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Giants, cannibals, hunters and skinchangers make up only a fraction of the varied tribes of the far north. Collectively known as the free folk, known to greater westeros as 'wildlings' their armies bolster unusual arms and their commanders irregular tactics. The free folk set brings this huge cohort of ramshackle warriors into the game of a Song of Ice and Fire in a brilliant starter set.
What's New:
The free folk starter set brings with it the free folk faction, 3 new units: free folk raiders, savage giants and free folk trappers - all very thematic to the setting. Raiders are weak on their own, but when in large numbers they can be overwhelming. They gain attack bonuses when ganging up on units with the raid leader attachment, truly smothering the enemy into submission.
Giants can fend off entire armies with their superior armour and health characteristics, allowing them to hold objectives for longer than footmen. As they take damage they become more powerful, making them a tough adversary to move.
The trappers, although fragile can cause problems for advancing unit by placing hidden traps on the field, causing damage and resisting opposing units movement. Also introduced are four characters well known from the books.
Mance rayder acts as the stalwart commander, inspiring his disorganised army.
Tormund giantsbane uses the momentum of defeating units to overrun surviving enemies.
Lady val promotes movement of units from the tactics board and Craster provides reinforcements and supplies.
Gameplay:
The free folk are an incredibly fun faction to play, being an extremely aggressive horde army at its center. The weakness of the standard free folk infantry is complimented by the strength and resilience of the giants, allowing for lots of diversity throughout your force and makes for some interesting strategies. They hold up very well against less armoured units (Greyjoys) and can capture objectives before slower armies (Baratheons), however will fall quickly if a few heavy hits land, and are especially vulnerable to panic tests. The faction is extremely thematic to the books and can cause carnage when given the right orders. The only drawback is that their is no unit strong enough to protect your commander, so often they will sit in the back with the trappers or die quickly in a rushing raider unit and so your first purchase after this set may be a stronger infantry unit such as in the Thenn Warriors expansion.
Components:
The free folk starter set comes with 5 units: two free folk raider units, two savage giant units and one free folk trapper unit. It also contains Mance Rayder and Tormund Giantsbane as characters or commanders as well as Craster and Lady Val NCU's. The set also comes with two raid leader attachments, two monster unit trays and three infantry unit trays. Along with miniatures, the set further includes enough to play a whole game of a Song of Ice and Fire, with plenty of tokens, unit and objective cards, a faction specific tactics deck, rulebook, measuring ruler, cardboard terrain and a tactics board.
Replayability: There is enough in this set to play with a few variations of 30 point (smaller) lists - assuming that your opponent has a separate force - and can scrape together one 40 point (standard) army list for Tormund and Mance Rayder commanders. The issue is that the points cost of the raiders - the bread and butter unit of the faction - are so low that you are encouraged to buy more than what other starter sets do, however the raider expansions are hard to come by nowadays and getting two starter sets is better recommended.
Conclusion:
In isolation, the free folk starter set is a must have for any Song of Ice and Fire players who want to play as the forces from the far North, coming with enough components to play as many smaller games against any other army and serves as a great introduction to the faction. The units and characters included feel varied and powerful in their respective areas and perform exactly as described in the books. If you are wanting to expand the scope of your games, buying a few more infantry units for the free folk is essential as the box comes with a limited amount for what the armies playstyle seems to expect of them. Good starting points could be:
Free folk raiders - this unit is the key to the free folk so it would be a no brainer to pick up one or two more of these, however they can be hard to find for a reasonable price, so perhaps purchasing another starter set would be better value.
Thenn warriors - this unit provides strength and protection to leaders in your army as well as a reliable offence, allowing you to get more use out of commanders or attachments.
Other than this, for the amount included in the box this is an extremely low proved investment into the game.
