A few weeks back I posed the question about what am I going to do for the first half of 2011. I have decided to slowly start working on a Heresy era Thousand Sons army. Now I am the kind of gamer that I build the army list first, and then buy models to fill it. When that is complete, I go back and get more models to fill in gaps, or improve the list. This has the dual function of building to a moderate goal, and then allowing play-testing to refine a concept. The side benefit is that whatever units do not end up in the final list are left as extras to be added around the refined core. It's about here that I realize that I have NO idea what codex to use to represent them as depicted in Graham McNeil's A Thousand Sons Novel.
After making and discarding about 50 lists from the CSM, vanilla marines, BA, DA, and (of all armies) wolves, I settled with the biggest Heresy I could think of and went with the runepriest heavy Wolves as a basis. I know this is serious Heresy using the mortal enemies of the T-sons to represent them, but for an army that claims to hate psykers they certainly have a lot of them.....
Now Ahriman himself will be represented by the rules for Njal Stormcaller, and I have ordered the FW Sevrin Loth for a mini. Ahriman will be accompanied by 2 more runepriests to represent Khalophis and Hathor Maat. I have to say I love the idea of living lightening or fury of the world wolf guided by a chooser of the slain....
Of course each captain will have a portion of his coven with him on the field. The Corvidae, Pavoni and Athaeneans will be represented by 8 man grey hunter packs led by wolf guard. Each will be transported in a rhino. The Pyrae, mages without compare will be represented by a trio of longfang packs. In the novel Khalophis directed a group of combat robaots from a stormbird. While I can't replicate the stormbird, I am using thunderwolf cavalry to fill their assault/counter assault role. For coversions...well there are a TON. I said this would be a slow build, and I meant it. EVERY unit and most models will be conversions both due to the historical nature of the army, and the magical nature of it. So far I have a few really nice ideas.
I already mentioned using the Red Scorpion FW librarian for Ahriman, but there are conversions to do. I need to add the distinctive nasal crest to his helmet, and get his khopesh staff converted from an old metal grey night force halberd and some bits from MaxMini. Khalophis and Hathor Maat will follow suit. I will be using bits of the command squad that came with Loth to make them.
All of the line infantry will of course be a mix of mark 3, 4 and 5 marine armor, and Max mini steamnight heads. I plan on mixing in some red scorpion heads as well. The rhino transports will be hover variants held aloft by magic. A flight stand and some platicard to cover the gaps from removing the tracks will fix those.
The Robot assault unit will be modeled using sisters of battle penitent engines and green-stuff to match the look I am after. The weapons will be modeled individually to make them all unique.
The Pyrae were supposed to be mages without compare, so I think squads of librarians conjuring spell effects will work well for the longfangs. Since I am using only lascannon and missiles I can just do two different effects and then make sure my opponent know which is which before the game.
Lots of ideas, just need to collect the bits to get it all going. I have been slowly collecting bits for months in an attempt to mitigate the cost per squad from FW, so we'll see how it goes. I am starting with Ahriman/Loth and I'll post a WIP as soon as I can.
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