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Goonhammer Reviews Age of Sigmar Spearhead: City of Ash Miniatures
First off we’d like to thank Games Workshop profusely for providing us with an advance copy for us to review for Goonhammer. We’re covering the rules in another article, so if you’d like to read our lowdown on the rules, campaign, and Spearheads, go here.
City of Ash
DeathMaster Crixxit- Credit @dakarimane instagram
Overview
This box contains 42 models and ALL but ONE of them are brand new, never before seen sculpts!? WHAT a treat!? Only the older Deathmaster is an existing sculpt (and that's still a lovely model) There's a range of stuff going on here in what is basically a starter set for Spearhead. You get two full warbands of all infantry, with the Sneaky Skaven clashing with the veteran Cities of Sigmar defenders of Embergaard. Also two ruined buildings and snazzy set of objectives (relics) that have special rules in game.The miniatures here are developing the burgeoning Cities of Sigmar range, as well as fleshing out the ongoing refresh of the Skaven range that started with the Skaventide box at the launch of 4th edition. What we find here is some badass new Heroes, along with some new multipart kits and a kit that really feels like a Warcry warband, but isn’t. There's a lot to look at and we have thoughts and opinions on all of it. So let's dive in…
What's in the Box?
Scenery (1 sprue):
- 2x Runied buildings
- 6x Relics (Fancy Objective markers)
Skaven - Crixxit’s Kill Pack:
- DeathMaster Crixxit (Unique Hero)
- Skaven Deathmaster
- 20 Skaven Gutter Runners/Night Runners (can be built as either)
- 2 Bomb rats (use with Gutter Runners only)
Cities of Sigmar - Sentinels of Embergard:
- Jorvan Kreel, Heir of the Kraken (Unique Hero)
- Thexa, the Ash Panther
- Mallus Forgepriest
- 5 Freeguild Gallants
- 10 Freeguild Grenadiers
Terrain and Relics
Terrain Sprue!
Assembly
Dakari-Mane: The relics require no assembly, just clip them out of the sprue, clean them up and they are ready to go.There are six relics/small terrain features in all, a small pile of bottles being guarded by a fierce rat (Crate of Aqua Gyranis), a row of caltrops (Ulguan Steel Caltrops), a half-buried barrel and chest (Barrel of Emberstone), a barricade with the obligatory skeleton, draped with some unfortunate unit's banner (Battered Barricade) and my particular favourite, a manhole cover emblazoned with a twist tailed comet sigil (Inconspicuous Manhole). Like that's going to stop the Skaven coming out of it; the local council really ought to pay for sewer-jacks if they want to avoid an infestation!
There are two small ruined building corners, one seemingly from a shop with a small shrine on the outside and the other with some fancy iron work balustrade that'd not look out of place on a New Orleans bordello. These are beautiful, they're very reminiscent of Mordheim buildings and I would be overjoyed if GW released a bigger set of similar playable buildings/ruins.
The only issue I have with the ruins was each had a particularly fiddly bit, and that was getting the floor joists level before putting the top floor on. Not that much of an issue if you're quick and are using plastic glue as they'll still have a bit of give to them.
I'd consider changing the build order from building the ground floor, attaching the joists, building the top floor, and fitting the bottom to the top, to building the bottom floor, building the top floor, adding the joists to the bottom floor and then fitting the bottom to the top.
City of Ash Terrain. Credit: @dakarimane instagram
City of Ash Terrain. Credit: @dakarimane instagram
Skaven: Crixxit’s Kill Pack
Gutter/Night runner sprues. Sneaky, yes yes!
Assembly
Skaven Deathmaster
Dakari-Mane: I was really thrilled when they released this stabby-boi; with Skittershanks Clawpack and a handful of 1980s lead Gutter Runners, they were the basis for me building a small eshin army. From the weeping blades, poisoned shuriken & bladed tail he was every inch the skulking master murderer I'd hope for in a Deathmaster.
Skaven Deathmaster. Credit: @dakarimane instagram
Deathmaster Crixxit (Unique Hero)
Deathmaster SpruesBY THE HORNED RAT!!!!! If the Deathmaster fulfilled my expectations of what a master assassin ought to be then Crixxit pushes that up to 11. The scenic base has gnawbomb written all over it; it looks like the Skaven built stuff of the under-empire is gouging its way out of the portal to tear at the very fabric of the mortal realms.
