Let's Chat: Free Peoples

[Josh]

^^ its funny how all the things mentioned were all there and in use prior to GHB17 but no one gave it the time of day  

troops havent got any better (cheaper in some instances) but the army works exactly the same haha

ill bust mine out eventually, painting so many foot sloggers so pretty painful 

[MrCharisma]

1 hour ago, Josh said:

^^ its funny how all the things mentioned were all there and in use prior to GHB17 but no one gave it the time of day  

troops havent got any better (cheaper in some instances) but the army works exactly the same haha

ill bust mine out eventually, painting so many foot sloggers so pretty painful 

100%! My playing style or army hasn't changed a lot between the 2 GHB's but people are more curious about my force. 

The Great Company has increased the potency compared to the unit pipers and drummer abilities.

[Josh]

2 hours ago, MrCharisma said:

100%! My playing style or army hasn't changed a lot between the 2 GHB's but people are more curious about my force. 

The Great Company has increased the potency compared to the unit pipers and drummer abilities.

I havent played them since the new GHB but it doesnt feel any different imo

people had no idea they were good in my local meta & since playing mine 2 local players have started armies  I bought the box with the empire & stormcast which will prob round me up to 2000pts or there abouts i think  need a gryphon too

It can be brutal AF if you do it all correctly  

[someone2040]

I think all the little things have added to the faction to push them up a tier.

Like, the faction IMO has always been in a pretty decent spot. It tends to cover all bases apart from long ranged shooting and magic, but IMO, that's fair enough, factions should have weaknesses.

But the allegiance abilities have really pushed them up a notch. The Great Companies are super powerful if the enemy can't deal with them very effectively. The command traits are decent, but the standout is Indomitable which basically makes the army tankier around the General. Then there's the magical artefacts as well, which seem like a notch up over the generic Order ones.

I think the only thing the faction is really lacking are more heroe choices (Which tbh, I think we only really need one or two for flavour) and more battalions. It's a shame in some ways that we have a lot of interesting artefacts, because we don't have many opportunities to really use them which is a shame.

[Josh]

i suppose we should be happy the army is better and not worse than before

[Donal]

I'm really excited to get my army on the table. Just finished assembling my last infantry unit (40 swordsmen). Then just have 2 griffins and a wizard then I'll be at 2k.

[stratigo]

13 hours ago, Josh said:

i suppose we should be happy the army is better and not worse than before

Indeed, you could be disposessed

*cries in a corner*

[someone2040]

So I attended a one day tournament yesterday, and thought I'd give some more thoughts on my army. 

For a full write up, you can see the report on my blog

 

The list I took was as follows:

Freeguild General on Griffon - Armour of Meteoric Iron

Freeguild General on foot with Stately War Banner, Sigmarite Weapon, Shield - General - Indomitable

Gunmaster

20x Freeguild Guard - Company 1

30x Xbows - Company 1

10x Handgunners - Company 1

20x Freeguild Guard - Company 2

10x Handgunners - Company 2

10x Greatsword - Company 2

5x Pistolier

3x Demigryph Knights

Hellblaster Volley Gun

Cannon

 

You can read the report for the games, matchups, etc so I'll just give some comments on particular units.

Demigryph Knights

I really don't know what to do with these guys. In one game, they got off a glorious charge and killed a Wight King between 2 models (The third was busy making sure the Danse Macabre Skeletons would have less than 20 models in the unit, a feat he only 'just' managed). But in the other games, got wiped out by Scythe Hunters (not unexpected), but also got wiped out by a bit of shooting and a Bretonnian Lord on the charge. I'm going to continue to play with them, because I love the models, I need some speed in my list, and they're easy enough to transport (Something Prosecutors are not).

Pistoliers

One of the reasons I'm still on the edge on the Demigryphs are these guys. In the game where they actually had the opportunity to do some stuff, they essentially went down to a unit of Skeletons. Part of the problem was their lack of armour save, 5+ sometimes won't go very far. That being said, I haven't had the opportunity to play much on Battle for the Pass, Starstrike or the new version of Blood and Glory, where speed is definitely more useful. I don't think I'd drop the speed elements of the army, just whether or not Pistoliers vs Outriders are better is an interesting thought.

Ironweld Arsenal

I'll put these into the same category. The cannon was plagued by poor luck, even with the Gunmaster. Failing to put a dent in a Treelord Ancient, crew being wiped out by an enemy Hellstorm, I didn't even have to face top tier armies for the cannon to have issues. The Gunmaster also just didn't seem relevant with his Long Rifle, but it's very hard to judge as it's hard to determine how much value you get from the war machine synergies.

