[AoS 2 - Bretonnia Discussion]

Hello guys!

I think it is starting to become common knowledge in this thread that the Enchantress together with Grail Knights is what keeps Bretonnia floating since the Old World exploded.

For those who still doubt this, I have put together a battle report from a game I played one month ago. This will once again highlight the strength of their synergy. I apologize if some of the details in the report are a little blurry - since I started on my new job I haven't had time to play so I had to go to the "back log" for this one.

This was a 1000 point game but we decided to play on a 6x4 foot table anyway. The battleplan we used was Total Commitment, where you are not allowed to put units in reserve and there are four objectives: those on your own half are worth 1 point per turn whereas those in enemy territory are worth 3 points per turn. The objectives in this battle report are marked as grey, transparent shields with a feather in the middle (you will see there is one in each corner).

I used my merry Bretonnians from Ghur and played from the South. My opponent, Rafael, brought his army of Nighthaunt hailing from the realm of Death. Our battle took place in the realm of Shadows, Ulgu, where Rafael's Nighthaunt regularly send patrols. On one of these patrols, they discovered a Vanguard element of my Bretonnian army, venturing into the dark to explore whether the opportunities for survival were better here than in the wild realm of Beasts that they hail from.

These are the armies we used:

I won the roll off and decided to place down units first. Since we both had seven drops, I finished first and could therefore decide who would get first turn. Below you see the battlefield after deployment:

Since it is so essential for Bretonnia to get the charge off, I naturally decided that my opponent should go first, as I almost always do when I play Bretonnia (and which is why it upsets me that there are no viable Battalians to use, I would really like to drop all units at once and make sure to go second).

The Nighthaunt army was not able to do much on their first turn, and my enemy was unwilling to leave his own objectives undefended. The Chainrasp Horde and the Knight of Shrouds advanced, while the Grimghast Reapers moved to form a wall in front of the objective they were holding. One of the Guardians of Souls, and the Spirit Torment elected to stand guard on each side of the objective. The Nighthaunt army scored two points, making the score [BR 0 - 2 NH]

 

The first, and most important thing I did on my turn, was to summon the Chronomantic Cogs 9 inches in front the Enchantress. She then immediately used it to Speed Up Time (see the clock symbol). My damsel gave the Knights Errant Mystic Shield. She then flew to a tower within range to give the Knights Errant their Eager to Impress buff. I ran my Noble Champion General up to the middle of the battlefield to be able to react to wherever he was needed but made sure to stay in cover. In the shooting phase he threw the Rockjaws (since it is an ability our understanding of the rules told us he could use it even though he ran) and caused 3 mortal wounds to the Chainrasp Horde. The Enchantress and Grail Knights moved up to be ready to charge the Grimghast Reapers.

Now, for the most interesting event of this round, and what made me get a good advantage over my opponent: using the extra speed of the Chronomantic Cogs, I moved my Knights Errant all the way up until they were 3 inches away from the Knight of Shrouds. I then rolled three dice for the charge (because the trumpeter is an awesome part of a Bretonnian cavalry unit) and, by picking the two highest numbers, got a solid 11. This, plus the extra two inches from the Speed Up Time effect, made me be able to completely change plans and take advantage of my opponents fairly ill defended home objective. My epic charge made all 8 Knights Errant be in range to steal the point.

The Enchantress and Grail Knights easily made their charges and then proceeded to completely annihilate the Grimghast Reapers, killing 6 (another one would later leave due to battleshock). The Knights Errant suffered only one wound and managed to kill 4 Glavewraith Stalkers and therefore snatch the objective worth 3 points. This, and the fact that I still held my two home objectives made the score go to [BR 5 - 2 NH]

This turn it was my opponent's turn to be cheeky. He took advantage of both an ability and the Chronomantic Cogs by picking up the Chainraps Horde, putting them down 9 inches away from the Men-at-Arms and the Damsel (the tower was tall) and then rolled a natural 10 to charge them into the poor peasants with all kinds of horrible buffs active. The Knight of Shrouds charged into the backs of the Knights Errant and the Spirit Torment charged the Enchantress.

In the combat phase the following happened: The Spirit torment, being in range of both the Enchantress and the Grail Knights had no chance what so ever and died after having caused only one wound to the Enchantress. The Grail Knights also managed to kill what was left of the Grimghast Reapers. Due to excessive killing, and using piling in efficiently, there were now enough Bretonnians in range of the objective to steal it from the poor Guardian of Souls still babysitting it.

