Freikorps A basic overview

[Dorian]

Hey all this is a cross post from my blog (URL in my sig) but I thought I'd do a basic overview of the Freikorps. It's just an overview of all the forces not a breakdown of each model. Let me know what you all think.

So my preferred Malifaux crew is the Freikorps. I find them to be the space marines of Malifaux. A very forgiving and well rounded army that can do it all, just none of it spectacularly well.

Mobility - Everyone beside the specialist has a wk of 5. Vonschill can gain flight & perform up to 3 wks per turn, also he cannot be prevented from leaving combat with augmented jump. There have been several games where von schill has screwed my opponent because of this. (Deliver message, treasure hunt) Let’s not forget Von schill & Trappers reposition ability. Allows me to toss out damage & move at the same time.

Damage output - While not overwhelming each model can dish out both ranged and melee damage. Trappers are amazing for this. Each one provides a 16" threat range & can overlap each other. I've used two of them to provide first turn kills on models but having each one focus and pop a shot on “What I want dead this turn” With both the attack flip & damage flip receiving + I am usually able to cheat the damage. This allows me to put 6 – 10 damage on a target turn one. If the target has hard to wound or something else that may put me at minus on the damage I will instead take two normal shots & reposition further away. Von Schill himself has excellent damage with his clockwork seeker as well as critical strike or reposition.

Durability – Every freikorp has Armor 1 & immunity from area of effect damage. They mostly have a decent df stat (poor librarian) & while 6 wounds may seem low, remember they are taking all damage at -1. Also the aforementioned Librarian who people seem to hate; the librarian, hands down, is one of my favourite models. You can do damage to my freikorp, but I can discard a ram & heal them right back up. If I have taken a lot of damage I will furious cast to heal them back up. If I have not taken damage yet, there is a spell that gives all friendly Freikorps within 3” extra df (+2?). Thanks to freikoprs armor I do not care if I’m bunched up.

Board control – As stated von schill can move anywhere & become an immediate threat. (Slow to die + soul stone healing makes him obnoxious to kill). Also Trappers with their 16” range can act as a huge deterrent to any opponent. You have to be very fast to catch them as they automatically have a mask in their attack total which will trigger reposition. If you are far away I will focus to increase damage. If you are close I will fire two shots to increase my chances of pushing 6” away from you (More than the average wk distance). So I put two trappers in one quarter of the board & now my opponent is much more reluctant to go there.

The bad – The Freikorps are not particularly good in any one area. They are the jacks of all trades, aces of none. Dedicated CC units will out smack them. Dedicated ranged units will out shoot them. Dedicated mobility units will out maneuver them. This means you have to play less to your strengths and more to your opponent’s weaknesses. So if you plan on playing Freikorps you should at least be familiar with how all the other masters play.

[Katcher]

It is quite true,but I will add a few glimpes :

Libby is a vital model, due to the furious heal. But her abilities are quite overseen - blocking / surging. It can be quite unpleasant.

And yes, Freikorps are universal, but not specialist, so you have to play to the other part.

To add a few bonuses -

Slow to die from Von Schill and Jerky time! Trappers should have some spare Jerky all the time.

Von Schill is a speed freak,especially with Student of Confict. Fly there, fly here, activates Trapper to finish the job / Libby to heal. Useful.

Another interesting thing is thread of flamethrower specialist. He may not be so strong, as the oponent think, but as far as he fear the detonation and so on, I´m pleased to manuevre this around to make some fear.

Freikorps armor is wunderbar, as would propably Von Schill say. Armor, Magic resistance and imunity to all blasts?Nice.It makes Korps very tough

[Sandwich]

Hey all this is a cross post from my blog (URL in my sig) but I thought I'd do a basic overview of the Freikorps. It's just an overview of all the forces not a breakdown of each model. Let me know what you all think.

So my preferred Malifaux crew is the Freikorps. I find them to be the space marines of Malifaux. A very forgiving and well rounded army that can do it all, just none of it spectacularly well.

