Asbestress

I looked through all the current Darkoath minis, and it seems like they have had the design down since the original Malign Portents warqueen, with the: Segmented shield And little runestones So it seems like this really has been coming for a loooong time. And also makes the disappearance of the Excelsior Warpriest, since the (aesthetically also a bit different) Darkoath Chieftain also comes from the box, so most likely they didn't have the full design laid out for Cities or Darkoath.

Not sure what the consensus on homebrew rules is here, but personally I really like making them, especially if I have a concrete idea what I'm making it for. And I mainly play the game in places/with people who don't really mind some custom additions (whenever I get around to my annual 1-3 games). Long story short, I got really inspired to make this lad into a Ghur battlemage, which then led to these glorious (and probably broken) rules:

Now I'm just curious about how long it'll take for the reveal article to appear on WarCom. Favourite Darkoath mini still has to be cloth shaman person who weirdly reminds me of some pre-medieval local history things I saw a few years back. Maybe I could use them as the basis for a Ghur battlemage

I'll try to complete my January contract. Didn't get around to the Cavalier and Mage yet.

Might as well throw my hat into the ring regarding Cities. While I'm satisfied with the refresh and recognise that there are armies that are more in need of an update (Fyreslayers, Idoneth, Ogors), the faction still seems unfinished. While almost every other faction has pretty well rounded out subfactions (if they have them, and barring Firebellies for obvious reasons), Devoted of Sigmar are still a rump keyword with just Zenestra and the old Flagellants kit, Ironweld is a strange split between the new Cannon and Steam Tank and all the other duardin units having no connection in rules/new lore whatsoever and Collegiate is still a placeholder for Emperor Karl Franz mage carriages. And I'm not even going to try figuring out why Order of Azyr exists separately from Devoted at all. So as I hope that Fyreslayers finally get their more than well deserved update, I'm also a bit anxious about what direction Cities will take. Will we still have Dispossessed a few years from now? And what about the aelves? And the Steam Tank? While the minis has been cut back twice now, we still don't have a definitive "these are the Cities of Sigmar" range that isn't made up mostly of whatever Old World remnants haven't gotten around to have their own new identities. And with TOW bringing back dwarves, I'm not sure GW wants to keep them around in both games. As it stands, Cities needs another purge (sadly), and at least a Sylvaneth sized wave to round out the current range. Whether that comes before or after more seriously neglected factions, we don't know.

Probably shouldn't be too hard to get it roughly into shape, but maybe not perfect. Those ETB kits can be pretty finicky if you aren't following the instructions step by step. Also, Cities loses the Helblaster and now Skaven have it, so... Skaven Demigryphs coming soon? Skaven Phoenix?

Interested to see if any of my remaining hopes for some current REs to be Cities will be dashed. Also, Realms of Ruin update is coming at the end of March, and units will finally be able to automatically attack enemies when they are near. Better late than never I guess. Really hope they keep the game alive long term, hopefully with some faction DLC.

Cogfort? Cogfort! I'd kill for an Ironweld Cogfort Crew warband.

Cathay and Kislev were the two things I was actually kinda excited about (and dwarves), so hearing that they may have gotten cancelled mainly because of inter-studio pettiness would leave a really bitter taste in my mouth. Still hoping that it's "just" due to how messed up their production is, and at least they have the designs already concepted out, so hopefully we'll see some more stuff for TWW. Probably gonna do a pretend Cathay Celestial Dragon Guard mini-force from MESBG Rhun minis if they don't pull the plug on the game yet, and Cities are still my "all-time favourite in any setting" human faction, so I'll still have my fix at least.

I've always been into "regular human beings" factions in fantasy/sci-fi settings, and one of the first factions I ever got minis for was Imperial Guard, although I'm not really into 40k anymore (I want SOME hope at least), so it's only natural Cities was one of my favourite factions when I got into AoS. I was (and still am) a huge fan of the mixed races aspect of the faction (I get to have humans AND dwarves?!), so I hope that doesn't get entirely axed in the future 🥲 The moment the faction became my no. 1 favourite (surpassing Gitz) was when we first saw the Fusiliers, and of course the rest of the range refresh. I always liked armies that focus on conveying their themes and the new Crusade themed kits are imho amazing in that regard, really showing us that aesthetically and culture these people really belong in the horribly dangerous Mortal Realms, from their much heavier armour and big shields to all the gargoyles on equipment, and of course the gargoylians. My favourite "idea" (that I'll probably try showing more using conversion) for a Cities army is a force that actually (somewhat) feels like they brought a fort/city to the battlefield, currently mainly showcased on the Zenestra, Fusiliers and Ogor kits. I'll most likely try sourcing some extra Zenestra palanquin floors and roofs to convert some tower/lamp post looking banners and maybe a dual purpose Steam Tank/mobile home/field building with the palanquin floor tiles on the "roof" of the tank and some Zenestra style roofing above that. And of course, Steam Tanks. If they take them away without a Cogfort/Border Walker/more crazy Ironweld vehicles I will riot (and probably continue building up my Tank Corps via it hopefully staying in Old World...)

