Thousand Son update

I have not forgotten them but I am waiting for it to get above 100 degrees outside before I get to work on them.


 
The last of my temple bases just came in to the Warstore from when I ordered them on Thanksgiving, so they should be here soon. I like the temple bases from MAS because those look good for the fall of Prospero.


 
Dave Taylor did a few pre-heresy Emperor's Children:

http://davetaylorminiatures.blogspot.com/2010/02/bitten-off-more-than-i-can-chew.html

The pre-heresy EC though look very different than the others because they were the only ones that wore the aquilla. Also the look of the Thousand Sons is very unique, but he had one interesting thing in his rhinos. I am going to convert my rhinos too even though I have several of the old rhinos, I like the clean lines of the new rhinos. I am going to do what he did, but I am going to add a curved exhaust vents, and some screen-like texture in the front and rear panels. I might buy the chapterhouse pre-heresy rhino kit just for those.


 
I posted a poll on Dakka to see what makes for a better pre-heresy land raider

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/280142.page

There is something that I find interesting about the old land raider, maybe beause I have never owned one. I might try to modernize the old model.


 
Oh, and one last note: I am taking golden demon winner Chris Borer's painting class at Adepticon. I need to ask him how to paint red and gold.

What happened to my Pre-Heresy Thousand Sons?

From this thread

http://blackmoors40k.blogspot.com/2010/02/my-updated-tournament-schedule.html#comments

Age of Ego's asked: "What happened to the Heresy TS? You saving them for the Adepticon...or did you nail down a list yet? Any pics of the conversions?"


 
Well, a couple of things happened... I took a 2 month break, and now I am getting ready for the Broadside Bash.

This is what I have 2 weeks to paint:

16 Warp Spiders

3 War Walkers

2 Wraithlords

4 Jetbikes

Fix and repair 8 Harlequins


 
Then the next month for Adepticon:

4 Wave Serpents

Assemble and paint 9 vypers

Finish my other 6 War Walkers

I am lucky that my fellow teammates are going to do my Adepticon team tournament army this year and I can take this one off.


 
For the So Cal Slaughter and the next month after that I have to work on a few big bugs to round out my Tyranid army.


 
No painting for the 'Ard Boys *whew!*


 
I am playing my Eldar right now because I am enjoying them the most right now, and they give me the best chance for winning an invite to Vegas, and in Adepticon for the European Team tournament.


 
After that I will have time to work on an army. So there is a good chance that I will finally get to work on my Thousand Sons. I bought all of the bitz for them during all of the Thanksgiving sales, so they are ready to go when I clear up some time for them.


 

Black Friday

One of the reasons why I started with the pre-heresy Thousand Sons is that I thought it would be cheap since I have almost everything already.



Boy was I wrong! I just spent over $200 at the war store and I still have not bought any vehicles yet.

I did buy all of the bases though, and they should be here soon. I found a good tutorial on how to paint them here:

http://www.chestofcolors.com/cofc-postnuke/index.php?name=Sections&req=viewarticle&artid=45&page=1



One of the big stumbling blocks is the transfers. Here are the 2 decal prints that are already done for the Thousand Sons:


Thanks to Tubal over on the B&C for this




This is from BoLS

As everyone knows, home printers don't print white, so I have a couple of options. The first is to have them professionally done which will cost $50-$100. The other option is to print them on white decal paper, and cut each symbol out individually. This is the long and tedious option, but it will be a lot cheaper. I ordered some white decal paper to see if it will be feasible.

Thousand Sons update

I have been collecting bits and pieces of my Thousand Sons for a few years now and I am finally getting around to putting them all together.

I did an inventory and I was surprised with what I had. I thought I had everything that I needed, but when I laid them all out I saw just how much I was missing. I collected all of the rare pre-heresy parts that I needed like the chest pieces and the heads, but what I found out was that I am missing all of the backs of the chest, and all of the legs. So I need to start to order a bunch of bits so I have everything for a complete marine.



While I am waiting on the bitz/bases in the meantime I will throw a couple of spawn together incase Ahriman goes nuts with the Gift of Chaos.

I need to hurry on my Thousand Sons!

It looks like I need to get going on my Pre-Heresy Thousand Sons. I was planning on having it ready for Adepticon, but with the release of the new GT Tournament Circuit, I have to change my time table and get a move on!


 
ConQuest GT

The ConQuest GT is in only 2 months away and they have a lot of points for painting and conversions. You get 100 points max for battle, and 50 points for painting/conversions.

http://www.con-quest.com/

If I can get my army really, that would be a good way to score a lot of points, but I do not think I can make it in time. I am a slow painter already, and to make a full 2000 point army from scratch will take a good long time. I am on the fence about going to this event, so a lot will depend on how far along my army is to getting done.


