Let's Chat: Free Peoples

[AmurayiWestgate]

Who rallies them with the Firestorm boxes? Like Anvilguard?

[MrCharisma]

@Hugh Halligan - massive congratulations at Honour & Glory! Great looking army and a triple Griffon sounds nasty. Any lessons for the rest of us?

 

@Theslowcentury - the half red & blue army in The Empire was Altdorf (my scheme). I didn’t see a similar scheme in Firestorm

[Hugh Halligan]

33 minutes ago, MrCharisma said:

@Hugh Halligan - massive congratulations at Honour & Glory! Great looking army and a triple Griffon sounds nasty. Any lessons for the rest of us?

 

@Theslowcentury - the half red & blue army in The Empire was Altdorf (my scheme). I didn’t see a similar scheme in Firestorm

Thanks I had a great day. Lessons learnt:

1. Swordmen are the best screening unit in the game.  40 is the best number.  Spread the unit across the board and a long tail back to the general for the indomitable buff. The tail also allows your unit to advance and stay in range of the great command supporting units. Stick mystic shield on them and no-ne is moving them. I my last game against Khorne the screen held the whole army up while the handgunners took the army off. At the end of the game I took his whole army off and lost no units. This unit is also so good at space denial for pop up units. 

2. Luminark was so good. It killed 6 hero's in the whole tournament. It also saved so many swordmen with its +6 save and mystic shield. I didn't get a chance to cast it's spell but I see it's worth in the current meta. The cannon can be hit or miss but you have to see as a bonus if it comes off and not rely on it. Plus on duality of death battle plan it will be a good objective holder as it's not a behemoth so will benefit from healing. 

3. The 3 Griffons are great as distraction  pieces. I am still to work out the best tactics for them. I used them a hammer, mainly focusing them into one area but I think there may be some benefits in spliting them up against different armies. 

4. The army struggles against armies that can out range it like tzeentch. I think you have to just focus on the objectives rather than worry about what they can do. 

[MrCharisma]

FYI @Hugh Halligan - the Luminark is a Behemoth.

When possible, I stick the Luminark next to Mystical terrain. The re-roll to wound helps the shooting attack and if it fails mystical, I still get my 6+ ward. 

Can you upload your list for us? I dont recall seeing it

[Hugh Halligan]

29 minutes ago, MrCharisma said:

FYI @Hugh Halligan - the Luminark is a Behemoth.

When possible, I stick the Luminark next to Mystical terrain. The re-roll to wound helps the shooting attack and if it fails mystical, I still get my 6+ ward. 

Can you upload your list for us? I dont recall seeing it

 

[MrCharisma]

@Hugh Halligan have you tried a unit of 30 crossbow men?

They x2 shots when the unit is 20+, and with Hold The Line are hitting and wounding on 3+, rending on 5+. 

[MrCharisma]

@Rob Symes and The Honest Wargamers are breaking down the Free People. Check it out..  https://www.twitch.tv/videos/204846143

 

[Hugh Halligan]

9 hours ago, MrCharisma said:

@Hugh Halligan have you tried a unit of 30 crossbow men?

They x2 shots when the unit is 20+, and with Hold The Line are hitting and wounding on 3+, rending on 5+. 

Yes of course I've got 60 of them. They are good, but damage output is similar to handgunners if they are hitting on 3s.  If you are playing someone who know's what they are doing they will kill 11 models and then they become a bit rubbish.  At least the handgunners are still effective when they drop below 20. Another down side to the crossbow is that you have to be very static with them , I have found I can move around a bit more with the handgunners.  I have used the crossbows with the hurricanum and then they really pop.  

[anapiros]

Hi to all! Having never played Warhammer before, I decided recently to choose an army and having looked all the available armies for the age of sigmar the only one that I really liked was free people/guild. Since there isn't a "Start Collecting" box like the other armies, I don't know from where to start or what should I buy to begin with. Is there any chance that they will be releasing a "Start Collecting" box for Free Peoples? What do I need to buy to kickstart my army? Thanks in advance for any advice! 

