Detachment Focus: Warpforged Cabal

In our Detachment Focus series we take a deep dive into an army’s Detachments, covering what’s in them, how they play, and how they’ll fit into the broader meta and your games. In this Detachment Focus we’re looking at the Warpforged Cabal from the Thousand Sons.

The Thousand Sons haven’t historically had a lot of support for their vehicles but with the introduction of Sekhetar Robots, the army suddenly has a much more compelling reason to have one. And unlike the vehicle options in Emperor’s Children and World Eaters, the Thousand Sons Detachment doesn’t focus on transports.

Detachment Overview

The Warpforged Cabal Detachment is the Thousand Sons’ answer to the Ironstorm Detachment, giving you extra value on your vehicle units and letting you prioritize units with a small number of high-damage shots. This Detachment combines very well with the new updated datasheets for Thousand Sons vehicles to offer a compelling alternative to the infantry-heavy options you see in other Detachments and dares to ask the question: “How many Thousand Sons Defilers have you painted?”

The Video Version

If you’d like to watch a video version of this Detachment Focus, we’ve got you covered here:

Detachment Rule: Warpfire Infusion

Each time a THOUSAND SONS VEHICLE unit from your army shoots or fights, apply one of the following to it:

• If it’s within 6″ of one or more friendly Psyker models, you can re-roll one hit, wound, and damage roll.
• Otherwise, it can re-roll one hit, wound, or damage roll.

We’re not sure that “What if the Ironstorm Spearhead’s Detachment rule was even better?” is a question that ever should have been asked–let alone answered–but the Thousand Sons are nothing if not willing to ask questions they shouldn’t. There’s a downside here, of course: if your vehicle has the Deadly Demise vehicle and dies within 6” of one of your Psykers, it explodes on a 5+ rather than a hard 6.

To be fair, unlike the loyalists’ Ironstorm, this rule only applies to vehicles, which does limit its utility somewhat. But it’s not like the sons of Magnus are hurting for useful vehicle datasheets in this book: Vindicators and Land Raiders are exactly what you expect them to be (if not a bit better thanks to the extra AP on the bolters they’re packing), and the datasheet abilities on both flavors of Predator are just straight up better, so long as you can hit their target with a Psychic attack or a Doombolt before you open up. Forgefiends, Maulerfiends, and Defilers are no slouches, either, and at the right points cost the re-rolls might be enough to put Helbrutes in the conversation.

Just don’t expect much from the Heldrake.

Enhancements

There are no character vehicle options for the Thousand Sons, so your options here go on the Psykers that want to follow those vehicles around. 

• Warp Syphon – If you want a little more reliability when casting Rituals, this enhancement can help: if the bearer Channels the Warp within 6” of a friendly vehicle, they can force the vehicle to take a mortal wound to re-roll the third d6, potentially avoiding taking any mortals themselves. This is very solid, and throwing the damage to the vehicle is much better than taking it on your guys. The Thousand Sons Defiler is a great partner for this, since it has a 6+ Feel No Pain for some reason. 
• Perplexing Cloak – Infantry model only. This gives the model Lone Operative as long as they’re within 3” of a friendly vehicle. This is a neat trick when combined with your Detachment rule to get the most out of your re-rolls without having to worry about your character getting shot off the table round 1. The downside is that there aren’t really many characters you want to run solo in this capacity – the best target for this is the Sorcerer in Terminator Armour. He’s slow and his Psychic Attack only goes 18″ but he’s relatively cheap and his ability lets him tag a unit for +1 to hit, and that’s legitimately useful for the vehicles he’s paired with – and limited by target, not to a single friendly vehicle. Plus he can deep strike in for his first use as needed.
• Biomechanical Mutation – Look, ma, I’m a warpsmith! In your Command phase, the bearer can pick a friendly vehicle within 6” and repair it for d3 wounds. The wider-than-usual range on this will be particularly helpful in making sure that you’re not shooting at penalties with any more of your vehicles than you absolutely have to. The Command phase restriction here is a bit rough, but having this on a cheaper, faster unit like a Tzaangor Shaman who can fly around your backfield and get in position to repair things.
• Warp-Cursed Runemaster – This enhancement adds 6” to the range of the bearer’s Rituals as long as they’re within 6” of a friendly vehicle. That means the chosen Ritual will have a range of 30” rather than 24”, which can make the difference in a list that focuses on longer-ranged firepower.

Stratagems

Five of the Stratagems here affect Vehicle units in your army, with the sixth being a sticky objectives Stratagem that focuses on one of your Psyker units. Three of these target a vehicle, but require having a Psyker within 6″ to function, making your army a bit depending on having those around. 

