Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Bretonnia

Why Play Bretonnia

Brettonians are a tactically unique army with GORGEOUS models, interesting fluff and a fun playstyle. They currently have the most workable cavalry in the game but their units tend to run either overpriced (Knights) or underpowered (Peasants). Still they're not as underpowered as some armies and if you can get them to work they will run roughshod over the competition. An army for veteran Warhammer players.

Unit Analysis

Lords & Heroes

Named Characters

Note: Under the current edition, named characters tend to be overpriced; you can pretty easily emulate most named characters from scratch and save yourself some points. That said, a few named characters do have abilities and wargear or wargear combos unique to them, so if you absolutely need to have them, go ahead. Just make sure you're really getting your points worth.

• The Green Knight: The advantage to the Green Knight is that he's cheap, but that's more or less it. He keeps coming back, which is lulzy, as is his ability to teleport from terrain to terrain (only natural terrain though) but this is countered out by his inability to join a unit, which means he's likely to get knocked out by a dedicated combat unit (or a fair sized regular unit). As we said, he's cheap and he can avoid trouble, but he's usually not worth the trouble.

• The Fay Enchantress: She has an incredibly high price of entry (keeping her out of any game under 2400 points) and given that one of the major advantages of a Prophetess is they're cheap, it's not usually worth it. On the other hand, +6 to cast Lore of Life makes things silly, and she adds +1 power and dispel dice and drops a Lore of Heavens spell every turn and has a multitude of special abilities. If you can pay for her unreasonable price of entry at say, 3000 points and up, she could easily be worthwhile. Not a great choice however.

• King Louen Leoncoeur: King Louen cost of entry in 3000 points minimum, and he disallows any other Lords. He doesn't do enough for that cost to really be worth over 700 points. He also does silly things to your Force Organization Chart and usually not things you want to happen. Plus, for all of his cost, he'll get knocked out by someone who costs about 2/3rds of what he does. Skip him.

Generic Characters

• Bretonninan Lord: Basic combat Lord, nothing special. Magic equipment and Vows will be discussed elsewhere, but just be aware that any Lord or Hero you take should be kitted out for bear, as he can't refuse challenges without losing the Blessing of the Lady. If your enemy is aware of it he can and will use it to kick your Lord's head in, so he needs to be ready to resist challengers. Overall, it's worthwhile investing in a Lord.

• Prophetess of the Lady: Prophetesses are your basic Lord level caster so all the usual rules apply: Always tick up to Level 4, protect her in a unit, usual shit. What's important to understand is that you are not, repeat NOT, High Elves, Tzeentch Chaos, Dark Elves, etc. You can mount a solid defense and do okay on your own casting, but don't try to out-magic the big guys. Still, they're cheap and they're effective for their cost. Lore of Life is a favorite, though Lore of Beasts is okay in a pinch.

• Paladin: You are required to have at least one Paladin to act as BSB (yes you're REQUIRED to have a BSB, Brettonia is fun). Apart from that, they're a solid combat Hero but be careful taking too many for unit babysitting. Remember, like the Brettonian Lord, if they ever refuse a Challenge, the ENTIRE UNIT loses Blessing of the Lady, so you need to kit them out for combat, because with their basic statline, a lot of Heroes can kick their skull in (Empire, Beastmen, Skaven and Wood Elves are pretty much the only ones you don't have to worry about, and even Beastmen and Skaven can be threats under the right circumstances). If you're worried about shooting, one could be dropped on a Pegasus for War Machine hunting, but be careful with that as your enemy might want to drop him quickly to score some early points.

• Damsel of the Lady: Cheap and good for beefing up the LD of your background Peasants. Benefit the most from Lore of Beasts, always tick up to Level 2. Scroll caddying and item bearers are fine. As with above, don't get drawn into a big magic duel with any of the magic-heavy armies, they can and will outcast you.

