Editing Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Bretonnia (section)

===Multiplayer Strategies===
A lot of the general strategies against these factions is going to boil down to one simple task; Cycle-charging cavalry. Your cavalry is your bread and butter in every matchup, so the key take-away in this section will be units in particular you'll need to look out for.

*'''Beastmen''': Another particularly fast faction, the Beastmen are largely unarmored, so a few squads of Peasant Bowmen with Pox arrows can get some surprising value against a majority of their units, further crippling them for your famous cavalry charges. Anti-Large cavalry will serve you quite well in this matchup. Grail Knights and even Pegasus Knights will serve as the tip of your spear against Minotaurs, Cygors and Ungors, while Knights of the Realm or even Questing Knights can mop up the rest of the Beastmen roster.

*'''Bretonnia''': A mirror matchup against Bretonnia will go exactly like you'd expect it to go. You'll want to do everything you can to make sure ''you'' initiate combat first, and if that means sacking a peasant mob or two to bog down opposing Grail Guardians so that yours can get the charge bonus against them, then that's what it'll take.

*'''[[Total_War_Warhammer/Tactics/Chaos_Dwarves| Chaos Dwarfs]]''':

*'''Warriors of Chaos''': Hoo boy, that's a lot of armor. Warriors of Chaos are one of the slowest armies in the game, so you should have no difficulty outmaneuvering their forces to make that optimal charge. Despite your relative inadequacies at frontline engagements, Battle Pilgrims and Foot Squires can still deal not inconsequential damage to their forces while holding them in place for your Cavalry. You'll want to try to shut down any Hellcannons they bring, as that'll be the primary source of ranged pressure on your forces. Without that, you're free to run circles around them from dusk until dawn.

*'''Dark Elves''': Mobility is the name of the game here. Both you and the Dark Elves are good at it, so it will largely come down to who can micro their army better. Just forget about peasant spam. Even Bleakswords will shred them, to say nothing about Witch Elves and Sisters of Slaughter which will show any infantry you bring their own assholes in seconds. Peasant archers are a good choice in theory to put pressure on their light cav, but they are extremely difficult to protect if you aren't a seasoned player. No, this match will come down to your cavalry play. Luckily you have a HUGE advantage in the heavy cav game, since all they have in that department are Cold One Knights which are pretty much garbage. A solid airforce can be a powerful tool here, since the Dark Elves don't have much of an aerial presence. Masters on pegasi are pretty cost-inefficient (but can still threaten with their anti-large) and your flying knights or Paladins will easily shred dragons. Even Rakarth on Bracchus can't stack up if you goon him out. Plus, Pegasus Knights especially will have a pretty solid shot of dodging Scourgerunner projectiles and catching up with them to deliver death. Grail Knights are a great choice against Doomfire Warlocks or any other light cav, as long as you can tie them down. This is one of the few matchups where their elite infantry (read: Black Guard of Naggarond) can really threaten, so isolate them and goon them out with your lords/heros asap. Louen is probably the lord to bring here to support your airforce, your caster lords are just too squishy to stand up to their ludicrous amount of ap.

*'''Dwarfs''': Toss up, but with an advantage to you. Dwarfs units are slow, they don't have cavalry of their own, so your cavalry will be able to move unopposed, especially since Slayers can be counter-charged easily. On the other hand, a good chunk of their units have Defense Against Charge, high mass, and their gunline can wreck you.

*'''Empire''': It can be a bit tricky to have a plan against the Empire due to their sheer versatility, but there's one thing you know for certain; your Cavalry is better than theirs. Peasant bowmen will not deal remotely as much damage against the rank and file as the gun-wielding Empire missile units would against yours, but they can still get some honest work done against them. Foot-Squires can also best Empire missile units in combat if you can manage to get them there relatively unmolested, but don't imagine for a second that they'll hold the line against their dedicated melee troops. Trebuchets are also a solid backline option to help punch holes in the Empire's formations for your cavalry.

