Tzeentch, the Changer of Ways, the Chaos God of Magic, Destiny, and Treachery, enters Total War: Warhammer 3, fielding one of the strongest ranged rosters ever before seen. Unleashing terror upon your enemies in clouds of pink and blue fire only adds to the chaotic fun. The faction possesses one of the most visually stunning arsenals currently available.
Playing Tzeentch comes with great opportunities to influence the campaign map via the Changing of the Ways mechanic and strongly affect his allies and enemies alike. This beginner's guide will provide an overview of the various facets of playing the Tzeentch Faction, including army and campaign advice, as well as a breakdown of his unique mechanics.
Updated on April 23, 2023, by Branden Lizardi: With the release of the new Forge of the Chaos Dwarfs DLC, and the introduction of the Mirrors of Madness game mode, TW: W3 has seen a new wave of attention from players, new and old. While the new Chaos Dwarf faction may not directly alter how the Tzeentch are played, we've decided to go over all of our Warhammer 3 content with a fresh coat of editorial polish to ensure everything stays accurate, up-to-date, and easy to read.
Tzeentch's Playstyle
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General Battlefield Tips
- Best Matchup: Dwarfs - due to being extremely slow, they will struggle to close down your ranged units, and their armor won't help them against all of your magical attacks either.
- Worst Matchup: Slaanesh - very fast flanking units can outmaneuver your defenses and get on top of your backline.
Tzeentch's roster specializes in ranged and magical attacks. Many of your units are high damage dealers. They can melt enemy lines with a barrage of magical firepower if properly protected.
Your overall army compositions tend to be fairly squishy, and the difficulty comes in micromanaging and protecting your ranged units with your limited front-line options.
Fortunately, Tzeentch can utilize his unique Barrier mechanic to help protect his army. A magical shield that recharges over time, Barrier can give your troops the vital seconds needed to launch another barrage of missiles. Buildings and Lord skills that increase your Barrier strength are a great way of passively preserving your unit health without kiting or micro gameplay.
Barrier | A shield that absorbs damage until depleted. |
|---|---|
When not taking damage, the Barrier will slowly replenish. | |
The maximum barrier size is proportional to the max health of the unit. |
You have strong wide options with Chaos Knights of Tzeentch and Doom Knights of Tzeentch, and you can effectively shut down attempts to flank your core of ranged attackers. A variety of Flyers means you can compete in the skies and threaten enemy Artillery, and these strengths only leave you with one slight weakness: your Infantry.
You used to only be able to field poor options such as Forsaken. Still, with the Warriors of Chaos rework, you can now recruit Chaos Warriors of Tzeentch, and, later on, even Chosen of Tzeentch, giving you a great tanky frontline and fixing Tzeentch's biggest weakness.
Some of your ranged can also cope decently in melee, especially Exalted Pink Horrors, but don't count on your frontline holding up long, especially against factions such as Khorne.
Quickly bursting down enemies is vital to battlefield success, as it will help preserve your mediocre frontline. While your spell casters will excel in longer fights, they won't typically have the durability to tank and wait for Winds of Magic to recharge, so try to let their Barrier run down before withdrawing them to safety.
Campaign Tips
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Tzeentch is a late-game monster. Your full builds and doom stacks are extremely powerful, especially in auto-resolve. The number of missile units in your roster means you will have a slight edge when it comes to many passively securing victories, which helps you steadily progress through the campaign map.
The major difficulties you will encounter happen in the early game. Your casualty replenishment rate is somewhat lacking, and you can become bogged down waiting for your troops to heal. You begin your campaigns in relatively nice areas, with multiple options for expansion, but your extremely squishy army can take heavy damage if poorly managed.
A slow early game is recommended, securing safe settlements and provinces while building your infrastructure.
Once you can start fielding armies with many Flamers of Tzeentch, and a frontline consisting of Forsaken/Chaos Warriors of Tzeentch, you can begin to pick up the pace.
Possessing some of the strongest spell casters in the game, leveling your Lords and Heroes is a top priority for you. You possess great flexibility with your spell selections, and single entity doom stacks are a very viable late-game option with your Lords of Change and Soul Grinders.
