Units of Brettonia

Like the Empire the Bretonnian army consists of humans. They are your basic Warhammer race costing just 5 points per model and they have a very average line of stats. Unfortunately their points cost means that they just fail to qualify for the special equipment costing deal. They really have no basic weaknesses or strong points and they are not subject to any special rules.

Unlike the Empire however the Bretonnian army has a very small selection of troop types to pick from. They have none of the more esoteric types that the forces of Karl Franz have access to. This means that even more than with the Empire you must know your troops and have a very clear battle plan when you design your army list. Just picking a few units "cause they look nice" and then not know what you are going to do with them is a recipe for disaster.

Characters

Bretonnian Lord
A standard human lord level character with one difference. They can get Bretonnian Virtues. These are additional abilities that you can buy for your characters that can make them immune to psychology, give them the ability to lead a counter charge etc. You always have to take either the Grail Virtue, the Questing Virtue or the Knight Virtue and you can take one other if you so desire. The various Virtues are discussed in further detail later. With the new rule making all your units take a panic test if your general dies you need to give him some good protection and this normally involves a Magic Item. I used to like the Black Amulet but with the new magic rules (Power exhausted on a roll of a 1) I prefer the Armour of Protection When mounted on your barded warhorse this will give you a save of 2+ followed by 4+ (Unmodifible) which is not too shabby.

Bretonnian Hero
As with the lord these have stand human hero stats. Again they can have two virtues with the first being chosen from either the Grail Virtue, the Questing Virtue or the Knight Virtue. With the large character allowance that the Bretonnian army gets I would suggest that each Knight Unit that you have is led by a Hero.

Champions
Unlike most races the Bretonnians have several different types of champion from the lowly Commoner champion to the powerhouse that is the Grail Knight Champion. Champions of Knight units will always have the same virtue as the rest of the unit but the poor old commoner champion doesn't get a virtue and is left to fend all on his own. Its a hard life being a commoner!!

Wizards
With the new magic system if you play under the standard rules all the headaches of which colour mage to take have disappeared. You can get Battle Magic, Battle Magic or Battle Magic. If you do decide to play the colour rules then you'll have to decide which colour magic to take. Everybody has a personal preference and mine happens to be for gold magic but its really up to you to choose which deck suits your style of play the most.

Knightly Virtues

Who need magic items when you can have virtues. These are extra abilities that you can give your characters to make them just that little bit more special - and with 75% character allowance you can be sure that you'll always have the points to buy the virtue that you want. Note that only Knightly characters can have virtues so you can't give any to your wizards or commoner champions.

Knights Virtue
Makes you immune to panic caused by fleeing commoners. I would ignore this virtue and go for the Grail Virtue at only 10 points more.

Questing Virtue
Makes you immune to panic, full stop. Again I would ignore this virtue and go for the Grail Virtue, this time at only 5 points more.

Grail Virtue
The best of the three common virtues, this one makes you immune to all Psychology. This means no nasty fear checks when you charge that horrible unit of rotting zombies. Excellent value at 15 points, but remember that just because you are immune to psychology, the troops that you are leading won't necessarily be.

Virtue of the Joust
This is good if you are going to use a Lance but most characters will have a Magic Sword and thus won't benefit from this virtue.

Virtue of Purity
Under the old magic system this virtue would have been as good as a multiple use Amulet of Fire. However as it is a natural dispel you can't power it up so it will have limited use. Still it could discourage your opponent from targeting you with spells, unless they have plenty of power cards.

Virtue of Knightly Temper
You can get a lot of attacks with this virtue, especially if you pick on troops with lower weapons skills than you. It might not be heroic but war is about winning.

Virtue of the Impetuous Knight
This virtue enables you to get into combat that little bit sooner. I wouldn't recommend relying on it to enable you to make the charge but if your opponents choose to flee that extra d6" could make the difference between failing to charge and cutting down the craven dogs as they flee.

Virtue of Valour
This virtue relies on you fighting troops that are better than you are. As this is a bad idea (Heros should be butchering rank and file) don't bother with this one unless your up against a Chaos Army in which case even the rank and file troops are better than you!

Virtue of Discipline
Repeat after me, the ability to reroll leadership tests is a good one. Putting a hero in you big knight unit with this virtue is the same as placing the army standard bearer with the unit for about 100 points less. Remember that this virtue lets you reroll ALL Leadership tests, including ones cause by Spells. The break test is also a Leadership test so you can reroll those as well.

Virtue of Devotion
When I first read this virtue I thought that it was a cheap alternative to the Amulet of Obsidian but closer reading reveal that it only protects the knight from hostile magic. This could lead to situations when the unit around him is affected by a spell such as Blast and he was completely unharmed. If you take this virtue put the character with it at the front of your lance formations. This means that he will likely be the target for all those "Hits the first model in path" spells and the spell with thus be wasted.

Virtue of Noble Disdain
If you play against Wood Elves a lot then this is a good virtue to have as in my experience Hatred is a good thing. If you decide to give your character this virtue then ignore the advice given above and don't give him the Grail Virtue. Hatred is just another form of psychology and therefore if he had the Grail virtue he would be unaffected.

Virtue of Knightly Ardour
My favourite virtue, this gives you the ability to counter charge. The rules state that you can't use this if charged in the flanks or rear but as your lance formations have only a rear you don't really need to worry. Every Knight unit should have a character in it that has this ability. Most of the Bretonnian armys hitting power comes from the charge so the ability to counter charge is an excellent one. Just remember that the fight is carried out in iniative order so get those Lords and Heros hacking.

Knights

The bretonnian Knights are far superior to their Empire counterparts but at a greater points cost. As you have to form at least 25% of your army from units of Knights it is worth learning there abilities inside out. All of the Knight units have a 2+ save and can use the lance formation. They all get Standards and Musicians at no extra points cost and all are immune to Panic and other forms of psychology to a lesser or greater degree. Finally they are mounted on bretonnian Warhorses giving them a charge of 16" and probably more importantly enabling them to roll 3d6 for pursuit when most other heavy cavalry only rolls 2d6.

Grail Knights
The epitomy of a man and horse in perfect union. Their Leadership stat is as good as a human lord. These are the ULTIMATE heavy Cavalry. Immune to all Psychology

Weaknesses
Watch out for enemy warmachines and those ever so nasty night goblin fanatics. Lots of points tied up in a few models.

Uses
There is really only one use for Grail Knights. Take a big unit, put them into the Lance formation, charge you enemy and watch them crumble. Your opponent will know that your Grail Knights are your strong arm and will try to charge them if at all possible to rob you of you big charge bonuses. To get round this take a Grail Knight Hero and give him the Virtue of Knightly Ardour. Problem Solved. You still count as charging and due to the lance formation and your armour you should still be able to devastate the enemy.

Questing Knights
An extra point of iniative over Knights of the Realm and immune to Panic rather than Panic caused by Commoners.

Weaknesses
Do I really need to tell you.

Uses
I would expect these to be the least used of all the knights. The advantages over a Knight of the Realm are insignificant yet they cost more. Leave them at home except in big battles.

Knights of the Realm
These troops are your most common type of knight and I would expect most armies to have at least one unit of them. They ignore panic caused by troops who are not Knights.

Weaknesses
Normal heavy cavalry problems of a few models taking up a lot of points. This makes them a prime target for all of your opponents unchivalrous warmachines.

Uses
Assuming that you've got a big unit of Grail Knights going down the centre I would take two smaller units of Knights of the Realm and place them on the flanks of your army. This way they can effectively use a double oblique line strategy and provided you can coordinate your charge properly you can finish your enemy off in a single round. These are probably your best all round knights.

Errant Knights
Normal human stats but still have a 2+ save and charge of 16".They ignore panic caused by troops who are not Knights. They are the cheapest Knights that you can get at 32 points per model.

Weaknesses
They are expensive mounted cavalry.

Uses
Good as a second wave to go in after your Grail Knights have blown big holes in the enemies battle line. If you take Morgiana then you can automatically gain a favour for your Grail Knight champions

Commoners

Mounted Squires
The audacity of it. Mere peasants mounted on horses. Out of the way riff raff.

Weaknesses
There humans on horses.

Uses
The two big advantages of mounted squires is that they can Skirmish and that they cost an unbelievably low 10 points per model. You can use them to drive off enemy skirmish screens so that your Knight blocks can get a clear charge and also to fulfill the Kislev Horse Archer role of committing suicide to pull out Night Goblin fanatics so that they can be turned into pincushions by your bowmen!

Squires
Bog standard humans.

Weaknesses
It took so much metal to make all the armour for the knights that there was none left over for these guys.

Uses
Well you could deploy them as a Spear Block but you'd be bette of using Men at Arms or you could use them as a Skirmishing longbow unit but then you can't use the Arrowhead Formation. It probably best just to leave these guys looking after the castle. Whatever you do don't be tempted to use them as skirmishing spearmen.

Men-at-Arms
Your best foot soldiers. I would always take a large block of these just because I get very worried if I haven't got at least one unit that has a +3 rank bonus. (I know Knights in Lance Formations get rank bonuses but it just doesn't seem right to me) Spears are a defensive weapon, so if you plan to dig in and shoot it out and receive a charge, spearmen are perhaps useful.

Uses
Take a large block of them (40 sounds a good number) place a Knight Hero in the centre and then place them in the centre of your battle line. Hopefully if charge they will be able to survive and hold up the enemy so that you knight units can manoeuvre to charge them [the enemy] in the flanks or rear. It is up to you whether you go for the extra hits that spears will give you or the extra damage capacity of halberds. Me, I would choose Halberds but then I always was a bit vicious. The best thing about this tactic is if your enemy does break this unit then your knights just won't care and will carry on hacking and slaying as if nothing had happened.

Bowmen
They're Humans with longbows.

Weaknesses
They're Humans with longbows

Uses
I would always take a few units of these just to give myself something to do in the shooting phase. The arrowhead formation can be very effective in enabling you to concentrate firepower from a very small frontage but it doesn't really compensate for the fact that these guys probably couldn't hit a barn door at 50 paces. If you opponent lets you it is always worth taking a large unit of bowmen and then turning them into the Bowmen of Bergerac. Just don't drink any of that wine.

By: Mike Marshall
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