I have made the plunge into Age of Sigmar by trading in a huge lot of Necron models (remember FLG has a huge second hand shop and will buy your old models!) to buy into the most beautiful army release yet by Games Workshop in the Cities of Sigmar. After a shopping spree that any mental health professional would label “concerning behavior”, and an entire weekend shut up in my office building models, I have a completely assembled 2000pts Cities of Sigmar army ready to go for AoS. Like most wargamers, my next step was to jump onto the internet to find some guides on how to run this awesome new army, and I was surprised at the lack of content out there on this topic. So, since I have access to the amazing FLG blog, I figured who better to write up some list building tips/tactics for the Cities of Sigmar than a brand new AoS player!
After delving into the Cities Battletome, I think the army can be made into a couple different archetypes. This flexibility in army building is awesome, as some Battletomes make it clear how an army is supposed to be built with only one decent sub-faction (coming from a former Kruleboyz player). The obvious build for Cities will be a devastating shooting build using a ton of Fusiliers, but don’t sleep on this faction’s melee power! A whole mess of Cavaliers can make a mess of your enemy. There are even TWO viable sub-factions in this Battletome for running a lot of cavalry!
Gunline: The gunline build to Cities of Sigmar is made pretty obvious after reading the Greywater Fastness rule of making three uses of All Out Attack cost a single Command Point. While you will still need three separate sources of this Command Ability this shouldn’t be a problem since your Cities army will want multiple characters handing out Orders. Combining this sub-faction rule with the Command Trait Master of Ballistics gives one regiment receiving All Out Attack the added bonus of +1 to Wound as well. The Artefact I would pair with this army build is the Brazier of Holy Flame since your are going to want big bricks of Fusiliers in this army. Their Bravery is not amazing, and getting less of them to run away while saving your Command Points for other things seems very effective. This Artefact will also be a huge help if your opponent can effectively target multiple units of Fusiliers leaving more than one unit at a disadvantageous bravery check.
The buffing pieces that are integral to this army will be the Alchemite Warforger and Pontifex Zenestra. The Warforger’s buffs are insanely powerful in both their offensive and defensive capabilities. By casting Blazing Weapons (remember on a 6 with the in built buff!) ALL Fusiliers wholly within 12 inches cause a Mortal Wound on a 6 to hit. This is in addition to the unit’s normal damage! With the use of Primal dice this low level caster can reliably get this spell off for some huge damage turns.
Cavalry: The melee focused build for Cities of Sigmar definatly revolves around the amazing new knight models in the Cavaliers. This unit has a solid offensive output and good mobility without any buffs, but when you start layering on the melee buffs found in the Cities of Sigmar Battletome, this unit becomes one of the scariest melee threats in the game. The first choice a Cities player will need to make if they choose to make Cavaliers the focus of their list is which sub-faction to play and this is far from an easy choice. The Free City of Excelis sub-faction gives your Freeguild Cavaliers the ability to cause a mortal wound on a 4+ for each model in the unit after completing a charge move. This combined with the Freeguild Cavalier-Marshal’s ability to make a unit a Cavalier’s fight after he does with Fights First can push through some incredible damage before your opponent even has a chance to respond. Misthavn gives 3 units you select the ability to move D6 inches at the end of your Hero Phase, or 2D6 if the unit is mounted! While this doesn’t translate to direct damage, it can give your opponents fits about screening out your big blocks of Cavaliers who can move 2D6 + 10 inches with a +3 to their charge roll near a Marshal using Finest Hour.
This writeup just scratches the surface of the complexity of the Cities Battletome. Entire other articles could be (and just might be) written about their Orders system, the other races in the Battletome in the Duardin and the Aelves, and the spells available to the different wizards in a Cities army. Let me know if you are eager for more Cities of Sigmar content and I will be sure to write up some more articles covering this brand new faction in Age of Sigmar. Until next time, I am off to start painting my 40 Fusiliers!
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