Mobility - Everyone beside the specialist has a wk of 5. Vonschill can gain flight & perform up to 3 wks per turn, also he cannot be prevented from leaving combat with augmented jump. There have been several games where von schill has screwed my opponent because of this. (Deliver message, treasure hunt) Let’s not forget Von schill & Trappers reposition ability. Allows me to toss out damage & move at the same time.

Damage output - While not overwhelming each model can dish out both ranged and melee damage. Trappers are amazing for this. Each one provides a 16" threat range & can overlap each other. I've used two of them to provide first turn kills on models but having each one focus and pop a shot on “What I want dead this turn” With both the attack flip & damage flip receiving + I am usually able to cheat the damage. This allows me to put 6 – 10 damage on a target turn one. If the target has hard to wound or something else that may put me at minus on the damage I will instead take two normal shots & reposition further away. Von Schill himself has excellent damage with his clockwork seeker as well as critical strike or reposition.

Durability – Every freikorp has Armor 1 & immunity from area of effect damage. They mostly have a decent df stat (poor librarian) & while 6 wounds may seem low, remember they are taking all damage at -1. Also the aforementioned Librarian who people seem to hate; the librarian, hands down, is one of my favourite models. You can do damage to my freikorp, but I can discard a ram & heal them right back up. If I have taken a lot of damage I will furious cast to heal them back up. If I have not taken damage yet, there is a spell that gives all friendly Freikorps within 3” extra df (+2?). Thanks to freikoprs armor I do not care if I’m bunched up.

Board control – As stated von schill can move anywhere & become an immediate threat. (Slow to die + soul stone healing makes him obnoxious to kill). Also Trappers with their 16” range can act as a huge deterrent to any opponent. You have to be very fast to catch them as they automatically have a mask in their attack total which will trigger reposition. If you are far away I will focus to increase damage. If you are close I will fire two shots to increase my chances of pushing 6” away from you (More than the average wk distance). So I put two trappers in one quarter of the board & now my opponent is much more reluctant to go there.

The bad – The Freikorps are not particularly good in any one area. They are the jacks of all trades, aces of none. Dedicated CC units will out smack them. Dedicated ranged units will out shoot them. Dedicated mobility units will out maneuver them. This means you have to play less to your strengths and more to your opponent’s weaknesses. So if you plan on playing Freikorps you should at least be familiar with how all the other masters play.

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Mobility: Aside from Von Schill, the entire Freikorps have standard mobility. 5" Wk is pretty average. Von Schill is completely unstoppable when it comes to movement due completely to (0)Augmented Jump. The Trapper's Reposition trigger is one I seldom ever use, because From The Shadow allows me to place him(them) in a perfect position for the entire game, usually on top of a tall building / high climbable terrain, whereas for Von Schill you're right, Reposition is great when you get it. The rest of your crew is of average mobility, and are slightly bogged down due to the benefits of staying grouped up, though grouping your models together is not a necessity, if you spread far and thin you will find your Librarian worthless as she is unable to (1)Magic Buffer or (1)Healing Energy and will thus be sitting on the sidelines waiting to die to feed your trapper. (If he ever makes it to her corpse.)

Damage Output: Von Schill aside, the crew does average damage. The Specialist has the capability to spread damage quickly across the board, but is only running with a Cb of 5, which is pretty middle of the road when it comes to Cb, so you're usually going to be rocking a or two, and won't be getting moderates or severes as often as some might like. The Freikorpsmenn actually shine in melee when they (2)Flurry because of the above average combat of their knife and Brutal. The Snipers are great for taking annoying Pot Shots but are not at all lethal unless against Constructs or Beasts. Their damage is decent, yes, but with a Cb of 5 you will generally be shooting at a when not targeting Constructs or Beasts and are then usually going to be hitting for weak with no triggers to augment this damage.

Durability: The Freikorps really shine here. For 6 Wd models, they do not die often. You best play against caster crews because you are taking -2 Dg from each spell, and your Librarian can then heal you to full much easier. The ability to completely ignore damage from , , is utterly amazing, as well.

