Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tzeentch

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This is the general tactics page on how to play Tzeentch in Total War: WARHAMMER.

Why Play Tzeentch

  • You love magic, and want every opportunity to cheese the FUCK out of it.
  • The thing that appeals to you about Chaos are the strange, almost Lovecraftian creatures that swim around in it, and this is the best option for that.
  • You want to act like everything is going Just As Planned, even when everything is going horribly, horribly wrong.
  • You enjoy the hit and run style of the Wood Elves, but want to insert just a little bit of Chaos into the mix

Pros

  • Magic: While you do only have 3 magic lores to pick from, you still look to be strong in the sense of just how many spells you will be able to pump out. The fact that you will have large magic pools, gain army spells are rewards for casting and the ability to pump up your magic on the campaign map will make you one of the most magic reliant armies in the game.
  • Firepower: And not just because half of your projectiles are literal fire. You will likely be the best ranged faction not just of all the Monogod faction, but of all the Chaos factions in general! (Not that you'll really have much competition in that regard.)
  • Fire: You will have it aplenty with Flammers and Horrors in your roster. Anything that is weak to fire is going to burn and burn hard.
  • Air Game: You have flying Daemons, flying chariots, Lords of Change, discs that allow your lords and heroes to fly, and flying cavalry on Frisbees of doom. Point is, with all the flying shit you have you should have a good amount of air control.
  • Survivability with Skill: Barrier helps keep your units alive in the face of destruction. If you are good at cycle charging and keeping the barrier alive, you can go through a battle taking minimal casualties.

Cons

  • Lack of CQC: Expect to be the worst of the Monogods in melee. Your Demons will have low armor and defense, and your Chaos Warriors likely won't hold up as well as their brothers from the other Chaos gods don't actually exist.
  • Limited Range: Describing your maximum effective range on most of your units as "spitting distance" wouldn't be out of place. You certainly have it better than factions with no/limited missile units, but factions like the Wood Elves, Skaven, Empire, Cathay and even High Elves will generally be able to start wearing down your shields/health before you get close enough to return the favor.
  • Magic and Fire resistance: If you're fighting an opponent who has Magic and/or Fire Resistance, you may be in trouble. With the rework to Magic Resistance this won't be the worst thing ever for your infantry, but the reduced spell damage will suck because you will have a massive mana pool and will want to use it.
  • Micro Intensive: This is not an army for beginners. It encourages cycle charging and keeping out of an opponents range all without much in the way of a frontline. Though the rapidly recharging shields offer more wiggle room for errors than the likes of the Beastmen/Wood Elves, who are similarly squishy, it can still be very unforgiving when it comes to mistakes so play these guys at your own risk.
  • Lack of options: Not only do you have the smallest roster of the game 3 races (tied with Nurgle), you have the smallest roster of any core Warhammer races. DLCS will likely fix this problem, but for now you don't have many choices to pick from. In terms of playstyles you probably have the most variety of the Monogods, though you will still favor ranged hit and run.
  • "Friend" is another word for "backstabber": As with most of the daemonic factions, diplomacy is not your forte. While the Skaven are insane and duplicitous enough to consider working with you, the ogres who are willing to help you if you offer them anything shiny, and your mortal followers in the Beastmen, Warriors of Chaos, and Norsca are of course willing to help, you will not have too many options for diplomatic gestures beyond them.
  • DLC: This is just a fair guess from the past. The mortal half of the army is very shallow and could use some fleshing out, something like Tzaangors can really help out with that. Expect units to be held back for future Lord Packs.

