Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Chaos/Disciples of Tzeentch

Grand Alliance Chaos Disciples of Tzeentch

Just as planned.

Lore Tactics General Tactics

Why play Disciples of Tzeentch?

Disciples of Tzeentch are all about two things: spells and acting like you know what you're doing. Most of your heroes are wizards and all of them are smug assholes that if you kick in the dick they'll act like you kicking them in the dick was a nine year plan that causes them to end up better off somehow. Hell, Lords of Change love to meddle with stuff that more often they fail because they get cocky and meddle too much. On top of a love of all things changing, weirdly colorful and on fire if you want to set up stupid complex strategy for your army and hope they go just as planned, then Disciples of Tzeentch are for you.

Pros

• With the amount of wizards, spells and abilities surrounding magic Disciples of Tzeentch are undeniably one of, if not the, army for magic. Disciples of Tzeentch is so focused on magic you get to summon free units not just from yourself casting spells, but from anybody casting spells.
• Some of the best shooting in Chaos, not that Chaos has much competition.
• An amazing Allegiance ability that helps you make sure those critical rolls are exactly what you need them to be.
• Very good diversity, with units that can fill the need for good hordes, good elites, good fast units, good shooters. Anything you need, Tzeentch can have or ally into.
• those endless spells are really powerful right? It's a shame though that only those wizards can cast then or the points cost of each spells, right? Then you don't have to worry anymore, because you can steal that endless spells without points cost, cast it with your models unplayed in your army and see the face of your enemy after doing so. JUST AS PLANNED!!!!!
• Using a mix of endless spells, spells, scroll abilities and faction effects you can get to a total of -6 to hit... ok that's almost impossible to do reliably but just -2 to hit is crippling and the changling can throw that out stock.

Cons

• Any wounds your models have aren't going to hold up long to some swinging, with your units saves ranging from "bad" to "pretty bad".
• Your standard colours, are in fact liable to give headaches. So many yellows, bright blues and pinks. This is actually a good thing as it will distract your opponent from your schemes, just as planned.
• Do you like lords of change? No? You better start liking them. While slaves of darkness and death factions can easily throw around +2-+4 to cast like it's candy you're gonna be struggling to get +1 to cast and our casting values are as high as ever. Unless of course you bring a lord of change and play with the faction all about summoning lords of change. Then you can easily log in those tricky spells and make a gaunt summoner mini-nagash.

Rulebooks

The Disciples of Tzeentch Battletome (2020) has all the Warscrolls, Battations and Allegiance Abilities.

• This should be supplemented with the Disciples of Tzeentch Errata and Designers' Commentary from the FAQs.

• Current matched play points are in the GHB or FAQ, whichever is most up to date.

• Alternatively up to date warscolls can be found in the WH AoS app. Warscrolls on the GW webstore match those in the Battletome.

As with all factions you'll want:

• The core rules are either downloadable or in the Core Book.

• Games taking place in a Realm need the Realm of Battle rules from the Core Book.

• In you want to take advantage of realm specific artefacts you'll need the Artefacts Of The Realms section from the Malign Sorcery book.

• Matched play battleplans are split across the Core Book and General's handbook 2018.

• All books should be supplemented with any updates from the FAQs.

Allegiance Abilities

Battle Traits

If your army has a TZEENTCH allegiance and chose to take the TZEENTCH Allegiance abilities, it has the following rule:

Master of Destiny: After set-up but before rolling for first turn, roll nine dice and bank them as "Destiny Dice" that you can use in place of casting, unbinding, dispelling, run, charge, to hit, wound, save, damage, or battleshock rolls. You must use one Destiny Dice per die, so to completely control a charge, you must use two Destiny Dice. At any moment, your army can't have more than nine dice.

Naturally, as you have a very limited pool of Destiny Dice and most ways of regaining them require either expensive Battalions, wasting spells or more convoluted means, you want to make the most of them. So, in other words, do not disregard 1s and 2s, as they can still be useful.

• 1s and 2s are most useful for Battleshock tests, where rolling low can mean the difference between the unit hanging on (and, in the case of Daemons, potentially regenerating) and the unit being killed off.

• 6s are most useful for when you want to activate some ability that triggers on hit rolls of 6, in your army this will mostly affect Skyfires. If you have a Tzaangor Shaman nearby, 5s can be used for this as well. By setting three of three to hit rolls in this fashion, you have a very decent chance of removing an opposing Hero with a single barrage. And believe you me, shooting the Bloodsecrator out of a Bloodreaver mob might not make you friends, but it sure as hell can win you the game.

• 3s and 4s are the really awkward ones and are probably best used for casting rolls. A single Destiny Die 4 sacrificed already guarantees a successful casting of Daemonic Power, which is nice. can be used with a Lord of Change casting to guarantee a minimum of 8. Roll the other die and see if you can get a 5 or 6.

Locus of Change: Tzeentch Daemons wholly within 12" of friendly Tzeentch Daemon Heroes are -1 to be hit in melee.

Summon Daemons of Tzeentch: as of AoS2 summoning Daemons by Spells and using Reinforcement Points are no longer things but have been replaced with the following. To summon Daemons you must spend Fate Points which are generated when either player successfully casts a spell without it getting unbound. You must have at least ten Fate Points to be allowed to summon and after that, you can summon as many units you have points for at the end of the movement phase, set up wholly within 12" of a Tzeentch Hero and more than 9" from any enemy units.

• 30 Fate Points: 1 Lord of Change
• 24 Fate Points: 1 Fateskimmer, Herald of Tzeentch on Burning Chariot
• 20 Fate Points: 10 Pink Horrors of Tzeentch
• 18 Fate Points: 1 Burning Chariot of Tzeentch
• 18 Fate Points: 3 Flamers of Tzeentch
• 12 Fate Points: 1 Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch
• 12 Fate Points: 1 Herald of Tzeentch
• 12 Fate Points: 1 Herald of Tzeentch on Disc
• 10 Fate Points: 10 Blue Horrors of Tzeentch
• 10 Fate Points: 10 Brimstone Horrors of Tzeentch
• 10 Fate Points: 3 Screamers of Tzeentch

As Tzeentch most heroes and even battlelines are wizards. even with that your usually only going to get 9 points per turn unless the opponent is also wizard heavy.

Gifts of Worship: Guess what? You can, at the start of your hero phase, declare one of these objectives. If they're completed, the unit that completes it gets a buff for the rest of the game. Only one per turn, and you can't redo them.

Mass Conjuration:

• Agenda- Pick a Tzeentch Wizard. If they cast at least 2 spells that aren't unbound and got a 9+ for each.
• Ability - they get +1 to casting for the rest of the game.

Ninefold Dismemberment:

• Agenda- Pick one enemy unit on the battlefield that has 9 or more models, if it is destroyed this(?) turn.
• Ability- add 1 to hit rolls for the Tzeentch unit that destroyed it

Overthrow Leaders:

• Agenda- pick 1 hero or monster on the battlefield with Wounds of 9 or more, kill it
• Ability- add 1 to the save rolls for attacks that target the unit that killed it.

Reckless Abandon:

• Agenda- at the start of charge phase pick one unit 9" away from enemy. if it makes a 9" or more charge.
• Ability- that unit gets +1 attack to melee weapons

Tides of Anarchy:

• Agenda- if you take an objective from an opponent with unit with at least 9 models.
• Ability- in that unit each model counts as 2 for capping objectives

Command Traits

There are actually three tables to pick Command Traits from for you: one for Arcanites, one for Daemons and one for Mortals. If you have a combination of those keywords, you can pick which table you take your Command Traits from, though 1-3 are almost exact copy-pastes on all three tables.

An ARCANITE General of an army with a TZEENTCH allegiance and has chosen to take the TZEENTCH Allegiance abilities can choose one of the following Command Traits:

1. Arch-sorcerer: Allows your Hero to know two more spells from the Lore of Fate. Take it only if your Magister is your leader as he is the only one able to abuse this (with good rolling of course... or just as planned?) Otherwise a nice one for a Gaunt Summoner or a Curseling.
2. Nexus of Fate: Roll a dice at the start of your Hero phase, you can (but don't have to) replace one of your Destiny Dice with that roll.
3. Magical Supremacy: Increases dispel range to forty-two inches for your general. Abuse this on the Curseling! Adds twelve inches to his dispel range and if he does dispel it then he gets to cast that spell without your opponent being able to dispel in return.
4. Boundless Mutation: Hero phase on a 2+ d3 wounds are healed. it can keep you alive so you can cast more spells.
5. Cult Demagogue: Casting rolls that are doubles auto succeed (regardless of result). also if not unbound get 2 fate pts instead of 1.
6. Arcane Sacrifice: In the Hero phase you can deal 1 Mortal wounds on a nearby friendly unit. If you do so then your hero gets +9 to their spell range for that phase.

"Sooo... that Curseling... I don't know... but I think he can abuse these Command Traits... He can steal spells on a longer range and if you steal an expensive spell then he is more likely to cast it. (Note that endless spells are not affected by the range increase) Good on Gaunt Summoner with Balewind Vortex for maximum range and reliability on their spells.

A DAEMON General of an army with a TZEENTCH allegiance and has chosen to take the TZEENTCH allegiance abilities can choose one of the following Command Traits:

1. Arch-sorcerer: Allows your hero to know two more spells from the Change Lore. On a Lord of Change, this could be pretty fun, but on Heralds it's a waste of space.
2. Nexus of Fate: Do you need more 1s for resurrecting Horrors? Or 6s to make your spells unbindable?
3. Magical Supremacy: Put on the leader of an Aether-Eater Host for best effect, though the additional unbinding range is always appreciated.
4. Daemonic Spark: Once per battle, your General can use this to gain 3 fate points.
5. Incorporeal Form: its a +5 save vs spells and endless spells to ignore all spells
6. Aether Tether: +1 to the save of this general.

A MORTAL General of an army with a TZEENTCH allegiance and has chosen to take the TZEENTCH allegiance abilities can choose one of the following Command Traits:

1. Nexus of Fate: The same as above, but now you have more options to use it with Tzeentch-marked Slaves to Darkness. Need an additional dice for unbindable Daemonic Power? Go for it. Worrying about killiness of your Chaos Lord on Manticore? Go for it.
2. Soul Burn: Wound rolls of 6 or higher damage by an additional Mortal Wound in melee. Interesting on an already killy General like a Marked Chaos Lord or an Ogroid, worthless on a caster.
3. Illusionist: Lower Hit rolls against your General at range by one. This could save his bacon from the inevitable barrage of shots that will doubtless be headed toward your General.

