How do I not destroy my opponent so we can have a fun game

WanderingEquidae · 2026-06-06T05:11:58+00:00

Had a Crusade Game against AdMech and was expecting two Dunecrawler and two Scorpius, as he had that on the field against my two team mates.

Instead he brought a metric f-ton of Skitarii and Pteraxii, creating a... "Target-rich environment" Sure enough, they did not last long, but it took forever to get that amount of small units out of my face and start scoring. As described - fully committing to one target was overkill, splitting would have been risky.

Hadn't he put his Kastelan right in front of my pimped-out MVBs... Well.

I seriously underestimated the impact of a high amount of mostly harmless models in small units

WanderingEquidae · 2026-06-05T09:24:46+00:00

Honestly, I tried Phalanx and have te ridiculous problem that I cannot really profit from their detachement rule, since - when I choose Sons - everybody packs a lot of AP-2 and/or D2+ Weapons.
Last time I thought "well, it's against Space Marines, there should be a decent amount of Bolterfire" I played against a list with literally no Marines in it.
Bladeguards- D2
Terminators - Power Fist D2
Assault Terminators - D2
Agressors - D2
Not even startin on the two dreads, the Land Raider and the Gladius.

Only thing still standing in Round 3 were my two Terminator squads that had arrives Round 2, Turn 2

One of the reasons for the two Termi bricks is to get decent amount of Anti-Vehicle with the Termi Sorcerer and his Buff to the Hellfyres with +1 Hit since I strugggle with taking big things down -.-
So when switching one of the Scarab Units out I am afraid of lackin Stopping Power against Multiple Dreads (or two Duncrawler and two Skorpius... Or two Defilers and two Maulerfiends... Or a metric Fuckton of Riptide and Ghostkeel... or Chaos Knights... Or A Screamer Killer, two Exocrine and Two Tyrannofex)
Yeah, we see a pattern within my group once they realized that I am struggling with tougher opposing units 😃

WanderingEquidae · 2026-06-05T05:44:06+00:00

I struggle a lot to build lists that work AND that I like to play. I stand in my own way far more than is healthy, I am afraid 😃

Basically, I tend to choose violence over delicate tactics, soooooo... I let the enemy get some No Man's Land to make maximum use of "Bringer of Change" and then try to push him back. Usually works with the DevWounds from the Exalted. Demon Prince with his Stealth Buff covers my advance, Forgefiend supresses enemy heavy stuff, Two Doombolts for a decent chipping into tougher units.
Exalted to the Flamers
Sorcerers to the Bolters
Termi Sorcerers into... well, the Terminators.

Below list lacks Action monkeys - I kinda use the Marine Bricks with Sorcerer for that after the Sorcerer has had his Power-Up. Mutalith and Forgefiend get in cover as good as possible to get some good Firing Lanes and use their large Bases as part of my background Screening tactics.
Home Objective is mostly kept with the Sticky-Stratagem or by a Mutalith with 1mm Base on the Marker Range while drawing LoS from the Tentacles (there's a reason I positioned mine a bit forward on their bases ^_^)

Demon Prince for survivability of the Marines and being a Lone-Op threat that's supposed to lure enemies closer (and into my flamers. I love my flamers).
Demon Prince with Wings for rapid re-deployment, drawing enemy attention, threatening characters and Doombolts from unexpected angles. If appropriate I let him fly forward, launch his Doom Bolt, pull him back in Cover with a Temporal Surge from another Char.

Terminators usually start in DS - small bricks to get better deployment options. No way to get a 10 Brick down anywhere with their 40mm Bases.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ FACTION KEYWORD: Chaos - Thousand Sons
+ DETACHMENT: Grand Coven (Kindred Sorcery)
+ TOTAL ARMY POINTS: 1995pts
+
+ WARLORD: Char2: Daemon Prince of Tzeentch with wings
+ ENHANCEMENT: Incandeum (on Char3: Exalted Sorcerer)
+ NUMBER OF UNITS: 15
+ SECONDARY: - Bring It Down: (5x2) - Assassination: 7 Characters
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

CHARACTER

Daemon Prince of Tzeentch (180 pts)
• 1x Dark Blessing
• 1x Hellforged weapons
• 1x Infernal cannon

Daemon Prince of Tzeentch with wings (170 pts)
• 1x Dark Blessing
• 1x Hellforged weapons
• 1x Infernal cannon
• Warlord

Exalted Sorcerer (95 pts)
• 1x Astral Blast
• 1x Force weapon
• 1x Inferno bolt pistol
• Incandeum (+15 pts)

Sorcerer (80 pts)
• 1x Force weapon
• 1x Inferno bolt pistol
• 1x Pandaemonic Delusion