*'''Grand Cathay''':

*'''Greenskins''': You're in luck, Greenskins don't really have anti-large units. Their huge monsters (araknarock spiders, rogue idols) can be tough, but your anti-infantry cav should have a good time. What's better, is that the leadership of the Greenskins is surprisingly lower than what you might expect; a few successful flanking charges against their front line units can break them quite readily.

*'''High Elves''': The battle of the noble arrogant assholes, and believe it or not you actually have a very sizable advantage. The Asur have NO chance against you in the Cav fight, so grab some Grail Knights and watch as they run amok. Silverin Guard tend to be popular here as their Charge Defense, Anti Large and Magic Resist make them a semi decent counter to Grail Knights, though if you swarm them in peasants then you don't have to worry about them resisting your charge. If you don't want to risk your knights against the spear wall then grab some Field Trebuchets and kill them from afar. Dragons can easily be taken care of by either archers or double paladins. Plus Paladin support plus healing from the Fey Enchantress can make your Grail Knights all but unkillable for the Elves. Sure you have no chance at winning the infantry fight in a vacuum, but if you care about winning the infantry fight why the hell are you playing Bretonnia?

*'''Khorne''': This is probably going to be a challenging one. You beat Khorne in general mobility as all of your cavalry is faster than his. You beat him in ranged because his only ranged unit is a single-entity artillery-chariot while your trebuchets come with multiple models and you have archers. Your cavalry also has several anti-large options while Khorne has none. However your peasants will get shredded by almost everything in Khorne's roster, his cavalry units are much tougher and harder hitting even if they are slower, and he has plenty of ways to tangle up your ranged units in the form of Hounds and Furies. Bloodthirsters will be a big problem as their Terror will easily rout off your infantry and with that anti-large bonus they'll put a big dent on your knights, who will have trouble surrounding them. This might not be a bad matchup to bring Hippogryphs and Pegasus Knights. Used defensively they can fend off Hounds and Furies, can isolate Bloodthirsters in the air and surround them with anti-large damage, and in the case of the Hippogryphs still hit pretty hard against infantry. Skull Cannons will be ill-equipped to shoot them down and only Bloodthirsters can contest the sky.

*'''Kislev''': Ice magic with it's wide AoE slows is pretty damn good against your mobile elements, and Ice Guard with glaives are a big middle finger to everything you like to do. Peasant spam is also difficult to pull off due to the sheer amount of short range shooting inherent in Kislev's roster, and their dervishes are just as fast as your yeomen, and can trash around peasant archers. It'll be up to your airforce to carry and hope they don't get charged by anti-large bears who would like nothing better than to rape you with their lances. 

*'''Lizardmen''': First thing, leave the kids (peasants) at home. None of your infantry options stand a ghost of a chance against the Lizardmen; even the lowly Skink Cohorts are capable of besting them in combat and that's not even mentioning how quickly their massive Dinosaurs will chow through the pitchfork-wielding masses. Assuming they don't immediately just route the field from the sheer amount of fear/terror caused by all the monsters. Instead, double down on your strengths. Bretonnian cavalry will easily outpace anything the Lizardmen could ever field. Key units to build lists around would be your Grail Knights and (Royal) Pegasus Knights, who not only specialize against large targets, but are also immune to fear and terror. Though you can't expect their support for long, your peasant bowmen can really hinder the Lizardmen frontline and combat potential with the Pox variant, allowing some of your higher tier cavalry a touch more staying power for when you need to hold the line.

*'''Norsca''': Don't even think about it. Norscans are just as mobile as you are and have an abundance of Anti-Large damage that will burn through your Knights as if they were gasoline-soaked tissue paper, both of their LLs completely wipe the floor with yours and there is no hope of winning the infantry fight either. And that's not even taking their monstrous options into account, with Fimir smashing through your precious few heavily armoured units. Evade them where you can and better pick something else.