Your crew suffers from unanimously moderate-low Df (Von Schill aside, again.) but make up for it with relatively high Wp in duels in which you are defending.

If you can keep your crew close to your Librarian, you then become an unkillable juggernaut for the remainder of the turn.

Board Control: Sorry to say, but the Freikorps have 0 Board Control. I think you're confusing Board Control with mobility. Trappers are not a big enough threat to cause any of my opponents pause when walking into their LoS, 1-2 Dg is just not that scary.

The Bad: Knowing every master intimately is not a necessity with the Freikorps. When close together, they become the best tank crew in the game. The general strategy used is slow and steady when playing these guys. Moving from one place to the next as a whole makes you not only incredibly menacing, but nigh unkillable.

The crew is very well rounded and are powerful in the defense department, but are lacking when compared to other Henchmen led crews in Mobility(Collodi), Damage output(Lucius/Kaeris), and Board Control(Molly).

[Dorian]

On board control - I don't see the 1-2 dmg from the trappers. I run two and keep them in overlapping fields of fire. I then use a focus strike on them for + on the attack & + on the damage. I find I am usually at -1 on the damage (Winning by 1-5), receiving + from the focus puts me at a straight flip and thus allows me to cheat the damage to moderate or even severe if need be (I may not even need to cheat). Doing this on two trappers puts out 6-10 dmg which IS enough to give people pause about getting too close. True I am spending cards but if it instils a fear in my opponent that will be useful fro the rest of the game I am OK with it.

On mobility - Again you make good points. They are not the most mobile & wk 5 became much more common in Rising Powers but that is not to say they aren’t mobile. Spreading thin is ill advised most of the time but I have broken my Freikorps into 2 groups (Von schill in one & the librarian in the other) to great effect. Reposition on the trappers can be something you rarely use but I use it quite often if just to stay away from opponents who can fly / float. I also use it to recreate a tactics from 40k called "Tau Bouncing". Where I move out from LoS blocking cover, Take a shot, and then reposition back behind it to avoid any retaliation.

On Damage output I did say it wasn't overwhelming. But read the above on board control. It’s not about taking 4 shots between the 2, it’s about taking 2 focussed shots. The only time I would be making normal shots is against hard to wound models as the + from focus is not enough to overcome the -.

Compared to others yes they cannot compare in those specific regions. However when I look at them in a radar graph. The freikorps turn out to be the most well rounded which I feel is very nice.

[Dark Alleycat]

Also,in many board types I have played on,the reposition has allowed me to move out of cover,shoot and then pop into cover,thus drawing my opponent right into range of a Taelor charge.

The Freikorp are a great unit and one I love playing with, you just need to remember to add in a melee beatstick,and possibly a tad more ranged threat. Taelor and convict gunslinger added into a von schill army makes for 35 point list thats hard as nails.

[Sandwich]

The problem with moving out of cover and then back in via reposition means that you cannot focus strike and are therefore inflict minor damage. :[

After a few games with the Convict in a Freikorps list, I can safely say I prefer shelfing him.

Not to say I don't love him in other lists.

[Dark Alleycat]

Well yes,but like everything else with Malifaux,it is dependant upon the situation. Against a serious shooty list,you can use that to annoy the crap out of them by taking potshots that they cant respond to without running around.

As to the convict,why would you drop him? he gives a little bit of control with supressing fire,even if its not used very often. And unlike the Freikorp he can unleash a hell of a lot of firepower in an activation. I have found having him hold back to keep the librarian from being easily charged does wonders as well as using him as a deterrent for part of the board. After Von Schill and Taelor I find him to be the most dangerous model in my list.

[Dark Alleycat]

And on that note,the Librarian's block connection ability when you are able to remove all suits from a model,or the important ones if they only use melee or spells,is absolutely devastating. Mcmourning in the last game I played,was in a bad spot when he lost all the crows on his stats and couldn't do many of his abilities at all.