Faction Focus: Cities of Sigmar

Part of my Choosing An Army series for new players.
/ heywoah - stop by and chat AoS!
/ heywoah

[@Link2edition]

Greywater fastness: Great cannons in artwork, short story in the book about an organ gun crew. Also greywater: can't take cannons and organ guns without mercs

[@nagekilamentation]

I know, really hurts my will to collect my favorite fantasy race

[@PaintPlastic]

Any models from direct order now have round bases packed with them - I ordered a bunch of diff ones recently and all had rounds as well as squares

[@HeyWoah]

both round and squares? That's service

[@Darthvegeta8000]

So same with say Black Guards, Executioners and other Dark Elves?

[@RosieJonesRules]

@@Darthvegeta8000 Yep!

[@gastonslashx]

I'm just now getting into AoS but i played Warhammer fantasy about 10 years ago, still got my huge Empire army, soo round bases and we are ready to roll.

[@geronimo8159]

"Thick and cast sorcery" 👀

[@Bluecho4]

Another benefit of Cities of Sigmar: if you don't care about using official GW products, Cities gives you the widest possible license for using third party miniatures. All the traditional high fantasy staple armies are here, and you can easily tap into the historical wargaming sphere for cheap models (because historical armies are in the public domain, meaning prices stay competitive). Granted, there are some models that aren't as common or that you can't really get elsewhere. The phoenixes or the steampunk helicopter, and especially the Hurricanum, are going to be more difficult to find outside GW. But with the rank and file troops being so cheap to fill, you can afford to spend a little extra for the big stuff. A benefit of going third party is that you can lean into the idea of the Cities of Sigmar being a cosmopolitan alliance of disparate groups. One CoS army might be Empire-esque Renaissance Germans, while another might be Agincourt era French, another Afghan or Sudanese tribesmen, another American Revolutionaries with muskets, and another Roman legionaries. So long as they can fit the weapon loadouts, nothing is off limits. The mortal realms are vast and varied, with both established survivors and immigrants from Azyr representing pockets of civilization in a loosely connected wilderness full of monsters and cultists. Personal recommendations include anything from Perry Miniatures - who produce great sculpts in large numbers per box for low prices - and the box sets offered by Osprey (through North Star Military Figures) from their Frostgrave line. The latter have two whole box sets for wizards, that offer twice as many models as the Battlemage bundle from GW, with more customization options (including heads, weapons, accessories, and familiars), and at half the price. There's no shortage of companies offering great products, though, which gives the potential Cities of Sigmar player a wealth of choices.

[@HeyWoah]

**GHB2020 Update: Blackguards and Greatswords even better than before! Plus some nice dispossessed reductions. Good things to see. As for not good things to see, realm artefacts are gone, so rip ignax scales on your monster.

[@kyle_the_cozy]

Appreciate that these are coming out at a relatively quick pace (not that you have to stress about keeping that up though). Just happy it's not like 1 video a month. Great analysis for a great faction! Loved the lore bit as well!

[@FPExooodus]

Love that MEMORIES reference. Your vids have really improved my opinion of aos, respect to you man.

[@BR4IN1N4J4R]

I actually love Cities. I kinda want to build a (admittedly converted) Empire/Freeguild themed army. Idea is to play mechanically as a Good Stuff list, but only within "must be able to be an Empire/Freeguild model with conversion."

[@BR4IN1N4J4R]

Also, and this is a minor gripe: I feel that Greywater has more legs than given credit for. It's no Living City/Hallowheart/Hammerhal, but with a solid build, it can do some uncomfortable amounts of damage. You aren't going to be building 100% to theme, but you very much can snipe with the best of them by using min squads of handgunners, a min of Irondrakes, and a block of 20 Phoenix Guard as Retinue to your Lord Ordinator General

[@Bluecho4]

@@BR4IN1N4J4R So really, the only reason Greywater falls short is because it's merely Good, rather than Great like the other cities.

[@Ciruk1001]

Always great to see more content from you. One note Wardroth horn is for only sylvaneth units in living city, other than that awesome stuff!

[@kelvinsantiago7061]

Ok I have a LOT of leftover spearman, catapults,trabuarcs and ballistas from various different Warhammer fantasy armies so OK it's time to convert some models! Sir you have made my day!.

[@chaosspawn9302]

As someone who has never or will never play Cities, I think Wanderers has some gas in the engine for both awesome hammers and tough anvils especially in Ghyran.

