Goonhammer Reviews: Disciples of Tzeentch Fourth Edition Battletome

As always we’d like to thank Games Workshop for providing us with a review copy of the Battletome. We have also been provided with a provisional Battle Profile list for the army to use when writing the review, but please note that these points are subject to change until they are published on Warhammer Community.

We have once again been fortunate enough to be given yet another boon from the Realm of Chaos– and this time it’s from everyone’s favorite Changer of Ways, the Disciples of Tzeentch Battletome! This book comes with a massive overhaul of new tricks and shenanigans for all you Tzeentchy freaks out there that just love to do as many mind bending activities as possible on the table.

Credit: Liebot - https://instagram.com/liebot_pics

Battle Traits

You’ll see that pretty much everything about this Battletome has completely changed, just as Tzeentch intended. This doesn’t mean that the identity of the book has been lost, in fact, these new rules probably have the most spirit and flavor of any Battletome to come out so far. To start off…

No more Destiny Dice.

Yup! Now you will be accumulating fate points. Throughout the game, the Tzeentch player will gain a fate point whenever the following occur:

You lose a priority roll.
A friendly DoT unit attempts to cast a spell, and is unbound.
A friendly DoT unit miscasts.
Your opponent takes control of an objective from you that you controlled at the beginning of the turn.
When one of your Washington Monument lookin ass tower things get destroyed. (More to be explained below!)

These fate points can then be used for a couple of things, such as ‘blanking’ points of damage before it’s allocated and adding pluses to cast and to charge! You can use multiple fate points at a time, so if you want you can use there fate points to give +3 to charge. There are some other ways to gain and use fate points amongst some of the warscrolls, so if this is a mechanic you want to lean on, there are ways to do it! Otherwise, it’s a useful thing to have in your back pocket as your games go on.

The other battle traits involve units masked by illusion. In the deployment phase, after all of your units have been put on the battlefield, you can remove up to 3 non-Monster DoT units to put them in reserve, masked by illusion. Then, once per turn in any hero phase, you can set up one of these units wholly within 6” of another non-Monster DoT unit that is on the battlefield that isn’t in combat, and then throw that unit into illusion town. This switcheroo is insane, hilarious, flavorful, and a great catalyst for big brain plays during your games.

Battle Formations

Fated Blades is your forehead to the floor, I’m gonna kill you the best I can battle formation. If a charge roll is made with higher than a 9+, add 1 to the attacks characteristic of the unit’s melee weapons. With the access to give Arcanite units Crit Mortals, additional attacks, and using fate dice to improve charges, there could be some real juice for this one.

Malevolent Schemers allows you to pick a unit (friend or foe) at the start of any turn, and if that unit gets destroyed this turn, you gain a fate point. If the fate point engine is something you’re building for, this is probably the battle formation you’re picking. With plenty of cheap unit options as well as opportunities for recursion, there is plenty of chaff to throw into the fate point farm.

Denizens of the Silver Towers gives you a fate point on a 4+ every time you spend one or more fate points on a fate point ability, or when you remove 1 or more damage using a fate ability. This is probably the weakest of the battle formations to choose from, as you’re relying on a 4+s for this to happen. I think the other three battle formations are more reliable, and this one is pretty easily forgettable. I’m more than happy to be wrong and see some insane coin flipping fate tomfoolery doing some crazy stuff on the table though!

Mutant and Mad Things maximizes the effectiveness of your units that are masked by illusion. In your movement phase, you can set up a unit that you have in reserve wholly within 6’ of a board edge and 9’ away from your opponents units. This is great for making sure you can be everywhere at all times, making scoring and harassing your opponents side of the board much easier.

Ogroid Myrmidon. Credit: SRM

Heroic Traits

First off is the Silver Summoner trait, giving the hero equipped with it the ability to bring back half of a dead non-Warflock Arcanite unit during your movement phase for 1 cp. Perfect to bring back your cheapo Karic Acolyte units so you can keep swapping out the homies that are masked by illusion, or you can do whatever other recursive activities you feel like taking part in. Next is the Grand Illusionist, allowing the bearer to move D3” if it was set up that turn, in the hero phase. Great for someone like Mr. Thaumaturge when swapping him out of illusion and getting him closer to presumably charging something to try and bonk. There aren’t too many other slappy heroes in this book, but I could see this being used with an RoR Daemon Prince possibly. Lastly, Devolving Aura gives you the chance in each hero phase to try and turn an opponent’s unit into a bunch of clueless primates, giving that unit within 12’ a max control score of 1 until the start of your next turn. It’s on a 3+, and isn’t anything realm-shattering, but it could definitely come in clutch in those scrappy moments when fighting over circles with whatever junk you can put together after a bunch of bloody turns.