The Hellblaster IMO was surprisingly alright. I think people tend to ignore it, so it just chugs out some shots at 3+, 3+ at a fairly decent threat range. That being said, I'm sure Tzeentch would just blow both crews out of the water turn 1.

Great Companies

A lot happier with the double great company vs the single one I'd been running previously. It allowed for a lot more flexibility in how much ground my deployment could cover and still feel strong. The 2nd company definitely feels on the weaker side, but of course, it should. The double shooting Crossbows are really the star of the show once you can get them into range and can sit pretty while shooting the enemy.

The Greatswords sadly seem to fall to 'objective' duty a ton of the time. Not sure how to solve this, as it ultimately means that perhaps 20 more Freeguild Guard may just be better overall, or even increasing the unit of Pistoliers/Outriders to 10 man and putting them into the Great Company. Not sure, again, they're painted and nice models, so they'll stick around for now.

Where the List Struggles

The list has real problems with tanky units. The only two units that can really 'punch' through armour are the Griffon General and the Cannon. In my first game against Sylvaneth, he had the 'unkillable' Treelord Ancient, 2+ save, re-rolling 1's and ignoring rend -1. I was in combat with it from my turn 1, shooting it most of the game, and it was still alive by the end of the game. This was a culmination of both the Cannon and Freeguild General on Griffon whiffing for most of the game (in fact, I got him down to 2 wounds remaining in a single turn of combat, and then failed over 2 turns to finish the final 2 wounds).

I'm really not sure I can do much about this bar allying in a Celestial Hurricanum or perhaps a Luminark. These both offer long ranged shooting attacks that either deal mortal wounds (or high damage), as well as offering me magic.

Just a shame that the War Machine style can't keep up. The fact you can't fit in double cannon and a Gunmaster and that the crews are so fragile really hinders that style of game.

 

The other struggle is speed. I think I play my speedy elements quite poorly, putting them all pretty close to each other on a flank. This tends to mean if they get overwhelmed on one flank, I don't have anything to provide assistance to them quickly enough. Definitely one aspect of this is poor planning by myself, but certainly with only 3 fast units (4 if I get my General with Banner mounted), it's a real struggle the list has. 

Future Thoughts

I'm planning to head to Australias biggest AoS tournament next January called Cancon. So I need to tune my list a bit more. The current thoughts are to drop most of the Ironweld stuff, and put in more heroes.

The simplest option is to drop the Gunmaster + Hellblaster to get in a Battlemage and Warrior Priest. The cannon would ultimately become an unreliable option to deal more damage. Alternatively I can leave the Gunmaster in to make the Cannon more reliable. The cannon is still attractive if only because it's easy to transport interstate.

More radical options definitely include looking to the Luminark or Hurricanum. I have this model now as I got the Hammerhal boxed set to bulk out the army more, but will need to make the hard call on how to transport the model (Still need to figure out how to transport my Griffon) and what option to make.

[stratigo]

I’d go with the hurricanum. It synnergizes with your army really well

[Helmut]

Hi all,

Playing my first solo game with Freeguild on Sunday, and having some trouble choosing a command trait, specifically the choice between Inspiring (no battleshock tests with 9"), or Indomitable (+1 to save rolls within 6")

My plan is to deploy him within a great company of 40 x guard, 30 x handgunners, and 10 x greatswords backed up w/ a Hurricanum. 

I like the idea of indomitable, though I am unsure whether the benefits will be as strongly felt in large horde units. Keen to hear your thoughts. 

Thanks!

[someone2040]

4 hours ago, Helmut said:

Hi all,

Playing my first solo game with Freeguild on Sunday, and having some trouble choosing a command trait, specifically the choice between Inspiring (no battleshock tests with 9"), or Indomitable (+1 to save rolls within 6")

My plan is to deploy him within a great company of 40 x guard, 30 x handgunners, and 10 x greatswords backed up w/ a Hurricanum. 

I like the idea of indomitable, though I am unsure whether the benefits will be as strongly felt in large horde units. Keen to hear your thoughts. 

Thanks!

IMO Indomitable is the clear favourite. We have plenty of battleshock mitigation between the Free Peoples re-roll, a 1 auto-succeeding and the Stately War Banner which our foot/horse Generals can take for free.

The other thing is that Indomitable also helps with battleshock because with the increased save you will take less casualties on average. That being said, it probably won't help as much if the enemy is focus firing one of your units (You'll just have to pray for a 1).

