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: Elite mounted monster slayers. Weaker vs. common troops (an average of 1.38 damages per model due to no charge bonus) but against monsters they are back to the average 2.27. Better skip... However they do have a rend, and against monsters they outpace Knights of the Realm or Grail Knights. Very specific and not the cheapest, but they may be worth it if you're fighting a monster-heavy army. Their Warscroll tries to sell these guys as monster hunters with charge and damage bonuses, but since Grail Knights do a WAY better job at it these guys will form your more elite fighting wall. Their great weapons mean they hit and wound on 3+ regardless of charging and have 2 attacks each (plus horse attacks). Think of them as super mobile Greatswords with a 4+ save rerolling 1's on the charge. Get them stuck in combat on an objective and they will fight the whole game. Support them with a shock calvary unit like KoTR or Trebuchet Fire and they will win a lot of fights. You can also support them with a Loremaster for re-roll to hit and wound goodness that makes these guys absolutely brutal.
Grail Knights: Powerful elite cavalry, who (due to the change in GHB 2017) are a hard counter for daemons and undead armies. Like all knights Grail Knights gain +1 to wound rolls and damage on the charge. But they also carry relic weapons like the above Noble Champion and Standard Bearer meaning they gain +1 damage against undead and daemons. So on the charge each Grail Knight has 2 attacks hitting and wounding on 3's that deal 3 damage each to daemons and undead. A unit of 5 on the charge reliably kill exalted greater demons, mortis engines, and vampire lords on dragons. With the change Grail Knights have become your elite shock cavalry and one of the cheapest (and best) monster hunters in the game.
Pegasus Knights: Fast flying cavalry. They have the same stats as your KoTR with move 16, 4 wounds, 2 attacks, and fly. Their damage output isn't anything to write home about, but their mobility means they are experts at taking down war machines and less fighty lords/heroes. Their 4 wounds also force your opponent to spend more than a little effort removing them. Alternatively, you can build an army around them as they can reliably get 1st turn charges with a general with Reckless or a Bretonnian Lord giving rerolls to their charge.
Peasant Bowmen: No longer the beast they once were due to removal of +1 to hit bonuses and the FREE PEOPLES keyword. A minimum unit of Peasant Bowmen does 3.16 damage on average, which really isn't great considering they cost the same as Knights Errant. However, their gimmick is the Arrowstorm; once per battle, they add 2 to their Longbow's attack characteristic, or 3 if there are 20 or more models in the unit. This boosts their damage to a little under 6 on average, almost 7 if you have the braziers. Speaking of, they can also take stakes and the aforementioned braziers, which grant D3 mortal wounds to enemies within 3" and re-rolling wounds of 1 respectively as long as they don't move from where they deployed. If they move, you lose the bonus. These can be powerful, as they aren't bad ranged units and can gimp a unit pretty reliably at least once a game. While sort of expensive and very fragile, an Agincourt strategy could work with these guys: Keep some infantry in front of them, charge the Knights around the sides, and then pop your Arrowstorm for devastating effect.
Mounted Yeomen: Mounted Peasant Bowmen who get a free move. They're deceptively useful; they don't do amazing damage, but their mixture of not-terrible-but-not-good ranged and melee weaponry means they can operate on their own. Which is good, because the most useful thing to do with these guys is to throw a group of ten on the table for 200 points, then use it to control your opponent. He's moving something scary up the board? Make your free move right into it's face and tarpit it for the next turn or two. Fragile warmachine being bubblewrapped? Move them, shoot it, charge it, tarpit it in that order. Although they're not gonna impress anyone, they seem to be pretty damn good at table control.
Battle Pilgrims: Elite peasants. They're the cheapest units in your army at 80 points, and actually put out 2.32 damage (only slightly below the Peasant Bowmen and Men-at-Arms). Defensively, they have slightly better saves due to their ability to re-roll 1s and 2s if the Grail Reliquae is alive, but the minimum unit size only has 9 wounds compared to Men-at-Arms' 16. These honestly might not be half bad; they're cheap, defensive, and only slightly more peasant-y and useless than Men-at-Arms. However, this bonus starts dropping off above 12 models or so; thirty Men-at-Arms cost 240 points and benefits from the Rowdy Mob special rule, while thirty Battle Pilgrims cost 400 points and only has one tier of the Inspired Fervour rule (add 1 to wound rolls if you have more than ten models). Keep them in mind.