All did not go my way though; the Knights Errant died a hero's death having already done their duty of snatching the three essential Victory Points. The Men-at-Arms were of course completely helpless in their fight and 11 of them died. The only reason they stayed in battle was because the Damsel was in range to give them Inspiring Presence. Thank the Lady for that. At the end of the turn the standing was [BR 5 - 6 NH]

Before moving out of range of the Chronomantic Cogs, the Enchantress made sure to Slow Down Time (again, see the clock symbol), giving her the equivalent of Mystic Shield, and another spell to cast (reaching an impressive grand total of 3). This, however, was not necessary this round since she and the Grail Knights charged in and killed the Guardian of Souls easily. My General ran out from his cover in the middle and tried to block the path of the other Guardian of Souls to challenge his way towards my objectives. He also tried to throw his Ghur artifact, the Rockjaws, but unfortunately missed. The other Noble Champion advanced to better be able to guard his objective.

My damsel managed to cast the Soulsnare Shackles and placed them within 6 inches of my enemies to block the path of the Glaivewraith Stalkers and Knight of Shrouds on their advance towards my objectives. The damsel then flew for her life towards the two objectives I was still holding. Left on the ground was the biggest Hero of today's battle: admired among his peers for the beautiful fig trees on his farm, a brave peasant, henceforth known as Figo, stood fast on his own, against a horde of ghosts, and sacrificed his life to slow down the advance of the relentless spirits. May songs of his deeds be sung in every hall, and may he be remembered forever (to ensure this, I made sure to write his new name on the bottom side of his base 😁). At the end of the turn, the standing was now [BR 9 - 6 NH]

Now at the start of the 3rd battle round, my opponent was quite disheartened. He had managed to kill brave Figo last round, but failed the charge into the unprotected damsel. The remaining Guardian of Souls entered battle with my Noble Champion (the General) but was unable to come out on top. Realizing that he had few opportunities of improving his situation, and that he would most likely be 3 Victory Points behind me for the rest of the battle, he choose to resign.

The remaining 4 units of ghosts let out many frustrated howls and screeches before disappearing into the dark mists they had come from. The four victorious Heroes of Bretonnia, and the glorious Grail Knights, marched back to Ghur where they reported that although Ulgu seemed promising, the lack of horses spoke strongly in favor of staying in the Realm of Beasts for the time being. 

 

-------

 

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this little Vanguard battle. In the future I hope to make my battle reports less technical and even more narrative. Any feedback on this one would be most welcome!

I will leave you with my final lessons from this particular battle:

• The only thing better than an Enchantress is two Enchantresses
• Grail Knights are wrecking balls, make sure to pick enemy units you can kill in one or two turns to maximize charge opportunities
• Spells can be very helpful to make weak armies like Bretonnia more competitive. In this case it was the Chronomantic Cogs that made it possible for my Knights Errant to move more than two feet (25 inches to be exact) and gain those game deciding 3 Victory Points turn one.

 

Cheers and good luck in your games! 

[AoS 2 - Bretonnia Discussion]

12 hours ago, VonSmall said:

Greetings everyone,

Having moved abroad a few years ago and not being able to play much AoS except on the occasional visit home I've had to theory hammer quite a bit. While we Brets have certainly had a massive power hit with the latest compendium, there's still a few units in there that are defiantly still a goer.

- As mentioned, the Enchantress is an absolute steal at 160 points. Cast twice a turn with a re-roll and can self heal? Moves 14" a turn? 7 Attacks?! Yes please. All of that without mentioning their (I love that you can pluralise them now by taking more than one) other cool ability of buffing arguably the only decent 'unit' left to brets...Grail Knights

- The current meta seems to be filled with Death and quite a lot of Daemons (including Lizzies 😂). A unit of these bad boys can go through stuff in pretty short order thanks to their reliable charges and decent damage output. Combo that with multiple Enchantresses helping to buff them and you have a very nasty unit (or units as i'd probably be running them in 5s). Sure, they're not as survivable as previously but you still have access to a damsel to help out where needed.

- Bretonnian Lord - Re-roll charges and can fight monsters for 140. Enough said.

I recently wrote a list with these maxed out and some endless spells - pretty confident it could get 3 solids wins in an event.

Hey there!

Awesome to see another Bretonnia fan finding their way to this thread!

And I do enjoy some theorycrafting every now and then 😛

I could not agree more regarding Grail Knights and running them together with the wonderful Enchantress(es)! I actually do use 10 of them in one unit most of the time, just to make sure that whatever I hit actually dies, so that I’m free to charge with them again on the next turn. Keeping them locked in combat means I’m not using them to their full potential. 

