I really hate to ask...

[geonorton84]

(apologies for shameless clickbate title)

So it’s my first post here and I’ve been procrastinating it. I’m a mid 30’s closet miniature gamer/painter. In my teens and 20’s I was very big into 40k and traveled to many tournaments here in the U.S.A. I would go with my gaming group who were “try hards” (not meant as an insult, just very competitive) and I was the painting/sportsmanship guy. I did very well in that regard winning many sportsmanship awards and painting titles As time has gone on we have all grown up and gone our separate ways, but the community calls to me.

I WANT BACK IN!!!

Ever since AoS came out I knew this was a system I wanted to play. Great models, decent enough rules and a great community following. In my nievety I picked up a huge lot of Bretonnia, luckily at a steal of a price.

Here is my quandary. I’d love to play with these models. If you name it, I have it in my collection as far as Bretonnia and I’m willing to pick up other options. Yes, I could play the compendium, but I think we can all agree that by itself it’s extremely ... lacking. I’m not going out of my way to find the most amazing list, but I’d like to have the odds a little in my favor. I’d love to have a list that included, but not required:

King on Hypogryph 

Enchantress

Sacred protector

Damsel

Bretonnian Lord on Pegasus

10 Grail Knights

My idea is to have this Army as a call back for those who loved the models/army and miss seeing them on the tabletop. I’m obviously having a hard time figuring the battleline. Thinking Free Peoples guildguard with swords and boards could fill-in and converted to men-at-arms. The BL knights and MaA just seem too weak even for nostalgia. 

Any help would be greatly appreciated bringing this list to 2000 for match play. All the best and keep those brushes wet.

[Ragnar Alpaca]

Um I don’t think you’re going to have much luck, bretonnia is basically useless.

[geonorton84]

@Ragnar Alpaca, yeah. It’s kind of a fear.

[Marsh]

Ive actually had some fairly decent games with brets recently. Yes there super underpowered but they have some tricks... and you have some decent units for a mixed order army...

The king doesnt have many wounds, but he hits like a truck. Give him relic blade and legendary fighter and he can dish out hurt. A loremaster for rerolls really makes him shine.

I like a bret lord on pegasus with the sword of judgement (from ulga) can do some damage, especially if combine with the kings command ability and an enchantresses spell (max his to hit bonus for the mortal wounds)

Grail knights are kinda okay, pretty much all the other knights are rubbish. Peg knights are at least fast/useful

All your battline is rubbish, so you want other order battlelines really

 

 

 

 

[newsun]

Counts as empire?

[Mikeymajq]

1 hour ago, newsun said:

Counts as empire?

Pfft. Counts as Flesh eater courts!

[Baron Klatz]

Well as a more positive note for Bretonnia, in a huge 150+ player tourney somewhere around May a player using them won 50th place. Not too shabby for our knights with their new rubber lances.

But yeah, I'd say your best bet is to use their most powerful units/heroes with a gratuitous mix of tough Freeguild(Freelancers ) battlelines and magic focus.

If you go for Proxy then I say Deepkin. I'm just getting into them but they look to be basically if Zelda's Zora conquered Bretonnia. Mounted generals make the powerhouse knights battleline while any foot general lets you go archer heavy and you get powerful casters to back them up with watery fury.

You can make your army theme revolve heavily around water/lake heraldry and fish crests, put knights on sea bases, boulders surrounded by water or riding on waves to show they're flying by water magic and you can copy their infantry by giving your infantry two-handed polearms with their shields on their backs like the older 5th edition M@As had.

Bonus points if you spam the blind folded Bowmen head sprue to replicate the Deepkin's lack of eyes. (You can also fluff it that your infantry are blind monks from sea-worshipping monasteries that safeguard the coasts)

 

[Caillum]

50 minutes ago, Baron Klatz said:

If you go for Proxy then I say Deepkin. I'm just getting into them but they look to be basically if Zelda's Zora conquered Bretonnia. Mounted generals make the powerhouse knights battleline while any foot general lets you go archer heavy and you get powerful casters to back them up with watery fury.

You can make your army theme revolve heavily around water/lake heraldry and fish crests, put knights on sea bases, boulders surrounded by water or riding on waves to show they're flying by water magic and you can copy their infantry by giving your infantry two-handed polearms with their shields on their backs like the older 5th edition M@As had.

Bonus points if you spam the blind folded Bowmen head sprue to replicate the Deepkin's lack of eyes. (You can also fluff it that your infantry are blind monks from sea-worshipping monasteries that safeguard the coasts)

I cannot express enough how awesome an idea this is! ?

[geonorton84]

@Baron Klatz, that’s the kind of creativity and inspiration I’m needing. That sounds pretty awesome. Definitely entertaining the idea.

[Knight Scáthach of Fimm]

I watched a batrep where a bunch of Bretonnian knights wiped a War Mammoth in one turn on the charge.

