All Change Please! Tzeentch Powers

Right then.  Let’s start with the Tzeentch powers.

The first up is the Primaris power: Firestorm of Tzeentch.  This is an odd one, but I kind of like it.  I don’t think it’s going to be terrifically useful against MEQ’s but may well throw a wrench in the works of chaff units and the armies that depend on them.  Basically, it goes like this: 24” range, assault 1 blast with no AP and Strength of D6+1.  That gives you a low side average of S4 which will do the business against Guard, Nids and Eldar.  High side of average will work very nicely on most things for simple wound rolls.  The lack of AP is a bit of a pisser, but there you go.  The kicker for this power is that it inflicts bonus hits for each casualty it causes.  D3 S3 auto hits for each casualty.  This power could get very nasty very quickly, or it could fizzle into an embarrassed silence.  Roughly what you expect for Tzeentch really.  I’m not sure what to make of this one, myself.  Could be fun, but it’s more likely to be useless against any army with decent armour saves.

The next power is Boon of Mutation, which is a close range blessing for a character with 2” of the Sorcerer.  The ‘blessed’ character takes a S4 AP- hit and (provided he survives) gets a roll on the Mutation chart.  It’s a nice, fun ability and certainly has its place in casual play, but the chance of killing the recipient (1 in 6 for the standard Chaos Marine squad sergeant) and the randomness of the mutation table render this a terrible power for competitive play.  It’ll be fun the spam this power amongst your army (especially as Thousand Sons Aspiring Sorcerers can get it too!) and if you have three guys using it, you should get at least one Daemon Prince out of the deal!

The third power is Doombolt, which has changed a fair bit from the weaksauce Heavy Bolter it used to be.  I see it compared a lot of Bolt of Tzeentch, but it’s really a different animal even from that.  The statline looks similar (18” range, S8, AP1), but there are a couple of nice differences.  The first is the Detonate ability, which means that when you cause a vehicle to explode with it, that vehicle explodes 2D6 inches rather than just a single D6.  This has tremendous capacity for funniness mid-game, although the overall effect is likely to be fairly middling on non-horde armies.  That’s nice an all, but how is this power majorly different from the old Bolt?  Because it is a Beam.  You trace a line from the Sorcerer and any unit under that line takes a hit (or as many hits as models in that unit that it passes over).  The Strength reduces by one for each model beyond the first, but that still changes this power from pure vehicle takedown to scything through high priority targets.  By which I mean Terminators.  The rules don’t allow the ridiculous model sniping that Jaws and Warp Rift are capable of but is still a very nice power.

Finally, we a Breath of Chaos, which is the same as it always was, except it is two warp charge instead of one.  I don’t need to go into this one, really.  Flamer template, everyone under it gets wounded on 4+ regardless of toughness and there’s no armour save allowed.  Excellent power and I don’t have a problem with it costing a lot of charge.  It good enough to warrant it.

And there you are, Tzeentch, in all its ever-shifting glory.  It’s the most random of the powers, but you’d expect that, really.

Next on the list: Nurgle