Warhammer Army Project/Bretonnia

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Bretonnia: Warhammer Army Project, 9th Edition Tactica

Created by Mathias Eliasson, this project was a homebrew attempt at giving many of the nations and factions that never got Armybooks of their own (and those left behind and never got one in 8th Edition) such a thing. For this specific page, those items that are completely new will be described in detail (at least to my standards, so don't expect much).

It should also be noted that Eliasson is constantly updating his work, so don't expect this page to stay current forever. If anyone wishes to actually update this page and the items that need it later on, go ahead.

Why Play Bretonnia

• you Like to be the french round table.

• You love playing as Bretonnia but you're tired of only having mounted Knights and dirty peasants as your whole army. Not only is the roster expansion of the army fluffy (except for a unit or two).

Notable Changes from 8e

Pros

• Men at arms are no longer dog shit.
• New hero choices can buff your Knights and massively buff your peasants(Basically got a hatred granting paladin and a ghetto life wizard).
• Universal cavalry buff does not go a miss for the cavalry faction.
• Removal of Horde, nerfing of steadfast and return to unit strength combine to make massive units of halberd/GW infantry much weaker. Which, just so happend to be knights greatest counter.
• Grail and Questing vow are much stronger.
• Lore of the Lady makes your ward save even stronger, and has spells to ensure charges succeed and challenges are won.
• Your special characters are significantly cheaper and some of the new ones are borderline broken.
• Grail Knights are T4.
• SO MANY new units.
• LANCE FORMATION changes turns all of your knight buses into rape trains.
• Pegasus Knights, went from being the strongest unit on your roster but limited to a single unit per army, to an even stronger unit with typical limits. 10pts cheaper and a better armour save for the loss of vanguarding.

Cons

• Peasant Bowmen went from being the most cost effective core missile troops to mid tier.
• Trebuchets are more expensive and you can take less of them.

Army Special Rules

• The Lance Formation: Basically the same as before, except now they only benefit from the Formation whenever the unit is exactly 3 models wide and can uniquely have 5 ranks for 15 horse buses. Named characters must be placed in front, even if they displace the command group to the next row, you Spellcasters get to be protectively sandwiched between knights and still support, all models on flanks are treated as being in the front roll one charge, and the all models receive Devastating Charge; maybe a small bonus but it definitely helps.

A small bonus? This guy did not read the rules. A unit of 9 knights in a two ranks, five and four; would have 9 attacks, 5 impact hits and 5 horse attacks (19 total). A lance will have 15 attacks (3 knights in the front and 4 on the flanks benefiting from devastating charge, one dead center only able to make a supporting attack and a knight in the back center unable to attack), 7 impact hits, and 7 horse attacks (29 total, 30 with a champion). You're getting 10 more attacks, 7 of those are those high WS, high S knight lance hits. This rule makes a 244 point unit of Knights Errant hit harder than a 291 point unit of Dragon Princes (both 9 models, full command. Knights Errant with the Errantry Banner, although the Elves' higher WS would have a big impact most of the time).

• Peasant's Duty: Your chaff can use a knightly unit's Ld if they are within 6" of each other. Also, their raggedy standards don't give enemies VP when capture.

• The Knight's Vow: Base knight rule. Ignore panic tests caused by friendly models. can only join other basic knights.

• The Questing Vow: the Knight's Vow + reroll failed Psychology tests and join Knight's and Questing knights. On charge, they ignore the Initiative penalty of a Great Weapon but they can't take lances.

• The Grail Vow: Immune to Psychology, a 5+ ward from Blessings of the Lady, and have Magical attacks. Characters gain +1 Leadership and can join any unit with a Vow.

• Blessings of the Lady: Gain a 6+ Ward save that becomes 5+ against ALL missile weapons. the blessing is lost if the model had fleed or refused a challenge. Whilst this gives your knights a better chance of getting into combat, especially against shooty armies (looking at YOU Dwarves), they're also less protected when they actually get into combat against those more dangerous units/characters.

The Lore of the Lady

Lore Attribute: Favour of the Lady: When you cast a spell on a friendly unit, that unit can reroll 1's for Ward Saves. Eh, not bad. Works well with The Lady's Virtue of Valour to give that Lord of yours trapped in a challenge against a Chaos Lord a bit more survivability.

• Signature Spell: Steed of the Lady: (5/8) It's an augment only for mounted knights with a range of 18"; the upgraded version is 8+ to cast with a range of 36". The target unit acquires a Movement Characteristic of 10 and becomes Ethereal for the purposes of movement. Since actually making the charge is crucial for any Bretonnian army focused on knights, Movement 10 is definitely welcome and the Ethereal just helps ensure that buildings and blocking units don't stop you from getting to your target. A nice spell, especially for Bretonnia but certainly not a game-breaker.

1. Mist of Chalons: (6/12) It's an augment that affects all friendly units within 8" of the caster. The upgraded version is 12" for 9+ to cast; Remains in Play either way. Enemy units targeting those units affected by this spell have an additional -1 to their To Hit rolls. Combine this with the new Blessings of the Lady and your enemy will have a really hard time trying to whittle you down with their shooty units. Again, a nice spell for Bretonnia since you want to ensure your charges have as much power as possible but again, nothing to rave about.
2. Doom of Dol: (7/10) Hex spell with a range of 18". The upgraded version is cast on a 10+ with a range of 36", Remains in Play either way. Select an enemy model and a friendly champion or character (must be a knight) that are both within the range. Whenever the friendly model targets the enemy model, the friendly model will wound them on a 2+ with ignoring Armour Saves to boot! One of the areas Bretonnia is lacking is in challenges, and this alone will pretty well scare any enemy general from attempting to kill your own. Excellent for area denial (who in their right mind will send their general/monster/critical model against this guy? Hell, going against a unit champion can be a risk with this spell.) But, this alone does not ensure victory. An enemy with high Strength and Initiative will still be able to kill you before you even have a chance to strike. It's a very nice spell, but don't expect this to work consistently on unit Champions nor save your general every time you use this.
3. Beguilement of Blondel: (9/14) Hex with a range of 12" for all enemy units. The upgraded version is 18" for 14+ to cast, Remains in Play either way. All enemy units within the range have to take a Leadership test. Should they fail, they count as having failed a Stupidity test. If in Close Combat, they have their Weapon Skill reduced to 1. Each round, for as long as this spell remains active, all enemy units within the radius, must take the leadership test. Eh, against Dwarves and the like, this is pretty well useless. Against armies like Skaven, this will help. Not too helpful, but WS 1 is a welcome boon against any opponent.
4. Wrath of Righteousness: (10/20) A Direct Damage spell that affects all enemy units within a 12" radius. The upgraded version is 19+ to cast with an additional D6 hit per unit. At the base level, this causes all enemy units affected to suffer D6, Strength 4 hits with -1 Armour Save. When only affecting one unit, don't risk doing the 19+ Version unless you really think it'll be worth it. When affecting multiple enemy units, this spell can be really fun but don't think this will save your lone KOTR unit being surrounded by that block of 50 Clanrats and flanking Rat Ogres. A decent spell but with 19+ to cast for 2D6 hits, this can cost you an entire Magic Phase for just 2 S4 hits...use this only if you're sure it will have a good bang for its buck.
5. Spiteful Glance: (11/16) Hex with a range of 12". Upgrades version is 18" for 16+ to cast. Your wizard targets an enemy character whom your model has line of sight too. That model must take an Initiative test or else be turned into a frog and removed immediately as a casualty. On its face, it is a good character sniper spell. However, almost all good characters have an Initiative of 5 or better. Target those wizards, BSB's or characters weighed down with magic items with I4 or worse (Oldbloods and pretty much all Lizardmen characters except for Skinks come to mind) and this spell should do you good for what it does.
6. The Lady's Virtue of Valour: (12/24) An Augment that affects a single unit which casts on a 12+ with a range of 12". The upgraded version affects all friendly, units within 12" with a cast of 24+. Roll a D6 for each unit, and the affected unit(s) add +1 to their statistics for a turn with the following results:

   1: +1 Weapon Skill

   2: +1 WS & Initiative

   3: +1 WS, I, & Strength

   4: +1 WS, I, S, & Toughness

   5: +1 WS, I, S, T, & Attacks

   6: +1 WS, I, S, T, A, & Leadership.

