Hexwarp Thrallband: The 11th-Edition Thousand Sons Territory Detachment

This is a territory rule, and it has two halves: where the territory is, and what it does for you.

Where your army's Flow of Magic is:

• Your deployment zone is always within it.
• At the start of any phase, if you control at least half the objective markers in No Man's Land, then until the end of that phase No Man's Land is within it.
• At the start of any phase, if you control at least half the objective markers in your opponent's deployment zone, then until the end of that phase your opponent's deployment zone is within it.

What it does: each time a Thousand Sons model from your army makes a Psychic Attack, re-roll a Wound roll of 1. If that model is wholly within your army's Flow of Magic, add 1 to the Wound roll instead.

The word to notice is instead. The bonus is not cumulative: inside your territory you get +1 to Wound and you lose the re-roll of 1s. That is a straight upgrade in almost every case, but it means you cannot plan on having both, and it means the rule is a single binary rather than a stacking bonus.

The second thing to notice is that the territory tests happen at the start of any phase, not once per turn. So the shape of your Flow of Magic can change between your Movement phase and your Shooting phase, and an objective taken in the Movement phase pays out in the Shooting phase that follows. Sequencing your turn to take the objective before you cast is not a nicety, it is the detachment.

The third is that your deployment zone is always included, which quietly makes this a detachment that rewards a gunline as much as an advance. You do not have to win the board to benefit; you have to win the board to benefit further up it.

Six, all 1CP, and note how many of them pay out extra when you are wholly within your Flow of Magic. The territory rule is not just the detachment rule, it is the currency the whole toolkit is priced in.

• Warding Hex (Command phase). One Thousand Sons Psyker unit within range of an objective you control, if that marker is wholly within your Flow of Magic: that objective remains under your control until your opponent's Level of Control over it is greater than yours at the end of a phase. This is a lock, not a buff, and it is how the detachment keeps what it takes. It is also self-reinforcing: locking an objective helps you keep passing the territory test that made the lock available.
• Wrath of the Doomed (Fight phase, just after an enemy unit selects its targets). Until the end of the phase, each time a model in your targeted Thousand Sons unit is destroyed before it has fought, roll a D6, adding 1 if wholly within your Flow of Magic: on a 4+ it is not removed, fights after the attacker finishes, then is removed. Inside your own territory that is effectively a 3+, which turns a losing fight into a mutual one.
• Strands of Time (your Movement phase, just after a Thousand Sons Psyker unit Falls Back). That unit is eligible to shoot or declare a charge this turn, and if it was wholly within your Flow of Magic when targeted, it is eligible to shoot and declare a charge. Being tarpitted stops working, and inside your territory you get both halves instead of choosing.
• Through the Veil (start of the Reinforcements step of your Movement phase). One Rubric Marines or Scarab Occult Terminators unit in Strategic Reserves. Rubric Marines gain Deep Strike until the end of the phase. A Scarab Occult Terminators unit arriving by Deep Strike can be set up anywhere wholly within your Flow of Magic and more than 6 inches horizontally from all enemy models, rather than the usual 9. Restriction: a Scarab Occult Terminators unit targeted with this cannot declare a charge that turn. So it is a positioning tool, not an alpha strike.
• Scouring Warpflame (your Shooting phase). One Thousand Sons Psyker unit that has not shot and is wholly within your Flow of Magic: its ranged weapons gain [IGNORES COVER], and after it shoots, one enemy unit hit cannot have the Benefit of Cover until the end of the phase. The second clause is the valuable one, because it sets up everything that shoots afterwards. Fire the cheap unit first, then the expensive ones.
• Kaleidoscopic Tempest (your opponent's Shooting phase, just after an enemy unit selects its targets). A reactive defensive effect on one of your targeted Thousand Sons Psyker units, keyed to the same territory test.

Four, all Thousand Sons model only, so any of your characters can carry any of them. Three are conditional on the Flow of Magic and the fourth changes your relationship to it entirely.

• Arcane Might (20 pts). Add 1 to the Strength of Psychic weapons carried by models in the bearer's unit, or add 2 instead while that unit is wholly within your Flow of Magic. Note that this buffs the whole unit, not just the bearer, so it wants to go on a character leading a large squad rather than on a lone operative. That makes it the best-value enhancement here.
• Empowered Manifestation (20 pts). While the bearer's unit is wholly within your Flow of Magic, add 6 inches to the range of the bearer's Psychic abilities that specify a range, including Rituals, and re-roll Hazardous tests for Psychic weapons in the unit. The range extension is the headline, and 6 inches on a 24-inch Ritual is a substantial increase in what you can reach without moving into danger.
• Empyric Onslaught (25 pts). While the bearer's unit is wholly within your Flow of Magic, add 3 to the Attacks characteristic of ranged Psychic weapons carried by the bearer. Note the narrowing: this one is bearer only, not the unit, and it is the most expensive of the four. It wants a character whose own gun is worth tripling down on.
• Noctilith Mantle (15 pts). While the bearer's unit is on the battlefield, it is always wholly within your army's Flow of Magic. But models in that unit cannot use any Rituals.

This is a real trade and it deserves thought. You are buying complete reliability, which in a detachment where every other effect is conditional is worth a great deal: that unit always gets +1 to Wound on Psychic Attacks, always qualifies for the enhanced half of every stratagem, and never has to pass a territory test. The price is that the unit stops participating in your army rule. Since the army rule is Rituals, and Rituals are the Thousand Sons' primary trick, putting this on your best caster is close to self-sabotage. Put it on a character who was never going to be your Ritual engine, and it is excellent.

(Points come from the Munitorum Field Manual v1.3 and move with updates; confirm in the app.)

Key units. Rubric Marines are named directly by Through the Veil and are the unit that holds the objectives the whole detachment is built on controlling. Scarab Occult Terminators are the other unit Through the Veil names, and the one that can arrive anywhere inside your Flow of Magic once you have widened it. Ahriman has the range and reliability to make Empowered Manifestation worth its points, and Exalted Sorcerers are bearers for all four enhancements, none of which is restricted to a single datasheet.

Why there are no pairings on this page. Hexwarp Thrallband costs 3 DP, and a Strike Force budget is 3 DP. It fills your entire allowance by itself and cannot take a partner of any kind, at any cost. That is true of all three Thousand Sons 3 DP detachments, alongside Grand Coven and Rubricae Phalanx.

If you want a partner detachment, you want a 2 DP or 1 DP detachment instead. The army guide sets out all twelve legal multi-detachment shapes.

How to actually play it. Take the objective first, then cast. The territory test runs at the start of any phase, so an objective seized in the Movement phase changes what your Shooting phase can do. And be honest with yourself about the deployment-zone clause: if you never leave your own table edge, your magic is still enhanced but you are also not scoring, and this detachment gives you no help winning a game you are not contesting.