Thoughts on Freeblades

[Frostglaive]

We have a thread running for the Castellans and one for the Traits/Stratagems. I'd like for this one to focus more on the upcoming Freeblade Knights and hear everyone's thoughts on them.

 

For me personally, I'm not too terribly impressed with them. But neither am I disappointed.

 

Here is what I do like:

 

- Unlike a regular Knight Household, a Freeblade can be a Warlord and have a Relic even if they're in a Super-Heavy Auxiliary. So I'm not forced to take three Knights (or a Freeblade and a couple Armigers).

- I like the concept of the Qualities and Burdens, and I like the option for the randomness of it all. For Qualities, I like that you can either choose 1 or roll for 2, and the Burdens you can roll for 1 or choose 2. It makes things more interesting.

 

Right now, the only real thing I don't like is that the Qualities aren't all that impressive, and the Burdens can be pretty crippling. Let's look at the Qualities first:

 

- Reroll 1's against units of 10 or more. Great against Guard and other horde-style armies, especially with the gatling cannon and battle cannon. But kind of pointless against MEQ armies.
- Reroll 1's against Warlord and ObSec. The ObSec is amazing, but the 1's against Warlord... with the exception of the Shieldbreaker missiles on the Dominus, how often are you going to be able to target your opponent's Warlord?

- 6" Heroic Intervention. Good for counter-charges, but that's really about it I think.

- Peerless Warrior is my favorite right now. Either +2" to Move, or +1 WS or BS. I have a feeling this one will be chosen most often.

- Indomitable isn't bad. Extra Wound and Ld never hurts, especially when you have to make a Ld Test to ignore the Burdens.

 

Burdens:

- Can't be targeted by stratagems. Ouch. Bye, Rotate Ion Shields. That stings a little bit.

- Reroll 6's to hit. Again, ouch. Especially if a Knight is crippled and it gets harder to actually hit in the first place.

- Can only target closest unit in shooting. Great, so all my anti-tank guns are shooting at some Guardsmen or Gaunts. Worthless against horde armies.

- Can't Fall Back and BS of 6+. I hope you're running a Gallant if you get this, because otherwise that's going to suck if you roll this for a Crusader Freeblade.

- Must move towards enemy units, and must declare charges against EVERYTHING within 12". Pray to the Emperor you aren't fighting Tau if you get this. Otherwise I feel like your Knight will die in Overwatch.

 

They're not bad. I just don't think Freeblades are going to be all that great. I'll definitely still try them out every so often, finally make use of that Gallant that's been collecting dust. But I think I'll be mainly sticking with the Household Knights at this rate. Maybe more will get released on them, I don't know.

 

Your thoughts?

[N1SB]

Great analysis, Brother.  I've been keeping up with the WhC posts, but been busy playing Necromunda, hadn't devoted much thought to this.

 

Seeing how you outlined the Qualities and Burdens, it maps to something I observed in 7th ed.  I know things have changed...but in some ways, stayed the same.

 

The bottom line was, reading through all the Qualities and Burdens, they ALMOST ALL suit a melee Knight Gallant; their advantages encourage them to get into and stay in close combat or the mid-field at least, while disadvantages are mainly in shooting, etc.  What I saw in 7th ed was the Kamikaze Knight, where people take either a Knight Gallant or 3 in that Knight Gallant formation, and just throw them at the enemy.

 

It was a wrecking ball strategy, just swing that Knight towards the enemy ahead of your own forces, because whether or not the Knight survives, it either forces the opponent to dedicate way more points (and often the first 2 to 3 turns of a game) than the Knight was worth to bring it down, or to do so risking it blow up in the opposing army, or try to avoid it in which case the Knight still manages to control the battlefield with its huge presence/base.  And the player that really used this approach didn't bring 1 Knight; he often brought 3 as that Formation/Detachment.

 

The difference - in 7th ed Knights had that Stomp move, I don't know if they still got that, and 8th is the edition of everything can kill everything, so time will tell.

 

The Freeblade rules really seem ideal for that playstyle, but probably not others as you've observed.  I'm going to see if I run into the player that really made this strategy famous in our local meta, just kinda start a conversation, see if he really fixates on Freeblades.  It'd be interesting if he doesn't, like what's holding him back now.

 

EDIT - I said the names of the melee-oriented Knights were Knight Errants instead of Knight Gallants above, so I fixed that now.  Sorry 'bout that.

[Spinsanity]

Assuming everything that's been said about Freeblades is true, I'm definitely going to build my first knight as one, and couple the 9i0RR 1's against ObSec with the Banner of Macharius Triumphant. I just need to find a suitably large banner that can be attached as a cape.

 

+ Edit: Dammit, just realized the banner is Imperialis only... Guess it's back to the drawing board for me :\

[Shinespider]

I'm probably going to mix one or two in - mostly just to play with different paint jobs, but also because they're just cool. 

 

Also, just in case anyone reading this thread isn't totally read up on the rules - it's important to point out that the burdens only actually apply if you fail a LD test. 

[LucidNinja]

Yeah I see them as a bit of fun, I think a warden with stormspear would be the best all rounder for going free blade. The burdens pretty much only hurt shootie knights so you want a sword or fist for them occasions. An acheron would be a pretty great candidate also

[Orpheus108]

I'm looking at a Freeblade (Dark Depths) to run with my Carcharodon Astra, have a little back story for him and looking forward to adding the burden of Driven to Slaughter to fit with the close combat nature of the Chapter.

 

I like the idea with Freeblades, and will run with one first, just which I don't know and maybe 2 Armigers from Forgebane.

 

But really looking forward to the book and getting the Renegades box set to add the chaos night to my DG, run him as a Rusthound, since I run the Pallid Hand

[Mushkilla]

So if you runs free blade in an auxiliary super heavy detachment. Does he get his freeblade abilities? Does he get access to stratagems? Warlord traits? Relics?

 

The impression I'm getting is that you need at least 3 knights to get these bonuses. Was wondering if anyone could clarify.

[Vel'Cona]

AFAIK he would be but it's hard to say without having the actual rules in hand.

 

My takeaway from the Freeblade situation is it sounds fun but ultimately running full Knight Houses will probably be better to get more bonuses (Warlord Traits, Strategems, Relics, House Abilities), especially given those Burdens are generally pretty awful.  I do get that they seem to be focused on utilizing melee Freeblades, but being that I'm not a fan of the Gallant this isn't an option that interests me.

 

Update:  Just saw the simultaneous points drop/WS and Attacks boost for the Gallant.  May have to rethink that concept . . .