Unfortunately I’ve found that none of the 7 attacks from the Enchantress have been able to do much, but that doesn’t bother me too much since such a fast wizard is priceless for getting victory points in all those battle plans that require wizard keyword (or an artefact) on a hero to be able to hold the objective. 

Please let me know how it goes if you ever get to try the Bretonnian Lord in action. I don’t really like his command ability so I would probably consider having two noble standard bearers (or just another Enchantress) rather than spending points on him. 

I have been really busy with work lately but I’m gonna try to get the time to write another battle report where my Brets saw action, hopefully I will be able to ge that done this coming weekend, at least a small game 😀

Until then, cheers!

...and... For the Lady!

[AoS 2 - Bretonnia Discussion]

7 hours ago, Aezeal said:

Sizewise I'd say reavers yes.. they should be human just starting on the bloodbound path and while being muscular they should be normal lengthwise. How do they compare to old elves or empire guys?

Here are some pictures I found online, and some of my oldest models (painted when I was 10 years old) next to SCE. I don't have any Chaos units to compare with so we'll have to use the liberator as a "ruler".

Seeing it black on white like this, I honestly think Bloodreavers and Noble Champions are about the same size. But now I'm comparing a chaff unit to a five wound hero, so I'd still say there is a bit of "size creep"

 

What do you think?

 

[AoS 2 - Bretonnia Discussion]

16 hours ago, Skreech Verminking said:

Hi, it’s great to see some people still playing the French talking army in aos.

I still find them to be one of the best looking army’s which has ever existed in the Warhammer worlds. (including aos) (just after the skaven faction of course).

its a shame that they aren’t produced anymore.

 

Cheers mate! Did you ever play them yourself? I’m gonna try to find the time to write a new Battle report on Sunday

[AoS 2 - Bretonnia Discussion]

8 hours ago, Chris Tomlin said:

@oscisi - This is now added to the Order Discussion Hub.

Thank you mate! Let’s hope more people join this merry band of nobles and peasants!

28 minutes ago, Aezeal said:

Stormcasts are big... bigger than normal humans sure.. but relative to their size are they really that bulky.. I mean... completely armoured guys ARE bulky. Especially the less armoured stormcast don't seem that bulky to me.

My question, though, is what IS the normal human size in AoS? Maybe Blood Reavers can be used as a benchmark?

[AoS 2 - Stormcast Eternals Discussion]

Hi guys!

I collect Stormcast Eternals but never actually played with them. I'm more of a role playing/narrative guy anyway.

I have bought a bunch of models because they are cool, without necessarily minding how good they are in matched play. Below you will see a list of what I have/intend to add. Would love some feedback/ideas on how to make the most out of my models. Competitively speaking that is. For example: the weapon options are flexible since all will be magnetized. I also have a bunch of Endless Spells painted up so including those is also an option. Not the SCE ones, though. Just from Malign Sorcery. Thanks!

Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals

LEADERS
Lord-Aquilor (200)
- General
Lord-Arcanum on Celestial Dracoline (240)
Lord-Relictor (100)
UNITS
15 x Liberators (300)
-Warblade & Shield
10 x Vanguard-Hunters (240)
-Boltstorm Pistols and Shock Handaxes
5 x Vanguard-Hunters (120)
-Boltstorm Pistols and Shock Handaxes
6 x Vanguard-Palladors (400)
-Boltstorm Pistols and Shock Handaxes
6 x Vanguard-Palladors (400)
-Boltstorm Pistols and Shock Handaxes
TOTAL: 2000/2000 EXTRA COMMAND POINTS: 0 WOUNDS: 139
LEADERS: 3/6 BATTLELINES: 3 (3+)

Left "on the bench": Lord-Ordinator, Steelheart's Champions, 3xProsecutors and a bunch of Gryph-Hounds.

[AoS 2 - Bretonnia Discussion]

8 hours ago, Verengard said:

Personaly I dont like SC conversions to Brets, they are too bulky, does not look like normal human.

 

Just as there is Power Creep, so is GW Size Creep very much a thing!

 

[AoS 2 - Bretonnia Discussion]

7 hours ago, JackStreicher said:

Well it would be best if one  could get the 3D models of Total War, solidify them and 3D-print them. I am currently pretty much fed up with my Brets since they look plainly dated...too dated

Yeah I love Bretonnia in Total War! But if you do want to play them, allow me to give two suggestions: either take the Stormcast Vanguard and convert, here’s a pic for inspiration (although I’m not the artist)

 

OR, you could use different models as proxies, for example the ones from: https://fireforge-games.com/

I actually got that idea from this artist:

 

May the blessings of the Lady be upon you

[AoS 2 - Bretonnia Discussion]

Myself, I just differentiated the Grail Knights by using more modern models and painting grails all over their shields. 

