So, Vonny just reached out to me and asked how I won games with a pure Ksons list. I should hasten to note that I haven't played Ksons in 7th Edition (for reasons I feel are abundantly clear), but I'm happy to lay out the basic philosophies, anyway.
The Rules of the ThemeSo, my personal thematic rules for playing Ksons (and, I should note, there is literally *no* reason to play Ksons if you don't play themed. None whatsoever) are as follows:
- Thousand Sons (and Cultists) are your only troops.
- As strong a psychic phase as you can manage.
- Everything that can gets the Mark of Tzeentch. No other marks. No Undivided.
So, this means no Plague Marines/Noise Marines/CSMs/Berserkers.
I should also add that this is
not a good army list. It's going to suck. In a competitive 7th Ed environment (read: BONKERS), you will get massively curb-stomped. Have the decency to paint up a pretty force so you get compliments before they all die.
How I Did It/Would Do ItTo my mind, the Ksons should be powerful, slow, and full of psychic trickery. In 6th Edition, I did this with Ahriman (who is expensive, but as a high BS psyker who can triple tap powers, he's AWESOME), two 9-strong units of Ksons, a bunch of daemon engines (Defiler, Forgefiend), some Rhinos, and a small allied contingent of Tzeentch Daemons (10-12 Horrors, Lord of Change).
This list netted me 10-11 Warp Charge, much of which I used to summon more units. Or, barring that, I was a big fan of the Portalglyph for bringing in tiny units of Horrors. Fun fact: 1 horror has exactly as much psychic firepower as 10 horrors. More psychic dice meant more psychic shooting, and the list is *entirely* reliant on psychic shooting. That sucks most of the time, but when it works...hoo boy, it's nice.
The Daemon Engines are the fire support, basically. They can also assist in assault. Were I to play Ksons in this edition, I would 100% field a Renegade Knight of some kind, as this both fits with the theme and fits the tactical role. Forgefiends and Defilers and Knights and Maulerfiends bombard/tie up the enemy in assaults. If they die, they die, but I've found those units to be surprisingly durable most of the time, so long as they aren't being smacked around by chainfists or Strength D shenanigans.
The Thousand Sons/Rubric Marines take Rhinos with Havoc Launchers (because any real long range firepower is a huge benefit) and their job is to amble up to midfield objectives, getting their psykers in range of things. Thanks to Ahriman, they can frequently Infiltrate forward and, also thanks to Ahriman, they can sometimes wind up Shrouded or Invisible. They can't break, they have robust invul saves, have objective secured, and work as a pretty sweet shield for a hidden force weapon. They are WAY overpriced for what they do, but we're playing a theme, here. I've got an article on the front page describing their worth in greater detail, and it *mostly* stands in this edition.
That leaves the psychics.
How To Manage the Thrice-Damned Psychic PhaseThe psychic phase will either bless you with an embarrassment of riches or screw you over royally. This varies from turn to turn, game to game. Get used to it.
First, the Tzeentch powers:
- NEVER take Boon of Tzeentch. Never. It sucks, sucks, sucks.
- The Primaris power will never kill anything. I've played this army for a while now, and it literally never has.
- You want BOLT OF TZEENTCH because beam powers are the best thing ever. They can't miss, and taking any uncertainty out of the psychic phase is an unadulterated boon.
- Wind of Chaos (or whatever the flamer power is called these days) has a Warp Charge a bit too high for what it does, but if and when you paste a squad of Wraithguard with it, you won't be crying too many tears.[/i]
If a psyker has a bum power, just don't use them. Use your warp charge dice on powers that are good. Which brings me to Ahriman.
Ahriman's Powers:
- Go Telepathy first. Take psychic shriek and then pray for Invisibility or Shrouding. Psychic Shriek is pretty fantabulous, honestly, since Ahriman can cast it REDACTED times, which will whittle down wounds on even Gargantuan Creatures pretty quickly or absolutely devastate mid-leadership squads.
- Ahriman *has* to take one Tzeentch power (stupid, stupid rule), so pray for the Beam power.
- If you have a power left over, consider biomancy just for Smite, which is pretty sweet with Ahriman's boosted BS and special abilities.
Finally, your Horrors and Lord of Change should either take the new Lore of Change (which is incredibly awesome) or Malefic Daemonology.
About Summoning things:
- Sacrifice is a great value! Sacrifice one horror for one Herald of Tzeentch w/an extra level and it is pure profit. Do it as often as you can!
- Summoning costs more Warp Charge than it is worth (usually), but Incursion is great. A free unit of Bloodcrushers is a game changer, no lie.
- Possession seems like fun, but it also brings an FMC onto the board in his undies while the rest of the enemy army can just blast him to oblivion OR he will be flying and it will take him 3 damned turns to assault something. Not recommended.
So, there you are--that's the basic plan. Is it a good plan? Hell no! You have very little assault recourse (well, Maulerfiends and Knights, I suppose), very little mobility, and you have to pin your hopes on the psychic phase. That said, if you like living dangerously and are playing in a friendly group/league that isn't walloping you with the Superfriends or silly Eldar shenanigans every game, it can be a lot of fun.