Key Units
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Unit | Description | Tips |
|---|---|---|
Flamers of Tzeentch | Low ammo, low range but very high damage ranged unit | These are the go-to units for powering up your armies. While squishy, they can prove useful in melee with their Warpfire ability. |
Doom Knights of Tzeentch | Extremely fast flying cavalry unit | Able to compete with most flying units, these flying Beyblades can keep you safe from aerial threats and remove an important angle of attack from your enemies. |
Exalted Lord of Change | Devastating caster Lord with powerful offensive spells | Possibly the strongest caster Lord in any Total War Warhammer game, these units come with either the standard Lore of Metal or the new and powerful Lore of Tzeentch. |
Utilizing these three units will be important when designing a strong army composition, although Tzeentch has plenty of lesser options to fulfill similar roles.
Unique Mechanics
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Grimoires
Tzeentch's unique currency, Grimoires, is required for certain technologies and activating the Changing of the Ways. Grimoires can be acquired in various ways, including battles, buildings, quests, and Unholy Manifestations.
Changing of the Ways
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Your primary way to spend Grimoires, the Changing of the Ways gives you various options for influencing opposing factions and armies.
Action | Description | Tips |
|---|---|---|
Transfer Settlement | Transfer control and ownership of one settlement to a new faction. | A fantastic way to secure settlements. Using this on cooldown efficiently secures territory. Faction capitals cannot be controlled via this mechanic |
Open Gates | Open the gates of a major settlement with walls for any battles in that settlement in the next few turns. | Useful for large settlement sieges |
Force Rebellion | Causes a rebellion in a region, spawning a hostile army next to a settlement. | Niche, as the rebel army is small and weak |
Track Army | Grants line of sight of a target army. | Situational, only useful for enemies trying to flank you |
Reveal Faction Intentions | Shows the movement and attack plans of all armies a target faction controls. | Potentially useful for outmaneuvering enemies |
Reveal Shroud | Grants total vision of a target faction’s territory. | Similar in use to Reveal Faction Intentions |
Halt Faction | All characters have their movement disabled for the faction’s following turn. | Good for when you need to take a settlement quickly without enemy reinforcements |
Give War Co-ordination Target | Give a faction a war coordination target even if they are not your ally. | Niche, but can be used to snipe key enemy armies or settlements |
Break Alliance | Break the military or defensive alliance between two factions. | Especially useful to prevent potential Confederations |
Force War | Force a war between two factions. | Very useful for creating turmoil, especially if you plan to invade the subsequent area and need to weaken the owners |
Winds of Magic Manipulation
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Fitting for the Chaos God of Magic, you can alter the flow of the Winds of Magic, either increasing or decreasing the amount in regions of your choice. As a spell-reliant faction, you benefit greatly from increased magic reserves and can reduce the levels in regions you are not currently fighting in.
Daemon Factions receive penalties to various stats at low magic levels and bonuses when it is kept high. Tzeentch is arguably the most reliant faction on this mechanic.
Your Teleport stance also requires sufficient Winds of Magic to use, so keeping an eye on your current levels is recommended if you need an easy attack/escape route.
- Teleport Stance: A unique stance available to Tzeentch, it acts similarly to the Underway stance used by Dwarfs, Greenskins, and Skaven, bypassing terrain.
Unholy Manifestations and Corruption
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As you accumulate Tzeentch Corruption across the map, you will unlock Unholy Manifestations. The equivalent of Total War: Warhammer 2's Rites, these powerful enhancements come with a cost and cooldown attached but can push you ahead if utilized correctly. When Tzeentch is the Ascendant in the Great Game, his Manifestations are greatly enhanced.
The Great Game: The Chaos Gods will cycle through who is currently the Ascendant, granting the holder stronger Unholy Manifestations. There is currently no way to influence this.