[@beerbatreps3861]

My wild West cowboy tempest eye force is just dumb powerful. 2 units of 20 Pistoliers pump out 160 shots due to shooting again on the charge, while 2 units of 20 Outriders unload 40+40D3 shots as well. Hurricannum for the +1 to hit and Tempest Eyes buffs make this army just rediculous. Ends up being around 200+ shots per turn with rend and good hit/wound rolls. YEEHAW! LETS RIDE!

[@ExileBaelroth]

Love your videos HeyWoah, can't explain it but there is something enthralling about the way you explain things.

[@s.milano7767]

Same here. Great Vid Heywoah!

[@acrylicchemist1432]

Looking forward to more of this series! Thanks Hey Woah!

[@GrumpigBacon]

Also just consider winning anyway 🤣🤣 that made me subscribe

[@hobbithubby5076]

This one needs an update video… soooo many great reasons to play Cities now.

[@gregorm.5350]

Great new content, as I'm just starting AoS besides 40k. Keep the good work up! And don't let me wait to long on Bonereapers :P

[@TadVash]

DUDE!! i love this series! i cant wait for your fyreslayers videos!

[@ChristofferAndersson]

I've missed your videos. Happy that you're back. =)

[@davidblenner9082]

Love this series

[@janevitlaosirichon6723]

Precise & to the point. Love it. I like CoS except they are Order and I will never play Order. Looking forward to your next ones.

[@booradley6832]

I mean....order doesnt have to include anything particularly "orderly" about it. Your entire list can be murder elves, pirates, humans who are there "of their own free will" as they nod and smile with the gun pointed at the back of their head, flaming slayers and lots of mercenary types. If you just dont like the Realm Marines, nobodys gonna begrudge you for not taking them. I like Beasts of Chaos and really dislike certain parts of Chaos but I think ive come to terms with it and am currently deciding between Cities and Beasts.

[@stixxzadinia6752]

its really sad to see the mighty empire go the way of the dodo i was very upset to see this happen to the empire and the high elves , there are so many evil armies to choose from but only a handful of good armies

[@Bluecho4]

Part of this is because there's three flavors of "Evil" armies, but "Good" needs to share an alliance. And half the guys in "Good" aren't that good. Another issue is that many armies that could have been good or at least neutral are pigeon-holed into being evil because of Warhammer's skewed morality. Like, nothing says Beastmen or Skaven _need_ to be Always Chaotic Evil...except that Warhammer long ago made the decision to paint them that way. There's no working halfway or allowing for moral nuance with many of these armies, they must be evil because GW said so. (This isn't a problem unique to AoS, it's how Warhammer has always been; at least D&D has _tried_ to allow for moral ambiguity in their fantasy races, even when they don't always succeed). On the subject of sheer army options, though, I think Order in general, and Cities of Sigmar in specific, have more going on than meets the eye. CoS are one army, sure, but they're got models pulled from several different model lines from WHFB. They're the Empire and Wood Elves and Dwarfs and Dark Elves all rolled into one, along with a bunch of other things for good measure. When compared to other armies, they're practically multiple regular AoS armies stapled together. Obviously, this is relative - the Stormcast Eternals have way more models in their range compared to the Sons of Behemat (who have something like four models for sale, total) - and a bunch of models that were supported before got lost in the shuffle to AoS. Still, I think people are missing the forest for the trees when they compare CoS to other armies. Like the Slaves to Darkness, CoS is a big tent party, meant to facilitate variety as much as possible. In order for that to be possible, it needs multiple armies worth of models to choose from. I think CoS has that. Not as much as it could, but to a great degree.

[@razortree]

That is a darn good breakdown! 11/10

[@paulsubramanya476]

rolling out the great content

[@revenant7492]

Teetering on the edge of diving into AOS having played WFB and 40k for 30ish years. Model wise i'm loving treemen and sequitors, what would you recommend for a Living City army at 2k?

[@trip9g]

Rule nr1 - do NOT start at 2k pts straight. Get to 1k with a sample list and build from there since the meta changes a lot from year to year.

[@uchihastriker3441]

absolutely love the video man,terrific as always but thought i should just say that the wardroth horn is only a plus one to attacks of sylvaneth units not all.

[@thomashartmann5849]

Top notch content as expected. Bujaa

[@kyle_the_cozy]

Thinking about it now, I would argue that the Greywater Fastness start collecting box isn't terrible, especially since you can build those Ironbreakers as Irondrakes and people seem to like the bomber. Shame it doesn't come with a Runelord though.

