Horus Heresy 3e Review: Thousand Sons Ammitara Occult Intercession Cabal

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️

1.5/5 stars. Rounded up. The humble recon squad competes directly and might be a much better choice.

Background.

Ammitara are painted as part of the Order of the Blind. A secretive and shrouded sect within the legion that was responsible for assassination protocols in tandem with scouting duties ordinarily associated with reconnaissance squads. They were a force that was often doubted to exist, even within their host legion.

Strengths. 

This is a recon squad in recon armour. They have infiltrate, move through cover, and support unit as you might expect. 

They come armed with nemesis bolt guns for your sniping needs. Combined with infiltrate you can get to where you need to be and start taking shots. 

The ability to take upgrades to your weapons is solid. You can get melta guns, plasma guns, or aether-fire blasters. Given the infiltrate rule, the blaster looks very attractive. 

Weaknesses. 

The 4+ armour save is a significant problem. 

You get Corvidae by default and cannot change it. But that's actually okay. 

The lack of close combat weapon upgrades for the sergeant lowers the unit utility significantly. 

They've also lost the Mind Killer psychic power from first edition - sigh. This is really what made them stand out as a solid choice. 

Builds.

5 Ammitara, 1 Melta Gun, Nuncio Vox, Melta Bombs (180 points). 

An all comers base line unit. Very expensive. 

10 Ammitara, 2 Aether-Fire Blasters, Nuncio Vox (320 points). 

An eye watering points cost if I'm being perfectly honest. This is why the recon squad is going to be better in almost every case. 

Horus Heresy 3e Review: Thousand Sons Numerologist Cabal

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

3.5/5 stars. Rounded down The rules are fluffy but average.

Background.

The Order of Ruin within the Thousand Sons looked after the war machines and were basically tech marines in everything but name. They were able to predict the ebb and flow of battle in addition to the usual maintenance tasks and thus were highly valued by the legion. Valued enough that each of them had a personal group of bodyguards

Strengths. 

Battlesmith and a servo arm combine with Divination and Telepathy to give a solid character. The stat line is reasonable if unremarkable.

The life wards prevent precision shots against the Numerologist which is very nice and one of the real strengths of the unit overall. Used well this is quite a nice trait to have. But I suspect that players won't choose this unit outside of a fluffy choice most of the time. 

Weaknesses. 

You don't get the full range of psychic abilities. No arcana. And only Foresights's Blessing and Mind Burst as your powers.  

Builds.

Numerologist with Thunder Hammer, 4 Life Wards including 1 with a rotor cannon (150 points).

A flexible unit. Take a cyber familiar to taste.

Numerologist with Thunder Hammer, Cyber Familiar and Aether-Fire Blaster, 9 Life Wards including 1 Power Fist, 2 Rotor Cannons, Vexilla, Augury Scanner, Nuncio Vox (300 points).

Not quite sure it is worth the points cost, but this is the maximal squad.  

Wargames Gallery: Iron Warriors Attack

Sprinting out of the land raider spartan, the Iron Warriors terminators prepare to attack the decimated forces of the World Eaters! But who should they target first?

More internecine battles between these two forces in future weeks! 

Horus Heresy 3e Review: Contemptor-Osiron Dreadnought

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

3/5 stars. The result of putting psykers in dreadnoughts!

Background.

The result of Magnus The Red's magnificent mind to solve the problem of interring a psychic warrior inside a dreadnought to serve still. The Thousand Sons legion was the first to field them and freely gave the tech away to the other legions who appear to have spurned the gift. Maybe not the Alpha Legion though?

Strengths. 

Rule of cool applies: psychic dreadnoughts for the win!

Alongside all the usual dreadnought upgrades, you also get to buy 1 psychic discipline and have a force sword that has reaping blow.

Weaknesses. 

Costs lots of points already and you're only getting WP+1 and a force sword (which to be fair is very very good) compared to the baseline dreadnought which is why it gets 3/5 stars from me. It is over-costed. But it is still very cool! 

Builds.

Osiron, Kheres Assault Cannon, Divination (235 points).
Dakka combined with preternatural foresight. 

Osiron, Melta Cannon, Melta Gun, Telekinesis (250 points).

Why not? Because of the points cost is the likely answer here to be fair. 

Osiron, Conversion Beam Cannon, Havoc Launcher, Pyromancy (235 points).

Lots of bits to play with. Not necessarily all overlapping though - NB.

Horus Heresy 3e Review: Castellax-Achea Automata

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

4/5 stars. Psychic robots! Can't not like them and I'm not even sorry. 

Background.

Secret research by the Thousand Sons legion resulted in automata that were expendable in full frontal assaults. As with a lot about the legion, these constructs were pretty much in the realm of heresy even before the Council of Nikaea and the Emperor's Edict. The Space Wolves would find out about them soon enough at the Fall of Prospero though. 

Strengths. 

Did I mention Psychic Robots?!

They have a rule called psychic conduit which means that they act as psychic lightning rods. If you suffer a perils of the warp and you're close to the robot, then you can have the robot take wounds instead. 

The stat line is attractive with 6's in S and T, along with 4 wounds and Leadership of 12. The WS and BS are only 3 however. 

The Achea force claws are worthy with AP=3 and 2 damage with breaching. The asphyx bolt cannon is solid with 4 shots and rending at 4+. This can be upgraded to an aether-fire cannon which gives you a blast template and breaching instead at the same range. I'd be tempted by the upgrade since the AP is the same and the S is better with the aether-fire; and that blast template is nice even at the expense of rending (although I haven't math-hammered this to be very honest). A pair of regular bolters rounds it all out.

Firestorm and Firing protocols completes the picture here. 

Weaknesses. 

It explodes! There is a danger here because presumably you have a unit near by to take advantage of the psychic conduit special rule. 

Builds.

Pick between the bolt cannon (80 points) or the aether-fire (90 points) variants. Both are viable, but I do think the aether-fire variant edges it out. 

Horus Heresy 3e Review: Khenetai Occult Cabal

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

4/5 stars. The rules are good.

Background.

One of the smaller cults within the Thousand Sons legion, the Khenetai fused their psychic powers with their blades and accomplished incredible martial feats therein. Attuned beyond even what the Emperor's Children were, these warriors enhanced their skills through specific arcana that made them deadly and in unison with their brothers. 

Strengths. 

WS=5 warriors with 2 wounds each and paired Achea force swords and a bunch of special rules makes this a formidable close combat fighting unit. 

The paired blades first of all grant an extra attach compared to normal at S+1 with breaching. This is already impressive. 

They have 2 psychic reactions. The first - Bladeweaving - is a 5+ invulnerable save versus volley attacks and in melee. This is great and very fluffy. The second - Mindsong of Blades - is gaining Precision at 5+ in close combat which is very nice. 

Weaknesses. 

The Khenetai Prosperine Arcana replaces other arcana, but this is a straight up swap, so it isn't really negative, I'm just pointing it out. 

The points cost is just about okay, but I think in some scenarios they are probably over priced and could do with something like Vanguard to make up for it. 

Builds.

There are no upgrades to discuss. Hence the only variable is how many per squad which is set between 5 and 10. I can see arguments for the minimal and maximal sizes quite readily. 265 points for the full 10 man squad is solid, and 145 points for 5 is acceptable.