Using the Coven Throne like that sounds aswesome! I’m sure you could even make two enchantresses or an enchantress and a damsel our of that kit!

[AoS 2 - Bretonnia Discussion]

3 hours ago, Lightbox said:

Ooh that's really cool.

 

As for knights errant I technically only have knights of the realm but they're the super old ones with like mega thin lances so if I wanted to field with realm I could try and get more modern ones or something. On their own it's fine. Alas Errants also don't feel worth the 200 points though i suppose saving the 20 points can be useful, though they do prefer to have a damsel.

 

Grail knights I planned to convert though finding unbuilt 'modern' brets is a tad hard and I only have enough for maybe 5? Also if I don't go lord reikenors pegasus can still work for the sacred protector, he's ghostly and can fly. I've always liked the lord's though, good save and damage output for a 5 wound model. And super mobile with the peg.

 

I was thinking for grail knights doing them on skele horses to make the look different. Might need to find some different riders though, bit stuck on that one if I can't find lots of bret bits. Double enchantress is nice though, she's a brilliant spellcaster for 160 points provided you have the spell lores.

Depending on how much you want to invest in converting, you have a ton of options

Since the Sacred Protector doesn’t have any wings you could also experiment with this old model: https://www.games-workshop.com/en-EU/Count-Mannfred

Personally I wouldn’t dare bringing 200 points that only has a 50 percent chance to appear each battleround. 

Another fun model to try to convert would be to see if it’s possible to make Mounted Yeomen out of Hexwraiths. I don’t know. They aren’t that good - I just want them because I don’t have them yet!

Edit: and hey, while you’re at it, why not make 11 Battle Pilgrims and a Grail Reliquae out of this? https://www.games-workshop.com/en-EU/Deathrattle-Barrow-Lords

They aren’t great either but at 160 points for 12 models with 4+ to hit, 3+ to wound they are at least better than the Mounted Yeomen...

[AoS 2 - Bretonnia Discussion]

5 hours ago, Lightbox said:

Not entirely sure it would work XD And I'll have my work cut out for me trying to find a way to convert grail knights (perhaps giving them a fancy paint job or something? Also not sure I have enough bret knight models left to build, oof. Possibly kitbash them from another model base? Or scour ebay.)

I'm kind of wanting to do a repanse de lyonesse style conversion at some point. An undead joan of arc for the army Thinking also Reikenor the Grimhailer's undead Pegasus could provide me a lot of fun for a lord conversion Already got one regular lord on a Pegasus but hey why not 2?

I'm still upset Pegasus knights lost their pile in and attack twice ability, I struggle to see much point to them now for their cost alas

 

 

Okay so I've just seen some stormcast with bretonnian heads and they look great! I now know what I'm doing if I ever start a small stormcast band... (and if I ever get enough bret heads)

Nice! My spontaneous reaction is that I like that list and that it looks decent. It's a shame that the command ability of the Bretonnian Lord is so redundant. In most cases you're better off just using the standard command ability "Forward to Victory" (from the core rules) because then you can hold off on spending the command point until you actually need it. One potential problem with your list is that the natural target for your enemy on the first turns is going to be your Enchantress, and you have no ranged units yourself, to "screen off" enemies or protect her. One possible solution could be to get rid of the Knights of the Realm and the Bretonnian Lord (saving 360 points) and then adding a unit of Knights Errant (200 points) and another Enchantress (160 points). The Fey Enchantress used to be a named character that you could only take one of, but the Enchantress has no such limitation. This would also allow you 4 casts of magic per turn so it assumes that your opponent is fine with you using a lore of magic from the Malign Sorcery expansion.

If you go for the double Enchantress option then I would give one of them Inspiring and keep her around whenever the poor Men-at-Arms get into battle (horrible save and horrible bravery). The Ethereal Amulet is still a good option for a Shyish artifact. That way your enemy might snipe one of your Wizards but definitely not both!

That being said, I still do love your idea of making an undead Bretonnian force so it might be worth keeping the Bretonnian Lord just to make that awesome Reikenor the Grimhailer-conversion. If you're sticking with that theme then you could consider converting Black Knights (looks very dead) or Blood Knights (for a more "alive" look). The Grail Knight models are so old, hard to find, expensive and honestly not the most beautiful anyway.