   A very good spell, that...when used right ( and with the proper rolling luck)...you'll tear through that enemy your charging like a Bretonnian Hippogryph tearing apart a Goblin. A 9 man unit of Grail Knights rolling a 5 for this spell gives you 25 attacks at S7, I8 (with Matthias's lances anyway; otherwise I6), WS6. You won't be able to tear through that giant block of Clanrats, but against units like Chaos Warriors...you'll get your money's worth. In the description it's implied only knights are affected by this spell...but the actual rule says no such thing. Take that as you will. On the charge and with a large enough result, knight units will see this spell used at its best but remember it is a D6 result..and your charge upon which could hinge your victory could only be aided with something that might not help it in the smallest way. Still, this spell has excellent potential in the Bretonnian army.

Overall, this Lore really well compensates for many of Bretonnia's weaknesses and you should always consider taking this unless your running a peasant army (for whatever ill-found reason).

Equipment

Virtues of Bretonnia

• Virtue of Heroism: 35p. Heroic Killing Blow. It can be paired with a magic weapon, and no longer only affects large targets.

• Virtue of Stoicism: The older one lets you reroll failed Break tests whilst this one gives you Cold-Blooded. Both cost the same and whilst this one is an improvement, you won't find much use of this except against armies that rely heavily on Fear and the like.

• Virtue of the Impetuous Knight: 30p. you add D3" to all your charges this model is involved in. Combine this with Steed of the Lady and scare the pants off your enemy as your knights move halfway across the board to trample their units into the ground. Just remember, this only helps you get IN to combat, it doesn't help any further so be sure you have good combat gear or a spell on this guy if you intend to fight something nasty.

• Virtue of the Ideal: 30p. +2 WK, +1 I & A. May not be the general and he brings everyone's mood down. He'll act as a nice challenger especially with Doom of Dol. Just keep him away from your peasants, unless you want them running when the enemy so much as breaths on them.

• Virtue of Audacity: 30p. against an enemy with higher strength, reroll failed hit and wound rolls. But now with the Lore of the Lady, this Virtue has even less viability then before. The Virtue itself is fine, its just situational.

• Virtue of Knightly Temper: 25p. on the charge, for every hit that wounds make another attack after saves. Generated attacks can't generate more. A nice Virtue made even better, always consider taking this.

• Virtue of Duty: 25pts. May not be General but adds +1 to combat resolution as long as the general is alive.

• Virtue of Confidence: 25pts. must always challenge, and re-roll all failed rolls to hit and to wound when challenging. with Doom of Dol and a Magic Weapon that raises Initiative, a character will rip and tear through nearly anything that it can drag into a challenge.

• Virtue of the Penitent: 20 pts. Becomes Stubborn with the stipulation he cannot join a unit for any reason...skip this unless you have a VERY specific strategy in mind.

• Virtue of the Joust: 20pts. re-roll failed hit rolls when charging or using lances

• Virtue of Purity: 15pts. Knights now have a constant 5+ Ward Save. Grail Knights however now gain a constant 4+ Ward...for 15pts...certainly not something to put your nose up to (however, if you're only wanting a 4+ Ward, take Talisman of Protection instead. The Grail Vow itself can cost a lot of points for something you can take for 45pts. If you're actually using the Grail Vow to take other things, go ahead and tag this on him).

• Virtue of Noble Disdain: 15pts. hates enemies with a Missile weapon and War machine crews. Its' unit is also don't take a panic test when taking 25% casualties.

• Virtue of Discipline: 15pts. enemies can’t gain Outnummber bonus bearers unit. Generally, stay away from this unless you know you're fighting against a horde-reliant army.

• Virtue of Empathy: 10pts. Become a backup general for Peasant's duty units and can join them to give them a hero challenger. Take this on your General, his bubble become 18" for peasants. If you're heavily peasant reliant, this is a near necessity. Otherwise, it's pretty meh.

Blessed Heirlooms of Bretonnia

• Silver Lance of the Blessed: 70pts. Same except for the following: This one forces successful enemy armour and Ward saves to be rerolled, but if the wielder of this Lance flees for any reason, the Lady of the Lake bitch slaps him with D6 hits that are Flaming and Strength 4 with Ignores Armour Saves! Even more killy than before, but be sure you never ever put this guy in a combat you think he won't find victory in or he will pay for it...
• Sword of Heroes: 40pts. You get an extra tax of 5 points but you also get +2 Strength instead of +1 against foes with T5 or better. Synergizes well with Virtue of Audacity, though this combo will have to be against a specific foe to be worth it; so avoid taking this in a general list.
• Sword of the Lady's Champion: 30pts. Grail Vow only. Hey, hey, hey! 10 points taken off and everything else stays the same, nice. Against high Toughness armies, this 30pt wrecker will ruin the days of Lizardmen/Ork/Ogre armies and allow you to cut down their dragons/monsters like anything else. Just be sure to take some good Armor or Talismans (I recommend taking this with Virtue of Purity as both are only 45pts, and you can still take more defensive gear).

• Cuirass of Fortune: 25pts. An extra 5 points are tacked onto this one. But, you also get to reroll To Hits of 1 and Armour Saves of 1 as well as the natural reroll To Wound rolls of 1. A good, general piece of equipment (excellent to take with Sword of the Lady's Champion and Virtue of Purity).

• Sirienne's Locket: 35pts. Lord or Paladin only. Twenty points reduced from the old, but still not all TOO useful. You still only have 3 wounds (2 if on your Paladin) and your still affected by Killing Blow and the like. Generally, not something I'd recommend but I can see this working in a specific strategy.

• The Silver Mirror: 45pts. An extra tax of 5 points...must have come from the Virtues. You use this on a spell that is specifically targeting the magic-user wielding this and its unit. The enemy can stop the spell being bounced back to them by using Dispel Die or Power Die. This magical item can only be used once and can't be used on spells that have Irresistible. However, this baby does have its uses. Example: A Slann Mage Priest has already cast 3 spells for the turn and now he's attempting to use Fiery Convocation on your giant block of Men-At-Arms that have a Level 1 Damsel. He used the remainder of his die to successfully cast it, but your Damsel just so happens to have the Silver Mirror. The Slann has no more die to even try to dispel his own attack and his Temple Guard along with him are set afire AND he must use future Power Die later on just to dispel it. For spells that affect an entire unit and have a high casting value, this is the perfect counter. Just be sure to engage your Troll Face beforehand for maximum levels of Lols and Rage.

