AoS 2 - Living City Discussion

[Popisdead]

17 hours ago, AthelLoren said:

...So, I say that I'm a Sylvaneth/Wanderers player, but I only have a few models...What would you guys suggest proxying Glade Guard as? Shadow Warriors? Do they work as sisters of the watch or do they not look right?

Also, how would allies work for a Waywatcher? Does the warscroll still exist even though the model is gone and, if so, what category would it be under? Wanderers? Asking because there doesn't seem to be a suitable proxy for a Waywatcher.

If you look a lot of the Waywatcher models are female so it shouldn't be too hard to pass them off as SotW.  If you are starting out people should be pretty understanding.  It is also a game.  Really,.. people., just, who cares that much?  Your shadow warriors are from Ghyran and just happen to look like Shadow Warriors or Sisters of the Watch from that particular region.  

I play with my old Glade Guard as Sisters of the Watch.  I converted 10 GG up to bleakswords.  I also use my 20 Waywatchers as Sisters of the Watch.  I tried Shadow Warriors but,.. the reason they are popular is because of their DS ability and 110 points.  The unit is okay but doesn't match the damage output of SotW particularly if we start seeing more unrendable saves (is ASF over and now everything will be unrendable?) and need the MW output.  

I use my Waywatcher hero (in fact all my Wood Elf heroes) as unit champions.  And that range had 16 heroes so you get a lot of mileage out of it.  I've been a Wood Elf collector since 1987 so I just find units to match.  My Wardancers are Rangers (I do have 20 new Rangers though), etc.  My GW WE hero is my unit champ for my Rangers, the Spear heroes are my EG champions.  I've also repainted a cloak purple and the hair black on a WE Spellsinger and use her as my DE Sorceress.

 

13 hours ago, readercolin said:

Glade guard work ok as shadow warriors, though they work a big better if you can strap some swords to them, or swap the back hand for one holding a sword.  Especially well if the heads are the ones that are masked.  Sisters of the watch can also work if you do bow swaps.  

There is that hooded glade guard head to help with Shadow Warriors.  Rather than worry about swapping bows to make GG SotW try sculpting flames on the GG bows.    Or not caring.  I do the latter but I can see how in a tournament there will always be one dissenting voice. 

14 minutes ago, Landohammer said:

In fact, Waystalkers make decent allied choices in a Sylvaneth army because they add a solid shooting phase for relatively cheap. 

Odd,.. Waystalkers are either missing from the app or renamed WAywatchers.  I wonder their dmg output compared to Shadow Warriors.

[Landohammer]

1 hour ago, Popisdead said:

 

Odd,.. Waystalkers are either missing from the app or renamed WAywatchers.  I wonder their dmg output compared to Shadow Warriors.

Good catch. The character I was referring to is actually called a Waywatcher. I got confused since his bow is called the Waystalker Bow. 

The old Wood Elf unit is also called Waywatchers. Additionally confusing is that both units do not pop up in a search in the App. You have to manually filter to them via their faction. 

This is one of the rare situations where two warscrolls have the same title. Similar to the Empire and Ironweld Arsenal Cannons. Weird. 

But the Waywatcher Wanderer Character is actually a pretty solid little shooter. He is like 120 points and gets 6 shots that hit on 2+/3+/-1/1 and can actually generate additional shots for each 5+. (and these can generate additional shots themselves). This combined with an excellent command ability.

I always wanted to field like 4 plus a Nomad prince so I could generate additional shots on a 4+ and just hose the board with arrows lol.  

 

 

[readercolin]

1 hour ago, Popisdead said:

Odd,.. Waystalkers are either missing from the app or renamed WAywatchers.  I wonder their dmg output compared to Shadow Warriors.

The Waywatcher is a wanderer hero.  The waywatchers are probably the old wood elf waystalkers (the model matches up to the ones I have).  Seriously, who the heck thought to name them so close together?  As for the comparison to shadow warriors:

Waywatchers come in packs of 80pts/5.  This is compared to shadow warriors at 110/10 or sisters of the watch at 160/10.  To get a somewhat apples to apples comparison, I'll compare 10 waywatchers to 15 shadow warriors to 10 sisters.  This is about even points wise, though obviously you can never take just 15 shadow warriors.  For all values, I'm putting the damage as before saves, though shadow warriors have a slight buff there as they have -1 rend at range.

Shadow warriors will do ~5 damage at range, and then another ~10 damage in melee, assuming no buffs.  Should you manage to drop them in cover, they will instead do ~8.3 damage at range.