Artefacts

As per the FAQ, all of the below are Artefacts of Power and thus subject to the normal restrictions on number and usage.

Treasures of the Cults

One ARCANITE HERO in an army with a TZEENTCH allegiance and has chosen to take the TZEENTCH allegiance abilities, plus one ARCANITE HERO for every battalion selected, can choose one of the following Magical Artefacts (weapons of mounts can't be upgraded this way):

1. Ambition's End: If this weapon causes an unsaved wound. On a 5+, it causes an additional Mortal Wound, and the target forgets a random spell if a WIZARD. A Wizard in melee is a dead Wizard anyway, so why bother with this? Unless you are a meatwall named Ogroid Thaumaturge and that Wizard is a Monster, that's it.
2. Secret-Eater: If a HERO is slain by this weapon, you can roll and add another dice to your Destiny Dice pool. Against Hero-heavy armies, this might be good, otherwise, pass. No specifications if it is a melee or ranged weapon.
3. Spiteful Shield: Roll a dice for each successful hit against you, on a 6, the attacker takes a Mortal Wound after his attacks have been done. Could be a nice deterrent from punching your Hero, but there are better ways to go about it.
4. Souldraught: Once per battle you can drink and roll three dice to cast and unbind, taking the highest two until the end of the phase. Utterly worthless on a one-spell-and-unbind-per-turn Wizard, but a Gaunt Summoner who wants to make sure his Infernal Flames spell goes off will want this.
5. Glamour Fetish: Opponent adds one to Battleshock rolls within 9" of this model. Eh. Pass and take something to kill enemies better.
6. Windthief Charm: Once per battle, the bearer can move twice as far and count as flying while doing so. Nice for strategic repositioning and nothing says that there it can be used only in the movement phase or only in your turn. If you decide to take a foot Gaunt Summoner, this can move him out of trouble just as someone charges him- but be wary of flipping tables. per FAQ can only be used at the start of the Movement phase.

Fated Artefacts

One ARCANITE or MORTAL HERO in an army with a TZEENTCH allegiance and has chosen to take the TZEENTCH allegiance abilities, plus one ARCANITE or MORTAL HERO for every battalion selected, can choose one of the following Artefacts, though they cannot replace the weapon profiles of a mount:

1. Wicked Shard: Re-roll 1s to wound but if the bearer successfully cast/dispelled a spell then he gets to re-roll all to wound rolls. Good on a Hero who is good in combat and dispelling (*cough* Curseling *cough*) Since the Wicked Shard only enhances one weapon, it doesn't really help the Curseling, whose damage output is spread out over three mediocre weapon profiles. Now, if you were to give it to the Ogroid's staff...
2. Changeblade: If you get a kill with a weapon chosen as this then whenever you kill an enemy Hero you get a pet Spawn- Oh god N- AGHRBHLAR. Good with a Hero with high mobility so he can run after weak targets, otherwise its an alright weapon. Unfortunately, the Spawn can't do anything the end of the turn.
3. Nexus Staff: If you kill a Hero with this then for each enemy unit within 9" you do d3 Mortal wounds on a 4+. Not worth it as it doesn't do enough for the amount of effort you have to put in to get this to work properly. Interestingly, it is the only one of these weapon buffs that doesn't specify melee weapons, though the only ones who can take advantage of that fact are the Tzaangor Shaman and the Magister.
4. Timeslip pendant: Once per Combat Phase the Hero can pile in and attack at the end of this phase. Thaumaturge or a Lord on Manticore can abuse this.
5. Daemonheart: Once per ANY Hero Phase your Hero can get +1 damage on his weapons but at the end of the round roll a dice, on a 1 the hero suffers a mortal wound. Again, Thaumaturge and Manticore hero can abuse this and it might help the Curseling out a bit, almost doubling his damage output for a turn.
6. Paradoxical shield:+2 to save but you re-roll successful saves. Really trolly upgrade, Can easily give one of your Heroes a 2+ but you have to re-roll all your successful saves. This is a hard one to judge as it can easily go wrong or you can roll like a god and laugh at your opponent as you re-roll your 6 into a 6.(just as planned.) Generally try to put it on something that re-rolls 1s on Saves. You can only re-roll each dice once, so those natural 1s do not have to be re-rolled if they succeed after the re-roll. all re-rolls occur BEFORE applying modifiers, so it looks like the shield requires you to re-roll only if the unmodified die would succeed. Gives you a good place to spend your 3s and 4s from the destiny pool.

Daemonic Weapons

Any TZEENTCH DAEMON HERO can be given one of the following weapons (mount's weapons are not upgraded).

1. Warpfire Blade: 6s to wound deal an extra Mortal wound in addition to its normal wounds on a melee weapon of the Hero's choosing. Pretty standard upgrade but why are your Daemon Heroes in close combat?
2. Sentient Weapons: Your opponent cannot benefit to modifiers on their save rolls. SCREW YOU CASTELLANT and/or Staunch Defender. And no cover bonus. Wait, it doesn't say that it upgrades melee weapons only... That Rod of Sorcery is much deadlier now.
3. Blade of Fate: A melee weapon gets re-rolls of 1s to hit and wound as long as you have at least one Destiny Dace in your pool of Destiny. If you still have nine then you re-roll all to wound and to hit. Unless you plan to not use any Destiny Dice or manage them very carefully there are better choices out there... and did I ask? WHY IS YOUR HERO IN CLOSE COMBAT?
4. Souleater: A weapon gets +1 attack whenever it slays a Hero... To get a good benefit from this your Hero will have to run after most Heroes your opponent controls like a dog chasing a car... not worth it... and do I even have to mention it... You don't want your Heroes in close combat...
5. Phantasmal Weapons: This is actually a nice melee upgrade for your Heroes, especially your Lord of Change. A bonus to Rend on all weapons is mighty strong, especially on your Lord of Change. This and the Sentient Weapons are the only melee upgrades you should be looking at for your deamons as they affect all your Hero attacks, something the Lord of Change can abuse. Unfortunately, Discs' Teeth and Horns are not boosted by this.
6. Pyrofyre Stave: Though it gives an alright bonus of +1 to wound on ranged attacks... most heroes having only two shooting attacks. Lords of change can use this if you roll well on your 2d6 attacks, otherwise I'd say just pass... (Why are you not a Hero, Exalted Flamer? *weep*)

• Alternate Opinion: All these Melee Relics do actually have a decent user: A Daemon Prince. Give a Daemon Prince the Blade of Fate or the Phantasmal Weapons and watch him rip enemies to little, teeny weeny pieces.

Daemonic Powers

Any TZEENTCH DAEMON HERO can be given one of the following Daemonic Powers

1. Lord of Flux: In your Hero Phase any enemy unit with 3" of your Hero take a Mortal wound on a 4+. There are much better options out there than this measly thing. It is a 50% chance to do one mortal wound on units that are in combat range of your Hero... keeping in mind that because this activates in your Hero Phase, your Hero must survive through a full turn of combat for it to even activate.
2. Aura of Mutability: All your Tzeentch Daemon units within 3" of the Hero get re-rolls of 1's to wound. This works for shooting so put your Hero near big Horror units or Flamer units to allow them to wound more.
3. Cursed Ichor: Whenever your Hero suffers a wound, on a 2+ a random enemy unit within 1" of them takes a mortal wound too. Good for a suicide bomb Hero to run at an enemy Hero you want dead and blow both of em up.
4. Wellspring of Arcane Might: Tzeentch Daemons within 9" of the Hero re-roll 1's to cast. Keep in mind that Horrors and Gaunt Summoners are Tzeentch Daemons, too. Also helps to make sure a Lord of Change pretty much never fails a casting roll.
5. Aspect of Tzeentch: while this Hero is on the field, any time you use a Destiny Dice for anything while he is on the field, you roll a D6, on a 6 you get a new one right back. Don't bet on this working more than twice per game, but those two times are already damn good.
6. Mark of the Conjurer: Gives two Fate Points instead of one, if a successful casting roll was a double and not unbound. Could be very good with Lords of Change and cogs.

Lore of Fate

Every ARCANITE and MORTAL WIZARD in an army with a TZEENTCH allegiance and has chosen to take the TZEENTCH allegiance abilities can choose one of the following Spells (Alternatively, you can pick or roll one spell of Fate for all MORTAL and ARCANITE WIZARDS per army) :

1. Bolt of Tzeentch: Pretty high casting value of 8, but D6 Mortal Wounds at 18" are nothing to sneeze at. Just make sure your caster has some way of making the casting easier on himself, though. Arcane Sacrifice, Souldraught, the Tzaangor Shaman's energy drink, anything.
2. Arcane Suggestion: Theoretically a wonderful debuff for casting value of 7, but too random to be of much use. You either deal D3 Mortal Wounds, OR drop their Hit and Wound rolls OR drop their saves by 1. Awkward if you were trying to neuter the enemy but made them more fragile instead or you deal one Mortal wound to an horde unit instead of de-buffing it. Ideally, this could be used to weaken enemy Heroes and Monsters, but unfortunately this can't be cast on them.
3. Glimpse the Future: Considering how bloody useful Destiny Dice are, it should come as no surprise that the spell that gives you more has a high casting value of 7 and, even without the First Rule of One, is restricted to one per turn. Still worth it, especially on something that has multiple casting attempt, like a Magister in an Arcanite Cabal.
4. Shield of Fate: Odd. This cheap one (casting value 5) grants you re-rolls on your saves that get worse the fewer Destiny Dice you have. Do you sincerely want something that hinges on a precious resource not being expended?. It's flat out better then Mystic Shield now but the person casting it could just know another spell if they feel like it. Worse case it's just as good as Mystic Shield so you can give different things a bit more protection at least.
5. Infusion Arcanum: The Curseling and the Ogroid love this baby. Pathetically low casting value of 5? Check. Increases both Hit and Wound rolls of the caster by one? Check. Take a powerful melee Hero and turn him into a terrifying melee Hero. For true dickishness, give it to Archaon. Yes, Ol'Topknot is both MORTAL and TZEENTCH and so is entitled to this spell if he's put in a Tzeentch army.
6. Treacherous Bond: Exactly what the Gaunt Summoner wants. The casting value is 6. This one is basically a "Look Out, Sir" of 3+ for the caster. The unit receiving the hits can stand up to 18" away when the spell is cast. So now you can toss your Gaunt Summoner into range for his scary spell and not worry about repercussions.