• Chalice of Malfleur: 15pts. Exactly the same as before. Still pretty meh. If you do take this don't and I mean don't put this on your Level 4 Prophetess. No reason to risk your best magic-user to get one Dispel Die.
• The Ruby Goblet: 25pts. 5 points shaved off this one, otherwise the same. But, with the new Blessings of the Lady leaving you more vulnerable in Close Combat, this is worth taking if you have plans on taking on big baddies.
• Tress of Isoulde: 15pts. Another item with 5 points reduced in price, otherwise the same. Combine this with Doom of Dol and it'll feel like your making the enemy roll for their Anal Circumference. 'Nough said.

• Banner of Defense: 25pts. Essentially gives whatever (knight) unit that has it, a 4+ Ward against ranged attacks (including magic missiles). So long as they having Blessings anyway. It's only 25 points...take it...take it and ruin the relationship you have with your best friend who just so happens to field an Artillery heavy Dwarf army...go ahead...

Expansion Magic Items

Weapons

• Sword of the Quest: 30pts. Questing Vow only. Pretty handy that you can use this as a hand weapon or a greatweapon, but whichever way you go gives you Ignores Armor. Awesome.
• The Wyrmlance: 30pts. A flaming lance that's only usable when mounted, but it provides an S3 breath weapon. Scary good, since you'll be able to mess with mobs a little.
• Birth-Sword of Carcassonne: 30pts. This sword adds +1 to Strength and forces enemies to re-roll armor saves. Not bad for managing lesser forces.
• Heartwood Lance: 25pts. Another lance only usable on horseback, this lets you re-roll to wound, which is pretty meaty.
• Lance of Artois: 15pts. Yet another lance only usable on hordeback, but this one suffers hard. It only grants Killing Blow on the charge, which means it will fall flat against monsters and heroes.

Armour

• Armour of the Midsummer Sun: 35pts. Heavy armor that deals a -1 to hit with both melee and missile weapons, making it strong against most mundane weapons. However, this is useless against some spells and artillery.
• Gilded Cuirass: 30pts. Heavy armor with 4+ regen. A good way to keep kicking.
• Gromril Great Helm: 30pts. A dwarfy 6+ helmet that lets you re-roll armor saves.
• Armor of Agilulf: 25pts. Heavy armor and shield as well as WS10?! BY THE LADY!
• Grail Shield: 15pts. Grail Vow only. This adds +1 to the Ward provided by the Blessing of the Lady.
• Orcbane Shield: 10pts. This shield forces Orcs and Goblins within 12" of the bearer to fail their Animosity rolls on a 1 or 2. Issue with this is how at this range they'd already be stuck in.

Talismans

• Holy Icon: 35pts. Grants Immunity (Psychology) and Magic Resistance 3+.
• Insignia of the Quest: 25pts. Questing Vow only. This provides a 3++ Ward, but only on the bearer's last wound. Unlike most items with a similar rationale, this actually works even against a multi-wound hit that would have otherwise killed them.
• Token of the Lady: 15pts. Lord or Paladin only. Grants a 2++ Ward on the very first hit suffered before breaking, just like a certain CRB item.
• Braid of Bordeleaux: 10pts. Grants Aquatic to the bearer and any attached unit.
• Mantle of the Damsel Elena: 10pts. Grants Immunity to poison and Killing Blow, which is a modest gift.

Arcane Items

• Sacrament of the Lady: 40pts. Adds +2d3 die to the Power Pool each magic phase, but you have to roll 1d6 at the end of each magic phase - a 1 means it went out and no longer works.
• Verdant Heart: 40pts. Adds +d3 to the casting roll of any Life spell. Quite useful since you want your few strong men to last.
• Prayer Icon of Quenelles: 25pts. This can be triggered once per game to grant an attached unit the Blessing of the Lady (in case you're insane enough to make a shieldwall of peasants) or make a unit that lost their blessing regain it.
• Potion Sacre: 10pts. A cheap potion that gives +1 to a single casting or dispel die once per game.

Enchanted Items

• Mane of the Purebreed: 30pts. This requires your model to ride a horse (and only a horse, so no pegasi or unicorns), and this grants the bearer and any attached ponies +1 Strength, which...well, it helps for trampling.
• Tress of Isoulde: 15pts. Lord or Paladin only. At the beginning of one Close Combat Phase, this lets you nominate an enemy model in base combat. For the remainder of this phase, you can hit that model on a 2+.
• Antlers of the Great Hunt: 15pts. Lord or Paladin only. Lets you roll 3d6 and drop the lowest on a Pursue roll, which lets you crush the enemy further.

Magic Standards

• Valorous Standard: 35pts. Knight's, Questing, or Grail Vow only. This grants your unit Empire-style Leadership rolls, which is great.
• Twilight Banner: 25pts. This grants a unit Ethereal for a turn, which can help with focusing on a single unit.
• Conqueror's Tapestry: 25pts. A truly combat-focused standard, this adds +1 to Combat Resolution for any enemy units killed in melee or in pursuit. The iffy bit might be whether this makes ALL kills qualify or just the ones the bearer's unit made.
• Banners of Chalons: 10pts. Enemy units cannot Stand and Shoot as a charge reaction, which is incredibly useful against gunlines and archers.

Units

Characters

Special Characters

• King Louen Leoncoeur First off, the guy is now 400 points (555 mounted on Beaquis). His previous, hefty as hell price of 728 left him all but ignored and for good reason. Characters at half of his score could still beat and kill him, making him impractical altogether and only worth taking in fluffy or fun games. With his price reduced by 353 almost half of the original, that in itself reawakens the possibilities to a worthwhile character. First off, his stats: The new Louen has Leadership 10 (kinda strange that a king imbued with mythical powers wouldn't already have that in the first place) with no other changes to base stats. Beaquis, on the other hand, loses 1 wound and attack.
  • Magical Items: The Lion Shield remains the same. The Sword of Couronne, instead of +1 Strength, receives re-rolls failed To Hit rolls. The Crown of Bretonnia gets a small change in that all friendly units within his Inspiring Presence are automatically Immune to Panic, not just to everyone within line of sight. However, he gets a completely new piece of armor called Armour of Brilliance; counts as Heavy Armour and all enemies suffer -1 penalty to all To Hit rolls (close and ranged both) this affects his mount as well. NEW ITEM Lion Lance each hit is multiplied to two hits, like mundane lances can only be used when charging. Combined with a good roll on Virtue of the Lionheart you're potentially looking at 10 strength 9 hits. Honestly, that's some serious bling bling he's got going on. A sword that blinds people up close, a crown so shiny it inspires people and now armour that straight up blinds people when they look at him. Louen's officially the new pimp Lord of the Old World.
  • Special Rules: The Lady's Champion rule remains the same except for different wording. But, with the 9th edition rule changes, he may take his +4 Regen after a failed ward giving this shiny bastard a plus +1 armor, +5 ward, +4 regen.
  • Now, this is where the two characters branch off considerably. The old Louen also has The Puissant Virtue which allows him to reroll failed To Hit and To Wound rolls in challenges and counts as having a 5+ Ward. He also has the Beloved Son of Bretonnia which means if he's removed as a casualty, all Bretonnian units must take a panic test and then on become Stubborn. And finally, The Army of the King which removes the 0-1 restriction on Grail Knights and Men-at-Arms and Bowmen becomes special choices.
  • The new Louen only has The Virtue of the Lionheart. This lets him roll a D3 at the beginning of every close combat phase and the result is added to his Strength statistic for the phase. Now, the old Louen only has rerolls to hit in challenges whilst the new Louen has them constantly with his new pimped out sword that shares the same name. And while he won't be able to reroll failed To Wound rolls, he does have the D3 extra Strength when he fights as well as The Armour of Brilliance which helps considerably since he's riding a Monster. All in all, this new Louen is a major wakeup call. Hell, his cost is cut in half should be enough but now his survivability is aided by the fact he has a constant -1 To Hit on him at all times. Can he be competitive, I currently see no reason why he couldn't (though I still haven't had an opportunity to actually use him, mind you).
  • If you cost out all of his special rules and items to the BIG BOOK equivalents you get about 300 pts (The Grail Vow= 30 points. Virtue of Lionheart= 15-45 points either Might, Ogre or Giant Blade. Lady’s Champion= 30 points (3 seeds of rebirth). Sword of Couronne= 25 points Sword of Swift Slaying, 5 for the initiative test. Lion Lance = 45 points, one round only Dragon Blade and Ogre Blade. Armor of Brilliance= 25 points glittering scales. Lions Shield= 15 points (in between obsidian amulet and trinket). Tabard of Kings= 20 points (situational, slightly weaker feedback scroll) Crown of Bretonnia=30 points (no direct comparison but, 6 inches greater Inspiring Presence is double the area, and the immunity to panic less than useful, considering anything that is benefiting from it is already at leadership 10. +1 Attack & WS = 20 points, semi fencers, blade/sword of striking.) add that to the cost of a standard Bretonnian lord and you get 395pts. King Leon is cheaper than an impossibly pimped out Lord. If you're in a 4000 point game taking him is a no brainer.

