Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Bretonnia

Why Play Bretonnia

Brettonians are a tactically unique army with GORGEOUS models, interesting fluff and a fun playstyle. They currently have the most workable cavalry in the game but their units tend to run either overpriced (Knights) or underpowered (Peasants). Still they're not as underpowered as some armies and if you can get them to work they will run roughshod over the competition. An army for veteran Warhammer players.

Unit Analysis

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: Pretty much the only Bretonnian character you'll see being played, as he is the only Bretonnian character that isn't costly and crap. Pretty much trolls the enemy by not staying dead, in fact he's only worth Victory Points if he's dead the turn the game ends. Is pretty much the bane of warmachine crews, solo characters, skirmishers and small units that hang around the backlines or flanks. Never commit him to big meaty units, have him prey on the weak like a shameless sex offender, which he is being an unstoppable rape god. Is vulnerable to tarpits, heavy cavalry and concentrated shooting. But if he dies, he'll be back again. If you can foot his bill, take him as he is the biggest pain the butt your army can field.

Lords

• Bretonninan Lord: Standard combat Lord character and General of the army guy. Gives good leadership, can be boosted quite well with magic items and the various Vows. He's good, no reason to try and save points and take the Paladin as a general instead, decent stat line, can take either a Horse, a Pegasus or a Hypogriff. With the Vow list only a few a really worth it for your General. If you can spare the points the Vow of the Ideal and that vow for dueling, plus the Duelist's Gauntlets is a good combo for a second lord to go challenge motherfuckers to death. Good options in a good package for a good cost.

• Prophetess of the Lady: Your standard Lord tier wizard, costs more than the Lord, but brings magic to the table, should always be upgraded to a Level 4 Wizard. Has a choice of Lores, Life probably being the best choice as Throne of Vines is probably the best spell in 8th. Remember you're not High Elves, Lizardmen or Tzeentch, you can't dominate the magic phase like those armies, but you can get some goodies to hold off nuke fest plays. Also because of the way Lance formation works you can sit her in units of knights and she will be untouchable, but she will lack LoS for spells, best position is to have her on a steed (Horse or Pegasus) and close to at least 2 units of knights to cover her, optimally you'll have two units of knights in front of her and another unit or two on her flanks.

Heroes

• Paladin: You are required to have at least one paladin in your army as a BSB, meaning you need at least 2 Heroes in your army to play. This doesn't really affect you though as not having a BSB is fucking retarded in 8th, and your clearly trying to improve your play by reading this article anyway. Paladins are pretty much the lord on a diet, nothing really makes him standout, usually you will take one as a BSB and another to do other stuff like hunt warmachine crews on a Pegasus or sit in units with the lord and issue challenges. Your BSB Paladin should always be bunked in a unit of Knights of the Realm; Errants are too stupid to risk the BSB, Questing Knights don't benefit as much, Pegasus Knights are pretty much going to be operating away from the army which wastes the BSB benefits and Grail Knights are all ready superpowered by themselves. Giving the BSB Vow of Empathy and putting it in a Man-At-Arms units is the stupidest thing I can think of players doing with this.

• Damsel of the Lady: Take one as a scroll caddy, choose a different Lore from your Prophetess and take the Level 2 upgrade. She's pretty much the same as a prophetess so the same things apply. She does have a better costing than a Prophetess when compared to the other choice at their respective tiers, but thats pretty much meaningless. Always take 1 in your army, at least 2 if you skip the Prophetess.

Core Units

• Knights of the Realm: Standard unit of Knights, you have to have at least one. Damned good armor save (2+) means they'll survive quite a lot, but they really have no staying power after a charge. Field at least 2 units, despite being mediocre compared to other heavy cavalry they're damn good if they ever get a flank charge onto a unit that's been charged by another unit of knights.
• Knights Errant: Young, crazy knights. Slightly worse and slightly cheaper, these fuckers will often decide to commit suicidecharge at the enemy against their orders, resulting in lulz and carnage. Mind, they're immune to fear when they do this, so it's sometimes better to just stick them in front of something scary and let them do their thing. They're not going to stand-in for Realm knights so don't try to flood the table with them, as they can get kited badly and waste the game fighting disposable skirmishers instead of taking on the stuff that needs killing.
• Men at Arms: Cannon fodder, meat grinder material, massive mobs of useless gits. Try not to use them when you can spend points, a Lord with the Vow of Empathy can make them better, if you're willing to put that much effort into making them usable, go play Empire with their somewhat competent infantry as you will be disappointed here.
• Peasant Bowmen: Like Men at Arms, just with bows. If you can manage to keep them alive (read: untouched) then they can actually be pretty helpful. Don't expect them to blot the sun out with their arrows or hold your lines or anything like that, these guys are cheap which reflects their performance. Effectively any wounds they cause on non-horde units are a profit, even if the unit gets wiped out your still on top. Deploy them with care, just shoot whatever is in range and if they flee off the table or get wiped out, grin and say "Good job" to your opponent as if you really mean it, which is about the most sarcastic thing you can say as anything that is doing damage to your Peasant Bowmen is not hurting your knights and thus is not really contributing to the battle.

