40K: Freeblades – Show Your Quality, Lay Down Your Burdens
One of the most exciting things about the Imperial Knights Codex is the section on Freeblades. With their qualities and burdens, you can build your own special character and then sit them in the throne mechanicum of a massive Knight. Come take a look at their rules.
Freeblades are legendary warrior who’ve fought their way across the Imperium. They’re also a fantastic way for you to build your own special character, piloting a customizable Imperial Knight, and take to the tabletop with a hero or tragic figure generated by you. Or y’know, random rolls of the dice–FOR MAXIMUM GALLANTRY as they say. Today we’re going to take a look at their rules, we’ve already seen a couple, Peerless Warrior and Indomitable…
Now here’s a look at the rest. That’s right, there’s a d6 table, and you can either roll two or pick one to generate a special character for your Freeblade. There are a few that are quite good.
There’s also Legendary Hero which gives you a once per battle-round re-roll of a single hit, wound, damage, charge, or saving throw roll. Of all of these, I’m not sure which one would be the best to pick–perhaps the Objective Secured one or Peerless Warrior? But neither seem as amazing as, say, the C’tan Quality that lets you use two Powers of the C’Tan.
Seriously why would you chance not having that?
But speaking of chance–here’s the other end of that sword. You also have Burdens, which you can either pick two or roll for one. That’s a tough decision, because some of the Burdens are pretty crippling. They’re not always in effect–you make a leadership check, and if you’ve been Exiled in Shame (a burden) you subtract 1, but if you fail your check, your Burden is in effect that round. And they’re all pretty difficult, though some are easier to deal with than others. Here are the two we’d seen previously.
And here are the others.
There’s also Obsessed With Vengeance which limits your targeting options: while the Burden applies, your Freeblade can only target the closest visible enemy units in the Shooting phase and can only charge the nearest enemy unit in the Charge Phase. Now, how this interacts with the Impetuous Nature one is beyond me. If you can only Charge the Closest enemy unit, maybe you have to declare a charge on everything, but can only actually go after the closest one?
Admittedly that’s probably what you’d do anyway. But, depending on your Burdens that can be pretty crippling. Weary Machine spirit in particular seems like it would take a Knight out of commission. Impetuous Nature means you can get in a lot of trouble come Overwatch time, but, boy is it fun and flavorful. And it does mean you have your option of who you want to charge.
At any rate, Freeblades can also be your Warlord (and take traits) as well as be equipped with relics so you can create a truly customized Knight. I rolled one up earlier and got Last of their Line and Peerless Warrior (+1 Weapon Skill), and Exiled in Shame. For a relic I decided to take the Endless Fury Gatling Cannon (hit rolls of 6 count as 2 hits), and for a Warlord trait I took Iron Bulwark, for a 4+ Invulnerable save vs. ranged attacks. And that’s just one example kind of randomly thrown together.
What kind of Freeblade champion will YOU build?