Artefacts of Power

I think there is some really solid potential to see a lot of variety between which Artefact gets picked amongst the different Tzeentch lists we’ll be seeing. Fate Slicer gives you a fate point if any models were slain by the unit during the turn. Perfect for your SoG Ogroid coming in from the top rope, punching down on your opponents’ trash to farm fate points. Next is Cloaked in Wyrdflame, which gives a -1 to wound to attacks that target the unit. This definitely helps your favorite (one-headed) chicken stay alive longer in the game.

Lastly, the Kairic Tome adds 1 or subtracts 1 from the casting roll of a spell ability for a Tzeentch unit wholly within 6” of this unit. +1 makes sense, but -1? Why would you want to unbind your own spell? Well, the Magisters have the ability to unbind any spell, and as aforementioned, you get a fate point every time a spell is unbound. So this could be a way to give a plus to cast when you need it, or help nudge some more fate points throughout your game if you have some extra casts to spare.

Spell Lores

Throughout time, Disciples of Tzeentch have been one of the hero phase dominators of magic, and I don’t think that notion has changed. Here’s the overview of some of the ammunition you’ll be bringing for your wizards to throw at your opponent (mostly).

Lore of Fate

Infernal Gateway is here to stay, but utilizes the fate points mechanic this time. After casting, pick an enemy unit within 18” of the caster, then roll either 5 dice or dice equal to the amount of fate points you have. Every 4+ inflicts a mortal to the target. This is the unlimited spell for this lore, and definitely going to be your main spell for damage dealing in the hero phase if you’re trying to accumulate as many fate points as possible. The other two spells in the Lore of Fate are more defensive, as Wyrdflame Haze creates a 12" "you can’t see me” aura around any units that were set up that turn, and Shield of Fate gives a unit a 5+ ward and -1 to be hit.

Lore of Change

Your wizards got that thang on ‘em -- that thang being Bolt of Tzeentch, an 18” D3 mortal spell that’s unlimited. As the cherry on top, it also subtracts 1 from wound rolls for the unit targeted until your next turn. Fold Reality gives you another interaction with masked by illusion, letting you do another switcheroo between one of your non-monster units and something you have in reserve. The note here states that both parts of the spell are optional – you do not need to put something into reserve, or bring something out, but rather choose one or the other depending on what you want to do. I have a feeling that this, along with the other spicy things you can do with the masked by illusion mechanic will come with some really big brain plays on the table. Lastly, Transformed to Spawn is the same, where you pick an enemy unit within 18”, give them a D3 ouchie, then bring in a Chaos Spawn from reserve into combat with the unit if any models were slain. This remains to be a wonderfully obnoxious thing to countercast in your opponents’ turn, totally foiling most movement-phase based plans of the unfortunate unit that just saw their homie turn into a big scrotum tentacle thing.

Chaos Spawn of Tzeentch. Credit - Instagram: Exitwarp

Endless Spells

Along with the arsenal of spells from the Lores of Fate and Change, Tzeentch still have their little trifecta of Endless Spells. Starting with the Burning Sigil of Tzeentch, this remains as a great buff/debuff piece and gives a massive headache to your opponent. After this guy comes out, you roll 2D6 in any hero phase, and pick one of the results, then apply the corresponding effects to every unit (each condition has a friendly and enemy unit thing) within 9”. On a 2-3, heal your guys D3 and inflict D3 on the bad guys, 4 gives friendly DoT units run and charge, while also tying the shoe laces of enemy units together disabling RUN abilities (that means no redeploy. You ain’t goin nowhere, son!). 5 gives +1 to hit for the Tzeenchy lads while giving the opposition -1 to hit, and a 6 does the same thing for wounding rolls.

The Tome of Eyes is another utility piece, allowing a DoT wizard within 3” to immediately use a spell from either the Lore of Fate or Lore of Change in your hero phase. It is specifically noted that the spell cast this way does not count toward the number of spells the wizard can cast or banish in the phase. This is a great way to dip your toes into a spell you might want to use from the spell lore you didn’t pick during list building, simply giving you even more options to do things in the hero phase.

Lastly, Daemonic Simulacrum is a seemingly unassuming wizard munching fireball, with 2d6 attacks, Anti-Wizard +1 Rend, and Crit Mortals. But if you have a bank of fate points stacked up, this thing gets 2 additional attacks for each fate point you have. You’ve got 10 fate points? Well this fiery little fella is then getting 20 + 2D6 attacks. Spicy!

What’s New?

Everything. Legitimately. I’m tired.