[Theslowcentury]

2 hours ago, anapiros said:

Hi to all! Having never played Warhammer before, I decided recently to choose an army and having looked all the available armies for the age of sigmar the only one that I really liked was free people/guild. Since there isn't a "Start Collecting" box like the other armies, I don't know from where to start or what should I buy to begin with. Is there any chance that they will be releasing a "Start Collecting" box for Free Peoples? What do I need to buy to kickstart my army? Thanks in advance for any advice! 

The mixed Order Hammerhal box has a good core of free peoples and you could trade/sell the stormcast on or keep them. RRP is £100 but it's available to trade stores currently so you might find it a bit cheaper.

[Hugh Halligan]

37 minutes ago, Theslowcentury said:

2 hours ago, anapiros said:

Hi to all! Having never played Warhammer before, I decided recently to choose an army and having looked all the available armies for the age of sigmar the only one that I really liked was free people/guild. Since there isn't a "Start Collecting" box like the other armies, I don't know from where to start or what should I buy to begin with. Is there any chance that they will be releasing a "Start Collecting" box for Free Peoples? What do I need to buy to kickstart my army? Thanks in advance for any advice! 

Ebay my friend! Get yourself a general, guard, and handgunners. Its not going to be cheap as you need lots of models.  

[Kugane]

How are greatswords performing? Anyone been using them? Whats the sweet spot for them?

[Kugane]

16 hours ago, MrCharisma said:

@Hugh Halligan have you tried a unit of 30 crossbow men?

They x2 shots when the unit is 20+, and with Hold The Line are hitting and wounding on 3+, rending on 5+. 

I did a lot of calculations about the damage output of units. Handgunners are mathematically better at dealing damage, but not by much

[Slick_Kid]

15 minutes ago, Kugane said:

How are greatswords performing? Anyone been using them? Whats the sweet spot for them?

Greatswords are brilliant! They are a bit expensive still but totally worth it if you max em out to 30 and just put them on a flank. They always seem to to quite well for me. 

I ran up first turn and by turn two I had a charge on some skyfires. After my activation I killed 5 out of 9 skyfires. Not bad.

[Kugane]

Just now, Slick_Kid said:

Greatswords are brilliant! They are a bit expensive still but totally worth it if you max em out to 30 and just put them on a flank. They always seem to to quite well for me. 

I ran up first turn and by turn two I had a charge on some skyfires. After my activation I killed 5 out of 9 skyfires. Not bad.

Thats really awesome! I'll try them out in that case^^. Thank you!

[Slick_Kid]

Just know that dudes are gonna die in a freeguild army. Their save is super squishy even at a 4+. So be bold my friend!

[Josh]

they are a really good army, naturally like anything if you play them badly they are not very forgiving but they have some stupidly good units & combos

[Josh]

also that 3 griffon army seems interesting! i would just need to aquire 3 griffons in order to run it (really want to use FG in 2k but so many bodies to paint T_T)

 

also would that list struggle a little with units that fly?

[AmurayiWestgate]

-

[Cerlin]

On 11/25/2017 at 7:12 AM, Paul Conti said:

So I had put down Free People for a bit and now Im pondering them again. 

 

It seems like the sheer number of bodies you can throw into the meat grinder combined with battleshock resistance and good saves makes them pretty solid. What Ive been noticing about a lot of the current tier 1 armies is that they really struggle if they cant put out enough damage to chew up opposing forces. if they hit a big anvil with good saves that doesnt crumble to battleshock they have some serious trouble.

I think combining a horde of guard with sword &shield with an indominable general and a luminark is a seriously formidable force for many armies to deal with. And then of course you light them up with handgunners with great companies.

Vanguarding out archers seems pretty solid as well. they are a serious speedbump for certain armies like murderhost and ironjawz.

Mobility seems to be a problem, however, and Ive been pondering how to address getting across the battlefield against armies like KO that rely on standing back and shooting.

what do you all think?

I have noticed the power of many, hard to route wounds as well.