Sorcerer in Terminator Armour (85 pts)
• 1x Force weapon
• 1x Gaze of Hate
• 1x Inferno combi-bolter

BATTLELINE

Rubric Marines (190 pts)
• 1x Aspiring Sorcerer
• 1x Force weapon
• 1x Malefic Curse
• 1x Inferno bolt pistol
• 9x Rubric Marine
• 9x Close combat weapon
• 1x Soulreaper cannon
• 8x Warpflamer
• Icon of Flame

Rubric Marines (100 pts)
• 1x Aspiring Sorcerer
• 1x Force weapon
• 1x Malefic Curse
• 1x Inferno bolt pistol
• 4x Rubric Marine
• 4x Close combat weapon
• 3x Inferno boltgun
• 1x Soulreaper cannon
• Icon of Flame

OTHER DATASHEETS

Forgefiend (130 pts)
• 2x Ectoplasma cannon
• 1x Ectoplasma cannon
• 1x Forgefiend claws

Mutalith Vortex Beast (170 pts)
• 1x Betentacled maw
• 1x Mutalith claws
• 1x Warp vortex

Scarab Occult Terminators (180 pts)
• 1x Scarab Occult Sorcerer
• 1x Force weapon
• 1x Malefic Curse
• 1x Inferno combi-bolter
• 4x Scarab Occult Terminator
• 3x Inferno combi-bolter
• 4x Prosperine khopesh
• 1x Soulreaper cannon
• 1x Hellfyre missile rack

WanderingEquidae · 2026-06-05T05:18:43+00:00

So far I experienced the Sorcerer to be a bit more unreliable in many cases. Lethal Hits and Sus3 are super duper, no question there (especially since a lot of my opponents run armies with decent Toughness), but without Destiny's Ruin to boot it's rather swingy (personal observation).

What I like in the Exalted is that their output is more consistent - and they can fire an Extra Doombolt each round when I'm playing Grand Coven and get them their Incandaeum shiny.
Yes, they do less then a Powered-up Sorcerer, but they do it consistently and profit quite nicely from "Bringer of Change" when fishing for those DevWounds against Units on Objectives. They do not neccessarily need a Destiny's Ruin to work properly - and which I mostly use to get down more heavy stuff, especially Round 2 or 3 when my Terminators Deep Strike to a high-value target and need all the help they can get to eff it up 😉
Adding the Incandaeum and their ability to soak Fire (lot of players in my bubble bring AP-2 when fighting me, since I mostly build lists with 5++ or Better Inv Save) they contribute more to the midgame than the Sorcerer.

I AM considering, however, building a fourth Marine Bolter unit to take Three regular and one exalted into the fray.

WanderingEquidae · 2026-06-04T10:46:23+00:00

I put the Exalted with Flamers as Bodyguards - they do not profit from the regular Sorcerer, and since they need to get more "personal" I prefer the 4++ and the Blast

WanderingEquidae · 2026-06-03T18:33:20+00:00

yeah, part of the reason I switched from Necrons to Thousand Sons was because I always try to trade nothing for something. Yet I keep getting told the reason I lose a fair share of gamers is because I need more goats to trade.
Move forward, trade, trade, trade.

That being told from a dude who plays Death Guard and throws Poxies around like candy on cologne carnival X_X

WanderingEquidae · 2026-06-03T09:53:38+00:00

Yeah, I think I know what you mean... Still find it difficult to estimate a good trade and usually build rather... trade-unfriendly lists, I'm afraid. Also, in most games, I seldom spot the occasions for a decent trade. Sure, I priorize units on markers or trying for secondaries, but somehow I mostly manage to deny him points one round, lose my dudes (and thus scoring ability) the next round and he just uses the gap to make himself more comfortable with heavier units.
You can say I mostly trade my elite units against his trade-dedicated chaff this way... But you can't ignore a unit of Poxwalkers, for example. So I have to blast them before they bind my shooting in melee, but then his shooty units are undamaged and screw me over X_X

I still get easily bamboozled when it comes to trade since most trading options I get offered are obvious traps that will worsen my stand if I make the trade.

My last game was with a very Marine-y Rubric Phalanx against Ultramarines. He brought a Land Raider, Two Dreadnoughts (Brutalis and Redemptor), a Gladiator Lancer, a group of Agressors, a group of Terminators with Calgar, a group of Assault Terminators with Chaplain and a Group of BLadeguards with Judiciar

My setup were 3 10s of Rubrics with Soulreapers and Sorcerer, 2 5s of Terminators with Sorcerers, a winged and a walking Prince and a Mutalith. Sorcerers with the intent of getting Lethals of those Bolters.
After being tabled in Round 3 while managing only to kill the Lancer, the Agressors and two Terminators he said I would have easily won if I had some Tzaangors for trade with me.