• The Fey Enchantress: Stat-wise, the only change is Silvaron has been reduced to 1 Wound from 3. So be sure to keep her out of combat...I don't care how much you want to see a Unicorn impale an enemy don't taker her into combat. Magic wise, the newer one got kicked a bit. Instead of being able to use all 8 basic lores and having +2 to cast rolls for spells in the Lore of Life; she now gets to use the Life, Beasts, Heaven, Light or Lady lores whilst adding +2 to her cast rolls for Life and Lady lores. If you loving using the Enchantress because she's the only one that can use the Lore of Shadows or Death, you won't like this one. Otherwise, it should be fine since the Lore of the Lady is very good for a Bret army (obviously).
  • Special Rules: The Supreme Aura of the Lady and Favour of the Fey remains the same. For the Blessings of the Lady, the older rules say you no longer have to pray to get the Blessings (something the new army already has without her) and any unit she's joined with gains a constant 5+ Ward Save. For the new rule, units that join her also get a 5+ Ward whilst Grail Knights get a constant 4+ Ward Save...you know what...take her into combat...with a unit of 9 or more Grail Knights. The older rules also have Spiteful Glance, only getting 1 more wound at most but not that bad.
  • Silvaron's Rules: The older one has a 5+ Ward, +2 Strength on the charge, Magical Resistance (2) and his attacks count as magical and cause fear. The new one only gets +2 Strength on the charge and Magical attacks. The advantages for the old one are kind of meh to begin with since you don't want her fighting either way.
  • Magical Items: The Chalice of Potions is changed only in that the lore used changes from Lore of Heavens to Lore of the Lady. Really a preferred choice here. The Girdle of Gold remains the exact same as well as the Toad Familiar. Finally, the changes in prices in minimal; the new is 510 compared to 545. This price seems to adjust only for the less usefulness of Silvaron and the Enchantresses' fewer choices in Lore; the older one is a bit better for a bit more and the new is a bit more focused for a bit less. Both are pretty good but if you plan to use the new Enchantress, use a Grail Knights unit as her bunker to keep her safe (and they get that juicy, constant 4+ Ward). Overall, not bad though still just a bit on the pricey side.

• The Green Knight Both cost the same, 275pts. Stat wise: the new is slightly better with Ld 10 for the knight himself and an extra attack for the Shadow Steed. Other than that, he remains exactly the same (with a few rules worded slightly differently, but there's a big difference between 6th Edition wording and 8th Edition; they all still result in the same way) Is he worth it though? In smaller games, he's really fun and it is debatable if he's competitive in smaller games. In larger games, he's a fun character but not for larger competitive games.

• Bohemond 'Beastslayer', Duke of Bastonne: At 290pts his a comparatively expensive Bretonnian Lord kitted out to deal with other Lords/Heroes and Monsters. He comes with the Grail Vow, Virtue of Heroism, and gets Hatred against Beastmen, Skaven, and Orks & Goblins. However, if you're going to take him, it's going to be because of the next two unique pieces of wargear he has.
  • First: a badass mace whose head was carved from meteoric iron by dwarven smiths and the shaft carved from the thigh bone of a dragon. It increases Bohemond's Strength by 2 for a constant S6 and Multiple Wounds (2); making him a pretty scary character/monster hunter. Use Lore of the Lady on him and prepare to wipe the floor with everyone aside from resilient, named characters.
  • Second: a shield that actually breaks other magical weapons. For however many hits that this model suffers, roll a D6. On a 6, the magical weapon used against this model breaks and can't be used for the rest of the game.

• Tancred, Duke of Quenelles: Like Bohemond, this Duke is just a Bretonnian Lord specialized for a certain type of enemy...this one is specialized for Undead. His blade of banishment wounds undead models automatically...not a 2+ rerolling 1's...AUTOMATICALLY. And in case that wasn't enough, you get to ignore any armour undead models have. His shield also forces all models with the Forces of Destruction to hit him with a -1 modifier (and not in the AoS sense: but all chaos forces, Dark Elves, Vampire Counts, Orks & Goblins, Beastmen, and Skaven). He also has a small draught that lets him gain D6 Strength for a single turn, should you find yourself against a non-Undead enemy. If you know your fighting Vampire Counts, he's not a bad choice though wounding automatically with 4 attacks won't help much against a V.C. army completely made up of Zombies, Skeletons and Necromancers...but against a Deathstar of Blood Knights with a Vampire Lord...you'll relish the horror etched on your opponent's face.

• Joan of Arc Repanse de Lyonesse: A pretty odd Character. She's a Standard Bearer...with Terror...and a Magical Resistance of 3. Her sword saps other magical weapons of their properties and makes them mundane but only for as long as the model is in base contact with Repanse. Her flag is also an oddity in that it only gives you one power die from your enemy and you add it to your dispel die, more of an unsubstantial gimmick than anything else. Hell, she's just about as expensive as Tancred with the stats of a slightly more veteran Knight of the Realm. She's definitely not competitive material, though she isn't...Bad per se. Hell, seeing a single, crazy peasant woman chasing around whole units with terror can create a few laughs.

• Armand d'Aquitaine: Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to introduce the bane of all Skaven and Goblin lists everywhere. He has the Bretonnian Lord profile except for 3 attacks...but it is not for him specifically that you bring this guy...it's his banner. Now, allow me to quote directly from the source, so you don't miss a single, glorious word.
  • Banner of the Lady (Magic Standard): This banner was first carried by Gilles le Breton himself who rode to victory under the Lady's benevolent gaze, instilling fear of Her wrath into his enemies. It was blessed by the Lady of the Lake herself and bears her image.
  • All enemy units with at least one model in base contact with the bearer of the Banner of the Lady get no combat bonus for ranks. In addition, they lose 1 point to their Leadership (after applying any other bonuses) for every point of rank bonus the unit carrying the Banner of the Lady has.
  • HELLLOOO Skaven...your unit of 50 Clanrats is looking mighty fine tonight...you wouldn't mind if I just slide over and POUND YOUR ASSES INTO THE FUCKING FLOOR LIKE THE LITTLE WHORES YOU ARE!!?.... Ah-hem...anyway. And if you weren't sold yet, he also has Virtue of the Knightly Ardour meaning he can counter-charge an enemy, literally. Not a little bonus like 40k's version but an "Oh...you wanted to charge me? Nah, bitch, I'm uh charging you." If an enemy declares a charge against the unit this model is apart of (and that unit is in it's a front arch) you can choose to counter charge. First, you must pass an Initiative test then you both roll your charging distance. If your roll is higher than your enemies, their charge is nullified and you charge that enemy with all the bonuses of a regular charge. Do I really need to type any more? Just bring Armand, alright guys? It's that simple.

