Amid gleaming pennants flapping in the wind, the pounding of drums, and the rattle of the baggage train, Battletome: Cities of Sigmar is on the horizon. With it comes a huge range of new miniatures and units, and a host of updated Warscrolls to encompass the many existing warriors who make up the battlehosts of Order. But with this awesome new muster come certain key changes to the expansive existing range. Pay attention troops, this is what you need to know!
New Miniatures and Their Replacements
We’ve now seen a new General, and new infantry, cavalry, gunners, and even an ogor, while more updated units – including artillery – are on their way to a preview article near you. These miniatures will be replacing many current models on a like-for-like basis.
Quite a few current units, including the Steam Tank, Celestial Hurricanum, and Imperial Griffon, will continue their service as part of the Cities of Sigmar.
Duardin and Aelves
As for the other races who make up the armies of the God-king, duardin and aelves still feature in the book – though the focus of the new battletome is definitely the mortal humans. The same is true of the new miniatures releases – aelves and duardin have been well served over the past few years with battletomes of their own, and it’s high time that the humble humans put the “mortal” back into Mortal Realms.
This means that Cities of Sigmar generals will have a lot of options for how they construct their forces. If you like the look of the new mortal humans, you can certainly make them the backbone of your force.
If you like the idea of a combined arms force of aelves, duardin and humans, that works too. And you can still field all-aelven or entirely duardin armies if you like, though you may find your choices somewhat limited.
You’ll also be able to dip into many other battletomes with some flexible and thematic rules for allies, which will add character and choice to your forces where appropriate. For instance, armies hailing from Tempest’s Eye can add Kharadron Overlords to their ranks, while the Living City can be bolstered by the forces of the Sylvaneth.
Units Leaving the Range
To make way for these new models, Inevitably some units will be leaving the Warhammer Age of Sigmar range. Many of these aren’t gone for good, and will in fact be returning in due course under the banner of Warhammer: The Old World, as reinforcements for the High Elves, the Wood Elves, and the Empire.
If you have any of these classic models in your existing Cities of Sigmar line-up don’t worry. In almost every instance, there’s still a similar analogue in the battletome. For example, you could use your Wildwood Rangers (elite aelves with two-handed swords) as Executioners (elite aelves with two-handed swords).
There are some really beautiful Cities of Sigmar armies out there in the world that have made great use of the existing range, as well as conversions and inventive paint schemes, and we’d hate to see them shelved, so by all means carry on playing with your miniatures. Just make sure that if you are using older models which aren’t in the battletome, your opponent is clear which units represent what.
Here are the models that will soon be leaving the Age of Sigmar range and thus, will not be appearing in the new Cities of Sigmar battletome:
We’ll have more information on the Cities of Sigmar very soon as launch approaches, and keep your spyglasses polished for a new Old World Development Diary later in July.