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Questing Knights (QK) Giant sword wielding heroes!
For just a few points more than a KOTR. You get a special unit! A boost to both Strength and Initiative comes
with the 4 points as well. While the
Initiative is wasted with the great weapons it does provide a bit more
resistance to spells like Purple Sun of Xeres.
In some situations this is a great help but I would consider it more of
a bonus. As well as the shield it grants
the boost to the Armor Save but only against shooting.
I miss the days when I could use the hand weapons now you
are forced to use the great weapons. Without
the shields and the disadvantage of striking last in CC these knights are the
squishiest in our army. Still they
also hit the hardest in subsequent turns
or if they are charged. This makes them
a high risk, high reward unit. Since
they strike last and are squishy if you want to get your full attacks out of
them there are 2 decent sizes that I've found 9 or 10. Any less and they start losing attacks when
they get hit.
9 is in the typical lance formation. Here they seek out targets that are stubborn
and few in number. Another popular
target is units that basically ignore armor saves. Might as well hit hard if you're going to be
losing knights. The whole principle
behind them is that they are reliably heavy hitters if they can survive the
attacks. So low (or very high) Strength and high Toughness are ideal targets. They hit rather well and will grind down any
target that is simply just there to hold you up. Don't go into a fight that they can't win due
to sheer numbers and they should do fine.
The other formation is 10.
it also happens to be the only time you will ever hear me suggest to
field a unit outside of lance formation, 5 wide 2 deep. This maximizes the sheer amount of damage you
can cause. This unit works best as flanker,
hit the side, so few counter attacks hit them and just bring the foe down. This unit can cause a lot of damage and often
will sacrifice themselves to bring something powerful down to a more
manageable, killable, size.
Sacrifice is key for both of these units. Take it for granted that they are going to
die. Your goal is to take down as many
with them as they can. Is a command
needed? If you feel that need and have some points go ahead. The 9 strong unit is admittedly better at
staying in combat due to the ranks. I
would field them based on what you need them to do. 10 strong is better for pure damage and you
should bring them if your army is lacking hitting power. 9 strong is good for a more all purpose
unit. It can deal all sorts of purposes,
it'll stay longer, can double as a breaking unit and it's damage output is similar
to the bigger unit.
Granted the use of
the Questing vow lets you fight fear causing units with more reliability. So you can have them stray away from the
general and fight undead on their own.
Of all units Questing knights are the best for solo missions without
support. Few units will charge them
lightly because the return damage may render the unit useless for the rest of
the game. They are strong enough to
cause serious damage unchecked but they are pricey. If you can keep them out of serious trouble
then this unit can actually run around and win the game while the enemy tries
to either respond to the unit or makes themselves vulnerable to rest of your
knights.
Questing knights occupy a very strange position. They are too threatening to ignore and yet
not important enough to dedicate a serious combat unit against them without it
being serious overkill. This creates a
dilemma that your foe has to deal with.
Use the confusion to your advantage.
Speaking of confusion, everyone knows that the way to defeat
Bretonnia is not let our knights charge.
However QK are unique in that they fight just as well if they are
charged. Especially in the 5 wide
formation there is NO disadvantage to being charged. This is our unit that can be attacked and succeed
just as well. This leads itself to the
tactic of placing the unit in front of enemy units at a specific angle. If they charge you not only do you deal
decent damage in return but if your knights do break you have chosen the
overrun, which is an advantage. Also
this allow your unit the threaten many units at once if your foes doesn't want
to fight them.
Questing knights I list as the most likely to break of our
knights. My reasoning behind this is
quite simple, they are the easiest to kill (for knights, still pretty hard to
kill.) Though their damage is higher they can lose their ranks and numbers and
be worn down quicker. Without the ranks breaking is easier though still quite
difficult. The lower armor save really
hurts against lots of lower strength attacks from, for example, spearmen or
hordes. Both of them also have large
amounts of ranks which also makes it easier to break the QK. Just don't consider "Easiest of our
Knights" for actually "easy overall". If you can keep these guys away from the
knight killers your foe will field, (which hurt QK more than other knights)
they should perform quite well.