The other thing to remember is that we don't have the range to be a gunline army, and many scenarios don't promote gunline play. What I mean by this is, some turns you're going to need to be moving forwards, and you probably won't be using Hold the Line on those turns. Instead, you'll be using Inspiring Presence which will make one of your units immune anyway.

That's my thoughts anyway.

[Helmut]

20 hours ago, someone2040 said:

IMO Indomitable is the clear favourite. We have plenty of battleshock mitigation between the Free Peoples re-roll, a 1 auto-succeeding and the Stately War Banner which our foot/horse Generals can take for free.

The other thing is that Indomitable also helps with battleshock because with the increased save you will take less casualties on average. That being said, it probably won't help as much if the enemy is focus firing one of your units (You'll just have to pray for a 1).

The other thing to remember is that we don't have the range to be a gunline army, and many scenarios don't promote gunline play. What I mean by this is, some turns you're going to need to be moving forwards, and you probably won't be using Hold the Line on those turns. Instead, you'll be using Inspiring Presence which will make one of your units immune anyway.

That's my thoughts anyway.

Hi Someone, really appreciate the reply. I was leaning towards indomitable, though with the raft of models out there able to dish out mortal wounds, I was having second thoughts. 

I had completely forgotten about inspiring presence! That definitely makes the choice easier to take Indomitable, and lessen the chance a Stormdrake or Bastiladon tearing through my Guardsmen in turn 1 w/ battleshock

[The Jabber Tzeentch]

There’s a lot of talk about army builds on here. Which generally are quite similar from what I can see:

• General, General on Griffin

• 40 Guard, 40-60 assorted ranged, 1-3 fast units. 

• Then either a Hurricanum, or Ironweld artillery allies. 

My question, with this average build in mind, is:

How do you approach the GHB17 Battleplans?  

Knife to the Heart - no unique deployment ability, ranged army, how do you get a major win?

Duality of Death - Few relately weak heroes compared to other factions. How do you protect your heroes and also score points?

scorched earth/total conquest  - Defensive army, how do you project your army while maintaining your objectives?

starstrike - how do you ensure you can react to the random objective drops? 

Battle for the pass - high drop army, can you take back centre objectives if the opponent takes them first?

 

 

 

[Helmut]

On 11/10/2017 at 3:05 PM, The Jabber Tzeentch said:

There’s a lot of talk about army builds on here. Which generally are quite similar from what I can see:

• General, General on Griffin

• 40 Guard, 40-60 assorted ranged, 1-3 fast units. 

• Then either a Hurricanum, or Ironweld artillery allies. 

My question, with this average build in mind, is:

How do you approach the GHB17 Battleplans?  

Knife to the Heart - no unique deployment ability, ranged army, how do you get a major win?

Duality of Death - Few relately weak heroes compared to other factions. How do you protect your heroes and also score points?

scorched earth/total conquest  - Defensive army, how do you project your army while maintaining your objectives?

starstrike - how do you ensure you can react to the random objective drops? 

Battle for the pass - high drop army, can you take back centre objectives if the opponent takes them first?

 

 

 

So I only played my first AoS battle today, so cannot provide too much scope though these are my thoughts regarding Total Conquest. We had to finish after 2 turns, though by that time I was already in almost total control running with the following:

1xGeneral (stately war banner), 1xMounted General, 1xGeneral on Griffon, 40xFreeguild Guard, 30xFreeguild Handgunners, 10xGreatswords, 3xDemigryphs, 5xOutriders, 5xOutriders, 1xCelestial Hurricanum

I was playing against a Seraphon army that lent heavily on elite units and monsters (Old Blood on carnosaur, Bastiliadon, and Stegadon in the list). Have included a photo of deployment to help the below make sense.

With some lucky rolling (and a 4-mortal wound assist from my Hurricanum, the Greatswords were able to dispatch the Bastiliadon, and my Griffon tear the carnosaur to shreds by the end of turn one. Admittedly this was largely down to fortune (aggressive charging by my opponent).

What decided the game though was the effectiveness of my cavalry. A unit of demigryphs, and a unit of outriders on my right flank gave me the ability to screen my Great Company blob as it advanced, whilst also allowing me to contest the far objective. I think against elite, low-model count armies this sort of aggressiveness could serve Freeguild well. My Demigryphs were wiped quickly, though they bought vital time for my handgunners/hurricanum to get into range and unleash without losing a single model. On the opposite flank, my Griffon, and other unit of Outriders had a free run towards the far objective.

tl;dr - For Total Conquest vs low-model count armies, use cavalry to keep the enemy on the back foot and bring your heavy hitters into range

[someone2040]

On 11/11/2017 at 1:35 AM, The Jabber Tzeentch said:

There’s a lot of talk about army builds on here. Which generally are quite similar from what I can see:

• General, General on Griffin

• 40 Guard, 40-60 assorted ranged, 1-3 fast units. 

