Weekly Waffle #394 – Winged Terror of the Pitch
27th September 2025
This week’s weekly waffle sees me back to the normal Saturday schedule and I’m picking up where I left off. With more Guild Ball. The mojo is high at the moment and that is making it really fun to both paint and to come up with these background pieces as well.
I’ve been working on Frelsi with the idea being to use the same colours as I’ve used for the team. Or more accurately make it look like the team colours are based on Frelsi. It’s not the best rendition of feathers you will ever see but I’m really happy with how it looks. The only thing that has me a little worried is how precarious it looks on the base. Swooping down to take a perch on a branch to survey the field.
But what of you guys think.
You can see more Guild Ball miniatures at my gallery here
When we start to look at how Frelsi fits into the game you have to remember that every so often in Guild Ball, you stumble across a character that makes you stop, scratch your head, and mutter, “Hang on a second, what is this?” Most players expect their team rosters to be full of burly thugs with fists like anvils, nimble strikers who glide across the turf like greased lightning, or scheming captains who treat the ball more like a chess piece than a sporting object. And then along comes Frelsi, a falcon. Yes, you read that right. Not a person with a bird. Not a druid who can shapeshift into a bird. Just… a bird. A proper, feathery, talon-swinging, beady-eyed falcon that has no business being this much of a menace on the Guild Ball pitch.
But here’s the thing, in both the story and the mechanics of the game, Frelsi isn’t just some flavourful mascot hanging around in the background. Frelsi is the Falconers. The team might technically be a splinter sect of the Hunters’ Guild, led by the merciless captain Devana, but it’s the raptor that gives them their identity. Without Frelsi, the Falconers are just another bunch of angry archers with bad tempers and sharper talons. With Frelsi, they’re a terrifying whirlwind of wings, claws, and diving strikes. Today’s Weekly Waffle takes a long swoop, pun fully intended, at the Falconers’ feathered star. Who Frelsi is, what role it plays in the Falconers’ lore, and why you absolutely cannot underestimate this bird on the pitch.
In the grim world of Guild Ball, mascots aren’t just marketing fluff or ornamental pets, they’re vital extensions of their teams. Some are battle-trained beasts, like the Butchers’ pig Princess or the Brewers’ lovable Stave, dodging cat Scum. Others are mystical creatures, bound by arcane forces. And then there’s Frelsi, whose backstory is a mix of reverence and raw savagery.
The Falconers Guild is essentially the Hunters’ Guild with the gloves off. Where the Hunters play the long game, trapping, bleeding, and punishing opponents with attrition, the Falconers favour spectacle. They exist to strike fast, cut deep, and leave their enemies reeling under a barrage of winged assaults. Devana, their captain, is already a figure of myth and fear, but she’s never without her companion Frelsi. To the Falconers, Frelsi isn’t a pet but a symbol of freedom, wildness, and death from above. The bird is more than a mascot; it’s an avatar of their philosophy.
The name “Frelsi” itself means freedom in Old Norse, which is a neat touch of world-building. But in practice, the Falconers’ freedom is bought through blood. Frelsi is trained not just to circle and scout, but to dive into the fray, blinding, clawing, and battering the enemy with bone-splintering strikes. In the stories, opponents often describe hearing the rush of wings overhead a split-second before Frelsi strikes, if they hear anything at all. For the Falconers, Frelsi represents the perfect weapon: untouchable in the skies, unyielding in the attack, and entirely merciless once unleashed.
Alright, fluff aside, let’s talk numbers. Because while it’s fun to wax lyrical about a bird of prey dive-bombing some poor Brewer in the narrative, the real joy of Frelsi comes in the tabletop tactics.
At first glance, Frelsi looks like your standard mascot profile: low health compared to proper players, modest stats, and not much in the way of kicking the ball. But to dismiss the falcon as “just another mascot” is a rookie mistake. The Falconers are built around Frelsi. Where most mascots are useful support pieces, handing out buffs, distracting enemies, or soaking up attention, Frelsi is the lynchpin of the team’s play style.
Frelsi has some key abilities that make her stand out. The bread and butte of the is Eye Spy which is central to the Falconer’s game plan. She can mark an enemy model, effectively painting a giant “hit me!” sign over their head. Once marked, the rest of the Falconers pile in with increased accuracy, ensuring their arrows, claws, and javelins land with lethal precision. In gameplay terms, Eye Spy makes the Falconers frighteningly efficient at focusing down priority targets. If you want to delete an enemy striker before they score, Frelsi’s your enabler.
