The State of the Free Folk (Your Thoughts Wanted)

[AutumnLeaves]

Tormund and Val seem to have great synergy. In my next game I may have to break out Mance, mainly due to my opponents new fondness of placing Corpse Piles as starting terrain. The boost to leadership from Mance will really help.

1.5 introduced optional rules for randomized terrain selection - it's in the Game Modes document. I've found it really helps add a bit of variety to the terrain selection, rather than just seeing Corpse Pile, Weirwood and Palisade spam.

 

[Oakwolf]

I highly encourage players to use the random terrain selection as stated above...it helps avoid the same terrain choices over and over (Boltons vs anything would end up with corpse piles and weirdwood trees)

 

[stonehorse]

https://www.cmon.com/news/visions-in-the-flames-monsters-beyond-the-wall

Savage Giants are now very tempting. Think this will change how people play against them, no more just ignoring them.

 

[Gallahad]

This does make taking a Savage Giant very tempting.
I just hope they managed to find a good balance where we don't start seeing 4-5 giant lists again.

 

[Oakwolf]

Personally, i don't mind the 4-5 giant lists as long as it provide a fun challenge. Besides, players should be able to field whatever they want if they find it cool. Ideally, -every- list should be fun and challenging. So far they are good with their 1.5+ changes in that direction.

 

[Gallahad]

My only concern is that multiple Savage Giant lists seem like a setup that takes a low skill floor to implement, but a high skill floor to know how to counter, which is the mix that puts new people off playing the game.

 

[Codfather]

My only concern is that multiple Savage Giant lists seem like a setup that takes a low skill floor to implement, but a high skill floor to know how to counter, which is the mix that puts new people off playing the game.

The 7pts means if you want any ncus in your list you can max take 4 giants, and if you do take 4 giants, there's also no way to get 3 ncus. It's possible it may be as you said, maybe I'll give it a try this weekend on our game day. 4 giants, tormund in cavedwellers or bone followers, 2 ncus. Could be decent

 

[AlxRaven]

The 7pts means if you want any ncus in your list you can max take 4 giants, and if you do take 4 giants, there's also no way to get 3 ncus. It's possible it may be as you said, maybe I'll give it a try this weekend on our game day. 4 giants, tormund in cavedwellers or bone followers, 2 ncus. Could be decent

If it helps, there’s a guy in the “Counter your Meta” thread that’s struggling against a list very similar to this. And that’s before they got this tweak.

 

[Wakeangel]

Funny how the giants have had I bit of a buff in my case anyway.my 13 year old son has been learning the game hes been using my baratheons and I've been playing free folk with 1 giant in my list of 35pts .In all 4 games we've played hes had trouble getting rid of my giant by that I mean his hits take my giant to his last wound then I whack him back and have been getting the max possible wounds at that point so hes sees the giant as being OP I've tried to explain that the dice have been most kind to me and that's not the case at all but when I told him about the stat change he says I can't use my giant anymore hahahahahaha.

Anyway more than happy with the stat increase as I did think the giant with flat hits was a bit weak with out wounds.

 

[AutumnLeaves]

The trick is not letting the Giant hit you when it's fully damaged.
If you can force the giant to activate first, or negate it's attack (by blanking it's card, or reduce it's attack dice) it's a lot easier to two-hit-kill it.

Alternatively, send in a moderately sacrificial unit to hurt the Giant and then absorb the counter-attack, so that another unit (or the same unit, given the right abilities and cards) can finish off the Giant later, such as the start of the next round.
Hopefully you can then heal up the unit, but if you're piece-trading it's still a win to swap a Giant for a cheaper, less valuable unit.

 

[Codfather]

Funny how the giants have had I bit of a buff in my case anyway.my 13 year old son has been learning the game hes been using my baratheons and I've been playing free folk with 1 giant in my list of 35pts .In all 4 games we've played hes had trouble getting rid of my giant by that I mean his hits take my giant to his last wound then I whack him back and have been getting the max possible wounds at that point so hes sees the giant as being OP I've tried to explain that the dice have been most kind to me and that's not the case at all but when I told him about the stat change he says I can't use my giant anymore hahahahahaha.

Anyway more than happy with the stat increase as I did think the giant with flat hits was a bit weak with out wounds.

Trick to dealing with giants is similar to dealing with Poor fellows. You need to be able to double tap it without it activating in between. Fair amount of the time, 2 hits will kill either unit

 

[Wakeangel]

Yes definitely if not the double tap they tend to fall when charged with sundering and vicious and facing a hefty dice roll

 

[Mr. Badger]

What do you Guys think of the free folk trappers? Are they worth bringing? Why not take spearwifes instead?

 

[Oakwolf]

What do you Guys think of the free folk trappers? Are they worth bringing? Why not take spearwifes instead?

One use I've found is to "soften up" ranks for the Lord of Bones' tactic cards.

 

[Gallahad]

What do you Guys think of the free folk trappers? Are they worth bringing? Why not take spearwifes instead?

I think trappers are absolute garbage. You might get to use traps 2-3 times a game for a whopping 4-6 wounds. Their short range bows are terrible.
For one more point you can get Followers of Bone! If they were three points I could see them being useful bunkers for some NCU or something.. But 4 points?

 

[Wakeangel]

Not had much success with the trappers I usually use them as raiders as I only own 3 units lol ya never know they may get some love from the current freefolk updates think they need it

If they did what would you guys like to see.? Maybe when traps are activated you would get a hit dice per model in the unit hitting on 5s make the opponent more weary of getting within long of you

 

[Mr. Badger]

Am i the only one that finds many of the "cool" commanders to be bad? I want to play rattleshirt or mance commander but they seem bad compared to harma and weeper... Theirs tactic cards seems weak and their attachments/ncu version seems so much better than the commander versions..

 

[Oakwolf]

I take trappers when i need support crew rather than front line units.

@Mr. Badger: you're not alone, Mance -really- needs help in commander form. Rattleshirt well, he got help some bits but i wonder if that's enough.

Rattleshirt really hates all-cavalry armies, as it makes his tactic cards very hard to pull off with any reliability. That's also why i put trappers in his unit. Trappers are also a good place to put the Weeper as attachment, as his role is mainly to force panic checks from behind, and the traps have the same range.

 

[Mr. Badger]

Well said oakwolf! I should put some trappers in My rattleshirt lists.
What do you think of New mance tho?

 

[Wakeangel]

Yeah good point oakwolf like you style give that one a go mate.