Editing Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Bretonnia (section)

==Tactics==

* '''Prayer: Using Religion to Smash Face''' - Pretty much you should be praying to the Lady every single battle. Yes this does give your opponent a significant advantage but remember that many players who play defensive armies would rather you go first. The Lady's Blessing gives you some major buffs to units that are already pretty good. Those Knights of the Realms now get a ward save, meaning your basic Knight unit, the most common unit in your army, is now harder to kill. Losing the blessing sucks but its good while you do have it, and because the conditions for losing it aren't exactly signs of an impending victory you shouldn't get worked up if you do lose it.

*'''Dysentery, or the power of the lowborn:''' Many Bretonnian players ignore the peasant units (other than the trebuchet) and to be fair it's not hard to see why: they are slow moving units in a fast moving and generally offensive army, made all the worse by the fact that their leadership is miserable if they are away from the knights. Unlike the shinier nobles, they also die to a swift breeze and deal low damage. However, each of them (with the exception of Mounted Yeomen) can do something that no other unit in your army can. The role of men at arms and pilgrims was already discussed: they are the only units in your army that can die without you caring. Sometimes the best way to deal with some units is simply to send these peasants their way: a horde of men at arms with the prayer icon is more effective than the pilgrims but will suffer without a knight nearby, while the latter are more independent and start with the blessing (and stubborn to replace the steadfast). Archers fill a completely different role. While they are still expendable, they are even squishier than the other two and their higher price (compared to men at arms) means they should not be used the same way unless absolutely necessary (but DO charge a unit that is threatening your knights if you can get away with it). Besides the already mentioned distraction and light ranged damage, there are two things archers can do: they can help you in the deployment, and they can scare your opponent. Now, starting with the latter as it apparently makes no sense: who would be afraid of such weak ranged units? Well let's say you have then fire against a dwarven warmachine crew. Statistically speaking, they will deal very little actual damage, but the warmachine is expensive, and the dwarven player does not want to risk losing an expensive unit to a few lucky shots: you've forced your opponent to deal with a throwaway unit, and you've gained an advantage. Using bowmen against expensive units that are relatively squishy is a good bet. The other use for bowmen is to take them in 10 men units, since unlike men at arms they can still do their job in low numbers. Place them first during the deployment: your opponent will have to place at least a few of units vital to his strategy and, since you are deploying your knights after them, you can place your own important units to counter them. So, while your peasants are not vital to your army and you can play Bretonnia without them, they offer you new tactical options and are far from useless. As always, play your army your way, but don't shut your eyes to potential opportunities.

*'''Using the Lance:''' The lance is essentially unique amongst warhammer formations and most of your hammer units need to form it in order to be effective. Minimum viable size for a Bretonnian Lance Formation is usually 9 or so (even Grail Knights are liable to get hammered in lower unit sizes) Here are a few tips about using it:
** '''Mind the Flanks:''' The usual minimum viable size for a Bretonnian Knight unit is 9 guys in 3 ranks of 3. A Cavalry model has a flank as long as 2.5 to 2 and 2/3rds the size of a usual infantry unit, meaning a 3 by 3 unit has a flank the length of a unit of 7 to 8 ranks (for context, instead of 9 models, they would have a minimum of 35-40 models). What does this mean? You are ABSURDLY vulnerable on the flanks. A unit that gets pinned doesn't get lance formation, is easy to break it's ranks and will generally start to take casualties REALLY quickly. So you need to watch the fuck out on the flanks. Pegasus Knights on the flanks are great at discouraging small units but will crumble in the face of dedicated combat units above a certain size and strength (20 man units of High Elf special units, for example, will fuck your shit up). This problem can largely be avoided by playing a multiple small unit army, since knights are surprisingly effective tarpit and a lance of 9 is not that expensive.
** '''Minimum Frontage:''' The Lance Formation is only 3 guys wide which, aside from compounding the above problem, gives you reallllly small area you can draw line of sight in. This only comes into play with fast moving MSU armies (Elves mostly) but it can cause issues. Seeing you set up a next turn charge could cause a unit to go marching out of your Line of Sight and you wheeling to try and get them back in could screw up your battle line or leave you open to flank charges. A couple ways to avoid this is to stay far off (the farther you are away, the larger your line of sight) and to not be too proud to take a charge you're not as fond of. Unless it's not a fight you can win, taking the charge you want less is better than losing the unit wheeling around too much.
** '''Lance Size:''' Most people prefer lances 9 men strong. Smaller lances generally can't beat anything (ranged units aside) on the charge and their only possible use would be to tarpit things with the knight's 2+ armour, a job that is best reserved for the peasants. Bigger lances have a few advantages. The first is the ease with which they break steadfast: a 15 men (including heroes if you want) lance will generally remove steadfast from nearly every elite unit that costs the same as them. They can also lose a few models without losing their efficiency and have a good synergy with items like the mane of the purebreed and the ruby goblet. The problem is that you will have fewer units, which means that you really have to make the most of the charge, trebuchets and archers to rout the charged unit on round 1 of combat, or you will be flanked and destroyed.

