Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Warscrolls Compendium/Bretonnia

Points are now in the GHB as of the 2019 edition, therefore you can use your chivalrous French dudes without having to show your opponent ancient texts saying it's okay.

Bretonnia Summary

If you wish to play a hard hitting fast faction, reliant on charging first, chalice in hand (no you do need this), with surprisingly powerful peasantry supporting from range then Bretonnia is for you. The same applies if you prefer an Arthurian force of Brittanic knights, with named characters even directly taken from the legends such as the Green Knight.

Old players sticking with Age of Sigmar will be glad to note that Bretonnians keep their previous charm despite losing their hallmark charging formation, making up for it with easier rules and small caveats which benefit units. None of the models have been changed yet so Bretonnia players can still use their beautiful forces.

Common Rules

Banners: Many units can take a banner which can give you rerolls to battleshock tests... which might sound nice until you remember that you get that anyway because you're playing an ORDER allegiance army. Well, may as well take it anyway just for the look of the thing.

Musicians: Your knights' musicians allow the unit to roll 3d6 instead of 2d6 when charging and discard one of the three, giving you more reliable charge rolls. Good stuff, because most of your knights really need that charge. Peasantry's musicians are a little different; the trumpeters instead give you +1 to run rolls and drummers +1 to charge rolls. Personally I would've guessed it would be the other way around.

Knight Shields: Most of your nobility get to reroll 1s to save on the turn they charged thanks to their shields, which is cool.

Bretonnian Warscrolls

The below list will be organized as GW tries to organize all armies, into Leader/Battleline/Other etc etc This is by no means a complete guide. Also due to the squatting of the army and the lack of Bretonnia players, this is mostly my experience combined with a heaping dose of Mathhammer.

Leader

King On Hippogryph: A good, if incredibly expensive, leader choice. He flies and moves 14" while in good health. He auto-passes Battleshock for all BRETONNIAN units within 24 inches. With ten wounds, a 3+ save and healing d3 wounds in each of your turns he's fairly tanky and his shield lets him re-roll save rolls of 1 if he charged that turn, as well as letting him unbind 1 spell per turn. His sword has six attacks at -1 rend d3 damage, and re-rolls failed hit rolls if the target is a HERO or MONSTER. The hippogryph chips in with one attack at -2 rend, d6 damage from its beak, and five 1 damage attacks. Finally, his command ability gives a 24" bubble of +1 to hit in melee for all NOBILITY units who charged this turn. Combined with his sword rerolls, this would make him a decent wielder of the Sword of Judgement from Ulgu - send him into a hero and he'll have six attacks hitting on 2+ rerolling 1s and 2s (rerolls before modifiers), doing d6 mortal wounds for every 5+.

Enchantress: A spell-casting, Lady-serving woman for your Knights to fight for. A solid spellcaster who can cast two spells per turn and unbind two per turn, and her Chalice of Potions ability means she can re-roll a failed casting roll once per turn. Good stuff. With a 4+ save and healing d3 wounds in each of your turns he's more resilient than the average wizard, and her melee attacks aren't that bad either. Her unique spell can give +1 to hit in melee for a friendly BRETONNIAN unit, a nice simple and effective buff. She also lets Grail Knights reroll to hit if she's within 10" of them.

Sacred Protector: A nasty, brawling, resurrecting Bretonnian Lord. Beautiful. He has to start in reserve, and needs a 4+ to deploy, but when you roll that 4+ you place him anywhere but 9" away from enemies. His damage is respectable, but his strength is that he is stupidly fucking strong. Seriously, 5 wounds is standard for Bretonnian Lords but he has a 3+ save that isn't affected by any modifiers. He cares nothing for enemy rend, but he doesn't benefit from cover either. He also negates wounds or mortal wounds he suffers on a 6+.

Bretonnian Lord: A mainline mounted general, who should probably be your general if you aren't taking the King on Hippogryph. He can either ride a horse or a pegasus, the pegasus having a longer move and being able to fly. He has 5 wounds with a 3+ save, and rerolls 1s to save if he charged that turn. His melee weapon is decent - five attacks at 3+/4+/-1/d3 with +1 to hit if he charged and rerolls to hit against monsters. Finally, his Lord of the Realm command ability lets you re-roll failed charge rolls for NOBILITY units within 15". You can view this guy as a budget version of the King on Hippogryph; he does less, but he's much more reasonably costed.

