This month is bringing a massive host of updates to Age of Sigmar as the setting transitions to Ghyran, the realm of life. Each army is getting two whole pages of additional rules including optional alternative warscrolls for you to use in your games and we are very excited about all of it! Before we get stuck in, a thank you to Games Workshop for providing us with these rules as an early release to review.
Next up: Cities of Sigmar. An army that, for a long time, felt a bit lost and confused in Age of Sigmar with an odd (eccentric even?) mix of Human, Elf, and Dwarf kits some that have gone from square bases to round and now are less sure what shape they should sit on.The Cities of Sigmar are now one of the more complicated forces when it comes to list building and playing them on the table; needing to keep tight auras to issue orders from heroes to units to make them effective on the battlefield throughout the turn.
For Cities we get two new battleformations that focus on amplifying your cannons, three new heroic traits which are very welcome to see, and alternative warscrolls for Pontifex Zenestra and Freeguild Cavaliers.
New Battle Formations
As with the other updates these don’t replace anything in the faction pack and are just extra. The existing Cities ones are just kind of “ok” and expect to see Fearless Exemplars to be a choice for some players fielding a bunch of (Human) infantry. If you’re playing Dwarf or Elf heavy lists than these do nothing for you.
Veteran Cannoneers
Do you love cannons? If you answered “yes” then this one is for you. If you answered “no” and play Cities of Sigmar you can skip over this section, but if you answered “no” because you’re frustrated with your gaming buddy’s cannons across the field then I’ve got bad news for you: they’ll be using this.
It’s a very simply formation that gives up to three of your Ironweld Great Cannons the ability to re-roll a hit, wound, or damage roll. One of the greatest weaknesses of cannons is their 4+ hit roll so getting a free re-roll on that every turn across up to three of them is pretty great; with the added bonus that if you didn’t need to re-roll a hit or wound roll you get to re-roll that swingy damage roll. This only works during your own shooting phase so you won’t be using any re-rolls with Covering Fire great cannons, which is probably best for the game.
Fearless Exemplars
One for your Human heroes to make use of. In your hero phase, pick a Human Infantry Hero and then pick a non-Hero Human Infantry unit and a Human War Machine to be the targets. Why do they all have to be Human?
While your two chosen targets remain wholly within 12″ of your designated hero the infantry gets an extra point of rend on melee weapons and the war machine to its ranged weapons. This sounds great but your only options for war machines are the Steam Tank or Great Cannon which if you’re fielding more than one of you’re taking the other formation anyways, not that Rend 2 grapeshot is a bad thing but needing to stay near both the war machine and infantry unit can be a bit tricky; at least when you need to be near them is across two different phases allowing you to charge away from your war machine.
For the infantry units that can be affected you have Freeguild Command Corps, Freeguild Fusiliers, Freeguild Steelhelms, Toll’s Companions, and Wildercorps Hunters. The fact that Callis and Toll can use this on their Companions is actually pretty amusing, and maybe even decent? Realistically the unit you’re wanting this on most is, of course, Steelhelms. Boosting these up to actually having a point of Rend on their attacks means a reinforced unit with all-the-buffs could put out up to 81 attacks (see below) 3+/3+/-1/D1 which is suddenly actually scary with weight of dice; not that it’s always going to be easy keeping 20 Steelhelms wholly within 12″ of a hero. Even making the Command Corps hit alittle harder is pretty welcome.
Castelite Veterans – Heroic Traits
A whole new table of three Heroic Traits for you to choose from instead of using those in the Faction Pack, again heavily featuring Human Heroes. For most armies adopting a mix-arms approach to this army with some shooting and some combat I don’t expect any of these to win out over the very simple and good Master of Ballistics in the faction pack; however if you’re doing something a bit different then Draw Steel or Cosmopolitan Leader might be a solid choice for you.