Here's a picture I really like, made by "Kookri" on DeviantArt, that catches that Mousillon undeath feel! http://kookriart.tumblr.com/post/165555105543/a-toast-to-your-health-one-of-my-favorite

Stormcast with Bretonnian heads sound fun! I have some stuff lying around so I might try that for a Skirmish warband  

 

Edit: Forgot to say - yeah, I unfortunately have to agree about the Pegasus Knights. Not the best unit out there..

[AoS 2 - Bretonnia Discussion]

15 hours ago, Lord_Skrolk said:

This thread is awesome, really exciting to read such a well done battle report! 

I'll admit I never played Bretonnia myself, but it warms my heart to see fans like the original poster who keep the love for the faction alive. I know someone who still plays Tomb Kings in AoS and he has as much fun with AoS as anyone I knkw. 

Wish I had some actual strategy advice... but rock on my Bretonnian dudes and dudettes, and good luck in all of your future battles! 

 

12 hours ago, Thiagoma said:

Well done keeping Bretonnia alive!

 

Thank you so much guys! You are also helping keeping Bretonnia alive!

38 minutes ago, Lightbox said:

One thing I will ask... how useful do you find men at arms? I may have converted 10 of my 16 into zombies... (though zombie men at arms is still workable for my theme XD And don't worry I'll be sure to post up here when I get stuff made and painted.

I don't find Men-at-Arms or Peasant Bowmen useful at all... I tend to include them just because I sometimes need as many bodies as possible to hold an objective. But they are never the ones doing the heavy lifting. At best they might cause a distraction or tie up a unit that I want my mobile Knights to stay clear of. Zombie Men-at-Arms sounds awesome! 

[AoS 2 - Bretonnia Discussion]

2 hours ago, Lightbox said:

Woo bretonnian players!

 

I'm kind of regretting not managing to pick up the enchantress and king but didn't have the money at the time. I've been considering using my brets as a blood knight force so might do them as a shyish themed force so they can aesthetically fit the look for both death and bretonnians.

 

Personally from my looks at the old ghb1 warscroll updates grail knights look nice. The lack of attacks on regular knights is a bit of a shame for their size and points but worth playing around with to test out what works well. Perhaps this is the motivation I need to get my horsey boys out

Hi, Lightbox!

I remember you from the discussions about Ironweld Arsonal. Good times

I'm glad you stopped by at this little corner of TGA! That sounds like an awesome project, especially since AoS Lore-wise that is what happened to the Bretonnians... they died. I'm choosing to believe that in a universe as rich and diverse as the Mortal Realms another civilization of feudalism, chivalry and oppressed peasants has arisen again!

As that project of yours progresses, be sure to keep us updated and if you attach a picture or two, even better! Regarding the Grail Knights: I have 10 of them that I run right next to my Echantress for that sweet sweet Saintly Guardians + Divine Favour synergy

Managed to totally wreck a full unit of Retributors on the charge and got a Lord Celestant on Stardrake down to a couple of wounds left before the enemy battlelines closed in on my brave spear head and took them out.

[AoS 2 - Bretonnia Discussion]

 

4 hours ago, Kevlar1972 said:

Great models and nice write up!  I have a big brettonian army collecting dust at the moment. 

Just wondering, is there any reason you don't want to use them as mixed order or free people?  Most of your models seem to fit the available units.

I realize from the way I wrote my first post that I sound pretty competitive. In reality, though, I'm more of a narrative player. So the only reason I'm not experimenting with mixed lists is that I wanna stay a true Bretonnian army. I guess I could test adding up to 400 point of "Empire" allies to keep it thematic. That will be something to explore for the future. But I always want my army to "make sense" thematically, so I would have to come up with some backstory about each unit and what brought them there.

Rules-wise, I actually already use my army as an Allegiance: Order force since Bretonnia has no battletome and I'm therefore stuck with command traits and allegiance abilities from GHB's order section.

And thank you for the feedback on my models. Many of them were actually painted back when I started as a 10 or 11-year-old so they could probably do with a touch up. But I'm too nostalgic to change anything ?

Once you've got the dust off your models, do post some pictures!

4 hours ago, Verengard said:

You can find official base sizes in attached photo. Straigh from GW. King & Enchantress were Made to Order last time so check there for official base size. Probably 60mm & 75x46mm

Thank you so much! That's super helpful! And yes, from this pic it looks like you're right about the base sizes for the King and Echantress ?

[AoS 2 - Bretonnia Discussion]

33 minutes ago, Skreech Verminking said:

Thanks for your report.

it was really great to see somebody usingthe good old French knights.

