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So the general's rule book brought some much needed clarifications to the game and the much anticipated point system. But it also muddied up my Tzeentch army with its take on Magic.

The guideline is that each spell can only be cast once which directly nerfs the Changer of Ways forces since they benefit from extra spell/ unbind attempts.

Examples: Fatesworn Warband : Conduits of Arcane Power Heroes can all cast Arcane bolt as if they were wizards, and Wizard Heroes can cast Arcane bolt twice..

Fateweaver/ Changling: know the spells of other wizards ....so if I include a Tzeentch Sorcerer Lord why can't I throw 2 or 3 Bolts of Change...

How are your play groups, competitions , etc... handling this ??

Widowmaker13 wrote:
So the general's rule book brought some much needed clarifications to the game and the much anticipated point system. But it also muddied up my Tzeentch army with its take on Magic.

The guideline is that each spell can only be cast once which directly nerfs the Changer of Ways forces since they benefit from extra spell/ unbind attempts.

Examples: Fatesworn Warband : Conduits of Arcane Power Heroes can all cast Arcane bolt as if they were wizards, and Wizard Heroes can cast Arcane bolt twice..

Fateweaver/ Changling: know the spells of other wizards ....so if I include a Tzeentch Sorcerer Lord why can't I throw 2 or 3 Bolts of Change...

How are your play groups, competitions , etc... handling this ??

We're handling it by following the rules.

You don't HAVE to play matched games.

It's a side effect of Matched Play effectively being a "comp" on the basic game. A lot of rules and warscrolls were written without consideration of balance to begin with, and the matched play comp (rules of 1) is an attempt to add a quick balance fix without needing to alter any warscrolls or the basic 4 page rules.

That means there are lots of abilities that get rendered useless as a result.

You can agree to forgo the rules of 1 with your opponent. If you're already playing base-to-base measuring that is effectively a "house rule", so players should be open to others too. (I find players are open to house rules).

I don't see your problem.

You don't get to spam arcane bolt, that was quite powerful and that is the point. Almost all Tzeench casters have a unique spell and horrors can get the generic spells off for you.

You know you can cast your opponent's spells with the Changeling and other spell thieves right?

As others have stated house rule this if you want to cast multiple of the same spell, but in the FAQ something similar was brought up with casters who have built in abilities that let duplicate spells. GW said the rule of 1 overrides the character special abilities.

The restriction on magic does hurt Tzeentch quite a bit, but it needed to happen for the same reason that summoning needed to be altered.

From a narrative standpoint, it makes total sense for a cadre of wizards to stand back and summon forth waves of daemons while 'battle wizards' move forward with the daemons and cast bolts of arcane power into their enemies ranks. From a balance standpoint, it's devastating. Without the rules of one and the restriction on number of Leaders, Battleline units, I'd just take 2,000 points worth of Wizards, deploy them on my table edge and start summoning wave after wave of daemons. I'd likely end up with thousands and thousands of extra points of models. Similarly, allowing all my models to cast arcane bolt, potentially multiple times, greatly increases their damage dealing capability. Balance is destroyed in both scenarios.

Not so sure on the power of arcane bolt, but yeah summoning did need a tuning, one certainly hasn't heard the cries of 'Arcane bolt is op!".. However multiple uses of Mystic Shield now that was a problem. Honestly I'd let them at least keep Arcane bolt as a typical Wizards damage output is gak, but that'll be for the eventual errata/updates to the rule of one.

What made the arcane bolt so powerful, was using the tzeentch cohort, or throwing units on the chaos battlefort was difficult. Single arcane bolt is not that scary, but a multitude of free ones from all your casters is.

 ZebioLizard2 wrote:
Not so sure on the power of arcane bolt, but yeah summoning did need a tuning, one certainly hasn't heard the cries of 'Arcane bolt is op!".. However multiple uses of Mystic Shield now that was a problem. Honestly I'd let them at least keep Arcane bolt as a typical Wizards damage output is gak, but that'll be for the eventual errata/updates to the rule of one.

I doubt they'll ever errata the rule of one to allow multiple castings of Arcane Bolt. Most Wizards seem to have a 'signature spell', with Arcane Bolt/Mystic Shield being backups. In most armies, they're more utility characters than damage dealers. Giving them the ability to make units functionally immortal (stacking Mystic Shields) or to take out any unit/Behemoth at range with no armor saves allowed (stacking Arcane Bolts) seems out of character for a utility model.

I do agree that most Wizards need a little more power in terms of ranged combat. I would have liked to have seen something like the following.

All models with the Wizard keyword gain the "Lesser Arcane Bolt" missile attack. Magic Missile has 12" range, 1 attack, 4+ to hit, 4+ to wound and deals D3-1 damage with no rend value. If they choose to make such a missile attack, they cannot make any other missile attacks that round. This would allow them to still cast their utility spell, but still be able to fire off an old school magic missile with a variable damage (because magic isn't always reliable) at the cost of any other missile weapon they might be equipped with.

Something close to that would've worked well with the Tzeentch Warscroll, I do hope they update that one a bit because giving heroes magical stuff is actually quite cool and fluffy for Tzeentch.

The problem is that they are primarily Utility models by nature of the fact that they can't really do much damage, I mean several casters have damage spells alongside mystic shield, should they just be considered utility models by virtue of the fact they only have magic shield?

It just seems limiting to me to only have casters for just utility, though I will admit I'd rather have it is now then go back to 8th edition WHFB of 4th Level caster or lose magic/the game.

I've always thought the spell rule of 1 would be better if arcane bolt was exempt. Spammed arcane bolt isn't really OP, especially considering that stuff like horrors crumble in melee. Granted, certain battalions would need a cost increase but most of them do anyway.

Really Tzn magic heavy armies have been a problem since 6th ed.