Sisters of the watch clock in at ~11.6 damage at range (assuming nothing is within 3" so they get to double shoot) and can then back that up with another 2.5 damage in melee... in other words, keep them at range.

Lastly, the waywatchers can choose to either shoot fast (double attacks and exploding 6's) or shoot precise (double damage and -2 rend on 6's to wound).  Fast attacks gives them ~8.75 damage while precise will do ~7.33.  Precise actually does a smidge more damage to 3+ saves than fast does, but you could easily just take "always do fast" and you wouldn't really go wrong.  Lastly, they can follow that up with another 3.33 damage in melee.

Overall, this goes to show that the waywatchers don't really hold up to sisters of the watch at all, but can be slightly better at shooting than shadow warriors, unless shadow warriors can shoot from cover (in which case shadow warriors are better against 6+ or better saves).  However, the shadow warriors have a significant advantage if they dive into melee.

I think this goes to show that if you do have some old waywatchers/waystalkers, you would probably do better to just call them shadow warriors.  They don't really fit the sisters of the watch asthetic, so I don't think I would want to use them for that.  But they can either make a cool band of shadow warriors by themselves (especially if you have an old waywatcher to be the unit leader), or they work fine with glade guard as unit leaders.

[Hannibal]

Hi all,

 

was thinking about a themed Living City army that basically consists of anything Dark Elf Corsairs / Kharibdyss / War Hydra related as well as different Sylvaneth units. It´s rather bound to special modelling theme than searching for strong synergies gamewise. I thought about some mangrove forest or mangrove swamp theme.

 

What do you guys think about such a project? Does it make any sense, even fluffwise (don´t know much about the living city)?

 

Thanks in advance

 

HTG

[Aelfric]

1 hour ago, Hannibal said:

Hi all,

 

was thinking about a themed Living City army that basically consists of anything Dark Elf Corsairs / Kharibdyss / War Hydra related as well as different Sylvaneth units. It´s rather bound to special modelling theme than searching for strong synergies gamewise. I thought about some mangrove forest or mangrove swamp theme.

 

What do you guys think about such a project? Does it make any sense, even fluffwise (don´t know much about the living city)?

 

Thanks in advance

 

HTG

Makes perfect sense to me and sounds like a great idea!  The Realms are vast places and Ghyran is no exception; all sorts of flora would abound and Sylvaneth mangroves would make an interesting conversion project.  A swamp is a good place to set up if you are wanting a bit of privacy (especially from the authorities).  You'll want a good explanation if you're going to include any Stormcast, though - lorewise that is.  I'd say go for it.

[Landohammer]

Hey guys, I got in a practice game with my Living City list this weekend and I wanted to share the results of each unit. My opponent had an aggressive Cities list full of Demigriffs.

Hammerers- These guys are insane. I deepstriked them near an objective turn 1 and they killed everything in sight. They were eventually killed by Greatswords but not before wracking up many VPs and kills.

Gyrocopter - Killed 25 Flagellants and then charged a Hurricanum lol. Admittedly Flagellants are particularly weak to Gyros but any horde infantry with low saves should be terrified of these guys. This is an insane amount of threat for a 70pt unit.

Hurricanum - Did work. Duh

Darkshards - Died quickly but did their job as screens and objective campers. Can't complain

Wildwood Rangers- I deepstriked them in a bad area so they spent most of the game chasing stuff across the board. To be determined. 

Evocators - Murdered some demigriffs after Darkshard ate the charge. These guys continue to be a solid jack of all trades. 

I won the game 20-15. I was very impressed with how the Living City performed, (especially with Dispossessed units) so I may be adding more of those where points allow.

[Rune]

18 hours ago, Landohammer said:

Hey guys, I got in a practice game with my Living City list this weekend and I wanted to share the results of each unit. My opponent had an aggressive Cities list full of Demigriffs.

Hammerers- These guys are insane. I deepstriked them near an objective turn 1 and they killed everything in sight. They were eventually killed by Greatswords but not before wracking up many VPs and kills.

Gyrocopter - Killed 25 Flagellants and then charged a Hurricanum lol. Admittedly Flagellants are particularly weak to Gyros but any horde infantry with low saves should be terrified of these guys. This is an insane amount of threat for a 70pt unit.

Hurricanum - Did work. Duh

Darkshards - Died quickly but did their job as screens and objective campers. Can't complain

Wildwood Rangers- I deepstriked them in a bad area so they spent most of the game chasing stuff across the board. To be determined. 