• The Hermit knight of Malmount: An unknown Grail Knight with a Penitent Vow and a major deathwish. He's pretty much your melee monstrosity built for the single purpose of mauling things, and he has three uses of a special wine that lets him add +d3 Strength to make him kill the enemy harder than before.

• Sir Amalric of Gaudaron: This guy's pretty much made for killing the undead. Though he has a 4++ Ward and Magic Resist 1 to keep him from being so useless, he pretty much always dispenses instant wounds against any undead in base contact.

• Odo d'Outremer and Suliman the Saracen: If you get Odo, you can get Suliman, and they act as a team. They can be attached to a unit. Why would you want them? Odo's Morning Star of Fracasse - he gets +2 S on the first round of combat, and for every hit in close combat in the first round, roll a d6. For each 4+, destroy a magic weapon. His Gauntlet of the Duel forces those he challenges to fight. With a basic WS of 6, he can be a good magic hunting unit for 135 points. Suliman is a toss-up - 85 points for what's basically a Paladin with +1 I and causing Fear on the charge.

• Tristan the Troubadour and Jules the Jongleur: Hard to kill Knight and Bard. Decent gimmick unit. Fortunately, the two of them can split up after deployment, allowing you to throw the bard to act with an annoying band of peasants while Tristan's songs bolster his own band.

• Bertrand the Brigand: Basically Robin Hood, Bretonnian style. Comes with 2 additional models, Hugo le Petit (Little John) and Gui le Gross (Friar Tuck), and the option to attach a unit of Herrimaults for BS4 at 10 pts a model.

Generic

• Bretonnian Lord: On par with the empires Grandmasters. His basic gear, rules, and stats remain the same as well as his points, 110 vanilla. But with many virtues having a 5pt discount to them, they get a bit more money to spend on other things for their Magic Item allowance. However, the Questing and Grail Vows now cost more, so it balanced out. (However, since the Vows aren't under the Magical Item allowance, they still get just a sliver more allowance with certain Virtues meaning you can now take that Magic Item that used to be JUST out of your allowance for him. All basic weapon options (Lance, G. Sword, etc) remain the same price but a Warhorse is now 3 more points for him but 5 less points if he takes a Pegasus.
  • And whilst you can be upset that you have a specific pool of Magical Items about a fourth the size of the original, chances are you probably didn't use them too much. And you'll probably find a suitable replacement in the Rulebook's generic Items. Overall, pretty much the same Lord except for a much better Hippogryph.

• Prophetess: Your lord caster with Life, Beasts, Heavens, Light, and the Lady and has magic resistance of 2. you can ride up in on a horse, unicorn, Pegasus, or a Sacrosanctum of the Lady. when riding with knights, she is protected in the second rank while still being able to lending full support.

• Damsel: Your hero level Prophetess but with magic resistance 1. She can only ride a horse.

• Faceless: These are generally the leaders of the Herrimaults and don't show their face for great justice. Scout and Sniper longbower with some magic allowance. useful tor sniping out an enemy Wizards and other support heroes.

• Paladin: Your BSB and Hero/Monster Hunter

• Templar Crusader: Those knights that have taken apart of the crusades and had found themselves Bretonnian structure. At 55pts you not buying a Paladin, but a supporting character that grants Hatred to a unit of knights. A Big Death square of KotR with Templar + War Banner or Knight Errant with Errantry Banner.

• Priestess of Shallya: Serving the pleasant Goddess of healing. These gals are good for one thing: turning that Men-At-Arms tarpit unit into an inescapable quagmire. For starters, she gives the unit she's apart of a 6+ Regen (though she doesn't benefit from this). At 50pts and with potent prayers, the Priestess of Shallya is always a worthy investment even if you take a single unit of Men-At-Arms. If you're taking an all knight army, don't take her. Her worth is solely with the peasants. These gals know three Augments prayers (Power Level of 3):
  • Shallya's Endurance: The unit she's apart of gets +1 Toughness though she again doesn't benefit from this. This is the main reason why she makes Men At Arms so good at tarpiting. A unit with models only 4pts at Toughness 4 (with 6+ Regen to help turn that 20 wounds into 16) is definitely something your enemies going to avoid taking headlong. However, once they realize all of these bonuses are coming from her, they will gun for her. And since she doesn't benefit from any of her bonuses...she's all the weaker and her stats definitely tell she doesn't belong in Close Combat...she has ZERO counts that 0 ATTACKS!
  • Martyrdom: She creates a link between herself and a friendly Character within 12". This is a Remains In Play prayer. All wounds inflicted on the character are null BUT the Priestess suffers an S3 hit with no armour saves allowed, meaning there's a 50/50 chance she herself gets wounded. Pretty good if your general is hanging by a thread of 1 wound and that big baddy is about to drop the hammer on him. She is only 50 points, so don't be shy about using this.
  • Purify: All Hex spells affecting friendly units within 12" are automatically dispelled. This alone is worth the cost...but you also get to inflict D6 S5 hits on Undead or Daemonic Units when in base contact with the Priestess.

Mount

• Warhorse: you know about horses, their fast humans that stronger humans ride on. Bretonnia characters get better humans as they are not affected by Barding penalties (only this is only relevant if you're running a knight solo).

• Royal Pegasus: better tougher, fighter, winged humans.

• Royal Hippogryph: this baby has gotten some nice upgrades. Monster for 150pts. You also have the option of giving it several upgrades: including Armour Piercing, Multiple Wounds (2), Frenzy with Hatred, and Devastating Charge with Charge Bonus (1). So, while you won't want to always put this on your Lord, you should definitely do it if you have the right kit and a sufficient amount of points to put into him without jeopardizing the overall performance of your army too much.

• Unicorn: a bigger, stronger, faster horse with a magic horn, if you ever want to charge your wizard lord to lead the lance formation or more sensible reason of more points of movement and Toughness.

• Sacrosanctum of The Lady: a Support cart that Generates a magic dice and has 3 bound spells, see below for more.

Core

• Knights Errant: Any list will do well to include a bus of 9 of these bad boys with the Errantry Banner for cheap S6 attacks on the charge. Although they are harder to control like any frenzy unit. In smaller games I'd recommend forgoing Knights of the Realm if these would fill up your core.

• Knight of the Realm: your standard and most plentiful amoung Bretonnian knights. has better WS and Ld than an Errant, and can take magic standards. They are your minimum cost elites, not as powerful as other knights, but you can take more of them for board presence.

• Man-At-Arms: No longer are these guys a really bad, sub-par, piss poor unit good only for tarpiting. Trade shields and halberds for +1WS, +1Ld, and -1pt. You can give em back shields and halberds for one point each. And upgrade them to medium armor for another point. You can give them a good variety of loadouts, making them a bit more fun and now ̶t̶h̶e̶y̶'̶r̶e̶ ̶f̶i̶n̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶a̶b̶l̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶s̶t̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶e̶-̶t̶o̶-̶t̶o̶e̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶b̶a̶s̶i̶c̶ ̶i̶n̶f̶a̶n̶t̶r̶y̶ Hell they are a pt cheaper than Halberdiers for only one less leadership. Now, even still, don't expect them to carry the game or be able to do things your knights do (which is anything awesome)...but now they're a nice, standard infantry unit you can entrust to "hold the line".