As for writing a list around them, first I'd decide their reason for existing; being another Free Peoples faction etc etc. Once you've decided what they'll be (because Brets are gone), you can move onto list building. Start by using the Hammerhal Allegiance from the Firestorm book, and also decide their Mortal Realm. No matter what anyone tells you it's perfectly legal to use Firestorm.

There you've now got some decent allegiance abilities; the ability to reroll battleshocks and get +1 Bravery army wide (and other bonuses). When you choose your Mortal Realm, you now have access to a huge variety of Artifacts of Power to bolster your heroes, and in turn, your army. Don't forget your normal Generic Order traits and artifacts though! Now move onto unit composition.

As you can see, there's plenty of options out there for an army that's stuck using 'Generic' rules and abilities. Furthermore, you don't need to take up ally slots because you're Generic Order, so your list it 100% flexible. You'll have more luck if it isn't an entire army of Brets, so make them your core and add some strong support like a Hurricanum or Luminark; those two are amazing as they buff anything with the Order keyword.

[geonorton84]

@Knight Scáthach of Fimm, thanks for the Firestorm advice. I haven’t dove into that book yet and will get right on it. Thanks for the advice.

[Knight Scáthach of Fimm]

I wouldn't buy the whole thing just for Hammerhal Rules. Now it does come with the box set which I do have, although I found this on google images as it was easier. This is all you need from Firestorm.

[Duke of Gisoreux]

I always play Bretonnians in AoS and recently won games against Dispossessed, Beastclaw Raiders, Tomb Kings and Order Serpentis with them. I only lost against Maggotkin of Nurgle (no chance) and Brayherds (bad luck with dice).

I played Mixed Order lists which contained mainly Bretonnian units:

Best choices from the Bretonnian compendium are:

• King on Hippogryph
• Bretonnian Lord
• Enchantress
• Damsel
• Grail Knights
• Field Trebuchet

When fielding infantry I used Freeguild warscrolls. I even fielded Freeguild Guard with Swords and Shields for my old Bretonnian Knights on foot models and Freeguild Crossbowmen for my old Bretonnian Crossbowmen from 3rd edtion. I even created a new unit of Bretonnian Crossbowmen using the Fireforge Men-At-Arms models. Freeguild units perform far better than their Bretonnian counterparts from the compendium. So my suggestion for Freeguild units is the following:

• Freeguild Guard (for Men-At-Arms, Battle Pilgrims and Foot Knights)
• Freeguild Archers (for Peasant Bowmen)
• Freeguild Crossbowmen (for Bretonnian Crossbowmen)
• Freeguild General (for Paladin on foot or Mounted Paladin; you need him to get the "Hold the Line!" command ability to buff the Freeguild units)

In addition I also used a Celestial Hurricanum which is really awesome and placed a Damsel on foot model on it to make it look more Bretonnian:

 

Here's a sample army list that I used when defeating the Beastclaw Raiders:

Allegiance: Hammerhal

Leaders
King on Hippogryph (400)
- Artefact: Phoenix Stone
Enchantress (160)
Enchantress (160)
Freeguild General (100)
- General
- Command Trait: Tenacious
- Stately War Banner
Celestial Hurricanum With Celestial Battlemage (380)

Battlelines
30 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (300)
10 x Freeguild Archers (100)
10 x Freeguild Archers (100)
10 x Freeguild Guard (80)

Units
5 x Grail Knights (180)
5 x Grail Knights (180)
5 x Grail Knights (180)
5 x Questing Knights (180)

Total: 2500 / 2500

[Grailstorm]

On 7/28/2018 at 12:42 PM, Knight Scáthach of Fimm said:

I watched a batrep where a bunch of Bretonnian knights wiped a War Mammoth in one turn on the charge.

As for writing a list around them, first I'd decide their reason for existing; being another Free Peoples faction etc etc. Once you've decided what they'll be (because Brets are gone), you can move onto list building. Start by using the Hammerhal Allegiance from the Firestorm book, and also decide their Mortal Realm. No matter what anyone tells you it's perfectly legal to use Firestorm.

There you've now got some decent allegiance abilities; the ability to reroll battleshocks and get +1 Bravery army wide (and other bonuses). When you choose your Mortal Realm, you now have access to a huge variety of Artifacts of Power to bolster your heroes, and in turn, your army. Don't forget your normal Generic Order traits and artifacts though! Now move onto unit composition.

As you can see, there's plenty of options out there for an army that's stuck using 'Generic' rules and abilities. Furthermore, you don't need to take up ally slots because you're Generic Order, so your list it 100% flexible. You'll have more luck if it isn't an entire army of Brets, so make them your core and add some strong support like a Hurricanum or Luminark; those two are amazing as they buff anything with the Order keyword.

Do people use Firestorm in tournament games?

[Knight Scáthach of Fimm]

8 hours ago, Grailstorm said:

Do people use Firestorm in tournament games?

It's iffy, for some reason most tournaments disallowed it at the time, but GW said themselves that it's 100% legal in matched play. I'm not sure about the current situation.