Faction Traits

  • Barrier:You know how on the table top Tzeentch's mark typically gave an invulnerable save or +1 to an existing save? This is exactly that. A magical barrier that all Tzeentch units have. As long as some of the barrier is left, it will absorb the damage of anything that hits the unit. It probably won't be too big, but it'll be enough to buy your troops some time to do what they need to do. It recharges when out of combat, so it encourages a hit and run ranged style of combat the Tzeentch loves. Makes sure you keep it up because the vast majority of your units are squishy and won't take much of a beating from pretty much anything.
  • Daemonic: Undead with extra steps, really. Once your daemonic units lose enough leadership, they'll begin to lose health and fade back into the Warp in the same vein that undead units crumble away. The good news is that even if your daemons are doomed to evaporate, they'll at least stick in and fight to the last model.
  • The Eye of Tzeentch: As you cast spells a meter on the right hand side of the screen fills up, unlocking three different abilities at three tiers. This meter can fill up more than once, meaning that as long as you keep casting spells you can unlock these abilities pretty much endlessly.
    • Arcane Surge: This is the first ability, granting an 80% Winds of Magic recharge for 14 seconds with a 60 second cooldown. This ability encourages you to spam lots of low cost spells like Pink Fire or Blue Fire so that you can fill the meter quickly and replenish your Winds.
    • Bolt of Change: The second ability is essentially just a Doombolt from the Lore of Dark, only it applies a Sundered Armor effect. Can be cast anywhere on the battlefield and has a 90 second cooldown.
    • Storm of Fire: The final tier unlocks a bombardment spell with a massive area of effect and plenty of armor piercing damage. Can also be cast anywhere on the map but has a 120 second cooldown

Lords

Legendary Lords

  • Kairos Fateweaver: Kairos, if done justice, will be one of the best magic users in the entire game. Every battle Kairos can pick spells from the other lores of magic on top of his Lore of Tzeentch. Stat wize he is actually pretty pathetic, being weaker than a normal Lord of Change in melee. He makes up for this by being very strong in casting, having Greater Arcane Conduit and a mixed spell lore in Multiplayer. With Regrowth in his multiplayer kit, he is going to be one of very few Non Nurgle Chaos characters with the ability to heal. He'll likely be the only flying monogod chaos legendary lord at launch. His Staff of Tomorrow allows him to reset the cooldown of his spells and his Gaze of Tzeentch allows him to root an enemy in place and allow your little friends below to burn them to pieces. He is a perfect example of Tzeentch's combat as a whole, strong with magic, but keep him the fuck out of melee.

Generic Lords

  • Exalted Lord of Change: Budget Kairos. These guys will be uber powerful spellcasters, likely with Greater Arcane Conduit and Comes with the Lores of Metal and Tzeentch. Apparently they are still pretty strong in melee combat, so while they won't be able to go toe to toe with a Bloodthirster, they can still lay the whooping on most mortals. The Ability to fly also gives it a good chance to choose it's battles and get around the fight quickly.
  • Herald of Tzeentch: He will be your standard Daemon mage, along with having some more support abilities for helping out units outside of magic. Compared to the Lord of Change he will probably be weaker in terms of magic in exchange for having more buffs and supportive elements. He can be mounted on a Disk and a Burning Chariot.

Heroes

Legendary Heroes

Generic Heroes

  • Iridescent Horror: Budget version of the Herald, allowing you to take one for a Lord of Change army or for your Legendary Lord. They have some Lotuses that allows them to buff troops in combat without using magic. They come with the Lores of Metal and Tzeentch and can mount up on a Disk and a Burning Chariot. On the chariot he comes with a missile attack, allowing him to be pretty decent at kiting enemies.
  • Cultist of Tzeentch: Your Mortal hero and the only mage in your army that can use the Lore of Fire. The big reason you bring them is to summon more Daemons to the battlefield, all the way up to a Lord of Change (which will likely be campaign only, but then again the beastmen can pull a Cyrgor out of there asses so a LoC might be possible in multi, who knows.) Seems as though in Multiplayer he can only summon a Pink Horror unit. Will probably get his ass cheeks handed to him by any decent melee fighter but makes up for it with spell casting and his Daemon summons.

Units

Infantry

  • Blue Horrors of Tzeentch: Horrors will have a flaming range attack to pepper enemies from afar, though they will likely be the worse of the lesser daemons in combat (not that they will be useless). They will serve as your chaff infantry, meant to throw off some magic volleys then run in and die to hold for your more important troops. The range attack is meant more so as a precursor attack before charging into melee, especially since they only have 5 ammo.
  • Forsaken of Tzeentch: Your only dedicated melee infantry. They work very similar to the WoC version, though due to Barrier these guys will be slightly more resilient and make up more of a front line role rather than a fast flanker role. Will likely be your main frontline to protect your squishy Daemons for most of the game.

