Allegiance: Tzeentch - Change Coven: Hosts Arcanum Mortal Realm: Chamon Leaders Changecaster, Herald of Tzeentch (110) - Artefact: The Fanged Circlet - Lore of Change: Unchecked Mutation Kairos Fateweaver (400) - Lore of Change: Bolt of Tzeentch Lord of Change (380) - General - Command Trait: Spell Hunters - Artefact: Aspect of Tzeentch - Lore of Change: Tzeentch's Firestorm The Blue Scribes (120) Battleline 10 x Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (220) 3 x Screamers of Tzeentch (80) 3 x Screamers of Tzeentch (80) 3 x Screamers of Tzeentch (80) Units 1 x Exalted Flamers of Tzeentch (100) 1 x Exalted Flamers of Tzeentch (100) Battalions Changehost (180) Endless Spells / Terrain / CPs Ravenak's Gnashing Jaws (30) Tome of Eyes (40) Chronomantic Cogs (80) Total: 2000 / 2000 Extra Command Points: 1 Allies: 0 / 400 Wounds: 83
Alright, there it is! The FMC 2020 winning list! 19 players at a 5 round event! (The first since Covid to my knowledge, but that’s another discussion all together.) As for the list How does it work? How’d it start? Conception to finalization. hard counters? soft counters? What does IT counter? Lets jump in, yeah?
So, from the start, when the new Tzeentch battle tome was released my main focus was: 1. Use Fateweaver and 2. NOT utiliize flamer spam. The reason for #1 should be obvious, its Fatey! He is awesome and he is the cutest after all. #2, although a bit strange off the bat, was something I didn’t want to do for a few reasons
- It is boring, for both me and my opponent.
- Once the meta shifts to counter it, it’s over.
- If something survives your first volley, you die. The army is simply too fragile to handle a sustained melee assault. Sure, Pink Horrors make a great barrier but they don’t just disappear if you stop taking Eternal Conflagration as your subfaction.
- The list centers around the LoC doing nothing, probably taking the wand, and kiting people. Boring, and can be shot off to null your movement early on.
Back to the list. Let’s take a look at Kairos Fateweaver: How good is he? How good can we make him? What does he need to survive and thrive? What makes him good?
Lets start with how good he is and what makes him good:
- He’s an improved Lord of Change (LoC)! (LoC as a base is a good start)
- He gets the LoC casting dice flip ability!
- He can eat an endless spell whenever he wants!
- He has an extra cast! 3! from 1 wizard, who knew?
- His innate spell does a 6 flat mortals as long as he’s unwounded, if that kills a model, it makes a spawn within 3′ of the unit he shot at. Pretty good huh?
- 14 wounds and a 4+ save is no slouch. He can hold his own in combat too, with 8 rend 1, damage 2 attacks.
Not bad for a Big Chicken. So now on to to the other 2 questions: What would make him better, and what CAN make him better? In an ideal world, +20 wounds and a DPR (Damage Prevention Roll/Feel No Pain) would make him better. Since that’s not possible, what can we do? First, look back at the list – I centered the list around him, and Host Arcanum was the best pick for a few reasons.
Host Arcanum and the Changehost
The Changehost battalion combined with Hosts Arcanum helps Fateweaver not die to others magic. On turn 1, 3, and 5 one wizard in my army gets an automatic unbind of an enemy spell. That’s a good start. He’s a LoC and already has crazy dispelling capabilities, but guaranteed is better then “crazy good”. The covens command ability gives screamers +1 armor and -1 rend. Doesn’t really help Fatey, but now if he wants a personal bodyguard, they are -1 to hit in combat thanks to the Locus of Change Daemon aura. At 4+ armor, 3 wounds a piece, 3 man (fish?) squads of screamers or the Fanged Circlet summoned squad of 6! Not bad, that’s 45 potential screening/screaming wounds! See what I did there? (Sorry.)