Tzeentch has the following Manifestations available:
Manifestation | Description | Tips |
|---|---|---|
Scriveners of Insanity | Disable an allied army's movement for two turns before granting a large number of Grimoires | Very useful, especially if your army remains stationary to heal; this can net you large amounts of Grimoires if you can afford not to move. |
Mutagenic Energies | Enables attrition for this army regardless of territory | Situational, but possibly useful if an enemy army needs to travel a long distance to your settlements. |
Magic Flare | Barrier Hit Points and Range increase | The buff only lasts for three turns, and while Barrier increases are strong, it can be hard to make full use of this. |
Night of Madness | Disable an allied army's movement for three turns before granting extra Tzeentch Corruption in the region, a Winds of Magic increase, and a loss of control in the local enemy province | Three turns spent stationary is quite detrimental to your momentum, but it can effectively build up both Corruption and Winds of Magic in a region. |
As well as unlocking later Manifestations, your levels of Tzeentch Corruption come with benefits to you and negatives for your enemies, dependent on the region level.
Cults
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Like all Daemon Factions, Tzeentch may create a Cultist settlement within another Faction's settlement. You can create buildings that provide such benefits as extra income or increasing your Grimoires per turn.
You will normally want to prioritize building either Sanctuaries or Repositories, as Grimoires tend to be much more impactful throughout the game than a small amount of extra income.
Tzeentch Legendary Lord Tips
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Kairos Fateweaver, the Oracle of Tzeentch, is the God of Change's chosen Legendary Lord. The Keeper of the Destiny Scrolls lives up to his reputation as one of the Warhammer world's most powerful spell casters. With unrivaled flexibility, thanks to his Fragment skills, Kairos can mix and match his Lores of Magic to suit his current situation.
While not a great melee combatant, Kairos can hold his own briefly and is not as squishy as a standard caster. Decently tanky thanks to his Barrier, Kairos also possesses the option to turn and fly away, allowing both his shield and Winds of Magic time to recharge.
Lord Abilities | |
|---|---|
Effect | Tips |
Can unlock unique items that can be used to customize Kairos’ spell selection | His best trait, this grants Kairos unparalleled Lore of Magic choice. |
Enemy Hero action success chance: -50% | Weak, but can help avoid potentially crippling Wound attempts. |
Ambush defense chance:+50% (Lord’s army) | Situational but useful for avoiding sneaky ambushes, especially from Skaven. |
It is a testament to the Fateweaver's power that despite his somewhat weak lord effects, he is still one of the strongest Lords in the game.
Important skills to level on Kairos include:
- Oracle of Eternity
- Thaumaturgic Rejuvenation
- Reckoning of Transmogrification
- Binding of the Walls
- Prismatic Plurality
- Greater Arcane Conduit
Kairos has many fantastic skills in his tree, but these are some of the best, as they will increase his spellcasting potential and enable you to perform more frequently and cheaper Changing of the Ways.
Realm Of Chaos: First Ten Turns
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When playing as Kairos Fateweaver on the Realm of Chaos map, you will begin your campaign in the Eastern Steppes province, holder of The Volary Settlement.
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At the end of this period, you should be well established with your starting province, fostering important diplomatic links and building strength to take on Khorne. Tzeentch's early game will usually be quite slow, so don't rush things and focus on improving your army and leveling Kairos as much as possible.
Further Tips:
- Once you have defeated Kharneth's Sons, you should have secured your second province and can level The Volary up to Tier Three, where you can now unlock the recruitment of Flamers of Tzeentch.
- Keep upgrading your Infrastructure, and focus your Research on Transmutation of Ore for higher passive income.
- Being raided by Cathay may be annoying, but it is easier to build up strength elsewhere before beginning your campaign against them.
Immortal Empires: First Ten Turns
In Immortal Empires, Kairos will begin his campaign in The Abyssal Glacier province, holding the Fateweaver's Crevasse settlement. The Southern Chaos Wastes is a great start position. It provides good access to various areas of the map but is isolated enough for you to take over and defend comfortably.
Only Oxyotl can challenge you, and you can make friends with some smaller Chaos factions if necessary.
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Further Tips:
- Keep progressing East until you have taken out the Slaaneshi faction, giving yourself two nice provinces.
- You can either travel West to take out Oxyotl if he has gained some territory or cross the narrow sea and bring the pain to Teclis.
- North of you are many factions who will hate you, so be prepared for a long campaign against many hostile factions.
- Try to make friends with the Flaming Scribes to your West, as you can confederate them later on for some free territory.
NEXT: Total War: Warhammer 3 - All Chaos Dwarf Units, Ranked
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