Heroes

Daemons

Your favorite large two-headed adult dad certainly hasn’t gone anywhere. Kairos Fatewater is equipped with many goodies you’ll want to have to aid in your Tzeenchy weirdo plans. He no longer has the battle tactic switching, but rather the Master of Destiny ability, allowing you to make a 2D6 roll a 9, or a D6 roll a 6, for casting, unbinding, banishing, hit, wound, or save. This can be done once a battle round! The use cases here are plenty, and having any ability to force a successful roll for something is surely a strong tool to have. But don’t worry, Kairos still has some appreciation for the classics, as Mastery of Magic still changes his lower rolled dice to match the highest when making a casting roll for him. Beacon of Sorcery adds +1 to cast for DoT wizards wholly within 12”, and also gives a free Magical Intervention if a DoT wizard within 12” unbinds a spell (it still counts as using Magical Intervention). Lastly, Kairos’ warscroll spell is Fateful Reverse, where you pick a unit within 18” and disable Charge +1 Damage abilities, and if the unit charges in the same turn, friendly DoT units get Strike-First against that unit. This is a great Magical Intervention spell that can totally mess with the math your opponent might be trying to do in anticipation for their combat phase.

Along with Daddy Two Heads, is the singularly-craniumed Lord of Change accompanying the chicken gang. He can still bring back half a dead non-hero daemon unit wholly within 12” (outside 9” of enemies) for a CP in your movement phase. Horrors seem like the obvious use for this, but perhaps some Flamer Chariot missile play is in order? Next is the warscroll spell, Temporal Manipulation, picking a friendly DoT unit wholly within 18”, which then gives the target the ability to do a Normal Move as if it were your movement phase, but it must end closer to the LoC. More movement is always good! Lastly is the passive Locus of Impossibility, adding 1 to casting rolls for himself, and -1 to hit for friendly daemons wholly within 12”. This native +1 to cast, plus Kairos’ buff, and the bonus you can get from the Kairic Tome means you can have this brainy bird at +3 to cast! Sounds like fowl play to me.

Tzeentch’s favorite little freak, The Changeling, returns with some different tricks up their sleeve. Puckish Misdirection allows friendly DoT units wholly within 12” to still use the redeploy command even if they were set up in the same turn. Their Arch-Deciever ability is a bit more exciting, allowing The Changeling to cast a spell while being masked by illusion, through any DoT unit that is on the battlefield. Lastly, their warscroll spell is an 18”, 5+ hordebuster. Certainly not an auto include, but I am very curious to see what shenanigans can be created with the Wi-Fi casting through friendly units while off the table.

Next is the Changecaster, your Pink Horror foot hero. Every time a friendly DoT daemon unit makes a rally roll wholly within 12”, add 3 additional dice to the roll. His ability that can be done in your hero phase targets a friendly daemon unit wholly within 12”, on a 3+ (with +1 if the target was set up this turn) disable weapon effects other than companion that target that unit. This ability, in tandem with the plethora of opportunities for -1 to hit and wound throughout the army can make your daemon dudes quite the pain to take off the table for your opponent.

The Changecaster’s cooler, older cousin, who is always going around with his cambered chariot and weird dogs, is the Fateskimmer. This speed racer gives friendly DoT companion units Crit 2 Hits while they are wholly within 12”. More importantly, in any hero phase, you pick a visible DoT unit wholly within 12”, and if that unit is destroyed this turn, you get a fate point. Definitely a must add for any fate point engine!

The Other Guys

The Gaunt Summoner(s) and their tower of silver are still up to mischief in the mortal realms. Both the Summoner on foot and on disc have the same two abilities – enemy units cannot end a charge within ½” of a friendly Argent Shard wholly within 12” of this unit if the shard was setup this turn, and Once Per Battle at the start of any turn, pick an objective you do not control that you had at earlier in the battle, and you now control the target objective. The objective control yoink is some pretty neat tech, as it can force your opponent to have to leave at least something on a far away objective, or even snag an extra fate point by having your opponent gain control back of the objective at the end of the turn. The Gaunt Summoner on foot’s warscroll spell is Leaden Limbs, halving the move characteristic of a unit and removing the ‘Fly’ from a unit within 18”. When this goober is on disc, his spell is Arcane Imprisonment, where if the unmodified casting roll exceeds the target hero’s health characteristic, it is automatically destroyed and cannot be replaced! This spell has to be done while in combat with the target, meaning you need to have your 5+ save 7 wound nerd in combat during a hero phase, but this is definitely something that can make for some exciting moments on the table. The Gaunt Summoner’s are a bit steep on points, but having 2 casts and the objective control manipulation certainly presents an argument.

Credit - bre4d_

It’s the new kid on the block, the Fatemaster. Once per turn in the Enemy Hero Phase, for 2 fate points, you pick a friendly Arcanite unit wholly within 12”. If an enemy unit ends a charge within 3” of the target unit, you can remove the friendly unit and make it masked by illusion. A pretty neat way to keep your speedbumps alive, or maybe a big brick of Tzaangors that you might want to slingshot again later in the battle. His second ability is during your movement phase, where you can set up the Fatemaster and one other unit from illusion town on the board, 9” away, with the other unit being also wholly within 6” of the Fatemaster. Another unit throwing around funky shenanigans to move your units in and out of reserve, also featuring a sneaky 4 attack, hitting on 3s, wounding on 4s, for 2 rend 2 damage attack, so this 150 point nerd also has the potential to oopsie bonk some models in combat.