Since GHB2017 my standard 2k list includes 40 Sword Guard and 40 Halberd Guard base. Normally I will back them up with 20 to 40 handgunners, 20 archers, and 20 greatswords in various combos. 2 great companies work better than one.

I also vary between one and two units of Demigryph knights. 

A stately war banner on horse and a Griffon General with meteoric armor are auto includes. I also try to have a cheap footmage or two for dispels and buffs.

My Freeguild has barely lost since GHB2017.

My most neglected units out Outriders and Pistoliers. With some of the new scenerios I may include them again.

With 2 great companies, the board coverage is excellent. Speed hasnt been an issue. I can challenge most points by turn two.  Including indominitable, these guys are hard to shift and do not care about mortal wounds.

[someone2040]

I have to say I'm really coming around on the Demigryph Knights. Sometimes they get unlucky and wiped in one shot, but they do add some punch and speed into the army, as well as being tanky.

I played a game on Saturday with the following list:

Spoiler

Freeguild General with Stately War Banner, Indomitable

Freeguild General on Griffon w Hammer, Shield, Armour of Meteoric Iron

Life Battlemage

Warrior Priest on Horse with Hammer and Shield

20x Guard

30x Xbows

10x Handgunner

20x Guard

10x Handgunner

10x Archer

10xGreatsword

3x Demigryph

Gryph Hound

1x Cannon

1990

Ideally I think the Warrior Priest would've been a Knight Azyros, and the Cannon would've been a Hellstorm but working with the models I have currently. I gave the Archers a run instead of Pistoliers.

The opponent was a fairly vanilla Stormcast soup list where the main 'trick' was to buff up a unit of 4 Concussors. Here's what I remember about it:

Spoiler

Lord Celestant on Foot - Staunch Defender, Mirrorshield

Lord Castellant

Lord Relictor - Lightning Chariot

5x Liberators with Hammer and Shield

5x Liberator with Two Blades

2x5 Judicators

5x Decimator

5x Protectors

4x Concussor

3x Longstrike

Keep an eye out on Doom and Darkness' Youtube channel as it should be up soon (I'll provide a direct link once it's up), but in the mean time I'll give a quick run down of what I thought.

Ultimately my opponent made a mistake in the game where for 1 turn his Judicators left his objective. This gave my Demigryphs an opportunity to pounce and destroy the Judicators over 2 turns. I still find that Demi's are really hit or miss without the rend on the Knights attacks, and my Demigryphs themselves were performing pretty woefully. But ultimately this unit did win me the game, as it enables me to steal 2 of my enemy objectives (The first one was quite lucky though, as the Demi's went into another unit of Judicators, killed 2 and then my opponent rolled a 6 for battleshock).

The Archers performed alright, the got a bit lucky and plinked off a Judicator or two before being cut down in combat. Ultimately though they were 10 bodies that were potentially threatening my opponents side objective. I definitely want to play around with them a bit more, and see how I feel with only 2 speedy elements in the list (Griffon and Demis).

The Greatswords continue to underwhelm. They just tend to be an objective holder as the punch of the Free Peoples comes from having something ram headfirst into your Freeguild Guard and then you shoot them to death. My gut feeling is that this unit will likely be replaced in the long run if anything (and perhaps, this is where I get more speed into the list, perhaps a 2nd unit of Demigryphs or some Outriders).

The cannon fairly consistently forced an armour save each turn. Unluckily for me, after the first turn of the game where it killed a Longstrike and a half, it couldn't get through Stormcast armour in cover to finish them off. One thing that's been on my mind is (obviously) the cannon is the worst, but if a Hellstorm or Longstrikes are a better choice. The hellstorm has the advantage of not needing Line of SIght, but Longstrikes might be able to put out some consistent damage with their good stats (and potential to deal some mortal wounds). Might be something to consider when I flesh out my Stormcast army.

The Lifemage was alright. Kinda did what I expected, mystic shielded and healed the Griffon when he got smashed into by Concussors. Was definitely a mistake on my part to keep the Griffon in that combat though, but not rolling a 6 to save my life didn't help either.

