D.R.A.I.C.H. - Taming the Horse Lords in 8th edition

How to beat those cowardly High Elves?

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D.R.A.I.C.H. - Taming the Horse Lords in 8th edition

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- a special thanks to Stonecutter for his excellent analyze of Bretonnians in 7th edition, which gave me the inspiration to write this article!


Based On: Bretonnian Army Book dated 2003, Druchii Army Book dated 2008 and BRB 8th edition rules.

The following is an analysis of the Bretonnian army from a Druchii standpoint or, more specifically, how to turn the horse loving humans into suitable slaves or hydra fodder!! By first gaining an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the Bretonnians, a Druchii general will be better able to adjust their own battle plan so as to take maximum advantage of this knowledge in order to expedite their foe’s demise.


Bretonnia in 8th edition

The Bretonnians have improved a lot with the 8th edition rules. Their previous weaknesses – psychology and magic – are now gone with the introduction of the new rules for BSB’s and the new powerful magic lores. They have access to cheap core infantry, their lance formation remains ever powerful, the terrifying pegasus knights now benefit from stomp and vanguard and their trebuchets are possibly some of the most devastating war machines in the warhammer world. All in all, a very nice turnout for the Bretonnians!

Still – they are only humans with human stats, human weapons and human discipline. Most of their rather impressive knights perform much less impressively in consecutive rounds of combat. Bretonnia lack for access to monsters and they do not have a selection of nasty magic items that can compete with ours. Bretonnian combat characters are traditionally pretty weak (except a few specific configurations) and their mages do not have access to very good offensive arcane items.

Dark Elf generals should bear in mind that Bretonnia has all the weapons in its arsenal to cause us serious problems. I consider the Bretonnians to be one of our less favorable match-ups.

But despair not! As Sun Tzu says: Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster.



Taming the Horselords – Part 1: Know your enemy!


A strong and balanced 2000-2500p list often features the following elements:

1.1 - The Generalship
A Bretonnian Lord and a BSB. Together they provide leadership 9 reroll-able. The BSB will always be leading a large cavalry lance, while the lord is sometimes with the lances and sometimes on his own on a pegasus, depending on his role.

1.2 - The Magic
Competitive Bretonnia lists always include a level four prophetess, usually with the lore of life. She will be riding with one of the lances or alone hiding behind units or terrain. In addition some lists may include a damsel as well, usually with the lore of beasts for the Wyssan’s Wildform spell.

1.3 - The Overload
Expect to face 2-3 lances of 9-12 knights – some of them joined by characters. Usually these will all be deployed on one side of the table to create a weighted flank. Make no mistake – these are the troops you need to somehow stop if you want to win the battle.

1.4 - The Pin
Bretonnia have access to very cheap infantry peasants called men-at-arms. Expect to see 1-2 units with 35-45 of these. Their job is to hold the other flank and prevent the rest of the opponents from moving over towards the knights. The peasants will try to pin stronger regiments to buy time for the cavalry. Occasionally you can also see a grail religuae performing this task.

1.5 - The Support

Pegasus knights (units of 3-4) and small units of knights (4-8 ) will often be deployed on the extreme flanks. They act as support for the rest of the army and lend their leadership to the peasants as explained later. Their jobs are taking out mages and light regiments and flank/rear -charging heavier infantry regiments already in combat with the peasants or knights.

1.6 - The Shooting
Trebuchets are devastating stone throwers with S5. A single stone can easily take out a whole regiment of our infantry. Competitive Bretonnia lists always include the maximum two of these, and they must be considered of the greatest importance to take out. In addition some Brettonia army lists can include a unit or two of cheap peasant bowmen with fire arrows.

The Blessing of the Lady
The Brettonians have the ability to pray to their deity before each combat. If they do so (which they always will), all their characters and knights earn The Blessing of the Lady: 5+ ward save against S5 and higher and 6+ ward save against everything else. The blessing is lost if the unit flees or refuses a challenge. In return their opponent gets to choose which player starts.