Magister time! Much like the aforementioned Gaunt Summoners, these blue bing bongs have a frisbee rider version while the other is just hoofing it. They both have Spellmaster, which allows them to unbind one of your own spells, which then gives them plus one to casting rolls for the rest of the phase. At first glance, this seems super goofy, but this can actually really spice up whatever engine or combos you may be trying to get started, as getting a spell unbound gives you a fate point. So if another wizard casts something successfully on a low cast, one of these doofuses can slurp that thang up to then potentially cast another spell later which has the chance to be less unbindable by your opponent, as well as a little fate point cherry on top. The second ability of both Magisters affects the attacks of an Arcanite unit wholly within 12” during the fight phase. Saucer Steve gives friendly Arcanite units +1 attack, as long as you have more than 6 fate points, while Walkin’ Wally picks an Arcanite unit wholly within 12” to have Crit Mortals until the start of your next turn. Definitely great things to have to juice up any of your Tzaangor units you might have attempting to mulch enemy models, but these buffs can also make your Kairic Acolytes kind of scary, as well as juicing up the Ogroid to be even more of a beast. Speaking of Mr. Thaumaturge…

The Blue Bull is back and he really wants to eat your opponents’ Wizards and Priests. His hooves and forehead are 6 attacks, rend 1, and 3 damage on the charge, making him a neat little wizard beatstick. If a spell is attempted by an opponent within 30” of the Ogroid Thaumaturge, it can move up 6” closer to the caster, and can move into combat (it cannot move out of combat if it is already in combat, but it could move into a new combat). Its Arcane Absorption ability allows him to Heal 7 and gain a power level at the end of any turn if it inflicted any wounds to a Wizard or Priest that was destroyed this turn. He only has a 5+ save, but the 6+ ward and the myriad of ways to buff units in this tome, a Smashmaturge may be terrorizing some tables. It’s important to note that while the SoG version of the unit is still playable, this new iteration might not be as viable, but nevertheless another fun and solid pick.

The Curseling, Eye of Tzeentch is another funky foot wizard with some really interesting stuff going on. At a 3+, he’s independently one of the more tanky lads in the book, although he does not have a ward. In any combat phase, if he’s in combat, he gets to use a non-Summon Spell ability as if it was your hero phase and as if that spell had the Unlimited keyword, and as if he didn’t cast any spells this turn. There are a multitude of ways someone can use this, whether it’s debuffing the opponent with a Bolt of Tzeentch, trying to deal some extra damage, or even his warscroll spell. Armour-Bane Curse picks a unit within 12” and subtracts 1 from their save rolls until the start of your next turn. With the generally low access to high rend, this can be a great solution to help with getting through some beefier units, or spreading more minuses to save across your opponent’s army.

Doing the last kickflip of the heroes is the Tzaangor Shaman, who never leaves home without his checkerboard Vans and Baker deck. He uses ‘Blues Bearings’ though…never heard of those. Anyway, in your hero phase, he can pick an Arcanite unit wholly within 12”, and on a 3+ they get Run and Charge. Fantastic for the rest of his Tony Hawk enjoyer friends, giving a potential 20” move then charge for the later mentioned Tzaangor Enlightened, plus possibly anything else you may want to run and charge. This fella knows a thing or two about that dawg the enemy units may have or not have in them, because in the combat phase he can pick an enemy Monster or Cavalry unit to force the Companion ability to apply to all weapons they have for the rest of the turn. As we know, Companion weapons cannot be modified by friendly abilities that help the hit, wound, and weapon characteristics, so this ability absolutely has a use case. I would imagine the Shaman will be picked mostly for the cast, the potential to give run and charge, and that he can move 14” around the board to help with various activities. Or maybe he’ll just do a tre-flip into backside smith on your opponents’ Realmshaper Engine and then perish immediately.

The Rest

Let’s start with the new terrain piece for Disciples of Tzeentch, the Argent Shard. Your first one is set up normally in deployment, then if it is still on the battlefield in any movement phase, you can put your second one wholly within 12” of the first (outside 9 of enemies and more than 3” from objectives and terrain). These then act as a pseudo Spell Portal, enabling one of your casts or unbinds a turn to be through a Shard as if it was the caster casting it. Fantastic for early game chaos spawn annoyances and making sure you’re in range of both friendly and enemy targets.

