The Future of Cities of Sigmar & Dawnbringer Crusades (speculation, faction review and conversion ideas)

                 Cities of Sigmar is my favourite Battletome/ set of rules for Games Workshop, and many agree; they have a great range of warscrolls and subfactions, are ripe for conversions (basically begging you to kitbash every unit from scratch) and they have some interesting lore which sets them up as the human baseline in the setting which all the big gods and monsters are contrasted against, something which was sorely missed in the first edition or so of the game.

                There were no actual new models created for the Cities of Sigmar release; the battletome was a combination of all the surviving “order” units from Warhammer Fantasy, such as the Dark Elves, Empire etc. This was a great opportunity for veterans to jump back in with their older forces, but it meant that the faction of humans—the most important faction in a fantasy setting IMO—had no models to distinguish themselves in the new Mortal Realms setting.

                This was a great time to kitbash them to fill that niche, then; I was inspired by Ricki Smith’s Cities of Sigmar force, as well as the new Sisters of Battle release to start my own during the 2020 lockdowns. The army is *at time of writing* on display in Warhammer World’s shop too! For those who can’t make it down though, here’s some pics:

 

                What I mainly want to discuss though is the Age of Sigmar 3^rd edition Dawnbringer Crusades and where they will take the army, as well as my own recent conversions for the force and new additions. To set the stage a little, the Cities were bolstered at the end of second edition with a small amount of new heroes. There were the seven or eight from Cursed City, which aren’t readily available anymore and are excluded from the GHB. There are also the new Witch Hunters which I’ve been meaning to pick up.

    Alongside these new models, three out of four of the new gorgeous Broken Realms books introduced one or more new Cities complete with interesting subfaction rules which allowed for fun coalitions with the Lumineth and Daughters of Khaine in addition to the Stormcast, Sylvaneth and Duardin options in the base book. There was lots of speculation that more cities would be added later, and I was very happy to see the speculation proved right. It’s super fun to see the humans fighting alongside the Stormcast in all the artwork, especially in Broken Realms: Morathi which includes a fantastic shot of a couple Hydras emerging from a tunnel. This still left the Cities in a strange spot though, with their units and rules spread across four books and like twenty years of miniatures, with only two from their main force being made especially for the game they’re designed for.

                The new edition of AoS, however, has shifted the balance of the Cities; the Dawnbringer Crusades have featured major Cities offensives into Ghur, allied alongside Stormcast to reclaim lost civilisations. There’s some gorgeous new art alongside these releases too which illustrate the Cities of Sigmar in a more distinct Cities of Sigmar style which you can see below. I really really hope we see some miniatures for these or similar in the future.

                So, where does this leave the Cities? While they’re very present within the new edition, the artwork, animations and similar focus primarily on the zealous and human aspects. I’d love in the future if the faction could be headed by new Dawnbringer minis while still giving the old scrolls a place in the book, similar to how new Stormcast tomes focus on the newly released chamber while still keeping the old stuff playable. It’s really exciting to see my favourite AoS faction take centre stage, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

                In light of this new lore, I’ve started to expand upon my Cities army again. Usually, once an army is done for me, it’s done. But with my cities, they received no proper send-off; I didn’t enter them into Armies on Parade, so they didn’t have a real bookend, so I’m excited to work on them more. I want to add some of those new Witchunters and perhaps convert that new orruk vulture into a phoenix. In addition, I’ve been working on these new models to spearhead my Dawnbringer force:

 

First of all is the first completed model; this guy is a priest of some kind. I like to think he’ll be a Battlemage or some stock allied character from one of the coalition armies. He’s converted from the Cursed City death mage and the Cursed City Necromancer with some other bits and bobs.

 

Second is my very WIP Stormcast. I LOVE Stormcast—their models, their lore and everything. I’ve tried to keep my models for them in small numbers however to make them a bit more special. This will be my third and count as Yndrasta who has a rule that buffs Cities of Sigmar units, so she’ll be perfect to lead my Dawnbringer force. She’s converted from Lauka and the Avatar of Khaine mostly.

 

Third is my blessed knight; I wanted to make a male knight character for my city, a champion of tourneys and favourite of the city’s old guard. He’ll count as Gotrek in games, his power represented by his divine blessings in the lore. With Gotrek so popular in the new edition, it’ll be fun to see all the fun conversions made for specific armies for it.

I have more ideas for stuff too! Some knights, steamtanks etc. But I’ll have to wait and see, as I’ve got a lot to work on between these guys and a huge (for me) Soulblight army. I’ve started weaving their lore into that of my cities (see the blog post a couple posts back about the Princess)—they’re bitter rivals! Excited to touch more on that in prose. Would also like to make some maps and update the blog with more detailed sections about how all my AoS28 armies interact in a cinematic universe kinda way.

Also, path to glory is still happening, hold tight!

Until next time!