FREELANCE KNIGHT
Young, charismatic and strong of limb, freelance knights are renowned warriors, either noblemen with coffers to fill, or members of the Knightly Orders of the Empire, or even a Brettonian Knight, engaged in some quest.
Freelance Knights are dashing and clever individuals, easily capable of freeing the village from the shadow of a monster before returning to wed the burgomiesters daughter. In battle Freelance Knights fight with an uncanny accuracy and abstenance of injury reminicant of the heroes of old, their code of honour winning the respect of their brothers-in-arms.
Occassionally the quest of a Freelance Knight and the objectives of a Mercenary General may coincide, and the Knight may fight alongside the Dogs of War (although their Vows would never allow them to be payed for it...)
M WS BS S T W I A Ld
Freelance Knight 4 5 3 4 4 2 5 3 8
Warhorse 8 3 - 3 3 1 3 1 5
Points: 95 Points Each
Unit Size: 1+ Freelance Knight
Equipment: Lance, Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour and a Shield. Rides a Barded Warhorse
Special Rules: Chivalry
For Hire!:
-A unit of Freelance Knights may be taken as a Special Choice in a Dogs Of War army.
-A unit of Freelance Knights may be taken as a Rare Choice in an Empire, Brettonian, Dwarves, High Elves or Wood Elves army. This is the exception to the rule that Brettonians may not take Dogs of War.
Chivalry:
The Freelances Knight lives and fights by a strict code of martial honour, lending them a distinctive fighting style.
The Freelance Knights have a 5+ Ward Save and may reroll all failed To Hit rolls on the turn they charge. Any Freelance Knight may issue and accept challenges just like a Character.
So what do you think?
I don't see why this would ever be taken, you basically get one additional character by sacrificing a special/rare slot, and he wouldn't be that great either, probably be shot down or break in combat since he goes by himself. You are better off with just a captasus, I think.
Any advice on how to improve him then? I could make him Unbreakable and add +2 to his Combat Resolution for +25 points, would that help, or is there a better way to do this?
Honestly, I don't think that would be a good idea. The whole premise of a character, which is neither takes a character slot or is a RoR as a special choice makes little point. Freelancer Knights are basically any knight that becomes a merc. You could either just use the rules for Bretonnian questing knights to have them as an elite knight unit, or use a normal merc captain with the fluff and items that you are describing. Ofc, seeing as we have practically no items to choose from, that might prove a bit troublesome.
you could make an unit of em
On your suggestion, I have revised the rules so that they are now a unit, thoughts?
Whilst the idea is nice, the concept is flawed in that he will be a one model unit that cannot join others, and will be killed quickly, whilst taking up a special or rare slot that can be filled with other units that are of much more use to the army overall.
His base stats are basically those of a captain (the difference in BS is irrelevant in this case) - 50 +10 (warhorse) +4 (barding) +4 (HA) +4 (lance) +2 (shield) = 74.
5+ ward save normally costs 20pts to 35 pts and I can't think of an equivilent item for the reroll to hit, but clearly, he is undercosted as he stands, and adding more to him would not help the fact that he is an easy kill for your opponent, unlikely to get into cc on his own, or do a great deal if he does so.
I think you would do better reconsidering him as the leader of a unit of knights, with Volands stats perhaps, or your captain who can join a unit of heavy cavalry, and build him accordingly.
A lone mounted character/unit on just a warhorse is never a good idea in this game - unless the mount is upgraded - as advised, pegasus etc, but, even then, I doubt he would work well for you in a special slot when you need more troops (even more likely if the rumours for 8th edition are correct) and he can be shot down very easily.
just make a unit freelanceknight with 1or2 attacks, champ. 3 attack and able to do lanceform., they will kick some ass
Changed it to a more RoR form:
M WS BS S T W I A Ld
Freelance Kight Champion 4 5 3 4 4 2 4 3 8
Freelance Knight 4 4 3 4 4 1 3 1 8
Warhorse 8 3 - 3 3 1 3 1 5
Points:240 Points
Unit Size: 1 Freelance Knight Champion and 4 Freelance Knight, including a Standard Bearer and a Musician. The unit may include additional Freelance Knights for +35 Points Each
Equipment: The entire unit is armed with Lances, Shields Hand Weapons and Heavy armour, and ride Barded Warhorses.
Special Rules:Chivalry
For Hire!:
-A unit of Freelance Knights may be taken as a Special Choice in a Dogs Of War army.
-A unit of Freelance Knights may be taken as a Rare Choice in an Empire, Brettonian, Dwarves, High Elves or Wood Elves army. This is the exception to the rule that Brettonians may not take Dogs of War.
Chivalry:
The unit may reroll failed to hit rolls on the turn they charge, and on any round of combat against monsters. The Freelance Knight Champion has a 5+ Ward Save and may issue and accept challenges.
OPTIONAL RULES:
-Some units of Freelance Knights undergo intense training called 'TheBorderPrincessPrince Method'. Units that have undergone this training may use the Lance Formation rule found in Warhammer Armies: Brettonia for +5 points per model.
Thoughts?
lance formation?
In the Brettonian Book, units of knights can fight in a wedge called the 'lance formation', which gives them certain combat benifits, like allowing more models to make attacks, ect.
yeah i like it!
lance formation is that all units in the flank may attack, so a unit of 9 knights of the realm with 3 wide has 7 knights that may attack
Thanks for the support!
I didn't put the Lance Formation directly into the unit because that would be too Bretonnian, so I hope the training method is an acceptable alternative for you.
Looks much better!
However, I think it is still undercosted.
Dogs of War Heavy Cavalry are 21 pts inc. barding, HA, HW, lance and shield, giving 105.
Champ, Musician and Std Bearer are 15 pts each, giving a further 45, making the total 150.
However, their stats (below) are much lower than those you are using:
Champ:4 4 3 3 3 1 3 2 8
Knight: 4 4 3 3 3 1 3 1 8
So, probably best to compare with Volands Venators.
Voland and 4 knights come to 195pts with roughly comparable stats but without the extras - lance formation, reroll hits and 5+ ward save for the champ.
Bret KoTR are 24 pts, so, assuming thedifference against our base heavy cavalry covers the lance formation (3 pts seems low but its a start!), this gives 15 pts, which, on Volands, puts them up to 210.
Add 20 pts for Virtue of Purity which gives you the 5+ward save, and we reach 230.
Virtue of the Joust gives a reroll to hit when charging and using lance (not HW), and costs 25 pts just for one model.
If we are generous, and use this for the unit overall, we come to 255 pts.
Seems high, but Dogs of War units are never cheap, and you are giving them a lot of toys that have got to be paid for if they are not going to be unbalanced for their cost.
Your original costing would not cover a basic Dogs of War heavy cavalry unit with the add-ons which I think would come out well in excess of 200 pts on the lower stats!
An expensive unit, but can have it's uses!
look, dogs of war are underpower, so a undercost unit like this could make up for it
I agree with both the BorderPrincessPrince and Seleucus, so I am editing the previous Knights post to take this into account.
Compramise time!
EDIT: Changes made, all models gone up by 10 points, and an extra +15 points on the unit as a base.
Good compromise there.
Now a nice unit to use at a fair price.
Probably too expensive to use in armies below 2000pts, but a good hard hitter in a larger army that could compliment a balanced force.
Why thank you
.
I agree, although the same could be said about a good few Dogs of War units.