Preparing for the Tzanuary

Heya folks!

Today I watched the live Warhammer stream on Twitch where they talked about the new Battletome: Disciples of Tzeentch and showed quite a few teasing pics!
In case any of you didn't have the chance too watch it, or don't currently have time to do so, I made some notes and took a few screencaps of the stream.

In other words, here is the core of today's stream jutted down in text and a couple of pics!

The beloved pair Eddie & Rob showing off the new Battletome

First of all they talked about where the story of Age of Sigmar currently is. The Realmgate Wars have come to a conclusion, with the chaos gods Khorne and Nurgle driven from the Realms of Aqshy and Ghyran, Fire and Life. The peoples of Order are emerging from the safe haven of Azyr to build and repopulate the lands. Several new cities have sprung up across the Realms, with several years having passed since the end of the war.
But the overall conflict is far from over. With his/her/its two greatest competitors driven back, the chaos god Tzeentch plays his cards.... The new cities and civilizations that have taken root in the Realms have not gone unnoticed by the Great Schemer. Already, seeds of corruption have been sown into the growing societies, the cults of Tzeentch ensuring that their dark lord can reach anywhere he/she/it needs or wants to.

This new Battletome contains all things Tzeentch: everything with the Tzeentch -keyword can be found in the pages of this very book, from Arcanites to Daemons to Mortals.
At the start of 2017 this book will herald a series of brand-new Tzeentch releases as this chaos god steps up to fill the void left in the wake if his/her/its brothers. So there's loads of interesting things coming up in Tzanuary (hehe), many of which will eventually find their way to my Tzeentch Slaves to Darkness -warband.

Artwork from the Battletome

That Brute doesn't seem to mind being all fried up in magical flames

They also mentioned Path to Glory and how GW is going to add factions to it one by one. This is the first Battletome in which the Path to Glory tables for the faction are included in the tome, and this is how GW is going to keep doing it in the future Battletomes.

And guess what, the Matched Play point values are included here as well, and the same goes for the other upcoming Battletomes!

So now let us delve into the rules section. Below you can see teasers of the Disciples of Tzeentch Allegiance Abilities and Command Traits, available to any force that only contains models with the Tzeentch -keyword.

Masters of Destiny lets you play around with Destiny Dice. Cool!

Quite a handy ability if you ask me...

Each of the three sub-factions will have its own Command Traits

Unfortunately they did not show anything relating to the Artefacts of Power, but they did chatter about it for a while.
As with the Command Traits, the Artefacts seem to be divided into the three sub-factions as well:
The Arcanite Artefacts are described as "sneaky", something to give protection or to augment magic, whereas the Mortal Artefacts are depicted as "more brutish" and more in line with the current Chaos Artefacts, but a bit sneaky nonetheless...

Onto spells!

This one is from the Lore of Fate, available to Mortals and Arcanites. Seems ouch.

There will be two Lores of Magic in the tome, one for Arcanites and Mortals and the other for Daemons.
The Lore of Change (the daemon one) is all about shooting magical flames and discolights all across the board, while the Lore of Fate is described as having a subtler approach with augmenting spells to aid your units or hamper the enemy.

An interesting note: the Gaunt Summoner has all three keywords from this book, Arcanite, Mortal and Daemon, meaning that he can use any of the lores presented in the Battletome and receive the effects of them all, as well!

That's one mean-looking disc-riding goat right there

Wouldn't say that to his face, though....

To models then!
Along with Tzaangor and Kairic Acolytes there will be this new hero, called a Tzaangor Shaman. He is a fast-moving flying one-cast wizard with a unique spell that turns enemies into Tzaangors!

There was also talk of Tzaangor Skyfires although they had no pic to show the models yet.

Flying warmachine platforms, it seems. Movement like a demigod and a hard-hitting missile weapon with mortal wounds and a threat range of full 40" !

There was also talk about the new Narrative Warscroll Battalions that will be found within the tome, letting you collect a thematic army of vicious cultists or flame-spewing monstrosities and gain fluffy extra abilities and bonuses in the process. And of course, new Battleplans to fit the theme of this Tzentchy launch.

They emphasized that once they'll be back after Christmas in January 4th, the Disciples of Tzeentch would feature in a narrative match in another live Twitch stream, showing us how armies conjured from this book can function in battle. Exciting!

All in all this live stream show-off was a massive tease, and they said as much themselves; there is a LOT more to the book than they told at this point, nearly half the (quite sizeable) tome is said to be dedicated to rules, the rest is for fluff and some seriously awesome artwork.
What this Battletome certainly gives Age of Sigmar are more interesting Hero Phases. There will now be a plethora of different spells flying around the battlefield instead of mere Panic Bolts and Mysteriously Spammed Shields!

The Great Schemer stirs, ready to play his cards in an attempt to become the dominant chaos god in the Mortal Realms!