Missiles

  • Pink Horrors of Tzeentch: Upgrades to the blue guys. Has a better flaming range attack, and actually decent melee stats. Sadly, it has been confirmed that they will not split into Blue Horrors upon death. Will likely replace Blue Horrors once you have the money for them, as they do everything that they do but way better.
  • Exalted Pink Horrors of Tzeentch: And the Pink Horrors will be replaced by these guys. They come with insane ranged damage, out damaging the elite skirmishers of other factions, and increase the Winds of Magic recharge rate for your army as long as they're alive. This will be one of your likely Doomstacks in the late game, as strong missiles combined with extra magic is something no one will want less of. No AP on the ranged attack, but with a missile damage of 35 heavily armored units still won't like being hit by these guys.

Cavalry

  • Chaos Knights of Tzeentch: Your heavy cav, designed interestingly to be a more durable holding unit. They lack the heavy charge of most cav but in return they have heavy armor to block damage thrown at them. Combine this with Barrier, and this is a Cav unit actually designed more so to hold the line rather than to flank and cycle charge. They also cause fear, so they will be great against low leadership armies.
  • Doom Knights: Chaos Knights riding discs of Tzeentch, equipped with polearms and shields. They are much squishier than the normal knights but in return are faster, can fly and hit much harder. They are said to be the best melee focused unit in the roster. Interestingly, despite having Halberds they don't have AP or Anti Large, though they make up for that with an insane charge bonus and weapon strength. Once again, encourages cycle charging, though Barrier should help keep individual models alive when pulling out, which is a problem with most flying cav.

Chariots

  • Burning Chariot: A flying ranged focused chariot that has one of the most devastating ranged attacks in the entire game. It can apparently shred infantry formations and monsters but has low armor to compensate. Probably won't be the best chariot in melee, but the ability to fly and shoot flames will likely make up for that.

War Beast

  • Chaos Furies (Tzeentch): Flying skirmisher harrassers who come with Barrier, allowing them to soak up slightly more damage than the Furies of the other gods. They hav vanguard allowing for better ambush and flanking potential. Will die if something so much as looks at them funny, so be careful with how long you leave them to fight.
  • Screamer: Flying Steve Irwin killers, who for some reason have human faces. Seriously go watch the World of Tzeentch trailer, his face is hilarious. Closest thing you have to light cavalry, these sky "sharks" (they're obviously manta rays, why the fuck does GW keep calling them sharks? Actually some sharks have a similar body shape to rays and both are cartilaginous fish in the same suborde- *ZAP* Nobody cares know-it-all) are designed for counter charging cavalry and monsters with their AP Anti Large. They will be put on the endangered species list if you throw them against most heavy large units on their own, they are meant to counter charge enemy cav and monsters while they're dealing with something else.

Monsters

  • Spawn of Tzeentch: Chaos Spawn but blue this time. Ok I guess Barrier makes them a bit more durable so they have more of a cycle charging role rather than a holding role of normal spawn. That's it, moving on.
  • Flamers of Tzeentch: A mobile flamethrower unit that can pump out ludicrous damage to unarmored targets. Apparently still ok in melee, though don't expect them to last long against most dedicated melee units. They require good positioning to use effectively, especially since they only have 10 ammo. Notably it's the first flamethrower unit that has AP damage, which might signal some hope for things like Irondrakes or Warp Fire Throwers.
  • Exalted Flamer: A single entity purple version that has one of the most devastating ranged attacks in the game, able to deal heavy damage to both infantry and large units. Downside is that it has very limited ammo, so every shot has to count. It also applies Fire weakness in both melee and ranged, allowing it to set up your other unit to do more damage to the enemy.
  • Soul Grinder of Tzeentch: This thing channels the power of Zeus to chuck lightning bolts from its hands that do AP and Anti Large damage. It seems to be a very versatile unit as it can deal with large units from afar and still deal some good damage up close. It also has magic attacks, so it will also be hitting for most of its damage. Still pretty decent in melee, but it's the Anti Large range attacks you want this thing for.
  • Lord of Change A flying bird that is said to be a full spellcaster. It's unknown how useful this actually will be, since it means another unit will be competing with your spellcasters for Winds of Magic usages, so it actually might not be worth bringing this guy if you can't take the spells off of him. It is a decent monster in melee, though don't expect it to go toe to toe with a Bloodthirster any time soon. Can get more spells through campaign tech.