*'''Nurgle''': With all the poison, debuff spells and high mass of Nurgle units, it's actually gonna be very difficult to get a good charge in since your cavalry will most likely get stuck, surrounded and then die on your first charge, so it will be an extremely micro-intensive battle. Your Peasant arrows will obviously be of the fire variant and will need a frontline of men-at-arms (halberds or shielded, you need the anti-large bonus for any monster that gets close). Otherwise it's a simple "keep your cavalry units moving around until a unit gets separated from the rest, then gank it, repeat until your cavalry is too damaged for that, then bring them to your frontline so they can finish the job with support from what remains of your cav" deal. If your enemy decides to simply blob up his units to not let you get a charge in, bring a coupel of trebuchets for area damage.

*'''Ogre Kingdoms''': Don't expect your flimsy infantry to stick around for long after they're hit with the first ogre charge. This may be a matchup where you're best off getting your knights stuck in early and keeping them there. Cycle charging is alot less effective against an enemy who can dish out a tremendous amount of hurt by counter charging your cavalry every time they cycle charge back into the fight. That and your forces have better stamina in a protracted brawl thanks to lore of life and perfect vigor Grail Knights. Your anti-large air cav will reign uncontested due to Ogres lacking air presence, and they should be useful for tying up Ironblasters and Leadbelchers. They're also the only units you got who can reliably charge ogres without getting counter charged in return.

*'''Slaanesh''': '''PAIN'''. Their cavalry hits harder than yours, is faster than yours, and deal more damage on charges. Their infantry is fast, extremely killy and, if they have the CoC DLC, heavily armored as well, so there is nothing your own infantry can do against them and even your anti-infantry cav will struggle. They have chariots to mulch your infantry even more. Your cavalry has a slight advantage if you can get a charge in, since Slaanesh units are fragile and your Grail Knights never tire, but still. You do have better flying units than they do, so invest into pegasus knights, royal hippogryphs and flying paladins.

*'''Skaven''': While the Skaven missile units and artillery will put yours to shame, your cavalry is among the most suited to ruining the general Skaven strategy of blowing things up from across the map. Virtually nothing the Skaven have will be able to outrun your cavalry and a few well timed charges can break the relatively fickle leadership of their infantry quite easily. Knights of the Realm can do solid enough work against the general unarmored masses, but you'll want to keep some Questing Knights in reserve for any Stormvermin or Warpfire Throwers they might be packing... Unless the Skaven roll out Throt. A Clan Moulder-lead army can be one of your most difficult matchups, since Mutant Rat Ogres have little trouble blasting through your knights, Abominations are nearly unkillable for your piss poor infantry and Throt himself can frequently give Bonus vs. Large to all Skaven around him.

*'''Tomb Kings''': '''Don't''', despite what a Repanse campaign would suggest. The undead spears/halberds will tie your cavalry down and kill them, while the constructs are tough enough that even your anti-large cavalry will have a lot of trouble killing them, and their Necropolis Knights/Chariots/Nehekharan Warriors will mulch your infantry. You easily outshine them in the flying department, so a couple of Paladins on pegasi, Pegasus Knights and Hippogryphs will be very useful.

*'''Tzeentch''':

*'''Vampire Coast''':

*'''Vampire Counts''': 

*'''Wood Elves''': If there's any faction capable of rivaling your cavalry charges, it's the Wood Elves. When engaging a mounted Wood Elf army, it really boils down to who gets the best initial engagement. If you can inflict a decisive charge against the Wood Elf cavalry, you'll neuter their offensive presence significantly, if they're not straight up cleaned off the battlefield. With the Wood Elf cavalry gone, you'll have virtually free reign to outmaneuver and slaughter the elves with your cycle charging prowess. Now, when it comes to dealing with the trees, you have several options; magical attacks and/or fire. Peasant Bowmen are a cheap as chips choice that can actually get quite a lot of value against Wood Elves as a whole (as not only are they unarmored, but a majority of them are unshielded as well). Lastly, though you'll need to screen them quite aggressively if you want them to stay online, your Trebuchet, though inaccurate, can blow holes in the Wood Elven front line and archer ranks long before they get into retaliatory range. Just make sure to keep tabs for sneaky vanguard deployments trying to circle around.