Warhammer Fantasy Battle Reporter Forum

So I've got a friend that doesn't like Warhammer any more, but he has a decent sized army of Bretonnians because hes a bit spoilt if I'm honest. Anyway, I was just wonder what playing with a Bretonnian army would be like? Never really gone cavalry heavy before, so it should be something different to what I'm used to. Anything anyone can tell me about what Bretonnians are like?

Also, this is what he has, roughly.

1 Damsel.
At least 3 mounted Paladin/Lord equivalent.
16 Men at Arms and 16 Peasant Bowmen. He may have another squad of each, not sure.
2/3 squads of 8 Knights of the Realm One squad may be Knights Errant. Not sure.
Has at least 3 Pegasis Knights.
Two boxes of Grail Knights that he hasn't made up yet.
Also has a black case with them.

Is this a good start for a Bretonnian army too? What needs to be added next? All advice appreciated.

Hey friend,

It sounds to me like you have a pretty decent framework for an army. It should offer you a lot of possibilities at the 2000 or 2250 point range. You may need to think about the Grail Relaque or some pegasus knights, but it sounds solid.

Brettonians base their worth on their charge. In my opinion, and most brettonian generals, your infantry is used for keeping people off your knights flank or setting up a flanking manuever of your own. Knights receive huge strength bonus on charging (+2) so the best thing for your success is to charge, hit heavy and break the unit there.

Grail knights are one of the best cavalry units in the game if not THE best. They can tear through most anything and rank and file with the best. However, you can only use one unit of them unless you are using King Louen. Then you can have as many units as you want, within the army validation rules. Just be aware of how expensive they are.

That being said, with your army, a large solid unit of Grail knights, two units of knights, which if there are sixteen might have been a unit of ten and a unit of six due to their lance formation (which never should be taken lightly). The lance formation sets up in ranks of three. On the first turn, all three of the front ranks and all the nights down the sides get to attack. The models stuck in the middle don't. This allows more attacks on your enemy then they can get on you, except if you charge pikemen or spearmen. That way, its easy to break your opponent on the first shot. If not, dig in and be ready to use your peasants to flank.

The other tactic I would use, is to ignore your bowman's defensive stakes, at least for one of the units. A point more for each bowman and they can scout. If you place them at the head of one of your flanks, they can pull bow fire from the enemy and away from your knights. With a sixteen inch charge range, you should be able to close distance without taking to many casulties from enemy arrows or the like.

Brettonian magic is almost completely defensive and should be considered as such. Dispell scrolls and a dispell power pool is what you are going for.

Brettonian lords can be built as great duelers, great leaders and great combat heroes. The book details a lot of the things you can do. Also, check the games workshop website for articles about brettonian tactics. They have been very helpful for me.

Let me know if you need any other suggestions.

I'll second the Grail Reliquae. Its the first unit I put in my list after the compulsory choices. And the Grail Reliquae is Go Big or Go Home. Its the best anvil you're going to find in the Bret army. They only time I've really lost my Reliquae is when my buddy was irritated enough to sacrifice his entire army to kill it. He finally outnumbered the thing with fear causing Ogres. But with the pursuit/overrun etc I ended up getting rear charges everywhere after that. Stubborn, LD8, Always gets at least 4 attacks, never loses its command.

I've posted my list several times, but generall with Bretonians, you're looking at all your eggs in a few disintegrating baskets approach. If you do something with Brets you do it on your time, on your terms, in the ground you choose. I don't think there's a single army out there as maneuverable as you are. I don't think there's another army out there as vulnerable to losing that maneuverabilty either. To be honest, the roll that will give you the most butterflies in your stomach will be the break tests.

We have a guy just learning to play Brets, and I was trying to help him see the value of the Reliquae. I had Lizardmen, he had the Brets. About the third turn, he had reshuffled his Grail Knights for fear of my Stegadon when my Saurus charged his Reliquae. Because of his re-positining of the Gk, it would take him 2 turns to flank my Saurus, so he....fled?

Yes, he chose flee as his charge reaction with the Reliquae. It did not end well for him.

Moral of the story is simple; when you have a unit, use it for what it is intended for. If you are afraid to use it for its intended use...i.e., holding up enemy units, then it might be the wrong unit for you...

I am happy to say he learned from that error and I doubt we shall see it again

you have 3 units of 8 knights so make it 2 of 12. that always wins its fights.

magic: you can go offensive due to your character allowance.

dont under estimate stakes as the enemy get no charge bonus for charging them and so the bowmen can win the fight if your lucky

Bad Advice. Bret players can rarely if ever win the Magic Arms race. They don't have the useful bound spells to pull out dispel dice. They don't have truly effective lores.

A 12 knight unit is also less than ideal. Way too long of a flank. 9+9+6=24 also. Additionally you're going to be sticking characters in knight units for Look Out Sir! protection, as well as static combat res. So that's probably closer to 6+3, 9 and 9. Or some conglomeration there-of. Stakes are certainly nice. No impact hits- arguably impact hits for the chariots as well. Its a grey area that's argued both ways. Beyond that- skirmishing is the MUCH MUCH stronger option - though you're only allowed to take it once. In the first place, you can shoot with everyone, in the second, you're able to use cover, and skirmishing for defense from return missile fire. Finally, you can much more easily flee through, or use cover to protect yourself from charges- and much more successfully than praying losing the charging bonus will allow a melee win for archers.

lol sad face goes here. My Warriors of Chaos had Galrauch (lvl 4 with +1 to cast), a Daemon Prince with tzeentch (lvl 4, +1 to cast), 3 2nd level tzeentch sorcerers and 1 2nd level nurgle, along with the banner of Wrath...and the Bret player OWNED the magic phase with 2 2nd level damsels and lore of beasts. kept keeping me from moving, stopped everything I tried and got off mass stuff of his own.

It was a fluke, yes...but man do I remember it!

no bretonnia ALWAYS own in the magic phase like that although that might have something to do with the fact that i only have a lv 2 wizard

12 does work in lance formation. 3 ranks too many attacks at str 5