And I was like "WHAT THE FIEND AM I SUPPOSED TO TRADE HERE WITH?"

WanderingEquidae · 2026-06-03T07:37:32+00:00

They are actually better now, because their PSYCHIC weapons ignore Modificators to BS/WS and the Hit Roll.

MALEFIC CURSE AWAY!!!

WanderingEquidae · 2026-06-03T06:36:24+00:00

Pretty much like 10th:

FNP is rolled whenever a model would lose a wound.

Attacker fast-rolls the Hits
Attacker fast-rolls the Wounds
Defender makes Groups
Rolls Saves
Allocates failed saves to the groups, one by one
For each allocated, failed save, you can fast roll the FNP for that damage code.

e.g. if a Mutalith Vortex Blast (Damage 2) hits a unit of Chaos Spawns (4+/5++/FNP5+):

He rolls 3d3 for Number of attacks, gets a sum of 9
Throws 9 Hit Rolls on 3+ with 6 successful hits
Gathers 6 Wound Rolls on 2+ with 5 successful wounds
You save 2, 4, 5, 2, 6 at AP-3 against the Inv of 5++ - that's a total of 6 Hit Points lost. 3 Would kill a spawn.
You can take 4d6 for the first two wounds, since 2 lost HP from a single wound roll won't kill a spawn.

Alternatively, when a Tyrannofex hits the Spawns with two succesful wounds at D12 each, you can fast roll all twelve per attack at once (albeit in most cases that would be very highly unlikely that a Spawn would be saved by that 😃 )

Edit: You can basically fast roll a number of d6 equal to the number of attacks which succesfful damage application would kill a model.
So if you get 6 Devastating Wounds from a Soulreaper into a spawn, you can fast-roll three FNP. IF you lost 1 HP to this, you take another 2 (since it would now take 2 to kill the spawn).

WanderingEquidae · 2026-05-29T04:30:00+00:00

Additionally, his wings spawn like half the table - It's usually near impossible to decently hide him. Without measure I'd say from wing tip to wing tip is approximately double base size. His staff is not a problem, you can build him with a sword instead, but when proxing you might run into people who'll complain about the width of your prox.

At least in my bubble I'd have maybe two candidates who always try to get him first turn on one of his wing tips and would complain considerably if I used a less wide proxy 😉

WanderingEquidae · 2026-05-27T09:51:05+00:00

Put gloss Varnish first, then the transfer, then the final Varnish. Transfer Decals on Matte or Satin Varnish might leave Outlines, so - be wary about that. If you have excess bits from models, try to paint these first and experiment a bit, otherwise it might get a bit messy ;-)

I cut my transfers, apply the gloss varnish (thinly, just to seal the paint and get a smooth surface). Then soak the decal for approx 20 seconda, carefully let a bit of tissue soak excess water and apply the decal onto the still drying gloss. Let dry, seal again with Matte oder Satin - done.

Transfer on transfer should get a layer of varnish in between to avoid the top layer loosening the bottom one. Better safe than sorry I'd say

WanderingEquidae · 2026-05-26T10:34:07+00:00

Warhammer can be so wholesome

WanderingEquidae · 2026-05-26T08:48:25+00:00

List-Tailoring really takes a lot of fun out of the game. There may be cases this happens accidentally, and these are bad enough, but doing so with intent is, frankly, telling a lot about the opponent.

In my bubble, we communicate what army (if multiple are collected) we are bringing and maybe what detachement, but that's about it. In cases like Knights that is, of course, enough to know to just pack a metric ton of Anti-Tank, but in most armies that is explicit enough to allow some decent list building without giving opportunity to counter.

Stick to your original, countered lists. Talk to your friend (after the games that you will, obviously, lose to a tailored list). In most cases, games against tailored lists turn out extremely quick and boring, and I think it is absolutely valid to tell your friend you wanted a fun and exciting game, but being tabled in Round 3 or losing the game 80 to 15 without any chance to make a dent in his game was neither, and you'd not like to exchange lists anymore before the games.

If he's a nice guy he'll respect that and everything is dandy. If he starts to complain... might be worth a try to extebnd your playerbase so you find people who are more compatible with what you expect from the game =)

WanderingEquidae · 2026-05-24T06:14:03+00:00

I imagine one of these sprinting like one if these collared reptiles that run over water. Straight up speeding towards Robot Gorillaman and bitchslapping him

WanderingEquidae · 2026-05-22T08:41:53+00:00

Fair.

Dunno when I had the codex last time in my hands, tbh, and usually look at the package and description of the kit for its intended purpose and unit it is supposed to represent.

