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For about a decade now I've been toying around with Warhammer on the outskirts. Never really had anyone to play with so I would collect the novels and rule books and paint some minis. Even ended up with some pretty good sized Space Marine and Lizardmen forces. However, the Brettonians have always held a special place in my heart. Since I'm going to school with a focus on medieval Europe, and specifically France, they are right up my alley. The lack of an update has kept me away as I waited patiently for them to get their moment in the sun. After recently taking about a year off from everything Warhammer to focus on school I got the urge to finally give the Bretts a go update or no. Then I find on the official GW store that the vast majority of their miniatures have disappeared...

So, what's the story? I've read things on the internet ranging from they are being forgotten, to they're being rolled into the Empire, to they will be getting a new Army Book sometime this year. Does anyone have any advice? Am I better off just forgetting about it and fleshing out my Lizardmen with the new Army Book? Any guidance would be appreciated.

Brettonians have never really had many models, but besides them having the lowest model count, a good percentage are now also available for direct order only. IE you can only buy them from the website.

GW are doing a lot of stuff right now, so they're hard to predict as to future plans. People are being very pessimistic, expecting squatting of every other army... Brettonians probably being the prime suspects in the WHFB scene... but the only army that has actually ever been squatted to date are... the Squats.

Brettonia have no solid rumours giving them a new Army Book, but they also have a pretty nice battalion box for starting an army with them.

Basically, your guess is as good as anyones.

Starting Bretonnians is quite hard due to the lack of available units.

Luckily for you, outside of Pegasus Knights (which GW still sell.) everything else is basically a historical figure, thus you can find examples of them everywhere.

Fireforge games is a good example, but there are plenty of 28mm knights lying about.

Many Bretonnian models are missing completely.
I expect Bretonnians this year after Wood Elves.

You only need to get the Bretonnian book from GW... and maybe the Pegasus knights. EVERYTHING else in their army can be picked up from historical mini manufacturers for a fraction of the cost.

As the other said, look at historical ranges
They're as good looking (and often better-looking), offer more choice and are MUCH cheaper
The best are Perry Brothers, the plastic Cav has metal barding so they might not be what you want for your Knights (or it might be if you want French Gendarmes / Ordonnance), but the infantry fits earlier periods as well (I'm using the guys from the War of the Roses for the Brets, expanding into Empire with the "European" mercenaries)
They also have a very large metallic range
Then you have:
- FireForge (good plastic Teutonic / Templars)
- Gripping Beast (great ranges of metal, a few good plastic boxes [Hastings period though])
- Kingmaker
- RAFM miniatures for the Trebuchet
- and so on

If you google it a bit, you will also find decals or sticker-style banners, barding and shield heraldry that are all designed to fit precisely for this or that range of miniatures (also designed to be resilient for gaming models)

Also tons of used Bret's for sale on eBay, bartertown, ect

I'm also starting a Bret army although mine are undead so can double up as VC too. I wouldn't worry too much about the future with them. Whilst there are some rumours about them being rolled into Empire (still rumours) there is nothing about them being removed completely from the game.

My opinion of this is more that if now is a bad time to start bretonnia then when is a good time? We don't even know when the next army book will be and there have been no rumors. If the guy likes bretonnia we shouldn't tell him/her to wait a year for maybe nothing to come around. If anything when the rumors start is probably the time when you shouldn't get started in the old stuff unless you're afraid they'll mark up the price of all the old stuff.

 flamingkillamajig wrote:
My opinion of this is more that if now is a bad time to start bretonnia then when is a good time? We don't even know when the next army book will be and there have been no rumors. If the guy likes bretonnia we shouldn't tell him/her to wait a year for maybe nothing to come around. If anything when the rumors start is probably the time when you shouldn't get started in the old stuff unless you're afraid they'll mark up the price of all the old stuff.

Please don't presume to speak on behalf of everyone when you clearly don't know what you are talking about.

Bretonnia have been rumoured at getting a re-release this year somewhere around the July/August period.

Bretonnia are an army that is very hard to play and requires a lot of experience to pull off, but if played properly can definitely handle most enemies. They are solid mid tier and not as weak as many people make them out to be.

