Tips for a Tzeench army

[GreyCrow]

Greetings Sorcerers !

 

So, I am considering making a Chaos army after my Space Marine army, and I really enjoy Tzeench and the overall Psychic feel that he brings. Overall, I am a complete neophyte to the arcane lore and I wanted your help ! Indeed, while other Chaos patrons are more straightforward and either to understand and analyze, I feel that I need the help of dedicated Tzeench players to understand the strengths and the weaknesses of a Tzeench based army.

 

My main points of interrogation come from :

- The Troops choices, is it better to go for Thousand Sons or Chaos Marines (although I am not really interested in cultists in the way I picture my army)

- The Tzeench specific upgrades (marks, icons)

- The Tzeench Psychic Powers

- Any Daemon allies

- General strengths and weaknesses of a Tzeench army

- Units that work well with Tzeench mechanics

- Things that are useful to know !

 

Thanks a lot ! :D

 

[*Furyou Miko]

Well, from the word 'go', it's better to use either the Black Legion or the Crimson Slaughter supplements for your Tzeentch army - the Black Legion relics include a nice little item that gives you a bonus spell that really helps with your otherwise lacking anti-horde capabilities, while the Crimson Slaughter can net you a Sorcerer casting Divination powers (and free Fear on all your squads).

 

Thousand Sons squads work excellently in 7th edition, and you generally want to keep them cheap and plentiful (well, as cheap as Thousand Sons get, anyway). Every Sorcerer you have not only lets you cap an objective, but gives you an extra Warp Charge for your HQs to hurl fiery death and two-one punches like combining Terrify and Psychic Shriek.

 

Tzeentch-specific upgrades are overcosted for the most part - the Mark is only really worth its points on a model that already has an Invulnerable save like Daemon Engines and Obliterators. The icon is never worth taking, in my opinion.

 

The general strengths and weaknesses... hm. Tzeentch stuff is expensive - you'll be running with fewer models than most enemy armies, and thus have fewer shots to put downrange. On the other hand, Thousand Sons squads simply chew through MEq units at a rate no other army can really match other than Tau. You will completely dominate the Psychic phase, since even if you do find yourself using Warp Charges to cast from your Aspiring Sorcerers (not the best use, their power list isn't great), you'll find that there are some nice targets of opportunity for Tzeentch's Firestorm, and now that they can use Breath of Chaos, they make amazing TEq-hunters when they roll that power.

 

For HQs, though, I generally go with the one Tzeentch power we must roll (which also nets us Tzeentch's Firestorm due to Chaos Focus), and then two powers from another discipline - I usually go with Divination for my Sorcerer, and Telepathy for Ahriman.

[GreyCrow]

Thanks for the tips ! Indeed the lower model count was something I planned and was relatively afraid of, along with the lack of anti tank.

 

Using Codex CSM (I don"t have the supplements at hand), I was thinking about a following test list at 1000 points :

 

- Sorcerer, ML3, Aura of Dark Glory, Mark of Tzeentch

- 8 Thousand Sons, Rhino

- 7 Thousand Sons, Rhino

- Defiler, Battle Cannon, extra Power Fist, Twin Linked Heavy Flamer

- Forgefiend, Hades Autocannons

 

Alternatively, I could dropp the Rhinos and go for 3 squads of 5 Thousand Sons on foot. I could drop the Defiler and go for 5 more TSons in a Rhino or for a full blob of cultists (they're a good unit on the battlefield, but I hate them with a force :p ). The goal of the Defiler was to have a strong S8 punch (pun intended) along with the Forgefiend to compensate for the total lack of anti armour in the TSons squads.

 

What do you guys think ?

[oreaper84]

i think you should def find a way to get a sigil on that sorc, its not that much more expensive and is simply great. If its model availability i would say your list is ok but yoiu hit the nail on the head, you'll struggle against armour. Maybe drop a rubric and getting some melta bombs. Also without prescience re-rolls i have found the forgefiend lackluster with the exception that he loves popping fliers out of the sky (even then hes much better with rerolls)

[Baltasar]

[GreyCrow]

i think you should def find a way to get a sigil on that sorc, its not that much more expensive and is simply great. If its model availability i would say your list is ok but yoiu hit the nail on the head, you'll struggle against armour. Maybe drop a rubric and getting some melta bombs. Also without prescience re-rolls i have found the forgefiend lackluster with the exception that he loves popping fliers out of the sky (even then hes much better with rerolls)

 

Thanks for the tips !

 

How about replacing the Defiler by a Maulerfiend with magma cutters, then ? that would free up points for the sigil and perhaps a few extra rubrics/melta bombs ?

[*Furyou Miko]

I would definitely drop the Rhinos for another squad. You want to maximise your Warp Charges where you can because that's where your main tank-killing power is coming from. The Maulerfiend is going to suffer from the usual problems of being a lone, expensive melee walker in a primarily shooty list though.