Neil Arthur Hotep

Yes, they are not matched to specific ones.

I see the confusion: I was not talking about him being a finecast model, but rather a Fatcast (as in, fat Stormcast).

Maybe we could start by not putting a weird trash hurricane on his base. Jokes aside, I think a different pose, a more convincing floating effect and not being an old Fatcast model would help a lot.

Giving the Sigmarite Warhammer artefact (basically a fake Ghal Maraz according to the fluff) to a Freeguild-Marshall on Griffon will result in a 3 3+/3+/-3/4 profile. Better than the original!

I am not seeing them anywhere, can you provide a link to the document?

Looks like a solid take on a goodstuff Steam Tank list. The only auto-include unit you are missing is the Alchemite, who you could consider putting in there since both his buffs are good for Steam Tanks. Personally, after my experience with Steam Tanks that I posted above, I think they are a solid unit, but ultimately spamming them is not optimal. Keep us posted, though! I'm curious to know how this list fares at 2000 points. Also, GW should really consider putting out more steam vehicles, given how everyone in this thread seems super excited to run them.

KURNOTH HUNTERS keyword

What is all this talk of Kurnothi and Idoneth? It is obviously Darkling Covens. Cities elves were the real GW favourites all along.

For anyone who, like me, does not know what that means: "Morai-heg, also known as the "Crow-Goddess," the "Keeper of Souls," the "All-seeing One" or the "Crone," is the Elven goddess of fate and death. Within her rune pouch, she holds the fate of all mortals. It is considered a dark practice to openly pay tribute to her." Nagash's monopoly on death becoming weaker would be an interesting development.

His old body was destroyed during Broken Realms. Maybe he will actually come back in a new form for Dawnbringers. That would be pretty sweet, actually. Could this be a Khorne thing?

This has been a bit of a mystery since they started the whole thing with one kit being shared between several armies. As far as I can tell, none of them have been retired or replaced yet. My suspicion is that they will end up redoing the kits as single faction kits, and one army just keeps on using the old one for a while. For example, if they replaced Hexwraiths with a new sculpt, I think SBGL would probably keep using the old Black Knights model a little while longer before it gets replaced.

It's always hard to put a definitive lable on things, but I would describe myself as a casual player. Although I spend a lot more time hobbying than playing, all things considered, I mostly do my hobbying with the aim of later playing fun, cool-looking games with my models. I appreciate all the different pillars of the hobby, though: Lore, painting and modeling and gaming. I would not call myself a competitive player because I don't build my lists with tournament play in mind (although I do optimize them), and I would not call myself a collector because I don't buy models with the aim of having a collection (although I do have a pretty large collection). I play AoS and have built warbands for Warcry, but not actively played yet, so I chose these two games. I own a few underworlds warbands, but have not played at all and am not really trying to make it happen. Other than that, my AoS models often also see use in role playing games (Soulbound being the big one).

The Questors Soulsworn are also my current favourites. I think their deepstrike seems like it would be very handy. My biggest problem with picking allies might be that I want them to be lore appropriate if I include them, so stuff like Gryphhounds and Aetherwings are out, even though I know cheap, fast chaff is good. I wish Vanquishers were a bit better, because they are literally the greatsword-wielding elite infantry the new Cities range is missing.

Good shout out, I had not though about him as an ally. Although I think I would rather want to auto-succeed his better Chain Lightning in a lot of cases. I am still wondering about what Stormcast allies could be fun to run. Maybe the next edition starter box will bring some more cool stuff. Personally, my main problem is that there is already too much cool Cities stuff I can't fit in my lists, haha.

It's a good reminder, but Stormbringer is pretty hard to come by in a lot of the world.

I think the Cavalier-Marshall is a good addition if you are already running Cavaliers. It really is a significant power up for them. The Freeguild Command Corps is another generally strong addition, especially since you already have a Freeguild-Marshal in your list. Otherwise, since you are running Tahlia Vedra, you could think about reinforcing your Steelhelms.

