Editing Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Bretonnia (section)

===Lords & Heroes===

====Named Characters====
'''Note:''' Under the current edition, named characters tend to be overpriced; you can pretty easily emulate most named characters from scratch and save yourself some points. That said, a few named characters do have abilities and wargear or wargear combos unique to them, so if you absolutely need to have them, go ahead. Just make sure you're really getting your points worth.

* '''The Green Knight:''' An ethereal unit with M8, decently killy for price and with the ability to teleport. 2+ armour and the ward means he's reasonably tough against magic attacks too. Can lose wounds via combat resolution but he can also return each time (House rule: if you don't resurrect him with the immortal words "tis but a scratch" he is immediately removed from play). So why isn't he a no brainer? The issue with him is that he excells at killing things Bretonnia can usually handle well (cavalry and monsters, basically: things without static combat resolution) but sucks at killing the things that usually give you trouble (massed infantry, tho his Terror may help). He has his niche, but he shouldn't be a first pick. It is worth noting that he may have some use as a warmachine hunter also if there is a skullky wizard skulking around he can pop out of the nearest puddle murder them and then dash off into the nearest hedge.

* '''The Fay Enchantress:''' She has an incredibly high price of entry and given that one of the major advantages of a Prophetess is they're cheap, it's not usually worth it. On the other hand: +2 to cast Lore of Life is a great bonus, she grants 1 extra power and dispel dice every magic phase, she drops a random Lore of Heavens spell for free every turn and has a multitude of special abilities (fear, automatic blessing for your army,...). If you can pay for her unreasonable price of entry at say, 3000 points and up, she could easily be worthwhile. Not a great choice however.

* '''King Louen Leoncoeur:''' Cost well over 700 points when you put him on his hippogryph Beaquis. For all his cost, he doesn't do enough, especially against troops that have a decent leadership. He also does silly things to the rest of your army and usually not things you want to happen (eg. the entire army takes a panic test when Louen dies). Plus, for all of his cost, he'll get knocked out by someone who costs about 2/3rds of what he does. He may be fun to field against another hugely overpriced named general, but in terms of winning a battle: skip him.

====Generic Characters====
'''Note:''' Bretonnian knights are already deadly as hell on the charge. Therefore, every character in your army, from lords to damsels, are best used to protect knights, help them get the charge or give them some killing power after the charge, NOT make the charge deadlier (although there's nothing wrong if they can do both). 

*'''Bretonnian Lord:''' Basic combat Lord, nothing special. Magic equipment and Vows will be discussed elsewhere, but just be aware that any Lord or Hero you take should be kitted out for bear, as he can't refuse challenges without losing the Blessing of the Lady. If your enemy is aware of it he can and will use it to kick your Lord's head in, so he needs to be ready to resist challengers. This guy's basic function is to provide a LD 10 leadership bubble (give his unit the banner of discipline), so he has to have good survivability. After that, there are many options available to him, but favour character (and monster) killing potential over rank and file murdering, because the only other unit capable of damaging combat heroes/lords consistently is one of Questing Knights, and they are too expensive to lose against things that outright ignore their armour. 

*'''Prophetess of the Lady:''' Prophetesses are your basic Lord level caster so all the usual rules apply: Always tick up to Level 4, protect her in a unit, usual shit. What's important to understand is that you are not, repeat NOT, High Elves, Tzeentch Chaos, Vampire Counts, etc. You can mount a solid defense and do okay on your own casting, but don't try to out-magic the big guys. Still, this gal's cheap and effective for her cost. They get the ward save from Blessing of the Lady just like your knights, plus an additional magic resistance(2). Lore of Life is a favorite, though Lore of Beasts can be used to create some nasty tricks if you build your army appropriately.

