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As an early Xmas gift my brother has bought me a large second hand vet army. I am very new to fantasy but have played 40k for10 years. I have always loved the look of the brets but have no idea what is good or bad.

The models I have are:
18 knights errent
23 knights of the realm.
10 questing knights.
2 damsel on horse.
Mounted bsb
mounted Lord.

Can anyone point me in the right direction ?

Pretty good start, you'll have enough knights to get a few good lances out of it.

Questing Knights aren't brilliant. But they are okay.

I think you need peasants, Men at arms are really cheap and quite a pain in the but if you stick a damsel on foot with them. Run beasts and give them the pray icon so they get the ward save.

Plop your lord and a prophetess in a big lance.

Pick up the army book too, and get some trebuchets too.

Thanks for the response. I have the army book btw, sorry forgot to mention it. I reckon I have a decent 2000 point list to take against my bros vampires. List I am thinking of:

Lord with barded horse, heart wood lance and killing blow virtue.
Prophetess with scroll and level 4
Bsb pally (not sure about loadout)
Damsel with level 2

12 knights of the realm with full command
12 knights of the realm with full command
18 knights errent with errant banner and full command.
9 questing knights with full command

If you have the points use silver mirror instead of dispel scroll on prophetess, then if needed can give the dispel scroll to the damsel.

Thanks will do. I will look at the points and see what room I have. Any ideas on how to loadout the pally and Lord ? I want killing power as much as possible.

You cant have 18 knights errant unless you drop lance formation.
Max is 15 knights in a squadron IIRC.

Hmm I feel bad for not noticing the errant size beforehand.
So here a slightly altered list with a few upgrades mixed in:

Lord with heartwood lance, virtue of heroism, mantle of damsel Elena and shield
Prophetess lvl 4 mage with silver mirror and unbarded warhorse
Paladin BSB with Gromil great helm
Damsel with dispel scroll and unbarded warhorse

9 Knights of the Realm with full command
9 Knights of the Realm
6 Knights of the Realm
9 Knight Errant with full command and Errantry banner
9 Knight Errant
9 Questing Knights

This ends up being 1996 pts

Now as to why unit sizes of 9, Bretonnia lance normally has a full front of characters, the size of the knight bus is manageable and doesn't give a larger than needed flank which is one of the lances weakness, and the bonuses for the Lance formation makes it so only 1 of your models in a 9 man lance can't attack. The reason for the unbarded wizards is if they are in lance formation they get protection since they won't be on the front row ever.

Oh and never underestimate or forget your horse attacks they sometimes deal more damage then the knights themselves do, but not often. They even have a magic item to make horse attacks stronger for 1 round of combat.

The Bretonnian army book was solid and a firm favourite, but didnt hold up well in 8th because its rules meant that it eas hard to counter steadfast.

Multiple knight units, while tempting and with potential couldn't deal with deep ranked infantry unless they caused an exceptionally high number of casualtis on the charge turn because of the steadfast standard rule.

Bretonnians therefore must use at least one of the following strategies in 8th to be viable.

1. Have enough girls to guarantee getting Dwellers. Cast it with Irresistable Force on a unit you intend to pile knights onto. Because of the blast radius of an IF spell it might be better to hide one damsel in a peasant unit. With the Dwellers girl being that one.

2. Take one deep deep unit of Men At Arms to out-steadfast the other guy. Its not a bad idea to have a foot knight with reserve LD bubble on the unit. You may need to hold back one or more knight lances to charge when he men at arms do. This helps as you cant the infantry to clip the combat as they are far squishier to return attacks. et the accompanying paladin into the corner combat, with sword and shield to maximise his defence.

3. Trebuchet. Due to their wording they have superior firepower to other stone throwers. Two of these are a staple for many bret lists, though you can do without them. Dropping rocks on a steadfast unit can take away the extra ranks so a fifteen knight unit can break it on the charge. This doesnt always work though, you will need a bit of luck to do the job properly, Dwellers and M@A are more reliable means of countering deep ranks.


When considering the above also consider taking some bowmen. Bret bowmen are amongst the best archers in the game, you are paying 6pts for a BS3 30" S3 attack, which is not bad and the attack can be made flaming for small change. The bowmen themselves suck, but you want shots and that is all they give you, Lots of bowshots. They work well in deep ranks with the 8th edition rules, but I recommend them in smaller units to dealing with chaff. Dont expect the stakes to do anything for you, but its nice to have them.

Also Pegasus knights are a great buy.