Warhammer/Tactics/6th Edition/Bretonnia

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Why play Bretonnia?

Bretonnia delivers on the feeling between crunch and flavor of playing an army of knights. Powerful in their strenghts, but with a few drawbacks to represent the honourable oaths that your characters take to battle.

Pros:

• A range of detailed of 5e and 6e minis (most sculpted by the Perry brothers) that deliver on the fantasy knight of legend idea, with the possibility to use more historical miniature ranges if you are having difficulty finding what you're looking for.
• Powerful cavalry and interesting tricks to perform with morale between knights and peasants.
• Grail Knights give a run for their money to other elite cavalry units, with arguably some of the best stats in the game.
• Highly customizable characters and units for fluff purposes, thanks to the Blessings which grant additional effects beyond magic items.
• One of the armies where ward saves are more prominent (albeit only 6++/5++). Still, army-wide ward saves for your knights will save your bacon more times than you might think.

Cons:

• A well painted army of Bretonnians can take a lot of time to put together by virtue of individual heraldry on each knight.
• Bretonnia really is an hyperfocused army with a single plan: field cavalry and deliver devastating charges. No ifs, ors or buts. This is a cavalry army, with infantry and ranged support.
• Army that quickly loses steam after charges, having few units (pilgrims, questing knights and grail knights) that perform well in prolonged combats.
• Character's aren't at the top of the power scale, although the Blessings help. A Bret Lord can fight a Chaos Lord but might need some thinking to even the odds.
• No magic supremacy, and outside of the Fay Enchantress, limited to Heavens, Life and Beasts. Cannot compete on the same field as HE, Lizardmen or VC.
• Lacking in the monster department, with Pegasi and Hippogryphs as the only options. Still, they benefit from the Blessings' Ward Save, something very few monsters do.
• Limited ranged options (bowmen and trebuchet).
• Everything is OOP. Call your recaster if you want to play with the soul-infused original minis.

Army Special Rules

Lance formation Bretonnians use an unique formation for their (non flying) knights called lance. Any knightly unit in ranks of three models wide is considered to be in lance formation. They get rank bonus for those ranks and in a charge all the models in the sides can attack too on a turn in which they charge. So 3 x 3 unit of knights, nine models, all but two can attack on charge. Characters must be placed in the front rank, except damsels and prophetesses, which can take a safe spot in the midst of knights (middle spot in second rank). As an exception to usual rules, command groups can be placed on second rank and still benefit from banner, in case three characters take the whole front rank.

Vows of Bretonnia Bretonnians go to battle undertaking certain vows of honour, which grant some benefits to the units that take them.

Keep in mind that Vows work in a hierarchical scale: characters from a lower Vow cannot join units with a higher Vow, but characters with a higher Vow may join units with a lower one.

• The Peasant's Duty: Not really a vow per se, but enables your low Ld Peasant units to use the Ld value of a non-fleeing knight within 6". Going from Ld5 to Ld8 or 9 is a great boon to keep your backline in place when things start to go awry. Additionally, their dirty banners don't confer additional VP for being captured in combat.
• The Knight's Vow: The baseline Vow for all knight units and characters, allows them to ignore panic tests caused by friendly Peasant units. Really good to prevent your expensive Knight units from fleeing, and allows you to use Peasant units as screens safely, knowing that their fleeing won't cause trouble for your Knights.
• The Questing Vow: Second tier of Vow, allows Knight units to ignore panic tests caused by friendly Peasant units, and may re-roll Psychology tests. Forbids the use of a lance of any type, magical or mundane.
• The Grail Vow: Third and last tier, gives the unit Immune to Psychology and turns their weapons magical. The unit or character with the Vow shall always start the game with the Blessing of the Lady active, even if your army didn't pray.

Blessing of the Lady Before any game, the Bretonnian army may kneel to pray and every unit of knights and characters will gain the Blessing of the Lady. Doing this will automatically concede first turn to your opponent, and so you will always go second (unless you field the Fey Enchantress, which automatically grants you the Blessing).

The Blessing is simply a 6++ ward save, 5++ if the attack is strenght or more. Unfortunately the Blessing can be lost: either by fleeing for whatever reason or by refusing a challenge (in any case in which a knight character could accept a challenge, if no character accepts the challenge, all Bretonnian units involved in the combat lose the Blessing instantly.)

• Keep in mind that gunpowder weapons (Empire, Dwarves) are the bane of your knights. At S4 and Armour Piercing, your knights will be saving at 5+ with a 6++ ward.