The rest of the goobers should be familiar faces to all of the Tzeentch-heads out there. The Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch and Burning Chariot of Tzeentch no longer have the hero keyword, meaning you can bring them back to the table if they were destroyed by using the LoC’s ability to replace a daemon unit! The Chariot is a really neat tech piece, using it’s Fiery Death From Above ability in any charge phase to either gain a fate point on a dice roll of 1 on a D3, or deal that many mortals on a 2+ and get to do a full retreat move without dealing damage to yourself. Having a 12” move dude with a movement trick like this can present plenty of opportunities to snag objectives and make plays. When this blue booger is on foot as the Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch, you get to pick 2 Flamers of Tzeentch units to be +1 to wound in the shooting phase, and on a 5+ (adding damage done to the target by this unit this turn to the roll) gives out -1 to save for the rest of the turn. Lastly of the flame squad, the Flamers of Tzeentch remain pretty similar to their last iteration. They still inflict Burning to the unit they damage, and at the end of the turn, roll a 2+ on a D3 to do that amount of mortals to the burning units. This ability triggers on every unit that has Burning, even after the flamers are dead. This is the only unit that still has an interaction with Burning, but definitely still a strong shooter for the army.

Screamers of Tzeentch have a bit of a glow up, having their bites by Charge +1 Damage. Still moving 14”, and being Drawn to Magic, giving them a 3D6 charge into manifestations, these remain to be a really solid mobile scoring unit that can still tussle, or even munch out your opponents’ bozo brigade.

Credit: Darcy Bono

Oh the horror! Everyone’s favorite tarpit, the Pink and Blue Horrors of Tzeentch have a couple of changes to their warscrolls. Pink Horrors now have a 5+ save and Crit Auto-wound on their shooting attacks, but their Lunatic Demise stays the same – either doing a mortal on a 5+ to an enemy unit in combat when a Horror dies, or adding 2 blues to a Blue Horror unit within 12”. Blue Horrors have the same ranged profile as their pink brethren, but their splitting mechanic has once again changed! Now, at the end of any turn, you roll a dice for each Blue Horror model in the unit that’s been slain, and on a 3+ you can add 1 Brimstone Horror to the unit. This makes the splitting a little bit more streamlined, but definitely a bit weaker, as picking up 10 wounds on a 6+ save is pretty easy for most units. What’s nice is that you still get to roll the 3+s on each turn, and even for Blues that were slain in a previous battle round. The Pink Horror combination with some bricks of Blue Horrors remains as a great option to either screen your heroes, hold objectives, or clog up part of the board for your opponent to have to chew through.

Are they birds? Are they goats? One of you nerds probably knows! Tzaangors (feetsies version) stay consistent as the books’ main meaty hammer. At 2 wounds a piece, with 3 attacks each and Crit 2 Hits, these guys can hold themselves decently on their own with just those stats, but involve some more buffs from the Magister bros and they become even more scary. At 170 points for 10 of these clowns, even running them not reinforced could be a good move. If you have a reinforced block and juice ‘em up, they’ll probably kill whatever you launch them at, and with enough debuffs also accessible in the army, they can probably stay a while in combat too. As a little cherry on top, they also get +1 to wound if this unit is wholly within enemy territory. These guys want to get in there and blender it up.

Fitting a bit of a different role in the DoT toolkit is the Tzaangor's taller and more handsome version, the Tzaangor Enlightened. Important to note is that the previous Tzaangor Enlightened and on disc versions have been put into legends, now being combined into this current iteration. These 14” move, circle riding freaks could be described as your scalpel, or something used to counter punch when the time is right. Equipped with 3 attacks a piece, their spears and beaks have Charge +1 damage (meaning they go up to damage 3!), with the ability to either choose Crit 2 Hits or adding an additional rend in the combat phase if you charged. These speed daemons are at a steep 200 points for 3, meaning if you want a 6 man brick it’ll be 400 smackeroos. The Enlightened are 4 wounds a goat with a 4+ save, making them more survivable on their own than most of the book, but I don’t know if it’s worth having a quarter of your army for that profile. The 14” move is supreme, and with the Tzaangor Shamen’s ability to give run and charge, plus the various other buffs as aforementioned, they are still absolutely a threat to the person on the other side of the table.

Lastly for the Tzaang’ Gang, are the Tzaangor Skyfires, who still have 18” shooting that cannot be negatively modified, making them a great target for Covering Fire. If an enemy was damaged by their shooting, other Warflock units get +1 to hit against that enemy for the rest of the turn. This unit is more of a tool and harass piece than something that you would want to lean on for the win, but I wouldn’t be surprised to still see some Skyfires cruising around the table.

Yeah if I had abs like that I probably wouldn’t wear a shirt either. The Kairic Acolytes are 90 point chaff units that definitely have potential to be the star of the show for some lists. Their new ability is Driven By Destiny, where in the enemy movement phase, they can move the amount of inches equal to the number of fate points you have as long as the Acolyte unit starts more than 6” away from any enemy units. They cannot move into combat (no fate-lust for you!) but having any access to free movement is fantastic. If you’ve got the fate point engine running, this can be a lot of movement, totally foiling potential plans your opponent may have. The icing on the Kairic Acolyte is that they have 2 attacks each, with 1 rend and 1 damage. Again, the Magister menagerie can give these guys to be at 3 attacks a piece with crit mortals…pretty saucy for a 90 point unit! Also cannot count out the SoG version of this unit, as they can be at more than 1 damage a piece and accompanied by the same buffs. Although the SoG Acolytes are 20 points more, I think both have a ton of play.