Draw Steel
This is how you get that unit of Steelhelms up to 81 attacks. This hero does not need to be Human, but the ability will only affect Human units. If the hero with this trait makes a charge this turn then a Human unit wholly within 12″ gets +1 Attacks for the turn. Realistically you’re slapping this on a Cavalier-Marshal to boost Cavaliers up to 4 attacks each, 5 if you give them the order as well (you’re going to). That reinforced block of Cavaliers are now throwing 51 attacks at damage 2 each with a pip of rend that you can improve up to 3+ hit and wound rolls a few ways in the army after slapping them for average 5 mortal damage. That’s gross. That’s going to be removing most units in the game from the board. If you’re using the alternative unit below, however, it’s only going to be up to 41 attacks instead which is still very strong but not reliant on obtaining a +1 to hit bonus; we’ll get to why you might take this option later.
Astute Tactician
Essentially the only thing here that is not locked to Human/Dwarf/Elf keywords at all, which I like. What I don’t like is that it’s not very good. You pick 1 unit wholly within 12″ to get +2 run and +1 charge for the turn. That’s it. It’s fine. It’s probably not better than any of the other choices, though. If it was an aura or a few units maybe it would be better? It is nice not having to stay near the unit being affected at least!
Cosmopolitan Leader
Are you one of those Cities players mixing in some Dwarfs and Elves to their army? Then here, a heroic trait made just for you. You still have to use it with a Human hero to really get the full affect, though. Also it requires a dice rolle which I’m not a fan of.
On a 3+ you pick one (or three if it’s a Human hero) unit and roll a dice, on a 3+ you get an ability depending on the receiving unit:
- Humans get +1 to wound rolls for combat attacks (so no, not shooting)
- Duardin get +1 charge rolls
- Aelfs get +3 control score
If this wasn’t locked to a Human hero and also needing a 3+ roll to work I think it’d be a lot better but as it it it’s fine. Considering there are passive effects and traits that just-work there is probably a better option to take.
New, Alternative, Warscrolls
As with the other updates these are fully optional for you to take. You do not have to use these version but you cannot use both versions in the same army list at the same time, you pick one at the list building stage, especially since they’re different points than the normal ones!
Pontifex Zenestra
A much shorter warscroll name for a start. This version just has one single melee profile, combining the Sceptre of the Wheel with the acolyte’s weapons for a simple 5 attacks at 4+/4+/-/Dd3 profile. You lose a couple of damage 1 attacks for an extra damage d3 attack, and that’s fine this is not why you’re considering this version I just found it funny. All of the stats (move, health, control, save, ward) are identical too and is still Priest (2).
Her Voice of the God King ability is swapped for Word of the God King (very different, clearly, passing along the word instead of using the voice) which lets you pick an enemy Wizard, Priest, or Manifestation within 18″ to roll a D6 at; on a 3+ the Manifestation is banished or on a Wizard/Priest target they suffer that much mortal damage. That is a lot better than just getting to try and do a free extra Banishment. It has the possibility of just lifting support wizards and priests, too. It counts as a “banish” on a manifestation so does not bypass the Krondspine’s ability, which is fine, it’s still very good. Considering you’re losing her normal prayer ability which does mortal damage to Wizards and Priests on the table this is nice to have.
The prayer is also swapped out for Sigmar’s Will which is ansered on a 4 or 10+ for the enhanced effect making it easier than the other warscroll’s version. You get to pick 1 effect normally or 2 effects on the 10+ chant, keeping it simple and if you roll a 1 when chanting you get to re-roll, which is incredibly good once you’ve saved up some prayer points being able to essentially guarantee a result.
- Hallowed Ground – Enemies cannot end Normal Moves within 5″ of Cities units while they are wholly within 12″ of Zenestra. This is great, it has fantastic potential for some very strong board control and means that enemies will need to make at least 5″ charges instead of the normal 3″ ones to get into combat raising the risk of failure from 2.77% to 16.66%. Not high, but still higher.Â
- Fervent Prayers – Each time a Cities of Sigmar Human (ugh) model is slain in combat while wholly within 12″ roll a dice, on a 6 it inflicts 1 mortal damage on the attacking unit. There’s a lot of abilities out there that do mortal damage back after attacks and it’s a little frustrating to see this only be on a 6 when you’re not exactly running massive hordes of infantry typically. This effect is much weaker than the 5+ ward from her normal prayer.
