Am I playing Tzeentch wrong or are they bad?

[gecman]

I've played through the game twice now, once as Kieslev and once as Valkia on normal/hard and haven't had much trouble after getting the hang of things.

I'm trying the Tzeentch and have two 20/20 armies marching around comprised mostly of pink horrors, a couple spear dudes, and the lightweight flying gargoyle things (game isn't in English 😂).

I mostly find myself kiting the enemy around but even with this strategy, while I do win, the Tzeentch just feel really bad. I use the abilities of the twin headed hero guy to do damage and it's decent but compared to Kieslev or Valkia they just feel extremely weak.

Many battles I could have autoresolved as Kieslev or Valkia I have to fight myself (which is fine) because even with numerical superiority the units seem to be inherently labeled as weaker.

The shields aren't bad, but even with rotating my frontline units they just feel flimsy.

The pink horror damage doesn't seem bad but it also doesn't seem strong enough to offset how soft they are.

Overall, it's not that I can't win but the Tzeentch just feel bad compared to the other two races I played. Is this a me problem or are they just weak?

[Ashardalon]

its a faction balanced around cheesing the system
you also have an army of what is mostly comprised of of what is basically expensive peasant archers with less range
your mortals barrier is less then 1000hp, except vs zombys that doesnt last 30seconds
assuming its just 30 seconds and your pinks horrible accuracy doesnt friendly fire it into resetting

[Balsin]

spear dudes arent the frontline, they are just recoloour dlc bloat from warriors of chaos. The frontline unit is forsaken and later on chosen or chaos warriors.

[Elitewrecker PT]

Marauder spears can be decent holders though and deal well with large monsters. But forsaken will handle infantry better.

[Ashardalon]

the frontline is blue horrors, cheap, replaceable, more barrier and small enough to not take half their damage from getting shot in the back, only a third

[gecman]

My determination after trying a few more teams: Valkia is ungodly broken. From nearly the beginning of the game I could just autoresolve most things with great results. Slaanesh is good but I have to play nearly every ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ battle because of the emphasis on flanking... which... after the 30th or so time gets old

[Kapika96]

Tzeentch is awesome! Focus on magic. Exalted Lords of Change can wreck enemy armies (especially Kairos himself!). Your army should be a bunch of exalted pink horrors, soul grinders as your front line, a bunch of Lords of Change and maybe a couple doom knights.

Soul grinders are great units, have a ranged attack and can definitely hold their own in melee, they're also relatively small compared to a unit with a bunch of troops, so it's much easier to shoot the units their fighting. Pink horrors are just great for shooting things, they're also decent in melee if needed. Lords of Change are great. Pretty mediocre in melee, but can manage many potential flying enemies, and should wreck most archers in melee, their real selling point though is their bound spells. Once you've got the tech they can do each spell twice with no WoM cost. When you have a bunch of them and can cover the entire enemy front line in Infernal Gateways for no WoM, that's ridiculously good. And doom knights are just a strong flying unit, definitely worth having a couple of them.

[Ashardalon]

people must love peasant archers so much

[Zeek]

The WoC factions are strong as ♥♥♥♥ right now, so I won't comment on them.

Kairos has a pretty awful early game. Your economy sucks. You only have access to like 3 units you can afford for a long time. Surrounded on all sides by enemies. Kairos takes a good bit of leveling to become powerful. It's a chore.

But then once around mid game starts and you actually have a little money and get better units tzeentch bloosoms like a flower. Kairos starts getting good at casting and once you have some cultists to stack Master of Elemental winds, he can borderline solo armies himself.

And then your +% income buildings start to provide a TON of money to field more bad ass armies. Pretty soon you're just melting everything in your path.

[DarkFenix]

What Zeek said. His early game economy is awful, you're going to be building armies on a tight budget for a good while. Don't be in a rush to field a huge number of pink horrors, for all the talk about Tzeentch being a ranged faction... his ranged capability is actually pretty trash. It's short ranged, not very accurate, and not all that damaging either.

I found the better way to play him is a strong front line backed up by heavy hitters like flamers. Your magic, cavalry, and flyers are all strong, those are your tools for dealing with enemy ranged units. You'll end up with exalted pink horrors anyway, if only for their passive effect, but doomstack material they are not.

And in Kairos' stack all you need is 6 lords of change, one ground unit to hide in a corner, and Kairos alone will wipe out an army with his 200% intensity magic, not to mention all the bound spells on the lords of change.

[Kel'Thuzad]

Use the passive Warpflame and Kindleflame debuffs from your Tzeentch/Fire spells just before your Horrors and Flamers unleash a volley.
You can also immobilise units with Gaze of Fate and Net of Amontyk (if you give Kairos the Fragment of Hysh, which you should).

Maruauders and Forsaken are trash. You want Chaos Warrios with Halberds as your melee mainstay. Flamers & magic are your big damage dealers if used properly.

Kairos is so strong he doesn't really even need a full army, other than for better autoresolves.
So there's potential to save some money by having less units, if you're willing to fight battles manually.

My typical Kairos army looks something like;
Kairos
Cultist
Iridescent Horror -or- Chaos Sorcerer
4 Chaos Warriors with Halberds (eventually Chosen)
6 Pink Horrors (eventually Exalted)
4 Flamers
2 Chaos Knights (eventually Doom Knights)

Later on you can start cheesing with Lords of Change with heaps of bound spells and spell mastery.