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So!

I've played a game of AoS lately and the Liberators turned out to be quite unimpressive when facing bretonnian Grail Knights. 2x 4+/3+/rend 0 seemed to not be able to scratch them too well. But I can assume that other regular infantry wouldn't be much better agaisnt them with their 3+ save, fair enough.

And now I saw the rules for Judicators and I can't help but wonder... why take Liberators at all when those are available? You lose the crappy shield, meh special rule and one melee attack (identical stats) while gaining a much better shooting attack 3+/3+/rend1 with 20" range.

Now that you can shoot into melee (normally with regular rules, more than 3" away from your units with tournament comp) I can only see Liberators as tarpits that are there to tie enemies up as Judicators nail them with ballista bolt-sized arrows or until your hero or special units charge them.

What are your thoughts, guys?

Liberators are, for all intents and purposes, your expendable units...but man are they mean against other "regular" infantry. Grail Knights are, essentially, the Bretonnian equivalent of the Stormcast "Retributor" unit.

Depending upon how you equip the Liberators they can be damn near unmovable tar pits while actually dealing some damage. They also are 2 Wounds each, with rerolling 1's for Saves if they have Sigmarite Shields.

A pair of 10 man units of Liberators with Warhammers/Sigmarite Shields and Grandhammers within the unit can be a nasty surprise--especially if you keep a unit of 10 Warblades/Sigmarite Shields(or paired Warblades) with a pair of Grandblades within 3" so they can pile into a combat.

Although they are essentially your basic troops they are pretty effective against bigger targets, a group of 5 of them managed to knock an engine of the gods down to pretty much dead in 2 rounds of combat. The bonus to hit for creatures with 5 or more wounds plus the double handed weapons with 2 damage and rend are great, always give them to your prime to gain the extra attack.

I'm pondering losing the shields and going duel wield for mine to get the to hit rerolls too