Landohammer

Dang good catch. I am sure a lot of Living City players are sad now. That also has importance in some of the scenarios that give priority to wizards.

Yea I do this with Darkshards to screen my wildwood rangers. Let the darkshards eat a charge so that the rangers can clean up. Though it works well on any unit with a 2"range weapon. (Black Guard, Phoenix Guard, Eternal Guard, etc) Sometimes I wonder how Phoenix Guard warscroll made it past playtesters. Its literally better than every other elite elven infantry.

With EG's new warscroll, I would field them in units of 20. They tend to function better while immobile so you don't necessary want to over-invest in them since they will likely be camping near an objective. Behemoths and Warmachines with wounds greater than 8 can never get cover. Also I am pretty sure the Sisters spell can only target Wanderers. Yea Durthu needs the wyldwoods for +2 attacks. The ideal weapon is Ghyrstrike so he hits and wounds on 2+. But without the +2 attacks he just isn't worth his points, regardless of how much you buff him. I'm not a huge fan of Kurnoth Bow Hunters. They are awesome models but they just don't hold up to other cities units. Buff a unit of Sisters of the Watch or Irondrakes with a hurricanum and you get much more reliable results. If you need long range damage then take Celestar Ballistas or Rocket Batteries. The only other universal +1 to hit that I know if is the Lord Ordinator, which only affects warmachines. Though do note that there is a universal command ability that allows any unit to reroll 1s. So the Lord Azyros isn't as useful as he use to be. (though he is still solid)

Just some thoughts on the list. -I think Phoenix guard should be taken in larger units. Their strength lies in their durability and their ability to grind down scary units. Ten guys won't last long enough to do their job. I would recommend units of at least 20 but preferably 30. Use some of your remaining points to buy some cheap battleline units to fill their vacancies. -I don't think the second annointed is necessary. If you are worried that the Phoenix will be too far away to buff your Phoenix Guard then he doesn't really need to be mounted to begin with. Personally I would drop the guy on foot and just try to keep the mounted frosty nearby. Its also a great choice to for the Druid warlord trait since he then becomes a wizard and can buff his own save. -I think it was said before but Spirit of Durthu is not a warscroll that functions well outside of Sylvaneth armies. He needs multiple wyldwood forests and access to glades and specific Sylvaneth traits/items to be powerful. If you want a heavy Sylvaneth hitter that can move/shoot/move then I recommend Drycha or even just a vanilla Treelord. The vanilla Treelord is only 180pts now and is a decent value. -I would actually prefer a Sorceress over a Battlemage in this list. Word of Pain + Ironoak Skin + Frost Phoenix is insanely powerful. Especially on Phoenix Guard and Kurnoth Hunters.

So I don't mean to defend GW's prices, but I hate that several guys are suggesting that they will be quitting the hobby altogether after this incoming price hike. It hurts my soul. But I want to point out that there are ways to be successful in this hobby on a modest budget. I know because I am working on my 14th fully painted army in the last 5 years and I'm poor AF. This hobby can be insanely punishing for impulse buyers. I have found that meticulously planning out armies and then purchasing the desired units as a part of box sets, during sales, or off the second market significantly helps mitigate the cost. The most efficient way to get models you want is to trade your own unwanted models for them. Also, GW miniatures, especially decently painted ones, actually hold their value pretty well. Compare that to hobbies such as MTG or video games, which depreciate to near zero value. TLDR; Don't give up the hobby. Stick it out!

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.

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. 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.

In 40k I try to avoid the regular infantry kits. For example, I just started a Chaos Space Marine army. The marines themselves are $60 for ten but I found a CSM start collecting box for $85 on amazon. (and it includes 10 CSM). You may want to check out the old "know no fear" box and newer "start collecting vanguard" kit. Also Aggressors, Reivers, and Redemptors can be found in the "easy to build" kits for a pretty significant discount.

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.

Anybody else find it weird that some strange price increases get announced like 3 weeks before the new General's Handbook ?🕵️‍♂️ Maybe the units that are getting bumped in price are getting a discount in points? A boy can dream.....

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?

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. 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.

You take the Cogsmith as a cities unit, but take the cannons and Gyro as mercenaries. The Cannons don't actually care where the Cogsmith (or any Engineer for that matter) comes from. In fact, taking the Cogsmith from Cities and making him your general is actually pretty smart since he provides battleline unlocks (Irondrakes I think?). I like taking him in Living City armies and making him a wizard. Thats a lot of value for 60pts! It does become a problem in non-cities armies though, since the Cogsmith is absolutely crucial. In that case I would just drop the Gyrocopter and take 2 cannons + a cogsmith as allies. Awesome. I looking forwarding to reading it! @ Everyone I think most armies have some kind of ranged threat, but outside of dedicated shooting armies its usually pretty limited. I am currently fielding my Blacksmoke Battery company in very aggressive melee armies. All of these units are going to be pushed forward aggressively looking for targets. The cannon is obviously the low hanging fruit, but it may not be the target chosen by many opponents when 30 Hammerers of 6 Kurnoth Hunters are bearing down on them. Using Khorne as an example: How many times have you shot or cast spells at Skull Cannons? I play vs Khorne ALOT and I have never targeted Skull Cannons with ranged weapons despite them being a (relatively) soft target in the army. You target Bloodthirsters.

