Age of Sigmar: How to Play Disciples of Tzeentch

Today we take a look at the basics of how to play Disciples of Tzeentch. Change you can believe in!

Servants of the Daemon God of Change and Magic, the Disciples of Tzeentch are masters of the mystical arts without equal. Combining unorthodox warriors with powerful spellcasting and the ability to alter reality itself, they act out their roles in the ever-changing plans of their duplicitous god. On the battlefield, they give you the tools to outmaneuver your opponent every step of the way with surprising speed and durability, and their ability to shape their own fates makes them a nightmare for even the best-laid plans.

Who are the Disciples of Tzeentch?

The devoted followers of one of the four Chaos Gods, the Disciples of Tzeentch follow the raven-headed God of Magic, and even their neophytes are given a glimpse of the vast magical might their patron can unleash. They sweep across the Realms in seemingly random attacks, drowning their enemies in magical flame or twisting their very flesh into a terrible form more pleasing to Tzeentch. However, win or lose, random or organized, every battle is but a small piece in the millenia-spanning plan of Tzeentch, and no matter what should transpire on the battlefield, it was all according to the design of their magical god.

Why Play Disciples of Tzeentch?

While not the toughest or strongest army in the game, Tzeentch has a lot of special tricks they can bring to the table to make them a real threat for just about anything your opponent can conjure. With powerful spellcasting, surprisingly potent melee and shooting, and plenty of speed to get you out of sticky situations, the Disciples can adapt or build for any situation. Of course, a master strategist like Tzeentch knows the best way to win a game is to fix the rules, so you also have the ability to guarantee important rolls with your Destiny dice, or add more threats to your opponent’s plate with your summoning Fate points.

Strengths

• There is almost no one in the game that magics better than you.
• You benefit from all magic on the battlefield, meaning spells your opponent casts will add to your summoning pool.
• You have a lot of surprisingly fast units that can secure distant objectives or zoom past screens to the juicier targets.
• Your primary daemon troops can gum up combat harder than zombies if you play them carefully.

Weaknesses

• You are kind of made of paper and really need to ally in a few Slaves to Darkness or Beasts units.
• You are a jack-of-all-trades but a master of none. Everything you do someone does better.

Subfactions

Your subfactions are called Changecovens, and each one benefits a specific style of troop choice. You can kit your army to drown the enemy in magical flames, overwhelm them with an evershifting army of Tzaangors, or assert your magical superiority by summoning an army’s worth of Lords of Change to the battlefield. The choice is yours.

Signature Rules

• Arcane Armies – Before the first turn, one of your Wizards can automatically cast one of the Tzeentch Endless spells (if you brought them) and it can’t be unbound. Besides having a powerful spell on the field, you get a free Fate Point!
• Locus of Change – Your Daemon units are -1 to hit while wholly within 12″ of a Daemon hero. A pretty snazzy way to keep them alive and holding up your enemy.
• Masters of Destiny -Before the game begins you roll 9 dice and set them aside. You can use these to pre-determine certain dice rolls to ensure victory.
• Summon Daemons of Tzeentch – Whenever a spell is successfully cast, friendly or enemy, and not unbound, you get a Fate point, which you can spend to summon powerful daemonic allies.
• Transformed to Spawn – Whenever you would normally create a Spawn, you can create a Tzeentch Spawn instead, which has all the goodies of a regular Spawn but also heals to full health any time a Wizard successfully casts a spell within 9″ that isn’t unbound.

Key Units

While the Tzeentch army is vast and exciting, especially with new coalition rules, these are a few units you’ll always want to consider.

Lord of Change – One of the most powerful spellcasters in the game, as befits a Greater Daemon of Tzeentch, and a potent backline Monster for your army. They always cast on a double of the highest dice they roll, they can steal spells from your opponent, and they buff all your magic rolls…and that’s just in the hero phase. For maximum shenanigans, bring Kairos, the named variant, and restock your Destiny Dice.