Then we have Harrier which is the Falconers’ signature mechanic, and Frelsi delivers it on a silver platter. Harriers are special AoE templates that act like hunting grounds, lowering the enemy’s defences while boosting Falconer attacks. Frelsi’s ability to drop these zones is huge—every time the bird sets up a Harrier, the rest of the team gets sharper claws, deeper cuts, and better odds. It turns the pitch into a hunting field, with Frelsi dictating where the prey can and can’t afford to stand
Being a falcon with Arial Mobility has its perks. Frelsi’s movement is absurd for a mascot, zipping around the pitch with ease and rarely getting bogged down in scrums. That mobility makes the bird not only a harassment tool but also a reliable way to reposition for setting up Harriers in exactly the right place
So what does all that mean in practice? Frelsi is the enabler. While Devana might be the Falconers’ spear tip, Frelsi is the hand aiming the spear. The bird’s job is to mark targets, set up Harrier zones, and generally dictate the flow of combat. If the Falconers want to delete a model in one turn (and believe me, they often do), it usually starts with Frelsi swooping in, marking the target, and laying down a Harrier.
This makes Frelsi both indispensable and a bit of a liability. Opponents who know the Falconers’ playstyle will quickly learn that taking Frelsi out of the game severely hampers their killing power. On paper, Frelsi isn’t hard to squash—low health and mascot-tier defences mean that if a Butcher or Mason catches the bird, feathers will fly. But that forces your opponent to make a choice: spend valuable actions and positioning to swat a bird, or let Frelsi circle overhead, marking and harrying at will. Both choices are unpleasant, which is exactly what makes Frelsi so powerful.
From a tactical perspective, fielding Frelsi well is about timing and patience. You don’t just throw the falcon into the thick of things; you position it carefully, swooping in at the right moment to maximise Eye Spy and Harrier placement. Good Falconer coaches use Frelsi almost like a scalpel—precise, deadly, and utterly ruthless.
When facing Frelsi, on the other hand, you’ve got to weigh risk versus reward. Do you burn resources trying to kill the mascot, knowing the Falconers thrive on that kind of distraction? Or do you grit your teeth and play through the Harriers, praying you can weather the storm of dice bonuses? The best counter play often involves disrupting Frelsi’s positioning, pushing the bird out of range, forcing it to waste activations repositioning, or pinning it down with control effects. Because if Frelsi gets to act freely, the Falconers’ damage output skyrockets.
What makes Frelsi such a fascinating character is how it blurs the line between mascot and core player. Most mascots are cute little sideshows, fun to use, occasionally handy, but rarely game-defining. Frelsi is the opposite. It’s the cornerstone of the Falconers’ identity, both narratively and mechanically. Without Frelsi, the Falconers lose their hunting theme, their surgical focus, and frankly, their soul.
And let’s be honest, there’s something delightfully absurd about it. You’re playing a game where burly men and women smash each other across a muddy pitch with chains, cleavers, and massive wooden kegs, and then this tiny falcon flaps in and completely dictates the flow of battle. It’s peak Guild Ball: brutal, bizarre, and brilliant.
Frelsi is one of those characters that embodies what makes Guild Ball such a unique game. It’s not just another fighter or striker; it’s a bird that completely reshapes how its team operates. The Falconers live and die by their winged mascot, and the game’s lore makes that relationship feel weighty and real. On the pitch, Frelsi is the difference between the Falconers being a middling offshoot guild and a terrifying apex predator.
So next time you see that little falcon model perched on the edge of the pitch, don’t laugh it off. Respect the bird. Because if you don’t, you’ll soon be staring at a Harrier marker under your star striker, your dice rolls betraying you, and Devana grinning from across the table.
As the Falconers themselves might say: the prey never sees the killing blow until the shadow passes overhead. And that shadow? Nine times out of ten, it’s Frelsi.
That’s all I have for you this week but there will be more Guild Ball next week. I’m really enjoying putting these weekly waffles together, couple that with enjoying my hobby time and that is me sitting in a good hobby space.
I hope everything you have planned for the week ahead goes well, that you all keep safe and I really look forward to seeing back here for more of the same next week.