How I field them: Full Command 9 strong.
What are they good at? Causing problems, Solo quests, Pure
damage.
What are they ok at? Flanking, Hurting High toughness units,
prolonged combat with average units.
What are they bad at? prolonged combat with hordes. Taking
lots of low S hits in CC
Pegasus Knights (PK) Flying knights what more do you need?
The single most expensive knight unit in army book. You
can't take them without being at least 165 points! They used to have a whole army theme named
after them, Royal Air Force. In the new
rules the air force is less effective but the unit is still quite powerful.
As flying cav they gain the same bonuses as fast cav. I find the biggest advantage is the vanguard
rule. This gives you a 12" move
before the game begins. You can't charge
if you go first but when was the last time you prayed and went first? This advanced deployment means that you can
have a unit half way across the table now.
And give yourself another 18 inches for charge Basically you've cleared the entire
table.
Because of this the Pegs make perfect Artillery
hunters. They may very well get the
first turn charge and they have plenty of power to destroy even dwarf
warmachines. Deploy them directly across
then charge, kill, turn and repeat. Less
warmachines means less things that can hurt our knights.
They are also quite tough to kill with the T4, 3+ AS and 2
wounds a pop. Simple shooting is not
very effective. They are skirmishers
which makes them harder to shoot. Even after that they have those saves. They can take a hit rather well and even if
one can make it to the back lines it can kill those warmachines.
This plays into the
Peg Knights greatest strengths. Hitting
things in the Back. Without command if
they charge things in the back they have a resolution of 3. Plus kills. The highest Static resolution is 4 without
characters or magic. They obviously won't
break anything because of steadfast but if another unit of knights is in
trouble... They make a wonderful bail
out unit.
in combat Each pegasus puts out 3, S4 attacks, one of which
is a stomp in a bare minimum unit that's 12 attacks not counting the
knights. Pretty respectable, and decent
at grinding things down. If there is no
other need for them they can do grind
down work. Also they are quite capable
of engaging fire support units with that level of combat power. Anything without ranks must be careful around
the flapping knights. Pegasus are great
at hunting down other units that other knights would be considered serious
overkill against. things like Fast cav
and enemy fast, light units are also valid targets Since the Pegasus have a
chance to catch them as well as capable of killing them in combat.
Other than warmachines and fire support units there is
nothing that the Pegasus knights should engage head on without support. Without ranks to support them they will get
bogged down and eventually killed or broken.
This is the weakness of the peg knights They lack any sort of Static
resolution.
Another advantage is Pegasus actually have the feigned
flight rule. This means that fleeing is
a valid tactic if you think the losing the blessing is worth it. If there are few cannons then it may be worth
it. Flee then move your 20 inches over
the foes. Aim so you get a line straight down their flanks. If you can do it without losing the blessing
that would be better but it is an option that should not be forgotten.
All in all Pegasus Knights are well worth taking. They are the epitome of speed and power. The problem is that they are quite
pricey. Because of this there have only
been 2 unit sizes that I've seen to be effective. The first is the bare minimum 3. The other is
4 or 5. The first is good because it's
cheap and still effective however they are a little weak due to lack of
wounds. The larger unit gives you extra
attacks and if you are 5 strong then you can take a casualty without a panic check. When it comes down to it your choice for size
is preference. Whether or not you want
them to be cheap and a touch more fragile or shell out the points to make them
more powerful.
The subject of command for the pegasus depends on how you
approach them. If you want to keep them
cheap(ish) then leave the command out.
If the unit gets bigger than consider taking some command. It'll help counter the disadvantage of no
static resolution and make them a bit more versatile.
If you are willing to risk them then they make an excellent
unit to charge into a wizards bodyguard.
Direct every attack you can at the wizard to drop him. On the charge you may even stay in combat for
another round to almost certainly drop him.
This works well since many wizards bodyguards are units that are not
true combat monsters. Killing a wizard
is well worth the sacrifice of the unit and it is not always a pure
sacrifice. If they do break which they
will eventually happen if it is a full ranked up unit they may very well escape
due to swiftstride. Rally and continue
to cause damage in the foe.