1.1 - The Generalship

The Bretonnians must take a BSB and this does not count toward hero choices or cost any additional points for the BSB upgrade. While the Bretonnian fighting characters have standard human stats and don’t appear too dangerous, they can be tailored through virtues (deity like powers) and magic items to make them excellent character or monster killers. They can all choose a vow (knightly, questing or grail), which allows them to join the appropriate or lesser unit of knights and gives them similar abilities to those knights. The virtues are more important however and some of the most common virtues are ones that allow re-rolls to hit and to wound in challenges, heroic killing blow, additional attacks for every wounding hit on the charge, +1 to combat resolution, ignore panic from missile and magic and re-rolling all to hits and to wound versus S5 or better opponents. Combining the virtues with magic items that permit re-rolls of failed armor saves or a 4+ ward save can make a lord level character very survivable and able to dish out wounds in a protracted combat. Lords can be mounted on a hippogriff with stats much like our manticore. But this is in many ways a pretty weak combination, and will rarely be seen in competitive armies.
Due to point constraints, hero level characters are seldom used apart from the BSB and generally cannot have strong virtue/magic item combinations without making them fairly vulnerable.

Lord on pegasus
If the lord is mounted on a pegasus, he is most likely equipped to hunt monsters and other “large” targets. He is probably going to be kitted out with Virtue of Heroism (heroic killing blow) + The Heartwood Lance (reroll to wound) + either Tress of Isoulde (hit on 2+ in a single round of combat) or a more defensive item. He will make quick work of your war hydras, dragons or manticores, so you should be keeping those far, far away. The lord is usually not overly hard to kill with shooting or magic, so if you get a chance, take him out early and save your hydras the trouble!

Supporting lord on warhorse

The lord can also be deployed with a large unit of knights. Although he can sometimes be kitted out to deal with monsters, he is usually kitted out for a more general purpose. He will have a 1+ reroll-able armor save in addition to either character or troop killing offensive items or virtues. He could also be wearing The Crown of Command, which combined with a nearby BSB, makes his unit near unbreakable. In addition a clever Brettonian general would give the generals unit the Banner of Discipline, making him a leadership 10 general!

The BSB
The BSB is even more important to Bretonnian forces than he (or she) is to Dark Elves. Therefore he is normally kitted out very defensively! You can expect a 2+ reroll-able armor save or a better ward save. He can also take a virtue that gives him another +1CR and occasionally he would wear the Crown of Command. Either way, you should attempt to take out the BSB with any means, you have available. Death Magic and killing blows are ideal for the purpose. With the BSB gone, you will find that Bretonnians only need to lose by a few points to turn tails and run!
Although the army BSB can take a banner to negate enemy rank bonuses and a virtue, this is rare since it is expensive and leaves the BSB very vulnerable to attack.


1.2 - The magic


Bretonnian magicians have a special rule that allows them to be placed in the second rank of knight formations – out of harm’s way. They also give the benefit of magic resistance to any unit they join, and are therefore more than often deployed on horses with their knights. Damsels have access to lore of life, beasts while the prophetesses can also use lore of heavens.

For competitive settings you would expect the level 4 prophetess to use lore of life. It is a great lore with plenty of power and diversity and she can cast all its spells without tracing line of sight. Because she is in such a fast unit and does not require line of sight, there is really little you can do to hinder her magic, other than having a good magic defense. Dispel scrolls are advised against Dwellers Below. Ring of Hotek is occasionally worth it, but usually she will be able to move out of range.