Evocators - Murdered some demigriffs after Darkshard ate the charge. These guys continue to be a solid jack of all trades. 

I won the game 20-15. I was very impressed with how the Living City performed, (especially with Dispossessed units) so I may be adding more of those where points allow.

Why Hammerers over Greatswords?

[Landohammer]

2 hours ago, Rune said:

Why Hammerers over Greatswords?

Short answer, because I already own 30 Hammerers lol. (i rebased them from an old WHF army).

Long answer: In a vacuum, I think Greatswords are probably just flat-out better, which is fair, since they are quite a bit more expensive when you take 30. 

But when you add character support, (which you are probably bringing anyway) then the line begins to blur a bit. The General buffs the Greatswords by quite a bit but a Warden King or Runelord do a better job while also triggering battleshock immunity. The +1 attack from the Warden King is particularly devastating.

 

[Rune]

54 minutes ago, Landohammer said:

Short answer, because I already own 30 Hammerers lol. (i rebased them from an old WHF army).

Long answer: In a vacuum, I think Greatswords are probably just flat-out better, which is fair, since they are quite a bit more expensive when you take 30. 

But when you add character support, (which you are probably bringing anyway) then the line begins to blur a bit. The General buffs the Greatswords by quite a bit but a Warden King or Runelord do a better job while also triggering battleshock immunity. The +1 attack from the Warden King is particularly devastating.

 

Hehe all right. Fair enough.

 

I think from a pure list building perspective, specifically in Living City I would prefer Greatswords. The Runelord buffs in the hero phase, so won't get that on the initial charge. Warden king sure, but that's 110 points and a the battleshock immunity again will not be there round 1.

 

I'm going to toy around with a Cogs list with Gotrek and Greatswords though. Gyrocopters or even Gyrobombers are interesting. Gyrobombers would be able to bomb twice. By also bombing on their extra move done by the command ability

Edited May 20, 2020 by Rune

[Landohammer]

41 minutes ago, Rune said:

Hehe all right. Fair enough.

 

I think from a pure list building perspective, specifically in Living City I would prefer Greatswords. The Runelord buffs in the hero phase, so won't get that on the initial charge. Warden king sure, but that's 110 points and a the battleshock immunity again will not be there round 1.

 

I'm going to toy around with a Cogs list with Gotrek and Greatswords though. Gyrocopters or even Gyrobombers are interesting. Gyrobombers would be able to bomb twice. By also bombing on their extra move done by the command ability. The OP shooting ability won't be triggered though unfortunately

In my last game I actually deepstriked both the Warden and 30 Hammerers on turn 1. Having a character nearby is clutch for the charge reroll. Hammerers get the battleshock immunity as long as a dispossessed character is nearby. (they don' need the oathstone) So you only really lose it if you make the charge and the Warden fails.

But at the end of the day, if you have the CP, the General can do the same thing for the Greatswords. So yea Greatswords are better lol. 

Thats interesting idea about the Gyros. I normally prefer the copters because the Steam Gun is absolutely nuts vs hordes. But yea 2 bombers getting 2 bombing runs is like 4d3 mortal wounds. Thats pretty scary. 

[Popisdead]

23 hours ago, Landohammer said:

Hey guys, I got in a practice game with my Living City list this weekend and I wanted to share the results of each unit. My opponent had an aggressive Cities list full of Demigriffs.

Hammerers- These guys are insane. I deepstriked them near an objective turn 1 and they killed everything in sight. They were eventually killed by Greatswords but not before wracking up many VPs and kills.

Gyrocopter - Killed 25 Flagellants and then charged a Hurricanum lol. Admittedly Flagellants are particularly weak to Gyros but any horde infantry with low saves should be terrified of these guys. This is an insane amount of threat for a 70pt unit.

Hurricanum - Did work. Duh

Darkshards - Died quickly but did their job as screens and objective campers. Can't complain

Wildwood Rangers- I deepstriked them in a bad area so they spent most of the game chasing stuff across the board. To be determined. 

Evocators - Murdered some demigriffs after Darkshard ate the charge. These guys continue to be a solid jack of all trades. 

I won the game 20-15. I was very impressed with how the Living City performed, (especially with Dispossessed units) so I may be adding more of those where points allow.

