BRETONNIAN TACTICS
Bretonnians Strengths:
The strength of the Bretonnian army is obviously it's knights. They are among the best heavy cav in the warhammer world. And with the special lance formation they can be truely amazing. 10 Grail Knights in lance formation (including standard and musician) cost 450pts (plus whatever you might want to spend on a magic standard... say the 50pts Banner of Might). That's 500pts for a unit with a +4 combat resolution that will have 7 strength 6 attacks when charging at +1 to hit, and a charge range of 16inches and that is immune to all psychology.... now that's mean. And when you add in a hero or two with virtues, you have a truely heavy hitting unit. The other knight units are only slightly less destructive.
The Bretonnians also have the ability to take 75% characters. This is important for the units to have heroes... not just for carrying magic items but to have important virtues. The most important one being the Virtue of Knightly Ardour.... it's expensive at 30pts, but it allows the knight unit to counter charge as a charge reaction. This is very important as it allows the knights to use their lances.
The Prayer of the Lady of the Lake is very helpful in protecting the Bretonnians (namely their knights) frm war machines and missle troops. Hoever many players think it's enough to invoke the prayer, it's not. Their virtues are also very powerful if used properly. Like anything, they can be abused however.
The Bretonnian army also has commoners to choose from. Mounted squires are normal humans on horses. At 10 points they are a very cheap mounted troops and have alot of nice options such as light armor, bows, shields, and/or spears. This enables you to custom the mounted squires for a specific task. Such as giving them a spear and light armor to use as a fast cavalry/flanking unit. Or giving them bows and light armor to use as a fast cavalry archer unit. They can also skirmish. Personally i like them, without taking any of the options... at 10pts apeice and the skirmishing ability, they make a great screen for your knights. There are also Squires, which can be given longbows or spears and they may skirmish. Personally i think they are usless, if you want a unit of spearmen take men at arms, if you want archers take bowmen. The third commoner are men-at-arms... they are basic humans who can have spears or halberds. They can also have light armor and/or shields. They would make a good defensive unit. Personally however i don't think that serves a Bretonnian army well. The best use of men-at-arms is a crown of command trap the opponents unit in combat type unit. But the problem is that it's an obvious trap and not to hard to avoid. The last and best of the commoners is the Bowmen. They are just basic humans with longbows, but can adopt the arrowhead formation which enables (if the unit does not move) every model to fire. Not just the front rank. To me a Bretonnian army is best when it's only foot troops are Bowmen in arrowhead formation. For 120pts you can have a unit fo 15 bowmen all of which can fire when the unit does not move. This makes them useful even though by themselves, human archers aren't very good.
Bretonnian Weeknesses:
I must admit being tired of people complaining about the Bretonnians being a cheesy army. ANY army can be cheesy if played that way, which is the fault of the player, not the army. That being said, the Bretonnian army DOES have diadvantages.
They do not have ANY war machines. And the lance formation is certainly not indestructable. The lance formation actually creates more ranks and more chances for some war machines to kill knights. The lance creates more ranks for RBT's to pierce and for cannon balls to bounce through. And the flame template fits very nicely over the lance formation.
The fact that the Bretonnian army MUST take 25% of it's army total in knights is somewhat of a hinderance. The knights are expensive, only toughness 3 and 1 wound. Which means anything with a strength of 3 or more that does not allow armor saves (such as RBT's, many other war machines, many spells, even insect swarms) is the ultimate bane to knights. And since the knights (and their charge) are the focal point of the army so it's necessary to protect the knights. Which is the reason for the Prayer and some of the other special rules. A Bretonnians army cannot win without it's charge.
Also, the lance formation is not very manouverable and can only charge/counter charge what the FRONT KNIGHT sees. That means it can only charge in ONE person's 90degree charge arc. While normal formations can charge whatever any of the front rank models see. So it isn't very difficult (especially for fast troops) to get outside the Bretonnian's charge arc.
Bretonnian Special Characters:
The Bretonnian army book is filled with them. Some people like special characters and think they add a lot of flavour to an army. Others beleive special characters unbalance the game. I think they are both right. Some special characters are overpowered and underpriced and can unbalance a game (some regular characters can be overpowered as well). Jaspear Le Beau and the Green Knight come to mind as underpriced. And some of the Bretonnian special characters are simply fun, and add flavour. Bertrand the Brigand, Tristran le Troubadour, and The Knight of the Perilous Lance come to mind. The Bretonnian King special character, Louen Leoncoeur, the Lionhearted is a good character. It is a very bad idea for the opponent to cast spells at him, but he isn't overpowered. The best thing about the Breotnnian special characters is that all their magic items are set, you cannot change them.
Bretonnian Tactics:
I'm not the best player in the world. I have trouble beating undead with my Bretonnians because i can't break the huge units of skeletons. I have found some things to work very well however.
-Always take Grail Knights. They are great, powerful, immune to psycology and do not need any help with leadership. Give them a magic dispell and the Virute of Knightly Ardour and they are ready to go. I always (if the game is big enough) have a unit of a total of 10 models including the standard, and characters. That gives a +4 combat res to start with. Always take a standard and muscician because it doesn't cost extra.
-Realm Knights are better than Questing knights. Well not really, but i don't bother with the Questing knights because the extra cost just isnt' worth it to me. I ususally have a unit of a total of 10 mods (points permitting) with the crown of command (this unit DOES need leadership help), a magic protective device and the Virtue of Knightly Ardour. I often give them the Dread Banner (always against undead). I learned my lessen when a unit that caused fear managed to win combat thanks to some magic banners and ranks (and bad rolling on my part) and my Realm Knights broke automatically.
-Bowmen are great... i really love bowmen. I ususally have 2 units of 15 (only 120pts for each unit), sometimes increasing one or both to 21 models. Always in arrowhead formation and they ususally don't move. A unit of 21 bowmen in arrowhead formation actually pretects the flank rather well against most troops.
-Mounted Squires make great screening troops. They are fast, cheap cavalry models with nice options. They can make a great, fast flanking unit by giving them spears and at most light armor. They will be fast cav and have S4 attacks. Not as good as knights, but good enoguh to cause problems and get flank bonuses.
-Errant Knights... i don't really like them. To me the only good thing about them is taking 5 in normal formation to hold a banner such as the banner of sorcery. But i'm sure they have uses... they have basic human stats, but still have lances for S5 attacks, can use the lance formation and have 2+ armor saves.
Bretonnian Character Combos:
A Bretonnian General, given the right virtues (however i never use the virtue of devotion and never will except for in a tournament) and equipment. If you are expecting something nasty (like a greater daemon), a Bretonnian General with the Grail Virtue and Virtue of Knightly Temper, along with the Bone Blade (or rending sword), Tress de Isoulde, Armor of Protection riding a griffon makes a very good, yet not overpowered character than if charges, stands a good chance at taking down a big nasty. The tress is one use but hitting and wounding on a 2+ with the virtue of knightly temper measn you have the possibilty for 8 hits, averaging about 6-7 hits with about 5-6 wounding. Assuming you hit 6 times and with a 2+ to wound you wound 5 times (about average) and are carrying the rending sword (does 2 wounds instead of 1), that equals one dead bloodthirster. It makes for a great one shot kill without spending the points for things like the frotblade or emperor dragon. If you want to go for something more powerful you can change magic weapons.
Also, giving the Banner of the Lady of the Lake to the Battle Standard bearer is a good idea as it allows ALL knights on the board to re-roll break tests. Not just those within 12" of the Battle Standard.
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