Some Bretonnian army lists include a level 2 damsel in addition to the prophetess. She often comes with lore of beasts for the powerful signature spell Wyssan’s Wildform, which can turn even peasants into a force to fear. Besides the obvious benefits of having two mages, this gives the Bretonnian player the option to include two arcane items. The Bretonnian army book does not offer a huge selection of good arcane items, and the few decent ones are defensive. The nastiest combination remains Feedback Scroll + Silver Mirror. The Silver Mirror acts as a Dispel Scroll, and does a S6 hit on the caster in addition. Combined with the Feedback Scroll, casting magic at Bretonnians can become a VERY dangerous proposition…


1.3 - The Overload


The lance formation

First off, when arranged in ranks 3 wide, Bretonnian cavalry is in lance formation and not only gain rank bonuses but are also able to attack with all the flanking models on the charge. This means that a lance of 12 models, arranged 3 x 4, will have a +3 rank bonus and will have 9 models attacking on the charge. Furthermore, Bretonnian mages can hide inside the lance in the middle of the 2nd or 3rd rank and still function normally. Therefore, thanks to the lance formation, even the weakest of Bretonnian knights are a significant danger on the charge and can break non-stubborn units quite easily. Supported by characters that can be tuned to specific roles and the regular knight lances become even more powerful and able to take on progressively tougher targets.

Brettonian knights are most dangerous when deployed together on one side creating a focused/weighted flank. The lance formations narrow front allows multiple units to crash into the same enemy unit – two full lance formations can hit a unit no wider than five models! This is called overload, and you will require pretty tough units to withstand it! Small units of black guard would be outright killed and large units of spearmen reduced to below steadfast and break. The Brettonian lances would afterwards pursue or overrun past your other units and beyond their charge arc to come around and do the same once more.

The different knights
There are four different types of land knights that can appear in a Bretonnian army and a quick summary is provided below. They all move 8’ and charge an average 17’ even though they are barded and have a 2+ armor save – this means that the big lances of knights will most likely hit on turn 2!
Any of the four types of knights are pretty viable in competitive lists, but for the big lances knights errant and questing knights are often preferred.

Knights Errant – Very low cost core cavalry with WS3/LD7 that suffer from impetuousness (test on leadership or forced to declare a charge against a foe in range). They must pursue or overrun due to impetuousness. They can take a banner to make them S6 on the charge but then suffer a –2 penalty on their impetuous checks. If you see a big unit of knights errant, they will most likely have that banner.

Knights of the Realm – Standard core cavalry with similar stats to Druchii warriors except they have poorer initiative.

Questing Knights
– Slightly more expensive than realm knights, but they are S4 and have great weapons instead of lances, which means that they only have a 3+ armor save in close combat. They are fairly popular, since they are the only knights who continue to deal considerable damage after round 1. Normally they will ride out in lance formation, hit something tough and then do a combat reform to ranks of five in order to optimize their killing potential in the second round of combat.

Grail Knights – The elite of Bretonnia and only one unit can be fielded without a special character. High weapon skill and two attacks each make them extremely deadly in lance formation. They are immune to psychology (cannot flee!), have magical attacks and gain the Lady’s Blessing even if the army does not pray. They are also really expensive and are not harder to kill with shooting than any of the other knights.


1.4 - The Pin

The peasants have very low stats (WS2 and LD5). The value of peasants is that they are very cheap, gain the LD of any knight unit within 6”, do not cause panic in the knights and any standard taken by them works normally but does not grant victory points if captured.
The men-at-arms are armed similar to spear warriors and while less capable, still grant the same SCR for far fewer points and without the chance of giving up another 25 VPs for the banner. The army can field a peasant infantry unit called the grail religuae and battle pilgrims that gains the Lady’s Blessing, is stubborn and has hatred but it is fairly expensive, hence more rarely taken.

Men-at-arms are great value for their points. Their job is to absorb attention while the knights do their job. They are just peasants and will obviously get hacked apart by any dark elf unit, but sheer numbers and buff spells from lore of life and beasts can actually make them harder to deal with than one should think. And once you finally grind them below steadfast and run them down, you realize that they are almost worth no points. The balance with men-at-arms is to not focus too much on them while still keeping an eye out. It is not nice to get 40 peasants in your flank – even though they are only peasants!


1.5 - The Support


Even smallish units of six knights can negate ranks because of the lance formation, and it is therefore quite effective to deploy one or two of these units as support for the peasants, which means that they can also benefit from the knights leadership. Knights of the realm are cheap and have leadership 8, which make them perfect for this job. These units can also run ragged at a gun line in later turns, should you fail to deal with them.

Pegasus Knights
The army is usually restricted to only one unit, and that is good news as these are badass flying cavalry with 2 wounds, a 3+ save and the Lady’s Blessing. The mounts give 2 x S4 attacks each plus stomp attacks and thus even a unit of 3-4 can really hurt Druchii infantry both on the charge and in subsequent rounds. In addition they count as fast cavalry and can Vanguard – so they will be on your back right from the start. Pegasus knights play a vital balance role in the Bretonnian force. They make light work of any smaller regiments – be it shades, harpies, dark riders or small units of repeater crossbowmen. They also make short work of any reaper bolt throwers! Pegasus knights can hold up infantry units by charging them in the flank or combo charge with other ranked cavalry units.
If the Bretonnian general is mounted on a royal pegasus, then the 0-1 limit is lifted. And since pegasus knights are really powerful, this can be reason enough in itself to put the lord on a pegasus!


1.6 - The Shooting


Trebuchets are nasty, nasty, nasty… and they are even nastier against Dark Elves. That big 300 point unit of black guard there? Oh, it’s down to 3 models now… All it takes is ONE hit – even shots that scatter can do amazing damage against nearly anything in our list. Trebuchets work as a normal catapults but hit with S5, which means that our infantry are going to lose anywhere between 10 and 18 models from a hit! Even units that are normally pretty good against shooting, like Corsairs and Cold one Knights, also take heavy casualties from a well placed stone. War Hydras can also really suffer from the S10 D6 wounds direct hit. Yeah… did I forget to mention that trebuchets are nasty? Ohh, and by the way, trebuchets cost LESS than our reaper bolt throwers. Good to finally come across something just as “broken” as our war hydras…

You really, really need to deal with the trebuchets above anything else. Luckily they are crewed by peasants with no combat ability what so ever. Even a unit of five harpies means certain death for them! Shades also obviously rip them apart, and both of these units should be included for the sole purpose of dealing with the trebuchets!

Bretonnia players know what the trebuchets can do to the enemy and normally assign some units to protect them. Peasant archers are often deployed in this role. They are cheap longbowmen with BS3 and very cheap access to flaming arrows. For their points they are rather good at shooting down light regiments approaching the trebuchets, and they can also cause some damage to our T3 infantry units or nick a wound of the hydra removing its regeneration ability for a turn. They are completely worthless in combat, but can tie approaching units up due to steadfast.
Last edited by Auere on Wed Dec 01, 2010 5:33 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by Auere »

Taming the Horse Lords - part 2: Know Yourself


With a solid understanding of Bretonnia’s Strengths, we can now apply some druchii cunning to exploit our own army’s abilities. While numerous possibilities exist thanks to the many excellent druchii units, the field will be narrowed to examining how to use each phase of the turn to best advantage.


2.1 - Deployment Phase

First of all, if you have any influence on the terrain setup, make sure to spread it out across the table. Any terrain count as dangerous for his knights! Buildings make good firebases for small units of shades and repeater crossbowmen, and can be used to protect the flanks of your infantry.

Deployment is critical against Brettonia. If he spreads his knights out, they are pretty easy to bog down for stubborn black guards, witches, executioners or steadfast spearmen. But if he overloads with the knights and characters on one side, you must put down your strongest units and stubborn characters to deal with them. Place cold one knights, chariots or war hydras on their flanks to counter charge. Ignore the peasants in deployment – they get in combat at least a turn later. A little unit of SSS corsairs or witches is more than sufficient to stop them. Harpies and shades should be in good position looking at the trebuchets. Pegasus mounted unkillable characters and war hydras are good for dealing with the pegasus knights (shooting at Pegasus Knights is often not worth it!), but do not over prioritize taking them out. Resisting the overload charge from the land knights is the most important thing.