The Handgunners in 10's were interesting. This is the first time I've come up against a bit of counterfire, and both units got depleted fairly quickly. This ultimately meant I was more using them for the Long Rifles to attempt to plink off a model here or there. An interesthing thing I did find is that one unit just didn't have good targets for a lot of the game. I probably should've moved them around a lot faster once my opponent had called in all his reserves (and Lightning Chariot was too far to put any pressure on that objective), as I could've moved the Gryph Hound onto the objective instead.

Overall though, the real breadwinners of the list were the 30 Crossbowmen. My opponent had no answer in his list for them really. I think he probably misplayed in the fact he should've had his Protectors up the front to give the -1 to hit, as ultimately the Crossbows just plinked through Liberators, Decimators, the Lord Relictor and even most of the Concussors once they were out of range of the Warding Lantern. They truly are an exceptional choice when you're enabled to sit back and shoot with Hold the Line. They probably would've even taken out the Lord Celestant (With mirror shield of course remembered that the hard way).

 

Which makes me remember one thing. One nuance which I don't think has really been highlighted with Crossbowmen. I originally played it as doubling their attacks, but more recently I've been playing it that they get to shoot a 2nd time instead. To me this is an extremely important nuance, because if the latter is correct (Which I believe it is, as it doesn't increase the attacks characteristic, it enables them to shoot twice), it really changes up how you target with them. This is because you essentially get to choose your target(s) a 2nd time, which may mean that your opponent removes models in range, or you kill your original target and swap to a second one.

As an example I mentioned above (learning about the mirror shield the hard way), in my initial volley I put a lot of shots into the Lord Celestant (hoping to remove Staunch Defender) only to find out he had the -2 to hit (I was told about this pre-game, just forgot of course). So of course, for my second volley I definitely chose an easier to kill target.

 

So yeah, those are just some of my findings from my last game. Hopefully we get a lot of information from @MrCharisma who recently came 6th in the Australian Masters with this Free Peoples list.

[Congratz]

6 hours ago, Cerlin said:

I have noticed the power of many, hard to route wounds as well.

Since GHB2017 my standard 2k list includes 40 Sword Guard and 40 Halberd Guard base. Normally I will back them up with 20 to 40 handgunners, 20 archers, and 20 greatswords in various combos. 2 great companies work better than one.

I also vary between one and two units of Demigryph knights. 

A stately war banner on horse and a Griffon General with meteoric armor are auto includes. I also try to have a cheap footmage or two for dispels and buffs.

My Freeguild has barely lost since GHB2017.

My most neglected units out Outriders and Pistoliers. With some of the new scenerios I may include them again.

With 2 great companies, the board coverage is excellent. Speed hasnt been an issue. I can challenge most points by turn two.  Including indominitable, these guys are hard to shift and do not care about mortal wounds.

So your list would look like this?

Leaders:

Freeguild General with Stately Warbanner, Indomitable, Greathammer, Shield

Freeguild General on Griffon, Armour of Meteoric Iron, Lance, Shield

Units:

40 Freeguild Guard, Swords and Shields (Great Company 1)

20 Freeguild Greatswords (Great Company 1)

20 Freeguild Handgunners (Great Company 1)

40 Freeguild Guard Helbards (Great Company 2)

20 Freeguild Archers (Great Company 2)

20 Freeguild Handgunners (Great Company 2)

3 Demigryph Knights, Lance and Swords, Shields

 

Looks good to me

 

[Josh]

thinking of dusting off the old free peeps after realising i really don't have much to make this list i want to run. I just need to paint 15 Handgunners, 3 swordsmen, finish my hurricanum & buy two griffons.

might not be cutting edge but be interesting to see how it goes at my local meta

Leaders
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
Celestial Hurricanum With Celestial Battlemage (380)
- Allies

Battleline
30 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (300)
40 x Freeguild Guard (280)
20 x Freeguild Handgunners (200)
20 x Freeguild Handgunners (200)

Total: 1980 / 2000
Allies: 380 / 400
Wounds: 152

[MrCharisma]

On 04/12/2017 at 12:51 PM, someone2040 said:

Hopefully we get a lot of information from @MrCharisma who recently came 6th in the Australian Masters with this Free Peoples list.