How I field them: 3 Pegasus Knights.
What are they good at? Causing problems, Warmachine hunting,
light unit hunting.
What are they ok at? Flanking, bailing out other units,
grinding average units. Being hard to catch
What are they bad at? passing panic checks, being cheap.
Grail Relique (GR)
The dirtiest stinky peasants.
I will be frank. I
haven't gotten much use out of these guys in the new rules. Nor do I expect too. I used to field them quite often and am
saddened by their drop in effectiveness.
The relique has 2 main things that make it stand out above
the Men at Arms. The first is that they
are Stubborn with a knights Leadership.
The second is that it gains the blessing. Is it worth paying almost double the
price? First let me say that taking this
unit in large numbers is rather ineffective for the points. Sure you could field a horde unit of these
guys but why? If you need numbers you
get more with the M@A, same goes for ranks.
So I don't recommend taking more than 3 extra dudes in the unit and you
could even field it a base size if you don't mind relying on stubborn.
Well let's look at the blessing. It is nice to have this blessing on infantry.
It doesn't stack with the parry save so it really just gives the higher save
bonus and a save against shooting.
However if you take more than 23 guys then it' cheaper to take M@A and a
damsel with the prayer icon. Once again
cheap helps. These guys are not going to
reliably kill anything and with kills
being so important these days. Keep them
cheap so you can buy units that will actually kill things.
Now let's look at stubborn.
It is better than steadfast certainly.
Alone and unsupported they will break and run. LD8 isn't great when you have to roll it many
times over. So this means that you need
to keep them supported by the BSB or general if you want them to stay put with
any sort of regularity. This really
isn't different then the M@A.
This unit is what is known as a tarpit. Your foe hits the unit then stops and
hopefully stays there for the rest of the game.
However this contradicts the keep it cheap principle. If you keep it cheap you seldom have the
wounds needed to truly hold up a powerful foe.
So where does this leave you? It
leaves you with the medium units.
To clarify, this unit will not kill anything. It lacks the power to punch through armor and
it doesn't have the number of attacks to grind something down. Its chief virtue lies in it being stubborn
and somewhat difficult to shift. Treat
them as movable terrain to stick your opponents in. As such the only things that the Relique
needs to truly worry about are getting stuck in with units that cause lots of
wounds, enough to kill them all for the rest of the game. Hordes, units with spears blah, blah blah we
all know that list. To minimize damage
what you could do is run it with a frontage of 2. You reduce the number of
attacks against by on average 1 front rank model.
How you use this unit is quite simple. You track down the enemy unit that for some
reason or other you don't want to deal with for a bit of time. Then get stuck in. Then you wait long enough for the knights to
bail it out with a flank charge or something.
Since this unit is only average speed in the game you often have to
force the issue.
Perhaps their surprise use is the "bailout". If a knight charge doesn't fair as well as
you'd hoped. and they get stuck in and are being ground down... Chuck this unit
in there. Let the knights break, this
unit should still be there due to stubborn.
It will eventually die but you've saved your knights from possibly being
run down. If the knights rally you've saved
at least half their points and perhaps all of them if you can save the relique
before the game end. Just keep this
unit back when all the charges happen and next turn send it in to the ones that
look like they're going sour.
As a bit of a funny thing to do... Field them in frontage
4. You get no ranks. You know this and your foe WILL notice
this. If he decides to take advantage of
the unit with no ranks since it should break easily, nail the foe in place with
stubborn. Finish with knights. Is it being deceptive? Sure.
Does it work on people who know our army book? Not really.
It is nice to use against people who consider themselves great generals
and wish to pounce on weakness. Seeing a
unit "mis-deployed" like that either sets of bells of opportunity, or
in the more experienced players case alarm bells. You have to be able to judge your foe to use
this correctly and don't expect it work more than once but it is good for a
laugh.
How I field them (When I do field them): 3 extra pilgrims.
What are they good at? Being stubborn. Holding up things for you to deal with later.
What are they ok at? Bailing out other more expensive units
What are they bad at? Being cheap, hurting things
Mounted Yeoman (MY)
Peasants on horses...The world is ending.