2.2 - Movement Phase

If you have a Cauldron of Blood, start by blessing your most precious unit with the 5+ ward. You need to play aggressively. Hanging back against Bretonnia seldom does you any good. Push your strongest anvil unit or character up to around 18’ from the knights to offer itself as a long charge possibility for the knights. Keep the rest of your forces slightly back or move them around the flank 20-22’ from the knights ready to counter charge, and move your repeater crossbowmen just within range to shoot.

The forces on the other table half should also be moving up to acquire their targets while keeping an eye on the knight’s movement. Get the harpies and shades in cover or/and at long range from any peasant bowmen, but within good charge range of his trebuchets. The first couple of turns are pivotal! Once you get the knights bogged down and kill the trebuchets, the game is usually yours. Always keep an eye on the pegasus knights and do not let them get in behind your lines unchallenged!


2.3 - Magic Phase

How to play your own magic phase depends greatly on the lore you have chosen. The popular combination of shadow and dark magic also works very well against Bretonnia. Black Horror or Soulstealer can really reduce the big lances in number – especially in combination with the hexes from shadow magic. Once the big lances have lost a good deal of knights, they will have problems breaking our high leadership steadfast and stubborn units. If you have considerable amounts of shooting, try to reduce the knight’s toughness or armor save with magic before hitting them with repeater crossbow shots. Bladewind has a nearly 100% chance of killing a trebuchet outright and Chillwind can be used against his peasant archers. If you are using death magic, try to snipe his BSB quickly. Casting Doom and Darkness on the Bretonnian general will make every unit within 12’ of him very prone to failing panic tests. Apart from that, a mobile caster with Purple Sun can also really cause damage to the knights. At all times you need to be careful with the Silver Mirror + Feedback Scroll combination which can easily kill one of your mages.

When defending against his magic, save your dispel dice for the right spells. Flesh to Stone, The Dwellers Below and Wyssan’s Wildform are top priority for the most of the battle. Dispel Throne of Vines in your own turn, and consider letting Earth Blood and Regrowth go through. Regrowth can often only bring back a very limited amount of models.


2.4 - Shooting Phase

The ability of repeater crossbowmen to mass fire armor piercing shots make them very effective at dealing with T3 Bretonnian knights, who will fail their armor save one third of the time and then only get a 6+ ward due to S3. They work great in collaboration with The guiding Eye and shadow magic. If your army includes a unit of 30 repeater crossbowmen with a sorceress holding The guiding Eye, it can be a good idea to deploy them opposite to the knight lances supported by hard hitting regiments on either side. If the knights overload charge the repeater crossbowmen, you can then stand and shoot against the first charge and flee against the second leaving one of the knight units damaged and both of them stranded. It requires some careful positioning, however!

Reaper bolt throwers are somewhat effective against land knights, but will usually also be easy targets for pegasus knights and hence give away all too many easy victory points for all too little contribution. The war hydra’s breath can be used at big lances of knights or to kill heaps of men-at-arms, but sometimes it is better saved for close combat.

If the Bretonnian force includes a monster hunting general on pegasus, you should try to take him out with shooting as early as possible!


2.5 - Close Combat Phase

Dealing with knights!
Stubborn units with fifteen or more models will usually be able to resist the overload charges from two big lances. An example:

17 Black Guard with BoM get charged by 12 knights Errant and 12 Questing Knights. Result: 5 dead knights and 10 dead Black Guard.

This is without characters taken into consideration, but the Black Guard will most likely hold out allowing other units to countercharge the knights. Therefore the black guard, witches and executioners (with a cauldron) make ideal anvils against these charges. The Bretonnia player will usually try to reduce these units in size with trebuchets and The Dwellers Below. You should bear in mind that grail knights hit more than twice as hard as the other types of knights, and if your opponent includes a big lance of these elite knights, you must do everything to reduce their effectiveness.

