Glory to the Free Peoples
Entry posted by someone2040
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Hi all,
New blog here. In my second entry I'll probably talk more about myself, but here's the main thing.
I love the Free Peoples. Always enjoy the idea of us regular joes, teaming up together to fight against the alien, the monster, the enemy within! I've collected Witch Hunters in Mordheim, and both Dogs of War and Empire in previous editions of Warhammer (Amongst many other armies!). But my thoughts at the moment belong with the Free Guilds.
I've also always been a bit of a grouch about how slow GW is at doing some stuff, and supporting older armies. There are some armies (like Freeguild!) that basically have almost all the components to be a real army in the game, but they're held back by lack of battalions and heroes - basically, lack of a Battletome that brings all the goodies out.
Maybe GW don't do it because there was initially some very negative perceptions of Beastclaw Raiders and Bonesplitterz, releases without new units. Even I didn't really enjoy it that much, but it did breath a lot of life into those armies.
So what I've set out to do in my free time (and perhaps, even my not so free time), is set about creating some rules about what I would do for the Free Peoples within the Age of Sigmar. I certainly won't promise something as awesome and outstanding as Tyler Mengels custom Tomb Kings rules, but I do want to create what I kind've call a mini-tome. A battletome that lacks fluff, but has all the cool rules, allegiance abilities, command traits, magic items, and battalions. I'm no writer, so fluff isn't my forte, but I reckon I can give a shot at the rest of the stuff.
Today, I'm putting out there my rules for Allegiance Abilities, and to a lesser extent Command Traits. My thoughts behind the Free Peoples, or more specifically the Freeguilds, are that they should be the Imperial Guard of the Age of Sigmar world. Humans, are nothing special individually. Not as tough as a Duardin, not as graceful as an Aelf, not as strong as a Stormcast Eternal. But what they lack individually, they make up by fighting united, in regiments of soldiers side by side. Strict training and regimental discipline means that the sum is greater than the whole! And that's where the Allegiance Ability comes in.
My version of the Allegiance Ability for Free Peoples is called Orders. Any Freeguild General (whether on foot, horse, griffon or demigryph to come!) can give an order to a friendly unit nearby. This gives them limited perks that help them out just that little bit. If you need your Handgunners to be that little bit more effective this turn, order them to Bring it Down! Giving them re-rolls of 1 to hit. How about those Pistoliers need to get into the fight, order them to move At the Double! to help them run further. Your soldiers may be facing mighty beasts that cut swathes through their ranks, but the order for the men to Stand Fast! will help them keep their courage and stick around. Last but not least, sometimes men just need a reminder to Aim for the Weak Point! Ensuring their blows land true.
Whatever you need your soldiers to do, there's an order to give them! As long as your soldiers understand of course...
One thing that's possibly quite debatable about my allegiance ability, is the fact that you can potentially cause more harm than good. Under the pressure of battle, Generals can give bad orders, or maybe the unit misunderstands the Generals intention. Either way, sometimes a unit will be confused and won't be able to perform their action this turn. I really like this idea, and I borrowed it from Warmaster where you could Blunder your order. It's a really interesting dynamic, in that the further away you are there is a chance that things could go wrong. Luckily, we are talking about trainer soldiery, and they will be back into order within the turn.
I do think it's something that could be debated though. Allegiance Abilities to date, only give benefits, never downsides. You don't want to feel that something that should be benefiting you for taking a Free Peoples army ends up being a downside. So we'll see what the feedback is, perhaps it will just revert to Order Lost, but I want to keep it around for now.
In regards to Command Traits. Not super happy about 4 and 5 and 6 at the moment, as they're basically just too similar to Grand Alliance Order. I do like number 1 and 2, they're personally my favourites because they tie into the Allegiance Ability and allow you to eek out an edge.
Anyway, let me know what you all think! Hope you enjoy, and hope that GW sees the Glory of the Free Peoples and brings out a battletome. But in the mean time, I'll feed my thoughts your way!
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