Nagash is another one (he is very cheap for his points). That's because GW also doesn't re-calculate prices when points go up and down. For old kits, that means the pricing gets pretty wonky sometimes when they go from being an elite unit to being cheap or the other way around.

GW still couples its pricing partially to how many points the unit in question is. It's a bit of a double edged sword. It's probably what makes horde armies affordable at all, but it also means we get elite units at a mark up, like with the Blacktalons.

That would suck, those two guys are pretty essential heroes for a lot of Cities builds.

I finally got a game in yesterday. My opponent brought Kruleboyz. Lists: Some take aways: Someone in this thread already mentioned that Steam Tanks feel pretty matchup dependent. The Kruleoboyz matchup is definitely pretty rough: My game plan was to drive within 15" (+3" shooting range from the macroscope) turn 1 and unload with all tank's steam guns and cannons in order to help blunt the counter-punch on my opponent's turn. However, the Grinnin' Blades subfaction made it so that I could not target my opponent's units outside of 12". To make matters worse, Kruleboyz get mortals on 6s on all their attacks, which makes the Steam Tank's 2+ save a lot less impregnable. None the less, the tanks held out pretty well and the game ended in turn 4 with only the Swampcalla and 4 Boltboyz surviving on my opponent's side. I ran Hammerhal Aqsha because I wanted to get a feel for how good orders are. Spoilers: They good. Return fire made my opponent scared to shoot, effectively shutting the Boltboyz down for most of the game. One of my favourite moments of the game came from the Hobgrots throwing their grenades at a lone tank, dealing 0 wounds and losing half their unit from return fire. Between this and Unleash Hell, the Tanks frequently got at least two shooting attacks in per turn. And with Power to the Guns and +1 to hit from the Hurricanum, their damage is actually pretty threatening. Their melee is actually not too bad, either. I had a situation where my Tank Commander was stuck in melee, and my opponent had positioned himself such that a second Steam Tank was still outside of 3". Even though he got a double turn, I could counter-charge during his charge phase (triggering d3 charge mortals and that nice +1 rend) and managed to eventually grind down all 40 wounds worth of Gutrippaz. Also worth noting: Power to the guns lasts until your next hro phase, so you can counter shoot at full power if you get double turned. My list had a lot of chances to act out of turn order, and the Hurricanum is another example of that. I was initially on the fence about it after it lost its cast bonus, but if it keeps its mortal wound bomb in both hero phases, I will definitely be bringing it every time going foreward. It is stupidly easy to set up at 18" not requiring line-of-sight (it actually sniped Gobsprak out of a completely unrelated combat at some point) and has very high synergy with Steam Tanks, which really appreciate the +1 to hit and keep the Hurricanum safe in return. I thought it was just a support piece, but it is a real threat in its own right. I brought the Ven Densts because I wanted 2 cheap heroes for the Warlord battalion and had them painted. They didn't do much this game, but their extra 2 orders were welcome. The Grinnin' Blades ability sadly stopped me from sniping Gobsprak. I think I will probably keep going high drops in the future, so if I just want to squeeze in a few extra heroes, I might use them again. The steelhelms kind of did exactly what I thought they would: Sit on a point and try not to get into combat. I had a situation where I used a lone Steam Tank to screen/tank for them, which to my relief worked out pretty well! I was a bit worried that 3 Tanks and a Hurricanum would lock me into a lopsided death star build of 1000 points, but the tanks do well enough on their own to be able to split off if they need to. I ultimately lost this game, but I would say that is mostly due to me playing badly (I made really dumb mistakes playing the objective game and didn't prepare battle tactics at all). The tanks + hurricanum build itself seems fine. In the future (or at higher points values) there are a few things I would like to adress. I will definitely be bringing the Command Squad. I frequently had the tanks and hurricanum survive at low health, and I think that their heal and command disruption could have really turned the tide of combat a few times. Likewise, access to a ward would be really good, so I think Zenestra is definitely a high priority inclusion for my list. I was considering a battlemage for the unrendability spell, but I found that I didn't really have a lot of trouble with rend just through counter-stacking save bonuses. Instead, I would like to try the spell that shuts off commands. I also think the list would be a lot better if it included a more mobile unit like Cavaliliers. Firey Temper did nothing this game, as I found I didn't really need the early charge. I will try the Divine Champion instead. Glimmering was good, but I always forgot I had it. Overall, I liked the Steam Tanks. They are definitely way better than in 2nd ed. And the Hurricanum was a real stand out. But the Tanks definitely also have some pretty significant downsides, and I would not want to build a pure tank spam list, ultimately.

