The followers of the god of change Tzeentch are spreading across the Mortal Realms, casting arcane spells and pulling the threads of fate that their chaotic deity has deemed destiny. Today, Chaos Battletome Disciples of Tzeentch goes up for pre order, and in this post we will be reviewing the book, checking out all the changes and glimpsing into the future to see how the army will look on the battlefield!

Massive thanks to Games Workshop for sending us a free review copy to check out a little ahead of release. If you would like to support the site then why not order your copy through our affiliate Element Games and save yourself 20% too?

We have also filmed a full video going through the book and checking out all the changes – you can check that out just below or over on YouTube

So let’s get down to business and unpick the strands of fate as we review the new Tzeentch Battletome!

Disciples of Tzeentch Battletome (2022) Review

The Disciples of Tzeentch previously got a Battletome back in 2020, but a lot has happened since then – an entire new edition of the game has dropped, and hot on the heels of the Arcane Cataclysm box we have the 3rd Edition battletome for them! Now first of all, it seems that the Architect of Fate has been foiled with the release of the book – the points page is dated July 2022, so it seems that the book has been ambushed by Pink Horrors between then and now – I suspect Games Workshop had planned for a rapid release of books following 3rd edition, however with various global issues it seems that has unfortunately not been the case, but I suspect we will see this accelerate through the last quarter of the year with the new books for Lumineth, Ogors, Sons of Behemat and Slaves to Darkness all due to drop before 2023!

The Lore

As with all current Battletomes, the book starts with a lore section that gives flavour and background to the army along with a timeline of events leading right up to the current Era of the Beast that started with the 3rd Edition box – here we learn that the forces of Tzeentch are infiltrating the Dawnbringer Crusades that are spreading across the Mortal Realms, and are using their tricksy influence to alter the course of their campaign – for example subtly changing the path of the Crusade so that it encroaches of Lumineth territory and starts a conflict between the two factions. We also learn that Tzeentch is surprised at the return of Grungni, and that the Aether War has restarted between the forces of Tzeentch and the Grungni supporting Kharadrons.

The book also contains a painting guide, however sadly there is no new content here, and is just duplicated from the previous Tome.

Allegiance Abilties

So on to the bit that everyone wants to know about – the new rules!

The Allegiance Abilities are mostly the same as what we previously had – Masters of Destiny still gives us 9 Destiny Dice that can be used in place of Casting rolls, Dispelling, Unbinding, Run, Charge, Hit Wound Save and Batleshock rolls and any roll to determine random damage. As with the previous book there are ways of replesnishing these throughout the book

Locus of Change still exists giving Daemons within 12″ of a Daemon hero -1 to hit in melee

Summoning is also almost exactly the same – each spell that is successfully cast (Friend or foe) generates you a Fate Point – these fate points can then be spent to summon new daemon units to the battlefield – the costs for summoning are exactly the same, however they now have to be placed within 9″ of a hero rather than 12″ in the previous book.

What’s new (and very awesome) is the Arcane Armies ability. When players have received command points but before the first turn starts the Tzeentch player gets to pick a single hero, and that hero automatically casts one of the 3 Tzeentch endless spells immediately – the spell cant be unbound and you cannot dispell it in the first battleround – This is very cool as it gives you immediate access to the endless spell before the game has even started, and some of them such as the Burning Sigil have potential to really mess with your opponents battle plan or fear their units turning into Chaos Spawns! Also as the spell counts as being cast then you also always start the game with one fate point! Note you have to actually purchase the Endless Spell to be able to use this however.

Speaking of Chaos Spawns, there’s also a couple of rules in the book that can change models from units (friend and foe) into a chaos spawn -rules are listed here to say that they are always placed within an inch of the poor victim and are always under the control of the Tzeentch player. Spawns have also had quite the glow up in the new book too, so you’ll want to summon lots of these!

Like with the previous book you can choose a Change Coven to have your army herald from, however as with other recent books there are no longer traits and artefacts tied to these!