Lore of Change

Every DAEMON WIZARD in an army with a TZEENTCH allegiance and has chosen to take the TZEENTCH allegiance abilities can choose one of the following Spells:

1. Bolt of Tzeentch: Pretty high casting value of 8, but D6 Mortal Wounds are nothing to sneeze at. Best on a Lord of Change with his amazing casting roll modification rule.
2. Treason of Tzeentch: Casting on 5+, pick a unit within 18" that has at least two models. Roll a die for each model in that unit and deal a mortal wound for every 6+. This can't damage the last model in a unit. Not bad against large hordes, but if you have a Gaunt Summoner in your army already this is significantly worse.
3. Arcane Transformation: The casting values is 7. This one is potentially neat, but there are a lot of factors holding it back. You get to buff a friendly Hero, yay! You only get to target each Hero with this once. There are three stats you can pick between, yay! Two of them are worthless. Seriously, one extra inch of Move isn't going to win the game and Bravery is nearly worthless on a lone Hero, so the only useful one is to add one attack to a weapon profile of your choice. Interestingly, it doesn't specify "melee" weapons, so you could totally use this to double a Magisters shooting attacks. Otherwise, go for broke and give an Ogroid a second swing with his scary horns.
4. Unchecked Mutation: Pass. Pass so hard you forget there even is another spell here. Casting value 7, D3 Mortal Wounds, with a cascading effect that deals additional Mortal Wounds for every 5+ you roll on the following dice roll. 5+ means you're unlikely to get even one extra Mortal Wound, never mind a bunch and all for a casting value that's insultingly high for such an awful spell.
5. Fold Reality: This is a mixed bag: The spell casts on a 7+. Roll a D6, on a 2+, you add that many slain models to a friendly TZEENTCH DAEMON unit. On a 1, however, the whole unit goes poof. The logical choice is to only ever use this on units that are near death already, like a lone Pink Horror trying to get some new buddies. The question is, do you want to leave a whole unit's fate to a single dice roll? And no, don't think you can cheese this via Destiny Dice. Masters of Destiny Tells you which rolls you are allowed to change and rolls made by specific spells that you really really wish you could set isn't among them.
   • In fact, you only have 1/6 chance of messing up with this spell, while the other five times you resurrect an average 3 guys, so it's pretty good. Just use it on units with low numbers, and that you can comfortably lose, and you're set. Or just take Kairos and a unit of 6 Tzaangor Skyfires, to have a unit that will probably never die; changing that 1 on a 6 one time per battle should ensure you never lose the unit. If you're in a really big battle, instead take a unit of 3 Burning Chariots, but keep in mind your opponent will refuse to play with you ever again after this. And I can't blame him. Neither would I.
6. Tzeentch's Inferno: If Lady Luck and Admiral Awesome are on your side, this is a damn game-winner. If not, you'll waste casting attempts on it. Casting value 9(!) so you need a Lord of Change or Kairos just to cast it reliably. Roll 9 D6, each 6 generates D3 Mortal Wounds. On average, that's 3 Mortal Wounds. Woo. If, however, you roll well, you could go all the way to a unit killer with this. Combine this with Infernal Gateway, and your Lord of Change can unleash some serious fireworks.

• A question: What if a Hero is both Daemon and Mortal/Arcanite? Can he know spells from both Lores? the heroes that fit on that category are the Tzaangor Shamans, Gaunt Summoners and Archaon himself, the rules for both lores is "each wizard in a Tzeentch army knows and additional spell chosen from the Lores", so until FAQ'd, technically he can know one (or two if he is an Arch-Sorcerer) of both. It's been FAQ'd, only one Lore can be taken, not one from each Lore table.

Endless Spells

Tzeentch only

• Burning Sigil of Tzeentch: (40pts) Summons a floating 12" bubble of RANDOM, with a mix of results helpful and harmful to a single unit. (d3 MWs that risks a Chaos Spawn if someone dies, halved movement, d6" movement after running, +1 attacks, or -1 to hit) The issue is that this sigil cannot move on its own, meaning that you really need to find a good place to set it up and then pray some more that Tzeentch blesses your rolls for the right results.

• Tome of Eyes: (40pts) Summons a magical book that becomes part of the caster's unit. Alongside letting the caster reroll any casting tests, it lets results of snake eyes or double 6s count as auto-casting with immunity to dispels (though the caster also takes d3 MWs in the process) and grants a special spell that deals mortal wounds and robs the target of 1 point of Bravery for each casualty you deal. What better way to stick it to those filthy rats than to smite them with your evil spellbook and then see them fail battleshock for once?

• Daemonic Simulacrum: (50pts) This predatory spell has a...thematic move speed of 9", and each turn it has 9 chances to deal MWs to the closest unit within 6" on a 5+ (4+ if they're wizards). While the range is nice for a spell that would otherwise be considered underwhelming, it also leaves you very open to the chance of it all being for naught on a bad roll.

Beasts of Chaos - available to Tzaangor Shaman and Great Bray Shaman.

• Doomblast Dirgehorn: Subtract 1 from hit rolls for attacks made by units within 3" of this model. BEASTS OF CHAOS models are not affected. Grows by 3" at the start of each battle round. This one is pretty damn cool but comes with the problem of having a casting value of 6 and thus being fairly easy to dispell.
  • On the other hand, it presents the opponent with the interesting dilemma of either wasting his casting attempts to dispel it or letting it get bigger and bigger.

• Balefire Taurus: A big horde cleaning Endless Spell. It moves 12" a turn and has the Fly keyword. Anything it moves over or ends within 1" of it takes D3 Mortal Wounds, and if the unit has more than ten models, it takes D6 Mortal Wounds instead. Furthermore, Units it damages must fight last at the end of any Combat Phase. While brutal in most situations, it really shines when cleaning up blobs of infantry.

• Ravening Direflock:Spawns three tokens of evil Chaos murderbirds. Anything that is not a BEASTS OF CHAOS unit within 6" of one of these tokens has their Bravery reduced by -2. However, if any unit finishes a move within 1" of the tokens, they have to set the Tokens up again somewhere within 3D6" of the place they were previously.

Slave to Darkness - Available for all flavors of Gaunt Summoner or imported S2D casters.

• Eightfold Doom-Sigil: (40pts) CV 5. This spell will only have use when things die around it, so you'd best make sure you make at least one model go down so you can power them up. Now a bonus attack won't sound too scary for your Chaos Lord, but throw it on a band of marauders and they won't be laughing anymore.

• Darkfire Daemonrift: (50pts) CV 6. This is a purely predatory spell, dealing d3 MWs to anything it goes through. It's damage potential also powered up by other Wizards and Endless spells 12" of it. Guess what you have? Yep, you'll be enjoying this.

• Realmscourge Rapture: (60pts) CV 7. This Predatory spell is like the Pendulum in that it can only move in straight lines. Anything that this goes through suffers not only d3 MWs, but their movement will also be halved, which can positively cripple a unit just in time for your Vikings to flatten them.

Warscrolls

Leaders

Named Leaders

• Kairos Fateweaver: (400pts, Deamon Wizard) Kairos has a pretty decent melee profile and decent survivability, just like all Lords of Change. He also shares their rule for better casting rolls and auto dispell endless spells. one of his minor gimmick that can replace one dice rolled by any player with any desired result like fate dice. His primary ability is being a Mater wizard+, able to cast/unbind 3 times and he knows all spells from friendly Wizards wholly within 18". Woo. (No seriously woo! So long as Kairos is within 18" of a Herald, he knows Pink Fire which he is much better at casting. He can't do it himself but can also learn spells Cursing and other Lords of change steal.) his unique spell Gift of Change is fairly strong as it deals a flat 6 MW while Kairos is full health, one shooting most heroes and turning them into spawns. The downside of taking him is he's less versatile or less support than a normal Lord of Change; he costs more and can't take Artefacts and Command Traits. Still useful for that single, guaranteed dice roll. Ensure an opponent fails a critical save. Insurance for Fold Reality is not killing everything.
  • The spawn is created in the hero phase. This means you can retreat in the movement phase and run your spawn to an objective, force a unit in melee to pile-in towards the spawn, use it to string out huge infantry blobs or maybe just block your enemy's movement phase with the 3" don't-come-near-me.

• The Changeling: (120pts, Deamon Wizard) A fun little hero unit. Can redeploy him be for the game on your opponent's side of the board 3" from everything at the end of your first movement phase and at the start of each enemy turn you can give a unit within -1 to hit and half their movement Until your turn. Good on certain occasions like when your enemy brings a few fast units to keep you from moving up the board or getting close to artillery. Also interesting is that he can use the spells of all Wizards around him. He has lost his copy enemy weapon attacks, so you should use him only for Deep striking, spells thief, first turn Saboteur.
  • Use the Changeling in conjunction with Changehost to land a Purple Sun of Shyish or Realmscourge Rapture in your enemy's lines. Coupled with Kairos, they will wreak havoc in your enemy's army.

• The Blue Scribes: (120pts, Deamon Wizard) Now a very powerful caster. They can automatically cast anything on 2+ with 1d6 and to unbind their attempt, thought you needed a 9 or more? This allows you to cast any overpowered spell with impunity. Don't want to be a jerk? No problem, you can also just use their own spell, which gives nearby Tzeentch Wizards re-rolls to cast. Those Casting Value 9 Herald Spells getting you down? Don't forget the Blue Scribes can attempt to learn any spell cast near them so if you get your Pink Fire off using your arcane tome, the Blue Scribes can learn it on a 4+ and in subsequent turns cast it on a 2+. Give them Tzeentchs's Inferno too and have fun.

• Vortemis the All-Seeing: (140pts, Arcanites, Mortal, Wizard) Must be taken with the Eyes of the Nine. He's essentially just a magister with a unique spell that gives a free CP to spend on the At the Double, Forward to Victory, or Inspiring Presence commands.