Nice reporting.  I'm going to do up 3 40mm bases for my old Warhawk riders and look at the bitz I have to make them Gyrocopter-ish.  I'm not above making the hawk farts steam   

[readercolin]

2 hours ago, Popisdead said:

Nice reporting.  I'm going to do up 3 40mm bases for my old Warhawk riders and look at the bitz I have to make them Gyrocopter-ish.  I'm not above making the hawk farts steam   

Love to see what you do with them when you finish.

I also have 3 old warhawk riders that I want to use... though I DEFINITELY need something other than the stupid flight stands (who the heck thought that little plastic flight stands + metal birds was a good idea anyways?)

[Popisdead]

33 minutes ago, readercolin said:

Love to see what you do with them when you finish.

I also have 3 old warhawk riders that I want to use... though I DEFINITELY need something other than the stupid flight stands (who the heck thought that little plastic flight stands + metal birds was a good idea anyways?)

I'm wondering about Spites.  

So I took my dremol and bored out the hole in the hawk more, clipped the top tiny divet off the plastic of the flight stand and now it has a stronger and less tippy model.  

[Landohammer]

19 hours ago, readercolin said:

Love to see what you do with them when you finish.

I also have 3 old warhawk riders that I want to use... though I DEFINITELY need something other than the stupid flight stands (who the heck thought that little plastic flight stands + metal birds was a good idea anyways?)

This was the bane of my hobby back in 8th. However round bases have proven significantly more sturdy than the old squares. Gyros also should be on 50mm circles now which is much better than their old 40mm squares.

Personally, I just use cork to make elevated bases for metal flying models.  In fact, the Gyros I use are actually the old metal ones. 

19 hours ago, Popisdead said:

I'm wondering about Spites.  

So I took my dremol and bored out the hole in the hawk more, clipped the top tiny divet off the plastic of the flight stand and now it has a stronger and less tippy model.  

Are you considering Spites in living city?

Unfortunately they won't count as battleline since they are only battleline in Sylvaneth armies. Otherwise they are a decent infantry unit for their points. Their biggest weakness is their 32" bases though. With 1" range attacks their huge bases let them only attack in one rank. 

[Popisdead]

9 minutes ago, Landohammer said:

 Gyros also should be on 50mm circles now which is much better than their old 40mm squares.

...

Are you considering Spites in living city?

50 mm?  man I used all mine up on my Warherd.  guess I gotta find more

I meant Spites as in the tiny little ones on the sprues, shoulders, etc. (not Spite Revenants), and using them as diving off the Warhawks to count-as "bombs".   Maybe if there was goblins or halflings with bottles or something, convert them so I had something on the model to count as the weapon options.  I hope that is clearer

 

So i'm mostly using "Wood Elves" well Wanderers in my LC and I want to take advantage of Endless Spells.  I have Cogs, Emerald Lifeswarm and the mirrors built and painted.  Core of my army will be large block of EG, some Rangers, Wild Riders, Thorn Sisters, and spam Sisters of the Watch.   Palisades comes to mind.  Any Suggestions for must have?  I only got the Endless Spells a few months ago.

 

thanks kindly!

[Landohammer]

2 hours ago, Popisdead said:

50 mm?  man I used all mine up on my Warherd.  guess I gotta find more

I meant Spites as in the tiny little ones on the sprues, shoulders, etc. (not Spite Revenants), and using them as diving off the Warhawks to count-as "bombs".   Maybe if there was goblins or halflings with bottles or something, convert them so I had something on the model to count as the weapon options.  I hope that is clearer

 

So i'm mostly using "Wood Elves" well Wanderers in my LC and I want to take advantage of Endless Spells.  I have Cogs, Emerald Lifeswarm and the mirrors built and painted.  Core of my army will be large block of EG, some Rangers, Wild Riders, Thorn Sisters, and spam Sisters of the Watch.   Palisades comes to mind.  Any Suggestions for must have?  I only got the Endless Spells a few months ago.

 

thanks kindly!

The most popular spell in Cities is definitely the Lifeswarm.  Cogs is particularly useful in Living City. I also really like Balewind Vortex since its cheap and can help you get more mileage out of a single caster. I probably would leave the Spellportals at home. Most of our spells are buffs so range isn't a huge problem.

How many wizards are you planning on running? 

 

[Popisdead]

Not too many.  The Sisters of the Thorn for sure cause I feel they have utility for EG, conga lines, keeping up with a Phoenix if I take one.  I think maybe a Sorceress with 10 Bleakswords to cast Lifeswarm.  Cogs could be pretty good along with a Ghur mage.  You could get a charge with EG, Rangers or WRs at,.. +5" ?  However I recall liking the spell lore.  At least #1 and #3 almost every turn.  