• Then either a Hurricanum, or Ironweld artillery allies. 

My question, with this average build in mind, is:

How do you approach the GHB17 Battleplans?  

Knife to the Heart - no unique deployment ability, ranged army, how do you get a major win?

Duality of Death - Few relately weak heroes compared to other factions. How do you protect your heroes and also score points?

scorched earth/total conquest  - Defensive army, how do you project your army while maintaining your objectives?

starstrike - how do you ensure you can react to the random objective drops? 

Battle for the pass - high drop army, can you take back centre objectives if the opponent takes them first?

I won't comment on Starstrike or Total Conquest, as I haven't played those scenarios yet.

Knife to the Heart - In general I find this scenario suits Freeguild well. Perhaps not for a major, but definitely a winnable scenario. I find that  Freeguild want to get into the mid-ground to set up their defensive bastions around their great companies. Swords blocking the enemy while the Crossbows and Handgunners can sit still and fire. This is where we're most effective, once we can plant our feet. Knife to the Heart allows us to do that from turn 1. That being said, to get a major, either your speedy units are going to need to demolish an opponents weak backline, or you're going to need to foot slog one great company over. Depending on how big a threat your opponent has to your backfield objective, you might be able to get away with leaving a single unit back there while your whole army swarms towards the enemy, but seems pretty unlikely.

Duality of Death - I think this scenario really forces you to look heavily at what you want your third hero/behemoth to be. You've got 2 staple heroes, a Freeguild General with Banner (Who doesnt really want to go near the objectives and into enemy threat range), and the Griffon General that is pretty amazing as long as the enemy doesn't have a ton of mortal wounds. But the Griffon General can only be in one place, so you have to figure out what you want to do with the other objective. 
One thing you could aim for, is just to blow the enemy heroes off the objective so they can never really wrack up many points. They put one on, they get 1 point, you kill it, rinse and repeat. I'm not sure that this is the optimum way to play (As the Griffon general may not be able to tank 3-4 turns of harassment on his objective). So ultimately it forces you to have another hero in the list.

To me, there are two avenues you can go. You can for another big hero, a Griffon, Luminark, Hurricanum or perhaps even the Celestant Prime. These guys are obviously a pretty big threat, so now you can threaten both objectives. The other alternative is to pick up smaller tankier heroes, like a Freeguild General/Warrior Priest on horse, or some Stormcast heroes. The idea here would be that if you can get a small character onto a more easily defended objective, the Griffon General can swoop off to harass the other one. I think the choice of hero will really dictate what allies you have available to you.

Scorched Earth - I've played this twice now, although the first game was the first time playing both Free Peoples and GHB2017. I think this is an interesting one, and I'm not sure if we do well or not in it. On one hand, the great companies kinda force us into larger freeguild guard units, which can be good at claiming enemy objectives. On the other hand, with 3 home objectives, we need to spread out a bit. I get the feeling the general game plan is likely still going to be leave smaller units on the home objectives, while part of the great companies goes after one of the enemy objectives. The Griffon General can also potentially go after a weakly guarded enemy objective.

Battle for the Pass - Think similarly, play for the middle objectives. The enemies home objective is hard to reach, but a Griffon General might be able to fly over and have a go at it. Since the board is narrow, it's easier for the great companies to help each other out if one side objective gets in trouble. If you can control the mid-ground the game will surely be yours.

 

Ultimately I see Free Peoples the typical army being one that wants to get to the middle ground where they can stand their ground to make the most out of the Hold the Line command ability. 

[The Jabber Tzeentch]

6 hours ago, someone2040 said:

I won't comment on Starstrike or Total Conquest, as I haven't played those scenarios yet.

Knife to the Heart - In general I find this scenario suits Freeguild well. Perhaps not for a major, but definitely a winnable scenario. I find that  Freeguild want to get into the mid-ground to set up their defensive bastions around their great companies. Swords blocking the enemy while the Crossbows and Handgunners can sit still and fire. This is where we're most effective, once we can plant our feet. Knife to the Heart allows us to do that from turn 1. That being said, to get a major, either your speedy units are going to need to demolish an opponents weak backline, or you're going to need to foot slog one great company over. Depending on how big a threat your opponent has to your backfield objective, you might be able to get away with leaving a single unit back there while your whole army swarms towards the enemy, but seems pretty unlikely.

