BigT

Yeah personally I've found both playing for the triple supremacy, as well as going all in advancing into enemy territory to inspire/play for Lightning/Swift Advance, to be a bit of a trap with the Farstriders. Every time I've tried this and come up against a full on aggro war-band (Orcs, Fiends...) I've been given a good kicking. I've had much better luck playing them as a more defensive/reactive war-band, not trying to force inspiration by finishing in enemy territory unless it's a good idea to do so regardless of the inspiration condition, and going with one of the Supremacy cards at most so I'm not undone if I lose one guy.

I like them on first impressions - they seem quite flexible and able to respond to/take advantage of how the battle plays out (which is what I enjoy about Steelheart's band). As has been mentioned they can all access Cleave (2 of these being a decent 3 damage melee attack) and seem to be able to play a decent objectives game - with Eternal Supremacy you can effectively treble down on supremacy cards for redundancy/big glory - as well as having good options to counter objectives play. However the flip-side is they don't appear to be optimized for any one thing and do lack that raw hitting power. I'm probably feeling them because I tend to torture myself by being drawn to the warbands that are more difficult/complex to get the most out of, because trying to work that out is what holds my attention.

A good shout, and a particularly good counter for Skaven and the Guard to use as they often times won't miss not being able to activate a grunt for a phase and Frozen in Time could to an extent be turned in your favor - by perhaps denying the enemy an easy kill/glory on a now invulnerable (for a phase) 2 wound model/objective holder who was unlikely to be activated in any case

As a counterpoint to all the aggressive cards in the new expansions 2 defensive Ploys have caught my eye as being potentially very strong: Frozen in Time - only a 50/50 chance but removing a key enemy fighter from consideration for an entire phase is potentially huge, and this is a card that is broadly more favorable to higher model count war-bands as the lower model count bands will feel the loss of a single fighter for a phase more acutely. Quick Thinker - as long as I'm reading the rule interactions correctly here the most recent FAQ clarifies that if a declared Charge action cannot be resolved as e.g. 'my opponent makes a reaction that moves the target out of range of my fighter’s Attack action' the fighter still counts as having made a charge action - so your opponent declares a charge against your fighter, at the end of the move portion of the charge you play Quick Thinker as a reaction, moving your fighter away out of range, the enemy has been robbed of his attack and is left unable to activate again this phase as he counts as having charged. A premier defensive card?