AoS: Cities of Sigmar Will Be The Largest Sub-Faction
The Cities of Sigmar are about to rise-up and dwarf the other armies in Warhammer: Age of Sigmar. It’s Preview Time!
Grand Alliance Order is about to get a new battletome added to it’s toolbox and it’s going to be the swiss army knife of armies in the Mortal Realms. Cities of Sigmar combines a TON of different units and other sub-factions into a Voltron-like army that can pretty much field whatever it wants – and it all sounds pretty fantastic! Games Workshop talked about it today in the latest Faction Focus article. Let’s dive in.
“First up – the units! Cities of Sigmar have perhaps the largest potential army roster in all of Warhammer Age of Sigmar, capable of bringing units from (deep breath now) the Freeguild, Ironweld Arsenal, Order Serpentis, Dispossessed, Wanderers, Shadowblades, Collegiate Arcane, Phoenix Temple, Devoted of Sigmar and Darkling Covens. “
That is A LOT of sub-factions. Cities is the vacuum for sub-factions. It sucks them all up and creates a massive dust-ball of sub-factions that is a terrible clog in your vacuum machine. Okay, maybe that analogy breaks down, but you get the idea! The point is they are going to have access to a huge list of units – check out this graphic:
That is a list of 32 units – all of them can be Battleline in the Cities of Sigmar army! ALL. OF. THEM. Yes, even that steam tank and hydra down at the bottom. That said, you’ll have to take the right General to unlock some of them and odds are you won’t be able to have them all be battleline in the same list, but still…that’s a wall of options for players!
However you want to build a Cities of Sigmar army there will be a theme for you. Big blocks of infantry, cavalry heavy, monster masters/hunters, or even “Steam Tank Destruction Derby” – you can build it!
I’m going to need to borrow your keys…
One set of units you might of notices are missing are the Stormcast Eternal options from that list. Where did they go? Oh, they are still part of the Cities of Sigmar. In fact, they aren’t just allies either – they are literally part of the army!
“Representing the mighty Stormkeeps that defend the Cities of Sigmar, each army can contain Stormcast Eternals, who gain the relevant keywords of your chosen city, and thus are fully fledged warriors of your army and not allies!”
YEP! The Stormcast Eternals are most certainly still around and ready to pound the enemies of Sigmar into the dirt. Combining all those battleline options with the Stormcast Range is going to be a dizzying amount of choices. And the decisions are going to get even tougher thanks to all the cool changes that have been made to a ton of classic units.
What’s Old Is New
Here are a pair of classic units that are getting some new updates.
Shadow Warriors are getting a nifty ability that allows them to pop-up during the late game to grab objectives. Notice the wording shift – they have to be setup BEFORE the start of the fourth battle round (which means you need to deploy them in the movement phase of the third battle round) or they get destroyed.
Pistoliers are getting a new trick as well – they can fire their brace of pistols after a charge move! This one is risky but the hail of bullets you unleash just might be enough to break the enemy – or at least save you from taking a ton of attacks back. Plus, it’s an out-of-sequence attack and those are always handy!
Bodyguards Return
Retinues are coming to help keep your characters alive. Check this out:
” If you choose a unit with a Wounds characteristic of 6 or less, you can choose another unit in your army to be their retinue. These elite bodyguards can intercept wounds and mortal wounds for their liege, meaning your Freeguild Generals, Nomad Princes, Warden Kings and other unmounted champions are actually pretty durable!”
I can dodge bullets?! No? My Retinue just takes the hit…oh. Basically the same thing, right?
Empowered Endless Spells
The armies of Cities of Sigmar are from a wide variety of Mortal Realms. And their Wizards showcase this with a pretty potent ability. Whenever they cast an Endless Spell, it counts “as being empowered by their associated Realm.”
That could be kinda scary! The more Endless Spells they get access to, the more potent they become. I’m very curious to see how this one pans out.
City Wide Buffs!
Another unique ability of the Cities of Sigmar is that they can also pick a city they are from which provides a new set of boosts. Hammerhal, for example can get a ton of command points which can then be spent at the end of the combat phase to activate units to attack again!
That’s a pretty gnarly combo! The Greywater Fastness also has a dirty trick of their own that allows them to increase the range of their missile attacks AND re-roll hit rolls of 1s while shooting:
And over on the AoS Facebook Page, GW also teased the Illicit Dealings of Anvilguard:
…And YOU Get A Warscroll Battalion!
The Cities of Sigmar are also getting a bunch of new Warscroll Battalions added to their army, too. Here is a pair of examples:
Golden Aura of the Phoenicium that is generated by the Phoenicium’s Phoenix Flight makes it a great battalion that just wants to stick around. Everyone likes free wounds back, right?
On the flip side, the monster hunters of the Anvilgard’s Charrwing Beastrunners will carve-up enemy monsters with relative ease:
Add 1 to wound rolls vs monsters? YES PLEASE!
Cities of Sigmar is coming to pre-order this weekend – get ready for the cities to march to war!
