Change is on the way with the brand new Disciples of Tzeentch Battletome for Warhammer Age of Sigmar 4th Edition up for pre order today! Madness, change and the static of eldritch magic fills the air as the armies of Tzeentch march to war, and the God of Change is true to his word with some big changes to how the army works compared to the faction pack!

In this full review we’ll be taking a look at the new book and be checking out everything that is changed, what’s new, what’s updated and what the new units look like. We’ll also be building and painting the new models so we can see what they look like in the flesh

Massive thanks to Games Workshop for sending us over these releases to check out on the site. If you would like to support the site then why not order your Disciples of Tzeentch goodies through our affiliate Element Games and save yourself some money too?

It’s not just the Disciples of Tzeentch getting love today though, as the Lumineth also have their new Battletome and a new model too – you can check out our full review of that here!

We’ve also filmed a full unboxing of all the new Age of Sigmar models up for pre order today, which you can see just below or over on YouTube

So without further ado let’s dive straight into the new battletome and see what’s new for Tzeentch!

Disciples of Tzeentch Battletome Review (2026)

Can you believe its almost 2 years since the 4th edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar was released? In that time we’ve had a whole host of Battletomes released, and today another two are added to the library with the Lumineth and the Disciples of Tzeentch. Tzeentch are an army that have seen a lot of revisions over the years, with mechanics switching over editions, pink horror splitting being altered and lots of little changes other than that – fitting for the god of change I suppose, and true to form we see a lot of changes within this book compared to the Faction Pack.

In this review we’ll be taking a look at all those changes along with any profile updates and fun new stuff such as regiments and armies of renown. As ever we’ll also take a look at the new Spearhead from a gameplay and value for money POV, and check out the Path to Glory content.

As has been the case with the other Battletomes this edition, we get the first half of the book packed with lore, art and gorgeous model shots. I know a lot of regular players will be aware of a lot of this lore, but this section of the book really helps sell the story of who the Disciples of Tzeentch are and what they do. Whenever I’m looking into starting a new project it’s never the rules that drives which army I pick – it’s the lore and models. It might be different if you’re a hardcore tournament player, but as someone who loves the narrative and visuals, I love to sit down and absorb all of this before picking a new army to start, and the 4th edition books have done a great thing in their “bestiary” sections by folding the “army showcase” photos into them, so that players can tie the lore to the models.

So what about the rules? Well there’s been a few big changes…

Faction Rules

So Destiny Dice are gone! (Well kinda, we’ll see a little later…) The new Battle Trait is in a couple of parts, with the first being “Eldritch Illusions”. During Deployment you can pick up to 3 non-monster units to be Masked by Illusion – these start the game off the board and can be summoned in a number of ways. The first way is through the Smoke and Mirrors ability – This is triggered in any hero phase and can be used to swap any non-monster unit with one that is Masked by Illusion. So for example you couple move a unit of Screamers onto an objective and then in your opponents hero phase swap them out for a massive blob of horrors that you have Masked. This is ace and I think there’s loads of shenanigans you can do here to give your opponent a real headache. From a Battle Tactics point of view this is also great for using heroes on discs to act as a springboard to pop Scouting units where they need to go too. There’s some other ways of bringing these units in through warscrolls and abilities, and you have until the end of the final battleround to bring them in, so there’s scope for a last turn slingshot to take over an objective. Critically there’s no distance restrictions from enemy units either, they just cant pop out of Illusion in combat.

The Disciples of Tzeentch now have a terrain piece and they get to place both halves of it during deployment – we’ll chat a little more about how these work later in the review, but essentially they work like spell portals, extending the range of your casts and unbinds by measuring range from the shards instead of the caster.

Tzeentch now has a mechanic where you accrue points when something “bad” happens – this can be you losing the priority roll, having a spell unbound, miscasting, losing an objective or having a Shard destroyed. Each time one of these happens you gain a Fate point, and these points can be used to reduce damage from the damage pool, increase casting rolls or increase charges. This is an interesting one that essentially gives you a little bonus when things are starting to go the wrong way, and when you have gathered a few of them you could potentially stop the damage in an important combat for example.

There’s 4 new Battle Formations available that replace the ones in the Faction Pack.