*'''Paladin:''' You are required to have at least one Paladin to act as your BSB. Apart from that, they're a solid combat Hero but be careful taking too many for unit babysitting. Remember, like the Bretonnian Lord, if they ever refuse a Challenge, the ENTIRE UNIT, ALONG WITH ALL THE OTHERS IN THE COMBAT, loses Blessing of the Lady, so you need to kit them out for combat, because with their basic statline, a lot of Heroes can kick their skull in (Empire, Beastmen, Skaven and Wood Elves are pretty much the only ones you don't have to worry about, and even Beastmen and Skaven can be threats under the right circumstances). Remember that with the lance, most units are forced to allocate at least two attacks to your paladin: this is usually to your advantage. 

*'''Damsel of the Lady:''' Cheap and good for beefing up the LD of your background Peasants. Benefit the most from Lore of Beasts, always tick up to Level 2. They also get the ward save from Blessing of the Lady, along with magic resistance(1) that can't be lost. Scroll caddying and item bearers are fine. As with above, don't get drawn into a big magic duel with any of the magic-heavy armies, they can and will outcast you. But Damsels are still a damn (HAH) fine choice. While you usually want them in a lance of knights for support, they can be placed in a unit of Men at Arms or even Bowmen if you intend to roll power dice left and right for miscast damage control. Another note: it's usually a good policy to have the damsel take the same lore as the prophetess and roll for spells first, so you have the spells you need on the prophetess (mainly throne of vines if you pick life).

* '''Mounts:'''
** ''Bretonnian Warhorse:'' You know it and love it. Most of your Paladins and Lords are gonna be riding these, so learn to love 'em. 
** ''Royal Pegasus:'' It's decently priced and has a good statline, but you can't join units of flyers, i.e. other pegasus knights. However, there is no restriction on a monstrous cavalry character joining a different unit, though they will be stuck on the side due to clashing base size. Keeping him 3 inches from a pegasus unit will let him benefit from a look-out-sir role, so they are not as vulnerable to shooting as you might think. A paladin on a pegasus is not as effective as pegasus knights in most cases, but since without using a (mostly non-competitive) RAF you are limited to one unit of those, take him if you need two units covering the skies. Other than that, there are two reasons for taking a pegasus (and always on a paladin, never a lord). The most obvious one is to give him a bit more of a punch: the bloody horse has 2 S4 attacks and Stomp (the lower armour, 3+ instead of 2+, is mostly compensated by 3W instead of 2W, especially with lore of life). The other is to get yourself a wizard killer: a paladin on a pegasus, equiped with the gauntlet of the duel, can fly over the enemy, strike a mage's bodyguard and then force said hapless mage into a challenge (after killing the unit champion). He will then either flee combat or die, but it will be worth it for you either way, since dominating the magic phases is so important. And don't let your opponent trick you: even if you aren't in base contact with the mage directly, he will be forced to accept the challenge so long as he is in the unit in combat with the paladin.
** ''Hippogryph:'' Buckbeak is a good Hippogryph. Too bad it's not a good mount choice. It's expensive (200 fucking points, only 10 less than the Lord itself) and it's statline is strictly mediocre for such an expensive choice. It can do alright against basic units, but so could a bodyguard unit of Knights of the Realm that cost about the same. Nevermind that your EXTREMELY expensive Lord now has a target on his head the size of a 'worth 500 or so victory points' sign and that almost any other monstrous mount, from Manticores on up, will rip your Hippogryph's head off. Skip it. Except if you're playing just for fun. Then grab it.
** ''A note on monstrous mounts: Remember that they get the blessing of the lady as long as the rider has it too. While this doesn't make them any more decent in melee combat, if you want to troll your trigger happy dwarf/empire opponent, get a couple of bowmen, place them in front of the lord, and get him the insignia of the quest. Then watch him scream as two cannon balls are stopped by the fences and the third one triggers insignia of the quest. Bonus points if the ward saves the monster too. Again it isn't a competitive choice, but it's worth doing at least once for the amount of miniatures that will get thrown in your direction.''