*'''Dealing with Infantry:''' In the age of the infantryman the Bretonnians have suffered, but not as much as some people would have you believe. However, you do have to play smart because a bad charge will, at best, get your knights stuck in a pointless combat against a tarpit or, at worse, kill your expensive unit. So, know how to identify what kind of block you are facing so you know what you can use against it.
** '''Deathstars:''' By "deathstar" we mean an extremely large unit of potent troops that is often the center of the opponent's strategy. These often have at least one character, often multiple strong ones, and have many ranks so they can have steadfast even after losing a lot of models. An army could technically have multiple deathstars, but this is usually to your advantage as such an army has extremely poor map control and little flexibility. In any case, your opponent expects you to engage this unit, so don't. I don't care what you think your grail knights will do, they won't break them on the charge and then they will get slaughtered. Focus all your trebuchet fire and dwellers bellow on it but otherwise don't engage it unless you must. If you must, delay them with a mob of men-at-arms with the blessing. The knights should only attack if the deathstar is weakened enough and there are no other threats. The only exception is a suicide unit if killing a specific character in the deathstar is worth losing the unit.
** '''Tarpits:''' Tarpits are units designed to keep your units busy so, again, try not to engage them if you can. The problem here is that, unlike deathstars, tarpits are relatively cheap so you will likely have to deal with one of them sooner or later. How you do so depends on the tarpit. If they are a horde of weak, cheap units, soften them up with archers and then charge with a unit of knights of the realm. The knights will have to grind through it but they are unlikely to suffer losses and as long as they are not flanked they should win combat and eventually break the enemy (key here being eventually). We do not recommend men-at-arms simply because most tarpits are more cost-effective and have more ranks, so the low leadership peasants will cost you. Grail Pilgrims, on the other hand, work well. The other kind of tarpit are things like warriors of tzeentch with shields or dwarven hammerers. These are taken in smaller units and survive by not taking damage (warriors) or by being stubborn/unbreakable (the latter). These should be avoided at all costs by the knights and like the deathstars make good trebuchet targets. In melee they are good targets for men-at-arms, especially if they have the blessing, as they will lose combat but, being cheaper, will have steadfast and won't break for a decent amount of time, and with their halberds they might just deal some damage back. In a pinch, as mentioned before, send your lord: even the likes of white lions/hammerers will struggle to hurt 1+/1+/5++ when only 3 models can attack.
** '''Elite Infantry:''' Warriors of Khorne, Saurus Temple Guards, Black Guard. You know 'em, you hate 'em. These guys are expensive but not enough that there are so few on the battlefield you can ignore them. They usually have good initiative and/or armor, two attacks and good strength and leadership. And they are still cheaper than knights errant! These guys are of course still good trebuchet targets but the two former kinds of infantry take priority and thus you will be forced to fight these guys. Men at arms will simply be butchered and knights of the realm will lose models even before they attack, and after the charge it will quickly turn into a massacre. You have three options to deal with these guys. The first is to multicharge. This is the worst of the three because you lose the advantage of the low frontage of the lance formation, but you might just kill enough to break them. The second option is a "massive" unit of Knights Errant. Yes, it is expensive but a unit of 15 knights errant with a damsel with the mane of the purebreed will beat a 25 men unit of khorne warriors with halberds and remove their steadfast at about the same cost while taking relatively few casualties. Not a lot of units can do that. The third is of course grail knights. They are more vulnerable than chaos knights but on the charge they pack the same punch or more by virtue of the lance formation and since they benefit from ranks they can actually remove steadfast on round 1 of combat. Flanking with questing knights is great but of course depends on you outmaneuvering the opponent.
** '''Other Infantry:''' As the name says, your average infantry. Not too cheap, not too expensive, not too deadly, not too weak. These are the ones you want your knights of the realm targeting, on the charge they will deal decent damage and, as with weak tarpits, will grind through them eventually. Multicharging works great here and two units of knights of the realm can punch through the enemy lines if they choose their targets right. They will likely deal little damage to your 2+ armor save and WS4 and ward save. The exception is infantry armed with ranged armor piercing weapons. Either flank them with pegasus knights, or have one of your units carry the banner of Châlons, otherwise your knights will die before they even get close.

* '''Heroic Wall''' - The lance only requires three models to count as a full rank. Bretonnian paladins and lords are dirt-cheap. What does this mean? Well, it means that you can protect your T3 knights from melee attacks by making a wall of characters. This is mostly useful for questing knights (and is the only way I found to make them a competitive and not mostly fluff choice), but can work on non-grail knight unit (because the grail vow costs a lot). Get a paladin with an enchanted shield and a dawnstone, another with the insignia of the quest and finally one with the Gromril great helm. If you want to be safe from characters, upgrade one of them to a lord and get him the morningstar of fracasse. You still have to watch out for attacks that ignore armour of course, so unless you want this unit to dine on all of the enemy's cannon balls from turn 1, give the enemy other desirable targets (preferably with other characters)and don't make the unit too big. Again, 6 questing knights + characters, with a unit of grail knights in the army, is a good idea. Ideally, have a damsel with life nearby (but not in the unit: don't want to lose those S6 attacks!) to recover the odd wound or with beasts to make the unit stupidly dangerous. And the best part? This unit does not lose effectiveness if charged. If you don't have the spare points, two characters also work, as the enemy will be forced to either attack them or the unit champion (against whom the extra attacks are wasted).

* '''Agincourt Gambit''' - You are Bretonnia. You have the cheapest longbowmen in the game and 6 points a pop can buy you a lot of arrows. Your longbowmen are the main killers of your force, you knights in position to counter charge and hammer units that have been softened by arrows. Your enemy will focus on the knight since, obviously!, that is the threat of a Bretonnian army, when it's the archers that will whittle down his units so your knights can lance them to bits. 

* '''Dealing with Undead''' - These armies are unbreakable by default. This leave you with some issues in that while you will most likely win the first round of combat you will get mauled trying to finish off the unit. The best way to deal with them is unit by unit. Crush each one completely before moving onto the next. As far as kill priorities generals and Wizards should be at the top with things like Grave Guard or other elite infantry avoided or blapped. Challenges are a very unwise move unless you are ready to face one of the strongest duelist champions/lords in the game, the other being Chaos lords/champions. 
{{Warhammer_Tactics_Races}}
[[Category:Warhammer/Tactics]]