Tips and tricks for using a Lord of Change

Today, we'll be going over Tzeentchs most powerful Daemon, the Lord of Change.

Stats:

With a 12" move and fly plus the ability to teleport around the board for 2cp with the Warp Portal strat, he is very mobile which allows him to get away from potential danger aswell as getting to units he can target with powers.

He's T7 with 20 wounds, but has that magical 3+ Daemonic save vs ranged and a 5+ vs combat which makes him pretty Resilient.

With 3 casts and denies aswell, he is one of the most powerful psykers in the game (and rightfully so!) 

Exalted Traits:

Architect of Deception:

-1 to hit vs ranged. This helps him to be abit more resilient, though you don't want him close to the enemy all that often and can get the same effect outside of 12" from the warpstorm.

Master Mutator:

Roll a dice at the end of the psychic phase for each enemy unit that suffered a mortal wound as a result of a psychic power from this model. On a 2+ that unit takes an additional mortal wound.

This is super solid, it ups his damage quite abit and is great in combination with Infernal Gateway to knock an extra wound off on those characters you manage to hit with it.

Nexus of Fate:

Roll a dice in your command phase if this model is on the board, on a 4+ you gain a command point.

Meh, it's OK but you don't ever take it over either of the other two.

Wargear:

You get a choice between two options for the big chicken, the baleful sword or the rod of Sorcery, both clocking in at 10pts each.

Baleful Sword:

This gives you 3 malefic str7 ap-3 3 damage attacks. I really like the sword, it means he can mix it up against elite units and bigger stuff if he really needs to. With being malefic aswell, they can't be modified which is fantastic.

Rod of Sorcery:

D6 shots at 12" range, str6 ap-1 2 damage. It's OK, but with the mortal wounds you can put out at 18", it just doesn't feel worth it over the sword if you're taking an upgrade.

Psychic Powers:

Let's go over the best choices of Magic for the big chicken. His strength his is innate +1 to cast and +2 while over 10 wounds. Combine that with the Sorcerous Winds warpstorm ability for an additional +1 to cast for a +3 overall. You definitely want this guy doing alot of mortal wound damage, especially with the higher chances of getting those super smites.

Bolt of Change:

Pick an enemy unit within 18" and roll 9 dice. For every 5+ you cause a mortal wound, and for every model you kill with this power, you do an additional mortal wound up to three extra.

This is by far the best power from the Pandaemoniac discipline. It's super good at ruining chaff units while also being fantastic at doing major damage to characters since it is a targetable power.

Infernal Gateway:

The closest enemy unit within 18" range takes d3 mortal wounds, then all enemy units within 3" also take d3 mortal wounds. If the result of the psychic test was a 12+, units instead take flat 3 mortals. This is a great power at hitting those armies that like to bunch up. Especially those CSM Termie bricks with two or three characters hiding behind them. This can be great to get those mortals on a character and then using Bolt of Change to finish it off. 

Infernal Flames: 

+1 to wound in the shooting phase for a Tzeentch core unit. This is of course an amazing power for Flamers, you generally want this on a herald, but having the Lord of Change cast it with +2 if you don't have another Tzeentch caster is solid.

Boon of Change: 

You cast this on a friendly Tzeentch unit unit in 18", and apply an effect on that unit based on a d3 roll. 1-2 for +2 move, 3-4 for +1 strength and 5-6 for +1 toughness. If the psychic test result of this power was a 9 or more, you can choose the effect.

This is super solid to get +1 toughness on the Chicken or even Be'lakor for T8 and -1 to wound. With the Lord of Changes +2 to cast aswell, it makes it far more likely to get that 9+.

Warlord Traits:

There is a number of decent of warlord Traits for Tzeentch that are fairly decent. You could go born of Sorcery for +1 to cast which makes his psychic even more super reliable. Tyrant of the Warp stops the warlord from taking a perils and gives them a 5+ feel no pain vs mortals. Even Lorekeeper is good which gives you +6" range to your pandaemoniac powers.

But as cool as they all are, you only get one warlord trait, and if the chicken is your warlord then there really is only one competitive option...

Incorporeal Form: 

Attacks made against this warlord subtract one from the wound roll.

Yea, this is just too good not to take. Alongside the 3+ Daemon save vs range and some form of -1 to hit, it makes him a real pain to kill.

Relics:

Again, like the warlord Traits there is really only one choice of Relic you are gonna put on the Lord of Change. If you have a second one in your list, then there is some ok options. 

Impossible Robe: 

So, this is probably the best Relic in the entire book. Once per phase, when the Bearer fails a saving throws, you can ignore the damage.

This is nuts... it's every phase, it's a fail of your choice so your opponents can't bait it out with smaller damage, it's just insanely good. A big model with -1 to hit vs range, -1 to wound, ignore one failed save per phase and a 3+ save vs range is incredibly resilient.

Soul-Eater Stave: 

Each time an enemy model is killed by a mortal wound caused by a psychic power from this model, roll a dice. On a 4+ you regain a wound up to a max of 6.

This is decent, considering the Lord of Change can spit out an insane amount of mortals, but it's not the impossible Robe.

The Everstave:

Each time this Bearer casts a witchfire power or smite, if the psychic test was an unmodified result of a 9, the power cannot be denied. 

It's a shame that this can't be modified, but not being able to deny a power cast is fairly decent. Yet again though, it's not the Robe.....

Kairos Fateweaver: 

I like Kairos, but unfortunately he doesn't have any Exalted options, can't take the Robe or incorporeal Form. He does still have a 3+ save vs range though.

He does have a vect style ability where once per game when your opponent uses a Stratagem, that Stratagem now costs one additional command point for the rest of the game. This is great to make your opponents key stratagems harder to use, and making them either not use it, or not use other strats to save the cp.

He knows all the powers deom the pandaemoniac discipline  and also gets an addition to cast equal to the number of the battle round, which is pretty amazing for not just making powers hard to deny, but also helps get those extra caveats on powers like Gateway, Boon and Smite. 

He also has some surprisingly decent combat, 5 attacks at str8, ap-3 2d3 damage.

Overall Kairos is fairly decent, and swaps out resiliency for more tech.

I love the magic bird, he is a very solid unit and is in alot of successful tournament lists for a reason. Him and Be'lakor make a fine combination for two big monsters that are super hard to kill allowing your smaller stuff to go abit untouched if your opponent decides to focus on them.