Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Edition 1.1/Free Peoples

The Free People

Do you want to fight the good fight? Are you partial to moustaches and feathers as signs of authority, instead of huge pauldrons or a huge frog-gut? Are you prepared to fight the thinking man's fight and to be prepared to utilize all the tools in Order's proverbial shed? If so, go get your completely regular sword and shield, find a little armor, put a feather in your hat and stand for inspection! See Impossible Sights and Bang Improbable Chicks! Fight the Unending Hordes of Chaos, and Rebuild the Realms! Die for the Cause! Sigmar Needs You To Join the Freeguild!

The Free People, or more accurately, the Freeguild w/ Friends, is a weird faction in Age of Sigmar. Compromising most of the left-over Empire models that aren't war-machines, holy or magical, the Free People are the exact opposite of most Age of Sigmar armies: Defensive and ranged, in comparison to aggressive and melee-oriented. Not that Free People can't or won't fight in melee (they will, and don't look forward to winning them out the box), but the Free People has easy access to a lot of ranged units that can really do the difference in a battle, especially against opponents who have no ways of protecting themselves against it. Plus, Free People has some really great synergy, which you should totally built around: The Freeguild Guard is phenomenal as a huge, 30 something mob with swords and shields and a little bit of buffs from characters around them, and the Greatsword can really be a good melee elite unit with the right timing. This, of course, gets even better with the addition of the other mortal Order armies like the Collegiate Arcane or the Devoted to Sigmar.

Wargear

While there's gear exclusive to the different units, there's several pieces of wargear common army-wide and have the same effect. To count:

Shields: Army wide, our shields allow us to reroll save rolls of 1, except for Generals who instead add +1 to their save. Helps add some more resilience to your meatshields and makes your Griffon as protected as a Steam Tank.

Banner: Their bonus is the same army wide, and it allows you to pass battleshock tests on a roll of 1 without losing any models. GREAT when you lose 6+ models in a single phase.

Musician: This is when the Free Guild gets fun. Remember the Detachments of the Old Empire? Their descendants do and trigger those effects with their musicians. We have 3 main types:
- Melee infantry (Guard, Greatswords): Lets you attempt a d6 counter-charge to get more units into combat. Really fun for swarming over-reaching enemies. It's also not effected by hold the line since these charged happen in the enemy phase, not your own.
- Ranged Infantry (Crossbowmen, Handgunners): If a ranged unit with musician gets charged you can fire all your guns/crossbows at the unit that charged you BEFORE they get to swing. That's right, we have "Stand and Shoot"! Even better, the shooting unit DOESN'T have to be the one charged, so if you have two ranged units and one is charged both can shoot the charging bastards.
- Light Cavalry (Pistoliers, Outriders): This allow the unit to run, shoot and charge. A godsend because it lets the unit to close in and shoot hell on the enemy or flee a dangerous situation while still being on the offensive.
- Heavy Cavalry (Demigryph Knights): Get 2 extra inches on your charge rolls. Useful.

Warscrolls

Heroes

Freeguild General on Griffon: It's a general, on a Griffon. Oh my lord this is magical. Has access to a Sigmarite Runesword for anti-infantry, a Sigmarite Greathammer (aka Mini-Ghal) for hero and elite killing and the Freeguild Lance for monster killing. Here, the Hammer might actually be the best choice as you can take a shield with any weapon and the Hammer is pretty strong with its high Rend. Since the Griffon itself is actually pretty damn killy, with two high Damage Beak attacks and quite a lot of Fang attacks with 2 Damage, it can really rip into a Manticore or a Terrorgheist who got too close to your lines. Now, the biggest change from the Freeguild General below is, that this guy has a very, very offensive Command Ability, which boost Bravery, charge range and Hit rate, but only to one unit, unfortunately. In addition, you can use the Shield with any weapon, which the General can. You want to kill things? This' the guy.

Freeguild General: Mr. Moustache and quite the leader for a Freeguard army. Despite being a regular human, he still has a 4+ and five Wounds, and some surprisingly great weapons: Sigmarite Weapon and Shield for infantry-mulching, Great Weapon for elite-killing and Freeguild Lance for monster and hero-hunting, give him what he needs to fullfill whatever role you need him to. While he can do a pretty good job in melee, he's still not a duelist, and should be kept safe so he can keep using his Command Ability. Now, this thing is just plain fun, it allows three Freeguild units within 15" to add 1 to their Hit and Wound rolls, but they can't Move or Charge (~~but apparently can run~~ running is not a separate move like in 40k). Put this German mofo in the middle of it all and anchor one hell of a gunline. Be careful to not overlap buffs. Of course you can give him a horsey, ~~but since the Knights have been removed~~ you can still "ally" them to the knights in the legacy list with no issue. If you want to charge though, take the Griffy-Genny up top.