 

Thanks for reading! Hopefully the tactical depth will increase as I play more games as Bretonnia in the current meta. I especially look forward to testing how well I can do with magic.

1 hour ago, stato said:

No problem, I used 25mm round for Men-at-arms, 65mm oval for knights (standard knight size), and 90mm oval for the Peagasus. I dont have a Griffon but think 120mm oval would be sensible place to start.

Dont have many photos but this is the army as it was early 2017 at a local Tournament, i just had to set up for a pic on the castle they had!  and also how my Men-at-arms are progressing as I paint them up as Free Peoples from Tempest Eye

 Thanks for the advice!

Those models look great! I love what you did with all the heroes' bases. My army is from the Realm of Beasts so I think I will go for a dry, cracked theme and some bones lying around. I might also throw in some green crystals that I have from an Underworld Empire basing kit.. We'll see. Please give us an update the next time you play a game. I'd like to hear how the brave knights fare against all the different factions.

[AoS 2 - Bretonnia Discussion]

16 minutes ago, stato said:

Great stuff! I painted up a lot of knights just before the GHB2018 so need to get them out for a run again.  They do look awesome on oval bases though if you feel the urge ?

Dont forget you to string out your knights if you need to get through terrain, your Errants probably could have come through the graveyard in the centre.

 

Hi stato,

Thank your for taking an interest in this thread

I would love to rebase all my models to round! Could you do me a favour and tell me the sizes you used for the various models? I noticed the Bretonnians were left out in GW's list of base conversions.

I do tend to "automatically" go for the rank and file layout jus because I still love the WFB aesthetic... but you're right! Loose formation is often the answer! In this particular case, though, I was taking a detour on purpose for two reasons: 1. To stay out of range of throwing axes and fast Magmadroths. 2. To not arrive at my opponent's objective before turn 3, because that would have given him time to react and possible kill enough of my knights to deny me the objective.

If you would like to, then do feel free to post some pictures of the models you painted! I want this to be a place for all Bretonnia related things!

[AoS 2 - Bretonnia Discussion]

Hello there!

I have been a Bretonnia fan since I started collecting the army as a 10-year-old back 18 years ago. Sadly, after actually having been included in the first General’s Handbook, they have then fallen further and further out of the meta. Today I’d say they are widely considered “still legal but largely unplayable”.

I would like to change that. Since the launch of Malign Sorcery, I feel like Bretonnia finally got some decent new options available to them, both in terms of spell lores and artefacts. I would love for this thread to turn into a discussion about what we can do in the AoS 2 meta, to make Bretonnia as competitive as possible! We do have some things going for us; a lot of options for great mobility, and a decent caster in the Enchantress. Other than that we basically need to get the charge to be any good (hello Chronomantic Cogs)!

I invite any Bretonnia fan, or AoS fan in general, to join this conversation and post thoughts, high or low, regarding this classic, knightly army. And if you want to learn more about these peasants and nobles fighting for the lady, feel free to ask! 

 

I’m going to kick things off by writing a Battle Report about a game I played this week with my Bretonnian army that hails from Ghur, the Realm of Beasts. I gave my King of Hippogryph the Gryph-Feather Charm and I have to say that it helped him greatly in his aspirations to be worth the 400 matched play points he costs!

If you are interested in this then please continue reading. Otherwise, see you in the next post!

First of all, it was a 1500 point game, using the Battlehost rules (i.e 2000 points). This means we had to have three battleline units. The game was between my friend Mágno and myself. He has a Fyreslayers army that hails from Ulgu (the realm of Shadows) against my Bretonnians that, as I mentioned above, hail from Ghur.

Here is a complete list of the two armies:

Bretonnia

Oscar - Allegiance: Order - Mortal Realm: Ghur

LEADERS

King on Hippogryph (400)

- General

- Command Trait : Legendary Fighter

- Artefact : Gryph-feather Charm

Enchantress (160)

Damsel on Pegasus (100)

Damsel

Noble Champion (80)

UNITS

8 x Knights Errant (200)

-Battleline

8 x Knights Errant (200)

-Battleline

16 x Men At Arms (120)

-Battleline

16 x Peasant Bowmen (200)

ENDLESS SPELLS

Ravenak's Gnashing Jaws (40)

TOTAL: 1500/1500 EXTRA COMMAND POINTS: 0 WOUNDS: 89

LEADERS: 4/6 BATTLELINES: 3 (3+) BEHEMOTHS: 0/4 ARTILLERY: 0/4

ARTEFACTS: 1/1 ALLIES: 0/400

 