Arcanites /& Daemon

• Gaunt Summoner: (Arcanites Mortal Daemon Wizard 240pts) A very mediocre Wizard statline but attached to some impressive magic. The Gaunt Summoner has one of the best horde-roasting spells in the game, can cast twice per turn and can use one cast once per game to summon a Daemon unit, making him an excellent addition to any army. The fact that he has the Daemon keyword-only makes him better. The only real problem is the lack of mobility and survivability. To use his impressive spell to best effect, you want him close to the enemy, but 5 Wounds and a 6+ save aren't too helpful in letting him survive that.
  • uses for summons: Bloodletters can inflict MWs, Daemonettes are still the best shredders and fast movers, Plaguebearers are walls, Horrors provide shooting and annoying way to be survivable, while Furys can grab objectives.
  • The Balewind Vortex can help mitigate the need to be close. If an entire horde of enemies wishes to approach, they do not want to be within the 24" bubble of death that his spell becomes while atop the vortex.
  • Can also have his save pimped out. Give him Paradoxical Shield, stick him in a Balewind Vortex, and he's got a 3+ save, 2+ if you can get him in cover. Suddenly your squishy wizard is not so squishy anymore.
  • The Balewind Vortex combined with the Arcane Sacrifice command trait gives your Infernal Flames spell a truly sickening 33" range. Along with battleshock tests, you can comfortably delete a 40 man horde from the board in one turn, before it even leaves its deployment zone.

• Gaunt Summoner on Disc of Tzeentch: (Arcanites Mortal Daemon Wizard 260pts.) give a summoner +1 wounds, 16" Flying movement and a +2 for melee save if normal ground fighter catches him.

• Curseling, Eye of Tzeentch: (160pts. Arcanites Mortal Wizard) Wow. Vilitch, who used to be overcosted and underpowered, may now be one of the best Chaos casters, albeit he is now a generic Hero. He can cast and dispel two spells a turn. Any spell he unbinds, he can immediately cast himself with nobody being allowed to unbind his attempt. He also has the Glean Magic spell with which he can steal unique spells off enemy Wizards. And in combat, he's awesome, too. He has three weapons, one a Sorcerer staff with bad To Wound and worse To Hit rolls, but d3 damage if it connects and then two weapons which are basically Crom's weapons except one of them has extra Rend. Yeah. He hits hard, he can cast twice, and he can cast everything he unbinds. His main problem is the First Rule of One. He only has three spells, two of them the generic spells and the third one that only works if the enemy is packing Wizards, and even then the result may not help him, so unless you give him a good lore spell, he will be dead weight on the spells you can cast.
  • Can also be decent in combat with Paradoxical Shield giving him a 3+ rerollable save. Since he can cast twice a turn, have him cast Mystic Shield and Arcane Infusion on himself to make him kill and nearly indestructible.

• Fatemaster: (120pts. Arcanites Mortal) a pure Flying melee leader in a magic focused faction. while not the strongest fighter he does have a 2+ save in melee unless his opponent is a monster or flys. His Command ability lets all Tzeench unit wholly within 9" reroll hits, which is good for Screechers, Tzaangors, and Slave to Darkness elements. This also effects shooting attacks so he could roll with a pod of flamers or skyfires.

• Magister: (100pts. Arcanites Mortal Wizard) One of your good cheap mortal wizard that can also shoot a bolt from his staff and like to turn things into Spawns. He can cast additional spells if your casting roll was a double, even if it failed but the additional attempt is also a double he dies and may turn into a Spawn instead. His strong unique spell creates a spawn each turn it kills something right into combat (this will be FAQed soon) creating dangerous disruption. you may use him as a cheaper Gaunt Summoner, Using Fate dice to grantey 2 successful casts, and tieing down foes with free spawn.

• Magister on Disc of Tzeentch: (140pts. Arcanites Mortal Wizard) take a Magister and let him fly around the battlefield with +1 wound and better melee saves.

• Tzaangor Shaman: (150pts. Arcanites Brayherd Wizard) The mage you want in a Tzaangor-heavy army. Thanks to his Disc, he's not all that bad in melee, but that is still only a last resort, as he's too important to risk. The fun part is that he is a 6 wound Mage with high movement and a decent spell: Enemy unit takes D3 Mortal Wounds. Afterward, you can add a Tzaangor to a nearby unit for every model the spell killed. Roast some Saurus Guard and fill up your Beastmen all in the same breath. The Shaman also carries a nice energy drink with him that, once per game, lets him cast twice and re-roll casting rolls while he's at it. Use to best effect in an Arcanite Cabal Battalion for three re-rollable spells.

• Ogroid Thaumaturge: (170pts Arcanites Mortal Wizard) For all intents and purposes, the Ogroid Thaumaturge is a Tzeentch-marked Doombull. He has eight Wounds without counting as a monster, a 5+ save, rerolls hits & wounds if he took damage earlier in the phase, and his spell deals D6 MW and heals him for each kill, so he's pretty tanky. He also moves 6", deals D3 Mortal Wounds for successfully charging and has three weapon profiles in melee, all of them good. His staff is just like any other mage staff, but hitting on 3+ and dealing two knocks, then his horns have one attack with great Hit and Wound rolls, great Rend and constant damage 3, and finally, his hooves are exactly 2 Hammer-Liberators worth of knocks. But wait, that's not all. This guy is just amazing. Having him and a Tzeentch army and NOT playing him is akin to sacrilege. He's powerful, he's versatile, and his model looks amazing.

• Lord of Change: (380pts. Daemon Wizard, Behemoth, 30 Fate Points) Casty, scary lord, now with fourteen Wounds because he got a new model. Can choose between a bunch of weapon profiles in addition to his staff but the Gatling Rod of Sorcery will generally be your best bet because a Lord of Change in melee is a dead Lord of Change unless you're sending him war machine hunting. His true power is the hero phase, were he can Auto ends an endless spell for free, leans any spell he unbinding on a 9+, and can always get double of the highest dice rolled when he rolls for magic

• Exalted Daemon of Tzeentch (Forge World): (480pts Daemon, Behemoth), A Lord of Change pre-new model, with 40 wounds. This also means it only has the staff to fight with, severely hampering its usefulness with the new freshness available. He also has a Casting Value of 9 as opposed to 10 for some reason.

• Changecaster, Herald of Tzeentch: (110pts. Daemon Wizard, 12 Fate Points) in addition to throwing small firebolts behind other Horrors, Has a pretty cool combination of tricks going for him. He has a unique spell with a casting value of nine, which is pretty fucking high for dealing D6 MW. Also, once per game, he can cast with three dice instead of two, making nine much more reachable. Also, his Infernal Gateway inficts MW on 2+ when full health.

• Fluxmaster, Herald of Tzeentch on Disc: (130pts. Daemon Wizard, 12 Fate Points) Oddly the disc is disturbingly powerful in melee. However, the Herald on it wants absolutely nothing to do with melee. Ultimately, the Herald on Disc is a confusing beast, best left alone. His unique spell can potentially do nine Mortal wounds for a casting value of 5, though it will average only one and a half, but hey in Matched Play you only get one Arcane Bolt anyway so it's better than your herald sitting on their fucking hands. His real usefulness is that he is manic fast and can keep up with your Flamers and Screamers so they benefit from the loci.

• Fateskimmer, Herald of Tzeentch on Burning Chariot: (140pts, Daemon Wizard, 24 Fate Points) put a Herald on a battle chariot, equipped with both the better casting roll tome and extra weapon and drawn by Screamers that deal more damage to monster and MW something on the flyby. His unique spell can damages each enemy that surrounds it. the main reason to actually take this guy is to make Burning Chariots Battleline if he's your general, which allows you to spam them in low points games.

Slaves to Darkness

• Daemon Prince: (210pts. Slave to Darkness, Deamon) Fast and decently killy. Isn’t a Wizard any more. He’s gone through a reworking since his last outing. He no longer has the ability to taken Unmarked and the buff for killing heroes, but now he gains a unique command ability for each of the gods. Like a discount Lord of change, his CA only adds +1 to one friendly wizard’s casting roll. you take him because he is a melee-oriented Deamon hero that helps a little with casting.

• Exalted Hero of Chaos: (90pts. Slave to Darkness, Mortal) A shit Aspiring Deathbringer with D6 3+/3+/-1/1 attacks and can fight twice. He gets a +1 to hit vs Characters and Monsters and if he somehow kills one he heals D3 wounds. Yeah probably don't?

• Lord of Chaos: (110pts. Slave to Darkness, Mortal) Cheaper and more killy, with a decent command ability to boot. Don't send him alone against characters more expensive than he is, or he will die. If your taking big units of StD for melee, he is a big Force multiplier, letting them fight twice.

• Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount: (170pts. Slave to Darkness, Mortal) Your budget (for a Slaves to Darkness character) mounted Lord. He is eligible to take both mortal and Deamon items, ignores MW on 5+ and heals when killing things with his hammer. His Command Ability allows a Chariot or Knight unit to reroll charge rolls and adds +1 to their Hit rolls. Gorebeast Chariots hitting on 3+? Yes, please. A good pick if you want a Tzeentch melee goon.

• Chaos Lord on Karkadrak: (250pts. Slave to Darkness, Mortal) The new mounted lord has arrived, and he rode in style as a full plastic kit. How does this character scream build around? Movement 9", 9 wounds and the always welcomed 3+ save, this lord on battle lizard loves keeping up with his fellow cavalry and bring nothing short of utter destruction. Without any adages, this character boasts no less than 13(!) attacks across 4 profiles, has mortal wound potential both on the charge and with his sword, and can heal with his attacks with his big axe. Sporting classic mortal wound protection that Slaves to Darkness units are spoiled with, and the same command ability as his horse-riding brethren, he is an excellent pick for a Slaves focused army. Pair him with some Chaos Knights or Chariots and reap all the skulls you can.

• Chaos Lord on Manticore: (280pts. Slave to Darkness, Mortal, monster, Behemoth) The Lord on Manticore can have a choice between Flail and Sword, with the Sword being better in most circumstances and a choice between Runeshield, Daggerfist, and Lance. The Lance might be awesome, but since everyone and their grandma will be gunning for your Manticore, the 5+ save against Mortal Wounds might be the best choice. hit as hard as the lord, rerolls all Hits against Monsters for its Claws and Jaws attacks. His Command Ability allows a unit of Chaos Warriors wholly within 18" to reroll charge, wound, and Battleshock rolls.