Noble Champion: A cheap support hero who lets friendly PEASANTRY units within 6" use his bravery of 7 for Battleshock tests. Men-at-Arms and Peasant Bowmen normally have a mediocre Bravery of 4 otherwise. His sword's okay, nothing special, but does 2 damage instead of 1 when attacking DEATH or DAEMON units.

Noble Standard Bearer: This guy's special ability is useless. He lets you re-roll Battleshock tests for NOBILITY units within 12", but you're running an ORDER allegiance army so you get that ability anyway as a battle trait... Perhaps you really want a speedy and expendable hero for 80pts though.

Damsel: Comes on foot, horseback, or Pegasus-back. A fairly typical wizard with one cast per turn and one unbind per turn. Her unique spell, Divine Blessing, is basically a 6+ Feel No Pain for PEASANTRY, or a 5+ Feel No Pain for NOBILITY. Not bad. She can also heal 1 wound allocated to a BRETONNIAN model within 6", and Knights Errant re-roll ones to hit if they begin the turn within 18" of her. Altogether much more of a support character compared to her big sister the Enchantress, but if you can't have both (which would be ideal) then there's an argument to be made for just taking the Damsel. She's also pretty cheap at 100 points, which means a lot in a point-heavy list like Bretonnia.

Battleline

Knights Errant: Young and inexperienced Knights. Movement 10, bravery 5, two wounds and a 4+ save. Their Pendant Lances only have one attack at 4+/4+/-/1, but it goes up to 4+/3+/-/2 on the charge. Charging also lets them reroll 1s to save, so they really need that charge to get anything done. Thankfully your musician helps with that. And as mentioned in the Damsel's entry, they reroll 1s to hit if she's nearby since they want to impress the ladies.

Knights of the Realm: Actual, full Knights; more experienced than the hot-headed Knights Errant, they have one higher Bravery and hit on 3s. While the Knights Errant reroll 1s to hit if there's a Damsel nearby, the Knights of the Realm do so if they have 10 or more models. They cost a little more than the Knights Errant though.

Men-At-Arms: Basic peasant infantry. They each have 1 wound, a 5" movement, 6+ saves, and 4 bravery. Yeah, not good. But they're the chaff to the Knights wheat, and they're pretty good at it. Their Tower Shields ability lets them add 1 to save rolls if they didn't charge that turn, while the Rowdy Mob ability means they add 1 to hit when they have 20 or more models, and add 2 to hit when they have thirty or more models.

Other

Questing Knights: The first of your elite knight options, these guys specialise in hunting monsters. Two attacks at 3+/3+/-1/1 with their greatblades, but the Damage goes up to 2 when attacking monsters. Unlike most of your other knights, they don't get a charge bonus to their attacks, but they still have shields for the reroll 1s to save on the charge. They also get to reroll charge rolls if there is an enemy monster within 12" at the time.

Grail Knights: Your second elite knights option, and the same cost as Questing Knights. These guys' lances have two attacks each at 3+/4+/-1/1, but this goes up to 3+/3+/-1/2 on the charge, *and* whether or not they charged their lances get +1 Damage when attacking DEATH or DAEMON units. They also reroll failed hit rolls if you have an Enchantress within 10".

Pegasus Knights: Your third elite knight option, costing more than the Questing or Grail knights - 200pts for three. They focus more on speed than damage potential with a 16" flying move, and each knight has two lance attacks at 3+/4+/-/1, going up to 3+/3+/-/2 on the charge.

Peasant Bowmen: Archers with a 20" range, one shot each at 5+/4+/-/1 is not terribly scary and 200pts is a lot to pay for each sixteen guys. However, once per game, so long as there are no enemies within 3" at the time they can fire an arrow storm giving them two shots each, or three shots each if there are at least 20 models in the unit. 200pts is a lot to pay for sixteen of these guys. They do have two extra abilities which last until the bowmen have moved or have been attacked in melee: the flaming braziers give them reroll 1s to wound with their bows, and their defensive stakes inflict d3 mortal wounds to any charging enemy unit. Still too expensive for what they do.

