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New Bretonnian player, No models yet and therefore i would like you to tell me what works and what doesn't.

i hope to make an almost entirely cavaly force if that narrows it down

I have been playing brets a while now and all calv is good but we really need a treb and some archers I have found.

Try this http://www.roundtable-bretonnia.org/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=87

at least get some Trebs, the support is vital.


a general tactic for cavelry in 8th: its really important that you focus your army on one section of your opponents army at a time.

This is because a single unit of knights can't break a infantry block on the charge with any reliability anymore. You will charge, do some damage, then the infantry will pass their steadfast ld test. Now your knights are just Str3 T3 humans with a 2+ armor save. They arn't going to be winning many combats without the Lance str bonus.


However, brett units are narrow, which allows multiple units of knights to hit one enemy unit at once. 1 unit of knights will just get absorbed and tarpitted, 2 or 3 will cause enough casualities to break steadfast and run them down. then you rinse and repeat for the entire enemy army.

Trebuchets are important because they can take some chunks out of the enemy infantry before your knights charge home, which will make the knights job easier.

You need to use your mobility to control the game. If you don't charge, but instead get charged, you can pretty much kiss your bum goodbye.


Beware of cannons!!! Most cavelry units are wide and shallow, Brett untis are narrow and deep. This makes cannons deadly because they can bounce through your unit and take out close to a 1/3 each time. Not really much you can do besides using buffing magic(regeneration from Lore of Life) to allow you to have a good chance of a save.

Am just getting back into fantasy as well and played Brets in the past. Would hording your archers be a good tactic(40+) or would having them in units of 20 be better?

Definately agree about the trebuchets. Added one in the few games I have been able to play, really helps soften up the big blocks of infantry.

I like MSU archers but a 40 strong horde that never moves and always volley fires can shred most lightly armoured things

The most I've ever used in a unit was 22 - two ranks of 11.

That way, with my Treb all the way in the corner, the Bowmen could completely close that corner off. Nothing could get at the treb without going through the Bowmen. They also could shred most units of scouts / fast cav / reserves that would ordinarily threaten the Treb.

Even fliers couldn't get in - there wasn't enough room!

I believe that Knights cap out at 15.

The DE pegasus lord and other single-char fliers can get in. He'll cost a lot more points than a single treb. But a single treb makes such a difference to the Bretonnians that it might be worth it anyways for their lord to take a couple turns eliminating your treb before moving on to other things.

It will take more than a couple of turns for a peggy lord to kill BOTH trebuchets if they are in both corners.

Starting from the 12" line reasonably close to one, he moves forward on turn 1; he takes a volley of 21 arrows, engages and kills the treb on turn 2 - assuming all his attacks hit and wound, which is NOT guaranteed with a build likely to take lots of arrow fire (more on that later). Now he has to cross over 60" to get to the other treb, which takes turn 3 and 4, during which he takes another 42 shots - more if he accidentally hits the small area in the center where BOTH units of archers can hit him - and on turn 5 he can charge the treb... needing 10 on 'best 2 of 3d6'. It's entirely possible he will fail, take yet another volley (and now even an unkillable dread is statistically in danger), and charge again on turn 6.

He's out for the entire game killing two trebs that don't even come close to his cost. And those trebs will get at least 5-6 shots off in the meantime. PLUS you could well loose the lord to the storm of arrows headed his way. Not to mention the possibilty if getting hit by Pegasus Knights as well.

I guess my point is just that in that case the archers w/ stakes are not protecting your trebs, just the fact that your trebs are spread out. You could skip archers altogether, or skirmishing archers would be better as they could charge the peg lord if he bypasses them. They have the added benefit of filling more space with fewer models making a wider area of protection.

Also checking my book again you have to PAY for skirmish.... IE points for knights

Hautamaki wrote:I guess my point is just that in that case the archers w/ stakes are not protecting your trebs, just the fact that your trebs are spread out. You could skip archers altogether, or skirmishing archers would be better as they could charge the peg lord if he bypasses them. They have the added benefit of filling more space with fewer models making a wider area of protection.

At the price of having a cannonball blow right though them and into the trebuchet. And frankly, THAT worries me a lot more than the possibility of my opponent using an unkillable peggy lord to go warmachine hunting.

I'll accept having that 500 point character out of the battleline; heck, I'll be delighted that he did so. That monster would stall a big portion of my army indefinitely; having it run all over the board to collect 180 points is a misuse of that build that I'd be happy to take advantage of.

I'll grant you, the traditional warmachine hunters would be of little use against that deployment. The archers will devastate most any fast cav, scout, or reserve unit in short order. Anything big enough to withstand 20ish flaming arrows will probably cost more than the archers AND the trebuchet. And again, I'm happy to see that many points off in the corner, leaving me free to make use of my strength advantage in the main battle... while the other treb continues to fire.

Other Warmachines - most especially the 8E sniper-accurate cannon - are the biggest threat to my trebs, being able to take them out in a single shot, each. Anything I can do to protect them from that threat is worth it. If I can do it for only 150ish points AND protect them very well from other warmachine hunters... so much the better!

You obviously must take stakes against any army that can potentially field a cannon, that's a no-brainer.

Hautamaki wrote:I guess my point is just that in that case the archers w/ stakes are not protecting your trebs, just the fact that your trebs are spread out. You could skip archers altogether, or skirmishing archers would be better as they could charge the peg lord if he bypasses them. They have the added benefit of filling more space with fewer models making a wider area of protection.

Skirmishers don't have a 360 charge arc anymore. They have to wheel and reform just like normal units now.