• Chaos Sorcerer Lord: (110pts. Slave to Darkness, Mortal, wizard) Yes. he is one of the best cheap wizards you can take. While an ok fighter by wizard standards, he is amazing at support for Mortal StD. First, without even casting anything, he can grant one friendly Std unit rerolling saves. Then, when he casts, his unique spell that provides reroll Hit, Wound and Saves for a friendly StD unit wholly within 18". If your running Mauders or Chaos warriors consider a Sorcerer Lord instead of a Magister.

• Chaos Sorcerer Lord on Manticore: (260pts. Slave to Darkness, Mortal, wizard, Monster, Behemoth) Blessed with the same awesome "reroll saves" ability as the normal Lord, this here rides a Manticore, who is just as killy as the one the normal Lord gets. Additionally, the Sorcerer Lord gets the Wind of Chaos spell, which is potentially devastating to a large unit blob.

Beasts Of Chaos

must be included in a Phantasmagoria of Fate battalion

• Beastlord: (90pts) A melee fighter but can't keep up with his compatriates (GW expected you to always but them in BoC Ambush and let the rest of the army run and charge). are good and cheap heroes that can improve the rest of beastmen combat if they kill something.

• Great Bray Shaman: (100pts) your Beastman speed booster (especially Tzangors) and your other BEASTS OF CHAOS endless spell caster. They know Devolve for dragging enemies closer to you and away from objectives and support auras.

• Doombull: (100pts) the leader bullgor, a Big guy with a big axe, that let other Bullgors wound better.

• Dragon Ogor Shaggoth: (180pts) Lots of attacks that can explode into more, some speed, lot of wounds, and the most useful is the ability to heal when ties for going first is rolled and having a healing spell.

Battleline

• Kairic Acolytes: (Mortal Arcanites, Min10, Max:30 100pts.) Tzeentch-themed Marauders, just as Bloodreavers are Khorne-themed Marauders, but magic focused. They can take the dual-wielder hits better or shields that give a model a 6+ save-before-the-save against normal and mortal wounds, with 3 in 10 can get big Glaives. This is all okay, but not terribly impressive. What sets them apart is that each is also a magical dabbler and can shoot minor magic missiles with 18"/1/4+/3+/-/1. They also are also wizards that wound enemy caster but can cast only one spam able spell that gives their bolts rend. Having a bunch of Acolytes will help you quickly rack up summon points.

• Tzaangors: (Arcanite BoC, Min10, Max:30 180pts.) Incredible. They are, at first glance, Chaos Warriors with a lower save. Then you look at their weapons. No matter what you equip them with, they will always have a 4+/5+/-/1 beak attack each. Then you can choose between two weapons, a sword and board, and a glaive (only two on every five models). The shield gives you a nice save-after-the-save, the twin swords get you better hit rolls and the glaives only give you 1 attack instead of 2 but at damage 2 and Rend -1. They also have a rule to gain +1 attack on all their melee weapons if they have 9+ modules. Since this stacks nicely with the few strong attacks from the glaives, you want glaives if you want to go for raw damage output and shields to keep them safe, and they can have one mutant for every 5 models, who always have two blades and make 1 additional hit with them. The good thing? You can mix-and-match so that you can do both! They can also run and charge like normal Beastmen, thanks to their musician and can channel mortal wounds onto enemy units if near any wizard. Having an Arcanite Hero hanging with them also gets them better Wound rolls, so keep that Tzaangor Shaman nearby to buff and replenish.

• Horrors of Tzeentch: (Conditional Battline: unit only contains Pink Horrors, Deamon, Min10, Max:30 200pts. 20 Fate Points for a unit of 10 Pink Horrors) As the Nature of their god these things keep on getting reinvented. One of the best and annoying infantry units in the game, as a unit of 10 actually has 50 wounds (assuming you can deploy all of them validly). A Starting unit of Pinks will have a high volume of 12" firebolts and is a wizard as long as there are 9+ pinks, but only can cast a spell that gives them +1 to all their hits (at the recommended unit size, your bolts hit on 3s). Their annoying power is each dieing pink turns into 2 Blues and each blue turns into a Brimstone, actually increasing the number of attacks. The pinks always have to be the first ones to die though.
  • Horrors are not tough and will die in numbers and then more will flee from Battleshock, but if you roll a 1 (use a Fate dice) and you still have a pink with an Icon alive, you gain back D6 slain models instead.
  • if you care for everyone sanity, don't want to buy 40+ Blue/Brimstone horrors, and/or don't think setting up more models will work out this phase, your pink horrors can instead just explode and deal mortals on a 5+.

• Screamer: (Conditional Battline: Hosts Arcanum army, Daemon Min:3 Max:12 80pts 10 Fate Points for a unit of 3) A bit pillow-fisted overall. Three of them won't do much, they want to be in bigger units to achieve anything (lone wizards now could take a heavy beating when Screamers fly over them) and you're unlikely to put plenty of wounds on units, though monsters really don't enjoy the damage upgrade to D3. Do remember you can do the slashing fins attack if you "retreat" from combat they're not going to win by flying over the unit they were fighting. Being that they are only 10 fate points and have an exceptional move speed, you will often be summing these to grab an objective left in the open.

• Flamers: (Conditional Battline: Eternal Conflaguration army, Daemon Min:3 Max:12 120pts 18 Fate Points for a unit of 3) Pretty bloody great. They die very easily, so keep them in cover, but their ranged flame attack is possibly the best thing Tzeentch daemons can bring you, massed shots (10 from 3 of them) causing D3 wounds on anything that gets through is awesome, and they that gains +1/+2 hit if the target had 10/20 models. they are not fun to fight in melee as each lost wound inflicts an MW on a 5+. Lastly, they have 9" Move and can fly (by jumping, according to their warscroll!), so you can use them as ultra-powered horse archers, leaping here and there while puking multi-colored death from a safe distance.

• Burning Chariots of Tzeentch: (Optional Battline: Fateskimmer General, Daemon Min1, Max:3 150pts, 18 Fate Points) Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous. Has the potential of inflicting 46 Wounds per round, if you do it just right. When you can make 50 4-5+s and get past all rend then only roll 3's on damage (half of the D3's only work against monsters) yeah. But realistically it's so fragile and inaccurate you should only use it to pick off opportune targets in melee while shooting at whatever you feel like. It can damage units it flies over, has the same powerful missile weapon as the standard Exalted Flamer and a bunch of melee attacks, including the two Screamers, who make 6 attacks, each of which deals D3 damage whilst targeting a Monster. None of these have Rend so pick your targets. They're super fast and they fly but they'll die if the opponent even thinks about shooting and flamers aren't slow anyway. It can be great however if you want it to circle around and take the side objectives that the opponent only has a token force for just make sure it attacks first in most cases because it won't last long otherwise.

• Chaos Warriors: (Mortal STD, Min5, Max:30 100pts.) The same heavily armored Vikings you know and love. Do you like the Liberators' bullshit profile but want to go a bit more Chaosy? Then these guys are what you are looking for. They have the same stats, and their normal hand weapons are the same as the swords Liberators carry. Their other options include a halberd that is worse than the hand weapon but with a better range. And a greatblade with the same stats as a Liberator hammer but with a -1 rend, however unlike them taking this will cost you your special shield. Their shields work a little differently as their shields give you a special save of 5+ against mortal wounds. While giving them greater durability against Mortal wounds than Liberators they have worse saves against regular damage attacks. A potential downside to them? They come in units of at least ten, meaning it can be harder to use them as cheap battleline choices. If you want to be an asshole, use them in units of 20+, where they re-rolling saves for longer. All in all, strong chaos rivals to liberators, while Liberators can be argued as a more balanced unit with an equal focus on attack and defense and also containing special weapons. Chaos Warriors are more offensively focused, they are less about holding the line than smashing through it. With their weapon options favoring frontal assault more.
  • Take 20, give them halberds so you can attack in two ranks. Enjoy your 60 attacks.
  • Take 20, give them shields, string them out in front of your army and run them forward. Don't worry about being charged: these guys are bait. Take the aforementioned Halberd Warriors and destroy whatever dumbass takes that bait.
  • Something must have changed since Chaos Warriors are taken in increments of 5 now. So feel free to take 5 just for a battleline tax if you want. Also, remember this isn't WFB anymore, Chaos Warriors are surprising...not as punchy as you may remember. All 4 Chaos Powers have Battleline that is more offense (in Tzeentch's case, Tzaangors). Taking 20 Halberd Warriors sounds and looks cool, but in reality, you'll be doing far fewer wounds than you think they would do (and pointwise 20 Tzaangors are cheaper and more offensive). Just take 10 with hand weapons and shields as an anvil.
  • As of the new Slaves to Darkness battletome, these guys have had a few buffs - the halberds and hand weapons have a better hit and wound scores respectively, paired weapons may now re-roll hit rolls and the save bonus is now also any roll and triggers at 10+ - so some pretty good improvements. Especially as the re-rolls are not limited to failed rolls, so avoids the whole 'modifiers come after re-rolls' issue. Debatably more reliable damage than Tzaangor as they don't rely on their numbers or nearby heroes

• Marauders: (Mortal STD, Min20, Max:40 150pts.) Our favorite Vikings are back and bringing the pain to bear! They did not get a model update, which they sorely need in comparison to the new models being released. I for one will be using Warcry models and kitbashing them to represent Marauders. But down to brass tacks, they boast an average stat line that is bolstered by numbers. 10 or more and your get +1 to hit, 20 or more you get +1 to Rend. But the most important ability boost they got is their charge ability. They can change the lower die on a charge roll to a 6 automatically. Add in a drummer and you'll be making a minimum 8" charge every time.

Beasts Of Chaos

must be included in a Phantasmagoria of Fate battalion

• Ungors: (Min10 Max:40 60/200pts) beastmen Marauders. Not strong but you can take swarms of them and they are able to cross a lot of ground.

• Gors: (Min10 Max:30 70/200pts) A step above Ungors. while Ungors are only effective in backs, you can conformably take smaller units of Gors.

Others

Daemon

• Exalted Flamers: (Daemon 100pts 12 Fate Points) A leader of the Flamers, being a Fusion two normal Flamers into one model with double the attacks, wounds and rend on their Warpflame attacks. he Also provides +1 to hit for other Flamers, often letting them hit on 2s. In tighter points games he has better value when you saving 50 points for 2 models worth and require fewer Fate Points to summon (could appear by round 2 with your own casting while Flamers could show at soonest by round 3).