Virtues of the Chivalric Knight

Virtues are one of the factors that makes Bretonnian characters special and flavorful. Each provides a passive bonus for a cost, similar to Chaos Marks. Since they are limiting in some cases, and others bear special mention in certain character builds and purposes, we'll list them in detail. It should go without saying, but only Paladins and Lords may take Virtues.

Keep in mind that Virtues take points allotment as magical equipment (So paladins are limited to 50 points total, and lords 100 points total, including Virtues and Magical items).

• Virtue of Empathy 10p. - a Virtue which allows you to field your character on foot, instead of being forced to purchase a mount for him. Cheaper than a barded warhorse by 4p, but that's not why you take it. A knight with this Virtue which is not your General (so it will almost always go to a Paladin) extends his range of Ld bubble to peasant units from 6" to 12". A cheap paladin with this Virtue will help you anchor your battleline whilst your knights charge forward to wreak havoc, preventing units fleeing from terror or panic thanks to his high Ld 8. Take it on a mounted knight to accompany units of peasants around the field, or an on-foot knight in a unit of Men-at-arms for a surprisingly effective infantry unit.

Albeit seemingly useless at first, this virtue allows you to skip purchasing Peasant champions to keep morale. These are almost always prohibitively expensive and lacking in stats.

• Virtue of Discipline 15p. - enemies don't gain +1 for outnumbering in a combat in which a character with this Virtue is present. A good cheap virtue to even the odds against big infantry units, which will almost always outnumber your knights.

• Virtue of Purity 20p. - Always grants the Blessing of the Lady to the character, even if the army didn't pray, and also makes the Ward save a 5++ flat against all attacks.

Magic Items

As an exception to regular magic weapon rules (which must always be used before mundane equipment), Bretonnian characters with a mundane lance will use it in a turn in which they charge, and then switch to their magical weapon for subsequent combat rounds, if they have any. Magical lances will be used in all turns, regardless of other equipment the character may have.

• This rule is a good way to diversify your equipment choices, something characters from other armies cannot do. Equipping a character with a lance and a cheap magical weapon will ensure that he can keep delivering wounds if his unit gets stuck, something that can prove essential in prolonged combats.

Common Magic Items

Some of these bear mentioning as specially valuable in the Bretonnian roster. Sword of Might 20p -good on characters on horse that go in units. +1S helps you keep the wounds rolling when the initial charge fails to break the enemy, and it's then when your characters must pull the weight of the unit and help win the fight. Ideally this weapon should go to a paladin or BSB with nonmagical banner. Sword of Might 15p - Grants Armor Penetration (-1 to saving throw). can work as a similar purpose as the Sword of Might, in case it has been already taken by another character. Again, good for a secondary paladin. Dispel scroll 25p -scroll caddy damsels are a must in any army. Get one lvl 1 Damsel with one or two scrolls, specially since you are not in the "big league" of magic armies, and you'll be forced to play on the defensive most games. War banner 25p - +1 to combat resolution. Give it to your Questing Knights or Grail Knights, since those are the units that can get stuck in combat for prolonged rounds, and it gives them an edge to win and not depend too much on characters.

Units Analysis

Named Characters

• Louen Leoncouer:
• The Fay Enchantress:
• The Green Knight:

Lords & Heroes

• Lord:
• Prophetess of the Lady:
• Paladin:
• Damsel of the Lady:

Core Units

• Knights of the Realm: Must have 1+ in the army.
• Knights Errant: "Must" have Errantry Banner
• Men-at-arms: Cheap and doesn't cause panic. A very useful unit in supporting role. One nice trick is to give them Blessing with Prayer Icon of Quenelles. With full ranks they should be able to withstand almost all chargers. Warriors of Chaos either Chosen or with Mark of Khorne are the only real threats, besides Bretonnian Knights in case of civil war.
• Peasant bowmen:

Special Units

• Questing Knights:
• Pegasus Knights: The star of the army list. They propably won't win the game for you but they'll harass the enemy, block march moves, hunt lone wizards and war machines. An amazing unit. Also never ever forget their ground movement of 8". Being skirmishers they can't be marchblocked. They can gallop in forests without problems with their 16" charge.
• Mounted Yeomen:
• Grail Reliquae and Battle Pilgrims:

Rare Units

• Grail Knights: They are EXPENSIVE! Being 38 points each, losing this unit will be a huge blow. On the other hand, they will provide ridiculous amount of damage with their A2. Only huge blocks of enemy charging to flank or rear could be relatively sure to win a combat against these.
• Field Trebuchet: A very cheap and effective stone thrower. If you are planning to win, I'd highly recommend taking these.