Duality of Death - I think this scenario really forces you to look heavily at what you want your third hero/behemoth to be. You've got 2 staple heroes, a Freeguild General with Banner (Who doesnt really want to go near the objectives and into enemy threat range), and the Griffon General that is pretty amazing as long as the enemy doesn't have a ton of mortal wounds. But the Griffon General can only be in one place, so you have to figure out what you want to do with the other objective. 
One thing you could aim for, is just to blow the enemy heroes off the objective so they can never really wrack up many points. They put one on, they get 1 point, you kill it, rinse and repeat. I'm not sure that this is the optimum way to play (As the Griffon general may not be able to tank 3-4 turns of harassment on his objective). So ultimately it forces you to have another hero in the list.

To me, there are two avenues you can go. You can for another big hero, a Griffon, Luminark, Hurricanum or perhaps even the Celestant Prime. These guys are obviously a pretty big threat, so now you can threaten both objectives. The other alternative is to pick up smaller tankier heroes, like a Freeguild General/Warrior Priest on horse, or some Stormcast heroes. The idea here would be that if you can get a small character onto a more easily defended objective, the Griffon General can swoop off to harass the other one. I think the choice of hero will really dictate what allies you have available to you.

Scorched Earth - I've played this twice now, although the first game was the first time playing both Free Peoples and GHB2017. I think this is an interesting one, and I'm not sure if we do well or not in it. On one hand, the great companies kinda force us into larger freeguild guard units, which can be good at claiming enemy objectives. On the other hand, with 3 home objectives, we need to spread out a bit. I get the feeling the general game plan is likely still going to be leave smaller units on the home objectives, while part of the great companies goes after one of the enemy objectives. The Griffon General can also potentially go after a weakly guarded enemy objective.

Battle for the Pass - Think similarly, play for the middle objectives. The enemies home objective is hard to reach, but a Griffon General might be able to fly over and have a go at it. Since the board is narrow, it's easier for the great companies to help each other out if one side objective gets in trouble. If you can control the mid-ground the game will surely be yours.

 

Ultimately I see Free Peoples the typical army being one that wants to get to the middle ground where they can stand their ground to make the most out of the Hold the Line command ability. 

Lots of great insight here. I’ll certainly give some of these further thought and play test as soon as possible. 

I like your idea with duality, solidly defend one and keep the opponent just behind. Will work well against more combat oriented armies I think. 

Your last  point is spot on, it’s a very defensive ability but you can still use it in an aggressive way. 

I think positioning is really key with this army. 

[Donal]

I went to a small 2 day tournament this weekend. It was my first 5 game with free people. I ran this list:

Allegiance: Free Peoples
Freeguild General (100)
- General
- Stately War Banner
- Trait: Indomitable 
Freeguild General On Griffon (260)
- Shield & Greathammer
- Artefact: Armour of Meteoric Iron 
Freeguild General On Griffon (260)
- Shield & Greathammer
Freeguild General On Griffon (260)
- Shield & Greathammer
Luminark Of Hysh With White Battlemage (240)
Battlemage (100)
10 x Freeguild Archers (100)
10 x Freeguild Archers (100)
30 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (300)
40 x Freeguild Guard (280)

Reinforcement Points (0)

Total: 2000 / 2000
Allies: 0 / 400

The list was largely taking the stuff that I had built and had some units I probably wouldn't normally take.

Overall Summary:
The list was relatively weak on scenarios. I played:

• Knife to heart (vs fyreslayers) - minor loss
• Scorched earth (vs 1 drop changehost) - major loss
• Battle for the pass (vs BCR) - Major Win
• Star strike (vs gore pilgrims) - Major Loss
• Duality of Death (vs fangs of sotek list with 3 monsters) - Major Win

As it was my first 5 games I did make some mistakes, but in general I found the army is just so slow if it needed to contest objectives on the other side of the board. The griffons have potential, but without the bodies to back it up I'm not sure it will work.
So many of the buffs to the army are based on the units not moving (30 xbows who havent moved are 60 shots 3/3 with 5/6s to wound rending). If they have moved they are 30 shots 4/4s... Its such a big punishment. 

Knife to Heart

I was always going to struggle with this. I played this (generally) the only way I could - i.e. castle on my objective and damage control as much as possible. It was clear from the start he would kill more than mine. I prob could have mitigated some damage on my side. Overall - I think we will struggle for the major. Maybe a list with a few more bodies could press on and do well. 