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

The Jade Obelisk unit is another addition to the toolkit. They love the big Tzeenchy Pillar, which means they subtract 1 from the rend characteristic of attacks that target them while they are wholly within 12” of an Argent Shard. Their other ability is in the shooting phase, where you pick an enemy unit within 18” and on a 3+, that unit is marked by your Idolarc, meaning they subtract 1” from their move for each fate point you have. It is noted that the movement characteristic of the target unit cannot be reduced to below half of its unmodified value. At 100 points, these rock worshipping weirdos are a great pick to add some additional nonsense for your opponent to be annoyed by.

Last but not least, you know him, you love him, the nuisance of the movement phase, the Chaos Spawn of Tzeentch. He’s a 60 point addition to your army, but must be deployed masked by illusion. Each time this ball of limbs gets destroyed, an identical replacement is put in reserve, and can be replaced any number of times. Needless to say, a staple we will see in most lists, even if not taking the Lore of Change, due to the cheap switcheroos someone can do with the units that are masked by illusion as well as the Tome of Eyes still giving your wizards access to possible Spawn summoning shenanigans.

But will it blend?

How They’ll Play

Tzeentch remains as a tricky control army, whittling away your opponents' models with spells and maybe an angry Tzaangor block or two. Below I have two lists, one catered to a more traditional setup one would see, and another that goes fully into the new mechanics involving fate points.

I too enjoy vanilla ice cream and chicken without seasoning

(1980/2000)

Disciples of Tzeentch

Hideous Unpredictability

General’s Handbook 2025-26

Drops: 2

Spell Lore - Lore of Change

Manifestation Lore - Manifestations of Tzeentch

Battle Tactic Cards: Wrathful Cycles, Master the Paths

General’s Regiment

Kairos Fateweaver (400)

General

Blue Horrors (240)

Reinforced

Blue Horrors (120)

Burning Chariot (110)

Pink Horrors (170)

Regiment 1

Magister (140)

Silver Summoner
Kairic Tome

Tzaangor Enlightened On Disc (400)

Reinforced

Tzaangors (340)

Reinforced

Chaos Spawn (60)

This list is a tarpit of horrors accompanied by two main melee threats – the reinforced bricks of Tzaangors and Tzaangor Enlightened. The idea here is to try and control the engagements on the board, using your illusioned units to hop around if they need to, and have the goat-folk pick off your opponents threats should they overstep. The nice thing about having the Tzaangor Enlightened be such a fast unit is that you can keep them relatively safe, but also capitalize on a potential double turn.

The Fate Engine

2000/2000

Disciples of Tzeentch

Spell Lore - Lore of Fate

Manifestation Lore - Manifestations of Tzeentch

General's Handbook 2025-26

Drops: 4

Battle Tactic Cards: Scouting Forces, Master the Paths

General's Regiment

Kairos Fateweaver (400)

General

Fateskimmer, Herald of Tzeentch on Burning Chariot (140)

Screamers of Tzeentch (90)

Scourge of Ghyran Kairic Acolytes (110)

Scourge of Ghyran Kairic Acolytes (110)

Regiment 1

Magister on Disc of Tzeentch (150)

Magister (140)

Scourge of Ghyran Kairic Acolytes (110)

Scourge of Ghyran Kairic Acolytes (110)

Regiment 2

Tzaangor Shaman (130)

Jade Obelisk (100)

Scourge of Ghyran Kairic Acolytes (110)

Scourge of Ghyran Ogroid Thaumaturge (140)

Fate Slicer - (10) Points

Regiment 3

The Curseling (150)

Fate engine go brrrr. I feel like Charlie Day in front of the whiteboard with all the red lines everywhere when trying to summarize this, but so far I’ve really enjoyed playing around with all of the funkiness that fate points have to offer. Between Fate Slicer, the Fateskimmer, unbinding yourself with the Magisters, the subfaction, and the army mechanic, the fate points can add up quickly. Having recursion for the Kairic Acolytes means that you can keep sacrificing the buff boys to get more fate points, as well as continually throwing roadbumps at your opponent. This is by no means optimized in its current form, but with practice, tinkering, and maybe a little bit of insanity, I think (and am determined) to get the juice for this style of list.