Fated Blades is a nice one for a combat heavy army – whenever you make a charge roll of 9+ your models get +1 attack to their melee weapons (which don’t forget, can be influenced by Fate points)

Malevolent Schemes has you pick a unit at the start of each turn (yours and your opponents) and if you destroy that unit you get a Fate Point

Denizens of the Silver Tower is a very nice one, that gives you a 50/50 chance of getting a fate point refund when you spend points to stop damage (This is capped at 1 point back through, so no getting a 10 point refund when you spend big!)

Mutants and Mad Things is a simple one, once per movement phase you can just pick a Masked by Illusion unit to be placed within 6″ of a board edge and outside of 9″ of enemy units – this is more powerful than it first seems, as due to this happening in the movement phase you can actually bring back out a unit you spirited away in the hero phase…

There’s also 3 new Heroic Traits – Silver Summoner lets you recycle a non-Warflock Arcanite unit (Mortal non beastmen basically) for 1 CP in each of your movement phases

Grand Illusionist let’s the hero move D3″ if they are set up this turn, which is ok but I feel not as good as the others

Finally Devolving Aura is a great ability that can be used in any hero phase (yours and theirs) to drop the control of a unit to 1 on a dice roll of 3+ – This is an amazing way of stealing objectives off things with a sneaky teleported unit. As nice as unit recycling is, this is probably my pick.

Likewise we also get 3 brand new Artefacts

Fate Slicer gives you a fate point every time the wielder kills a unit

Cloaked in Wyrdflame is pretty nice and gives the bearer a flat -1 to wound

Finally Kairic Tome allows any Disciples of Tzeentch caster within 6″ to add or reduce 1 to casting rolls, and what’s better is that this can be done on every cast for every model, but only once per spell. Very strong and I think most people will take this.

Spell lores have also been revised.

In the Lore of Fate Infernal Gateway now allows you to roll 5 dice or dice equal to your fate points with each 4+ causing Mortals, Shield of fate is similar to how it used to be, but now always makes the unit -1 to hit, and finally we get a new one Wyrdflame Haze which makes units within 12″ of a unit that has be set up that turn not visible to enemy units while they are more than 12″ away

Lore of Change is pretty similar to how it used to be, with a couple of tweaks. Bolt of Tzeentch for example now makes a unit hit -1 to wound with its weapons.

All of the Manifestations have also been improved too! Burning Sigil now has no negative effects on your own troops – so a roll of 2-3 for example now does D3 mortals to each enemy unit and heals D3 to Disciples of Tzeentch units, While a roll of 6 makes your units +1 to wound and enemy units -1 to wound. It’s still a random chart, and a roll of 1 does nothing, but all the others are decent! Tome of Eyes now just allows units within 3″ to cast an extra spell (And it doesnt state once per turn either, so multiple wizards should be able to use this), plus it also has a melee attack. Finally, the Daemonic Simulacrum now has 2D6 attacks, with an extra attack for each Fate Point you have, making this pretty nasty (though it is damage 1 now)

So let’s take a look at how Warscrolls have changed – going to try and capture everything here, but a few bits may slip through the net. If I don’t mention a unit then nothing has changed!

Kairos Fateweaver – Big Bird has had a few tweaks now, And I think for the better. Instead of Oracle of Eternity, he now has Master of Destiny – this allows him to change a Cast, Unbind, Basnishment, Hit, Wound or Save roll for any Disciples of Tzeentch unit within 12″ to 6 (or 9 in the case of 2D6 rolls) once per battleround. This is pretty nice and means you always have a guaranteed long ball charge when near to him even though you no longer have destiny dice.

He still makes nearly units +1 to cast and unbind, but he also now allows Magical Intervention to be used without spending a CP, which is amazing!

Finally his spell now makes a unit that charges lose it’s Charge +1 damage abilities, and makes any Tzeentch units in combat with that unit strikes first too!

Lord of Change – The vanilla Turkey has also had improvements. He now has both bits of wargear all the time, meaning he has a ranged attack (which is now damage D3) and has 6 Damage 3 attacks with his sword! He can still recycle Daemon units, but it costs 1CP now, and like Kairos he also gives nearby units +1 to cast in addition to making them -1 to hit. Finally his spell now allows a unit to make a normal move in the hero phase, which is handy for positioning units for switching shenanigans (though they have to move closer to the Lord of Change)

Also he finally has 3 casts!

The Changeling – This guy has got all new abilities! He no longer can teleport near to enemy units, instead he can cast spells while off the board by using another Disciples of Tzeentch unit as a conduit. He also allows units within 12″ of him to redeploy even if they were set up this turn. Finally, his unique spell has you roll equal to the number of models in the unit and do a mortal on each 5+

Fateskimmer – Now has 2 more wounds and gives nearby units crit 2 hits on their Companions – so a great one to accompany things on disks. He also has an ability which gives you a fate point if a friendly unit is destroyed which is pretty cool.

Changecaster – there’s a little tweak since “Burning” doesnt exist any more, instead he makes weapon abilities have no affect on a target unit – turning off crit mortals for example is pretty tasty.

Burning Chariot – has a little tweak, they now do mortal damage on the charge, and can then immediately retreat for free and take no damage – really nice for finishing off a wounded character for example! there’s a nice touch here where if you roll a 1 for the damage you instead gain a fate point.

Exhaulted Flamers – these now make a unit that is wounded by them -1 to their save on a 5+ for the rest of the turn. Both versions can shoot in combat too!

Flamers of Tzeentch – these now give units the Burning keyword, which does periodic damage until the flames stop, like their big brothers they can shoot in combat too.

Pink, Blue and Brimstone Horrors – Some nice tweaks here, Pinks now have a 5+ save but only wound with Petty Vengence on a 5+ however, all flavours now have Crit Auto Wound, which is nice

Screamers – These have had big changes, they now only do Mortals to manifestations, but get to charge them on 3D6 in any charge phase. They are also +1 damage on the charge

Gaunt Summoner on Foot / Disc – The Gaunt Summoner gains an extra wound on his disc, and he also now stops enemy units from being able to charge an Argent Shard while he is within 12″ of them. Both now has a really cool ability once per battle to pick an objective that used to be under your control that you no longer control and immediately bring it under your control. This is great for getting a cheeky “more than” objective condition from under the nose of your enemy. The disc version still also has Arcane Imprisonment for Insta-killing heroes. Foot version now has a spell that halves a targets movement and stops them from Flying.

Fatemaster – This is the new kid on the block, and is a 1 cast wizard who plays with the fate mechanic – he can spend 2 fate points to make it possible to remove a unit from the board and make them Masked by Illusion when they are charged, which is very cool. He can also bring himself and another Masked by Illusion unit onto the board in the movement phase.

Magister on Disc is pretty nice now, he has an ability that gives him +1 to cast if he unbinds, but his decent ability is the fact that all Arcanite units get +1 attack while they are within 12″ and you have 6 or more Fate Points. Combine this with the +1 attack on a 9 inch charge Formation and you can have some very nasty Enlightened…

Magister on Foot – comboes pretty well with the above, he can give Arcanite units Crit Mortals for a Command Point

Orgroid Thaumaturge – This guy is ace now! His weapons have been consolidated into a single melee profile with 6 attacks and damage 2 each (with +1 dam on the charge). If an enemy unit casts a spell within 6″ he can immediately move into combat with them, and every time he kills a Wizard or Priest then he heals 7 and gains +1 to his power level for the rest of the game, and yes, this stacks! You could end up with a ridiculously powerful wizard!

Curseling – This is an interesting anti armour unit now – If he is in combat he gets to cast a spell as if it was the hero phase and gives that spell “Unlimited”, which pairs nicely with his unique spell that reduces the armour save of a target unit by 1

Tzaangor Shaman – Can now make any Arcanite unit run and charge rather than just Warflock units, and he has an ability that gives a target cav unit the Companion keyword, which stacks really nicely with the Fateskimmers ability to give companions crit 2 hits!

Tzaangors – These have had a glow up, getting 3 attacks each (with weapons consolidated) and Crit 2 hits as standard, in addition if they are in enemy territory they would on 2s too! Pretty amazing now but have gone up in points a little

Tzaangor Enlightened – These now only come on discs, you can’t take them on foot any more. They have improved a lot though, they now have 3 attacks each and they always get Charge +1 damage (You dont have to be the underdog any more) in addition, when they charge you get to either also increase rend by 1 or give them crit 2 hits – Really nice unit now especially if stacked up with +1 attack abilities.

Tzaangor Skyfires – One of the few Disciples of Tzeentch units that remain unchanged!

Kairic Acolytes – These have lost all their different weapons and no longer have a ranged attack sadly. Instead they get 2 attacks each with rend 1. In the enemy movement phase a single unit can move a distance equal to the fate points you have. They are cheap, but I’d rather take Tzaangor. Might be some use as a cheap unit for teleport trickery though to swap out for a better unit in the enemy movement phase.

Jade Obelisk – These are a weird one now. They have lost all their multiple weapons and the bows no longer have a ranged profile and they still get to use their normal melee weapons – instead the bows can “shoot” the Idolarc token at a unit – while a unit has one on it they are -1 movement for each fate point you have.

Chaos Spawns – get some wording tweaks – They now always deploy in Masked by Illusion, and every time they are destroyed you get a fresh one in Masked by Illusion.

Argent Shard – The new scenery piece, as mentioned before once per turn you can opt to measure range and line of sight from any Argent Shard rather than your caster – you dont even have to be near the Shard, which is really cool! In addition, Once per turn when one is destroyed a fresh one is placed on the battlefield! The only way to get rid of them is to kill them both in the same turn.

The new kit is impressive, but very fiddly – make sure to take your time as I managed to mess mine up a little and one of them doesn’t sit exactly level!

Armies and Regiments of Renown

The Disciples of Tzeentch have 2 Armies of Renown and 2 Regiments of Renown, let’s start with the Armies of Renown.

First up is the Change Cult Uprising, this is purely non Tzaangor mortals – They still get Argent Shards, and at deployment they get to teleport 3 non reinforced units within 3″ of any terrain, which is very cool – there’s no restrictions other than not being in combat, so this can be pretty powerful! Every hero phase you pick an enemy hero and each time they use a core ability you gain a fate point – in adition you can spend fate points to stop enemy heroes from using commands and spend one at the end of any turn to make a unit attack another unit within combat range – great for getting enemy units to hit nearby heroes – this one could be fun, but limited in model terms.

The second one if Oracles of Fate and this is basically the old Destiny Dice mechanic – you have to take Kairos, and can only take Daemons, but like with the old rules you get 9 destiny dice that can be spent to set dice to certain values. While you have 9 dice you can reroll them all at the start of a turn and gain a 5+ ward on every friendly model and -1 save on every enemy model, which is really nice! As you’d expect the traits and spells allow you to gain fresh dice or change them. Pretty nice for people who want to use the old rules.

The first Regiment of Renown is the Seekers of Silver – This consists of a unit of Seekers, a Magister on Disk and a Gaunt Summoner on Disk – they get some abilities that can basically make any terrain piece into a place of power, cause damage to units near places of power and use places of power in the same way as Argent Shards.

The final Regiment of Renown is a weird one – it allows you to take a custom Changeling in any army. He starts off the board and basically gets to swap places with a hero once per game – he has a spell that stops a friendly unit from charging but also gives them anti charge +1 rend – not too convinced with this one to be honest.

Spearhead

There’s a new Spearhead in the book, and model wise it looks pretty good, you get 10 Tzaangor, 2 units of Enlightened/Skyfires and a Tzaangor Shaman – this comes to £136.50 of models or a £45.50 saving off the RRP of a £91 Spearhead, which is pretty good!

There’s some nice mechanics here such as being able to bring in your Enlightend on a board edge, and being able to see the future by looking at the top 3 cards of the deck and then being able to replace them in any order – should be a fun one to play!

Path to Glory

Finally, as with the other 4th edition Battletomes we get a decent Disciples of Tzeentch Path to Glory section!

There’s some really nice options here with the choice of an Arcanite, Daemon, Warflock or even an Ogroid character! I really like the ability to heal equal to the number of Fate Dice you have at the end of any turn, and feel that would make a really nice regenerating Ogroid character! You can even mount your Ogroid on a Burning Chariot too, which feels like a conversion I really need to do!

Like with the other books we also get two new paths, one for heroes and one for non heroes!

I’m looking forward to having a good play with these and seeing what I can cook up!

Summary

So what do I think of the new Disciples of Tzeentch Battletome? This is probably the biggest set of changes we have seen so far in this edition, but I’m really liking what I’ve seen. There’s a lot of fun stuff to play with and there’s multiple builds I want to try here, with lots of units being viable options. There’s a couple of things such as Acolytes that seem a little uninteresting compared to others, but even they have their place with some tricksy unit swapping.

I’ve had a Tzeentch army packed away in boxes for this edition, but I’m really excited to see what they can do with this book!

This book seems like great fun, and for tactical players who want a big tool box with lots of tricks to pull on their enemies this is going to be an enjoyable army to use!

Battletome Disciples of Tzeentch and the new models are up for pre order today and are released Saturday 21st February

Games Workshop provided Sprues & Brews with free copies for review purposes.

Published by Matt Crowther

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