Fyreslayers

Mágno - Allegiance: Fyreslayers - Mortal Realm: Ulgu

LEADERS

Auric Runefather on Magmadroth (260)

- General

- Command Trait : Blood of the Berserker

- Artefact : Igneous Plate

Auric Runesmiter (120)

- Forge Key

Battlesmith (120)

Knight-Incantor (140)

- Allies

UNITS

30 x Vulkite Berzerkers (360)

-Pairs of Handaxes

-Battleline

5 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (100)

-Broadaxes

-Battleline if Auric Runefather General

5 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (100)

-Broadaxes

-Battleline if Auric Runefather General

15 x Auric Hearthguard (300)

TOTAL: 1500/1500 EXTRA COMMAND POINTS: 0 WOUNDS: 83

LEADERS: 4/6 BATTLELINES: 3 (3+) BEHEMOTHS: 1/4 ARTILLERY: 0/4

ARTEFACTS: 1/1 ALLIES: 140/400

 

The battle was fought on a 6x4 foot table and we played a battle plan from the Core Book: Take and Hold. Basically there are two objectives, one in each of the deployment zones, and to hold the objective you need to have at least 5 units within 6 inches of the objective. Starting from the 3^rd battleround, one player immediately wins a Major Victory if they have control of both objectives.

Here is a picture of the table, seen from above, as well as a sketch of the battlefield made in Battle Chronicler:

We can start by talking magic because, to my disappointment, it was largely negated and didn’t have a big impact on the game. My opponent’s Knight-Incantor managed to get his spell off once and did 3 mortal wounds or so. I got unlucky with the rolls and got off Divine Favour (plus one to hit) once on the unit of Knights Errant that deployed close to the Enchantress. I only managed a successful cast of Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws once, with the Enchantress in the second batteround, but then my opponent used the Knight-Incantor’s once per battle auto-unbind to negate that. Well played and 140 points of allies well invested by him.

Now, for the other elements of the battle, let’s start from the beginning. I won the roll off for sides and picked the “south” side of the table, which was divided “horizontally”, i.e. with two 6x2 feet halves. The two objectives were placed in each player’s deployment zone, 9 inches from the board edge. In the pictures from Battle Chronicler the orange, glowing orbs symbolize the objectives. I decided to start deploying first. He placed his Auric Runesmiter and the 15 Auric Hearthguard to one side to show that they were deployed underground.  Since we both had 8 drops and no battalions, this meant that I finished first. Since Bretonnia really only shines when we get the charge off, I decided to give the first turn to the Fyreslayers.

My opponent popped the rune that increases the movement of all Fyreslayers units by 4 inches and then basically just advanced up the board. He left one unit of 5 Hearthguard Berzerkers to defend his home objective, and then basically just advanced the rest of his units up the board. The Battlesmith rolled a 6 for his run and got all the way to the top of a terrain feature at the middle line of the battlefield. The point of giving him a central, and somewhat safe position, was of course to provide the important reroll of failed save rolls to as many units as possible.

Then the Auric Runesmiter and the Auric Hearthguard popped up right in the middle of the battlefield, 9 inches away from my front lines. At the first shooting phase of the game the Auric Runefather on Magmadroth and the Auric Hearthguard were in range to shoot. Three things happened: 1. my opponent probably over-estimated the presented danger of my peasant bowmen, which I basically just see as a unit for holding home objectives. My opponent said he was worried about the Arrowstorm ability. 2. My opponent choose to divide his shooting attacks between the Peasant Bowmen and the Damsel on Pegasus, and 3. My opponent got pretty unlucky with his rolls. All in all 8 bowmen died and the Damsel suffered 3 wounds. No battleshock thanks to the King on Hippogryph.

In my first round I did what every sane Bretonnian would do and used my command point to use the King of the Realm command ability. I only left the Damsel and the Peasant Bowmen back in cover to defend the home objective, all other units moved up. The Echantress with her move characteristic of 14 inches moved to 3 inches away from the Battlesmith with the important task of taking him out as quickly as possible. Unfortunately she rolled a double one and failed her charge. Luckily both the Knights Errant units had very healthy rolls, the “left” one getting a 6 on its run roll, while the “right” one got a 10 for its charge. I had first planned to let them kill the Auric Runesmiter but had to change plans and send them off to battle the Battlesmith and keep the Enchantress safe, since she was now left out in the open without cover. The 8 remaining Peasant Bowmen did their arrowstorm and caused 2 wounds to my opponent’s general. They would only cause one or two more wounds for the rest of the battle. A typical result for that unit…