Arcanite

• Tzaangor Enlightened: (BoC Min:3 Max9 100pts) Elite Tzaangors. They hit hard and get better when a Tzaangor Shaman is nearby. Other than that, they have a beautiful psychological tool in the Guided by the Past ability, which grants them full rerolls To Hit and Wound if an enemy unit within 3" has already attacked this turn. This puts your opponent into an unpleasant situation: Either attack them first and give the survivors powerful rerolls or let them attack first and pray he'll still have models left once they're done. You use the Foot variant if your saving points.

• Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc: (BoC Min:3 Max9 180pts) The better Enlightened the most people use. All your Enlightened gain 16" Fly Move, extra Wound and a massively scary melee profile on top of their own massively scary melee profile (both affected by Guided by the Past). Now Enlightened and Shaman can move at full speed

• Tzaangor Skyfires: (BoC, Min:3 Max9 200pts) Ranged Elite Tzaangors. These fellows are the unholy cross between a Tzaangor Enlightened, a Kurnoth Hunter and a Warplock Jezzail (guess who did what, I don't wanna imagine that scene). in addition to having a serviceably daunting melee stats, Skyfires have the obscene 16" Movement of the Enlightened, the 24" range of the Kurnoth Hunters and unmodified 6 To Hit rolls immediately deal d3 Mortal Wounds instead. This is even stronger considering that close proximity to a Tzaangor Shaman grants them +1 To Hit, and the leader already has an additional +1, making still be dangerous even if 6s are not rolled. Expect to see at least one unit of 6 in every competitive list.

• Eyes of the Nine: A mixed unit of 4 models including two named kairic acolytes, a named tzaangor wielding a savage greatblade and a blue horror. Must be taken alongside Vortemis the All-Seeing.

Mortal

• Chaos Chosen: (STD Min5, Max:20, 140pts.) Warriors with +1 Ld and armed with Great Weapons, which is basically a Protector's Halberd without the cool special rules. What's so special about Chosen, then? If they kill at least one model in combat, all other Slaves to Darkness re-roll To Wound until the end of the phase. This is pretty devastating and nowhere does it say that multiple Chosen squads can't affect each other with this. So a good way to look at Chosen is as a potential buffing unit with high damage potential. Don't compare them to Paladins as they really don't like that. Get them into the thick of things and start killing to buff everyone up.

• Chaos Chariots: (STD Min1, Max:3 120pts.) Our favorite Shock and Awe Chariot got the Ogor Charge rule, big win. And while they seem to want to be taken in units of 1 to maximize the number of exalted upgrades you can take, an argument can be made to take a unit of 2-3. A Chaos Lord on Karkadrak (or demonic mount) with an Undivided Mark will give them an immunity to Battleshock (while wholly within 12") and the Chaos Lord's command ability will affect more than 1 chariot. This will maximize the hurt dealt when they charge. The Chariot's innate ability to run and charge once per game will only maximize this benefit and possibly ensure a turn 1 charge. A 12" move, plus a run, plus a re-rollable charge will catch many an unwary opponent off-guard.

• Gorebeast Chariots: (STD 150pts) Don't get the same movement rule as the normal Chaos Chariots but they have the absolutely devastating Gorebeast to make up for it. The beast is just that in combat and also grants you the nice rule the Skullcrushers get where you can potentially inflict Mortal Wounds on whatever you charge in the Charge Phase. How you can use that last fact to your advantage, well... coughBloabRotspawnedcough.

• Chaos Knights: (STD Min5, Max:20, 180pts.) Chaos Warriors on pretty good horses. They aren't the bullshit they used to be, but they are still strong. They can either have the same weapon as a Warrior but with three attacks or they can take Glaives, which are exactly like a Liberator with a Warhammer but gain a bonus to Rend and Damage if they charge.

• Chaos Marauder Horsemen: (STD Min5, Max:30 90pts.) Marauders on horseback. They are in almost every way normal Marauders on mediocre horses. However, they can still take Javelins, which beat every other weapon the guys can have by simple virtue of being a missile weapon in addition to a close combat weapon. Considering this is an army that can be at a desperate lacking in ranged weaponry, it can be a good rule-of-thumb to include a few goods ranged harassers. Feigned Charge allows for Mongolian-style hit and run tactics, as it allows the Marauders to shoot and charge even if they retreated. Meaning these guys can run circles around slower moving units while they gradually shoot them down before multi-charging them to death.

• Varanguard: (STD Min:3, Max:12, 300pts) Supper Warriors lent out by Archaon. They are giant chaos knights with 5 wounds 3+ armour and ignore magic on a 5+, able to Fight twice once per game and get +1 to hit if you have Archaon. Each model can be armour with an Ensorcelled Weapon for consistency, Fellspear to overcome bigger Armour saves, or Daemonforged Blade can more inflict Damage and MW with good RNG.

• Chaos Spawn: (STD Min:1 Max:6 50pts.) That Which Must Not Be Named. Not actually terrible anymore, though far from reliable. A Move of 2D6" makes for potentially fast movement. Similarly, 2D6 attacks per Spawn is potentially strong, but even better is the special rule these attacks come with: If you roll a Double, instead of Hitting and Wounding on 4+, you Hit and Wound on 3+. Just think about it, 12 attacks apiece with good Hit and Wound rolls... Also, five Wounds with a 5+ save to make for pretty hardy models.
  • Tzeentch has many ways to summon them for free, Either to replace specific Heros that die or right into enemy lines, stopping them from shooting and charging your wizards.

Beasts Of Chaos

must be included in a Phantasmagoria of Fate battalion

• Bestigors: (Min10 Max:30 120/300pts) A step above Gors but below Tzaangors. They do have Rending attacks over Tzaangors. If you can stack all their bonuses you can get up to the Tzaangors killing power.

• Bullgors: (Min3 Max:12 140pts) Get the same Bloodgreed rule as the Doombull, а weapon choice of great axes (2x 4+/3+/-2/3) or axe(s)(3x 4+/3+/-1/2) with the option of an additional axe to reroll hit rolls of 1, or bull shields which add +1 to the save rolls against attacks from melee weapons. These options are in addition to horn attacks made by each bullgor (2x 4+/4+/-/1). But the really interesting trait is their Drummer and Banner Bearer abilities: namely, they give +1 respectively to charge rolls and Bravery for each enemy unit within 12" from them. If you want to go full Warherd, take one unit of each and see which ones perform best, but if you take only one unit of them and a Doombull, you're going to want great axes.
  • Arguably the dual axes may be the better option for a higher chance of mortal wounds with the additional attack and rerolling 1's to hit. The loss of rend isn't that big of a deal as we have many ways of reducing saves already.
  • Other than that, they're fast, have more raw, balls-out power than almost anything in the game and have lots of Wounds. The high Wound-count combined with the meh Save also means that targeting them with Mortal Wounds will almost feel like a waste to your opponent, which might keep them safe longer.

• Dragon Ogors: (Min3 Max:12 140pts) Five Wounds with a 4+ save, okay Bravery and scary weapons. Each has what is basically a Chaos Knight's horse bolted to it and in addition fights with a big weapon. You get either Ancient Weapons which are three Double-Hammer Liberators in one, Glaives which exchange 2 attacks with 1 more inch of range and a Rend of -1, or Crushers which only have 3 attacks, but with 2 damage each. Re-roll hit rolls of 1 if wholly within 12" of a Shaggoth.
  • Glaives have an interesting use in that you can hide your dragon ogors behind your 25mm/32mm based guys (just in case may want 2 ranks of 25mm bases to have maximum distance). Enemies with 1" weapons won't be able to touch your DO, while the glaives let your DO wack enemies (though you do lose your claw attacks).

• Ungor Raiders: (Min:10 Max40 80pts) Same as Ungors, but with bows instead of shields and a basic scouting rule. Don't think their bows are good, by the way, but the mass of shots really helps. Don't underestimate 30-40 strong ungor raider units. They can output a surprising amount of dakka (for Beasts anyways, they're not crossbow freeguild!). in a melee-centric and focused faction that can quickly get into melee, missiles will be taken out of you horde budget, can damage distant enemies while holding objectives.

• Centigors: (Min:5 Max20 80pts) Light Brayherd cavalry unit that can Run and Charge. Fairly useless as the other player can lay down even light fire and wipe them out. Their good to at moving across the board, harassing, tieing down or grabbing an objective but not much else. Each turn you can decide to have them get drunk on beast piss to add +1 to their hit rolls but at the cost of your opponent getting +1 on them.

• Tuskgor Chariots: (Min:1 Max4 60/200pts) It's a chariot. Aside from the fact that the model is painfully showing its age, it's actually damn good. Lots of Wounds, good Save, tons of attacks that are great on the charge and okay normally. Play three of them and make sure they have a Bray Shaman close to them in your first movement phase. Like Bestigors, its Despoiler Axe can re-roll 1s against Order units and add 1 to hit rolls if the unit has 10 or more units. Fill your army with chariots! they are one of the best beast units! If you don't like the Tuskgors, simply build your own chariots from Gors, Warhounds and assorted wood splinters.

Behemoths

• Chaos Warshrine: (Totem, Priest, Behemoth, 170pts.) What it does is pretty cool, too. First, it has an Aura that grants Mortal Slaves to Darkness an additional 6+ save after their normal save. It Can also pray for buffs to Mortal STD units. There is one buff for Undivided and every God. The Undivided buff is the best by default, granting rerolls of To Hit and To Wound. However, the God-specific buffs can be cast on whatever you want, but get better if you cast it on a unit of the same God. The favor of Tzeentch let your reroll saves and ignore magic on a 4+. And yes, this does mean a Shrine can bless units of rival Gods, just for shits and giggles. Also of note is the fact that this thing can easily hold its own in combat with a monster-like profile and a bunch of strong attacks. Awful Rend, yes, but they plow through low armour tarpits like nobody's business. The model is a Priest and can cast Khorne prayers inaction to its own.

