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Hi all,

I am a complete AoS newbie. But now that Free Cities is out, I have a weird collection of Fantasy miniatures that I'd like to jam into a Free Cities army.

I have various Dark Elves units (I wanted to do a Cult of Slaanesh army as part of the Storm of Chaos campaign): Morathi on a Dark Pegasus, a box of 16 warriors (unassembled, could be Dreadspears or Darkshards), 2 Repeater Bolt Throwers, 10 Witch Elves, 6 Cold One Knights, and a handful of Assassins. I also have a box of 20 Free Company Militia, a box of 16 Dwarf Warriors, and an Empire War Wagon. These are all old OOP plastic or metal miniatures.

So, with that, this is what I was planning to field. What do you think? I hope the counts-as would be OK for casual gaming. I'm not expecting anything competitive, but it would be nice to put something competent on the table.

Heroes

Sorceress on Black Dragon (General) - I plan to use Morathi + a suitably impressive large and tall base for a counts-as.
Command Trait: Secretive Warlock
Artefact: Drakescale Cloak

Black Ark Fleetmaster (using an Assassin or Witch Elf as a counts-as, perhaps with some suitable piratical conversion work)

Lord-Ordinator (new purchase)

Battleline

10 Black Ark Corsairs (using the OOP metal Witch Elves as counts-as)
Vicious Blades & Wicked Cutlasses

20 Freeguild Hangunners (using the Free Company with some rifle conversions)

20 Dreadspears

20 Longbeards
Ancestral Weapons & Shields

5 Drakespawn Knights

Behemoths

Kharibdyss (new purchase)
Drakeblood Curse - Acidic Blood

Steam Tank - using the War Wagon as a counts-as

War Machines
2x Celestar Ballista (using the two Repeater Bolt Throwers as a counts-as)

Endless Spells
Geminids of Uhl-Gysh

Points Total: 2000
Extra Command Points: 1D3 (Hidden Agents)
Artifacts: 1

Hm, your collection is a bit eclectic and that will make building a viable list difficult. Are you set on 2000 points? Starting with 1000 to get the hang of things before moving up would probably work better, given you are likely going to need a good chunk of new minis.

"Eclectic" - hah, that's a good euphemism!

I'm not set on 2000 pts. It makes sense to start at 1000pts.

What's your thought on a decent 1000pt list (hopefully leveraging a lot of what I have)?

Well first off, and I don't like having to say that, don't do Anvilguard. The cities have not been created equal, and Anvilguard is firmly in 'the bad one' territory.

Going through what you have I'm going to recommend some 'component parts' that you can mix & match into lists.

First off, assassins and witch elves are still in the game making it not the best choice to use them counts-as something else The former is a hero option for CoS you can use, the latter could be an ally but I would just leave them out.

Ordinator + bolt throwers as ballista works well in both a counts-as and functional standpoint. You could also add in ironweld artillery in the future as the ordinator will buff them as well.

Sorceress on dragon plus two units of 10 dreadspears/darkshards (or one of each) is good for filling battleline and having dudes around for her to stab for casting buffs.

Longbeards you mainly want to use in conjunction with other dispossessed units, but ironbreakers are a strong self-sufficient battleline option. If you can get your hands on another box you could make a unit of 30 then take a runelord as support to back them up.

Drakespawn knights are alright but I would plan to phase them out in favor of other units as you build the army. They lack synergy with anything save the dreadlord who is not a great option.

War wagon as steam tank is a great idea, and benefits from the Lord-Ordinator.