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When AoS first dropped (and everyone lost their minds) I picked up a bunch of empire stuff for dirt cheap from people, but other than a few early games haven't played much of it. The problem is that there was no points system, and only a couple people I knew owned fantasy stuff, so we kind of just kept playing 40k. It's been a good while later and I'm back from a break in gaming and here it turns out a ton of people have started playing it at my store (well, I think we're up to a dozen, which for where I live isn't bad). I'm set to play someone this weekend and wasn't sure what I should expect from it. I'll be up against orks, I think mostly ironjawz, for this first game, and from what I understand there's mostly chaos/stormcast players because of the starter set but at least 1 dwarf and a couple elf players, and my buddy with the orks also has vampire counts. Think I'm the only free people guy in the area.

Looking over the rules some of the stuff I have seems pretty powerful, like helstorms and tanks and handgunners, is that actually the case? 2+ 2+ on guns (20-man, general, and not moved) seems pretty crazy, is that my wombo-combo cheese that I should avoid? Or are there other crazy things like that?

Just looking for some advice for a first game.

Freeps are middle ground IMO, but if you don't use them right they will seem very weak. They are a very synergy driven army, and their gun lines in particular are quite powerful. I know Bottle runs a freep army so perhaps he can pop in with some advice.

Ninth pretty much hit the nail on the head, though I would add that Free Peoples suffer from some of the same issues as Slaves to Darkness in that they haven't received a full battletome yet and are in a sort of limbo right now. If used well, they can be effective, but it's sometime hard to see how GW envisions their playstyle.