I don't think I have ever seen the Ethereal amulet in play around here. Not sure why. I mean its solid for sure. But many are getting locked into subfaction artefacts. The most common Realm artefact in my meta is probably the Gryph Feather Charm.

@Kramer Thanks for the clarification. Hey 6 wounds sounds good to my Sylvaneth or Deepkin list which is normally just waiting on units like Nagash to expose their selves to a charge. I think the value of Blacksmoke Battery increases if your army is likely to get outdropped. Personally I spend a lot of first turns doing nothing but repositioning. If I could put pressure on from the very start then it becomes quite a bit more valuable. Again Nagash isn't a great scenario since he can likely eat multiple cannonballs. Bloodthirsters or Keeper of Secrets are probably ideal monstrous targets. But truly elite infantry would be best.

Maybe my meta is just weird. My local tourneys have been recently podiumed by Tzeentch, Skaven, Seraphon, Dok, Khorne, Slaanesh, and Nurgle. And from those lists, only Tzeentch and Seraphon would have had easy answers. My personal lists are Sylvaneth, Deepkin, and Living City, and none of my typical lists could have dealt with entrenched artillery. Not for a few turns at least. This is the second time somebody has mentioned Longstrikes though. So I will def have to give them a look. Never heard of them before now. Most SCE shooty lists I have seen around here use Celestar Ballistas.

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.

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.

Yea absolutely. The Rocket Batteries can fulfill a similar role and with less baggage. In my mind, however I really like the ability to reroll any hit not just 1s with a cogsmith. From an opponent's perspective, the potentially rerollable d6 damage is really scary. I can kind of predict how much damage they will deal. The cannon is just a crazy wild card and I like it Well part of my point is that many opponents are not prepared to deal with a warmachine that can hit them from their opponent's board age. Its not really a common occurence. His first list was a Hammerhal Demigriff Lancer list and it was far from sub-optimal. In fact he was in combat on the top of turn 1 with my screens. Good point! If I was a normal person I would probably just bring Celestar Ballistas and Rocket Batteries with a Ordinator for support. But I really like the re-rolls that the Cogsmith provides. Also the Cogsmith clocks in at 60pts which is quite a steal. @Kramer Sorry I was struggling to follow your diagram. (probably me being dense lol) So did you math out that Nagash would likely lose around half his wounds? On turn 1? So wouldn't that imply that he would be dead, (or close to it) in the subsequent turns from 280pts of cannons? I threw Nagash out there as an example, but in truth the Cannon is actually more efficient vs elite infantry due to the rerollable damage. @ Everyone: Thanks for all the responses. A lot of you are throwing out some pretty solid counters to the Blacksmoke Battery. However I do want to point out that many of you are acknowledging that you would pretty much focus on taking out these cannons as early as possible. But isn't that validation in and of itself? How many units can you think of that are "must kill asap" units? Now how many of those units are available to every single faction in the game? Just some food for thought. It may not be the most efficient use of 280-410pts, but it absolutely can not be ignored.

He actually had plenty of magic. My second game was vs Hallowheart 99% of spells max out at 18" and magic happens before movement. There is no way they are going to reach a unit on the board edge without exposing their caster. They would need the Spellportals or some other means of extending range. And even then it would be turn 2-3 before they had a chance to kill one cannon. So deepstriking/teleporting shooty units can definitely be a problem (Living City and Tzeentch come to mind). But shadow warriors aren't a great example. It would be nearly impossible to get the cannon in range of their bows unless all of the deployment zone was essentially empty. Remember the cannon is likely on the board edge and hopefully screened by the Gyrocopter itself if nothing else. You would also need to make dang well sure you had cover to trigger your buff, because on average your 10 regular shots won't be enough to kill the crew. And if I had hidden the crew (or the crew were too far away), then you would just be shooting at the cannon itself which would be even less productive, especially with a Cogsmith that can heal it every turn. But if all screens are gone, and you find cover, and you can see the crew, and you complete your 9 inch charge. You can probably take out both cannons. On the other hand the cannon doesn't really need any of those advantages to wipe out the shadow warriors. So there is a hard counter to every unit. But part of the appeal of Blacksmoke battery (and any warmachine really) is the range. If you are able to reach out and deal a potential 4d6 damage to units starting from turn 1 from the safety of your own deployment zone, then that's pretty huge. Imagine putting 4 cannon shots into Nagash or Keeper of Secrets on turn 1 before they even get to move?