Scorched Earth

The changehost lacked a gaunt summoner, but had 700 points of reinforcement points. Hands up, I played this entirely wrong (first time playing changehost and second time with free people). I kept my xbows and swordsmen too close together (both on left flank initially). with swordsmen pushing up to contest & burn. We only got to turn 3 but due to the lack of bodies on my right side, he was able to burn objectives. with better play I can mitigate this. But i am concerned with the lack of speed of the army (could easily take the infantry 3 turns to get to the objectives). While the griffons are great for fighting they are only one model so its hard to clear objectives solo. 

Battle for the Pass

I played this right (albeit I have played with BCR alot and my opponent was inexperienced). I had my xbows hold the back objective & cover fire into the middle left (or middle top), while swordsmen pressed on the middle right). He lacked bodies and despite him getting the double turn I was able to comfortably win by turn 3. having said this, I think if I had played a more experienced player (or higher model count army) I would have had struggled due to the lack of mobility.

Starstrike

The khorne player ran at me. I had mispositioned my crossbows initially and they couldnt shoot in their first turn. We only got to turn 3 cause of alot of movement/shooting and a late start. The objectives fell in the perfect places for him, and again, the list lacks the mobility to contest so it was another major loss.

Duality of death

I think i largely played this right. On my left flank I put 2 griffons and block of swordsmen. On right was xbows, general, griffon and luminark. The idea was that the xbows would be able to shoot anything that came into range on the right, the luminark could support and take the objective and the general would buff the griffon/swordsmen on the right. On the left flank the two griffons could take down teh carnosaur on the left while the swordsmen would be able to take this. Given the relative closeness of the objectives the lack of mobility is less of an issue here.


Unit Reviews

Luminark - I found the weapon was way too inconsistent (3 games it did nothing). While the 6+ save is great, it is another unit that sits at the back. I def will be dropping this.
Battlemage - I loved the flexibility this guy offers so would consider keeping it (but happy to switch out for more effective allies)
Xbows - 30 are great at the back, but they are 300 points that are very inflexible. I'll probably keep them in the future.
Archers - they are ok for first turn objective grabbing (i.e. battle for the pass). I would consider taking one to be in a great company with the crossbows. But a 10 man guard unit might work as effectively for less points. Will def drop the second unit.
Guard: 40 man swordsmen are great. They dont go anywhere and hitting on 2s is fantastic. That said, I could see the value in having 40 halbards to push forward onto far objectives.
General on warhorse - this guy again is great for buffing units. he didnt actually see combat once and usually just hid behind terrain. That said, movement 12 warhorse was handy to push onto empty objectives later in game.
Griffons - these guys can put in a phenomenal amount of damage and are great value. 

 

Next ideas

So i think I would be tempted to try a list like this. Basically a defensive great company and one that I can push up the field. 

Allegiance: Free Peoples
Freeguild General (100)
- General
- Stately War Banner
- Trait: Indomitable 
Freeguild General On Griffon (260)
- Shield & Greathammer
- Artefact: Armour of Meteoric Iron 
Freeguild General On Griffon (260)
- Shield & Greathammer
Battlemage (100)
30 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (300)
40 x Freeguild Guard (280)
20 x Freeguild Handgunners (200)
10 x Freeguild Archers (100)
10 x Freeguild Archers (100)
40 x Freeguild Guard (280)

Reinforcement Points (0)

Total: 1980 / 2000
Allies: 0 / 400
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[someone2040]

Great write up mate, and some interesting insights.

I wonder how much the 30x Xbows is a crutch. The time they really shine is when you basically get to hold the line with them. At that point, you're getting not only your 60 shots, but your increased chance of rend as well. 

It makes me wonder whether things should be flipped. So instead, have a large unit of Handgunners that always get +1 to hit for being above 20, and use small units of Xbows/Archers as supporting fire. That way you can play more aggressive (and have to due to the handgunners reduced range), while the Xbows/Archers are used as longer ranged supporting fire. My only worry is that there seems to be some very powerful pieces these days that ignore rend -1 (Megaboss on Krusha, Treelord Ancient, all of Seraphon, all of Nighthaunt), so the Handgunners just may not cut the mustard. In addition Handgunners won't be able to shoot first turn due to lack of range (Although I rarely find myself having effective firepower with the Xbows first turn anyway).

 

I 100% agree on the Luminark. One of my friends is using it in his Stormcast list and it does alright, but IMO that's because he can also take a Loremaster ally that can pick and choose whether the Stardrake or Luminark needs buffing each turn. At the end of the day, the Luminark unbuffed only has a 44% chance of forcing an armour save, and while the damage can be absurd while unwounded, it's probably just not quite reliable enough to depend on.