We are gonna skip the command trait for the coven for now. As mentioned above, the covens relic: Fanged circlet: once per game, in the beginning of the hero phase, summon 1 unit of 6 screamers. Good for guarding heroes (like Fatey!) but also good for assaulting enemies so we’ll get to that.
Agendas of Anarchy
Disciples of Tzeentch own allegiance traits. These can be absurdly powerful if timed right.
My go to agendas are, in order:
- Mass Conjuration: Pick 1 friendly Tzeentch Wizard, if they complete 2 spell casts on an unmodified roll of 9+, the caster received a permanent +1 to casting.
- Overthrow Leaders: Ā Pick 1 enemy HERO or MONSTER with a wounds characteristic of 9+, Add 1 to the save rolls to the unit that kills that hero/monster.
At the end of turn 2 if both of these are completed, Fateweaver will have a natural +1 to casts (with 3 spells a turn!) and be sitting on a 3+ armor save (in addition to his 14 wounds, and -1 to be hit in combat).
Supporting Fateweaver
So, we now we’ve got some decent buffs for the big bird, what else on the list is good? Blue Scribes get to cast a spell on a 2+ and their built in warscroll spell gives all friendly Tzeentch wizards within 18″ the ability to reroll failed casting attempts. Not that its often needed for Fateweaver, but it’s good to have the reassurance.
Next up Chronomatic Cogs. The accompanying Lord of Change in the list was usually the one to cast this spell, then Fateweaver would be the one manipulate it. Now Fateweaver has 4 Casts, with the LoC casting dice flip, at a potential +1 to that result, rerolling failed casts (thanks to the scribes!), 4+ or 3+ armor, now rerolling failed saves on 14 wounds and -1 to hit in combat.
The LoC has 2 other purposes, yes, besides the requirement in Changehost, which are:
- To loan his innate spell and additional Tzeentch lore spell to Fateweaver, giving Fateweaver a total of 5 offensive/damage dealing spells while those 2 casters are alive.
- The generic Lord of Change command ability, which gives an 18″ aura of +1 to cast.
So now, Fateweaver is:
- 14 wounds with a 4+ (3+ if you pulled off the Agenda)
- -1 to hit in combat
- Re-rolling failed saves
- +2 to cast
- Flipping the lowest dice to the highest dice when casting
- Rerolling failed casts
- 4 casts a turn
- And Eight rend -1, damage 2 attacks in combat.
Power
House.
NOW, besides FaTeDiCe, is there ANYthing else that can make him better? Well, remember the Host Arcanum Command Trait we skipped over? It gives D3 FLYING units the ability to scout 6″ before the game starts — Oh yeah, Kairos flies!
The other endless spell in this list now comes to play: The Tome of Eyes. Cast on a 5+ and place the Tome 1″ from the caster. The caster and the tome are treated as the same model, so Fateweaver now has a 50mm and 1″ extension from his base after scouting 6″. So now we’re roughly 9″ up the table.
The list is a Changehost battalion + Kairos Fateweaver, giving you 2 drops. This will easily out-drop most opponents so I get to decide who takes the first turn. Fateweaver is now pretty much 9″ past my line at the time of my first hero phase – before my opponent gets to go. Look back at the checklist of crazy buffs he has on him now. Deployment zones are normally now about 18 apart, sometimes 24, so, at 18″ apart, the tome is usually not needed if its 24″ apart. If it is, he has it ready. 3 or 4 spells at range 18″ mortal wounding spells at a +2 to cast, Flipping the lowest dice to the highest dice to cast, re-rolling failed casts, before your opponent gets to do anything.
Those spells are:
- 6 flat mortals (maybe make a spawn)
- d6 mortals
- 9 dice that do d3 mortals for each 6
- 9 dice that do 1 mortal for each 3+
- Parchment curse (if the tome was cast) d3 mortals, subtract the same number from your bravery for the rest of the game.
- Arcane bolt (why? idk, but he’s got it!)
- (if the tome wasn’t cast: Ravanaks gnashing jaws)
So that’s why I went with Kairos Fateweaver.