• Peasant Bowmen: The general buff to missile units does not go amiss on these units. With no long-range penalty and the ability to fire two shots if they didn't move they are deadlier than ever. Light Armour is only 1/2ppm now. Flaming arrows are more expensive if you're taking units larger than 10 (5pts per unit vs 1/2pt per model), also lost the ability to skirmish. Lastly, they gotta pay 1ppm for defensive stakes.

• Peasant Levy: These guys/gals are literally just peasants with absolutely no training nor military equipment to speak of. These guys are your cannon fodder...that is their sole purpose...don't ever think they'll amount to anything else. At 2 points a model, these guys can come in ungodly large blocks without breaking your point allowance, even if you give them a weapon (Spear and shield are worth a thought for minor durability). And when your enemy sees a unit as big as Levies can be, it'll be very hard not for them to waste a shooting phase on them. Seriously, if the enemy dares even use one unit to shoot at these guys, you've probably got the value of your points from the Levies by having your enemy shoot at what is basically air and not shooting at your knights. However, they're LD4 and will run like the wind when the opportunity presents itself.

• Truffle Hound: Mushroom hunting dogs that eat some bad shrooms. They are deployable chaff. They start as models in a unit of Peasants then you can release them as their own skirmish unit during the charge phase. They always fail their Berserk Rage test but they can act as seconder chaff for your chaff to block deadly lance charges.

Special

• Brigand: Bretonnia mercenaries, an interesting place in Bretonnia's armies because they are your Men-at-arms can-openers and have smuggled in the weapons of the future. They don’t have Peasant's Duty, but they come out of the box with Great weapon or they can replace it and become Crossbow or gunlines. Providing peasants line with some AP or surprise the opponent with armour piercing projectiles.

• Foot Knight: Really just KOTR without their horses and barding. If you're looking for infantrymen that are actually competent by themselves or a unit you can fairly well trust to hold an object or act as a blocking unit, you can do worse. You can give these guys Great Weapons for 2pts each to give them some more killing power. And since they have a constant 5+ Ward (from Blessings anyway) against all ranged attacks, their footslogging nature will leave them less at the mercy of skirmishing, fast-moving enemies trying to pry them from the area they're protecting. Altogether, a nice unit.

• Grail Pilgrims: Like the Men-At-Arms, but harder to break. Can turn six of their models into a Reliquary which lets them benefit from Blessings of the lady, giving them a needed ward save. One of the best anvil units you have.

• Squire: Generally nobles themselves, they serve as the personal retinue for a full-fledged knight; cooking his food, preparing his baths, polishing his armor and generally coddling the noble bastard, all the while learning heraldry, swordplay and learning how to behave like an uptight asshole Bretonnian nobility. These guys are...by and large irrelevant. They have the same BS as the Peasant Bowmen who cost two points less. Really, they have 1 pt higher on their WS (but they're archers), +1 LD, and Skirmisher can let them get closer to their targets maneuver. The question is if you need some mobile footslogging longbows in your list.

• Herrimault: Robinhoods outlaws, their basically squires and pay another point for a scout. They're crappy in melee meaning you don't want to just use Scout to get them closer to the enemy; so you'd probably just want to use these in groups of 5 and deploy them behind the enemy to give your enemy a nuisance or two.

• Pegasus Knight: effectively paying more to buy Knights of the Realm on better horses that can fly. With 10pts reduced per model and given Barding as standard, they get an effective buffing. Although, they lost Stomp for the situational Impact Hit. Your air force should be sent to disable the enemy's back row. They don't get the Lance formation and with it all of the buffs. These should NEVER be taken in units larger than 5. Lastly, they lost the flying cavalry rule, so they can no longer vanguard.

• Questing Knight: +1 point in cost and Strength, they are your long game knights. Welding Greatweapon instead Lances, they start fights on the charge with S6 I4 and the next at S5 I2 without external buffs. If you're not spending money on other knights, Questing knights will hold the hill and cracks some monster skulls.

• Yeoman: Your Fast Calvary peasants, provides the flanking pressure and back row hunting that barded horses often can't do. A reduction to 10pt per model can buy bows and spears back for 2 and 1pt respectively. Shields for 1pt, light armour for 1 pt, medium armour for 2pts, can swap crossbows for free. With shields, light armour, bows, and spears you have a 15pt Fast Cavalry unit with a +5 save.

Rare

• Grail Knight: Your Super knights, with stats that rival generic characters. They're expensive, but with proper buffs, they can devastate most monsters and common heroes. Also, finally toughness 4, so the fluff circle jerk finally has some backing on the tabletop.

• Hippogryph Knight: Practically Questing knights with lances riding Hippogryphs (Technically) flying Empire Demigryph Knights that cost 13pts more and have Blessing of the Lady and 2 worse Armour Save), they're worth 75pts per model! I mean...they have a pretty boss mount for something that isn't a Lord/Hero...but remember they're a unit of Monstrous Cavalry and they'll draw the attention of every single enemy cannon and monster killing unit (Banner of Defense or Standard of Shielding is Mandatory for that 4++ Ward against shooting). they'll going to quickly suck up your allowance for Rare Choices and if not used right, they could just be a giant wad of wasted points and potential. Ergo, don't use them in the same fashion as the Pegasus Knights. Your Pegasi are useful as Warmachine Hunters and getting rid of those pesky Fast Cavalry puncturing your infantry with arrows. Use these guys in much more proactive ways, and don't be afraid to let them get into the enemy...at S5 with 3 attacks from their mounts, they aren't pushovers in prolonged combat (just remember to give them Barding). You can take 5 of them full Command, barding and a standard of shielding for 460pts. Or you can take 9 Grail Knights and a Field Trebuchet for 472. One is fun, one will win you the game.

• Spirits of the Fey: Nature spirits in the form of Ghost knights. they must be deployed by ambush, entering from a water or forest feature if present. These guys count as Ethereal Animated Constructs, have a 4+ Armour Save AND have a constant 5+ Ward whilst also being able to replace D3 wounds previously lost at the end of each Close Combat when they're partially in a forest or water terrain piece! These spirits are pretty tough though their stats are nothing to go nuts about. But these spirits aren't killy, they're a tarpit almost without equal. Just be sure to remember what enemies have Magical Attacks, and you'll be fine.

• Sacrosanctum of the Lady: Your magic cart. Oh, boy. This unit is pretty good. Now, it doesn't belong in Combat despite being a chariot (it'd probably be better to count it as a Warshrine) and it doesn't have any ranged abilities. Instead, the Damsel is a priest that drives along sides galloping knights to give them her blessing. And man oh man, she is good. With Toughness 5 and 5 Wounds, enemies won't be able to blow on this to make it fall apart. Just be sure you don't leave this thing open to attack because when the enemy finds out what this thing can do, they'll gun for it.
  • Shield of Faith: All Bretonnian units within 12" of the Sacrosanctum acquire +1 to their Ward save that comes from Blessings of the Lady. This needs little explanation for why this is good. (And remember that The Fay Enchantress gives Grail Knights in her unit a 4+ Ward? Well, with this, it's now a 3+ Ward AND if she casts a spell on them, they reroll 1's for Ward Saves...with this blessing, shrug off cannonballs and attacks from the likes of Kroxigor.)
    • Don't ever do this, you'll be hated by everyone.
  • Radiant Light: All enemy units within 12" have -1 to both Weapon and Ballistic Skill. Helps in a pinch, especially when your knights are fighting against a unit with the same Weapon Skill level.
  • Renewed Valour: All friendly, fleeing, knight units within 12" automatically rally AND REGAIN THE BLESSINGS OF THE LADY!!