The Eternal Conflagration improved the rend of your magical flame based ranged attacks by 1

The Hosts Duplicitous now cannot be retreated from if the Tzeentch unit has 10 or more models, and once per game when a Horror unit is destroyed it is replaced by a unit of 5 pink horrors on a 4+ making these very tanky units even tougher to chew through

The Hosts Arcanum can auto unbind a single spell in the 1st 3rd and 5th Battle Round

The Cult of the Transient Form can recycle dead Kairic Acolytes into Tzaangor on a roll of 6 or fight upon death on a roll of 2-5

The Pyrofane Cult is pretty cool, it increases the to hit of Sorcerous Bolts and also causes mortal wounds to any unit that suffered wounds by those attacks on a roll of 5+

Finally we have the Guild of Summoners – these cannot summon anything except Lords of Change – the first one costs you 9 Fate points, and each extra one costs you 18! Old Tzeentch players will note this makes it easier to continue summoning multiple ones during the battle, as previously Lord of Change number 3 would cost you 30!

For Command Traits and Artifacts we now get a list of options for Arcanites and a list of options for Daemons rather than the 3 way split we previously got in the old book.

Arcanites get the following Traits:

Arch Sorcerer gives the caster 2 extra spells

Nexus of Fate allows you to swap out a Destiny Dice every turn

Cult Demagogue is a decent ability that means any cast of a double cannot be unbound and generates 2 fate points

Arcane Sacrifice can be used to deal a mortal wound to a friendly target to add 9″ to your spell range

Soul Burn lets you cause Mortal Wounds on hits of 6 in addition to any other damage

Illusionist makes the hero -1 to hit

Daemons get the following list:

Arch Sorcerer gives the caster 2 extra spells

Nexus of Fate is the same as the Arcanite version

Daemonspark can be used once per game to generate 3 fate points (With this and the free point for summoning your endless spell at the start of the game you would only need to cast 5 spells turn 1 in order to get a Lord of Change in a Guild of Summoners army – something that is very easy to do!)

Incorporeal Form allows you to resist the effects of spells or endless spells on a roll of 5+

Arcanite Heroes get access to 6 artefacts including the Changeblade that can turn slain heroes into Chaos Spawns, Spell Eater which can generate an extra destiny dice for each hit of 6, or the Spireful Shield that bounces back 2 mortal wounds for every save of a six!

Daemon heroes also get a list of 6 artefacts including the Pyroflame Stave which can stop enemy wizards from unbinding for the rest of the game, the Beacon of Mutability which gives nearby Daemons +1 to wound in melee or the Eternal Shroud that allows you to generate a new destiny dice on a 5+ whenever you spend one.

Spell lores in the new book are the same as the previous book with 2 exceptions – firstly Arcane Transformation is gone from the Lore of Change, and Sheild of Fate now gives a unit a 6+ ward with remaining destiny dice of 1-3, 5+ on 4-6 and on 7 or more dice you get a 5+ ward and ignore spells on a 4+

Matched Play

We get 4 Tzeentch Grand Strategies, one of which is very easy to score!

Dominate Arcane Nexus requires a unit of Horrors, Acolytes or a wizard in every quarter of the board

Master of Destiny is scored with your remaining unused destiny dice total 9 or more at the end of the game – very very easy to score, especially with some of the units like Kairos who can generate fresh ones

Preponderance of Fate is scored if you end the game with 27 fate points – personally I’d use these to summon and just save a couple of destiny dice for the previous one!

Realm of Magic is scored if there are two or more endless spells under your control at the end of the game, again pretty easy to do

There are also 5 Tzeentch battle tactics:

Call for Change is scored when you summon a Lord of Change – again a nice easy one for the Guild of Summoners!

Mass Conjuration requires you to cast 3 spells in a turn with a single wizard

Ninefold Dismantlement requires you to kill a hero or monster with 9 or more wounds

Reckless Abandon requires you to charge with a Mortal unit that starts more than 18″ away at the start of the turn – Magister on disk seems to be the easiest way of doing this, just fly him up the board and make a short charge – or simply make a 12″ charge with destiny dice for an easy score

Tides of Anarchy requires you to take control of an objective and end with 9 or more models on it, again pretty easy to do!

Tzeentch also get a fun Core Battalion – Kairos and 3 Lords of Change which gives you the Strategists bonus.

Path to Glory

We also get a fun Path to Glory section that introduces areal battles – essentially the battlefield represents the clouds with each scenery piece representing something poking up through the cloud cover. Non flying units hop from vantage point to vantage point as they traverse the battlefield – and the battlefield is set up in such a way so that a journey can be made from one side of the table to the other doing this – but allows for choke points to be set up etc! Your flying units have no such issue and can fly wherever they like!