My opponents only shooting unit was his hurricanum. (actually not that uncommon in competitive cities lists) So unless he just pushed it forward he was never going to be in range. To get within 18 inches of my crew he was gonna be like 6 inches from my deployment zone lol. I would have gladly traded a cannon for the ability to take out his hurricanum early on. But yea the crew are 100% the biggest weakness sadly. I am hoping its an oversight, since all of the updated warscrolls in Cities were changed to just a flat 7 wounds. But until then yes this is clearly the biggest weakness, but there are a few things I did as an attempt to mitigate: So if you have a good knowledge of your opponent's warscrolls and deployment zone, you can usually stay out of range of any of his shooting. With a 32 inch range plus 4 inches of movement plus the ability to deploy crewmen an inch behind the warmachine, your crew can often be 39 inches from the unit you are scared of. The only units you have to worry about are other war machines or Tzeentch. But again, if you are forcing Flamers, rocket batteries, or Skyfires to target your allies instead of your primary units, then that's pretty good. While the cannon needs line of sight, the crew doesn't. So I actually like to hide crewmen either behind stuff or within forests. So combined with the additional range, many times my opponent can't physically see the crew, even if they somehow get in range. Again, Tzeentch gets by this with flying shooters but you were probably going to lose to Tzeentch anyway so why worry about them lol.

So I have been looking through my garage for modeling projects to work on during quarantine, when low and behold I find 3 old cannons, a cog smith, and an old metal gyrocopter. Before I started repainting them, I decided to look up their rules. Unfortunately I soon discovered that Cannons had essentially been dropped from Cities and remain an Ironweld Arsenal unit only. However I then remembered the GHB 19 had mercenary units that included cannons. So I checked them out. Blacksmoke Battery (-1CP) 0-1 Cogsmith 0-3 Cannons/Organ Guns 0-1 Gyrocopter/Gyrobomber (Gyros give your cannons +1 to hit if they are within 12" of your target) Now cannons are an interesting warmachine. 32" range. 2 shots, at 4+/2+/-2/D6 damage. You can reroll shots with an Engineer, and you get +1 to hit if the Gyro is near the target. You also reroll damage vs units of 10+ models. The tricky part is squeezing all of those units in an army due to the 20% and 1/4th allies rules. But Cities can take a Cogsmith normally, so taking a Blacksmoke Battery in a cities army is quite easy. You just need to make sure you have 9 Cities units (including the Cogsmith). So I painted them up and played a practice game this past weekend. I brought 2 cannons, 1 gyro, and a cogsmith. And to my surprise, they absolutely wrecked. First thing I did was fire both cannons into his Freeguild General on Griffin. General took 12 wounds, and died to the Cogsmith's shotgun. Next turn I shot 10 wounds off his hurricanum and put 5 wounds on a unit camping an objective. They evaporated to Battleshock. Third turn I wiped out a unit of 3 demigryphs, killed the hurricanum, and started working on his remaining infantry. My opponent left that game planning to paint up his old cannons as well lol. What are ya'lls thoughts? It may not be the best shooting but its actually quite effective for its points, and most importantly, its available to every single faction. I am even considering dropping the Gyro and trying to squeeze it into some of my other armies such as Deepkin and Sylvaneth where solid shooting is not available.

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.

So the statlines of Dispossessed are among the best for battleline-available infantry in the game. Most notably Irondrakes and Hammerers. The Gyrocopter is also excellent, but can become insanely powerful vs horde armies with low armor. For example, I had one kill 25 Flagellants this past weekend in a single game. However, the elephant in the room for Dispossessed is their movement. A skilled opponent can avoid charges and ranged weapon distances easily. Failed charges can become particularly devastating since your desired target can simply walk away. For example, I declare a 9 inch charge, fail it, and now my opponent moves 5 inches away making it a 10 inch charge next round (or simply counter-charging me). It sounds silly but imagine your opponent doing that all game to a 360pt unit of hammerers supported by a 110pt character. Ouch! I actually have been experimenting with Living City Dispossessed lists quite a bit. Being able to deepstrike your melee units or double-move your shooting units is huge. I also give the Warden or Runelord the Druid Command Trait so that they become wizards. The spells are particularly useful for Dwarfs since Cage of Thorns cripples your opponents movement and Ironoak skin is just insane on any unit with a decent armor save. Imagine Ironbreakers with Ironoak skin. Also your Demigryfs, Gyrocopters, Warmachines, and Hurricanums will really appreciate the free heals every turn.

What if the expected Shadow Elves/Malerion faction is actually Vampiric Elves? I mean we have elves riding sharks so why not? Weirdly, the last line of that article is interesting. "...there might not even be a Male-". So is that implying that someone discovered Malerion wasn't real and then was subsequently assassinated?