Kairic Acolytes – While not really the first choice for Battleline in a Tzeentch army, Kairic Acolytes are a surprisingly durable and potent midline unit. They have a decent melee profile, a good shooting attack, and a ward save to keep them in the fight. Plus, they’re wizards, so they’ll be pumping more juice into your Fate points pool.

Tzaagor Enlightened – A fast and deadly beatstick, these guys are the kings of being underestimated and then ruining your opponent. They can shut enemy units out of their command abilities, and if you happen to be taking the second turn in a round, they wound on a 2+. While they aren’t the murder engines they once were, they can still lay down a metric ton of damage.

Horrors of Tzeentch – The mainstay for most Tzeentch players, the Pink Horrors of Tzeentch are a potent force on the battlefield. With their ability to spilt into a smaller form and then do it again (or throw out motal wounds on death), they can gum up an opponent for the entire game, and they’re no slouch in combat.

Screamers of Tzeentch – Your speed daemons and objective grabbers, these sky-sharks will make absolute mincemeat out of the enemy. Their ability to damage units they fly over coupled with their ridiculously high speed makes them wonderful assassins. Just don’t expect them to weather much return fire with only a 5+ save.

Curseling – One of the best heroes in the book, this guy can do a little bit of everything. He’s durable, he’s powerful in combat, and he’s a deadly spellcaster. He can even cast in your enemy’s hero phase, meaning you can unbind your opponent’s deadliest spells and still score the coveted Fate Points. An almost auto-include in any non-Daemon Tzeentch list (and maybe even there).

Chaos Warriors – While not a unit from the Tzeentch tome, having a unit of Chaos Warriors is a good stompy unit for an otherwise fragile army. While including them DOES take points away from your Wizards, having a unit of them is still probably not a bad idea to keep the ones you do bring safe.

Chaos Lord on Karkadrak – One of my favorite models in the Chaos range, if not the entire Age of Sigmar game, the Murder Croc rider has some incredible combat potential. For maximum Tzeentch goodness, give it an Arcane Tome and Flaming Weapon and watch its weapons go insane (and net you some snazzy Fate Points in the process).

Sample Army (1000 pts)

Army: Disciples of Tzeentch

Leader: Lord of Change. General

Battleline: 10 x Kairic Acolytes

Battleline: 10 x Kairic Acolytes

Other: 3 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Discs

Other: 3 x Screamers of Tzeentch

Upgrading to 2000

From the starter list, you’ll probably want a smashy hero, another caster or two, and a few upgraded units to keep the pressure on. With additions, the list looks a bit like this:

Army: Disciples of Tzeentch (2000 pts)

Subfaction: Hosts Arcanum

Leader: Curseling. General.

Leader: Lord of Change.

Leader: Chaos Lord on Karkadrak.

Battleline: 20 x Kairic Acolytes

Battleline: 20 x Kairic Acolytes

Battleline: 6 x Screamers of Tzeentch

Other: 3 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Discs

Other: 5 x Chaos Knights

Other: Chaos Spawn of Tzeentch

Endless Spell: Tome of Eyes

Disciples of Tzeentch Tips

Save for Destiny Dice for important spells, overwhelm your enemy with Mortal Wounds, and use your speed to clean up anything that survives. And remember, even when things go wrong, it was supposed to.

~Just as planned…

Originally from North Carolina, Clint comes to Austin as the latest in a long list of haunts of a wandering actor. An avid gamer, writer, actor, pyrotechnician, and general nerd, he writes two Age of Sigmar weekly articles for Bell of Lost Souls from a slightly less than meta angle, plus a weekly tournament roundup. When not busy being a clueless cowboy, Winterfell Bannermen, or whatever else acting life throws at him, he enjoys reading folklore from around the world, writing narratives for his Wargaming armies, or watching all the movies he can. Look for his storytelling podcast, By the Dancing Fire, or find him on Twitch at RedWendigo13.

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