I think that piece of wooden scaffolding is a great solution to your problem! Even moreso than with miniatures, with terrain it is not worth it to lose sleep over the small details. Although of course obsessing about the details is part of the fun, too. What I can guarantee, though, is that even if you just glued that wooden structure on there as-is without gap filling, nobody except you would even notice (and you would probably also forget after a month or so). The wooden support is a fun addition, though, because it changes the environmental storytelling of the building. With it, it seems like the church was not simply destroyed, but destroyed and then partially repaired later. It really makes you wonder why. Did people continue to use it as a church or did they repurpose it in some way? Or maybe the ruins are of archaeological interest and whoever is studying them has added supports to prevent them from further falling apart. I like this kind of little detail, because it develops the story of your city. We know that there are mysterious ruins there, but why are they ruined and what makes them mysterious?

Personally, I just view it as an option. It certainly makes sense that there would be some Freeguilds out there that use the crest and colours of the city they are attached to, as well. The two flat-roofed houses in the center seem to be based on the completed domiciles from the battletome/promo pictures: I really hope those become an actual kit soon (maybe with the launch of 4th?). For now, builing them out of the Domicile Shell kit would be exceedingly difficult: Those wooden beams are just not removable and you don't get enough completed wall sections to build a house even out of several kits. Also, you would be missing a roof and the railings and ornamentation seen in the battletome and in Realms of Ruin. What I think is more easily possible, though, is to build a domed roof out of the Nexus Syphon. It has the right size for a small chapel or something.

That's a cool crest. Reminds me of the Leaden Bulls: https://ageofsigmar.lexicanum.com/wiki/Leaden_Bulls Might be a cool opportunity for a lore connection? It's worth remembering that in the lore, individual Freeguilds are separate from the cities they work for and can have their own colours and heraldry.

Sadly that is not possible. The Domicile Shells have a lot of the scaffolding molded into the walls and can't be removed/left off. The fully-built Dawnbringer houses have to be a separate kit (or internal 3D print or something).

Cool project. I think Cities of Sigmar especially lends itself to terrain building projects. I mean, the clue is kind of in the name. I have been working on my terrain for a bit. A few observations that might be helpful to you: Some of the newer Dawnbringer crusades related kits are actually a pretty interesting mix of new, pre-fabricated structures and old ruins on top of which those structures are built. The Aqualith, for example, comes with a ruined staircase that looks a lot older than the Aqualith itself. The Guardian Idols are placed on top of a ruined wall. Those ruins look pretty similar to the old AoS 1 terrain (Numinous Occulum, Ophidian Archway, Baleful Realmgate...). I think this lends itself to some fun environmental storytelling. There are a few options with the 3rd edition kits when it comes to how to build them, but they usually require some mild patching or sculpting. For the Aqualith, it is possible to keep the stairs and Aqualith separate, which only requires not gluing in one or two of the chains. You can in theory use them as separate pieces, and it will only look slightly weird. The Guardian Idols are sadly monopose. I wish you could swap around their shield and spear hand, but it is not easily possible. They do, however, come with a cool optional skeleton face. You can also keep the platform, wall and statue separate if you want. Building one of the Idols as a collapsed/ruined version might be worth considering. The Domicile Shells are cool kits, but sadly very hard to customize. Once you have the big and small variants on the table, I think having repeats of the kit will look pretty weird. The buildings have a lot more detail than the official paint job suggests, and I think they should actually be pretty versatile for expressing different architectural styles just with different paint jobs. Here's one that I did recently: