Brettonian Special Characters
There are 14 Special Characters that you can take for the Bretts.
Almost all of them come with a sidekick or mount of some kind. I will look at them in
order from cheapest to most expensive.
Louen Leoncoeur
Louen pretty much adds up correctly. Here's his breakdown:
100 General with +1 Leadership
145 Hippogriff
15 Grail Virtue
15 Crown of Bretonnia
75 Armour of Brilliance
30 Lion Lance
75 Tabard of Kings
455 points total. Which means we're paying 50 points for the Lionheart
Virtue and +1 Ld, which is pretty well worth it.
Louen is a pretty darn good general. I see one really big faux pas in his design though.
He has no defense against war machines. One lucky shot and bye-bye 505 pts. As you might
expect, I have a problem with this. If they had only given him a special save somewhere, I
wouldn't mind too badly, but as it stands, you HAVE to use Louen to kill your opponent's
war machines before you can do anything else.
But, overlooking that flaw, let's say I take him. First of all is the need to decide on
what stats to try and improve with the Crown. Here's my recommended order for him: T, W,
A, WS, S.
Next, we have to realize that his S is always at least 5. On a charge, it's always at
least 7. If you roll a 3 for his virtue, we're talking a S 9. For true ridiculousness, if
you improve his S and roll a 3 on your charge for his virtue, he'll have a S 10, meaning
that any hit that connects will wound unless the opponent has a special save (and most
important enemies do.)
Now, it is rather important for Louen to charge into battle. It lets you use his magic
lance (which gives you a free S6 hit.)
So, remember, Louen is really strong, but he has a glass jaw. If you can do something for
him to get him a special save (Protect spell is about all I can think of.) then do so by
all means. And hey, if you're fighting someone with no war machines, let 'em have it!
Repanse de Lyonesse
She has a number of good points to her. Firstly, she is both a General and a Battle
Standard Bearer. She causes fear, and has a unique magic standard which is pretty
interesting. Her points break down like so:
100 General
11 Equipment
55 Knight's Virtue and Virtue of Devotion
100 Fleur de Lys Banner
50 Sword of Lyonesse
316 points total. We get 6 free points
The above doesn't take into account the fact that she causes fear, either, which on a
magic weapon costs 35 pts.
So, she's immune to magic and fear, and she has some fairly anti-magic items, which are
most useful against enemy wizards.
Obviously, her primary duties are to stick close to her troops and close to HtH with any
enemy wizards she can spot. Of course, she's not too useful versus a Slann mage, since
they'll probably have that sword of Coca Cola, or whatever it's called.
Her best point is that, being a battle standard and general rolled into one, she'll save
you a lot of pts, which can be very important in those tight 2,000 pt battles.
Baron Odo d'Outremer
Again, a great deal. Odo gets a 30 pt magic item, is worth a fair chunk of change himself,
and essentially gets a copy of himself, almost a two for one deal here. Let's look at the
costs:
53 Odo
30 Morning Star of Fracasse
27 Suliman le Saracen
110 points total. Note that you're saving probably 15+ pts on Suliman
Now, Suliman is almost a Questing Champion himself. He lacks the 10 pt Questing virtue and
a few other things, but he costs less than half what Odo costs. This is where your savings
really comes in at. Plus, he is just about the only thing around that has a chance to beat
the Helm of Eyes in initiative. Suliman is sort of the icing on the cake.
But let's look at Odo first. His main characteristic is that he has the Morning Star of
Fracasse, which can destroy magic weapons. Plus, he hits at a 6 Strength the first round
of any combat, which helps him get in the wound he needs to activate the Morning Star.
Obviously, you should hurl him at whichever enemy has the biggest, ugliest magic weapon.
The more points he can destroy with his Morning Star, the more likely you are to recoup
the pts you spent on him. Remember, stat-wise he's not too hot, just an average Questing
Champion. His weapon and his sidekick make him special.
Suliman's big thing is his war cry, which will let him attack first no matter what if his
opponent fails a Leadership test. Of course, poor Suliman, being an average joe in all
other ways, can't really DO anything with the initiative, having won it. He's just not
that hot a fighter.
Still, by committing the duo to destroying big bad magic weapons, you can destroy more
than their quota of enemy pts.
Roland Le Marechal
Roland is a Knightly Champion, mounted on a Bretonnian Warhorse. A normal Knightly
Champion (same stats) costs 48 pts, 30 pts less than Roland.
So, what do you get for your 30 pts? Well, it appears that you get a 25 pt magic item, and
the other 5 pts are probably for the privilege of being Roland. :) Either that or you're
buying the Knight's Virtue twice. Here's a cost breakdown:
48 Knightly Champion, with all equip.
25 Roland's Warhorn
5 Who knows?
78 points total
Now, Roland's Warhorn. It basically makes every flyer within 18" fly high (enemies
only, excuse me.) They have to sit there and do nothing until they pass a Ld check.
Pretty ugly, really. You can use his horn every magic phase, if I am reading this right,
and the flyers can't even attack other flyers until they make that Ld test. If your
opponent's general is mounted on a dragon, well, let's just say that he might be really
and truly annoyed when his general can't use his dragon's mighty frost breath that round
on your charging knights. Or hey, make him flee, then whip out your bowman's Sky Arrow and
shoot him down. If you use this combo, I recommend shouting "Pull!" right before
you blow his general straight to hell. That'll learn him for trying to cheese you like
that.
Tancred, Duc de Quenelles
Tancred is a General with +1 Ld, which is awesome. Not only that, but his value is nearly
correct. Adding his stuff up, we see that:
100 General
5 Equipment
30 Grail Virtue and Virtue of Purity
100 The Blade of Couronne
10 The Blessed Draught
25 The Grail Shield
270 points total. 5 free points
Not only that, but he can be mounted on a pegasus, or any other large monster you want!
He's pretty much the only Special Character I've seen with any degree of customizability.
I would definitely put him on a flying monster though, to get that 24" movement. He
needs to bring the Blade to bear as soon as he possibly can, at least against an Undead
army. Save his Draught for an important enemy, and be sure to keep the troops at his side
so they can benefit from his awesome 10 Leadership.
Against undead armies, step one is to destroy their screaming skull catapults. Careful
positioning of Tancred should cause them to simply explode in a puff of disgust.
Next, go beat upon any mounted vampires you see. This is a good opportunity to use his
Blessed Draught. You might also just have him lead the charge into that skeleton mob that
you hate so much. Set your tape measure to 3" and grin maliciously at your opponent.
They hate that. If you can park it next to his necromancer, all the better.
On the downside, you can expect a total powered curse of years on this guy sooner or
later. Sooner if you're playing with the forbidden rod. It's a pity they didn't invest the
extra 35 pts to make Tancred REALLY worthwhile.
Against non-undead opponents...wait a minute, what the hell are you doing taking Tancred
against non-undead opponents? He's almost totally useless without undead to spank!
Bertrand the Brigand
Ok, let's see here, I'll bet he's a Commoner Champion, yup, looks like he is, but he gets
+1 BS, and +1 Ld. Since he's a Bowman Champion that would make him 33 pts normally. So,
where do your 50 pts go?
Well, first, he comes with 2 sidekicks. Little John and Friar Tuck, err.. you know what I
mean. Hugo Le Petit is a bowman with +1 BS, +2 S, and +1 T, plus his bow shots use his
strength for damage So he's worth a good chunk of points (hard to say exactly how many.)
Gui le Gros is a bowman with +1 BS and his wineskin. Being a bowman of bergerac he's worth
9 pts, plus change for the wineskin, which has an effect I wouldn't use unless there were
units fleeing towards the Bowmen of Bergerac.
Now, Bertrand gets a re-roll on his to-hit rolls with his bow, and a 5 pt magic item,
which is actually pretty good (an arrow that no normal armour can save against, and always
wounds if it hits.)
PLUS, any bowmen led by Bertrand can become bowmen of bergerac for 1 pt each. For that 1
pt, they get +1 BS, and get to skirmish, and so essentially become good squires with
longbows. Now for an attempt at a point breakdown:
33 Bertrand (Commoner Champion w/ Longbow)
9 Gui le Gros ("The Fat Man", Bowman of Bergerac)
9 Hugo le Petit (Bowman of Bergerac)
5 The Black Arrow
28 Hugo's Strength, Toughness, Bertrand's stuff, Gui's wine
83 points total
Now, if you ask me, you're getting a deal. In fact, Bertrand may be the best special
character in the book. That +1 BS skill for 1 pt thing is one of the sweetest plums you're
likely to come across. I dare say it's hideously underpriced.
Obviously, the thing to do with Bertrand is to stick as many of your bowmen in his unit as
you think you can get away with, and stick him towards the front of your deployment zone.
Then, just hold your ground and fire.
A second possibility is useful if you have a wall on your side of the table. Deploy his
unit behind the wall in one or two ranks in skirmish formation. You'll be able to shoot
your enemy to bits and he'll have to climb over that blasted wall and dig you out. Of
course, even with 6's to hit, Bret. bowmen are pathetic in HtH. You'll probably lose even
with a wall there to defend. Oh well. Try and keep the enemy away for as long as possible.
The Knight of the Perilous Lance
The "Knight" is a Knightly Hero with two virtues and two little quirks to him.
His opponents save at -1, and he can re-roll his own saves. So, to the tally board:
78 Hero on Barded Warhorse
20 Knight's Virtue and Virtue of the Joust
23 -1 to enemy save, re-roll own save
121 points total
Hmm. It would appear that he's only a little cheaper than he should be. The save re-roll
is like the Dawnstone, a 25 pt magic item, and the -1 is like the Biting Blade, a 10 pt
magic item. I'd say he only nets you around 12 pts for free, if you don't take into
account that his items aren't magic, and can't be destroyed. If you want a tourny legal
version of the "Knight", you could build one for 133 pts. It would be identical,
except that its magic items could be destroyed or dispelled or whatnot.
Of course, I don't think much of this character. He wasn't really designed with a purpose
in mind, he just deals wounds that are a little better than average, and he is a bit
harder to kill. He's not really there to do anything in particular though, just sort of
run around and vaguely kill anything that looks threatening. For 121/133pts, I would
rather have a hero with a goal in mind, like Jasperre, or one of my own devising.
Tristran le Troubadour
Tristran has the stats of a hero, an unarmed men-at-arm sidekick, The bare costs for that
would be:
78 Hero with Equipment
10 Questing Virtue
15 Virtue of Noble Disdain
5 Man-at-arms
50 Jule's Dodging
5 Jule's Taunt
42 Tristran's Songs
After that though, you notice that Jules, his man-at-arms, has a Move of 8 essentially,
and +1 Initiative. Also, Tristran gets three songs that he can sing. One of them is a 3+
natural dispel, one gives him a Ld of 10, and one acts like a War Banner. He can pick one
to sing every turn.
Not only that, but Jules acts like he has on an Improved Ring of Darkness (50 pts), and a
weakened Parrying Blade (5 pts). But, if Jules is killed, Tristan can't use his songs
anymore, which makes this a risky character to take. Sure Jules is hit only on a 6, but
your opponent only has to manage it once to rid himself of Tristran's songs.
This is the first Special Character I've seen that I actually wouldn't take for the point
cost listed. Miracles do exist.
Tristran is far too vulnerable to losing Jules, and if you'll look above at the point cost
breakdown, you'll see that losing Jules costs him about half his point value. But, for
argument's sake, let's say I get a wild hair up my butt and want to try him out. Okay, so
what do I use him for? Well, I suppose I'd stick him in charge of a unit of Questing
Knights. That makes it a bit harder to kill off Jules, and Tristran's songs can benefit
the whole unit. During the advance, I would have him sing his 3+ dispel song, on the
charge I'd have him sing the +1 combat result song, and after that, I'd have him sing the
Ld 10 song.
Reynard le Chasseur
Ok, Reynard is a Knightly Champion with +1 A, and costs 52 pts more than your average
Knightly Champion. For his 52 pts, you get the +1 A, two wolf-hounds, a boar spear, and
the ability to give a unit of mounted squires the Knight's Virtue. The +1 A would cost 25
pts to get with a magic item. The wolf-hounds look to be a bit more effective than
men-at-arms, but less effective than a Commoner Champion. I would rate them around 15 pts
each. The Boar Spear is a normal spear that can cause an opponent to lose 1d6 attacks if
Reynard gets to attack first. That's easily worth 30 pts, and probably a little more. The
ability to give mounted squires the Knight's virtue is worth 5 pts for every squire in the
unit, usually no more than 10, so say 50 pts.
Adding this up, we come to the conclusion that Reynard is a very inexpensive deal:
48 Reynard Knightly Champion
25 +1 Attack
30 Two Wolf-hounds (rough cost estimate)
30 Boar Spear
50 10 Mounted Squires getting Knight's Virtue Free
183 pts (But he only costs 90)
I realize that I've changed my format with Reynard, but that's okay. I just wanted to show
you why special characters should never be Tournament legal. They cost WAY too little.
Hugo le Petit should have to pay a high cost for his +2 S, and +1 T, but he pays less than
28 pts for it. Gross.
Anyways, Reynard should be put in charge of mounted squires, by all means. You get some
freebie pts out of doing that, and you have an all-terrain unit actually worth a damn. Arm
the squires with bows, shields, and spears. This way you have a sniper unit that can
charge into battle from the edge of a forest, or right across difficult terrain. With
Reynard in the lead, they might even win.
An interesting thing about the boar spear is that it's not magical. That means it can't be
nullified or destroyed by any means. If you can charge with him you'll almost certainly
get to use the spear, and hey, dwarves and normal humans will be at your mercy with that
big fat 4 Initiative. Anyways, he's fun to have just for the hounds and hawk.
Armand D'Aquitaine
Armand is a Battle Standard Bearer with +1 WS and +2 Ld, which can be pretty dang handy
for a BSB to have. Here's a points breakdown:
80 Battle Standard Bearer
11 Equipment
45 Grail Virtue and Virtue of Knightly Ardour
75 Banner of the Lady of the Lake
211 points total (We're paying 24 points for the +1 WS and +2 Ld)
Let's see, +1 WS can be bought for 15 pts, which means we are paying 9 pts for +2 Ld,
which is a darn good deal, assuming you actually want the Banner of the Lady of the Lake.
It's a good banner, don't get me wrong. I just don't tend to use it much. Overall, Armand
is a decent, but not excellent, buy, compared to the other Special Characters.
If you take him, I recommend that you keep him in a unit of Grail Knights. Of course, this
makes that unit of Knights an incredibly luscious target for all sorts of BS. Expect
dragons to attack them, giants to jump up and down on them, every kind of silliness your
opponent can bring to bear. I fully expect that someone will figure out a way to kill them
off.
But really, the only other option is to keep Armand back out of the battle, in which case
you're really wasting 30 pts for his Knightly Ardour. Overall, I'd call Armand a bad
strategic decision.
Jasperre le Beau, Dragonslayer
Ok, let's check out how Jasperre weighs in. He quite sensibly rides a pegasus to go
hunting for large monsters. His magic items are probably the most effective I've seen in
the book, and his cost actually adds up just about correctly. Here's his breakdown:
65 Hero (straight Hero, no stat changes)
50 Pegasus
4 Heavy Armour and Shield
35 Questing Virtue and Virtue of Valour
10 Helm of the Dragonslayer
50 Claw of Malgrimace
15 The Virtuous Lance
229 points total (So we're missing 5 points)
What I'm thinking may have happened is Jasperre got bumped down from a Grail Knight to a
Questing Knight at some point, and the points total never got changed. In fact, that's the
only thing I could think of to make him better, is to get him the Grail Virtue. As it is,
he has to make terror checks and such in order to go after Dragons, which would seem silly
for an experienced Dragon Slayer.
However, Jasperre is better at what he does than any hero you could make using the
existing Warhammer Magic items. Let's send him after a griffon, just out of curiousity:
Jasperre first uses the claw, taking away 5 attacks from the griffon. That was lucky, now
the griffon gets no attacks at all this round.
Okay, next to see if Jasperre hits (4+, re-roll misses) 3 hits. I'm rolling better than
average here, I guess. Now, to see if he wounds. His S is 8 against large monsters, so he
wounds on 2+ (rolling) 2 wounds. Griffons don't get a save. Next we multiply the wounds
(rolling) 3 wounds. Now we make the all important test to see if he kills it outright
(rolling) a 4! Ding dong the griffon's dead!
Of course, Jasperre isn't much good against an actual dragon. Let's put him up against a
small one:
Jasperre's claw: 4. Dragon attacks first unless Jasperre has charged, which for Jasperre's
sake, we'll say he has. Now, for Jasperre's attacks: 2 hits. 2 wounds. But here's the
problem, nothing Jasperre has helps him penetrate the dragon's scaly skin. Dragon rolls 2
saves: and gets 4+ on both. Jasperre has failed to hurt it. On the bright side, Jasperre
can get lucky and roll a 6, killing the dragon even if he has failed to wound it at all!
(rolling) Oh my god. Well, maybe he has his good points against dragons after all. I
actually rolled a 6. Scratch one 450 pt dragon thanks to a 234 pt hero. Sheesh. I'd be so
pissed if someone killed one of my dragons like that, I don't know what I'd do. I mean,
Jasperre didn't even wound the dragon, but he still gets a 1 in 6 chance to exterminate
it.
However, the above freak of the dice notwithstanding, you'd better remember that the lance
only helps during the first round of combat. After that, you'd better get him to run for
the hills, or he's dogmeat, claw or no claw.
Bohemond, Duke of Bastonne
Okay, he's a Grail Knight with some magic items and such that make him a little hard to
ennumerate. Looking at his stats he's close to a Hero with +1 W and +1 Ld. His weapon
gives him +2 S, and his shield can destroy magic weapons used against him. So, let's try
this:
78 Hero with Equipment
15 Grail Virtue
25 Virtue of the Impetuous Knight
30 Beast Mace
30 Bohemond's Shield
178 points
Of course, his mace is rather underpriced for what it does. It is really a combination of
the Ogre Blade and the Bone Blade, for a total of 75 points. So, if we add that 45 pts in
we get 223 pts. Despite the seemingly fair point cost at first, we still see that he's
getting a little extra on the side, like all the special characters.
So, how best to use this guy...well, he can deal a disgusting amount of damage and he has
3 Wounds. He can destroy magic items if he gets lucky, and his WS is 5. Hmm. This guy is
not as obviously ugly as say, The Green Knight, but consider his stats. Overall though,
he's no more focused than the Knight of the Perilous Lance, just more expensive and better
at killing.
If I were to take him (and I wouldn't) I'd put him in a unit of Knights Errant or Knights
of the Realm as their leader. His Ld 9 makes him a great head honcho, and you are
certainly going to pump up the unit's offensive capabilities with him, as well as give
them a tiny bit of protection versus magic weapons.
The Green Knight
Ok, first off, the Green Knight has some really pumped up stats, but ostensibly only 1
Attack (more on this later.) He doesn't really fit any single character type too well, the
closest being the General's template.
Of course, this is where game balance takes a hike. Reading over what the Green Knight
does, I'm a bit disgusted. Immune to psychology, 2+ natural dispel, 2+ special save versus
wounds essentially, causes fear, and can sort of infiltrate into enemy territory.
Plus, his sword is a 70 pt magic item that deals 1d6 wounds when it hits or can be traded
in for 1d6 attacks instead. Oh, and if the knight uses the single attack for 1d6 wounds,
no armour saves are allowed versus it. All for the same cost as the Venom Blade.
Revolting.
This guy is awfully unbalanced. Looking at his points tally:
100 General Stats
70 Dolorous Blade
15 Grail Virtue
40 Almost Virtue of Devotion
50+ Regeneration
?? Infiltration
?? Causes Fear
Not even taking everything into account he's worth at least 105 pts more than he costs.
That's just putrid. He doesn't have any severe weaknesses, and his stats are really pretty
dang good. As long as you are reasonably lucky, he'll act like a character with 3.5 Wounds
and 3.5 Attacks. Blecch. See why I hate playing with special characters? It's a nuclear
escalation of sorts, with each new special character trying to be cooler than those from
the last books. On the bright side, the mini for this guy is gorgeous. I may not put the
character in my army, but I'll sure use his mini as a hero of some sort. If I WERE to use
him, I'd infiltrate him as far in as possible using his hermit knight rules, and try and
claim a good sized chunk of my opponent's table side with his aid. Then, I'd simply point
him at my enemy's war machines and let him beat the holy crap out of them while the rest
of my army worked its way up to help him. Who cares if those dwarven war machines have a
rune of immolation? There's a good chance he'll just pick his head back up and carry on
with what he was doing.