Well I have Life swarm done so I guess I'm good to go then.  

[pixieproxy]

So I have some stormcast and Sylvaneth, and was wondering about maybe moving towards making a living city army, where should I start? I have the Stormcast from Soul Wars, and the SC Sylvaneth + 1x each revenants + 1xkurnoth hunters

[Landohammer]

1 hour ago, pixieproxy said:

So I have some stormcast and Sylvaneth, and was wondering about maybe moving towards making a living city army, where should I start? I have the Stormcast from Soul Wars, and the SC Sylvaneth + 1x each revenants + 1xkurnoth hunters

You may want to just make a Sylvaneth army with Stormcast Allies to start out with.

Living City armies only allow 1/4 units to be Stormcast and 1/4 units to be Sylvaneth. So essentially half your units need to actually be Cities of Sigmar units.

If you wanted to eventually transition to Living City you would need to get hold of at least 4-6 Cities of Sigmar units.

Greywater Fastness and Anvil Guard both have start collecting boxes that can work in any city. The Greywater fastness one is actually quite solid in Living City and would give you 4 solid units. 

 

[pixieproxy]

Yeah I'm already looking at getting some sisters of the watch, as I like the models a lot. What other units are decent?

[Nick in York]

I'm working on building a Living City army with a strong forest/nature theme. I've got the basis of a list or two and am looking for a bit of feedback/things I may not have thought about. 

I'm much more of a narrative/fun player than full-on tournament competitive type. However, it would be nice to win some games!

My ideas so far (some of these I already own and others are included for thematic purposes, i.e. the models look like they live in the woods!!)...

Leaders:

Nomad Prince

Battlemage

Battlemage

Drycha

Knight-Azyros

Units

20 x Eternal Guard

20 x Dryads

10 x Shadow Warriors 

10 x Shadow Warriors 

10 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (using old Empire/Freeguild archer kit with a few Glade Guard)

10 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (see above)

That's what I already have either built/painted or with a plan for what I'm going to do with them.

That leaves me with 400 points (current points; as this project will take me possibly a year to finish, I'm well aware they might change with new GHB) to play with.

I'm interested in some cavalry but not sure what. I like the look of the Dark Riders and I think I can paint/convert them to fit with my theme easily. Other things I've thought about include Vanguard-Palladors. 

Also, either as an alternative or in addition I've been looking at a Flamespyre Pheonix. 

The way I'd be looking at playing would be to have the Dryads, Eternal Guard and Nomad Prince to hold and protect objectives in my back field or move onto hold others later in the game. Shadow Warriors and Crossbowmen to harass enemy units and use movement shenanigans to take objectives elsewhere. Drycha to take the attack to the enemy (along with some of the other units I'm undecided on). Knight-Azyros to support either the shooting units or the Drycha led attack.

Thoughts, strengths, weaknesses, advice all welcome.

Edited May 22, 2020 by Nick in York

[Popisdead]

1 hour ago, pixieproxy said:

Yeah I'm already looking at getting some sisters of the watch, as I like the models a lot. What other units are decent?

Just get 90 of them   just kidding but there was a pretty good LC breakdown a few months ago in this thread where the value of SotW spammed plus Scourgerunner chariots is explained in detail.  Scourgerunners are great and amazing at their points cost and will be good and solid when the points go up in a few months with GHB2020.  IMO since SotW aren't seen in tournaments they won't get nerfed in anyway and possibly since Wanderers are really not seen the points may go down?

I don't think  30 SotW if you like the models that much is a bad choice.  They also do well in Tempest Eye behind a solid screen (Eternal Guard for me).  

 

Regarding Endless spells @Landohammer, I learned a trick from Darren on The Honest Wargamer.  Take a Branchwych, cast Throne of Vines,  pop her on a Balewind, cast the Umbral Spellportal, then spam her spell.  Spell range is pretty good but you need a way for her to cast two spells cause you kinda want to start popping this off first turn.  

The Vortex adds 6", the second mirror can be anywhere,.. then from that point you have the spell going off 15" diametre from anywhere in your opponents line.  Looking at mine on the shelf it is a 40 mm base.  Since I don't see any placement restrictions I assume it can be right next to the enemy?  

Also each turn cast Throne then Unleash Spites to add to your chances of more MWs.  It is a lot of points and a BWraith spamming Dryads is likely smarter but it would be hilarious if it worked some game.