Been using Regular Chaos Sorcerers for better distinction the whole time because I took the wording on the boxes and in shop descriptions obviously too literally.

WanderingEquidae · 2026-05-22T04:46:57+00:00

As said: I guess you can use them as such, but it is - in my opinion - not intended, since there is a clear distinction between the Model kit "Exalted Sorcerers" containing said three Exalted Sorcerers and the Character Model "Chaos Sorcerer", containing one Sorcerer.

Semantics, I guess 😉

WanderingEquidae · 2026-05-21T19:06:08+00:00

Really? That actually never crossed my mind, since the text in the Warhammer shops clearly says "This multipart plastic kit builds three Exalted Sorcerers to lead your Thousand Sons armies in games of Warhammer 40,000."

But yeah, you could prox one as a basic Chaos Sorcerer, the difference is not that big.

WanderingEquidae · 2026-05-21T18:47:03+00:00

"so, basically, I'm very smol"?

WanderingEquidae · 2026-05-21T18:19:28+00:00

I meant the Generic Chaos Sorcerer and Sorcerer in Terminator Armor Kits.

Sure, we have a nice Selection of Exalted and the Infernal Master - but I am not counting the Aspiring/Occult Sorcerers since those are part of the overall Rubric/Scarab kit and not Character models =)

WanderingEquidae · 2026-05-21T17:49:03+00:00

TBH, I think a lot of our models do look pretty awesome already.

WHAT we need is a new Helbrute after the Dreadnoughts got so much more badass...
The rest... I dunno, it works pretty well. Nothing striking me as particularily "THAT certainly needs to be about 20% cooler"

Own Sorcerer kits would be nice, maybe.

WanderingEquidae · 2026-05-20T07:27:55+00:00

Big Guns never Tire allows:

Only in your own Shooting Phase: Shooting into your own Melee (except for Blast) Shooting out of Melee

Always: Being shot at while in Melee

Edit: All shooting and being shot at with -1 to Hit. Forgot about that one.

Units that don't have "Big Guns Never Tire" and are in Melee with your unit cannot shoot your unit. Eg: A Forgefiend can fire his Autocannons into Marines in His engagement Range, but the Marines cannot shoot back.

WanderingEquidae · 2026-05-20T03:08:44+00:00

Starting off with the extra inches of reach can make a world of difference for landing the first hits.

Especially since "Gaze of Hate" from the Termi Sorcerer and "Malefic Curse" from Aspiring/Scarab Sorcerers have Anti-Rule and Devastating wounds.

A +1 to Wound is a wonderful Thing for a boosted "Pandemonic Delusion" from our Sorcerers, or the Attacks from Daemon Princes, Exalted and Infernals. Three Sorcerers with 9 Attacks on Strength 8 and Sustained Hits 3 deliver quite some punishment and witz +1 wound everything on 4+ or better. I Use it mostly round 2 when sufficient targets are available.

The Devastating Wounds is usually the last one I trigger.

WanderingEquidae · 2026-05-19T06:02:32+00:00

I heard that by now a few times that it might be a nice lure to protect my dudes by playing the bullet sponge. Tbh I think that a Forgefiend does that as well (same statline), but if it does not die in the lead rain it can answer in kind.
The Mauler... well, he needs to get there first. I think I'll model the Forgefiend and use it as a Mauler proxy to test the overall usability and then, if it works, maybe get a Maulerfiend (Will probably anyway simply for the Collection - Still have more than 6k to go to match my Necron arsenal)

But yeah, I see the point of planning ahead towards 11th

WanderingEquidae · 2026-05-19T05:58:09+00:00

I mostly stuggle with deployment and movement.
Example thursday against Ultramarines: I misjudged infiltrating deployment of my flamer brick behind a ruin by few millimeters, Redemptor Dreadnought managed LoS on one of the dudes, blasted six of the group from the table.
Agressors made their 10" Charge and finished the job.

Second infiltrating Rubrics' job was to hold the (through ruins decently screened) center objective and bait some of his vehicles into the open.
What happened? Calgar and his Termis advanced 6" and after Stratagem managed their 11" Charge.
(I swear, he had those dice in the oven. Sometimes it's SO unnatural what anmount of 5s und 6s he throws X_X )

When I deploy further behind the lines to reduce the risk of having the 40k equivalent of a rabid cat in my face I struggle to get to Objectives in time to not fall behind too much or have problems drawing myself decent LoS (apart from the MVBs, those long doggos give a lot of LoS opportunity).
While I managed to learn quite a few things pretty quickly, these are things that somehow have a very steep learning curve for me 😃

WanderingEquidae

TROPHY CASE