Warhammer Fantasy Battle Reporter Forum

Well my fellow Bretonnian generals, I joined your ranks today. I got a Bret army in a trade, and though I will miss my warmachine models I think I will get more use out of the brets. Here is a list of what I got...

Character on a Pegasus
Character on a warhorse
Character on a warhorse with a Battle Standard
Damsel on a warhorse
Damsel on foot
10 Knights of the Realm with Full Command
9 Knights Errant with Full Command
12 Bowmen with there Defensive Stakes
2 units of 20 Men at Arms with Full command
2 units of 4 Pegasus Knights with Musicians
5 Grail Knights with a Musician

This looks like a really solid start to an army to me (I know I have 5 characters so they are not all fieldable in a normal game). I have two questions...
1. What units would people recommend I get to fill out the army to 2000 and 2250? I haven't read the book yet, but I'm guessing I need more Knights

2. The army has started to be painted, but I had been thinking about stripping it and starting over. I wanted to get peoples opinion about would be cooler... The first thing I was thinking about was painting them to look like crusaders. There is some fluff about errant wars in Araby and I thought it might be cool to theme the army this way. However, most of the models are started like standard Brets, lots of different colors and each model is different. I usually am not a fan of this style, but seeing the army all together I can see how it would look really good. I am debating not stripping the models and just finishing them with the "extravagant" colors they have been started with. What do you guys think?

First of all, welcome. There's much glory and honor in the realm of Bretonnia.

1. As you read the book you'll find out you can use 5 Char's. One must always be your BSB.

2. Your amount of Knight units might be enough if you can keep the flanks protected and ALWAYS get the charge. I have lost many battles by ignoring one or the other.

3. Stick to there strenghts. Bret's are average at best with magic so don't think that will win you games, it will help and may change the tide once in a while but not always.

4. Colors. None of my knight units have a theme to them. They're all nobles from different house and all come from different heraldry's. I like the look of all different bright colors with their own banners reflecting that. My peasants are the only ones with a theme. Their lords colors.

5. Finially, dont under estimite the bessing of the lady. It has saved me enough to count on it.

Good luck and have fun.

P.S. If you haven't already, read around on the other post, there is alot of good info.

Look into a grail relique, they are very annoying to fight against and work as a wonderful unit to tie up the enemy with. Seriousley, a big unit 20+ will work wonders for you.

I think Brett also highly recommends the use of the Grail.

Cough:Sigmar the Grail is what there religion is focused around not a unit:Cough

I think Sigmar is talking about the Reliquae which is a unit....

Yes, the GR (Grail Reliquae) is one of the most important units in the Bretonian Army list. Its the only anvil you get. Men At Arms can fill in in a pinch, but the Grail Reliquae is the best at it.

As for what you're starting with, I advise making one M@A (Men At Arms) unit 25, the other 15. What that does is allow you to lose 5 models from the big unit, and still retain 3 Rank bonus, while the smaller unit can act as a quasi-detachment for either the larger M@A unit, or another unit to multi/counter charge and remove rank bonuses of your enemy.

20 Men At Arms is a bad choice mathematically. One casualty costs you the value of 5 models.... you lose a combat res from rank bonus on the first casualty.

Technically, that's probably not a character on a pegasus. I'm willing to bet your army's original owner picked up a Bretonnian Batallion box, a damsel blister, BSB blister, Bret Lord Blister, and a couple boxes of knights/Men At Arms.

The Batallion box has one box worth of knights, Men at Arms, Bowmen, and one pegasus knight.

My advice to you right now, is strip everything, and paint it yourself. That's not an entire army you have there. You'll want more, and you'll want it all to match at least paint style and skill.

To fill things in, a box of Grail knights plus a couple singles (available on the website as singles- or buy two boxes), two pegasus knights (From the GW Website- they're single orderable), a Grail Reliquae + multiple Pilgrims. (Might be good to convert one up out of a couple boxes of Men At Arms)

Thanks for the good info Brett. What you said about men-at-arms unit size makes a lot of sense; I need to make sure to remember that with all my armies! I also had not thought about the GR as an anvil. I had been thinking about getting one anyways because I really liked the model.

As far as the lord on the peg is concerned, I think the owner might have gotten the battalion, but I think he planned on running the lord on a peg and two units of peg instead of 1. The lord is the Duke Theodoric model mounted on a peg instead of a horse. I think multiple units of pegs might be fun to run as an alternative list, but I have my doubts about running that all the time. With the lord on a peg, not only can he not join any units, but he will be too far away to give his ld bonus most of the time. Not to mention I could get another unit of knights errant for less then the cost of 4 pegs.

As far as painting goes, I have decided to do a mix of stripping the paint and using the paint that is there. Most of the models have just had some colors blocked out so I can use that. I will post a pic of some of the men-at-arms I have fixed like this when I get home. I have to say, I am really proud of how they have turned out.

Here are some pics of before and after... All the men at arms are painted almost exactly like this...




Here are some I am almost done painting. I still need to paint the shields white and add decals, and I haven't decided on how to paint the pole arm shaft. I am thinking about leaving it black. These aren't the best models I have ever done, but they are just men at arms so I am fine with them. I used to try and paint my entire army to a really high standard, and I never got anything finished. Now I just paint the flashier models really well and the core troops just ok.

Looks good from my inexperienced eye what are you using for heraldry?

If he's painting the field white, my money's on the Black axe transfer that comes with them. there's three "General" heraldry options and 20 or better trooper heraldry options that can be salvaged and scavenged to fit though.

Yep, you are exactly right Brett. I am painting the field white and using the black axe transfers for the charge.

as an orc player i know what to panic against and thats knights in lance formation

hi Teddy, any news on your Bretonnia army ? In particular any pics of your minis ?

One thing I forgot to ask all those months back is.... which army did you trade in for the Brets ?

I think he said Warmachine....