A new Cities of Sigmar book is a glorious opportunity to dig deep into your creative well, loop back around to my article on inspiration (https://plasticcraic.blog/2023/05/01/hobby-aesthetics-the-inspiration-phase/) and prepare yourself to head down a crazy journey of Cities excitement. There’s a brilliant mix of “normal dude” as well as fantastical beasts and machines that allow you to stay a bit pedestrian if you choose but also can push absolutely to the limits of creative hobby mojo to go wild. With that in mind I want to lay out what I think are some of the top kits to blend with the upcoming Cities range and ideas to go along with it.

Warcry – Corvus Cabal

Lethis, the Raven City, is just screaming for a set of conversions using bits coming from this kit. About as easy to get ahold of as hen’s teeth at the moment due to their usefulness as their advertised unit, but an amazing kit full of possibility for Cities kitbashes. Can take this even further seeking out more primitive weaponry from places like Bonesplitterz or just stick a few ravens and raven ornaments on your stock standard Cities models.

Necromunda – Ash Waste Nomads

We’re heading down a bit of a rabbit hole here, but let’s talk about going more along the lines of Sand People from Star Wars with this. From the barren wastelands of Aqshy we’ve got these roaming bands of humans making the best of a rough place and we can get scavenged weapons from any AoS faction, bits and pieces of armour, beasts. Mash and mix it all together for a bit of a potluck hobby.

Warhammer 40k – Gaunt’s Ghosts

The cloaks and poses on the lads in this box are just great. I can see a nice stealthy mercenary group that stalks the wilds of Ghyran, maybe even tenuously alongside some Sylvaneth. Using the cloaks to blend into the trees and shrubs, just need weaponry swapped out for some more Cities rifles and / or maybe some bows. Hard to rely on this for a full army, but would definitely be a cool feature unit

Necromunda – House Cawdor Gang

Everyone’s favourite* religious zealots are back again. The high collars and relatively un-teched bodies allow a lot of wiggle room for converting. I’ve seen people do some wild stuff with these models even if just using the bodies because that collar and cloth garb is very unique in the GW range and just allows some really cool creative looks. Could mix well with the Ash Wastes Nomads above to mix and match a very rough around the edges crew.

Warcry – Darkoath Savagers

Always more enemies and fewer friends. If you can say one thing about the Cities of Sigmar, say there are a lot of options for converting. Love these models as standalone heroes, and if you dig even further into the Warcry Chaos route, there’s a lot of space you can play with when it comes to cool themes for a Cities army. Again it may be difficult to commit to a whole army with this vibe, but as heroes I think there’s some great options. Especially if you want a Bloody Nine somewhere in your hobby (Gotrek stand in perhaps?).

Warhammer 40k – The Adeptus Mechanicus Faction

Now I’ve seen one or two of these come to great use in Cities (shouts to TKT). This is definitely a path to a heavy theme, but if we want to pull in Art Deco Steampunk badassery this is definitely where to start. You can really go in different directions with Cities and the models in the Mechanicus range just really lend themselves to exciting and interesting conversions. If you’re ready for an involved hobby project this could be so rewarding if done with a bit of style and panache.

Go wild, have fun, dig deep. The Cities book is great in the amount of options you have in list-writing so that means you have just as many or more hobby options to dig into. Happy Hobbying!

If you’d like to help us continue with our work, we’d love to have your support. We’re the Age of Sigmar specialists, publishing regular AOS articles, including Patron-only posts on that platform. Please click here to join us on Patreon.