and you might be in for a rough one. 

However, their infantry are universally a squishy T3 with an average save of 4+ that need to get relatively close to do their damage. Their aspect warriors also tend to perform poorly outside of their designated roles. If you can force them into unfavorable positions, massed boltguns and flamers will make short work of their forces. Their psyker support is also very much not built to take fights, catch one in melee with a squad of basic rubrics and it's very much probable they'll die. They very much aren't hurting for AP which is what typically lets them carve their way through MEQs, your army-wide invuln and the prevalence of D1 weapons on their infantry units means that you'll actually be able to still stand up to 'em when they do close the gap much better than your vanilla CSM counterparts.

*'''Dark Eldar/Drukhari''': Edgy, spiky elves that are three factions in one. No, really. You've got shooty kabals, fast and stabby cults and the tough (by elf standards) covens. Much the same applies to these guys as it does craftworlds - they are faster than you and have little trouble killing more elite units. Compared to their cousins, they are somewhat quicker, a bit more frail and also a bit cheaper and also gain power the longer the battle goes on. 

Generally speaking, these guys tend to ride into combat amassed on relatively frail skimmer transports that go pretty damn fast, which they can also shoot out of. Popping these first will be the big step to defeating them, as once you get past that hull the squishy bodies inside will have to book it to cover to not get liquefied by your shots - the same statline of T3 bodies and 4+ saves still applies here. Counterplay does depend on what they play, though typically they'll wanna get into melee with you.
*Kabals are gonna typically hang back and pepper you with poisoned shots - meaning they wound on 4+ against anything that isn't a vehicle regardless of toughness. Not that this is scary to your marines at all, as they have no AP and do a single point of damage and cultists aren't worth crying over. No, these guys will be the biggest threat to your vehicles and daemon engines, firing a myriad of blasters, dark lances and other anti-tank weaponry that'll make short work of them. Sure, they can pack disintegrator cannons along which are very much an anti-elite choice but more often than not, they'll rely on the other subfactions or their incubi mercenaries to do that for them in melee. Watch out for those ones, they're scary good at their job and also get power armour for a 3+ save
*Cults will ruin your day, with their basic Wyches moving a staggering 8" and their other units going much quicker than that, all while crapping out a bunch of melee attacks. They also shoot up drugs before combat to make things... interesting. These can do a myriad of things; make them tougher, hit harder, go faster, or shoot a little better. They have absolutely crap armour, charging into battle almost naked and relying on their superior reflexes to dodge instead. As you might imagine, it's easier to dodge a blade than a bullet, meaning that these mostly-ladies are even more fucked than any of their other kin if they're caught out in the open to be shot at. Pop their transports with your big guns first and foremost, put your other shots into their jetbikes and hoverboard riders as much as you can. That will buy you some time to then shoot their rank and file (hopefully) before they can close in on you.
*Covens are also melee focused, though they'll have a much better time shrugging your attacks off with their basic infantry being T4 and a faction-wide feel no pain that will give them a shot versus your psychic damage. The scary things are their pain engines though, relatively quick flying scorpions that are mostly gonna wanna get close so they can butcher their way through your stuff, though they can also be kitted out for shooting things too. They are only T6 however, meaning that heavy weapons can still cut through them efficiently. Hell, a buffed squad of terminators can probably punch them back just fine too.

*'''Harlequins''': Are you scared of clowns? Odds are, you should be. An uncommon faction to come across (though competitively they've actually been doing well so maybe not as much as it was in years past) that is not forgiving for new players to pick up. If your opponent is playing them, they'll almost certainly have a good idea of what they're doing. Much like the other eldar, they are blisteringly fast and rely on an army-wide 4++ to protect their squishy T3 bodies (noticing a pattern yet?) to survive. They rely on the sheer amount of trickery they can pull off to win. Did you think your character was safe because there was a 10-man squad of terminators in front of him? Tough shit, they can jump over models with ease in their move phase and land on the other side for an easy charge where they'll proceed to blend him into paste with their melee damage. They've got numerous stratagems that'll let them get anywhere on the board, shut off rerolls against them and more.