You can also claim a Silver Tower as a territory which adds a Gaunt Summoner to your army!

What’s also really cool is that in a Path to Glory game you can take units from the Cities of Sigmar book to represent those units that are corrupted or Tzeentch spies under cover!

While the Path to Glory content sometimes feels a little lighter than some of the new mechanics added in Crusade, there’s still some really fun stuff here and is well worth a play!

Warscrolls

So what’s changed with the profiles? Let’s take a look!

Kairos Fateweaver – Kairos has got a little tougher now boasting 16 wounds and doesnt drop a profile until 7 wounds suffered. Gift of Change has gone, and instead he now has Infernal Gateway like any other Lord of Change – this is a shame as you’ll sometimes be struggling to cast unique spells once you have multiple lords of change summoned.

He still gets Mastery of Magic where the lowest dice to cast will always match the highest

His Oracle of Eternity has changed and I feel for the better – he no longer gets to pick a dice result, but instead generates a fresh destiny dice every turn if you have less than 9 in your hero phase.

He also has the amazing Spell-Thief ability that allows him to take control of any Endless Spell he dispells! That’s a nice Purple Sun you have there, it would be a shame if it now belonged to me…

Beacon of Sorcery is now a passive ability that grants Tzeentch units within 18″ + to cast and unbind, and he knows every spell from the Lore of Change, but sadly no longer knows every spell from nearby wizards

Lord of Change – The Lord of Change is now very similar to Kairos, they share the same Mastery of Magic, Beacon of Sorcery and Spell-Thief abilities making them well worth taking for some very real threat of stealing offensive Endless Spells, to the point where casting Purple Sun and the like against Tzeentch is a very dangeous thing to do unless you can guarantee they wont simply steal it off you! The main difference really are the 2 extra wounds on Kairos and his nice ability to regain destiny dice.

Fateskimmer – Is very similar, However Tzeentch’s Firestorm now triggers on a 2+and the Arcane Tome now allows you to reroll a casting dice and add 3 to the final result.

Chaos Spawn – The Chaos Spawns have had a decent change, if a spell is cast within 9″ of them they now heal all wounds allocated to them! In addition any 6s to hit cause Mortal wounds (Pretty good when they have 2D6 attacks and there a couple of ways of turning a poor unfortunate enemy model into one for free!)

Fluxmaster – I really like the Fluxmaster now as a Fate Point generator – Blue Fire now allows you to roll 9 dice with each 5+ dealing a mortal wound and giving you a Fate Point! Really nice unit to have if you are feeling lucky with your dice rolls – even on an average roll you are getting 4 fate though (1 for casting it, plus 3 more from the spell) he also has the Arcane Tome that the Fateskimmer has for when you really need to get the spell off

The Changeling – He is pretty much the same as his previous profile, however no longer knows all spells of those around him sadly

Changecaster – Couple of changes here, he no longer gets an extra spell when he casts on a 9+ and Pink Fire is now used to subtract 1 from save rolls on a target unit! Pretty handy as rend is fairly rare in the book

The Blue Scribes – These have changed somewhat into another Fate generator unit – they no longer learn spells and cannot buff friendly casting – instead whenever an enemy unit casts a spell on a 3+ you gain an additional fate point – very situational, but against a magic heavy army has the potential to earn lots of summoning.

Horrors – Horrors now have the updated warscroll that was on WarCom in a previous FAQ – models that split do not count towards battleshock however also cannot be returned by any means

Burning Chariots / Exhalted Flamers – buffs and nerfs here, the saves have increased to 4+ making then a little more resilient, and they now get +1 to hit on units of more than 5 models, however they get 2 less attacks on their ranged profile.

Screamers – These guys now hit on 3s and have -1 rend, but no longer do extra damage against monsters! Their Slashing fins also now cause mortal wounds on a 4+ but do not do extra damage to wizards any more

Flamers – These seem better to me now, the attack profile has flipped with them hitting on 3s and wounding on 4s, and like the Burning chariots they get +1 to hit on a unit of 5 or more, making then hit on 2s! They also now get +1 attack if they are within 9″ of an Exalted Flamer or Burning Chariot.