• Ballista: Just a standard Ballista that counts as a Bolt Thrower...oh, and you can buy a Wall Warden for 15pts (Note: you can also get these for Trebuchets, Mangonels, and Bombards) that lets you reroll an Artillery Die or a To Hit roll. Sure, it's a once use per game thing, but it'll be worth it if you're targeting the Zombie Dragon that's charging your Knights of the Realm in the side when they're setting up to win that game-winning charge and you happen to miss with your first shot. It can take two as a single rare choice.

• Mangonel: Acting as the smaller, more maneuverable cousin to the Trebuchet, it counts as a normal Stone Thrower. 85pts. It can still include two catapults in a 2000pt game.
• Bombard: Essentially acting as a Trebuchet that's a cannon...it can't pivot on the spot nor move, but it packs quite a wallop...with the additional disadvantage of having an additional -1 Modifier when rolling on the Black Power Misfire Chart. Up to you if the more limited mobility is worth the greater killing power (although, you can easily buy two Ballistas as a single rare choice and still have about twenty-five points leftover instead of a Bombard.)

• Field Trebuchet: Unlike almost all other units, the Trebuchet has now lost a good part of its viability. First, its now 10pts more. And with other units able to handle elites much better especially with the new lore of the lady it is no longer an auto-include.

Building Your Army

Start with a BSB Paladin on a horse (dur), 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

Update: for those devout neckbeard that want to stick to games workshop minis Cawdor from necromunda make excellent peasants and monks with some conversion. Empire pistoliers using bits from Cawdor like the heads and spears and shields from empire or Sigmar make great yeomen. If you watch eBay a lot you can find bits but if you don’t want to wait, forgeword haste bright crusader upgrade kit which gives you knight looking heads and torsos and the tokens in the set can make great standard bearers with some brass rod using a drill bit. Sigmarines -sequitors the ones with robes make great foot knights when though they tower over regular troops. Lord of the rings minas tiring trebuchet is perfect for obviously the trebuchets. The new luminary aelf cavalry with head and shield swaps would made decent Bretonnia cavalry- Maybe influenced by Araby. If you can find wings (really hard to find wing bits on eBay from gamesworkshop) knight pallador(the Sigmar guys riding giant gryph hounds) make great Pegasus. Lord arcanum on tauloron is a great hypogryph. Hardly any conversion required. The new lumineth chick on foot with the giant chalice is a perfect damsel on foot. Wood elves: sisters of the thorn and the great stags they ride would make the best or closest to mounted damsels [lol sexual pun not intended] Using the two handed swords from the empire great sword kit- usually bits from eBay but if you get the kit the heads are great for knights, you can convert the lumineth cavalry into questing knights. Sigmarines have a lot of holy looking heads and iron halos so you can make a bit of them with the lumineth cavalry to make grail knights.btw this army will be expensive as all gamesworkshop shit is but all of the models are ace, and will look amazing all converted and painted so don’t be too discouraged.

Unfortunately, GW had booted most of all its human knights (for now), can still use flagellants as Grail Pilgrims, and remount AOS Remlord horses with humans parts.

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.

Another route for obtaining cheap knights is fireforge games. They do; Teutonics (KOTR or Grail knights), Templars (KOTR or Errants), Mounted Sergeants (Yeomen) and Sergeants on foot (MaA/Bowmen as each pack comes with 24 crossbows) each box has decent size units (12 knights per pack and 48 infantry per pack), what makes it even better you say? They are also PLASTIC and come with a fuckton of extras for conversions (Questing knights?). All in all a perfect way to say fuck you GW! Although smaller than current GW plastics (what isn't?) they do scale perfectly with OOP bretonnians who can also be bought dirt cheap off eBay and used as grail knights... just an idea. Whilst I'm shamelessly plugging other miniature companies I have used in my own collection (proof) i might as well give a shout out to the lazy forger who does the best (and cheapest in terms of appearance at 10 euros) trebuchet on the market.

Another good thing to remember; if you use 3rd party miniatures in GW stores staff members will tell you to fuck off out the door and ban you, all before your models get out of the carry case. However, Perry Miniatures do some War of the Roses and Hundred Years War miniatures that you *might* be able to pass off as GW archers- just don't draw attention to them. Actually, who gives a shit, it's not like you'll play in a GW store anymore.

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.

Question is what percent and flavor of peasant should make up your anvil and knights for your hammers.

Full Present, with hoards that outnumber even goblin and skaven, with supporting Hypogrigh and grail knights, or go full lances with your core only being knights with Grail pilgrims holding the line.

Peasants are a secondary concern, but there's room in most armies for some Bowmen and Men-At-Arms. Grail Pilgrims are a solid flank unit.

Trebuchet are good take 2 and surround them with meatshields bowmen

Magic

• Life: protecting knights more with natural armour, Regen, and rais slain modles.

• Beasts: buff knights more with Strength and toughness, while also being a mobile bolt thrower.

• Heavens: start with an ice attack, then get lighting attacks at higher levels to fry heavy armour.

• Light: keep peasants in line, let knights go before elf cav, stop enemy cav from getting the charge before you

• Lady: Designed for a Damsel riding with grail knights, buffing them, and hexing enemies.

Tactica

• Dysentery, or the power of the lowborn: Many Bretonnian players ignore the peasant units (other than the trebuchet) and to be fair it's not hard to see why: they are slow moving units in a fast moving and generally offensive army, made all the worse by the fact that their leadership is miserable if they are away from the knights. Unlike the shinier nobles, they also die to a swift breeze and deal low damage. However, each of them (with the exception of Mounted Yeomen) can do something that no other unit in your army can. The role of men at arms and pilgrims was already discussed: they are the only units in your army that can die without you caring. Sometimes the best way to deal with some units is simply to send these peasants their way: a horde of men at arms with the prayer icon is more effective than the pilgrims but will suffer without a knight nearby, while the latter are more independent and start with the blessing (and stubborn to replace the steadfast). Archers fill a completely different role. While they are still expendable, they are even squishier than the other two and their higher price (compared to men at arms) means they should not be used the same way unless absolutely necessary (but DO charge a unit that is threatening your knights if you can get away with it). Besides the already mentioned distraction and light ranged damage, there are two things archers can do: they can help you in the deployment, and they can scare your opponent. Now, starting with the latter as it apparently makes no sense: who would be afraid of such weak ranged units? Well let's say you have then fire against a dwarven warmachine crew. Statistically speaking, they will deal very little actual damage, but the warmachine is expensive, and the dwarven player does not want to risk losing an expensive unit to a few lucky shots: you've forced your opponent to deal with a throwaway unit, and you've gained an advantage. Using bowmen against expensive units that are relatively squishy is a good bet. The other use for bowmen is to take them in 10 men units, since unlike men at arms they can still do their job in low numbers. Place them first during the deployment: your opponent will have to place at least a few of units vital to his strategy and, since you are deploying your knights after them, you can place your own important units to counter them. So, while your peasants are not vital to your army and you can play Bretonnia without them, they offer you new tactical options and are far from useless. As always, play your army your way, but don't shut your eyes to potential opportunities.