Your best bet is to keep your distance as best you can. Unlike dark eldar, popping their transports will be much harder and you're better served on waiting until they get out to shoot the elves inside. They've limited defence against mortal wounds though, take out their Shadowseers and they'll lose any sort of denies or auras that'll save them from smites. Once they start taking losses, they lose steam big time and their turns become quite anemic. If you're alive at this point, you can easily snag victory. 

====Tyranids====
*'''Tyranids''': Hordes or big and tough monsters are the big two ways to play them, either way they tend to be pretty adept at melee and are surprisingly fast. Focus on killing any Synapse creatures that you can, be mindful of Shadow in the Warp which can interfere with your own casting.

*'''Genestealer Cults''': Expect a lot of positioning tricks, this faction is also potent when it comes to both shooting and melee. However, they are highly reliant on buffs to make their shooting any good and aren't particularly tough, with nothing available to them tougher than a Rhino. Do keep in mind that they technically can ally Imperial Guard, along with Tyranids but the latter will completely break their Crossfire rule, while the former can only make up 25% of their total point value and not break it.

====Misc====
*'''Necrons''': Robot skeletons that are good at not dying thanks to their ability to just stand back up after being shot. They're also thematically similar to you in the sense that they are also space Egyptians, though not quite to the same extent. Primarily geared towards shooting with a respectable amount of AP, they still have a decent amount of options for melee damage output and, while slow on foot, do have some movement tricks to rocket their stuff up the board.

They are particularly vulnerable to your vast array of psychic powers as the only way they can deny the witch is to upgrade their canoptek vehicles with Gloom Prisms, and get a bit of defence through a specific subfaction. Drowning their units with mortal wounds in the psychic phase does deny them their reanimation, as it specifies that it has to be the result of an attack rather than just any source of damage they want. You'll also wanna focus on taking out one unit at a time, as once a squad's wiped, they aren't coming back any more.

*'''Orks''': A tough, slow melee horde that kinda sucks at shooting. Don't underestimate that though, even though they're not accurate shots they still have volume of fire. All the same they'll do their damn hardest to get up close to beat the shit out of you. With how tough your rubrics and especially your terminators are, you can actually last a round with 'em in melee, though two is questionable. 

Orks tend to fold easily, due to their poor morale and their 6+ saves. Their high AP tends to belong to a select few squads only as well. Stock up on blast weapons, have a few units that can act as speedbumps for their mobs of [[boyz]] and pick them off before they can get to you as best you can.

*'''Tau''': All shooting, all the time. Space gundam enthusiasts that can go pretty fast thanks to an abundance of the fly keyword and have absolutely no melee presence outside of some of their alien auxiliaries. They've also got a myriad of ways to deflect wounds with their drones which can make their stuff surprisingly durable. Their basic infantry weapon is one of, if not the best in the game thanks to its range and high AP, though you'll still deflect some of that since it is single damage still.

The Tau, again have no melee presence and thus are going to hit like wet noodles in melee combat and will easily be punched to death by cultists if they somehow survive long enough to get up there. Combine that with their lack of psykers and if you can survive the first couple rounds of shooting and close the gap with literally anything, you can easily just slug them to death. Do be aware some of their battlesuits can fire into melee though, much like vehicles can with Big Guns Never Tire. If you can get up there though, it should be easy pickings. As they are all T3, melting their infantry with massed flamers is also a solid option.

*'''Leagues of Votann:''' Space dwarves. Similar to sisters of battle, they wanna get close to fuck your shit up. They are slow, have special void armor (reduces AP by 1 and stops rerolling of wounds or damage), along with pretty damn good shooting. Oh, they've also got a mechanic that lets them auto-wound stuff on up to a 4+ to hit. However, they've only got one psyker unit with a single deny which means that they're very vulnerable to mortal wound spam you can do. In addition, while their armour isn't bad, their base save is still a 4+ and you've got enough AP on your standard weaponry to make that a 5+, meaning that they will feel any shots that go through. Their melee output isn't exactly great either, outside of a couple dedicated units so sending in terminators to chop 'em up will spark dividends.