This noob is back from his second Age of Sigmar tournament and took 7th out of 14 people, so slightly better than last time. Come check it out!This tournament is the 1st of 3 warm up tournaments before the Michigan GT happening in October, (2 Day War-gaming Tournament in Lansing Michigan) so paint was not required and the top three took store credit.
What was nice was that about 75% of the players were like me and have a play it painted mentality. Of the armies there was about 10% Order, 10% Destruction, 40% Chaos, and 50% Death, with the top two teams being Blades of Khorne. Even better was that a gaming club came in from out of town to challenge our players so there was some new blood to play against.
Here is the Disciples of Tzeentch list I took coming in at exactly 2000 points (60 of which was summoning points)
Battleline
- 10 Pink Horrors with command: Bonus Spell: Fold Reality
- 10 Pink Horrors with command: Bonus Spell: Arcane Transformation
- 10 Pink Horrors with command: Bonus Spell: Treason of Tzeentch
Leaders:
- Lord of Change with Baleful Sword: Command Trait (Aether Tether), Artifact (Phantasmal Weapons), Bonus Spell: Bolt of Tzeentch.
- Karios Fateweaver Bonus Spell: Firestorm of Tzeentch
- The Changeling: Bonus Spell: Unchecked Mutation
Other Units:
- 3 Screamers of Tzeentch
- 3 Screamers of Tzeentch
- 3 Flamers of Tzeentch
- 3 Flamers of Tzeentch
- 1 Chaos Spawn (summoning points for when Kario’s spell kills a model)n had
- Battalion: The Changehost
My thoughts on this force was to be very magic heavy, with the Lord of Change leading the charge and taking out big models turn one. Buffing the Lord of Change with arcane transformation gives his baleful sword 3 attacks instead of 2 with a -3 rend doing 3 damage each. Then put mystic shield on him for a 3+ save instead of a 4+ making him pretty tough with 14 wounds.
The Changehost lets me get him in there turn one by swapping him out with the Changeling. Then the rest of the army could stay at range casting magic and shooting, with the Screamers hindering the opponent’s side of the board. This plan kind of worked….
First Opponent: A local gamer named Ryan who ran a Death army containing 5 leaders: Abhorrant Ghoul King on Terrorgheist, Varghulf Courtier, Abhorrant Ghoul King, Necromancer, Vampire Lord on Terror. Then he ran 6 Crypt Horrors, 10 Crypt Ghouls, 10 Zombies, 10 Zombies, and a Morngul. We were playing boarder war, and things started well for me. Getting a double turn let me wipe out his unit of Crypt Horrors before they could regenerate and had 2 out of three of the objective tokens. Then the Changeling popped and swapped out for a unit of Pink Horrors to contest Ryan’s objective marker on his side.
After that is when bad things started happening. Mystical terrain tied up one of my units of Pink Horrors for 3 straight turns, while the Morngul basically took my personal objective by himself on turn 4. Finally, while the Lord of Change with a sword is cool with his -3 rend, it hits a lot less often with the 4+ to hit roll. Long story short my army started hot by doing massive damage, but then his Ghoul King on Terrorgist and Morngul partied all over my face. Ryan ended up winning a close match but by turn 4 you could predict the winner.
Second Opponent: A out of town gamer named Kyle who was another Death player, this time Tomb Kings. He ran with 4 leaders: a Necromancer, a Tomb Herald, Settra the Imperishable, and Abhorrant Ghoul King on Zombie Dragon. He then had 2 units of 10 Zombies, a unit of 10 Skeleton warriors, a unit of 3 Necropolis Knights, and a unit of 6 Necropolis Knights. This time we were playing the blood and glory scenario, one new to me. Which lead me to do a bone headed move in the second turn and give him the game. Getting the double turn let me pour all of my firepower into killing his unit of 6 Necropolis Knights.
Feeling pretty good my next moves were too aggressive which ultimately lead to my undoing. Not realizing that it was model count and not just having a model near objectives to contest them. Thus he quickly out maneuvered me and grabbed all 4 places of power by killing the minor amount of models left near an objective. Kyle received a major victory and me feeling sheepish for only lasting 2 turns against him. All was not bad though, we finished so fast we were able to chat for an hour about the hobby and take in the other painted armies playing at the time.
Third Opponent: Finally a non-Death opponent named Mike, (if not Mike sorry) and he was just playing with a bunch of Order models he thought was cool. He ran Teclis, a High Warden on Griffon, and an Anointed on Frostheart Pheonix as his leaders. Then 10 Phoenix Guard, 5 Reavers, 5 Liberators, 30 Glade Guard, 5 Sisters of the Thorn, and an Arkanaut Frigate. (Yes that model is amazing) We were also playing a new take on the scenario Escalation. Where the set up rules and objectives are the same, but you set up all the units before the battle rather then slowly over time.
The game was pretty much decided by turn two, he used his Glade Guard to kill off a unit of Pink Horrors but then in response my army killed all 30 of them. Using the Changeling to half the movement of the Frigate for most of the game leaving it useless. For the next two turns my army was able to use magic and speed to claim two objectives, and slowly chew through his units. At the end of the match all that he had left was the Annointed One on Frostheart Phoenix. So a major victory for me with 1740 kill points.
First the good things: Mastery of magic is awesome, it basically lets you use one disciple dice and cast any spell your Lord of Change or Karios wants. Second the Changeling is very useful for early game shenanigans in halving the movement speed of a unit, and contesting objectives. Third choosing to go first or second was really nice with the 2 drop army. It made my opponent move forward so that generally they were in range of at least 1 unit for casting magic as well as try for the double turn. Finally the amount of magic fire power was amazing, my hero phase by far took the longest amount of time for me. This army can dish out a lot of mortal wounds that can carve significant chunks out of opponent’s forces.
Second the bad things: Outside of magic this army is pretty weak, in that it can slow enemies down and take out a unit or two before they reach the line. But once they do there are no heavy hitters back there can dish out the pain in the combat or shooting phase. The flamers have no rend (which doesn’t make sense in that there lobbing balls of fire) so any wounds that go through can be saved usually on a 4+. The screamers while moving 16 inches is awesome, at a 5+ save with 3 wounds each they get killed pretty quickly. The 4+ to hit 3+ to wound no rend 1 damage is pretty bad for 140 points.
Third changes: Start off by dropping Karios and his Chaos Spawn which frees up 400 points for other units. Next is to drop both units of screamers as they are too squishy to do much damage for the amount of points they are. That frees up another 340 points because this removes the Changehost as well for a total of 740 points. To replace that we are going to look at getting some fast moving long range units in the Skyshoal Coven. That would be 2 units of Tzaangor Sky Fires and 1 unit of Tzaangor Enlightened along with the battalion which will cost 560 points.
This gives me some serious fire power at range 24 inches, as well as the speed that the screamers offered. Adding to that bring in a Tzaangor Shaman at 160 points to buff both those units as well as offer some fast moving magic. That total comes in at 720 so fills up the army. So time to keep an eye on ebay to see about snagging a deal!
There you go my second competitive tournament is in the books and they are really enjoyable! If you have never played in give it a shot. They are incredibly fun with a full day of dicing and it is a great way to show off your army.
The second premier tournament is at the end of June, so until then get those minis painted!