• Hex-Marked Armour (Battle Tactic, 1 CP) – Used in your opponent’s Shooting phase or the Fight phase after an enemy picks their targets. For the rest of the activation, worsen the AP of incoming attacks by 1. Thanks to the Dataslate changes, this stratagem is in a rough spot, but might still come in handy if there’s a single unit whose anti-tank firepower you’re trying to blunt. It’s very good on vehicles with a 2+ save. 
• Mutate Landscape (Epic Deed, 1 CP) – This Allows one of your Psyker units to “mutate” an objective in your Command phase, which lets it remain under your control until your opponent has more OC on it than you at the end of a phase. And until they take it from you, any enemy unit that ends a Normal, Advance, Fall Back, or Charge move within range of it takes d3 mortals on a 4+. This is fantastic, and a key part of how you make this Detachment work. It’s a compelling reason to put a Tzaangor Shaman with a unit of Tzaangors, as he gives the unit the ability to sticky objectives, then leave the battlefield. 
• Cyberspirit Machinations (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP) – This Stratagem lets one of your vehicles Fall Back and still shoot or charge, so long as they completed the Fall Back move within 6” of a friendly psyker. This is also very good, as you’ll frequently want to be able to fall back and charge with Defilers or fall back and shoot with Forgefiends and tanks. 
• Malevolent Animus (Epic Deed, 1 CP) – Used in your Command phase on a Thousand Sons vehicle in your army that’s within 6″ of a friendly Psyker. Until the start of your next Command phase, that Vehicle unit is malevolent. While a unit is malevolent, it can ignore all modifiers to its models’ profile characteristics, WS and BS of its weapons, any roll, or test made for it (excluding modifiers to saving throws). Unfortunately “damage characteristic” isn’t in there so this is primarily for ignoring modifiers to hit and wound and acting as though you aren’t bracketed. 
• Ensorcelled Infusion (Battle Tactic, 1 CP) – Used in your Shooting phase on a Thousand Sons vehicle in your army that’s within 6″ of a friendly Psyker. Until the end of the phase, the ranged weapons of Vhiecle models in that unit have the [PSYCHIC] ability and each time you make an attack with that weapon, you get +1 to wound. If this only said “+1 to wound” it’d be pretty solid but you also have a few ways to key off Psychic attacks with your vehicles, most notably with Predators.
• Warpflame Gargoyles (Wargear, 1 CP) – Used in your opponent’s Charge phase, after they end a charge move. Pick a Vehicle that’s within Engagement range of the charging unit and roll 6D6; for each 5+ they take a mortal wound, and then they have to take a battle-shock test. You’d prefer this be -2 to charges but this isn’t bad in a pinch and will occasionally turn off an opponent’s stratagems or OC when they battle-shock charging in, preventing them from flipping a key objective. That’s pretty handy but this is more like a last-ditch move than something you’ll depend on.

Playing This Detachment

If you look at the image for this Detachment, it seems outfitted for Sekhetar Robots. They’re walker vehicles, after all. And you might even take a unit or two of them for the ability to Infiltrate them and make their melta arms a viable option. But I’d submit that they’re not really a unit you build around here. Instead the real value is in the army’s undercosted high-value vehicles – specifically Predators, Forgefiends, Defilers, Vindicators, and maybe even Helbrutes and Heldrakes, though I’d focus on the first three there.

Your Vehicles need support, and you’ll want a couple of backfield characters with key enhancements to heal and buff them, plus some fast units that can act as forward support. Tzaangor Enlightened are perfect for this – they’re fast, moderately durable, can spread out across a large area, and they’re dirt cheap. Taking three units seems like a no-brainer. Getting the most out of this Detachment means not just supporting vehicles with Psykers but making the most out of your Rituals and getting them off every turn.

Strengths

• Vehicle buffs. The vehicle buff in the Detachment rule is solid, and it works best when you have a small number of high-volume attacks. Paradoxically its value can be blunted by the fact that you can just get re-rolls to hit against any target and units like the Predator Annihilator already re-roll hits and wounds when they target a monster/vehicle that was already shot by a Psyker, but there are plenty of other good options here.
• Sticky objectives. This is the only other Thousand Sons Detachment that can sticky objectives, and you don’t even need a vehicle to do it – any psyker will work just fine.
• The Vehicles are pretty good. Thousand Sons vehicles aren’t bad, and it’s worth remembering that a vehicle with Shooting Deck is still a vehicle – dropping two Exalted Sorcerers or Infernal Masters into a Rhino turns it into a pretty nasty tank.

Weaknesses

• Range requirements. For this Detachment to work you really need your vehicles to be next to Psykers. And that’s a problem – your Psykers can often be a bit squishy, even if you put them with a 100-point, five-model unit, and then they’re often slow.
• Bring it down. Bringing a lot of Vehicles always opens you up to easy points on the Bring it Down fixed secondary, and being in that boat with Rhinos and Predators isn’t ideal.
• 5+ explosions. This doesn’t seem like a big deal but your tanks are going to explode on you twice as often, and it’s going to suck every time it happens and kills the neighboring psyker.

A Sample List

The name of the game here is to take good vehicles and good psykers to support them. This is the only Thousand Sons army I’d avoid putting triple Mutaliths in, if only because I think there are some great vehicles you can throw in there instead (Defilers).

Sample List - Click to Expand

The general idea is that two Shamans go with the Enlightened; the third has an Infernal Master. These are going to zip around dropping Rituals on enemy units at 24″, allowing your vehicles to just mop the floor with them. Defilers here serve as a dual threat melee/shooting unit, while the Forgefiends and Vindicator offer incredible mid-range support. I’m on the fence about the Forgefiend weapons; my gut says take triple plasma, but the AP-2 Hades autocannons are legit.

The third Shaman goes with the regular Tzaangors, and as the mission permits he’ll sticky home early and they’ll vanish off the table, to drop down and score again later. The Terminator Sorcerer is your lone op guy, walking with a tank and giving +1 to hit against a key target each shooting phase. He can’t advance and shoot, so must be mindful of his distance and how you position him.

Final Thoughts

I didn’t have “a Thousand Sons Vehicle Detachment” on my bingo card when I saw the codex announcement, but I’m pretty happy with the option we got. It’s not as vulnerable to a few meltaguns as the transport Detachments for the other cult legions and the dynamic of “sorcerers helping tanks” is a cool one to focus on for the faction. There are definitely some cool skew lists you can get out of this. 

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