I get the feeling you're probably just better off taking a Hellstorm and hiding it away in some corner. You can still fit in a Battlemage (Life seems tasty with griffons flying around), as well as 120 points of something else.

[MrCharisma]

So this is the list that I’ll be taking to the Australian Masters in a few weeks time. The list has been submitted so there is no tweaking, but i’m open to your comments and insights. 

This is the first time I’ll be running this list (I wanted variety from i’ve been running all year) and the Knight Azyros is completely new (and currently unbuilt). If you’re unfamiliar, check out his rules... I think he is a nice combo with Freeguild. 

[someone2040]

What's your general gameplan for the list?

Stretch out the 40 Guard and march forwards, triggering the great company rules? Never really considered playing with a super great company, my lists tend to go down the route of 2 smaller companies.

Unsure about 2 units of Demi's. Maybe it'll work out, I probably would've exchanged one for some Pistoliers/Outriders and a Gryph Hound. That way you'd get a bit more protection from units teleporting around.

[MrCharisma]

@someone2040, the game plan will depend on the scenario. I don’t need to create a super Great Company to gain the benefits, with Freeguild Pipers activating a 3” benefit instead of the usual 6” if required. 

A few tools in the toolkit;

- Knight Azyros to increase shooting potential

- Luminark to shoot off buff characters or stop things like Gaunt Summoner On Balewind

- 2x3 Demi’s provide flexibility while reducing impact of battleshock

- 40 Guard to extend across 24” deployment to protect objectives with Great Company support (Scorched Earth)

- Luminark to provide 6+ ward save, making a 3+ then 6+ swordsmen unit 

- Griffon to act with fast moment and kill higher wound models

- Archers to use their free movement to either challenge for objective early or reposition for a threat identified late in deployment 

In the ideal world I’d have 2 Griffons but time isn’t on my side after Blood & Glory.  That’s a few of the tools i’ll have...

[Hugh Halligan]

On 11/13/2017 at 4:36 PM, Donal said:

I went to a small 2 day tournament this weekend. It was my first 5 game with free people. I ran this list:

Allegiance: Free Peoples
Freeguild General (100)
- General
- Stately War Banner
- Trait: Indomitable 
Freeguild General On Griffon (260)
- Shield & Greathammer
- Artefact: Armour of Meteoric Iron 
Freeguild General On Griffon (260)
- Shield & Greathammer
Freeguild General On Griffon (260)
- Shield & Greathammer
Luminark Of Hysh With White Battlemage (240)
Battlemage (100)
10 x Freeguild Archers (100)
10 x Freeguild Archers (100)
30 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (300)
40 x Freeguild Guard (280)

Reinforcement Points (0)

Total: 2000 / 2000
Allies: 0 / 400

The list was largely taking the stuff that I had built and had some units I probably wouldn't normally take.

Overall Summary:
The list was relatively weak on scenarios. I played:

• Knife to heart (vs fyreslayers) - minor loss
• Scorched earth (vs 1 drop changehost) - major loss
• Battle for the pass (vs BCR) - Major Win
• Star strike (vs gore pilgrims) - Major Loss
• Duality of Death (vs fangs of sotek list with 3 monsters) - Major Win

As it was my first 5 games I did make some mistakes, but in general I found the army is just so slow if it needed to contest objectives on the other side of the board. The griffons have potential, but without the bodies to back it up I'm not sure it will work.
So many of the buffs to the army are based on the units not moving (30 xbows who havent moved are 60 shots 3/3 with 5/6s to wound rending). If they have moved they are 30 shots 4/4s... Its such a big punishment. 

Knife to Heart

I was always going to struggle with this. I played this (generally) the only way I could - i.e. castle on my objective and damage control as much as possible. It was clear from the start he would kill more than mine. I prob could have mitigated some damage on my side. Overall - I think we will struggle for the major. Maybe a list with a few more bodies could press on and do well. 

Scorched Earth

The changehost lacked a gaunt summoner, but had 700 points of reinforcement points. Hands up, I played this entirely wrong (first time playing changehost and second time with free people). I kept my xbows and swordsmen too close together (both on left flank initially). with swordsmen pushing up to contest & burn. We only got to turn 3 but due to the lack of bodies on my right side, he was able to burn objectives. with better play I can mitigate this. But i am concerned with the lack of speed of the army (could easily take the infantry 3 turns to get to the objectives). While the griffons are great for fighting they are only one model so its hard to clear objectives solo. 