Not sure if this is worth an entire post, but I thought this was kinda neat so why not? Might make a compilation of all gargoyles from the new minis later. The back of the Steelhelm unit champion's hammer is a really simple bird. I just thought it was a little nick but it's there on both sides at the same spot. Makes me want the bird Arch-Knight even more 🥲 Maybe it could be picked out a little better? Glowing hammer eyes might be a bit much, but...

Isn't Middle Earth supposed to (finally) be getting a new book? Could be revealed there if it fits along the 4.0 teaser. I've been looking at MESBG for a long while and if this is a bigger release it could bring me the reassurance that the game won't get axed yet.

Whitefang like, so...

I still think we will get a 2nd wave with Ironweld and Devoted. We have to. I'm too invested into this. I am thinking about converting Devoted units from the palanquin bearers from the Zenestra kit. Help. Also... The cogfort would be the epitome of the "bring your city/walls to battle" theme of the Castelite formations. Even if we don't get a huge one on the scale of the art, I can 100% see one on an Imperial Knight/Necron Monolith sized base being the future big centerpiece mini for the faction.

Light silver and white lacquered armour (shoulder pads and helmet trim), blue and white cloth, and gold accents. Should have a Steelhelm inthe scheme in one of the Cities WarCom design articles.

And coincidentally, I also have no official stores less than 200 km from me and I really want that Ethereal 🥲 Really hope the FB group can come in clutch

Cavaliers' unit champion is also an Arch-Knight. Honestly surprised we didn't get more lore about WHAT Arch-Knights actually are (rank, status, etc.) in the BT.

Perhaps there's still hope yet. Might push me over the edge and add a second Command Corps to the to-do list (even if it gets limited to 1 per army). Want to try my hand at converting/not using any original Command Corps minis to make it unique and fit with my Settler's Gain inspired new theme. Might even try out a Lethis scheme with all the raven-y Cities minis coming out (this, the assassin from Callis and Toll's team).

Yeah, I'm 100% expecting a "Freeguild Knights" unit as a Vanari Bladelord equivalent whenever Cities gets its "wacky stuff" fleshing out wave (still hoping for crazy renessaince inspired Ironweld steam contraptions and Zenestra looking Devoted).

NOOO! I love both of them but there are no events all year within a 200 km area of me! Guess I know which CoS mini I won't be getting...

Having worked with both the basic kit and Zarbag's Gitz, I'd say that the design is fine, it just needs a little polish. Give them some actually interesting poses, "redesign" the shields from basic round ones with moon symbols to full on yellow metal moon shaped ones, give them a few knick-knacks on their belts, maybe even have some of them have a tiny bit of armour in the style of the Looncourt, and then have some more wacky options for the command (helmet for boss, little cave monsters for basing, etc.). And maybe give the shootas some mushroom-tipped arrows.

They did say the Night Goblins TOW release would come at a later date... Probably looking too much into that tho.

Inspired by coming to the realisation after working with Steelhelms that the Gloomspite Stabbas/Shootas are pretty not good (mainly in sprue layout and ease of assembly). I'd much rather assemble a 100 Steelhelms than a 100 grots. By now, I think AoS has become quite well established in terms of unique miniatures, with some notable exceptions in the form of the most basic of units for several factions. These include: Daughters of Khaine (Witch Aelves/Sisters of Slaughter) Sylvaneth (Dryads) Skaven (Clanrats) S2D (Marauders) GSG (Grots) And honorable mentions (due to having been updated recently) for: Seraphon (Skinks) FEC (Ghouls) And factions which used to rely on "outdated" basic infantry: Cities of Sigmar (Freeguild Guard) Soulblight Gravelords (Skeletons/Zombies) Ironjawz ('Ardboyz) And we of course have Bonesplitterz, Ogors, Spiderfang and Beasts with little to no new minis. Now for what I'm thinking; will we see updates for these basic infantry for factions who have already had big refreshes? Based on Ironjaws, and hopefully S2D with new marauders, there seems to be some hope, although I still think skinks and ghouls should have been updated (more for assembly/modelling practicality than design maybe). So what do we think? New high(er) resolution Clanrats for Skaven? Actually non-static posed grots for Gitz? Or will we be relying on these kits for a while longer?

Apart from my current Cities force, I'm mainly planning; A return to my Gitz, hoping to start off with another arduous batch painting session for 20 Skull Pass Shootas (and finally figure out a custom paint scheme that's not just the basic all-black one) A yellow-black Tau force I've been putting off for a long time with some Votann Demiurg auxiliaries Not going off of points, so my goal for these is just being happy with them.

Bit disappointed that we didn't get some of those wackier/overtly mushroomy concepts. Great conversion inspiration though. In terms of Spiderfang imho they either get straight booted or redone in a more Moonclan style, maybe keeping some regular spider imagery alongside spider-squigs and scuttlings. I could see merging with Bonesplitterz, but not really likely.