HERO’s Commission Army: Tzeentch’s Eternal Conflagration
Now that you guys have been following my posts about my recent army commission, let me take you through how I plan on using the army in Age of Sigmar.
I decided to split my tactics articles into two parts; one for AOS and the other for 40K, otherwise it would be insanely long.
Part of the reason why I chose Tzeentch as my army is because I love the look of Flamers. I think they’re one of the coolest models ever put out by GW and it’s one of the units that symbolize the chaotic nature of Tzeentch himself. Their pulsating, multi-colored tendrils capable of spewing pure daemonic fire is something that all units fear in Age of Sigmar, and rightfully so. That is why when I was designing my list and choosing which models to be commissioned, I wanted to make sure I could squeeze in a few Flamer units for both my AOS and 40K lists.
Kairos Fateweaver – Oracle of Tzeentch
Truth be told, before I even ordered any of the models to be built and commissioned, I made sure to build the army list first. Some models I chose out of pure rule of cool, but others I chose because they were highly points effective and potent on the table. That’s why I eventually decided on fielding an Eternal Conflagration Coven with the Changehost Battalion. This fit my exact playstyle and the units I wanted to play in Tzeentch, as well as being one of the best combos that competitive Tzeentch players can field.
The Eternal Conflagration’s Twisters of Materiality improves the Rend of my Warpflame (Flamers), Billowing Warpflame (Exalted Flamers) and Magical Flames (Horrors) missiles by 1. This is the main reason why you take the Coven and it’s the most one of the reasons why it is so lethal. Most things in AOS don’t have a very high armor save and this can basically translate into removing models from the table. Infernos of Mutation is an interesting command ability that can reduce the Bravery characteristic of a unit getting shot by 2, but for a CP, it has to be for a very specific use case. Coruscating Flames on my Lord of Change as the default command trait offers a 12″ bubble of wholly within -1 to hit against enemy missile fire. This can be useful when fighting other shooty armies like the Seraphon, Khadron Overlords, Lumineth (Top 3 armies in AOS), but more commonly Stormcast variants i.e. Sigmarines. Lastly, we have Shroud of Warpflame, which does a mortal wound on a roll of 3+ each time I allocate a wound or mortal wound to the bearer. It’s pretty decent.
For Changehost, I am able to get the entire army down on the table in two drops, mainly because one of my units is not a Horror Hero. In case you fellas didn’t know, with Changehost, in the Hero phase, as long as the Lord of Change is on the battlefield, you can remove a unit (except Fatemaster in this list) from the battlefield and set it up more than 9″ away from enemy units. This allows you to do all kinds of shenanigans like reposition Horror units as roadblocks, teleport to scoring positions, set up firing solutions with Flamers, or just get one of your units out of danger if needs be. The possibilities are near endless, just as Tzeentch intended.
What you see here could be interrupted by some as maximum Tzeentch filth. It’s definitely capable of taking tournaments (once COVID clears) and it’s one of the reasons why Tzeentch is considered one of the more powerful armies in Age of Sigmar. Sure, these days the Top 3 previously mentioned can give it a run for its money, but this list can still be considered one of the more shooty lists that can annihilate most armies if they’re not prepared for. Let me break it down.
The Radiant Lord is ready to lead the Changehost.
We start with the Radiant Lord, Bright Lord, or the Flaming Chicken King. His role in this list is to simply be a buff bubble and blast things away with Infernal Gateway and Tzeentch’s Firestorm. Being the lynchpin of the entire group, Aura of Mutability provides everything wholly within 9″ of him +1 to wound rolls for attacks. When I’m placing my Flamers, I make sure that they’re close enough to the Chicken-Lord to benefit from this insane ability. This drastically increases the damage your Flamers can put out a single shooting phase.
Who is that third Scribe? Well, that’s me! 3×3=9 times the fun!