Battle for the Pass

I played this right (albeit I have played with BCR alot and my opponent was inexperienced). I had my xbows hold the back objective & cover fire into the middle left (or middle top), while swordsmen pressed on the middle right). He lacked bodies and despite him getting the double turn I was able to comfortably win by turn 3. having said this, I think if I had played a more experienced player (or higher model count army) I would have had struggled due to the lack of mobility.

Starstrike

The khorne player ran at me. I had mispositioned my crossbows initially and they couldnt shoot in their first turn. We only got to turn 3 cause of alot of movement/shooting and a late start. The objectives fell in the perfect places for him, and again, the list lacks the mobility to contest so it was another major loss.

Duality of death

I think i largely played this right. On my left flank I put 2 griffons and block of swordsmen. On right was xbows, general, griffon and luminark. The idea was that the xbows would be able to shoot anything that came into range on the right, the luminark could support and take the objective and the general would buff the griffon/swordsmen on the right. On the left flank the two griffons could take down teh carnosaur on the left while the swordsmen would be able to take this. Given the relative closeness of the objectives the lack of mobility is less of an issue here.


Unit Reviews

Luminark - I found the weapon was way too inconsistent (3 games it did nothing). While the 6+ save is great, it is another unit that sits at the back. I def will be dropping this.
Battlemage - I loved the flexibility this guy offers so would consider keeping it (but happy to switch out for more effective allies)
Xbows - 30 are great at the back, but they are 300 points that are very inflexible. I'll probably keep them in the future.
Archers - they are ok for first turn objective grabbing (i.e. battle for the pass). I would consider taking one to be in a great company with the crossbows. But a 10 man guard unit might work as effectively for less points. Will def drop the second unit.
Guard: 40 man swordsmen are great. They dont go anywhere and hitting on 2s is fantastic. That said, I could see the value in having 40 halbards to push forward onto far objectives.
General on warhorse - this guy again is great for buffing units. he didnt actually see combat once and usually just hid behind terrain. That said, movement 12 warhorse was handy to push onto empty objectives later in game.
Griffons - these guys can put in a phenomenal amount of damage and are great value. 

 

Next ideas

So i think I would be tempted to try a list like this. Basically a defensive great company and one that I can push up the field. 

Allegiance: Free Peoples
Freeguild General (100)
- General
- Stately War Banner
- Trait: Indomitable 
Freeguild General On Griffon (260)
- Shield & Greathammer
- Artefact: Armour of Meteoric Iron 
Freeguild General On Griffon (260)
- Shield & Greathammer
Battlemage (100)
30 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (300)
40 x Freeguild Guard (280)
20 x Freeguild Handgunners (200)
10 x Freeguild Archers (100)
10 x Freeguild Archers (100)
40 x Freeguild Guard (280)

Reinforcement Points (0)

Total: 1980 / 2000
Allies: 0 / 400
 

 

 

 

 

On 11/13/2017 at 4:36 PM, Donal said:

Yeah good write up very interesting.

You're running pretty much the same list as mine which I will be taking to honour and glory in Portsmouth on 25 nov. 

1 general, 3 griffons, luminark, 2x30 handgunners, 40 swords

How have you found the crossbows? I decided to drop them as without the hurricanum their damage output is very similar to handgunners and once you lose double shot bonus (losing 11 models) they become very average. 

I use the 3 griffons very aggressively, focusing them into one are for maximum impact. The enemy has to deal with them taking the focus off the great command which is where the real power in the army is. 

I agree the luminark shot is a bit hit or miss but still very cheap and can kill important heros and his spell is great against hordes.  

As many of you have already worked out stringing the sword men with a tail is the way to deploy them. Support units will always be within 6" regardless of how far the unit advances.   

 

On 11/13/2017 at 4:36 PM, Donal said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Congratz]

Woaw this army looks amazing dude!

If i may ask. How did you paint your blue and white uniforms, im looking to start a Freeguild army and i really like the blue scheme  

[Donal]

@Hugh Halligan I def won’t be adding a second xbow unit and could see me dropping them in the future (when I motivate myself to paint handgunners).

That said they are amazing at full strength/double tap/hold the line, but it’s such a short range. The range comes into play for duality of death and battle for the pass. With having griffons / swordsmen the crossbows usually wont be targeted.

I’m definitely dropping the luminark in future. Think I’ll run double rocket battery instead. It’s a much larger damage output and more consistent. 

 

[Hugh Halligan]

13 hours ago, Congratz said:

Woaw this army looks amazing dude!

If i may ask. How did you paint your blue and white uniforms, im looking to start a Freeguild army and i really like the blue scheme  

I bought that unit from a friend so cant take credit!