Thanks for the shout out, and i’d be happy to share more on my experience. 

I’m pretty sure most people have seen my list from a previous post. It was essentially a mega Great Company with 40 Guard, 30 Handgunners and 30 Crossbowmen. The general feedback from my opponents and other Masters players was that the list was rock solid.

I walked away with 3 major victories, 1 minor loss (I blew this game and should have minor won), and 1 major loss.

 

What Worked

- The list was highly optimised and worked incredible well. Each unit really helped the rest of the army. 

- Firepower from the handgunners and crossbowmen were brutal, so much that it obliterated 50 Bloodletters and sent a Khorne army retreating his force in an attempt to avoid the shooting and turned Durthu into wood chips.

- I was able to control the table due to the sheer amount of bodies on the table. My Great Company spread across the table to protect Scorched Earth, it denied a Major Loss in Knife to the Heart, zone denied any board access for a teleporting army

- Knight Azyros is a cheap ally that pays for himself  d3/d6 mortal wounds with his lantern is helpful (especially with me meta having so many Chaos armies) and re-rolling 1’s to shooting is just... amazing.

- Embracing Mystical terrain because you gain more than you lose. The Luminark ally was a great example because even with a failed test I can still receive the 6+ ward save for my army. 

What Didn’t Work

- Archers aren’t worth 100pts. While they did provide some value throughout the games, I don’t think the free movement was enough to justify their spot

- Writ of Domination maybe wasn’t the best artifact to select. I didn’t find myself in too many positions where I needed it, with the most useful opportunities coming from my 60 shots from the Crossbowmen. 

- Movement trays helped speed up the game, however; I don’t feel like I optimised some of my deployments because I was just deploying using the default layouts. 

- Demigryphs with lance & sword. I don’t remember my Knights (not demigryphs) actually inflicting a wound. Might revisit them to have halberds for the rend. 

Reflection & Challenges

- Explaining the rules to your opponent & the complexity with Pipers. In a highly competitive tournament like the Masters, I ended up clashing with an opponent and had to spend a good amount of time explaining the way a Great Company works. The situation is compounded by the Pipers/Drummers which cross over from where the Great Company stops. The rules ARE complex and I need to find a better way to ensure my opponents clearly understand. I think this impacted by sportsmanship scores because we do have a lot of synergied benefits.

- Losing your General early is a tough hill to climb. I ended up clashing with the winner of the Austrlian Masters who ran Tzeentch which included the Gaunt Summoner and Changling. While my Luminark has solved many Gaunt Summoner on Balewind problems, my opponent popped off my General via the Changling using a spell (I think it was the 9 dice, 4+ mortal wound spell). Not sure how I can protect him any further in a situation like this. 

- Demigryphs vs. Griffon. I ran 6 Demigryphs as 2 units of 3 to provide flexibility and minimise battleshock. If I compare pure points, I’d have to run another Griffon. The Demigryph’s did make the difference in Scorched Earth, providing the final touches for a zone denial and burning an objective. 

- Guard are the true MVP’s and losing them is tough. My first opponent cast Curse of Years on them and deleted the unit in turn 1 :-(. Luckily I had enough practice with Free People units under a mixed Order force (not relying on the Great Company) and swung the battle back in my favour. 

I’ll edit the post if I think of anything else, or you’re welcome to ask any questions. 

[Hugh Halligan]

Good stuff @MrCharisma doing the free people proud.  Cant believe you took demi's I think they are junk! 

The rules are fairly complicated. I always show my opponent the text in rules in ghb17. That way they have read it and can't claim they were unaware. I also find that warning my opponent before they charge the unit that they will set off a counter shot helpful. I know you are playing at a competitive environent but you don't want to catch people out because they forget a rule. 

I'll have to look at the knight Azyros looks like a good addition. 

I really think freepeople could win a big event if it gets the right match ups. 

Well done again really good effort!