Let’s level up our army list and tactics by taking a Tzeentch army we previously put together from 1000 points to 2000 points.
Since then, GW has released a start collecting box and updated the Generals Handbook. Luckily, the start collecting box contains models that make up our core from the previous article in January so it is a great buy if you are just getting started with this force.
Let’s look at what we had: (total is 940 points in the new Generals Handbook)
- 20 Pink Horrors of Tzeentch – (240 points) Battleline 1 of 3
- 1 Burning Chariot of Tzeentch – (160 points) No unit type
- 1 Lord of Change – (300 points) Leader 1 of 6, Behemoth 1 of 4
- 1 Herald of Tzeentch on disk – (120 points) Leader 2 of 6 (if you get the start collecting box, just use the herald in there to save yourself some money)
- 3 Screamers of Tzeentch – (120 points) No unit type
We have 1060 points left to play with, lets finish up the Battlelines and fill them out. First add 10 more Pink Horrors to take advantage of the massive regiments points reduction. Then we are going to add a Burning Chariot with Herald as your General to make Burning Chariots of Tzeentch a Battleline unit. Finally, we will add a full unit of Tzaangors for some melee goodness in this army.
- 30 Pink Horros of Tzeentch – (Becomes 300 points) Battleline 1 of 3
- Herald on Burning Chariot – (200 points) Leader 3 of 6, lets Burning Chariots become Battleline 2 of 3
- 30 Tzaangors – (450 points) Battleline 3 of 3
Tzaangors: Move 6, Save 5+, Bravery 5, 2 Wounds. They have 3 different melee attacks: Savage Blade with 2 attacks, hitting and wounding on a 4+, for 1 damage. Savage Greatblade with 1 attack, hitting and wounding on a 4+, with -1 rend for 2 damage. Then Vicious Beak attack with 1 attack, hitting on a 4+, wounding on a 5+, for 1 damage. If they are armed with a Savage Blade and Shield, before allocating a wound or mortal wound on a 6+ that wound is ignored. If armed with paired Savage Blades, you can add 1 to any hit rolls. While they are within 9 inches of an Arcanite Hero during combat phase, they can add 1 to all wound rolls. They also get a bonus attack for every 9 models in the unit (up to 3 bonus attacks). The leader of this units adds 1 to hit rolls, the Brayhorn lets you run and charge, one in every five is a mutant making 3 attacks. Finally, the Icon Bears let you pick an enemy unit within 18 inches and roll a die for every wizard within 9 inches, on a 4+ that unit takes a mortal wound.
Herald on Burning Chariot: Move 14 (fly), Save 5+, Bravery 10, 8 Wounds. He has either a dagger with 2 attacks hitting and wounding on a 4+ for 1 damage, or a staff with 2-inch range, 1 attack, hitting on a 4+ wounding on a 3+, with -1 rend for D3 damage. Then the mounts have 6 attacks hitting on a 4+, wounding on a 3+, for 1 damage (D3 if monster). He has a tome that, once per game, lets him roll three dice to cast a spell rather than two. Speaking of which, his unique spell is called Tzeentch’s Firestorm and goes off on a 9, if successful all enemy units within 9 inches on a 4+ take D3 mortal wounds. Finally pick a unit, this flies over, and on a 4 or more it suffers a D3 mortal wounds.
That leaves you with 350 points left to add some fire power to this list by adding an Ogroid Thaumaturge and a unit of Flamers to this army. Assuming you purchased the start collecting box, you already have the flamers.
