Choosing the right Chaos lord for you- part 4 (Tzeentch and Nurgle)

Here's what you must know: Tzeentch and Nurgle are not "technically" hand to hand armies. If you divide armies up, you will find that there are three ranges of effectiveness. Long (Eldar and Tau), medium/12-24" (marine and Necron), and hand to hand (Tyranid and Grey knights). Tzeentch and Nurgle are both medium range armies. If you can get the army within this range, you will be very effective at killing things. Moreover, the two armies gifts of either +1 Toughness or +1 Wounds is designed to get them into this range.

Both armies have tactics to keep enemies from closing into hand to hand. For Nurgle this is accomplished through fear: Nurgle is pretty good at hand to hand, and you will most likely regret your decision to charge them. For Tzeentch this is accomplished through devastation: Tzeentch rarely allows anyone to survive being within 12 to 24" which leaves few forces capable of closing the gap.

Tzeentch has devastating sorcery, Nurgle has disease and the best minor psyhic powers. Tzeentch has their kick ass banner, Nurgle has their kick ass banner. Neither Tzeentch nor Nurgle can regularly get heavy weapons, though Nurgle can get assault weapons and Tzeentch chosen can arm themselves as per usual.

In short, it is really really hard to decide between Tzeentch and Nurgle. What's worse is that both miniature lines and color schemes are really strong, and as such, it is not a choice between the better looking miniature. Moreover, both are going to require Conversion. With Nurgle, you will have to batter their armor up a bit. For Tzeentch, you have to give them those weird pope/pharoah head things.

I will say this: there's really no good reason to have both armies, since they are both pretty good at the same thing. Also, if you're just thinking of adding squads to your regular army, both Tzeentch and Nurgle will most likely fill the same options. So, you should choose.

...which means you need some basis for the choice. Here's what I used. I decided that the real choice was based off of the fact that Tzeentch has two kinds of Terminators--they have chosen and regular troops in Terminator armor. This means that Tzeentch can produce a kind of Death Wing army, which I don't have otherwise, and so I figured I might as well choose Tzeentch over Nurgle based off this feature alone.

That having been said, I want to stress the playability of both Tzeentch and Nurgle. You have many many options of how and what to play with these chaos forces. They are not as varied as Chaos Undivided, but they are varied enough that you could easilly make a Thousand Sons army your primary fighting force. Moreover, the modelling options for these forces are extremely attractive. There is no Death Guard Predator, but you can imagine what one would look like, and your army will look that much better for that conversion, whereas making a World Eater Predator is just a matter of painting.

That having finally been said, on to the modelling of those Thousand Sons Termies!