Let's Chat: Free Peoples

[Berdysz]

Hey all! I have been lurking here for a while. I am a 'retired' Ironjawz general. Got tired of mediocre army that got even worse with GH2017. Anyhow, I had this unfulfilled love for the empire in WHFB. I thought i ll give it a go in AoS, so for past 3 months I v been ....painting. Army is pretty much ready, and since I don't play with 'gray soldiers' my firs battle was on hold. Recently I v played my first match (2 actually). If anyone is interested here is a link:
https://zapomocaberdysza.wordpress.com/2018/02/03/age-of-sigmar-raport-bitewny-2000-pkt-2/

  This bat rep is in English also, not everything there is though. I am to lazy for that

Anyway I would welcome your thoughts.

[someone2040]

For those interested, I was on a Hangouts call the other night with Doom and Darkness where we broke down our gaming experience at Cancon. My breakdown starts at about 15:00 in if people only want to see the stuff on Free Peoples (Although the rest of the content is good as well!)

 

[Josh]

i really need to paint my griffons lol seems really hard

[someone2040]

1 hour ago, Josh said:

i really need to paint my griffons lol seems really hard

You know, I always get super psyched out by centrepiece models. But at the end of the day, I think it's one of those things where getting started is actually harder than painting the model.

Sometimes you just gotta stop humming and hahing about colour schemes and the like and just do it.

Besides... If you don't like the first, there's always the second Griffon to get it done right!

[Josh]

trouble is i know exactly what i wanna do, i just need to do it lol

[Lightbox]

I've been using my griffon as airbrush practice myself... and quickly realising I don't have enough different colours.

 

Big monsters scare me though paint wise... although my warpfire dragons turned out well. Definitely wanna get the carmine dragon for my free peoples sometime, even if it'll break allegiance. Want the one with the battlemage lady on top because it looks super pretty.

 

I need to get all my blokes built and painted but whilst I love the models I find building freeguild to be soul sucking  Anyone else find them just not too fun to de-mouldline and build?

[Josh]

i found working in small batches made it easier, lots of 10 and some even do 5 and do something fun to break it up

 

[MrCharisma]

14 minutes ago, Lightbox said:

I need to get all my blokes built and painted but whilst I love the models I find building freeguild to be soul sucking  Anyone else find them just not too fun to de-mouldline and build?

3

I was working off batches of 30-40... and after 12 months, I'm officially over the Free People and need a rest. 

I still love them... I just need space

[Josh]

lol i did my 30 crossbows at once & i was pretty over it after that

 

[someone2040]

I only ever assembled mine in batches of 10 really. 

Painting wise I tended not to paint them in anything larger than batches of 20, and even then I'd generally split up into 10's in the larger sections (Like do the basecoats of 10, wash them, then while they're drying start working on the basecoats of the other 10).

I didn't seem to have many issues with mould lines though, although I never get things super precise when cleaning them. ****** me off a little while painting when I catch an obvious one I missed, but on the tabletop you can't really tell.

I mean what's a couple of mould lines amongst over 100 free men  

[Berdysz]

I have painted mine in 3 moths. 120 + infantry of different kinds :). Not 100% painted, but something I called "battleready"

[Kimbo]

Hey all! 

I got a brother who is trying to get into the hobby and join in...He really loves the free people...since i know nothing about them maybe you guys can help? 

 

If you were to start from 0...how would you build your 1k list to learn the army but still an effective list? 

 

Cheers everyone!

[SilverJelly]

2 hours ago, Kimbo said:

Hey all! 

I got a brother who is trying to get into the hobby and join in...He really loves the free people...since i know nothing about them maybe you guys can help? 

 

If you were to start from 0...how would you build your 1k list to learn the army but still an effective list? 

 

Cheers everyone!

This is a good link for people who are completely new to Free People. It does a general overview of how the army plays and a run down of each unit. Reece at Front Line Gaming also has an article about Free People that helps unlock Free People a little more by talking about buffs and synergies that work well for Free People. 

https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Age_of_Sigmar/Tactics/Order/Free_Peoples

[Kimbo]

5 hours ago, SilverJelly said:

This is a good link for people who are completely new to Free People. It does a general overview of how the army plays and a run down of each unit. Reece at Front Line Gaming also has an article about Free People that helps unlock Free People a little more by talking about buffs and synergies that work well for Free People. 

https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Age_of_Sigmar/Tactics/Order/Free_Peoples

Thanks! Looked att all those before ? was looking for an actuall list that has atleast been tried or something that seems solid for a beginner! 