- Ogroid Thaumaturge – (160 points) Leader 4 of 6
- Flamers of Tzeentch – (180 points) No unit type
Ogroid Thaumaturge: Move 6, Save 5+, 8 Bravery, 8 Wounds. He has three melee attacks, the first being his staff that has 2-inch range, 2 attacks, hitting on a 3+, wounding on a 3+, with -1 rend for D3 damage. Then his horns with 1 attack, hitting and wounding on a 3+, with -2 rend for 3 damage. His final attack is hooves at 4 attacks, hitting on 4+, wounding on 3+, for 1 damage. He heals a wound in your hero phase and if he has 5 or more wounds add 1 to all hit rolls but subtract 1 from casting and unbinding rolls. On a successful charge he deals D3 mortal wounds to a unit within 1 inch. Finally, his unique spell is Fireblast with a casting value of 7, 18 inches and deals D6 mortal wounds. (You can choose to set up a unit of horrors equal to the number of mortal wounds it deals, but that costs summoning points so I would not recommend it).
Flamers of Tzeentch: Move 9 (fly), Save 5+, 10 Bravery, 2 Wounds. They have a missile attack that has 3 attacks, hitting on a 4+, wounds on a 3+, for D3 Damage. Their melee attack is 2 attacks, hitting on a 5+, wounding on a 3+ for 1 damage. If they do damage with their shooting attack at the end of the shooting phase roll a dice for each unit wounded by it, on a roll of 1 they heal D3 wounds, on a 2-3 nothing happens, and on a 4+ they take D3 mortal wounds. If any models from this unit are killed and its within 9 inches of a Tzeentch Daemon Hero roll a D6, on a 6 2 come back in place of the one that was killed. Finally, the leader has 4 missile attacks.
Loadouts: Your Lord of Change should have the Rod of Sorcery and your Heralds of Tzeentch should have a Staff of Change. The Tzaangors should have a Savage Blade and Arcanite Shield, with the max two in every five will have a Greatblade. So, a unit of 30 Tzaangors will have 12 Greatblades, 6 Tzaangor Mutants, 1 Icon Bearer, 1 Brayhorn, 1 Twistbray, and then 9 Tzaangors with Shields and Savage Blades. Give the Lord of Change the Aura of Mutability to buff the ranged units around him, and give your General the Nexus of Fate or Incorporeal Form command traits. For bonus spells, give the Ogroid the Treacherous Bond spell to help keep him alive. For your Lord of Change, I would give him Bolt of Tzeentch for 2 high damage spells. The Hearld on Chariot should get the Arcane Transformation spell to cast turn 1 on the Ogroid if nobody is in range for his damage spell. Finally the Herald on Disk gets the Unchecked Mutation spell to use for sniping Heroes.
Tactics: First, you will want to compartmentalize your army into three different compartments. The first compartment will be the Ogroid Thaumaturge and Tzaangors, in the second will be Lord of Change, Flamers of Tzeentch, and Pink Horrors, and the third compartment is the Chariots, Herald on Disc, and Screamers. That first compartment is your heavy hitting melee guys who generally want to be the center of your force. The Tzaangors should have Mystic Shield cast on them, giving them a 4+ save because you will want to get those bonus attacks. They can pretty much kill anything, seriously 30 models with 4-5 attacks each adding 1 to their wound rolls. The Ogroid is no slouch either and he should be able to mop anything up the Tzaangors can’t. In your second compartment you have your ranged damage dealers, 30 pink horrors are a lot of dice rolling, along with the Lord of Change’s missile weapon, followed by the Flamers burning attack. They can chew through low armor targets very quickly add the Aura of Mutability and they are all re-rolling wound rolls of 1. Your final compartment is the incredibly fast units, that can do damage at range while gaining objectives from turn 1. However, you will want to keep these guys out of combat, and if they are in melee retreat with them ASAP. They are also good to mop up smaller units that might be left over from your magic phase and or the heavy hitters.
You are now at 1990 points and have a pretty versatile army list. If you notice, the list is missing Tzaangor Skyfires which yes, they are amazing, but expensive. If you are building around the daemon start collecting box, it is hard to add them. If you choose to add them make sure you make room for a Tzaangor Shaman as well to maximize their benefit and I would look at replacing some of you fast moving troops to make room for them. (See compartment 3).
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