So, if I were to pick up some Men-at-Arms or Knights of the Realm I'd probably be alright? Doesn't seem like they change the core units models very often. Of course Bretonnian models are older than most. I tend to paint and model at a rather slow rate as I'm also concentrating on school and am a bit of a perfectionist. So, if they do get an update in a couple of months then I should be alright.

On a side note I hope they redo poor King Leoncouer soon because compared to Karl Franz his Hyppogryph is looking rather puny.

Now for some wild speculation. It's been quite a long time since the Bretonnians got any kind of major update. The last time around Games Workshop continued their transition from a more French Revolution era feel to a high Middle Ages feel with some Arthurian legend blended in. In the time since the whole medieval thing has become much more culturally aware due to Game of Thrones. I have a feeling we might start to see a bit of that creep in on the edges of the Bretonnians when they get a new army book. Maybe an elite Kingsguard unit or special character lords of the various areas of Bretonnia. Just my 2 cents.

Bretonnia is a very difficult army to upgrade. A lot of people love them for their very individual theme and looks and breaking this image might certainly scare players off.

With other armies, let's say WoC, it's easy to expand the rooster of models simply by adding another unoriginal monster that looks cool and comes at a hefty price tag.

Bretonnia, however, is different. Adding a huge monster simply would not fit the army's lore, it would rather break it (although there are quite a few stories about handsome maidens suddenly turning into vast beasts...). To me, a careful and lore-fitting addition would be more character models - and by "more", I mean quite a good amount! It would fit the army's theme and add a lot of variety to it.

There are two main problems though:

a) It would not fit to 8th at all because 8th is less about individual models but more about big units with lots of models due to the very strong Steadfast rule.

b) Character models aren't as impressive looking as huge monsters and do not sell for the same amount of $, as they usually are quite smaller in comparison, griphon rides or anything left aside.

In my opinion, Bretonnia is the hardest army to expand and albeit an update might be on the not-so-far horizon, GW once again has to decide whether to stick to an army's theme and do the right thing for the players or to break the theme and keep the same routine they did for the last few new releases.

...and oh boy, my eyes see dark clouds rising up at the horizon.

alex87 wrote:

 flamingkillamajig wrote:
My opinion of this is more that if now is a bad time to start bretonnia then when is a good time? We don't even know when the next army book will be and there have been no rumors. If the guy likes bretonnia we shouldn't tell him/her to wait a year for maybe nothing to come around. If anything when the rumors start is probably the time when you shouldn't get started in the old stuff unless you're afraid they'll mark up the price of all the old stuff.

Please don't presume to speak on behalf of everyone when you clearly don't know what you are talking about.

Bretonnia have been rumoured at getting a re-release this year somewhere around the July/August period.

Why so hostile? You've been replying to me a lot that way recently.

I was just trying to look at things a different way. If somebody wants an army would you rather just make them forget about doing it entirely? If they look cool to you that should be the army you pick rather than what's really good.

I am under the impression that the main point he replied to was you clamining there's no sign for a new army book yet albeit there have been rumors about a new one in this summer floating around for quite a few months; some even claiming them to be part of the new starter set.

Bretonnia is actually a very simple army to play, if you know what you are doing with them. I have been playing Bretonnia for the longest time, and despite having an old book and having limited models, they are still a solid army in this edition, and I have done well with mine as I play and have defeated multiple top tier lists time and time again, and have won a number of tournaments as well. Bretonnia is an aggressive army, as there strength is on the charge, and they have the "Lance Formation", which basically means you can have 3x guys per rank that get special rules when they charge into combat, which is perfect for getting 2x to 3x lances into a single enemy horde formation and watch them crumble. However, in this edition, Bretonnia MUST take some Peasants (at least 1x Horde of Men-@-Arms and some Bowmen), as well as Peg Knights and Trebuchets are a HUGE must as they are the only S5 Stone Thrower in the game right now, S10 under the hole.