My Knights Errant managed to cause 3 wounds to the Battlesmith and the rest of my units had a decent damage output as well. But the real champion was my King on Hippogryph. Even though the Auric Runefather on Magmadroth used Blood of the Berzerker to pile in twice, and spent all its attacks on my King, it only caused 5 wounds in total. This was mainly due to the fact that I had the Gryph-Feather Charm, which has a -1 penalty to hit on ALL attacks against the bearer. Thanks to my charge I could also reroll failed save rolls. I then used all of the Kings potential (including using Legendary Fighter to get one more attack with his sword) to dish out 10 wounds against the Magmadroth and, just like that, my opponent had lost one of his most important centre pieces. If the King on Hippogryph does anything well, then it definitely is duelling against enemy heroes or monsters! 6 Auric Hearthguard were killed and another two ran away due to battleshock.

My opponent won the roll-off for the second battle round and decided to go first. To start things off he picked the rune that doubles the range for missile weapons. He then moved up the Hearthguard Berzerkers slightly and spread them out to screen the objective better, still keeping all 5 models within 6 inches of the objective. ALL of the Fyreslayers that were in range of the King on Hippogryph fired at him. Again, thanks to the Gryph-Feather Charm, my King was left alive, but with only 2 wounds left. The Vulkite Berzerkers then charged in such a way that they could engage both my Knights Errant and my King on Hippogryph. This was, unfortunately, enough to finally finish the King off, even if the rest of my army would continue fighting on for a while longer. The Enchantress piled in to fight as few Vulkite Berzerkers as possible, and stay as far away from the Hearthguard Berzerkers as possible.

In my second round I ran the still unscathed unit of Knights Errant up to a position 10 inches away from the Hearthguard Berzerkers, and 12 inches away from the objective they were defending. The Peasant Bowmen shot at the Auric Hearthguard, which I considered the only real threat to my home objective, and killed one or two of them. The other unit of Knights Errant cooperated with the Enchantress and managed to kill the Battlesmith before they were killed themselves. No unit decided to pick up the banner of the dead Battlesmith.

My opponent won the turn roll-off again and popped a rune, rolled a 6 to get the enhanced version and dealt one mortal wound to each of my units within 3 inches of a Fyreslayers unit. This was enough to kill the Enchantress. Only now fully realizing the threat to his home objective, he then moved every unit that wasn’t in combat as far as possible towards the remaining unit of Knights Errant. The Hearthguard Berzerkers now had a couple of models within range to throw axes and caused 2 wounds, which killed one Knight. They then needed a 6 to make the charge but only rolled a 5. The combat phase resulted in both my Noble Champion and the brave Men-at-Arms, that had fought alongside him for so long, finally died. But it was a worthy sacrifice for the Lady.

In my third round I ran my Knights Errant up to within 6 inches of my opponent’s objective. Since I had 7 Knights alive in that unit, and his Hearthguard Berzerkers were in a unit of only 5, I could confidently claim that objective. And, according to the Victory Conditions of the battle plan, I immediately won a Major Victory, since my 8 Peasant Bowmen, and the Damsel, who had now healed herself up to full health again, were still holding my home objective.

In my opinion this battle shows three things:

1. It pays off to play for the objective rather than for the kills.

2. Bretonnia has some potential competitively thanks to its many units with a move characteristic of 10 inches or more.

3. The addition of Malign Sorcery GREATLY increases the competitiveness of Bretonnia. Not only was the survivability of my expensive King on Hippogryph basically doubled by the Gryph-Feather Charm, but since our casters are decent, my opponent felt forced to drop one Auric Runesmiter (therefore sacrificing the mobility of having TWO teleporting units) to have a counter to my casts.

Here follows a bunch of pictures from the battle. They are mostly meant to be inspirational, since I consider the pictures above to be more to the point in describing the actual battle.

At the start of the battle.

Enchantress to the left and General to the right.

Bretonnian deployment.

Left flank.

Right flank.

Fyreslayers deployment.

Moshpit battle in the centre.

More moshpit.

Knights flanking the enemy.

Victory position at the end.

 

If you have tagged along all the way to down here then I assume that you are a true Bretonnia fan! I want to thank you for spending some time with me, and would like to encourage you to keep this thread going, whether it’s by asking questions, posting pictures, or discussing rumors about Bretonnia. My main objective, though, is to create a place to discuss ways of making our beloved faction as competitive as possible! What spell lore is the most useful? What Endless Spell has the most potential? Let’s figure it all out together!

Cheers!

 

PS. My thanks go out to Chris Tomlin who encouraged me to start this topic!