Now. the rest of the list. š
The Rest of the List
Changehost is easily one of the most powerful battalions in the book and more or less an auto take for most Daemon lists. Why?
- A Lord of Change and 8 HORROR units which is most of your Daemons anyways
- You can teleport 1 unit per turn in the hero phase.
- Reduces the number of drops for the army
All-around good value.
Changecaster: It gets 2 spells! ANOTHER d6 mortal wound spell, and unchecked mutation is: d3 with a potential d3 after that. He also holds the Fanged Circlet so that after he teleports from change host, he can summon 6 screamers, and the give them the buff of +1 armor, +1 rend. THOSE SCREAMERS CAN THEN MOVE in the movement phase! When screamers move over a -thing- they can roll 1 dice, on a 5+ deal 1 mortal to said -thing-. If that -thing- was also a wizard, it takes d3 mortals for each 5+ instead. If screamers fight you in combat, and you are a monster, their damage output goes from D1 to d3 (and of course the command ability turns the R- into R1 in all accounts. Between a teleported wizard potentially casting D6 and D3 mortals, shooting at you with his 3 shooting attacks (which I almost always forgot), fly over damage from the screamers and then charged by said screamers…yeah you probably aren’t surving that. The other x3 packs of 3 screamers usually was backfield protection or “decoys”.
The Pink Horrors in the army just do -Pinks- stuff
And then theĀ Exalted Flamers x2 assisted the birds in dealing with upfront damage. Clearing hordes or sniping heroes who didn’t die to Fateweaver.
What Would I Do Differently Today?
The original version of this article was written shortly after Flying Monkey Con. That was in August 2020 and as of this writing it’s May 2021. Not a lot really changed in the list as COVID basically shut down the tournament scene and kept the meta pretty stagnant, plus we didn’t get any points adjustments meaning most of what worked then still works now. That said there are a few changes I would make in light of recent changes:
Allegiance: Tzeentch - Change Coven: Hosts Arcanum Leaders Changecaster, Herald of TzeentchĀ (110) -Ā Artefact: The Fanged Circlet -Ā Lore of Change: Treason of Tzeentch Curseling, Eye of TzeentchĀ (160) -Ā Lore of Fate: Arcane Suggestion The Blue ScribesĀ (120) -Ā Lore of Change: Unchecked Mutation Kairos FateweaverĀ (400) -Ā Lore of Change: Bolt of Tzeentch Lord of ChangeĀ (380) -Ā General -Ā Command Trait: Spell Hunters -Ā Artefact: Aspect of Tzeentch -Ā Lore of Change: Tzeentch's Firestorm Battleline 3 x Screamers of TzeentchĀ (80) 3 x Screamers of TzeentchĀ (80) 3 x Screamers of TzeentchĀ (80) Units 10 x Brimstone Horrors of TzeentchĀ (60) 10 x Brimstone Horrors of TzeentchĀ (60) 10 x Brimstone Horrors of TzeentchĀ (60) Battalions ChangehostĀ (180) Endless Spells / Terrain / CPs Extra Command PointĀ (50) Geminids of Uhl-GyshĀ (60) Tome of EyesĀ (40) Chronomantic CogsĀ (80) Total:Ā 2000 / 2000 Extra Command Points:Ā 2 Allies:Ā 0 / 400 Wounds:Ā 100
I made some room to fit the Curseling in. This involved swapping the pinks out for a bunch of brimstones, which is a sufficient tarpit in most cases. The exalted flamers, gone. And with the leftover points I swapped Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws for the Geminids of Uhl-Gysh to further debuff enemies.
Why the change? In short Lumineth Realm-lords make casting far more obnoxious than it was. Especially with Teclis. The Curseling can force Teclis to cast fewer spells to get those guaranteed casts, or risk the Curseling stealing them out from under his nose. Protection of Teclis isn’t so fun when it’s turned around on him.
Let me know what you think and if you’d like to see more!
JoeK has his own Patreon over at Titan Wargaming. If you have any other questions or concepts you’d like to see tackled drop a line down below or contact us at contact@goonhammer.com
