Hobby: Pre-heresy Thousand Sons

Here's another Hobby related post from Gendoikari87.

So what codex?: Well this was a hard one. No codex would be perfect for the pre-heresy Thousand Sons. They.... well they aren't like any other chapter. They're sort of similar to other codex chapters...... and then again, they have and absurdly high rate of psykers. Not every marine in the Thousand Sons pre-heresy was a master psyker but we'll say a good bit were to say the least, as the geneseed itself seemed to guantee at lest some psychic ability. Heck they even had entire cults to one form or another, four in fact. So the army has to have access to psychic powers on the squad level. That narrows our possibilities down to one while still using loyalist chapters: Codex Grey Knights. Now this is not a perfect match but nothing would be. The Thousand Sons used standard bolters, not storm bolters and not EVERY marine had a force weapon, though I imagine a lot of the good psykers would. This will take some streches no matter how you do it, but I think Codex: Grey Knights works best. This being PRE-heresy, not a heresy army.

History: http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Cults_of_the_Thousand_Sons

HQ
Grand Master [185][Master Crafted Nemesis force halberd]
Brother Captiain [150]

Elites

5 Paladins [400][Apothecary, Banner, MC psycannon ]

10 Purifiers [280][4 psycannons]

Troops
5 Grey Knight terminators [225][psycannon]

10 Grey Knights [250][psycannon, Rhino]

10 Grey Knights [250][psycannon, Rhino]

Heavy Support

Land Raider [260][psybolt ammunition]

Total: 2000

Stand Ins:

Psycannons: first off this goes for any proxy list I make with grey knights. Psycannons are assault cannons. or at least what assault cannons should be. but I might be a gatling gun fanboy, i'll admit that. mmmmmmm..... the humm of the Gau-8 .... mmmmmmmmm

Grand Master: What, all this talk about how psychc the thousand sons were and you make an HQ a mastery level 1 brother captain? one word answer here. Yes, as powerful as a lot of their psykers are, I could think of no better HQ than a Corvidae Cult Master. A pre cog of undeniable power. With initiative 6 thanks to the halberd and grand strategy, I think they do fine representing the intel gatherers of the Thousand sons. Oh and theres the other main reason I chose them; Psychic communion.

Brother captain: read above but as an athenean they are there for telepathy and assisting the corvidae

Paladins: so gendo, you're putting in a shiny new object from the codex because it's shiny. Well no, the Paladins are the Pavoni cult members. Able not only heal them selves but augment themselves to how ever they see fit. They can also boil the blood in their opponents as well. Particularily nasty opponents.

Purifiers: again not just putting in the most powerful units in the codex, but an actually calculated decision. And this one was easy. The Purifiers rules are a flexible bunch that can fit a lot of units. Electro Priests and Pyrae Cult members are the first off the top of my head. More on the Electro Priests in another article. For today all you need to know is that these are the Pyrae and yes they sould have a techpriest with them.

Grey Knight Terminators: these will represent Raptora cult members able to project shields around themselves, able to use them both offensively and defensively


Grey Knights Strike Squads: These are joe blow Thousand Sons with no real particular cult. Generalist units for you to practice getting the paint scheme ready.

In closing: These won't be perfect translations to table top but they will be close enough, mostly representing an elite of the cults army.

Modeling: You'll want to use a lot of egyptian motifs, scibor miniatures as well as max mini offer great conversion bits and nice kopesh's for converting your force weapons. remember the symbols of the different cults and have fun ( corvidae: Black Ravens head, Pyrae: scarlet phoenix, Pavoni: a colorful feather)