It is hard for Spearmen to maintain steadfast against overload charges, because the knight units have so many ranks. If you do not have a spearmen unit with at least 35 models in your army, I would advise against using them as anvil against the knights.
A stubborn near unkillable character can also hold up knight lances. This is an extremely effective way of getting the knight units into one on one -combats with our infantry – a battle the knights will often lose.
Finally, you can try to get the charge yourself. Harpies can be angled in such a way that an overrun will take the knights past your units allowing you to get the charge. This costs a unit of harpies, of course, but can many times be worth it!

Knights are traditionally not very effective in the second round of combat, although grail knights and especially questing knights can do a good job. But their defense remains stunningly good, and it is very often hard to kill the knights or break them from combat with all their SCR and steadfast. Once you have the knights locked in combat, make sure to have units available to countercharge their flanks. Units that have SCR themselves are optimal, if you wish to break the knights, and executioners or witches/corsairs with the killing blow blessing can also do a really good job hacking knights to pieces. War hydras are not overly strong against knights, but can do a good job - especially if they haven’t already used their breath attack.

One final note of advice: Kill their BSB! He usually has a high reroll-able armor save and can be healed with life magic, so killing blows are a good way to take him out.


Dealing with the rest
Peasants are no match for dark elf units. Corsairs and witches excel in killing droves of peasants. All you need is units as small as around 15 to deal with 35-45 men-at-arms. It takes time unless they fail their steadfast rolls, so never use more if less will do! Assign support troops to deal with the peasants and focus the bulk of your forces on the knights. Make sure to dispel Flesh to Stone and Wyssan’s Wildform on the peasants, or they may soon become a bigger threat, than you thought.
Peasants are horribly exposed once they are without the influence of nearby knights or the general. It does not help the men-at-arms much, that they are steadfast, if it is only on leadership 5. If you see an opportunity to engage the peasants outside the influence of knights, they will be a whole lot easier to get rid of.

Pegasus knights are usually pretty hard to deal with, and if you give them too much free space, they can be a pain! You only need to kill one of their numbers with shooting or magic to cause a panic test, which they are not completely unlikely to fail on leadership 8. But apart from that, small units of cold one knights, tough characters on pegasi or a rending star assassin are probably the best and most reliable way to deal with pegasus knights. If you have none of these included in your army, it is sometimes a good idea to play with an “anchor” unit behind your lines to deal with the pegasus knights, once they come around.


2.6 - Tuning a List


While it is generally best to be ready for any foe, there are times when you will be raiding Bretonnia directly and will not have to worry about any other enemies. In these instances, you can tailor your own force to bring the most effective troops available. Simply decide on how you would best like to defeat the foe and choose your troops accordingly.


Good choices against Bretonnia

Characters
A dreadlord with Crown of Command and Pendant of Khaeleth is really great on his own, holding up a powerful enemy lance. He is also great in a unit of cold one knights.
The cauldron is really at is best against Bretonnia. The ward save blessing can protect an important infantry unit from the trebuchets and the killing blow blessing is really good against knights.
A level 4 sorceress is mandatory against any foe, and I would recommend dark magic over metal magic - yes, you heard me right! Even though both are good lores against Bretonnia, a Black Horror on a 12 strong lance actually kills the same amount of knights as an upgraded Searing Doom on average – and the casting difficulty is 9 lower! The lore of metal has good spells, but Bladewind, Soulstealer and Black Horror from the dark lore are all terrific against them!
A rending star assassin in a large unit of shades is also pretty good against Bretonnia. The horse-lovers have little that can deal with this type of threat, and the assassin’s high strength shooting works well against pegasus knights or the monster hunting general.

