Age of Sigmar: What About The Aelves And Duardin In Cities of Sigmar
The Cities of Sigmar Battletome might have a strong focus on the Humans but don’t count out the Aelves and Duardin just yet!
We got our hands on the boxed set for the Cities of Sigmar and it’s a solid option for anyone interested in playing that army. We also got our first crack into the Battletome and can confirm that yes, all the old school High Elves and Wood Elves are out. That leaves the Dark Elf and Dwarf Ranges (somewhat) intact however. Of course, GW rebranded those as just Aelves and Duardin now and also changed a few things. They didn’t completely ignore them in the new Battletome thankfully.
Today, we’re going over a few of the tweaks that have been made to these units in the Cities of Sigmar army. These options are good choice if you’re looking to round-out your lists or add something different besides just humans.
The new Battletome: Cities of Sigmar will shake army construction up a little, and certain units are leaving the range, but it’s still easy to construct a mighty army to represent some of the more cosmopolitan cities in which multiple races live side-by-side.
Cities of Sigmar – Aelves
If you’re looking for a unit that can complement your gunline well the Shadow Raiders rules from the Dark Riders is a good fit. This allows them to retreat and still shoot and/or charge in the same turn. Additionally, if they DO retreat in then they also get to add 1 to their hit rolls for all their attacks made that turn. They aren’t the most heavily armored unit out there but being able to hit and run or run and hit as it were does have some uses.
One of the two unique Orders of the Aelves in the Battletome is Strike Them Down which gives a friendly Cities of Sigmar Aelf unit strike-first if they made a charge move. The Aelves still have a few heavy-hitting units left in the Battletome so this might skirt under the radar until you find the right use for it!
Cities of Sigmar – Duardin
The Duardin get their own version of a shieldwall with one of their unique orders. Essentially it’s a 5+ ward but it also causes them to strike-last. That might not seem to appealing. However, if you combine that with a unit of Ironbreakers that 5+ goes to a 4+ ward. Don’t forget you can still issue them a command (like all out defense) and suddenly that Ironbreaker Unit is going to extremely tanky!
One thing you can also do is run an army led by a Duardin or Aelf. In the example above if your General is a Warden King you can also pick a unit that your army has a grudge against. This causes all unmodified 6s to hit from melee attacks to automatically wound the target. That applies to all your Duardin units!
The new Cities of Sigmar Army box is unfortunately already sold out online but your FLGS might have a copy! You did get on their pre-order list, right…right?!