Mounted Yeomen: Mounted peasantry, 100pts gets you a unit of five expendable chaff horsemen. They won't do much damage in melee or with their bows, but with a 12" move they can be useful as a screen, to tag objectives and so on. Best of all, after deployment but before the first battle round, they get a free 12" move which could be very handy to screen off potential enemy alpha strikes.

Battle Pilgrims: Peasant zealots who can carry around the Grail Reliquae. 80pts for six models. Their melee attacks are rubbish and their save isn't great... the Reliquae gives them +1 to wound, but they still won't kill things. It does improve their save though. If you want a cheap chaff unit, the Mounted Yeomen seem like the better option. However, if you want a dirt cheap unit to sit on an objective in your back field.... if you keep them in cover, they'd effectively have a 4+ save rerolling 1s and 2s, which isn't the worst thing ever. It's certainly cheaper than paying for sixteen Men-at-Arms or Peasant Bowmen.

Artillery

Field Trebuchet: A surprisingly good unit, although the model is getting harder to find. Their crew is weak (obviously) but the real meat of the Trebuchet is, well, the trebuchet. A long 48" range, though it can't shoot within 12". Before you roll to hit, you roll a dice; if the result is lower than the number of models in the unit you are targeting, it's an auto-hit. It sounds complicated, but basically any units with more than six models are automatically hit. It has two attacks with a 3+ to wound, but the great part is the -2 rend and D6 damage. It does something like 4.6 damage on average, accounting for the unusual hit rolls. If the enemy is hiding, you can arc the shot (being able to shoot without line of sight but taking a -1 to hit modifier), although the usefulness of this is debatable. All in all, as long as you keep this thing protected it should be able to make back its 220 point cost, especially as it's one of two units with -2 rend.

Army Building

This army is made using the Bretonnian Battalion box and some of the most common conversions/loose models you can find: Noble Champions.

1000 Point Battalion Box

- Bretonnian Lord on Pegasus (Leader) (140 points)

- Noble Champion (Leader) (80 points)

- 8 Knights of the Realm (Battleline) (220 points)

- 16 Men-at-Arms (Battleline) (120 points)

- 3 Pegasus Knights (Other) (200 points)

- 16 Peasant Bowmen (Other) (200 points)

For a total of 960 points and ~$400, you too can have a Bretonnian army! This is a good base to expand your army in any direction you want/can find/can afford. General tactica is as follows: Keep your bowmen in range, and remember to use the Arrowstorm ability and their braziers/stakes. Your Men-at-Arms and Noble Champion should move together, with their main goal being to isolate a unit for your Knights of the Realm to charge over and over again until it's dead. Seriously, just throw a wall of peasants between that enemy unit and the rest of the enemy army. Your Bretonnian Lord and his Pegasus Knights should go wherever needed using their fun 16" FLY, either charging in to finish off weakened units or destroy back-line Artillery and support characters. As for traits and relics, the Obstinate Blade is probably one of the most useful (extra rend never hurts) but both of them are up to your individual play style. Don't forget Realm of Origin relics!

Extra Advice

• Your knights need to charge. Most of your knights get bonus damage and better saves when they charge but afterwards their damage potential drops of significantly. Do whatever you need to do to get that charge. Don't forget your units' musicians, and use command abilities to reroll charges if necessary.

• Bringing the King on Hippogryph is not often a bad idea. He makes your entire army immune to battleshock. This is huge for your peasants allowing your to ignore that horrible bravery of 4 and especially helpful for your knights for when you lose 4-5 knight in a round of combat and then 4 more run away. He functions as an acceptable monster hunter being able to kill a giant with some luck or severely crippling it. However don't let the enemy cut him off from your army even with his quick regeneration and good save he can still fall from large amounts of reasonable fire or infantry.

• Battle pilgrims can be converted from Chaos Cultist/Cawdor Gang bodies from 40k and Skeleton Warrior shields/swords from AoS. Although, you're really hitting new levels by kitbashing a proxy for an out-of-production, unsupported model...

External links

Rules are here [1]

Want to convert your Bretonnians to round bases? Here's a chart [2]

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