Multiplayer Strategies

Barrier is one of the most interesting passive abilities in the game, and combine that with your focus on range, flying and magic, you are a heavy hit and run faction. The main strategy is to get your troops in to blast the enemy from range or fly them in, have the barrier soak up any damage they take, pull them out to have the barrier recharge, then send them back in again. You are designed for cycle charging and keeping the opponent as far away as possible while still being able to blast them to pieces. Because if any dedicated melee faction gets into your troops and you can't pull them out, they will be going to kiss Tzeentch's blue feathered ass faster than Magnus after Prospero burned down. You will be an incredibly scary ranged faction with a ton of great fliers and mages, just stay out of melee. Here is how you can formulate your plans for Tzeentch:

  • Grand Cathay: Your #1 Non-Daemonic rival, this will mainly be a match up of who can get the most value out of their ranged units. You heavily out maneuver them with Furies and Doom Knights, and the combination of the two should allow you to overwhelm any Longma riders (If you get the charge on them, otherwise they might mess you up) and tear up those war balloons. Of course if they get shot out of the sky that won't matter, so maybe it's better to keep them hidden until you see a chance to nab their guns and artillery. Overall, Cathay actually seems like it'll win out in a prolonged melee, though without their guns they have no real way to stop you from kiting them to death. Once the guns are down use your Chaos Knights to block their cavalry and have Horrors and Flamers roast them alive. They'll never catch you without cav, and if your pullout game is strong you can keep your barrier alive if they still have some missiles. A Herald will likely be your best Lord option as it will be a lot harder for Cathay to shoot down than a Lord of Change.
  • High Elves: This might actually be a hard one for you for several reasons. For one, they HEAVILY out range you, so they will be able to poke down your Barrier and do damage before your troops will actually be able to get into position. With the low armor on most of your troops, even basic Elf archers can be deadly. Plus, Tempest is a damn good way to deal with flying cavalry and monsters, and with Alarielle being a staple in all High Elf armies, she is sure to bring it. Your best bet might actually be to rush with Forsaken and Chaos Knights, and use Furies or Screamers to tie down the archers and bolt throwers so your troops can get in. A Soul Grinder can also help out with the Cav and Dragons elves love to bring. A Herald and Cultists should be your Lord/Hero combo, as any Lord of Change will get tempest and shot down and Lore of Fire is good at dealing with compact formations. This is one of the few match ups you might want to actually play aggressive and get into melee ASAP.
  • Slaanesh: Uh, yeah.... maybe it'll be best to avoid this one if you can. Your whole schtick is to avoid direct combat with your enemy for as long as possible and these guys are literally designed to get into direct combat as fast as possible. Combined with the fact that your core units are squishy ranged troops and this could be a really bad match up. You do have one undeniable advantage though, air power. Slaanesh has no ranged troops and their only air unit ae harpies, so you are free to dominate from the air. Bring either a Lord of Change or a Herald/Iridescent Horror on a flying mount and use them primarily to cast from a safe position. Since they have no real way to threaten them you are free to cast and skirmish them to your heart's content, especially if you have a Burning Chariot or Doom Knights. Of course, the more you invest in the air the less you'll have on the ground and Daemonettes will catch Horrors eventually. Get a ton of Blue Horrors to block and screen for your more important Pink Horrors and Flamers, and while Chaos Knights won't catch Slaanesh Cav, they can probably beat them in a one on one fight. Slaanesh doesn't have any armor to speak of, so there is no point in investing in AP. Still with how much Slaanesh out speeds you they will catch up and tear some of your boys to pieces eventually. Again, maybe best to avoid this one.
  • Tzeentch:
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