• Soul Grinder:(Daemon, Behemoth, 210pts) Ever wanted a beast that can throw ranged shots AND be great in melee? This daemon might be for you. Same price as a Daemon Prince but with less special abilities. It makes up for it by giving you a boatload of attacks for very good damage. Two ranged attack profiles, one at 20" and six at 16", the 20" does flat 3 damage the rest do 1 damage. CC has six attacks for 1 damage each, 1 attack -2 Rend for D6 damage, and either: two attacks -2 Rend flat 3 damage, OR 4 attacks -1 Rend D3 damage. Big, ugly, and killy, he fills the hammer role. The biggest downside for it is the mostly 4+ to hit. And since it is a Daemon, it can't benefit from CSL Demonic Power spell or the Warshrine. But at 16 wounds and a 4+ save, you can probably find a spot in the army.

• Mutalith Vortex Beast: (Monster, Behemoth, 170pts) A regenerating monster with many attacks. other monsters hit harder but it provides a random debuff to one enemy each of your hero phases. They may permanently lower Bravery or Slow, inflict MWs or make a Chaos spawn if it kills with an MW.

• Chaos War Mammoth: (Monster, Behemoth, 320pts) (Monster, Behemoth, 320pts) This monster has 22 wounds! Although it's only packing a 5+ save. All of his attacks cause at least D3 wounds, making it an exceptional monster-killer when at full strength as well as imposing -2 to any Battleshock tests to any unfortunate unit that gets charged. Wounding and even killing this thing just makes it cause more damage. If you're playing with a big Chaos horde then there's no finer feeling than running this guy into the enemy's biggest and toughest-looking infantry blob, although expect a few dirty looks for doing so. Keep in mind that he doesn't like magic missiles or war machine fire, however.

• Gigantic Chaos Spawn: A strong but unreliable monster burdened with random movement, random attacks, and regeneration. He can put out a fair amount of damage with a mix of its tongues and maws, and has 12 wounds and has a good chance to regenerate and possibly gain more wounds each turn. It's worth remembering that he can be given any Chaos God as a keyword, which opens up amusing possibilities like running a Khornate Spawn alongside a Bloodsecrator.

Beasts Of Chaos

must be included in a Phantasmagoria of Fate battalion

• Cygor: (140pts) Can unbind two spells in each Hero Phase: If he manages to do it, he deals a mortal wound to the caster healing a wound for himself. He can also reroll hit rolls when attacking wizards, which he really really needs, having Hit rolls of 4+ across the board. Two of them can add some okay shooting, but the fact that the damage table influences his range makes him unreliable at best.

• Ghorgon: (160pts) Same Blood Frenzy as Doombull and Bullgors, but deals d3 mortal wounds on an unmodified 6. Also, he can slay a specific model within 1" after he makes all his attack if he rolls a dice equal or greater than its wounds characteristic, do remember that it's a model so you can chomp on any leader or musician you can get your grubby hands on. This thing is your sledgehammer, with insanely strong attacks, but very slow for a monster. If you manage the charge and a Doombull is nearby, this thing can rip apart whole units, otherwise, it will stop cannonballs with its face for two turns and then die.

Normal Battalions

Aether-Eater Host

(140 pts, Min: -pts Max:) 1 Herald of Tzeentch on Burning Chariot and 3+ (in any combination of) The Blue Scribes, Herald on Burning Chariot, Herald on Disc, or Screamers

Whenever a model in this battalion unbinds a spell, that model heals D3 Wounds and as long as there are 9+ units in the Battalion, your Screamers can unbind one spell a turn. Let's be honest here, unless you're running some gimmick list or are trying to make your 40k Screamerstar work in AoS, this Battalion will never have 9+ units, so basically you only get healing whenever one of your Wizards unbinds, which is still pretty cool. Can help a Chariot Herald survive for longer.

Alter-Kin Coven

(140 pts; Min: - pts; Max - pts) 1 unit of Kairic Acolytes, 1 unit of Tzaangors and 1 unit of Tzaangor Skyfires

A unit of Kairic Acolytes, a unit of Tzaangors and a unit of Tzaangor Skyfires get an aura of mutation that works basically like Nurgle's Rot but every model killed lets you add a Tzaangor to a nearby unit. Not too shabby. An inexpensive Battalion with a decent bonus and no dead weight at all. Not bad, but not great. Let's be honest here, you take this because you want to turn it into a Cult of the Transient Form later. No shame in admitting that.

Arcanite Cabal

(140 pts; Min - pts; Max - pts) 3-9 Magisters, Fatemasters or Tzaangor Shamans, in any combination.

If you use Destiny Dice for models of this Battalion, you have a 50% chance of recycling the Dice and if they stick close to each other, they can cast an additional spell in each friendly Hero Phase. What is interesting about this is that the Fatemaster isn't a Wizard, but the wording reads as though he gets a spell as well... Either way, the Magisters and the Shamans really love both of these abilities. The Magister gets more chances of rolling doubles and casting EVEN more and the Tzaangor Shaman has a wonderful opportunity to make the most out of his one-use ability.

A fun thing you can do here is use two matching destiny dice on your magister to guarantee an additional spell casting and potentially get them both back. If you have him cast Glimpse of Fate with double fours, you statistically break even on destiny dice, while gaining fate points and getting more chances of 1s or 6s on your DD. Repeat until you are out of spells to cast, which could be a while thanks to realm and endless spells.

Changehost

(180 pts; Min: - pts; Max:) 1 Lord of Change and 8 (In any combination of) HORROR HERO, Exalted Flamer, Horrors of Tzeench, Flamers, Screamers, or Burning Chariots

At the start of each of your hero phases, as long as the Lord of Change is alive, you can redeploy 2 units anywhere more than 9" from enemy models. They can't move in the following movement phase. This can be fairly nasty, but you need to use it correctly. For example, plonk a unit of hard-to-kill Horrors in front of the unit that was just busy cutting your Flamers apart. Or bait a monster into attacking your Horrors, then switch them out for Screamers with their bonus against monsters. There are lots of possibilities, but you need to think these situations out beforehand, as it's a huge-ass Battalion and it's only worth its cost of entry if you know how to make use of it.

Multitudinous Host

(160 pts; min- pts; Max:-) 1 Changecaster and 8 Horrors

In every friendly Hero Phase, you return D3 slain models to each Horror unit. And no, the Herald's position or surviving is not a condition for this. Hoo boy, you could end up with a hell of a lot of Horrors with this. You need big units to take advantage of it.

Overseer's Fate-Twisters

(160 pts; Min - pts; Max: -) 1 Lord of Change and 8+ (in any combination of) HORROR HERO, Exalted Flamer, or Burning Chariots

Oh. Oh, my. If this weren't so insanely big and expensive, it'd be absolutely mandatory. As it is, it won't see much use. Combined with the Battalion cost, you're looking at 1240 points bare minimum, though the benefits speak for themselves: First, every Hero Phase, you get another Destiny Die. Second, you get to re-roll one Destiny Die every Hero Phase. Third, and this is the Cheddar, so long as there are 9+ models in the Battalion, you can wait until after you've made a roll before you decide to sub Destiny Dice in. This not only lowers your consumption of Destiny Dice drastically, but it's also a wonderful psychological tool that lets the opponent know you have almost complete control over your dice rolls and puts you at ease as you have almost complete control over your dice rolls.

Omniscient Oracles

(160 pts; Min: pts; Max:) Kairos Fateweaver and 3 Lords of Change

Really, really not worth the price of admission. You get to re-roll all 1s on Hit, Wound, Save, Run and Charge rolls. Now, to be honest, this is a massive fucking load of bullshit. It's Daemonic Power on steroids for four powerful Behemoths. Never mind that they can still take unique spells, gear and magical gear on top of this. On the other hand, even in a 2500 point game, you just spent well over half your points on four models. Never mind all the cash you'd have to throw down for this...

Skyshoal Coven

(140 pts; Min - pts; Max - pts) 1 unit of Tzaangor Enlightened (Must be on discs) and 2 units of Tzaangor Skyfires

Units in this battalion get to move 9" in every friendly Hero Phase and have a tiny chance of inflicting Mortal Wounds on stuff they flew over, just like Screamers. This is a bit unnecessary, as these models are all excessively fast already and, more importantly, the Skyfires will never want to be in a situation where they want to do this fly-by attack.

Alternate Opinion: This is absolutely amazing for Skyfires. If your enemy gets close, you just zoom away with your Hero Phase move, keep going in your Movement Phase, and keep your target at just inside max range. Never will an enemy get close enough to charge.

Another Alternate opinion this is amazing for all models because you can get easy turn 1 alpha strike charges

Tzaangor Coven

(180 pts; Min - pts; Max - pts) 1 unit of Tzaangors, 1 unit of Tzaangor Skyfires and 1 unit of Tzaangor Enlightened

All units in this battalion have their beaks Wound on 4+, which is pretty nice. In addition, the plain Tzaangors get bonuses if the others stick close. If at least one sticks close, the vanilla ones get to pile and an attack in your Hero Phases. If both are close, they also get yet another +1 To Wound. If you like Tzaangors, and let's be honest, of course, you do, why else would you play Arcanites, then this one is damn good. Having a unit of Tzaangors buffed by all this and with a Tzaangor Shaman nearby is pretty horrifying.

Warpflame Host

(140 pts) (Min 500 pts) An Exalted Flamer, 3-5 (in any combination) of Exalted Flamers, Flamers or Burning Chariots

• at start of charge phase, on a roll of 6 for each enemy within 9" of this battalion takes D3 MW.

Together, they have a small chance of dealing additional Mortal Wounds in the Hero Phase, similar to Nurgle's Rot. Not really that good, as all the models are already plenty killy, don't want enemies anywhere near that close to them and the chance of triggering damage at all is fairly low. You really only take this because it's a requirement for The Eternal Conflagration.

Witchfyre Coven

(160 pts; Min - pts; Max - pts) Two units of Kairic Acolytes and a unit of Tzaangor Enlightened.

This nets you the ability to shoot your Sorcerous Bolts in the Hero Phase as well as in the Shooting Phase. This has a lot of uses, most of it boiling down to "more dakka". This is one of the requirements for a Pyrofane Cult and boy does that ever enhance those Acolytes further. If you want to get this as cheap as possible, remember to leave your Enlightened on foot so you save 40 points.

Phantasmagoria of Fate

(200 pts) (Min: 470 pts; Max: 11400 pts) 1-4 combination of any Beast of Chaos Hero; 3-9 combination of Bestigors, Gors, Tzaangors, Ungors, Ungor Raiders; 0-9 combination of Bullgors, Centigors, Dragon Ogors, Tzaangor Enlightened, Tzaangor Skyfires, Tuskgor Chariots; 0-2 combination of Cygors or Ghorgons.

