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so I'm planning on building a Bretonnia army soon, and I want to know how where to start. I'm coming from 40k (ravenwing) so I want to try this out to avoid some of the net-listers at my gw.

Go with what you know, fast moving units. Get lotsa knights, and have em in spades.

the battalion won't work for this fyi

Knights are expensive so you won't have a lot of em (like ravenwing)

they move far, fast (like ravenwing)

When they charge they do massive damage (like ravenwing knights with lances (HEY KNIGHTS HOLY COW A COINCIDENCE I THINK NOT!)).

Get questing knights for monster hunting, and show them hydras true bravery.

Get grail knights to teach the lesser mortals what a true charge is like!

Get pegasus knights to hammer the units your brave knights errants have stopped cold.

Finally get yourself a glorious hippogryph lord to show the enemy how to fight in style. (bonus points for painting said hippogryph like a raven,)










and get trebuchets i guess if you wanna...

i just read the 1d4 thing on these guys, and it seemed to my eyes that they kinda stink :/ is thta true?

They don't "stink", but their armybook is quite old and there's usually only one or two really viable lists, plus the armybook has only a few units available (with the pilgrims being utter garbage)
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/503616.page could be an interesting post for a decent way of playing Brets

I second Red Crusaders reports - I have his blog bookmarked. As a former (and hopefully future) Bretonnian general I find his take on the faction far more inspirational than the usual internet pessimism.

The 6 Dice Monkeys podcast host plays a lot of games and does pretty well with Brets, so I'd give that a listen.

By and large, Brets are one of the armies that get a lot of unwarranted angst on the internet, not least because a lot of people use them wrong (I've not read the reports linked earlier in the thread so I'm not being passive aggressive about that particular player, but it's something to bear in mind).

Bretonnia are still a good book. They are far more limited in unit choices than books like Empire, Warriors of Chaos, or OnG, but they have comparable selection to books like Ogre Kingdoms, so ymmv.

Truth be told, Brets have both gained and lost in 8th edition. 8th Edition really favors large infantry blocks, due to steadfast, and has hurt cav severely because they generally are too expensive to get the ranks needed to break Steadfast.

Of all the Cav themed Armies, Bretonnia came out the best. The Lance Formation was FAQ'd to give a rank bonus at 3 models, meaning that Bretonnian Knights can actually rank up, and have a good chance at deny their opponents steadfast and breaking them on the charge. Because of this, for people desiring an all Cav army, Bretonnia remains the most competitive choice.

Second it should be noted that Bretonnia does have access to large hordes. Men at Arms can be taken in absurd numbers for relatively few points, and while they do suck, there is an Arcane item in the book that can be used to grant them the blessing of the lady. So when you've got a horde of 50+ Men at Arms under the effects of Wild Form with a 5++ ward save against strength 5 or higher attacks, you can start to scare people!

Brets also have the best artillery in the game right now. 90 points for an s5(10) stonethrower with 4 wounds is dirty cheap, and an effective way to break apart the enemies hordes, so your knights can seal the deal.

Finally because of the Books age, it has a huge armour of magical equipment specific to the dex, alongside virtues, and several huge buffs to virtues in the 8th edition FAQ, Bretonnian Heroes are incredibly customizable, and capable of punching well above their weight class. The most popular Bretonnian Lord Build is so good it looks like a badly written fan character. Virtue of Heroism, Sword of Swift Slaying, Gromril Great Helm. Always Strikes First, Heroic Killing Blow, and a 1+ rerollable Armour Save. Geeze.

Its an older book, but it has aged very well compared to Wood Elves, and ultimately is solid middle tier in terms of the hierarchy.

Bretonnians are quietly effective but are an army that can ber unforgiving if you go the traditional knight army route. Bretonnian knights are good, and can work but you must be careful, especially in eighth. I would instead go peasant heavy.

Bowmen are one of the bret armies great strengths, sure they are weak but onlty the weapon and the BS are needed, bowmen deliver with BS3 longbows at a very low price. This is especially true now with shooting in two ranks, Brets have the opportunity to lay down more infantry firepower than any other army. 6pts per longbows is a steal, yes you dont get S4 but what do get you can afford to get a lot of.
Matched price to price bowmen will outshoot any non warmachine unit Also note that lines of peasant archers can stop cannonballs with their stakes (they count as destructable terrain obstacles).

This means you can hide your own monsters and artillery behind them. Bret trebuchert as stated by others is very good value for its firepower and are popular. I dont use them myself, but only because it isnt part of my theme. If I were a metagaming cheesehead I would run two in every battle, like almost everyone else.

Back to the bowmen stakes and their cannon absorbtion uses: As Brets can safely deploy menosters lets take a look. Hippogriffs are expensive but the army does have the advantage but can act as a delivery system for tricked out lords and help buff up the 18" leadership range which can be useful as Bretonnians despite all their talk about courage and honour are very lacklustre when it comes to army leadership.


Men at arms are not only effective but in fact are very good. Ignore that statline they are weak in soft stats only, their S and T are average and you can buy them their own mini general. Furthermore if they run the loss of their banner doesn't matter and knights aren't worried if they see peasants run, a bit like goblins, gnoblars and skavenslaves.
For all that you get some of the better equipped core infantry in the game, spear or halberd, light armour and shield as standard, sure they are the cheap stuff but they protect as well as the shiny wargear of the dwarf or elf equivalent, quality of hardware not being taken into account.
They are very cheap and horde up nicely. I wouldnt' worry about the low WS take halberds and horde them up, you can afford it, besides the standard five wide column metagame is samey and boring. With proper spell support, or even just a nice deep unit they can work wonders.

If anything I would go easy on the knights, yes they do mounted lists better, but still not good enough frankly. I would go with one or two lances and then load up on peasants (and pegasus knights).

Brets have limited access to magic, which is to your advantage as the Fey Enchantress has wisely banned most of the lores with poor spell selections. Instead you have the perfect excuse to choose life magic, every day, you even get a bonus to that lore in the magic item selection. Bretonnia is begging you to only take life magic plus the occassional scroll caddy with wildform.

All this talk is a little too much for someone who doesn't even know the rules O-O

well, is it a good codex to start out in?

I wouldn't say it is very good to start, but the good side is that you can build two armies at once quite easily, as a lot of miniatures can do the trick for Empire and Bretonnia at the same time, especially if you go to the historical ranges (and it's much cheaper as well)
Perry Plastics:
Cavalry
Infantry "modern"
Infantry "older"
You can have a look at Kingmaker and Crusader notably

The Empire might be much easier to start with, loads of options, much more balanced (but Bretonnia is still very good in my book, just less forgiving)

 Tiger9gamer wrote:
All this talk is a little too much for someone who doesn't even know the rules O-O

well, is it a good codex to start out in?

Short answer, No.

Long Answer it is not the easiet book to learn and it is a bit tricky to get down their tactics. However they still are a pretty good army. Also in fantasy if you have patience you can pick it up relatively quickly.

If youbare coming from 40k you'll be able to jump right in.

I started with brets, and have never once regretted it. You still need to think on your feet, and really leverage the speed of your knights and pegausi. But all in all bretonnia holds together.

Men at Arms are great when horded, we have the best cav, our heroes are very deadly for their cost. We do not have the sheer power of some of the newer dexs, but there are no unwinnable fights, and we have the tools to win

sweet! thanks for that