Next, we look at the other heroes, starting with The Blue Scribes. On the surface, the Scribes might look a bit silly and out of place, but he’s actually one of the better characters in the book. First, he can copy spells on a 4+ and he can start with copying some of the spells that your Lord of Change casts early on. This allows him to get off the more difficult spells to cast later on a 2+ with his Scrolls of Sorcery, stating that instead of rolling, it is automatically cast and cannot be unbound. This is really important in later parts of the game when I can still use him to Fold Reality to get models back or get off bigger casts when I need it most. Otherwise, he just sits back and drops Boon of Tzeentch on the army which gives me the ability to re-roll casting rolls. With the LoC’s Mastery of Magic, there’s a good chance I’ll be able to get my spells off. Oh, this is totally a conversion piece. I insisted on helping out as an extra scribe role-playing on the disc.
The Fatemaster looks kind of different these days.
At first, the Fatemaster might look a bit out of place given that he’s the only Mortal Hero and he doesn’t quite fit in the Changehost, but he’s there for a good reason. Let me first warn you that I’m choosing to use Ahriman’s model for this because I think he looks super cool and I can always swap him if needs be. I just hate the static pose that the Fatemaster model comes in. Regardless, Fatemaster’s role in the army is quite simple: Use his Lord of Fate Command Ability to provide a bubble of re-roll hits for all Tzeentch models wholly within 9″ of this model. This means that you take this guy and run him close to your Lord of Change and stack the damage through the roof. Your shooting units are now re-rolling to hit with +1 on damage rolls. Don’t worry, it gets better (for you).
Ready to annoy and annihilate!
To hold the line, we have our beloved Pink Horrors. Everyone in the game knows what these guys do and at first, you might be wondering why they cost 220 points. Well, in short, these guys could be one of the most annoying units in the entire game. Due to Split and Split Again, each of these guys is actually 5 wounds, and that’s if they don’t get negated by their Ectoplasmic Elasticity 6+ save. When a Pink is killed, it splits into two Blues, then each Blue splits into a Brimstone. While their damage potential is acceptable, what makes them stand out is that they’re extremely flexible in purpose. They’re not really chaff per se, but they can be excellent in acting as a speed-bump that can tie up for a round, just to be teleported away by Changehost’s Deceive and Dismay ability, and leave the unit to be lit up again by your Flamers. Very tricksy indeed.
HOT! HOT! HOT!
Now, we get to the juiciest part of the list: The Flamers and Exalted Flamers. The reason why Tzeentch is so hated is not only because of the Horrors, but it’s also the ridiculous shooting that Flamers can put out. Each unit of 6 shoots out 19 shots at 18″, 4+ to hit and 3+ to wound, -1 Rend because of Eternal Conflagration (Exalted has -2), and D3 damage apiece. If shooting at a unit of 10 or more models, you add +1 to hit, and if shooting at 20, you add +2 to hit. Most of the time when shooting at units, you’ll be hitting on 3s. The reason for two units of Flamers and two Exalted Flamers is because if you have the Exalted Flamers within 9″ of the Flamers, you get another +1 to hit. That means each Flamer unit will have 3s to hit (2s in most cases), re-rolling to hit because of Fatemaster’s Lord of Fate Command ability, wounding on 2s because of KFC’s Aura of Mutability aura’s +1 to wound . Yes, it’s absolute fiery filth, and I love it. The Exalted Flamers don’t benefit themselves because of Tzeentch reasons, but they more than make up for it by being little buff beacons and each of them shoots 6 attacks with one additional Rend than the basic Flamer.
Behold! The flames of mutation are upon us!
The reason I chose to bring 2 squads of 6 Flamers is that I want to be able to maximize Fold Reality that’s on my Blue Scribes. This can be cast on a 7+ normally but you can pop scrolls for a 2+ auto-cast with no unbind for the ability to resurrect some of the Flamers in the squad. On a D6 roll of a 1, your unit goes poof, but on a 2+, you bring back that many models depending on the roll. This is one of the more “fun” spells in the Tzeentch arsenal that can’t be Destiny Diced, but can also make your opponents’ nose bleed if you manage to bring an entire squad back to full, just to light them on fire again next shooting phase.
Well, what do you guys think? Aside from looking absolutely diesel, these daemons are going to ruin anyone’s day on the table. I can’t wait for the pandemic to be over so I can get these guys on the table. Stay tuned for some battle reports once that happens!
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