[@booradley6832]

I'm not convinced greywater fastness is terrible simply because of that battalion. 2-3 helblaster volley guns and a cogsmith for 120 extra is a ton of firepower down range that I believe can also fire twice per round in certain circumstances and reroll any deck jams on the guns. Law of averages just always roll 2d6 so you have a minimum 83% chance of the guns going off and you're getting a lot of long range high strength attacks out for not that much, along with a second artefact and great support firepower.

[@RoccoYaBoy]

Great video!

[@Orangecrowbarman]

I picked up an old Empire army a couple months ago and haven't gotten around to stripping them (again, they're old and need some serious love), if I wanted to try and future proof my army so to speak for whatever "the old world" ends up being, what would you recommend I pick up? I know I could use some more greatswords, and some mages, but what other faction hero's make good compliments to a mostly empire army?

[@HeyWoah]

I have no idea what's going to happen with the old world, so I can't speak to that part. For CoS, general on griffon is a good addition if it's not already in the bundle. As for other race's heroes, they tend to pair up with a unit from that race (like runepriest+hammerers+msu of longbeards or darkling coven sorceress + blackguards or anointed on foot + phoenix guard).

[@kosachilles2504]

Another great video!

[@Pyrolisisfacial]

really cool videos, I want the faction focus on tzeentch please, I need more info about Arcanites and how to use them

[@McMathwin]

Sick video

[@osogitzgraymane72]

i know im comin to this video rather late but, isnt the dispossessed starting box good? you get a copter, hammerers and drake gunners?

[@HeyWoah]

Doesn't sound bad at all

[@danthegamerkhan]

So im an AoS noob. I used to be a fantasy player who ran dark elves. I came back from university to learn end times had happened. I didnt recognise the game so i went to 40k. Im coming back now and am attracted to cities. I had a couple questions. I quite literally have only got 10 corsairs and a few stormcast units. Though i now keep side eying empire units. I want to play anvilgard. How can i blend the human stormcast and dark elves together? Also i was looking at beasts of chaos as an alternative to cities. But i really want that old warhammer fantasy style

[@Willie5000]

Visually, you can give the humans and dark elves the same color pallete and it won't be as jarring. Heck, maybe even some kitbashing can work in your favor. Gamewise, consider what each unit does in AoS and how the dark elves can synergize and support the humans and vice versa. Also, Beasts of Chaos is literally the old Beastmen range from Fantasy, so that also has the old Warhammer Fantasy style.

[@danthegamerkhan]

@@Willie5000 cheers i like that idea for the blending of colour palettes for the humans. Initially i was gunna do units like mercs just with a splash of colour to signify their employment by dark elves

[@GaryP336]

Good vid

[@M1tZk1]

I was playing Dark Elves for at least a decade but Age of Sigmar just alienated it to much for me.

[@qwer9676]

just wait for old world

[@oliverwithers9736]

Do you have to use round bases, personally I think the square ones when all put together look so much better

[@HeyWoah]

ya just like 40k, round bases game

[@oliverwithers9736]

@@HeyWoah does it matter if you were playing casually? As I don’t really expect to be playing competitively ever

[@HeyWoah]

@@oliverwithers9736 You can do whatever you want at home with friends that agree to change the rules - in any game. Playing on squares messes up coherency, 'number of models within' rules like objectives and ambushes, combat pile-ins, and more since you're always just guessing where the bases are 'supposed to end'. It's annoying to play against to be honest. If you're trying to double dip with the same models in kings of war or are waiting until 2030 when Old World comes out, maybe get those round bases that you can put squares on top of, or just ask every opponent you play to give you special treatment, I'm not gonna call the cops.

[@Lancelot2000Lps]

How good are the blackriders in Aos because in 6th or 7th edtion fantasy a 1000 point army was 4-5x 5riders + 2-3 mages on horse for dark elfs!!! I loved it!!!

[@HeyWoah]

What's a black rider? I never played fantasy

[@Lancelot2000Lps]

@@HeyWoah One of the when not the best light cav with repeater crossbow light armour shield spear (4+ armour save) 9inch movement and it could run and shoot and got no negativ for shooting because elves or light cav and dark magic was op at that time because you could cast 2x-3x more than anyone!!!

[@spartandud3]

Are Dark Elf focused armies viable? Until Malekith get's his army my choice is between this and DoK and all I know about DoK is that they are super expensive.

