AoS: Cities of Sigmar Battletome Review – The Good, the Bad & The Ugly
Today we take a look at Battletome: Cities of Sigmar. In a world of Aelves, Dwarves, and Daemons, sometimes it’s hard to be just a guy. Thankfully, the Dawnbringers have lots of friends.
The time has come at last; the full release of the Cities of Sigmar is heading our way. With a combination of masterful artifice, deadly magics, and no small amount of black powder, the inhabitants of Sigmar’s various settlements stand against the horrors of the Realms. The primarily human settlements are also home to Sylvaneth, Lumineth, and other settlers, who bring their own unique styles of warfare to the forces of Sigmar.
The new book is incredible, but there are a few things I can’t quite wrap my head around. Now, full disclosure, I’ve not an expert with Cities of Sigmar, (I like the Drakespawn, but not much else) but I get the idea of the army. That said, let’s do a quick rundown of what I love, what I hate, and what just seemed a little strange from the new book.
The Good: Humans and Powder
The primary thing the new book gets right is how much like old-school Empire it feels. While we still have knights and a few dwarves and elves running around, the primary units in the book are the humans. The Fusiliers are incredible, not only rules-wise but in the way they look. The massive balancing platform shields they wield to stabilize their weapon is a very fun edition.
Outside the land of boom, the infantry feels like human auxiliaries, plucky warriors willing to face the terrible creatures that live outside their walls. Of course, I can’t leave out the coolest model GW has produced in some time: Tahlia Vedra and Infernadine. This is how I always imagined Manticores. I will probably pick Tahlia up to convert into a Chaos Lord for my Slaves to Darkness army.
The Bad: Where Are the Others?
One of the things that I loved about Cities of Sigmar is that you could combine the Duardin, Aelves, and Humans into a single cohesive army. While that’s still something you can do, the motion towards reducing subfaction impact has made it a LOT harder.
If you aren’t playing Humans in the new Cities book, you’re probably shooting yourself in the foot. Humans get a lot more command traits, artefacts, and support in the book, and the other races are left in the dust. Again, playing them isn’t impossible, but it certainly wasn’t what this book was designed for. Also, the Phoenix Guard are gone, and that feels like a crime.
The Ugly: So…Much…Content
This book is full of options, to an almost detrimental degree. There’s a full FIFTY units in this Battletome. While it doesn’t get into Stormcast territory, it still makes it hard for beginners to make the right choices when putting together an army. Since Cities of Sigmar feels like it should be a novice army to me, this doesn’t work in its favor. On the other hand, that means once you master your unit options, you can tailor the list however you want. Love it or hate it, options aren’t terrible.
For Sigmar!
