Introduction

Welcome to this the first in what (I hope) will be a series of short articles about the specific tactics for each of the Bretonnian troop types.

Before I begin my article proper I feel it’s worthwhile setting aside a few lines to give you a view of the author. I began wargaming in about 1987 when a role-playing buddy was given a copy of the shiny new Warhammer ( 3^rd Ed) rulebook. He wanted to collect Dwarfs and I was rather taken with the Orcs & Goblins, later other friends joined in with Undead, Chaos, Elves, etc, and so began many years of happy gaming. By the late-90s my interest in Orcs & Goblins was beginning to wane. I tried using a few other armies but nothing really captured the imagination enough for me to collect my own new army. Then along came the Bretonnians in 96.

It took some time to get an army ready but it was worth the wait. In more recent years distractions such as LOTR and some historical gaming (Naps and WWII) have seen the army of Guillame de Reblochon take to the field slightly less. Most of my Bretonnian gaming experiences have been against Empire, Dwarfs, Undead, Beastmen and High Elves, but even if your regular opponent has a different army then I hope these ramblings will be of interest to you.

Numbers 

The bowmen figures look good and are fun to paint, plus they give a good contrast to the splendidly arrayed knights, that is reason enough to include them in any army. However, if you are going to include bowmen in your army then I suggest you do it properly. Don’t just have a unit of 10 as the token peasant element (unless they’re going to skirmish – see notes later) take 20 or preferably 30, in units of around 10 figures. I tend to use units of 10-12 as they are not too unwieldy. A line of 30 or so bowmen looks quite imposing without having to spend a large number of points. Bowmen are not great in combat but even so most sensible opponents will eye this large block of troops with caution.

This is all part of getting your opponent to react to your moves. With such a manoeuvrable army, Bretonnian players should dictate the flow of battle. It’s easy to ignore 10 archers, but if you have lots then opponents will have to consider them, all the while distracting them from the knights. When you fire you are going to roll an awful lot dice. To maximise the effect on your opponent try to roll as many dice at once as you can. With a 30inch range you can start hitting the enemy from turn one. Most opponents are not just going to ignore such a storm of arrows, even if the first round doesn’t have much effect. If this first round of shooting goes well then you may see your opponent starting to shift units to avoid further punishment. This is great – get them disorganised before your knights thunder in.

Concentrate your fire – do not forget this and be tempted to fire a few arrows here and a few arrows there. Firing 30 shots at one enemy unit will have much more impact that distributing shots around the enemy units. Pick your target with care. Large units of heavily armed infantry, e.g. 20+ Dwarfen Ironbreakers are not a good target even if you have many archers. Instead go for more lightly armed or T3 units if possible, or aim for the war machines. Enemy cavalry is worth considering although the 2+ or 3+ armour saves will mean few arrows will find their target. I know from experience that causing just one or two hits on a prized unit can cause a usually canny opponent to do odd things. 

Skirmishing Bowmen

Okay, so you don’t want to field an army like the one that triumphed at Agincourt. Even a single unit of 10-12 skirmishing bowmen can be of great use.

Distraction – make use of difficult terrain to get your men close to the enemy lines and snipe at targets such as enemy war machines. An example of this from a clash with High Elves. My bowmen were in soft cover about 12inches from two repeater bolt throwers. The 10 shots resulted in one slain crewman. My opponent, obviously annoyed that these upstart peasants had dared to take a shot at his war machines, ordered the first to shoot at them in the hope of driving them off. Amazingly, not a peasant was slain! Thus annoyed he directed the shots of the second machine at them too, more successfully this time. So, an approx 70pt unit distracted the fire of around 200pts of enemy artillery, even though more distant knightly targets were in LOS. By the following turn the knights were in combat, and safe from bolt thrower shots.

Bait – Use these low cost troops to get enemy units to charge away from the main line of the enemy, and preferably in to a position where your own units can attack. Your opponent is hardly going to send his Reiksguard Knights after them, but he may just dispatch a unit of Pistoliers to see off these annoying peasants and possibly claim some easy VPs. Let them run and leave the enemy stranded to be dealt with by knights or mounted yeomen. If your opponent does not fall for this then you can still plug away with your longbows from much closer range. 

They can also be handy to capturing or occupying objectives. The ability to ignore move penalties for difficult terrain is too good to miss out on. This usually a scenario specific objective so does not always apply. Unless you’re facing Dwarfs with their ‘resolute’ rule then skirmishers are excellent for slowing down enemy re-deployment by preventing march moves. I say re-deployment because by the time your skirmishing bowmen are in a position to do this the enemy should be shifting his forces to deal with the hammer blow of your knightly charge. Disrupt this enemy movement to give your knights time to deal with their first opponents properly. 

In the 5th edition I sometimes used them as a screen for units of men-at-arms but now those troops are so cheap it seems a waste of a potentially useful unit. If there’s little or no high ground then it might be possible to shield your knights for the first turn or so from enemy missile troops. However, this just doesn’t seem right to me, having knights ‘hide’ behind peasants, but it’s up to you. 

Banners, Villeins and Musicians

From an aesthetic point of view you should always include them. However, these units are there mainly to deliver arrows to the enemy so banners are probably a waste of points. 

Stakes

They look great! If you have the old 5th edition figures then make some. It looks imposing and opponents will often avoid attacking units behind them. A must have. I hope you’ve found these notes useful. Enjoy your games.