[@HeyWoah]

Yes, though since it's meant to be a melting pot some of your choices per job will be a bit sub-par, while others will be very good.

[@akselhansen304]

Do one on nurgle / chaos soup

[@kyle_the_cozy]

Are these going to be released in order of Grand Alliance? Order first, etc?

[@HeyWoah]

no

[@kyle_the_cozy]

Cool

[@MajorKirrahe]

This is great, but I would say it's not too newbie friendly. I'm looking to get into Age Of Sigmar, but I didn't really get a lot of what you were talking about. It was still informative enough though, I have been eyeing up Cities of Sigmar for a while!

[@nate742]

Any hints on what the next faction will be?

[@HeyWoah]

I wanted to start with ones that told a bit about the world of AoS, hence starting with cities...

[@beowylfen]

That ending is very interesting cause I play Scaven and was looking at cities for an order army haha

[@Zergxolotl]

Cause they awesome Just like you

[@MinscFromBaldursGate92]

So it's Empire/Dwarfs/Dark Elves put together?

[@Willie5000]

And High and Wood Elves... though there's only like, three kits from both of those ranges that didn't get discontinued.

[@gabrielantona]

I like current CoS but unless there is any indication of GW future supporr it seems like buying into legacy armys

[@booradley6832]

Here's the question though- how much "future support" does it require? If it has solid baseline powers that even with tertiary power creep will continue to grow in power (spells get buffed? So do Cities. Elves get buffed? So do cities. Shooting gets better? So do cities. etc.) it seems that the army will continue to update in power even when it isnt the focus just by being made of every other faction of the most popularly supported allegiance.

[@AxeMain]

Umm yes I like jolly cooperation

[@grumbeard]

Cities of Sigmar? You mean like Nuln, Altdorf, Middenheim, Averheim and Talabheim?

[@HeyWoah]

Is that skyrim?

[@loganlough6510]

Can you play Warhammer fantasy battles armies in AOS?

[@HeyWoah]

Some of them in various ways, yeah, though it is a different game that's shaken a lot of factions up. I never played fantasy so can't say much about it.

[@loganlough6510]

@@HeyWoah fair enough. I still play fantasy with a couple of friends but wouldn't mind looking into play AOS as well

[@redluke8119]

Comment for the algorithm

[@booradley6832]

"You have another silver bullet in your quiver" No wonder Total War Warhammer reload times are so bad these days. (Please disregard, its an extreme nitpick and only for a joke)

[@jeova0sanctus0unus]

Cities of Sigmar, as a Dark souls fan, i always get a "Jolly cooperation" vibe.

[@Mitcheltron]

Really like your vids. Nice and clear, helpful and informative but your pronunciation really throws me off sometimes though xD

[@HeyWoah]

I'm bad at figuring out how GW intends on pronouncing a lot of their stuff, plus I'm from Wisconsin

[@Mitcheltron]

@@HeyWoah Oh I don't mind, it's high fantasy names usually with an unnecessary amount of letters. XD just throws me off at times. Keep it up.

[@ThereIsOnlyWar40k]

ok

[@briancline7349]

I don’t think I like how wide and unspecialized this “faction” is compared to others or factions in Fantasy, and how they basically threw all the old order factions (plus dark and wood elves) into a melting pot and called it a factions.

[@tallymanz6756]

I thought so at first too, but reading up on it and seeing some conversion there is something compelling about these races dividing along creed and location rather than simply static lines of "dark elf, dwarf, high elf, human, and wood elf". In fact I'm almost more interested in the inner workings of these nations and factions than the larger age of sigmar universe

[@JohnsRoses]

Why play cities of sigmar? So I don't have to buy new models.

[@patgray5402]

Can you play AOS on square bases? Because otherwise that's a no from me dog.

[@HeyWoah]

You're thinking of Old World when it comes out in 2035

[@CptSyphilis001]

The way you say retinue upsets me

[@donaldc8351]

immortal "good guys" @1:00 is why stormcast will never be heroic and nobody will ever care about them

[@HeyWoah]

If they played up the price of reforging part it has potential, like how space marine become dreadnoughts when mortally wounded, etc. But then I don't think many people like ultramarine either so

[@Bluecho4]

@@HeyWoah Personally, I find Grimdarkness to be the least interesting part of any variant of Warhammer. So, to me, making Stormcast more like Space Marines is a _downgrade._