[Landohammer]

8 minutes ago, Popisdead said:

 

 

Regarding Endless spells @Landohammer, I learned a trick from Darren on The Honest Wargamer.  Take a Branchwych, cast Throne of Vines,  pop her on a Balewind, cast the Umbral Spellportal, then spam her spell.  Spell range is pretty good but you need a way for her to cast two spells cause you kinda want to start popping this off first turn.  

The Vortex adds 6", the second mirror can be anywhere,.. then from that point you have the spell going off 15" diametre from anywhere in your opponents line.  Looking at mine on the shelf it is a 40 mm base.  Since I don't see any placement restrictions I assume it can be right next to the enemy?  

Also each turn cast Throne then Unleash Spites to add to your chances of more MWs.  It is a lot of points and a BWraith spamming Dryads is likely smarter but it would be hilarious if it worked some game.

So we call that the Branchwych Bomb and its quite hilarious. I wasn't aware that it worked through a spell portal though. If so that is awesome.

The spell portals have to be set up 18 inches from each other, and you have to be 1 inch away from the portal to cast through it. But thats still pretty good range.

There are a few downsides. Obviously it can only be fielded in a Sylvaneth army (since Throne is a Sylvaneth allegiance spell) and a single caster won't be able to cast both endless spells in the same turn. So it would rely on getting off Throne, Balewind, Spellportal, and Unleash Spites and at least 2 turns.

 

 

51 minutes ago, Nick in York said:

 

Also, either as an alternative or in addition I've been looking at a Flamespyre Pheonix. 

The way I'd be looking at playing would be to have the Dryads, Eternal Guard and Nomad Prince to hold and protect objectives in my back field or move onto hold others later in the game. Shadow Warriors and Crossbowmen to harass enemy units and use movement shenanigans to take objectives elsewhere. Drycha to take the attack to the enemy (along with some of the other units I'm undecided on). Knight-Azyros to support either the shooting units or the Drycha led attack.

Thoughts, strengths, weaknesses, advice all welcome.

Flamespyre is a fun model but at the end of the day the Frostheart is just so much better for only 20 more points. My frustration at the Flamespyre is that his combat profile is just so weak compared to Frosty.

If you are interested in cavalry, check out the Sisters of the Thorn. They can fill in a battleline slot and help free up your wizard points. And are great at chasing down objectives and popping wounds off behemoths. 

[Popisdead]

35 minutes ago, Landohammer said:

So we call that the Branchwych Bomb and its quite hilarious. I wasn't aware that it worked through a spell portal though. If so that is awesome.

The spell portals have to be set up 18 inches from each other, and you have to be 1 inch away from the portal to cast through it. But thats still pretty good range.

There are a few downsides. Obviously it can only be fielded in a Sylvaneth army (since Throne is a Sylvaneth allegiance spell) and a single caster won't be able to cast both endless spells in the same turn. So it would rely on getting off Throne, Balewind, Spellportal, and Unleash Spites and at least 2 turns.

The Spellportals in Cities range is the whole table   Which is why I was hoping to try it haha.  

I forgot you can't get Throne.  That means your second caster would have to do the Mirrors.  Balewind is 6, Branchwych casts that, Sorceress casts Umbral Spellportals on a +2 which isn't bad since it will be harder to unbind, then Wych starts her Unleash Spites as her second spell (From the Balewind ability).  

[Landohammer]

55 minutes ago, Popisdead said:

The Spellportals in Cities range is the whole table   Which is why I was hoping to try it haha.  

I forgot you can't get Throne.  That means your second caster would have to do the Mirrors.  Balewind is 6, Branchwych casts that, Sorceress casts Umbral Spellportals on a +2 which isn't bad since it will be harder to unbind, then Wych starts her Unleash Spites as her second spell (From the Balewind ability).  

The whole point of the Branchwych Bomb is to stack Thrones, because the spell does damage based on how many dice you roll. So ideally you would be casting Unleash Spites with like a +8 to cast eventually. So its really only feasible in a Sylvaneth Army.

Otherwise you are just averaging 0-1 mortal wound per unit and the spell is easily stoppable.

But the Spellportal is a new idea. And if you could get that combo up and running it would be pretty powerful. The only way to stop it would be to kill the Branchwych (which is probably camping in a Sylvaneth Wylwood and impossible to see) or unbind both the Balewind and the Spellportal every turn.