Here is an example of my 3,000 point list that I have used to win a few tournaments, as well as a number of victories against top tier armies. Note, this doesn't have to be something you have to do, this is just something that I have had a lot of success with and just trying to help you out. http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/590369.page#6735171

I don't know if this has been said but honestly if you are interested in starting brets now is the time to round up a few battalion boxes as it will change. The knights aren't going away nor are pesants. Gw will change the box to include something garbage or make it like a $300 box. You can always hit up bits sellers for extra parts for your knights to convert them. After the book drops then figure out what you need outside of those boxes.

 namiel wrote:
I don't know if this has been said but honestly if you are interested in starting brets now is the time to round up a few battalion boxes as it will change. The knights aren't going away nor are pesants. Gw will change the box to include something garbage or make it like a $300 box. You can always hit up bits sellers for extra parts for your knights to convert them. After the book drops then figure out what you need outside of those boxes.

From the looks of things, Brets will be getting new Grail Knights, Questing Knights, Yeoman, and Trebuchets, as all the stuff that is off there site page is the Pewter models. Plus I expect some new units as well, but the standard Core Knights and Peasants will not change.

 Rommel44 wrote:

 namiel wrote:
I don't know if this has been said but honestly if you are interested in starting brets now is the time to round up a few battalion boxes as it will change. The knights aren't going away nor are pesants. Gw will change the box to include something garbage or make it like a $300 box. You can always hit up bits sellers for extra parts for your knights to convert them. After the book drops then figure out what you need outside of those boxes.

From the looks of things, Brets will be getting new Grail Knights, Questing Knights, Yeoman, and Trebuchets, as all the stuff that is off there site page is the Pewter models. Plus I expect some new units as well, but the standard Core Knights and Peasants will not change.

That's why you get them before the book drops, they repack the battalion, and the prices go up, and you will still need everything the battalion contains.

Glad to hear there are now rumours of a Bretonnian release. Of course, when I re-entered the hobby with my brets in 2007ish there were rumours of a new book then, there were also rumours of a new book at the end of 7th ed, there were rumours of a new book early in 8th ed, when I shelved them... So rumours do not always pan out.

The more firm rumours of Wood Elves give me some hope that perhaps this time they might be true... Maybe.

I know it is an unpopular opinion. I don't want to start the flamewar all over again, but the rumour is (also) out there that Bretonnians will get squatted, and due to the generally poor sales of not-so-fantasy/historical-models in Fantasy, it is a very credible Rumour for Brets (where it isn't for Wood Elves).


Brets ever getting updated (outside a mash-up "Forces of Humanity" Armybook or something of that ilk) is extremely unlikely.

 Zweischneid wrote:
I know it is an unpopular opinion. I don't want to start the flamewar all over again, but the rumour is (also) out there that Bretonnians will get squatted, and due to the generally poor sales of not-so-fantasy/historical-models in Fantasy, it is a very credible Rumour for Brets (where it isn't for Wood Elves).


Brets ever getting updated (outside a mash-up "Forces of Humanity" Armybook or something of that ilk) is extremely unlikely.

The rumour that they're getting squatted is currently circulating with a directly contradictory rumour that they're next up for release. Given that the "squatting" rumour is sourced from FAEIT I'd say it's about as likely to be the true as the ridiculous "40K & Fantasy being combined" rumour.

Of all the old armies to start right now, I'd say that Brets are easily the safest bet. If they get redone it's pretty unlikely that they're going to deviate far from the "shiny knights in flashy heraldry" motif they have at present. You'd also be surprised at how well the existing knight range stands up. If they don't get redone then all signs point to at least another year before the next edition change, and though it's rumoured that the softcover books will be invalidated with 9th that is - again - just a rumour.

The only thing I'll caution against is starting a Bret army if your painting and modelling skills aren't up to snuff. Brets without freehanding look like gak, and given the age of the models you really need to be good at modelling to get the most out of them. Conversions with historical minis, basing, banners, WYSIWYG, etc. You've gotta differentiate your heroes and there really isn't much in the way of decent Bret stock heroes, so that's all on your conversion skills. Brets are a blank canvas that lets you really flex your modelling and painting skills, but if you don't have those it's hard to hide that. There are plenty of safer options if you're not comfortable in your abilities.