Gaunt Summoner / Summoner on Disc – Big changes here – Firstly the disc mounted one is now in the book, secondly the summoning is removed – instead he can be used to “deep strike” up to 2 units by deploying them in a silver tower. He also has a cool ability that affects an enemy hero that targets him – you roll 2 D6 and if you beat that models wounds characteristic then the model is teleported to the silver tower for the rest of the game (And as the model is not “slain” any rules that kick in regarding wounds or being killed do not activate – for example if little Morathi targeted him then there is a chance she gets teleported off the board for the rest of the game leaving her big counterpart alone for the battle.)

Magister / Magister on Disc – in something that will be a running theme for the mortals, no real changed here from the previous version!

Curseling – The Curseling boasts his updated weapon stats from the battle box, but his rules have actually reverted to what was in the previous tome! He can still steal spells on a 2+ can attempt to learn a spell he successfully unbinds!

Vortemis and Eyes of the Nine – No changes from previous version

Fatemaster – Now a pretty good pick, has a 9″ aura giving friendly Tzeentch units +1 to wound – this makes Tzaangors pretty good and wounding on 2s!

Ogroid Thaumaturge – couple of changes here, no longer does impact hits, however now has +1 to hit and wound if he is wounded that phase

Tzaangor Shamen – Sadly not as good as he used to be, as no longer adds 1 to hit for Skyfires and Enlightened, which is a massive shame! Still has his Boon of Mutation spell however

Tzaangor Enlightened / Enlightened on Disk – These still have their decent rules from the battle box, stopping any unit within 3″ from receiving commands, great day of stopping some of those supporting abilities. They also get to add 1 to wound if you take the second turn – however it just seems easier to park a Fatemaster near them to get the same effect all the time

Tzaangor Skyfires – Skyfires still have their mortal wound causing arrows, but in addition they ignore negative modifiers for hit and wound, and their target ignore positive modifiers for saves – essentially meaning that whoever they shoot cannot benefit from all out defence or any rules that improve saves!

Tzaangors – After a quick rename in the battle box they are just Tzaangors again, most rules mirror the previous battletome but now wound on 3s across all their weapons making them a little harder hitting

Kairic Acolytes -Again, after a shift in the battle box, these pretty much return to how they were in the previous book, including them counting as Wizards if they have 10 or more models and all being able to cast Gestalt Sorcery (Making them a nice way of farming fate points)

Burning Sigil – This has changed quite a lot, it now has a 9 inch aura, and any unit friend or foe within that range suffers D3 mortal wounds on a 4+ with the first slain model turning into a Chaos Spawn – with an 18″ range this is a good pick to fling down the battlefield with your free pre game summon in order to really hamper the opponent’s turn 1 positioning

Tome of Eyes – Rules have been tweaked and the tome now happily follows the caster around the battlefield, essentially getting redeployed within an inch of the caster each time they move, now allows the caster to reroll spell casts and still has the Parchment Curse for mortal wound and bravery shenanigans

Daemonic Simulacrum – This has not changed, you roll 9 dice for the nearest unit and each 5+ is a mortal wound (4+ against Wizards). Nice way of harassing support casters etc#

So do we have massive points changes in the new book? Are you going to have to rework your army? Nope! Not at all! Every single points cost is exactly the same as those in the recent points update on Warhammer Community – I actually suspect those points were done for this book, but unfortunately it was delayed past it’s original planned release date! Great news for Tzeentch players worried about points increases though!

Summary

So what do I think of the new Disciples of Tzeentch battletome? While it is true there are not massive sweeping changes across the army, I do not think they needed them. What we get instead is a book that tweaks and snips things here and there and polishes off the rough edges for 3rd edition. The free summoning of an Endless Spell before the game is very nice, and feel works really well with the Burning Sigil, and while a few units have lost a couple of flavourful abilities, on the whole we see improvements – with units such as Fatemasters and Fluxmasters now having great roles (It’s just a shame the models are getting quite dated now!)

From a competitive point of view I think that a lot of the Grand Strategies and Battle Tactics are easily achievable, which should be a boost in the arm for the force, allowing them to focus on scoring objectives while dishing out magical power!

I really like the tweaks to the guild of summoners and think that magic heavy armies could summon 3 or 4 Lords of Change over the course of the game, which is really cool!

It’s a shame the release schedule has been hit with delays, but hopefully as we hit 2023 we should start to see things pick up again!

Order Battletome Disciples of Tzeentch is up for pre order today and is released Saturday 1st October

Games Workshop provided Sprues & Brews a free copy for review purposes

Published by Matt Crowther

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