[Caffiends]

I recently started free people, and here the 1000p list I built towards

Allegiance: Free People

Leaders
Freeguild General (100)
- General
- Stately War Banner
- Trait: Indomitable 
- Artefact: Armour of Meteoric Iron 

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

Total: 980 / 2000
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 105
 

It lets you get max unit bonuses, has a lot of synergy and is a giant death bubble to be avoided. Problem is it's a bit slow and moving makes you lose a lot of bonuses and first turns are always rough. At bigger points you can add things in to alleviate some of these problems, like a griffon and demigryphys, or you can play harder into it by adding artillery and an engineer as allies to snipe off heroes and force the enemy to towards you. My worst matchup on this I'd say is nurgle, but at 1000p games I've won two for two matches against them with this list so take for that what you will. 

[Josh]

8 hours ago, Kimbo said:

Thanks! Looked att all those before ? was looking for an actuall list that has atleast been tried or something that seems solid for a beginner! 

why dont you try writing a list and then we can help from there

you may like a different p;lay style or trying to achieve something different

 

[Kimbo]

9 hours ago, Caffiends said:

I recently started free people, and here the 1000p list I built towards

Allegiance: Free People

Leaders
Freeguild General (100)
- General
- Stately War Banner
- Trait: Indomitable 
- Artefact: Armour of Meteoric Iron 

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

Total: 980 / 2000
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 105
 

It lets you get max unit bonuses, has a lot of synergy and is a giant death bubble to be avoided. Problem is it's a bit slow and moving makes you lose a lot of bonuses and first turns are always rough. At bigger points you can add things in to alleviate some of these problems, like a griffon and demigryphys, or you can play harder into it by adding artillery and an engineer as allies to snipe off heroes and force the enemy to towards you. My worst matchup on this I'd say is nurgle, but at 1000p games I've won two for two matches against them with this list so take for that what you will. 

 

1 hour ago, Josh said:

why dont you try writing a list and then we can help from there

you may like a different p;lay style or trying to achieve something different

 

Nice list..what do you guys think of a similar list where;

- I remove the crossbows for 2x gryphs for speed (1k on the dot)

Or 

Remove crossbows for 20x greatswords? 

Cheers!

 

[Josh]

well what do you like/ think is cool? what list would you write for yourself? 

[Caffiends]

9 hours ago, Kimbo said:

 

Nice list..what do you guys think of a similar list where;

- I remove the crossbows for 2x gryphs for speed (1k on the dot)

Or 

Remove crossbows for 20x greatswords? 

Cheers!

 

The bare minimum for a freeguild company is one unit of guard with 20 models and two units of other freeguild units with at least ten models 

My personal philosophy is that freeguild companies are too good to pass up, and being able to shoot on your opponents turn adds another dimension of pressure to the game that forces them to play around it

So I think that by working out of that, the bare minimum to have a great company is 360p - that's 20 guard and two units of ten ranged units

From here, you could swap out one of the ranged units for greatswords if you're really keen to use them, though they're 50 points more per 10 than the shooting units. The good thing about greatswords though is that they fit in great companies and don't get any buffs from numbers, so losing models doesn't hurt as much as with other units 

If you cut some points from the company you could also get the Demi's if you were looking to run those

The problem with cutting models from the units in the freeguild company is you lose a lot of bonuses. I.E. , while being over twenty models handgunners get +1 to hit, and crossbowman get an extra attack. Guard get an extra +1 for every 10 models in the unit from 20 onwards, as well as having a better daisy chain because of the extra models in the unit. Losing these bonuses hits really hard 

That said I tried writing something to fit the things you wanted to fit in, I hope this helps!