Core
I would not recommend warriors for other than extra power dice. To make them combat-worthwhile against Bretonnia, you need units of 35 or more, which makes them perfect targets for The dwellers Below or trebuchet shots.
Repeater crossbowmen are very viable against Brettonia. Their armor piercing shots are perfect for dealing with knights, and combined with The guiding Eye and/or shadow magic, they can severely reduce the knight lances in size, before they reach our lines.
SSS corsairs are good for taking out peasants, and with killing blow from the cauldron they are also perfect for flanking knights.
Dark riders are too easy to pick on with peasant bowmen, and also make easy targets for pegasus knights. I would advise against taking them.
Harpies are great for several purposes. They can take care of trebuchets or sacrifice themselves to avoid a charge.

Special
Medium sized witch elf regiments can be well worth it with a cauldron backing them up. But as any other infantry, they are also really easy to kill with trebuchet shots.
Shades are great for picking off a few knights with shooting while taking care of the trebuchets and archers.
Executioners are great against high armor saves and they are stubborn if near the cauldron. Try 35 with Banner of Murder and a death hag BSB with ASF banner and watch those knights crumble to dust in seconds. However such a unit would be at great risk with S5 stones flying about!
Cold one knights are great in general. They are even better if joined by a stubborn character and with a cauldron of blood in the backhand. Smallish units are good against pegasus knights.
Cold one chariots are not up to par with Cold one Knights against Bretonnians.
The black guard is great with Banner of Murder, but ceases to be great after the first trebuchet shot has landed. They would need the 5+ ward blessing right from the start!

Rare
The war hydra is our best unit, and it is also good against Bretonnia.
Reaper bolt throwers are not worth their points – not even against Bretonnia. They will get one or maybe two shots off, before the pegasus knights or support knight regiments swing in to make light work of them.


Learn more by watching excellent battle reports at: http://www.youtube.com/user/OnceBitten360
Last edited by Auere on Wed Dec 01, 2010 6:50 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by Auere »

Taming the Horselords – Part 3: Appendix


3.1 - Special Characters

The Bretonnians have some special characters that may arise from time to time, especially in larger battles.

The Green Knight is a terror causing, ethereal stalker who arrives on a random roll in any natural terrain piece or can move from one natural piece to another during the remaining moves phase once he is on the board. He is a significant threat to missile troops and RBTs. However, he suffers instability like undead if beat in combat and may return but suffers a penalty each time he is killed on his appearance roll. Apart from hoping your opponent rolls poorly to have the Green Knight appear, magical attacks or static combat resolution are the best approaches after ensuring that natural terrain pieces are located away from your deployment zone.

King Louen Leoncoeur arrives on a slightly improved hippogriff, has regeneration, is very good in challenges and allows multiple units of grail knights to be taken. If he is killed, the entire army checks for panic and any surviving units become stubborn but don’t let that stay your assassin’s hand when the opportunity arises!

The Fey Enchantress also allows extra grail knights to be taken and is inserted into the unit as it forms her bodyguard. While she can take any lore in the book, she is most effective with the lore of life. Her other great advantage is that the Lady’s Blessing comes for free, without praying, so the Bretonnian player will have a chance of going first. Both the Fey Enchantress and the King are very expensive and are unlikely to appear in anything less than a 3,000 point battle.
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Post by xFallenx »

Awesome write up! Thank-You!
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Post by Malus99 »

great tactica, nice work
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Post by Calisson »

Thanks for the update!
One of my main opponent, I'll sure will come back and read more carefully.
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Post by L1qw1d »

very sweet- I thought Metal was effective in the smaller games, up til about 2100?
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Post by Auere »

very sweet- I thought Metal was effective in the smaller games, up til about 2100?


Metal is ok, but the signature spell is rather hard to cast for what it does. Even in smaller games, you must expect any lances to be at least 9 strong. Against only 9 knights the basic searing doom (cast on 10+) kills 2,43 knights on average. A black horror (cast on 11+) kills 3,75 knights on average... tells the whole story!

If you get to really small games (like 1000-1500 points) where you would not include a supreme sorceress, I would go for metal magic. You need a level 4 sorceress to get a good spell selection with the lore of dark magic.
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