D.R.A.I.C.H. - Taming the Horse Lords in 8th edition
Posted: Wed Dec 01, 2010 5:15 pm
- 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.
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.