Crixxit himself is, and I think this is important, not noticeably a bigger Skaven than any other -- his lethality comes not from bulk but from his skill at the art of murder, which is beautifully represented by his paired weeping blades and the proliferation of spikes he carries into battle.
His cloak seems to flutter around him with a life of its own (appropriate given where he is rumored to have gotten it from) & perched atop his chunk of under-empire masonry he looks bigger than he is & oozes lethality. Very very impressed.
DeathMaster Crixxit- Credit @dakarimane instagramThis was a lovely model to put together.
Skaven Gutter Runners/Night Runners
Skaven GutterRunners. Credit: @dakarimane instagramThe good: If, like me, you're a Skaven player then you've been waiting quite some time for these! (Cough, cough plague monks) And was that wait worth it? Oh yes!
We've got 2 kits in 1 here and they've done a lovely job of distinguishing the Gutter Runners from the Night Runners, the Gutter Runners tend towards longer blades and are cloaked, their champion is also perched on a chunk of under-empire masonry poking out of a gnawbomb portal, while the Night Runners have an assortment of slings, throwing weapons, daggers, roped weapons & wear cowls.
Similarly to Crixxit the Gutter Runners cloaks give them a more bulky appearance while they're actually the same size as the Night Runners. Speaking of size, it's worth noting that these miniatures have not increased in size; if anything when compared to 1980s Gutter Runners they're actually slightly smaller, and while I found them to have very fine, tails, ropes, slings and so on, I didn't find them fragile and nothing accidentally snapped off.
Oh while we're speaking about 1980's miniatures, both of these kits have so many little nods back to the older sculpts, there's also more than one tip of the hat to the old Mordheim Skaven warband with one night runner in particular using that most subtle of assassin weapons a great big two handed flail!
This is a belter of a kit, with only 1 issue.
The bad: Not gonna lie, I had trouble with these miniatures. They were really fiddly and on more than one occasion I wasn't able to locate the registration points on the models.
Do not apply glue then attempt to fit them together for the first time. The glue will melt the small registration points & you'll be scuppered. Ask me how I know. Dry fit them, take them apart, dry fit them again, then glue them once you're sure of the fit.
The BEST way to fit them together is to dry fit them, then hold them in place, dab in some extra thin cement and let the capillary action glue the parts together.
Skaven NightRunners. Credit: @dakarimane instagram
Skaven NightRunners. Credit: @dakarimane instagram
Painting
Dakari-Mane: I'm more of an army painter than a painter of beautiful individual models. I'd describe my painting style as two-feet painting: It's best viewed from two feet away as a collective whole.
Skaven GutterRunners. Credit: @dakarimane instagramWith that in mind here's how I paint the clan Eshin (Disciples of the Red Death):
Colours
- Bases - gryph-hound orange, basilicum grey, typhus corrosion, nuln oil.
- Clothing - black template, flash tearers red, agrax earthshade.
- Skin - darkoath flesh (70% of the models), guilliman flesh (30% of the models), cygor brown (fur), carroburgh crimson.
- Ropes - aggaros dunes, agrax earthshade.
- Leather - snakebite leather, agrax earth shade.
- Steel - iron hands steel, nuln oil, runefang steel, gryph-hound orange.
- Bronze- warplock Bronze, nihilak oxide.
- Greeny warpstone effect - tesseract glow, waywatcher green.
Skaven NightRunners. Credit: @dakarimane instagramI start with a spray zenithal black > grey > white undercoat. This gives a great initial shadows/colour gradient. The next step is to block out everything with contrast paint. Anything going metallic gets a coat of black contrast.
After this step there ought to be no undercoat visible (apart from black on the undersides, but who's ever going to see that? I'm not painting what you can't see!) and the contrast will have given you even more lovely highlights.
Metallics come next. Block them in.
Washes. I'm all about the washes. There's two ways I use them: All over or selectively applied. All over washes are initially used on metallic sections and across bases to knock back otherwise large bright areas.