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
The armies in this section are mostly theory, but there are some that are actually practical to convert/buy second-hand.
The 1000 Point Battalion Box
This army is made using the Bretonnian Battalion box and some of the most common conversions/loose models you can find: Noble Champions.
- 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!
Catch me if you can
This army use a very simple tactic and at 60 wound it's really balanced.
- 1 noble champion
- 32 bowmen
- 10 mounted yeomen
- 1 field trebuchet
Put your paladin, your bowmen and your trebuchet as far as possible from your enemy. Deploy your mounted yeomen as close as possible to your enemy. Charge their warmachines/heroes/small wounds units with the cavalry while hitting hard with all the ranged attack. Once they are done with the yeomen let them go near your archers and shot an arrowstorm. Smile.
A variation of this concept could be substitute 5 bowmen for one Paladin Standard Bearer that will improve the Mounted Yeomen.
Hear my neigh!
Want some OP cavalry rage at 60 wounds?
- 1 bretonnian lord
- 1 damsel on pegasus
- 5 grail knights
- 16 knights of the realm
- 3 pegasus knights
One simple rule: charge! Oh and don't forget that you can always make a retreat move in order to charge again next turn.
Any variation on that list is purely cosmetic since, in the end, all the knights if well used are equally powerful. This is maybe the most balanced list (due to the flyer and the not-so-many grail knights).
The Peasants Duty
Prefer Peasantry over Knights? This list may be for you
- 1 Enchantress (Leader) (160 points) - 1 Noble Champion (Leader) (80 points) - 32 Men-at-arms (Battleline) (240 points) - 16 Men-at-arms (Battleline) (120 points) - 16 Peasant Bowmen (Other) (200 points) - 5 Grail Knights (Other) (180 points)
This army composition utilises all of the Magic and Passive abilities of the Leaders to maximise the effectiveness of the Peasants and Grail knights. Use the men-at-arms as a meat-shield, capturing and holding points whilst your leaders, Grail Knights and Peasant Bowmen inflict as much damage as possible. The most important thing is to ensure that the Men-at-arms do not retreat-en-mass and use your grail knights intelligently as they are your kingpin and will inflict massive damage every single round if you keep them alive. Keep the Enchantress with the Grail knights, backing them up with her Saintly Guardians ability (use divine favour on the Grail Knights or Men-at-arms to increase their damage output!). Have the Noble Champion as your General, using inspiring presence often and helping dish out a good amount of damage if you give him the Relic Weapon artefact.
This 980 point build can be acquired for about ~$300 or less if you know where to look, but isn't as effective as some other builds. Getting so many men-at-arms may be a hurdle, and you can replace the Peasant bowmen for a single group of knights of the realm as they deal a lot more damage per turn, but you won't have any ranged presence on the battlefield. You can use Knight of the Realm models to represent the Grail Knights, and their are plenty of alternatives for the Enchantress, such as a Noble Lord or an extra group of Grail Knights.
Extra Advice
-You might want to give your opponent first turn so that they move up and you can then move full ahead and charge turn one.
-Do what ever you can to not be charged before you can charge. Don't be charged. Knights do lots of damage when they charge but afterwards their damage potential drops of significantly.
-Noble Champions are a must in your army when bringing the peasantry. If you don't have a Noble Champion your peasants will probably break and run, and Noble Champions are only 80 points to ensure your 120 or 200 point unit actually does its job.
-ALWAYS BRING A TRUMPETER FOR THE KNIGHTS. Seriously having a trumpeter greatly helps your chances of making a charge. Nothing is worse than having your important game changing unit of knights fail their 5" charge and lose the game.
-Peasant bowmen. These guys are great. They can once per game triple their shots or quadruple them if you have enough. Having massed fire of them like can instant gib many heavy units or severely cripple them allowing other thing to deliver the death blow.
- 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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