 
Broadside Bash

It looks like it is the same thing with the Broadside Bash, where they have 100 battle points possible with 33 points coming from painting, 36 from player scored comp (argh!) and sportsmanship. So out of a possible 200 points, only 100 point will be battle points, and the rest are player judged. I told myself that I was not going to go to The Broadside Bash again, but I think I will give it another chance. The problems with it last year was that the area was really cramped together, it is a 2000 point tournament and they said that they had 2.5 hours a round, and it came out to be more like 1.5.

http://www.broadsidebash.com/rules.php


 

 
So I need to finish my Thousand Sons and fast so I can try to max out on the paint scores. I have been waiting on the War Store's Black Friday sale so I can pick up a lot of these bases:

http://www.thewarstore.com/MASTempleBases.html

I am off next week, so I will try to do some work on them.

Army list tinkering

I was doing some thinking about Pre-Heresy armies and I came to the conclusion that they look really nice, but they are very boring on the table top.

Take everything that is at least a little interesting in the Space Marine codex and Chaos Codex and throw them out, and what you have left is a Pre-Heresy army.

You do have a great looking army thought because you have Jetbikes instead of bikes, turbo-fan back packs instead of the regular assault marines, and the unique look of the earlier space marine armors.

But underneath the look you have a very basic army.

I have changed around some things so here is the army so far:


 
Ahriman

Dreadnought

10 Chaos Space Marines

10 Chaos Space Marines

Rhino

9 Thousand Sons

5 Oblits

Land Raider

I traded the havocs for a land raider. I did this for a few reasons. Some armies just do not have an answer for Land Raiders. Also it is mobile and can move troops around while Havocs have a little better firepower, but they are very static. The good news is that it means that I have to do 10 less marines, and will have an interesting model to work on. Sure makes the army rather small though which is both good and bad. If I was not so interested in the look of the army and wanted to go for more power I would drop Ahriman and the dreadnought and up the firepower and maybe some terminators for counter assault.

Pre-Heresy Thousand Sons part II

Taking the units from the previous post, here is the preliminary list:



HQs

Ahriman-Chief Librarian of the Thousand Sons

Ahriman -250 Points



Elites

Kargori Dreadnought

Dreadnought w/Multimelta, Extra armor -115 Points



Troops

Jafari Tactical Support Squad

9 CSM w/Lascannon, Plasma Gun, IoCG -225 points

Aspiring Champion w/Power Weapon



Pa-Siamun Tactical Squad

9 CSM w/Lascannon, Plasma Gun, IoCG -270 -points

Aspiring Champion w/Power Fist

Tu-Amun Rhino

Rhino 35 points



Ankhu Anen- Thousand Sons Guardians of the Great Library

8 Thousand Sons -304

Aspiring Sorcerer w/Bolt of Change

Tu-Amun Rhino

Rhino



Heavy Support

Sobek-Heavy Support Squad (Missile Launcher)

8 Havoc Marines w/4 Missile Launchers, IoCG -225 Points



Rehahti Magnus's coven

3 Obliterators -210



Uthizaar's sect

2 Obliterators -150



1749 Points.

Strength:

It has 8+ units that can shoot strength 8 shots. Lot of people look at the amount of the shooting, and don't realize that you need a lot of units that can shoot at different targets. Although some of the shooting is strength 8 AP1 is only 24"

Weakness:

Assault. Ahriman is the only model good in assault, and he is just ok. They have nice pictures of the Thousand Son's assault squads and I might do a squad of them since I found a company that sells the resin pre-heresy turbofan backpacks.

Pre-Heresy Thousand Sons

He begining

I am a long time Thousand Sons player and I would like to re-visit them. I have been in the hobby for a while and I took most of 2^nd edition off when I lived in Utah, and when I came back into the hobby near the end of 3^rd and I did it with the Thousand Sons. Even though everyone said that they are a bad army I loved the look of the army and the fluff for them. In fact, they have the best background story in 40k. So when I started playing them I started to win a lot of RTTs. So when I posted my batreps I got the same reaction from everyone that I do now winning with an army that the "group think" says that you can't win with.

I tapered off a bit with 4^th edition with them because of the use of scoring units. My army was so small to start with that by the end of the game my units were all chewed up. I killed more VPs then my opponent did, but they still had more units than me and were able to win the game. Then the 4^th edition chaos codex came out and that was the end of a real Thousand Sons army. I still play a combination of my Word Bearers with my Thousand Sons, and I try to keep to the fluff, but it is just not the same. To mix it up a little I took my 3^rd edition Thousand Sons army to Adepticon last year and I even went 2 for 2 in the Gladiator but only 0-2-1 and against the hardest lists I have seen at the Invitational.