- Salvation –Â This is the good one. This is why you even begin to consider this warscroll over the normal one. Pick up to three Cities of Sigmar Human (ugh 2.0) units on the board (no range!) to be the targets and set them back up wholly within 12″ of Zenestra; they just can’t be set up in combat and cannot make charges for the rest of the turn. This is fantastic to use as a Magical Intervention prayer while you’ve got some prayer points stacked up as I said before, basically guaranteeing going off. Being able to pull those units back, out of combat, into safety can really mess up your opponent’s plans for the turn and massively change the tide of the game. Endless good comes out of this kind of teleport and how it can interact in your games: getting charge bonuses in your next turn again with cavalry, getting to shoot freely with ranged units, pulling them to safety, etc etc etc. It’s great. But only for Humans.
The big downside here is that this version of Zenestra is going to cost you 250 points to field. This version might be a bit better between the mortal-wound-nuke and re-rolling chants of 1 but I’m not sure she’s worth an extra 80 points. If it were only 200-220 points or even the same cost then I’d be more sold but I’m not sure just how strong her new prayers will be over giving a bunch of your units 5+ wards and doing damage to every Wizard and Priest on the table regardless of range. Definitely very curious to see which version will be getting more use.
Freeguild Cavaliers
These guys are more of an upgrade by comparison…sort of. They cost you just 10 more points per 5 at 160 which is fine, I think they could have just been the same cost and also been fine. Their stats are all the same aside form their Cavalier Weapons which go down to 2 attacks per model but hit on 3+ base instead of 4+ and are otherwise the same with +1 Damage on the charge, a point of rend, and normally 1 damage.
What makes them very different is losing their mortal-wound-on-charge ability to be replaced with The Red Work allowing them to count as if they’d made a charge move while staying still tied up in combat giving you that +1 damage while bogged down, helping them clear through an anvil unit. Unfortunately it’s a bit complicated to use and you have to roll good for it to work. The unit needs to be in combat range with a Cavalier Marshal or Freeguild Marshal on Griffon (it should also work with Thalia in my opinion but does not, missed oppurtunity) and you roll a dice looking for a 4+ to work. You get to add +1 to the roll if you’re outnumbered by enemy models in combat, making it the more common 3+ we’ve all known to look out for on abilities. You get the +1 damage if you do all of this and it works on the hero that you chose as well, which is nice.
I’m not sure if it’s worth 10 points to lose an attack for this ability, however. I’d rather just have more attacks and mortal damage on the charge to lift units before having the chance to be lifted, called back home by Zenestra to safety and rinse-and-repeat. I am glad that they’re toying with more abilities to make cavalry interesting after being stuck in combat and it creates for a somewhat interesting choice at least.
Final Thoughts
My biggest gripe (if you couldn’t tell by now) continues to be the emphasis the studio puts on Human heroes and units in this army. I was even a little surprised at the dawn of fourth edition when as many old elf and dwarf kits survived into the faction pack and with each update that pushes you to use more humans I get the feeling that the others will be going by the wayside sooner or later. Yes obviously you can just use dwarf or elf models “as” the other human warscrolls and I’ve loved seeing many beautifully converted armies to fill that role but tying so much to the human keyword time and time again detracts from customisation options.
Other than that, this is a fine update to the faction. It gives you more options if you’re playing mostly or all Humans in your lists (you probably are, it’s largely how the faction is designed to work) to have more cannons and/or more of a melee threat with some Cavaliers and/or Steelhelms which is cool. I really do like the idea of some very angry Steelhelms charging in and throwing 81 dice at something, it’s just cool.
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