Core Units

• Knights of the Realm: Standard unit of Knights, you have to have at least one. Damned good armor save (2+) means they'll survive quite a lot, but they really have no staying power after a charge. Field at least 2 units, despite being mediocre compared to other heavy cavalry they're damn good if they ever get a flank charge onto a unit that's been charged by another unit of knights.
• Knights Errant: Young, crazy knights. Slightly worse and slightly cheaper, these fuckers will often decide to commit suicidecharge at the enemy against their orders, resulting in lulz and carnage. Mind, they're immune to fear when they do this, so it's sometimes better to just stick them in front of something scary and let them do their thing. They're not going to stand-in for Realm knights so don't try to flood the table with them, as they can get kited badly and waste the game fighting disposable skirmishers instead of taking on the stuff that needs killing.
• Men at Arms: Cannon fodder, meat grinder material, massive mobs of useless gits. Try not to use them when you can spend points, a Lord with the Vow of Empathy can make them better, if you're willing to put that much effort into making them usable, go play Empire with their somewhat competent infantry as you will be disappointed here.
• Peasant Bowmen: Like Men at Arms, just with bows. If you can manage to keep them alive (read: untouched) then they can actually be pretty helpful. Don't expect them to blot the sun out with their arrows or hold your lines or anything like that, these guys are cheap which reflects their performance. Effectively any wounds they cause on non-horde units are a profit, even if the unit gets wiped out your still on top. Deploy them with care, just shoot whatever is in range and if they flee off the table or get wiped out, grin and say "Good job" to your opponent as if you really mean it, which is about the most sarcastic thing you can say as anything that is doing damage to your Peasant Bowmen is not hurting your knights and thus is not really contributing to the battle.

Special Units

• Questing Knights: The only knight unit with some real staying power, these greatsword wielding badassess can be used (to a degree) to help pin some infantry in place. Can lay the smack on almost everything, but not as hardcore as other beatsticks (Chaos Chosen Knights, Blood Knights etc) in other factions, expect them to hold well against these units but get them some goddamned support when this happens with Grail Knights on the flank.
• Pegasus Knights: Knights of the Realm rich enough to afford a flying pony. Acts as fast and flying cavalry, so here's where most of your mobility comes from. Rapes slower armies running MSU setup and any idiot dumb enough to have their warmachines too far from their army. If you run more than 2 units of them expect to be drawing a lot of fire as your opponent overreacts to their mobility rather than their actual killing power adapts to tactically counter their presence. Running them in this format is slightly subpar against Infantry bricks though.
• Mounted Yeomen: Relatively rich peasants, can act as fast cavalry. Useful as scouts and for chasing down fleeing infantry, but not a whole lot else. You have knights who are almost as mobile and much better in combat.
• Grail Reliquae: Batshit insane peasants, has a lot more staying power than their men-at-arms cousins. Probably the only way Peasants will ever do anything for the army other than tie up weak line units. That said they're only better than Mounted Yeomen in this slot, but will come into their own if you're going peasant heavy.

Rare Units

• Grail Knights: The army's rape machine. Sort of a point & click unit; just show them were to go, and watch the destruction. Of course, being lance-armed cavalry, they still don't have a lot of staying power. Can Rape-Train through small units very quickly, if it gets flank charges off on units already engaged expect much fun and win. Pretty much mandatory.
• Field Trebuchet: A stone thrower. Nothing special here: throw one in if you feel like it. Under current edition rules, the only siege engine in the game (aside from the Hellcannon) to strike at full S5 on a template. Take two, set them up on either flank and force your opponent to spread out their units allowing you to pick and choose combats with ease.

Building Your Army

Start with a BSB Paladin on a horse, any other Hero/Lord character on a horse and a unit of 9+ Knights of the Realm. These are the basics of the Bretonnian army. After that do whatever you feel, use peasants if you want to recreate a peasant rebellion or a Crusades era army.

Buying Your Army

Unfortunately GW knows that you will need boxes of Knights to build your army, you will get neither enough in a single box nor a decent price. The basic plastic set can do either of the Core choices, but in typical GW fashion you will pay much more for Questing and Grail knights. Convert your own out of bits from the basic knight's box instead, the grail knights should be stripped down in terms of heraldry and you'll need to find a set of arms with two handed weapons for Questing knights, who also have less heraldry than Realm Knights.

There is an alternative for those who love mass conversions for themed armies and that is the "Legion of the Grail Damned" route.

Basically you can use a large chunk of the Undead models from Mantic Games' Kings of War game as undead Bretonnians, they're way fucking cheaper than GW prices, they look very similar to French Medieval armour designs and the models can cover most of your unit types: the Trebuchet, Grail Reliquary, Pegasus Knights, Lords and Prophetess/Damsels of the Lady are the only ones you can't do, or rather you can but the model designs look less like fallen from grace and more like actively embracing the dark side.

Army Composition

Aim for a majority of knights, Knights, Knights and Knights. You cannot play this army without Knights, so embrace the men of horse and steel.

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.