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Author Topic: How to counter Thousand Sons  (Read 3298 times)

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Offline Iluvhir Strafermeyer

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How to counter Thousand Sons
« on: March 18, 2018, 12:32:13 PM »
Cerka!

Gonna be up against a 2000p Thousand sons list this Saturday.
I'm fairly certain that I'll be up against 2 daemon princes, Ahriman and a big 20 man strong squad of Rubric marines. The rest of the army I'm not so sure about. It doesn't really matter.

If you have faced Thousand sons before as Eldar, I'd appreciate any pointers you can provide.

Only looking for general advice. Don't need to be too specific.
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Offline Lord of Winter and War

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Re: How to counter Thousand Sons
« Reply #1 on: March 18, 2018, 12:49:37 PM »
They are just marines with 4+ inv saves. Force them to take armour saves, and they'll die.

Daemon princes are squishy, once you are able to hit them. They'll be trouble though, add they can hide behind squads.

They have a lot of rend, but very limited anti,-tank, or multi-family damage shooting.
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Offline bca11

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Re: How to counter Thousand Sons
« Reply #2 on: March 18, 2018, 02:15:40 PM »
Reapers kill them as fast as they do normal marines, and dire avengers work well too, as you can kite outside of rapid fire range. Dire avengers can also be very efficient against tzaangor and cultist blobs, as can swooping hawks with doom support. I've done well with linked-fire fire prisms lately, as they struggle with anti-tank, and they can kill or severely deplete 5 man terminator and 10 man rubric squads using the strategem.

A demon prince can definitely cause trouble, but even though he can't be targeted through normal means, he can still be held in check by the restrain power or shot at by rangers, Illic, or a reaper autarch with mark of the incomparable hunter. Use all 4 of those things and you just may be able to drop him without him making it into cc.

Hemlocks are also very good, as they hit hard and can potentially position themselves so that the DP is targetable. They also give you an extra deny that comes in handy against Thousand Sons. The morale debuff can help significantly as well, causing rubric squads to start taking morale checks after only 1 casualty.

Offline Iluvhir Strafermeyer

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Re: How to counter Thousand Sons
« Reply #3 on: March 19, 2018, 07:02:34 AM »
I think the main issue is not that I can't kill him well enough.
It's all the psychic powers he's got. He does so much D3 and D6 mortal wounds on me that I just can't defend against unless I manage to Deny him. I'm brining 2 Farseers and 2 Spiritseers för a total of 6 possible DtW tests.
The fact that he can cast psychic powers from CC and into CC really bothers me. It's really hard to defend against mortal wounds.
"Consider the battlefield: it is essentially a dawn in grim guise. It is a scenario in which darkness meets light and is annihilated by it.
Imagine that the enemy are the shadows lurking in the night - The arrival of our warhost is like the sun's light breaking the horizon. Let the Bladestorm expel the darkness."

Beaujl'blef Philosophy

Offline TheEldarGuy

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Re: How to counter Thousand Sons
« Reply #4 on: March 20, 2018, 11:03:44 PM »
Are you able to go the other way?
Rather than Warlocks, Spiritseers, and Farseers, go with Serpents with Dire Avengers, Scorps/Banshees.
Go old school Eldar, zoom up, weather the storm, then lay down the smack.
WrathBlades/Guard are nice as a distraction. I've found with WraithBlades on the board, the amount of firepower required to knock them out was enough to give many of my units that turn or two to get into position for a big push. Also, don’t forget the objectives are as important as removing units. Keep their units tied up to slow them down.
Eldar are often outnumbered, so they have to come to you if that's how your opponent plays.

Offline Iluvhir Strafermeyer

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Re: How to counter Thousand Sons
« Reply #5 on: March 21, 2018, 07:53:00 AM »
The reason I want a number of psykers is so that I can counter his psychic ability.
I've faced off against his Sons before, and I won because of VPs, but he basically decimated my army (I had a turn of incredibly bad luck, which turned the tables against me), and almost all of his threat comes from his psykers. Frankly, I felt like the rest of the army was very mild. But all the mortal wounds he dished out was a problem. Having the ability to Deny him some of those powers feels important. Of course it works both ways.
"Consider the battlefield: it is essentially a dawn in grim guise. It is a scenario in which darkness meets light and is annihilated by it.
Imagine that the enemy are the shadows lurking in the night - The arrival of our warhost is like the sun's light breaking the horizon. Let the Bladestorm expel the darkness."

Beaujl'blef Philosophy

Offline Lord of Winter and War

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Re: How to counter Thousand Sons
« Reply #6 on: March 21, 2018, 12:04:06 PM »
I think the trick with psychic powers, is to try and kill full units when possible. There is only one psyker models per units, so if you leave some guys alive, then they'll keep casting. It shouldn't be too hard to kill the marines though, as they are pretty much just marines. They are expensive too, to offset their psychic abilities and inferno bolters.

Daemon Princes are going to be the biggest pain, as they can hide. If you can get the charge off on them with a decent melee unit (like spears), you should be able to plow through their 8 wounds quickly.

I wouldn't bother too hard about fighting the princes first though. I'd set up sacrifice units to block any charges they might try and pull off, and then counter charge after.

I'd focus on mowing down the rubric marines first, and then focus fire on the characters when they give you an opportunity.
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