 
Building a winning army:

When you are building a pre-heresy army you really have 2 codexs to choose from, Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines. I debated back and forth, and even though the Space Marine codex has things like Land Speeders that the Chaos list doesn't I still am going with the Chaos Codex.

Now the chaos codex is ok, and I have played a lot of games with it, and made it work without lash and 9 oblits, but you almost have to take out all of the good units of the codex to make it a pre-heresy army. I already started out handicapped when I played a Thousand Sons based army so that means that I could not take any other marks other than Tzeentch, but when you make it a pre-heresy army you also can't take any good units like Demon Princes, Oblits, etc. and that really neuters the army.

So let's look at what I can take.

Here is a list of the units that appear in the Horus Heresy Visions of War books:

HQs

Ahriman-Chief Librarian of the Thousand Sons

Uthizaar Librarian-Sorcerer

Phosis T'Kar Librarian-Sorcerer

Hathor Maat Librarian-Sorcerer

Brother Amsu

Apophis Command Squad


 
Elites

Sekhmet- Terminators


 
Kargori Dreadnought


 
Troops

Prahotpe recon squad

Prahote recon Squad

Tolbek Tactical Squad

Jafari Tactical Support Squad

Pa-Siamun Tactical Squad

Tu-Amun Rhino


 
Fast Attack

Amunis Assault Squad

Resenmut Assault Squad

Menkaura Assault squad

Qaa Land Speeder


 
Heavy Support

Sobek-Heavy Support Squad (Missile Launcher)

Kalid Heavy Support Squad (Heavy Bolters)

Nebmaetre Heavy Support Squad (Plasma Guns)

Amensos-Heavy Support Squad


 
Unknown

T'Kaar Cabel

Uthizaar's sect

Rehahti Magnus's coven

Ankhu Anen- Thousand Sons Guardians of the Great Library

The scarab occult


 
Now let's take those units and see if we can distil it down to a working army.


 
HQ

Ahriman-Chief Librarian of the Thousand Sons

I would like to take Ahriman to give the army some panache and he had been upgraded a little bit this edition; (it was odd that the most powerful librarian in the universe couldn't even use a power/force weapon and they finally got around to giving him one). He is not worth his points, but he is a matter of style over substance. I thought about adding another sorcerer right now, and if I take the list up to 2000 point I might, but for now, just Ahriman will have to do.

Elite

Kargori Dreadnought

Chaos dreadnoughts are a bit of a loose cannon, but they have their uses. They are great at tying up assault units that do not have high strength, like bloodcrushers, etc.

Troops

Tolbek Tactical Squad

Jafari Tactical Support Squad

Pa-Siamun Tactical Squad

Tu-Amun Rhino


 
Normal Chaos Marine squads are a must haves and are good all-around shooting and assault units.


 

Heavy Support

Sobek-Heavy Support Squad (Missile Launcher)

I like havoc squads. Missile launchers are good all-around heavy weapons that are good at killing vehicles, hordes and MEQs.


 
So with that I have the core of my army. But that is not enough, and that army is so boring and vanilla *yawn* looking at those units long enough and it will cure your insomnia.


 
So what I am going to do is take some creative license and step out of the pre-heresy box and have a little fun.


 
Ankhu Anen- Thousand Sons Guardians of the Great Library

These guys are a bunch of sorcerers that have a headdress similar to what the Thousand Sons have now. I am going to turn them into a squad of Thousand Sons. It will give me an added sorcerer and what is a Thousand Sons army without a Thousand Sons squad?


 
Rehahti Magnus's coven

Uthizaar's sect


 
These guys are Sorcerers in Terminator armor, so I will have them be Obliterators. When I first play tested a pre-heresy army I found out that I desperately needed Oblits. I just lacked the firepower necessary to beat certain armies.

My next army project

Every year I start a new army to give myself something to do between the Baltimore GT and Adepticon while the tournament season slows down and it recharges my engines for the Warhammer 40K hobby. Of course there was no Baltimore GT this year, but this is still time to work on something new.


After reading this thread about Darth Diggler's 'Ard Boyz army:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/257828.page
It made me think of working on a chaos equivalent. This leads me to my Pre-Heresy Thousand Sons idea I have had kicking around for a few years. Not only that, but it seems that there is a renewed interest in them with the re-launch of the Space Wolves, and with the Black Library's Horus Heresy books focusing on them with the upcoming releases of Prospero Burns and Thousand Sons. So I think I will revisit my favorite army for next year's tournament season.



To build this army I cracked open the The Horus Heresy "Collected Vision" book for the look and feel of the army, and after going through it all I have to say is that it will be a ton of work to capture that look! Not only that but painting red is my personal kryptonite.