Magister. Credit - Instagram: Exitwarp

Armies of Renown

Change-Cult Uprising

This Army of Renown is meant to represent a rebellion of Tzeentch cultists that have been lying in wait to execute the perfect plan. You’re restricted to non-Warflock Arcanite units, which means you’re restricted to just Kairic Acolytes and Jade Obelisk for your non heroes. Notably you get your faction terrain which is pretty nice. It even gets a Battle Trait Silver Simulacrum that allows it to split in deployment, but you have no way to get one back or move it when its down. Meanwhile Illusory Infiltration lets you pick three non-reinforced Kairic Acolytes and teleport them within 3” of terrain and outside combat in deployment, which can let you make some interesting jail situations. Puppet on a String is the focus of the army, which lets you select an enemy hero within 24” of a friendly hero and then every time they use a Core ability you get a fate point. This means you can easily get 2-3 fate points every turn if you play your cards right. You can spend those fate points on Overtaken By Events which turns off commands for a unit, and Seeds of Discord which lets you force an enemy unit to attack another enemy unit. These are both once per turn so you can’t stack them, but it should be easy to get these off relatively often.

Kairic Acolytes. Credit - Instagram: Exitwarp

For your Heroic Trait you have Call of Anarchy which lets you spend a CP in your movement phase to either pull something Masked By Illusion onto the table outside 6” of enemies and near a terrain feature (you can only put them in Masked By Illusion with the Fatemaster), or respawn a unit at half strength. This feels like a tall ask between the 2 fate points you need for the Fatemaster and the CP, but the respawn is nice. Your artefact meanwhile is Spell-Eater Pendant which gives you another way to generate fate points by unbinding spells or banishing Manifestations.

Your only spell is Eldritch Strength which is unlimited, but is tough for an army of casters. It simply gives a friendly unit +1 to wound which can be pretty nice on some Kairic Acolytes.

The Manifestation Lore here is interesting. It's a single spell that goes off on a 6 and summons any of the manifestations in the Tzeentch lore, but there are some interesting stipulations. You can only have one manifestation out at a time (it immediately banishes the previous one) but you can set it up within 1” of the caster with no other stipulations. This is particularly cool with the Simulacrum since it lets you plop it right into combat.

Overall this AoR is cute but doesn’t really compete with the main faction for all the stuff you’re giving up. If you could take Warflock that would help a bit, but there isn’t enough here to really capitalize on the mortal only approach and really deal some damage.

The Oracles of Fate

The Oracles of Fate represents Kairos’ personal retinue of weirdos. Remember how I said that they removed Destiny Dice? I LIED. The army revolves around daemons and the Masters of Destiny Battle Trait, which has you roll 9 dice during deployment and set them aside as, you guessed it, Destiny Dice. You can replace any Casting, Unbinding, Banishment, Run, Charge (your turn only), Hit, Wound, and Save rolls with any of these dice and then discard them. You also get access to Ninefold Blessings which you can only do if you have exactly 9 Destiny Dice. You reroll all of them and until your next turn all your units get a 5+ ward and enemy units subtract 1 from their save. I can absolutely see a reality where players just don’t spend their dice to keep that very powerful effect active each turn.

For your Heroic Trait you get Nexus of Fate which lets you reroll a single dice if you have 9 or make a new dice if you have less. This means you can spend a Dice each round and still get your buff from Ninefold Blessings! The artefact meanwhile is Corrupted Leystone which lets the unit teleport in the movement phase if it's contesting an objective and move to another objective outside 7” of enemy units. None of your heroes in daemons are particularly slappy so there isn’t a ton you can abuse with that charge, but this is a very strong ability nonetheless.

The spell lore only has one spell which isn’t ideal for the faction that's all wizards, but it's unlimited and pretty flexible. Fateweaver’s Gift lets you either Change the Past by rolling 4 dice or however many destiny dice you have and doing mortals on 4+s. This would be incredibly strong but it has a few stipulations, the target needs to be in combat and cannot have been targeted by this ability this turn. You can also Seize the Present which gives nearby units +1 to run and charge. Lastly you can Predict the Future which lets you reroll a Destiny Dice. This is pretty nice, but since a lot of these effects aren’t really stackable, it's pretty limited in scope.

The Manifestation Lore is the same as the one for Change-Cult Uprising. It's interesting but ultimately probably worse here since you don’t have fate points.

Overall this is a very interesting Army of Renown but you’re giving up a lot not using mortals. That said, the horror carpet with a 5+ ward and -1 to your saves is real and can hurt you. Screamers, Flamers and Exalted Flamers become very interesting with the effective extra rend and the value of the Destiny Dice shouldn’t be underestimated. I think this is a pretty strong pick and can give the main army a run for its money with the right build.

Regiments of Renown

Seekers of Silver

This is an interesting one. You get a Gaunt Summoner on Disc, Magister on Disc, and a unit of Screamers. Each of the Heroes have abilities that won’t work outside the army but everything here is really fast. At 380 points it's a pretty solid objective bozo package. For other chaos armies. Ability wise, you get an unlimited spell that turns a piece of terrain into a place of power for the rest of the game and splashes some decent mortals on a nearby unit and you can create manifestations measuring the range from places of power too. This is a pretty solid package and well worth considering if you’re looking for extra wizards who can be zipping around the battlefield.