From the Beasts of Chaos Battletome but since it gives all units the TZEENTCH keyword you can use it. Non-wizards in the battalion can unbind spells within 9" as if they were wizards. Might just as well use only Tzaangors. Also grants you access to a larger selection of beastmen not traditionally found in Tzeentch Rosters if you want to go heavier in melee.

Daemon Cohort of Tzeentch

(Open Play Only) Could be fairly nasty if you play fair. Extra spells means you could reliably be casting Arcane Bolt and Mystic Shield with every unit (including your Horrors) every turn. Having most of your army with +1 saves while throwing multiple sets of D3 mortal wounds across the field, plus normal shooting, could be nasty. You'll probably want to borrow some speed bumps from somewhere to keep enemy units at arm's length. Lord of Change probably best for his command ability giving a bonus to cast. And all of this is not taking into account the fact that you could use summoning magic with all your casting attempts. As of 2.0 this battalion has no point cost and can only be used in open play.

Super Battalions

The Eternal Conflagration

(110 pts) (min 1190 pts) This is one of those big Battalions we've been seeing since the Sylvaneth. To start out, you need a Lord of Change and a Warpflame Host (the one with all the Flamers), but with at least 6 units in it. In exchange, the opponent takes a To Hit penalty against all your Flamers and Exalted Flamers, which is excellent as it keeps your glass cannons safe that much longer, and your Lord of Change gets to use Flamers as spell conduits in much the same way that Slann can use Skink Heroes With latest errata only Mystic Shield and Arcane Bolt may be cast through keyword Flamer. The main problem with this is a) you look like a dick if you play nothing but Flamers and some token Battleline and b) you will have a 2000 point army of less than 50 models.

The Host Duplicitous

(110 pts) (min 1830 pts) The other big Battalion for the Daemons. This one needs a Lord of Change and a Changehost to start out with, with the added requirement of the Changehost having at least 3 HORROR HEROES. And yes, that means you need two Lords of Change to start this pain train. For this, all dice on casting rolls that show a 1 are counted as 2s. This makes your casters that much better, especially the two Lords of Change, but the Heralds are going to like it, too. The more fun part is the Flickering Mirage spell the Battalion gives your casters. You pick an enemy unit. Until your next Hero Phase, all their successful Hit Rolls fail, and all their failed Hit Rolls succeed. WAT. Depending on how this interacts with exploding 6+s and the like, this is the best de-buff in the damn game. And this cements the Battalion's role: You take The Host Duplicitous to fuck with people. Between the Changehost's base rules and that bullshit spell, matches against this Battalion will leave your opponent with less hair than before, some of it turned grey. No unit ever stays where it's supposed to, every turn your whole army switches around, and his deathstar with the re-rollable 2+ Hit rolls can't hit for shit anymore.

Arcanite Cult

(120 pts) (min 1800 pts; max 18,190 pts) Like with the Sylvaneth, this super Battalion is the blueprint. It has the most rigid structure and the fewest bonuses. Avoid at all cost. The other two Arcanite super Battalions are literally this one, but tricked out and with more choice. Either way, to start, you need an Arcanite Cabal, then 3-9 of the other Arcanite Battalions and then you can take up to one Curseling, Ogroid and Gaunt Summoner each. For that, you get +1 Bravery on everything (don't scoff, your Tzaangors and Acolytes have horrible Bravery) and you get to choose three of your Destiny Dice rather than rolling them at the start of the game.

Cult of the Transient Form

(100 pts) (min 1410 pts) You need at least an Arcanite Cabal and an Alter-Kin Coven to start out with, with the Alter-Kin Coven's Tzaangor unit being 20+ strong. For that you get a chance of Kairic Acolytes turning into Tzaangors when they die (great as those Tzaangors can reinforce other Tzaangor units) and Heroes have a chance of turning into Chaos Sp--- those (not so great as you have to reserve points for that, then again, if you're playing a Magister, you've likely reserved points for a Spa-- thingie or two anyway) Thanks to AoS 2.0, units summoned by spells and abilities are now free. If you add at least two more Coven Battalions (see above), you also get the generic Arcanite Cult rules on top.

The Pyrofane Cult

(140 pts) (1200 min pts) To start this, you need an Arcanite Cabal and a Witchfyre Coven in which both Kairic Acolyte squads are 20+ strong. For this, first your Wizards get a new spell that is basically an Arcane Bolt that has a decent chance of jumping to other nearby enemy units. Decent, but not amazing. Also, for every unit from the Battalion that shot at an enemy unit, every subsequent unit of Kairic Acolytes gets +1 To Wound when shooting at the same unit. So basically, you let a Magister shoot an enemy unit with his staff and then have a unit of Kairic Acolytes shoot at the same unit, then those Wound on 3+. Unfortunately, the Magister's ranged attack is worded differently than the Kairics', so he can't trigger the buff. If, after that, you shoot the same unit with yet another unit of Kairic Acolytes, they Wound on 2+. The really fun part is that, thanks to the wording, you also get this bonus when using the Witchfyre Coven's rule to shoot in the Hero Phase.

Army Building

1000 pt.

Here the core tax is 1 Leader and 2 Battleline units.

Your basic choices here are to focus either on Daemons, Tzaangor, Mortals or a combination thereof. A Lord of Change is probably overkill, and an Ogroid and another support mage working in tandem will likely serve you better. Taking Kairic Acolytes over Pink Horrors is seldom a good idea unless you have a specific Battalion in mind. Also, do not be too proud to look into the Slaves to Darkness. The Chaos Sorcerer Lord provides wonderful support, and Chaos Warriors provide a hardy Battleline choice. Avoid Chosen and Chaos Knights, though, as your Tzaangor Enlightened leave them in the dust regarding mobility and damage output. Also, hands off those Flamers. A single unit is already 20% of your points budget. They are massively scary, but once the opponent has a target lock on their asses, you'll lose a huge part of your army.

Another possibility is to buy a Start Collecting: Slaves to Darkness box. Since all those Mortals can elect to take the TZEENTCH keyword, they are entirely compatible with your allegiance, though not with your Battalions. The Chaos Warriors give you some more survivable Battlelines, the Knights and the Chariot give you a nice balance of beefy and fast and the Chaos Sorcerer Lord is just flat-out better than your Magister.

Yet another option is to pick one of the Battalions from the Battletome and build your army around it. A Changehost can complement just about any Tzeentch Daemons and provides a fun bonus for example. Ideally, for this you want to pick a Battalion you can expand upon when taking the hurdle to 2000 points.

An example Arcanite list could be:

• Tzaangor Shaman (General)
• Ogroid Thaumaturge
• 10 Tzaangors (Battleline)
• 10 Kairic Acolytes (Battleline)
• 3 Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc
• 3 Tzaangor Skyfires

Now that Generals Handbook 2.0 has dropped Acolytes got cheaper and all Tzeentch wizards and Skyfires got pricier. The Tzaangor coven battalion is now a no go as it's also more expensive to take. The above list gives you dead on 1000 is 950 points (following drop in points in GHB2019) and with a squishy force like the Arcanites it's probably better to prioritize bodies over trying to fit a battalion in. You could also remove the Tzaangors and Enlightened and replace them with another unit of Skyfires and Acolytes and have 40 points left for an endless spell, but this leaves you without any melee units.

2000 pt.

Here the core tax is 1 Leader and 3 Battleline units.

Example list with 0 Battalions but could still be pretty fun. Decided on a Balewind Vortex for the Curseling to really annoy other magic users with crazy reliable unbinding and spell stealing ability 48" range on glean magic sounds pretty fun. Comes to 1980 points.

Heroes

• Lord of Change
• Tzaangor Shaman
• Ogroid Thuamaturge
• Curseling, Eye of Tzeentch

Battleline

• 20 Tzaangors
• 10 Kairic Acolytes
• 10 Kairic Acolytes

Other Units

• 3 Tzaangor Skyfires
• 3 Tzaangor Skyfires
• 3 Tzaangor Enlightened

Scenery

• Balewind Vortex

2500 pt.

Here the core tax is 1 Leader and 4 Battleline units.

Tactics

Magic

The rule of one can be quite detrimental to Tzeentch. Many of your wizards are able to cast multiple spells a turn, and some of them don't even have their own warscroll spell. Make sure to diversify the Lore spells you take with them so you don't have wizards standing around not having anything to cast. Taking one or two endless spells helps with this issue as well.

Allied Armies

• Slaves to Darkness:

Mercenary Companies

• Blacksmoke Battery: Chaos Dorfs with artillery but not really Chaos Dorfs.

• Greyfyrd: Very durable, something your units are not. The issue is that from the 3rd round onwards, they'll start to (rightfully) suspect they're being played.

• Grugg Brothers: Glass cannon monsters, but they probably won't be enough to fool your opponent into thinking they're a juicier target than your Lord of Change.

• Gutstuffers: These fat bois are good shock units, but are hindered by having to take a Firebelly.

• Nimyard’s Rough-Riders: Otflanking trickery pleases Tzeentch.

• Order of the Blood-Drenched Rose: If for some reason you want elite cavalry. But you're Chaos, you can ally Everchosen Varanguard.

• Rampagers: A high speed menace that can reach your opponent's lines in one or two turns.

• Skroug’s Menagerie: The most versatile company due to it's variety of units.

• Sons of the Lichemaster: Quite mediocre, and don't provide something you don't have already.

• Tenebrous Court: Tarpits & heavy hitters.

Age of Sigmar Tactics Articles
General Tactics	Tactics Realm Of Battle Malign Sorcery Path to Glory Skirmish
Order	Cities of Sigmar Daughters of Khaine Fyreslayers Idoneth Deepkin Kharadron Overlords Lumineth Realm-Lords Seraphon Stormcast Eternals Sylvaneth
Chaos	Beasts Of Chaos Blades of Khorne Disciples of Tzeentch Hedonites of Slaanesh Maggotkin of Nurgle Skaven Slaves to Darkness
Death	Flesh-Eater Courts Nighthaunt Ossiarch Bonereapers Soulblight Gravelords
Destruction	Gloomspite Gitz Ogor Mawtribes Orruk Warclans Sons of Behemat
Others	Monstrous Arcanum Legends Old Rules