Morgiana le Fay
Morgiana is probably a hopeless case when it comes to quantifying her, but here goes:
287 Wizard Lord (with several stat mods: -1 S, -1 T, -1 W, -2 A, +1 Ld.)
90 Unicorn
40 Chalice of Potions
10 Morgiana's Mirror
30 Power Familiar
60 The Girdle of Gold
517 points total. 88 free points, but you have to take into account the lower stats
Of course, with Morgiana you always know what spells you will get, and the Favours are
additional freebies that cost you nothing to use (except the Ban.)
Essentially, Morgiana is a huge deal. She's way too cheap for what she does. She is among
the top 3 Special Characters for the Brets. The other two being the Green Knight and
Bertrand the Brigand.
Tactics for using her? Well, let's see. Put her in charge of some Knights Errant with the
Errantry Banner and preferably a hero or champion. Next, put another unit of knights next
to them with the Standard of Sorcery, and pray for the Total Power card to fall into your
lap.
First turn, you need to use either the red, white, or blue mists, depending on whether the
enemy has lots of archers or lots of war machines. This assumes that you don't have
another character on the job to take care of them. I would do this simply because I'll be
danged if I'm going to lose a 400+ pt unit and my main wizard to a lucky cannon shot.
On your magic phase, try to get off the Mist of Chalons, maybe on your unit of
men-at-arms, or your Grail Knights. Since you are going to have lots of WoM cards (thanks
to the SoS and your Power Familiar), I also would try and get off the Doom of Dol.
Nominating your General/Pegasus riding hero and his favorite character is sure to make him
nervous.
In the meantime, if you have Total Power, it's time to go kill his General (don't waste
Doom of Dol on him, we're going to kill him in a much crueler way.) Use Beguilement of
Blondel to clear a space for your Knights Errant and Morgiana to get close to the General,
then Total Power your Spiteful Glance. Poof, the enemy General is a frog, even if he used
to be a Slann Mage on Palanquin. Now, chortle with glee, zing him with a smart-*** remark
like "It's not easy being green." and have Morgiana make a run for it as he
brings his entire army to bear on her (trust me, once you've turned a 900 pt character
into a frog, your opponent will be a little pissed.)
It's not a bad idea if you can save an Escape card for Morgiana, just in case the
unthinkable happens, like a Giant Jumping Up and Down on her. ("Make my boss a frog
willya. *STOMPSTOMPSTOMP*")
Of the various mist colours, I would ignore yellow, as the other mists are all better than
it (although violet isn't all that great.) Red, white, and blue are your best colours.
Remember though, you only get to use the chalice once, so choose wisely, my son. (Nodding
at Bret general lying in a pool of his own blood, "He chose...poorly.")
Conclustion
First of all, I don't recommend the use of Special Characters. The miniatures are too
costly, their points cost makes them irresistable targets, you have little or no control
over their setup, and they are unfairly cheap.
Granted, they add colour to the game, but I am of the opinion that all characters in a
game should follow the rules, and adhere to the basic point cost formulas. I find that I
get more enjoyment from a well performed tactical maneuver than by running amok through my
opponent's army with an unstoppable character.
That having been said, I'm going to rank the Bretonnian Special Characters here, from best
buy to worst buy. Each will have a sentence or so of commentary.
GOUDA AWARD WINNERS
The Green Knight: The king of limburger. Really cheap, terribly hard to kill, starts in
your opponent's lap, more or less. A hideous thing to whip out on a good friend. The
mini's nice, though.
Morgiana le Fay: Total Power lets you almost certainly kill your opponent's General. No
armour saves, no special saves, nothing. Poof, he's a frog. Not to mention all the other
crap she gets. Ugh.
JUST SHY OF CHEESE
Bertrand the Brigand: He seems to get an awful lot of stuff for the tiny sum you pay for
him.
FAIR BUT GOOD
Repanse de Lyonesse: She is a cheap magic-proof general that can double as a Battle
Standard, or who can act totally as the Battle Standard Bearer, with much better stats.
Jasperre le Beau: Kills dragons 1 in 6 charges. Too bad he has to make a terror check to
even charge them.
Louen Leoncouer: Big, mean. Wizards will quake in their boots, not wanting to cast spells
at him. However, one lucky cannonball, and so long 505 pt general.
Tancred, duc de Quenelles: Awesome against undead. Nigh unto useless against everyone
else.
Roland le Marechal: Roland is almost like a Black Gem of Gnar bearer for all of your
opponent's flying models.
By Kevin Wilson
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