Mask of the Deceiver

This one is really fun. It can be included in any faction in the game and you get one Mask of the Deceiver (It’s The Changeling with a different warscroll). It's got the same statline as The Changeling but a full set of new abilities. When you deploy it you can do so with the Masked in Plain Sight ability which puts it in reserve. Then in any Hero Phase you can use Bait and Switch which puts a friendly infantry hero in reserve and swaps them for the mask. If the mask dies, the infantry hero is set up within 6” of a battlefield edge and not in combat. Lastly there’s a warscroll spell Forceful Command which lets you pick a friendly unit and until your next turn they can’t move but get Anti-Charge (+1 Rend). This is sick as hell but I’m gonna be real with you folks. This is a lot of work for anti charge but it is very flavorful and very funny.

Spearhead - Tzaangor Warflock

badusernametag: The dawn of a new era for Tzeentch left me hopefully for a magical new Spearhead. I am a patron of all the gods and having been let down a little by the Maggotkin offering last month I was really hoping for something that manages to be flavourful AND fun here.

So what's in the box? It’s an all birdfaced beastman outing with:

Tzaangor Shaman (general)
10 Tzaangors
3 Tzaangor Enlightened
3 Tzaangor Skyfires

Nothing especially new here, but these are all nice models and it’s a strong theme. Most vets will have this selection already and someone wanting to start a Tzeentch army could do worse than add this to their collection. Fast and punchy, the run and charge from the shaman is bound to do work and the Skyfires have always been popular. Good set of models with the whole Tzaangor range represented.

The theme here is manipulating the future and time through magic. Yes, that is the theme of the ARMY, but they’ve actually reflected this in the rules, and I believe have done it justice. The main Battle Trait of the Warflock is Predict the Future. This allows you to look at the top 3 cards of your Battle Tactics deck in your hero phase, then in any order put them back on the top OR the bottom. On top of this the second trait Cheat Destiny allows you to put cards used as Commands on the bottom of the deck, rather than in the discard pile. This combo offers you an unprecedented amount of control over the Battle Tactics deck. In a game in which the luck of the draw means so much this is HUGE. Now as you draw BEFORE your first hero phase your first hand is set, BUT you can always use cards you can’t score as commands and then recycle them for later. The trick here of course is to USE the cards, as that's the only way you will get to the bottom of the deck. This is frankly an excellent set of abilities and though it may require finesse and some planning to use well, it is both powerful and entirely thematic. Love it.

Elsewhere you have mechanics that relate to being the Underdog in the battle, as the Tzaangor Enlightened’s Deliver on Fate gives them +1 charge if you’re the Underdog and the regiment ability Constant Flux reduces the incoming rend of ALL attacks against your army by 1, whilst you’re the Underdog. This later ability could be very powerful, especially given your lacklustre saves, but to reap the benefits you must manipulate the points in the game. Staying on the theme of manipulation and control of the past and future these abilities are spot on.

The warscrolls are largely the same as the Battletome here with some tweaks, the most interesting of which is the Shaman’s spell, Mutative Aura. This curses an enemy unit and inflicts a mortal wound on them for each ‘1’ rolled when they attack (once they have completed their attacks). Potentially very powerful, certainly against some of the units around in Spearhead with many attacks on their profile.

Whilst certainly a glass cannon, this Spearhead really delivers on both theme and gameplay. I think the deck manipulation shenanigans will take some effort to master, but they should be very rewarding. Probably not for beginners, with a lot of moving parts and overlapping abilities, but really one to watch. I don’t think Tzeentch would have it any other way.

Pros:

Fast
Fun mechanics that effect the battletactic deck
Complimentary spells and abilities
Really damn fast

Cons:

Glass cannon
Mechanics that require careful planning
No reinforcements

Model Count: 17

Gaming: 9/10

Models: 7/10

Overall: 8/10

Good for starting an army: Yes

Tzaangor Skyfires. Credit - Instagram: Exitwarp

Final Thoughts

What a doozy! The Disciples of Tzeentch Battletome has been an absolute joy to read and play so far, and I am super excited to see what crazy spice comes to the surface after the release. Between this book, Maggotkin of Nurgle, and Lumineth Realm-Lords the amount of soul being put into these newer tomes by the writers can be felt. Testing this Tzeentch book has been some of the most fun in fourth edition I’ve had so far, and I will be playing around with this army for a long time. There is a great amount of diversity in playstyle that can be found within the battletome, and plenty of opportunities for players to express themselves in many ways.

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Tags: chaos | Tzeentch | age of Sigmar | aos | Disciples of Tzeentch