 

Allegiance: Order

Leaders
Freeguild General (100)
- General
- Stately War Banner
- Trait: Indomitable 
- Artefact: Armour of Meteoric Iron 

Battleline
30 x Freeguild Handgunners (300)
40 x Freeguild Guard (280)
10 x Freeguild Greatswords (150)
- Free Peoples Battleline
3 x Demigryph Knights (160)
- Lance and Sword
- Free Peoples Battleline

Total: 990 / 2000
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 97
 

 

[Kimbo]

2 hours ago, Caffiends said:

The bare minimum for a freeguild company is one unit of guard with 20 models and two units of other freeguild units with at least ten models 

My personal philosophy is that freeguild companies are too good to pass up, and being able to shoot on your opponents turn adds another dimension of pressure to the game that forces them to play around it

So I think that by working out of that, the bare minimum to have a great company is 360p - that's 20 guard and two units of ten ranged units

From here, you could swap out one of the ranged units for greatswords if you're really keen to use them, though they're 50 points more per 10 than the shooting units. The good thing about greatswords though is that they fit in great companies and don't get any buffs from numbers, so losing models doesn't hurt as much as with other units 

If you cut some points from the company you could also get the Demi's if you were looking to run those

The problem with cutting models from the units in the freeguild company is you lose a lot of bonuses. I.E. , while being over twenty models handgunners get +1 to hit, and crossbowman get an extra attack. Guard get an extra +1 for every 10 models in the unit from 20 onwards, as well as having a better daisy chain because of the extra models in the unit. Losing these bonuses hits really hard 

That said I tried writing something to fit the things you wanted to fit in, I hope this helps!

 

Allegiance: Order

Leaders
Freeguild General (100)
- General
- Stately War Banner
- Trait: Indomitable 
- Artefact: Armour of Meteoric Iron 

Battleline
30 x Freeguild Handgunners (300)
40 x Freeguild Guard (280)
10 x Freeguild Greatswords (150)
- Free Peoples Battleline
3 x Demigryph Knights (160)
- Lance and Sword
- Free Peoples Battleline

Total: 990 / 2000
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 97
 

 

Wow...thanks for the long post! You're awesome!

 

I understand what you are saving...I like the list alot! Just curious..

If you would make an 1k list, optimized, how would you play? 

 

Cheers!

[Josh]

looks like a fun list ^^

[Josh]

i would run it and see what it lacks and go from there ^^

[Caffiends]

On 12/02/2018 at 6:14 AM, Kimbo said:

Wow...thanks for the long post! You're awesome!

 

I understand what you are saving...I like the list alot! Just curious..

If you would make an 1k list, optimized, how would you play? 

 

Cheers!

At 1000p I generally play the first list I posted. It's a bit slow and has its problems but I'm yet to lose a game with it! 

As for how I play it, for set up (depending on the scenario) I'll generally place the handgunners first about three inches out from the deployment line closest to the objective I need to get. I'll then place my crossbows directly behind them, my general to the right or left of them and the place my guard in a screening bubble around those units. When setting up the bubble I make sure that my guard separate any target from the gunners and xbows by more than three inches, because I don't want them in combat and I need them to shoot at the end of the charge phase. 

First turn (with 5 drops I'll usually be going second) ill either shoot what I can reach, or if I can't reach anything, I'll try to run to an objective 

After that I generally bunker down on an objective, using the generals command trait to give my ranged units massive bonuses. With all bonuses combined, the handgunners end up on 2s and 2s with -1 rend, and the crossbows on 3s and 3s with -1 rend on wound rolls of 5+. 

Ill daisy chain out my swordsman as best I can, and when they get into combat also give them the hit and wound bonus. It's really important to make sure that the crossbowman (and by extension the handgunners) are within range to support the swordsman

There's a little hack you can do when charging, only one model (the first) has to end its charge within combat and the charge move can be used to move the other model wherever. I'll generally create a screen with them if the enemy can't do movement shenanigans and contest other objectives with them if possible. Below shows a great way to use a screen

 

[kenshin620]

Hello, first timer on this forum here and pretty new to AOS (and honestly only really dabbled a tiny amount of WFB at 7th and a bit of 8th). Just wondering if given the massive time and tech gap (or at least for the overlords) from old to new hammer if it is appropriate to use history models beyond late medieval/renaissance assuming playing in a non official model environment.

 

Obviously probably not anything beyond say the late 1700's, but do you think that stuff like Warlord's Pike and Shotte range would fit in? Or does that still look out of place? The only thing I can base my assumptions on is that one human picture from the Black Library novel.

[Chickenbits]

My Empire general on Griffon! Finally got my thumb out my *** and got working on my freeguild