Age of Sigmar: Cities of Sigmar Unit Rules Preview
Games Workshop has dumped a bunch of rules previews for the Cities of Sigmar today. I’m sure this will go well.
The Cities of Sigmar are coming out soon and GW is showcasing a bunch of their rules today for various different units. We’re going to collate them here in one spot and talk about each preview individually. There’s a lot of rules that got previewed so let’s get started!
Cities of Sigmar Rules Preview
Kicking things off we’ve got the Freeguild Cavaliers preview.
The big showcase here is their Cavalier weapon stats along with Devastating Charge. As far as their weapons go, yeah, those are on par with a lot of other Cavalry options in the game. with three attacks that each hit and wound 3+ that’s pretty solid. And they are even better on the charge — as you’d expect from a Cavalry unit. It’s a little odd to me that we didn’t get lance options for this unit but with Devastating Charge I can see why.
This combos nicely with the Freeguild Cavalier-Marshal’s ability also previewed:
You’ll want to declare a “Their Finest Hour” heroic action on this units charge turn for the best bonus. But that extra 3″ to charge rolls will allow you to ensure a minimum 5″ charge and will make some of those “long bomb” charges a less risky. I could very easily see this Marshal riding along with a 10 man Cavaliers unit or 2 x 5 man units.
While we’re on the subject of Marshals, we’ve also got a look at the on-foot version and a few of their rules, too:
The Freeguild Marshal comes with a once per battle Heroic Action. Deliver Rousing Speech gives up to 3 human units a good shot at doubling their model count for purposes of contesting objectives. This might not sound like much of a Heroic Action but winning the game comes down to completing Battle Tactics and scoring those objectives — this ability could deny your enemy an objective and that’s what counts! Shrewd Generals will be using this to disrupt battle tactics and opponent scoring. It’s a good ability when used effectively.
Backing up the Freeguild Marshal will likely be a Freeguild Command Corps. These units are a mix of various characters with their own abilities. They are kind of like Gobblepalooza in that way. Anyhow, here’s a look a few of their abilities:
The War Surgeon can just straight-up heal D3 wound on a damaged unit/model. If the unit is already at full wounds then the Surgeon can return a number of models that have a combined wounds characteristic of D3 or less. Basically, if you get a 3, you can return 3 slain 1 wound models to a unit. Healing units is always handy. Oh and it’s up to 3 units, too…so yeah.
The Whisperblade is here to cause problems for your enemy’s commands. Once per turn on a 4+ you prevent the command ability from being used AND the command point that was spent to issue it is also lost. It’s not quite as good as outright stealing a command point but it’s still a potent ability!
Moving on from the Command Corps, we now get a look at the Alchemite Warforger.
This unit is a mix of blacksmith and wizard and that’s even more evident in their Blazing Weapons ability:
Okay, so I’m a little confused why this spell has a casting range of 12″ when the target of the spell is the Alchemite Warforger based on the text (it doesn’t say “target unit” so the assumption is that it’s the caster.) In any case, basically this makes a 12″ bubble around the Alchemite Warforger that gives units wholly within 12″ a buff that causes them to do mortal wounds on 6s to hit in addition to normal other damage.
Casting ranges aside this spell isn’t limited to melee attacks either. So I can very much see this spell getting used to buff some Freeguild Fusiliers who will unload into the enemy at range all day long.
And finally, we’re backtracking to yesterday when GW revealed the Monstrous Rampage for Tahlia Vedra.
Paralysing Venom is not unlike other abilities in the game that cause units to get the strike-last effect. It’s a little different in that it can only target enemy monsters that made a charge move this turn however. It also goes off on a 3+ which, again, not uncommon. I could easily see this being used with a bait/screen unit in front of Tahlia that absorbs the charge while she stings them with her mount’s tail. Now both she and the unit will get to activate before the monster gets to — that’s kinda mean!
If we were looking at these rules in a vacuum they individually don’t seem to bad. But I think it’s going to be apparent when players start stacking things together with the Cities of Sigmar that their gunlines are going to be a fortress of pain that players are going to have to figure out how to deal with. Have fun sticking your units in that bear trap.
What do you think of the Cities of Sigmar rules that have been previewed so far?