Selective washes are applied to either bring additional colours to the area i.e. metallics get corroision colours & skin tones get carroburg crimson, or as a way of enhancing the highlights that already exist from the undercoat/contrast step, so red fabric, leather & rope all get agrax into the folds & details to make them pop more.
Highlights. I rarely bother highlighting all the work ought to have been done by the steps above. The exception is anything steel I want to stand out and character models who will have a quick going over the high spots if I think they need it.
Detailing. Same as highlighting. Most of the time it'll not be needed or seen. I avoid painting eyes, teeth, claws as they're far too small and trying to paint them just wrecks the good work you've already done around them. The exception is characters and obvious things that stand out or are characterful for the army.
In this case Weeping Blades, the weapons from the Gutter Runners, got poison. The two portals I used an airbrush for as they are well glowy. Simply apply white into & around the portal where light would go. Then tesseract glow over the same area, followed by a green wash. Also I painted Crixxit's eyes (like 5 times, I kept messing it up) and teeth.
Job done. Time to KILL-KILL MAN THINGS!
DeathMaster Crixxit- Credit @dakarimane instagram
DeathMaster Crixxit- Credit @dakarimane instagram
Skaven GutterRunners. Credit: @dakarimane instagram
Cities of Sigmar: Sentinels of Embergard
Freeguild Grenadiers
Assembly
badusernametag: These models are just lovely. All of them. The design aesthetic developed by the team for the new Cities of Sigmar range shines so damn hard I can barely see. You’ve got a blend of Old World holy roman empire inspired goodness, mixed with some Boschian weirdness (a smattering of Bruegel the elder also), the modern digital design process and the direction of dynamic, exciting models. Its great. As the range is developing further (and faster) we’re really seeing a rounded army with multiple different units, and quickly! (cries in Kruleboy)I have thoughts and comments on all of it. So here we go…
Smashing the diversity in these kits, with a really nice range of clearly defined (and enough ambiguous) races and genders represented. Other than the fact that both of the heroes are men, this is well done, and to be fair, the main unique heroes of the faction are women already.
Jorvan Kreel, Heir of the Kraken (Unique Hero)
Jorvan Kreel, Heir of the Kraken (Unique Hero) and Thexa, the Ash Panther- Credit: @badusernametagThis guy is the epitome of the dashing rogue, leaping across the battlefield to harass the foe (complete with rock to leap off of). Jorvan is supposed to be identifiable and aspirational as a hero I guess. He’s not bumbling, awful or fatally flawed. There's something of the flashheart about him (if you’re old enough to have a clue what that means) and it’s not a sad thing.
Considering this model is on a 32mm base, there is a lot going on here. The model’s scenic element covers the whole footprint of the base and goes together easily. The rest of the model is a little fiddly, the hair for an example being on three separate parts that have to interlock. I would suggest having all the parts ready and then moving methodically through the instructions. Don’t stop part way through, as the parts need some tweaking mid-build to get just right. Poly cement is your friend. If you're doing sub-assemblies then, I dunno, cross fingers?
There’s a little of the Cado Ezechiar here, in fact quite a lot. Slicked back hair in a ponytail, leaping from his herorock, mighty heirloom, cape swinging in the wind. I’m sure these are general stereotypes of a hero dude, but they’re notable in their similarity here. There is also something of the Iron Islands (Game of Thrones) here. The kraken reference and his iconography are certainly reminiscent of the Greyjoys. None of this is bad, this is a great model.
Thexa, the Ash Panther
Jorvan’s pet panther is definitely one of the stars of the show here. It’s a cool little pet that everyone’s gonna want. It’s only two pieces and two pieces of flank armour, which makes it a really nice design considering its dynamism. What is SUPER CUTE and you can’t see well in pics is that it has a dead rat between it’s front paws. Nice touch.Mallus Forgepriest
Okay, this guy is my favourite model in the box. It’s oozes old world charm, whilst being firmly grounded in AoS. He’s all chest bared and arms splayed, clutching his symbol of Sigmar in one hand to ward off evil and mighty Warhammer in the other, for bashing. Or Forging maybe. Can’t be sure. Two head options are they’re both grand. Gold star.