Foot Troops

Freeguild Guard: Your basic infantry. With sword and shield your guys make an amazing anvil (dirt cheap and a 4+ save), but that's not to say other load outs don't have merit. With halberds you get a unit that can mow through skeleton and skaven hordes pretty quickly, and with spears you gain a little bit of reach. Arguably sword and shield are the best loadout, with halberds coming next. Another interesting loadout for them is using militia weapons, which are the same statline as swords in close combat (no parry bonus though), but it also unlocks a 14" ranged attack for the unit. At 20 men in the squad they get +1 to hit, at 30 they get +2, and at 40 models or larger you get 3+ to your hit rolls. Putting a few squads of these in either the Freeguild Regiment or the State Troop detachment and popping hold the line will give you an amazing anvil unit that can dish out the pain (under the right buffs, you can easily get to 2+/3+/-/1).

Freeguild Greatswords: With Oathsworn Honour Guard and Hold the Line! Greatswords have the potential to deal 2 attacks each at 2+ to hit and wound if they stand still. Compared to other Elite infantry like Stormvermin, Bestigors, Wildwood Rangers etc. Greatswords are an absolutely brilliant and powerful unit, even more so with all the buffs your army has going. Also remember that their Save is 4+ without all the ifs and buts that your Guard has to deal with.

Ranged Troops

Freeguild Crossbowmen: With the aid of your General, they're a solid ranged unit to have. If you're looking for some decent 20 inch shots to throw out, consider getting 30 of them so you don't lose the bonus as soon as the first guy dies. If you can't afford the 30 model count, or aren't planning to use a general to buff, then it might be best to pass.

Freeguild Handgunners: Handgunners, at the beginning, seem bad. A sucky save, low bravery and a short-ranged missile weapon that needs a 5+ to hit. Now you look at it's 3+ and it's -1 rend and think: it's not that bad. Then you look at their skills: 20+ models gives +1 to hit and if there's no enemies close them and they didn't move, they add another +1 to hit. Now couple them with an Empire general and State Troop Detachment. Pick 3 units of handgunners and don't space them too much. Enjoy 90 autohits (not in matched play) and nigh ensured damaged. Skeletons will shit bricks.

Freeguild Archers: Can make an extra move after set up, and they get better in high numbers. Their sucky save will make them die in droves, though, but they're pretty decent. A big unit of them with Markus Wulfhart +1 to hit bonus can be a thorn on your opponent's side, and makes for a great defensive and shooty army.

Cavalry

Freeguild Outriders: Decent-ranged guns and a bonus to hit if they stand still, with an impressive number of shots, but in exchange they are quite a bit worse in melee (where you don't want them anyway).

Freeguild Pistoliers: Very short-ranged guns and awful Bravery. They do bring Rend and a lot of attacks, but since you have Demigryphs for smashy, you may want to skip Pistoliers for Outriders.

Demigryph Knights: These monsters can chuck out a ridiculous amount of attacks for what they are and have a total of 4 FUCKING WOUNDS EACH. Not to mention they can move 10" like all Empire cavalry, they can and will charge into a unit and hurt it bad. Good at clearing hordes with the mounts 3 rending attacks each and rider's 2 attacks with either weapon. Personally I would recommend giving them sword and lance as it does 2 damage on the charge and will wound on a 3+ like the halberd but this requires care with who they charge as they will loose effectiveness on the second round of combat. Not to mention the models look awesome as hell. Alas, too expensive points-wise for what they bring in Matched Play.

Battalions

Army Building

At it's core, Freeguild armies are horde armies, and starting with at least 2 20-man guard squads, a general, and some greatswords will give you a good core to expand off from. From there, adding in handgunners or outriders for ranged support, more infantry for some staying power, or adding in some demigryph knights and allies for more punch, it's all a matter of what you want your army to play like. A huge part of making this list effective is stacking buffs and synergies to upgrade your crappy state troops to mustachioed sons of sigmar. Things like the state troop detachement, hold the line, and other buffs that apply to 'free peoples' are almost manditory from a more 'competative' side of things. By themselves: a single guard squad will not do much beyond stall deadlier units or die, but with the right support they can make just about anything think twice.

Allied Armies

Stormcast Eternals Let's be real here. With the Freeguild General's incredible buffs, you have better anvils and better shooting than the Stormcasts can provide with Liberators and Judicators. Thus, if you want these guys, you want Paladins and Dracothian Guard. A couple Retributors can do you some good and a the fact that Dracothian Guard are ridiculously powerful even without buffs makes a couple Concussors a great addition as well.
Ironweld Arsenal: This, right here. The best choice. It gives you your cannons back.
Collegiate Arcane: And this is also great as it gives you your Wizards back. Revel in the utter bullshit of the Celestial Hurricanum or give your Greatswords some Wildform.
Steamhead Duardin ~~Eh. Yeah, Irondrakes may be great, but a nice big buffed block of Handgunners is almost as good and you don't need any faction shuffling for those.~~ Duardin/dispossessed make for great allies for freeguilds. they form better anvils then our state troops, all the while having more sturdy ranged units and good beat-stick characters.
The Empire: Though technically a legacy list, it brings back all the stuff that was lost/passed into other armies. Knights, empire cannons and mortars, and all of the named characters are great additions, as well are the 2 battalions in the list as well.