• Using the Lance: The lance is essentially unique amongst warhammer formations and most of your hammer units need to form it in order to be effective. Minimum viable size for a Bretonnian Lance Formation is usually 9 or so (even Grail Knights are liable to get hammered in lower unit sizes) Here are a few tips about using it:
  • Mind the Flanks: The usual minimum viable size for a Bretonnian Knight unit is 9 guys in 3 ranks of 3. A Cavalry model has a flank as long as 2.5 to 2 and 2/3rds the size of a usual infantry unit, meaning a 3 by 3 unit has a flank the length of a unit of 7 to 8 ranks (for context, instead of 9 models, they would have a minimum of 35-40 models). What does this mean? You are ABSURDLY vulnerable on the flanks. A unit that gets pinned doesn't get lance formation, is easy to break it's ranks and will generally start to take casualties REALLY quickly. So you need to watch the fuck out on the flanks. Pegasus Knights on the flanks are great at discouraging small units but will crumble in the face of dedicated combat units above a certain size and strength (20 man units of High Elf special units, for example, will fuck your shit up). This problem can largely be avoided by playing a multiple small unit army, since knights are surprisingly effective tarpit and a lance of 9 is not that expensive.
  • Minimum Frontage: The Lance Formation is only 3 guys wide which, aside from compounding the above problem, gives you reallllly small area you can draw line of sight in. This only comes into play with fast moving MSU armies (Elves mostly) but it can cause issues. Seeing you set up a next turn charge could cause a unit to go marching out of your Line of Sight and you wheeling to try and get them back in could screw up your battle line or leave you open to flank charges. A couple ways to avoid this is to stay far off (the farther you are away, the larger your line of sight) and to not be too proud to take a charge you're not as fond of. Unless it's not a fight you can win, taking the charge you want less is better than losing the unit wheeling around too much.
  • Lance Size: Most people prefer lances 9 men strong. Smaller lances generally can't beat anything (ranged units aside) on the charge and their only possible use would be to tarpit things with the knight's 2+ armour, a job that is best reserved for the peasants. Bigger lances have a few advantages. The first is the ease with which they break steadfast: a 15 men (including heroes if you want) lance will generally remove steadfast from nearly every elite unit that costs the same as them. They can also lose a few models without losing their efficiency and have a good synergy with items like the mane of the purebreed and the ruby goblet. The problem is that you will have fewer units, which means that you really have to make the most of the charge, trebuchets and archers to rout the charged unit on round 1 of combat, or you will be flanked and destroyed.

• Dealing with Infantry: In the age of the infantryman the Bretonnians have suffered, but not as much as some people would have you believe. However, you do have to play smart because a bad charge will, at best, get your knights stuck in a pointless combat against a tarpit or, at worse, kill your expensive unit. So, know how to identify what kind of block you are facing so you know what you can use against it.
  • Deathstars: By "deathstar" we mean an extremely large unit of potent troops that is often the center of the opponent's strategy. These often have at least one character, often multiple strong ones, and have many ranks so they can have steadfast even after losing a lot of models. An army could technically have multiple deathstars, but this is usually to your advantage as such an army has extremely poor map control and little flexibility. In any case, your opponent expects you to engage this unit, so don't. I don't care what you think your grail knights will do, they won't break them on the charge and then they will get slaughtered. Focus all your trebuchet fire and dwellers bellow on it but otherwise don't engage it unless you must. If you must, delay them with a mob of men-at-arms with the blessing. The knights should only attack if the deathstar is weakened enough and there are no other threats. The only exception is a suicide unit if killing a specific character in the deathstar is worth losing the unit.
  • Tarpits: Tarpits are units designed to keep your units busy so, again, try not to engage them if you can. The problem here is that, unlike deathstars, tarpits are relatively cheap so you will likely have to deal with one of them sooner or later. How you do so depends on the tarpit. If they are a horde of weak, cheap units, soften them up with archers and then charge with a unit of knights of the realm. The knights will have to grind through it but they are unlikely to suffer losses and as long as they are not flanked they should win combat and eventually break the enemy (key here being eventually). We do not recommend men-at-arms simply because most tarpits are more cost-effective and have more ranks, so the low leadership peasants will cost you. Grail Pilgrims, on the other hand, work well. The other kind of tarpit are things like warriors of tzeentch with shields or dwarven hammerers. These are taken in smaller units and survive by not taking damage (warriors) or by being stubborn/unbreakable (the latter). These should be avoided at all costs by the knights and like the deathstars make good trebuchet targets. In melee they are good targets for men-at-arms, especially if they have the blessing, as they will lose combat but, being cheaper, will have steadfast and won't break for a decent amount of time, and with their halberds they might just deal some damage back. In a pinch, as mentioned before, send your lord: even the likes of white lions/hammerers will struggle to hurt 1+/1+/5++ when only 3 models can attack.
  • Elite Infantry: Warriors of Khorne, Saurus Temple Guards, Black Guard. You know 'em, you hate 'em. These guys are expensive but not enough that there are so few on the battlefield you can ignore them. They usually have good initiative and/or armor, two attacks and good strength and leadership. And they are still cheaper than knights errant! These guys are of course still good trebuchet targets but the two former kinds of infantry take priority and thus you will be forced to fight these guys. Men at arms will simply be butchered and knights of the realm will lose models even before they attack, and after the charge it will quickly turn into a massacre. You have three options to deal with these guys. The first is to multicharge. This is the worst of the three because you lose the advantage of the low frontage of the lance formation, but you might just kill enough to break them. The second option is a "massive" unit of Knights Errant. Yes, it is expensive but a unit of 15 knights errant with a damsel with the mane of the purebreed will beat a 25 men unit of khorne warriors with halberds and remove their steadfast at about the same cost while taking relatively few casualties. Not a lot of units can do that. The third is of course grail knights. They are more vulnerable than chaos knights but on the charge they pack the same punch or more by virtue of the lance formation and since they benefit from ranks they can actually remove steadfast on round 1 of combat. Flanking with questing knights is great but of course depends on you outmaneuvering the opponent.
  • Other Infantry: As the name says, your average infantry. Not too cheap, not too expensive, not too deadly, not too weak. These are the ones you want your knights of the realm targeting, on the charge they will deal decent damage and, as with weak tarpits, will grind through them eventually. Multicharging works great here and two units of knights of the realm can punch through the enemy lines if they choose their targets right. They will likely deal little damage to your 2+ armor save and WS4 and ward save. The exception is infantry armed with ranged armor piercing weapons. Either flank them with pegasus knights, or have one of your units carry the banner of Châlons, otherwise your knights will die before they even get close.

• Agincourt Gambit - You are Bretonnia. You have the cheapest longbowmen in the game and 6 points a pop can buy you a lot of arrows. Your longbowmen are the main killers of your force, you knights in position to counter charge and hammer units that have been softened by arrows. Your enemy will focus on the knight since, obviously!, that is the threat of a Bretonnian army, when it's the archers that will whittle down his units so your knights can lance them to bits.

• Dealing with Undead - These armies are unbreakable by default. This leave you with some issues in that while you will most likely win the first round of combat you will get mauled trying to finish off the unit. The best way to deal with them is unit by unit. Crush each one completely before moving onto the next. As far as kill priorities generals and Wizards should be at the top with things like Grave Guard or other elite infantry avoided or blapped. Challenges are a very unwise move unless you are ready to face one of the strongest duelist champions/lords in the game, the other being Chaos lords/champions.

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