How to Play Disciples of Tzeentch in Warhammer Age of Sigmar (4th Edition)

Tzeentch's army rules revolve around fate points and illusions. Instead of the old Destiny Dice, the current battletome hands you fate points as a running reward for the plan “unfolding.”

• Gaining fate points (All Part of the Plan): you bank a fate point when your opponent's success rebounds on you — for example losing the priority roll, having one of your spells unbound, suffering a miscast, losing an objective you held, or having your Argent Shard terrain destroyed. Even bad luck feeds the machine.
• Spending fate points: they are a flexible currency. You can spend them to remove damage before it is allocated to a unit (reported as Destined to Serve), and to improve casting rolls and charge rolls at key moments. The more you have banked, the more of a turn you can rewrite.
• Infernal Gateway: a signature damage tool that rolls a pile of dice — up to a number tied to your fate points — and turns hits into mortal damage, so a full fate-point pool becomes a genuine threat.
• Illusions (Eldritch Illusions / Smoke and Mirrors): you can hold units off the board “masked by illusion” and later reveal or swap them, letting you redeploy, dodge alpha strikes, and appear where the opponent is weakest.
• Argent Shard terrain: your faction terrain acts as a magical focus and can effectively project spells and unbinds across the board.

Exact numbers and the precise spend costs vary by printing and errata — verify the current cards. The theme is constant: you are always turning the opponent's good rolls into your own resources.

The current battletome offers four battle formations. Each nudges you toward a different flavour of Tzeentch. Confirm the exact wording in your battletome, as Battlescrolls tweak these.

• Change Host — the classic daemon-teleport formation. At the end of your turn you can pick a Disciples of Tzeentch Daemon unit in combat and, on a roll, pull it out and set it back up elsewhere. Superb for tar-pitting, re-positioning, and grabbing objectives with slippery daemons.
• Tzaangor Coven — the mortal beastmen build. It supercharges the Rally command for your Warflock (Tzaangor) units, letting battered blocks claw models back and grind on far longer than they should.
• Wyrdflame Host — the burning/mutation build. It leans into setting enemy units alight and mutating them, including reducing the wound rolls of afflicted enemies. A good pick if you want a more damage-forward, attritional game.
• Arcanite Cabal — the anti-magic / control build. It boosts unbinding for your Arcanite units and lets a successful unbind unlock the Magical Intervention command without the usual command-point cost, letting you shut down enemy casters while still casting your own.

Verify current warscrolls and points before building a list; roles below are general.

• Kairos Fateweaver — flagship Greater Daemon wizard and one of the strongest casters in the game; often the centrepiece for a magic-heavy list.
• Lord of Change — durable Greater Daemon caster and combatant; can help recycle daemon units back onto the board.
• Pink Horrors — the iconic battleline: a screening, objective-holding wizard block that splits into smaller Horrors as it takes casualties.
• Flamers of Tzeentch / Exalted Flamer / Burning Chariot — mobile mortal-wound shooting that pairs naturally with the burning theme.
• Screamers of Tzeentch — fast daemon harassers for chip damage and board control.
• Tzaangor Enlightened and Tzaangor Skyfires — elite mortal cavalry/beast hitters; Skyfires bring ranged mortal output, Enlightened bring the melee punch.
• Tzaangors (Warflock) — the horde battleline for the mortal build, best behind Rally support in a Tzaangor Coven.
• Support heroes — Changecaster, Fatemaster, Magister, The Curseling, The Blue Scribes and similar characters add extra casts, unbinds and command efficiency to a caster-dense army.

Tzeentch wins by controlling the magic phase and the tempo of the game rather than by brute force.

• Bank and spend fate points deliberately. Early on you are often “farming” points from lost priority rolls and unbound spells. Hold a reserve so you can reduce a big hit or push a decisive charge or cast when it matters most.
• Win the magic phase. Bring enough casters and unbinds that you out-magic almost anyone. Use the Argent Shard to extend your reach and deny key enemy spells.
• Use illusions to dictate the fight. Masking units in reserve lets you refuse an alpha strike, then reveal or redeploy onto an undefended objective. Misdirection is a real weapon here.
• Score, don't slug. Horrors and daemons are excellent at holding and contesting objectives. Play the mission, chip with mortal wounds, and let fate points blunt the enemy's best turn.
• Pick a lane. Commit to a plan — daemon teleport (Change Host), mortal grind (Tzaangor Coven), burning damage (Wyrdflame Host), or magic control (Arcanite Cabal) — and build your list and lores around it rather than trying to do everything.

• Hoarding fate points forever. Points you never spend do nothing. Convert them into damage prevention, casts or charges before the game ends.
• Over-committing squishy casters. Your wizards are powerful but fragile. Screen them and don't leave a Greater Daemon exposed to a charge.
• Forgetting the illusion plan. The reserve/redeploy tricks only help if you set up for them; plan your deployment around them rather than as an afterthought.
• Getting swarmed or rushed. Against fast, elite melee or heavy anti-magic armies, Tzeentch can be pushed off objectives before the magic engine gets going. Deep-striking or teleporting opponents can bypass your screens.
• Ignoring errata. This army has been repeatedly rebalanced. A tactic that was strong at launch may have been toned down — check the current Battlescroll so you aren't relying on an outdated combo.