Jorvan Kreel, Heir of the Kraken (Unique Hero), Thexa, the Ash Panther and Mallus Forgepriest- Credit: @badusernametag
Freeguild Gallants
Freeguild Gallants. Credit @badusernametagKnights ho! If you LOVED Freeguild Cavaliers you’ve got a treat here. They have all the juice of their mounted friends, but they’re on foot. Parts are also compatible, so more room for kitbash between the kits. You get a bucket of fancy heads (Snail and Fish my faves!), weapon arms, two options for champions, and a flag.
I found the instructions here a little odd. Rather than offer you the two build options for each model it offers you two choices for them all. This is odd as it seems to me that you can build both options for each model whichever way, so it just seems a strange way of presenting it. I think it is as it assumes you will always want the standard bearer, of which there is only one flag. As I was building this for Spearhead and not AoS I did not want the standard bearer. Seems a little off to have a flag for only 5 knights, even if they are very fancy, so I flicked through the book and picked the options I did want to build. Not an issue, but I would of preferred a simpler This model can be these two options format.
I also opted to do a simple kitbash to make one have two weapons (by using the spare sword army from the unused Standard bearer build) and did a little bashing of the heads. My champion has the savage Pig-Grill helmet combo she never new she needed!! I went for all helms on mine to set them apart as definitely knights!
Loved building these and excited to paint them and round out the unit at some point. This is the high point of Flemish inspired chivalric weirdness for me, with the odd little goober hangers on to boot.
Freeguild Gallants
Freeguild Grenadiers
Is it a Warcry Warband or an AoS unit? This really feels like a Warcry warband, with 10 completely unique sculpts in set poses. You get some arm options for the champion and two heads for each model (helmeted and bare, but the same face). So other than heads you have literally two spare parts from this kit. Really feels like this is a repurposed Warcry warband, but then maybe this is just the way that the kits are going now? Interesting to see how it develops, moving forward.
The Freeguild Grenadiers are the professional soldiers/vets of the Cities of Sigmar army. Filling a gap between the Wildercorps and Steelhelms. They have Bardiches and range of short ranged firearms, from heavy pistols to blunderbusses and even a Cindergout (flamethrower). There is a great variety and individuality to each model here, whilst they’re unified by the uniform. It's solid design work, which builds on the burgeoning aesthetic of the range. The helmet, greatcoat and cape define the unit and their silhouette nicely. Interesting that whilst you get no variety in poses, as each model is unique and has a head option, you could have 2-3 units of these easy, without the repetition standing out. I suspect this is the design methodology, as you will never need more than 30 of these in an army, and so dynamic poses have been prioritised over customisation.
Helmets. Sorry, but I need to talk about helmets for a minute here. Whoever designed this uniform put a lot of time and effort into the whole thing and it’s impressive, but these hats are not for me Sam I am, not all. They're all together too wide, and the pimple on the top is pretty comic. I have only used one, on the Cindergout guy and i trimmed the top. Opted for some bare heads instead, some simple swaps from other kits and using the Gallants helmeted heads without the face shield. These are much subtler, whilst still being clearly armour. I’m sure some people will LOVE this look and make it a thing, but it’s not for me.
Freeguild Grenadiers. Credit @badusernametagI am going to mix in some alt models to my Spearhead force here, as I’d like to play up the ‘grizzled vets’ angle a little more, using some other Cities models and even the bulk of the Hexbane’s Hunters Underpants warband. Loved these when they came out, but never did anything with them. By bashing them with some Cities of Sigmar parts they slip in here nicely, being armoured infantry with firearms and axes!!
I’d love to see these models used as an Astra Militarum regiment. These uniforms are really leaning in that direction and they’d slot into the grimdark universe so very nicely…
Freeguild Grenadiers. Credit @badusernametag
The Gangs all here! Cities of Sigmar- Sentinels of Embergard. Credit: @badusernametag
Final Thoughts
Amazing collection of new models here, this is definitely one to split with your pal with the other army! Great way to expand an existing AoS force, OR start a new one.Primarily this is a GREAT starter for Spearhead. All (almost) new models, lovely sculpts and it’s pretty exciting. Gold star GW. Can’t wait for the next one!!!
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