Special Units

• Questing Knights: The only knight unit with some real staying power, these greatsword wielding badassess can be used (to a degree) to help pin some infantry in place. Can lay the smack on almost everything, but not as hardcore as other beatsticks (Chaos Chosen Knights, Blood Knights etc) in other factions, expect them to hold well against these units but get them some goddamned support when this happens with Grail Knights on the flank.
• Pegasus Knights: Knights of the Realm rich enough to afford a flying pony. Acts as fast and flying cavalry, so here's where most of your mobility comes from. Rapes slower armies running MSU setup and any idiot dumb enough to have their warmachines too far from their army. If you run more than 2 units of them expect to be drawing a lot of fire as your opponent overreacts to their mobility rather than their actual killing power adapts to tactically counter their presence. Running them in this format is slightly subpar against Infantry bricks though.
• Mounted Yeomen: Relatively rich peasants, can act as fast cavalry. Useful as scouts and for chasing down fleeing infantry, but not a whole lot else. You have knights who are almost as mobile and much better in combat.
• Grail Reliquae: Batshit insane peasants, has a lot more staying power than their men-at-arms cousins. Probably the only way Peasants will ever do anything for the army other than tie up weak line units. That said they're only better than Mounted Yeomen in this slot, but will come into their own if you're going peasant heavy.

Rare Units

• Grail Knights: The army's rape machine. Sort of a point & click unit; just show them were to go, and watch the destruction. Of course, being lance-armed cavalry, they still don't have a lot of staying power. Can Rape-Train through small units very quickly, if it gets flank charges off on units already engaged expect much fun and win. Pretty much mandatory.
• Field Trebuchet: A stone thrower. Nothing special here: throw one in if you feel like it. Under current edition rules, the only siege engine in the game (aside from the Hellcannon) to strike at full S5 on a template. Take two, set them up on either flank and force your opponent to spread out their units allowing you to pick and choose combats with ease.

Building Your Army

Start with a BSB Paladin on a horse, any other Hero/Lord character on a horse and a unit of 9+ Knights of the Realm. These are the basics of the Bretonnian army. After that do whatever you feel, use peasants if you want to recreate a peasant rebellion or a Crusades era army.

Buying Your Army

Unfortunately GW knows that you will need boxes of Knights to build your army, you will get neither enough in a single box nor a decent price. The basic plastic set can do either of the Core choices, but in typical GW fashion you will pay much more for Questing and Grail knights. Convert your own out of bits from the basic knight's box instead, the grail knights should be stripped down in terms of heraldry and you'll need to find a set of arms with two handed weapons for Questing knights, who also have less heraldry than Realm Knights.

There is an alternative for those who love mass conversions for themed armies and that is the "Legion of the Grail Damned" route.

Basically you can use a large chunk of the Undead models from Mantic Games' Kings of War game as undead Bretonnians, they're way fucking cheaper than GW prices, they look very similar to French Medieval armour designs and the models can cover most of your unit types: the Trebuchet, Grail Reliquary, Pegasus Knights, Lords and Prophetess/Damsels of the Lady are the only ones you can't do, or rather you can but the model designs look less like fallen from grace and more like actively embracing the dark side.

Army Composition

Aim for a majority of knights, Knights, Knights and Knights. You cannot play this army without Knights, so embrace the men of horse and steel.

Tactics

Prayer: Using Religion to Smash Face - Pretty much you should be praying to the Lady every single battle. Yes this does give your opponent a significant advantage but remember that many players who play defensive armies would rather you go first. The Lady's Blessing gives you some major buffs to units that are already pretty good. Those Knights of the Realms now get a ward save, meaning your basic Knight unit, the most common unit in your army, is now harder to kill. Losing the blessing sucks but its good while you do have it, and because the conditions for losing it aren't exactly signs of an impending victory you shouldn't get worked up if you do lose it.