Ah mounted yeoman... Another unit which has fallen a ways
since the previous edition. This is due
to the introduction of the redirecting of charges. They have gained vanguard... with limited
success. Still they are worth taking if
you've got some spare points.
They have bows, but since they're taken in small numbers the
fire power is negligible. They have
spears but aren't very powerful fighters.
They can take shields and light armor, but they aren't armored. They can do everything but not very
well. So what in the Old World are they
good for?
First let's look at the Vanguard rule. Free 12" move before the game
begins. If you don't go first you can
charge, and when was the last time you went 1st? It's nice, you can almost certainly get a
first turn charge if they deployed in front of something that was deployed on the
line. Now the problem with this is that
it takes them out of the knights leadership range and the general is the only
thing that can boost what passes for their leadership. The only unit that may still be in range is
the Pegasus Knights.
Now while I praised this tactic for allowing Pegasus Knights
to kill warmachines, it does carry over to these guys. While not as powerful as the pegs they still
can pack a punch big enough to drop most warmachines. With horse attacks and spears they can
present a problem for the average warmachine.
Do not consider charging them into a fire support unit from the front
however, the stand and shoot reaction will end them.
Being able to redirect with a passed leadership test means
that the only benefit feigned flight really gives them is that now you know
exactly how far the unit is charging so if you are a safe distance behind you
have a good counter charge. Provided of
course that the fleeing unit doesn't get in your way.
Now you are left with the problem of a combat or ranged unit
that doesn't have the punch to be effective.
You can add more models to boost damage but if you take a unit of
10... You might as well take the pegasus
knights which are superior in every aspect except not causing panic in friends.
Honestly that's where I have issues with mounted
yeoman. Pegasus knights are superior in
all aspects (save ballistic skill), save price.
When redirecting was more game changing Mounted yeoman were a must have
but now they struggle to find their place against the more powerful pegasus
knights. The only benefit is that you
get a bowshot every turn. If you want
bowshots... Take Peasant Bowmen.
They are a touch pricey but you can sacrifice this unit by
having them run down at the edge of the battle.
This sacrifice will lead the unit chasing them down to the edge of the
combat field and hopefully out of the fight.
What does work however is running them in tandem. Peg knights draw a lot of fire while the
Mounted yeoman can sneak in and finish off the foes warmachine while any
surviving pegs can drop other targets.
This I believe is there greatest strength. They work as a team with one
drawing fire for the weaker unit. Just
in case you may consider buying some shields.
For such a cheap upgrade having that extra save may be well worth it and
save a guy from time to time.
If you wish to take them as cheap units, take two units and
run them together for the same reason you would take pegasus knights. Warmachine hunting, chinsy unit hunting. You can run circles around your foes with
this unit. A rear charge can bring 3
combat resolution plus kills many units don't wish for this so they turn to
face the Mounted Yeoman. Repeat process
and since they can shoot as well they excel at this little dance of death.
If you wish to bring them up to 18 points a pop to try and
turn them into a combat unit. Consider
taking a unit of 10 with full upgrades.
This unit is cheaper than a similar unit of knights with a lot less
survivability. It puts outs some decent
firepower in the shooting phase and almost a decent bit of combat. This is a "jack of all trades" unit
that can do anything, just nothing as well as the dedicated units. Still they basically cost a unit of knights
and they've lost the fast cav rule.
For an all peasant unit they are a tempting target and in
higher point games this unit would be worth taking since it would be ignored in
favor of shooting the knights. Deck it out with full command and you've got a
good flanking unit. Often ignored and
potent enough to kill support units they still have firepower in shooting. 10 point blank shots hit as well as long
range shots from bowmen.
How I field them (When I do field them): 5 with shields
What are they good at? Being annoying. Killing warmachines and similar units.
Working with pegs.
What are they ok at? being able to do a bit of everything. Dancing around other units.
What are they bad at? Being good at things. Taking hits.
Trebuchet (Treb) The tree bucket.
Take em. Take
two. At 3000+ Consider taking 3. A lot of where there these excel at is in the
shooting phase. Therefore they will be
covered mostly in the shooting phase.
However I did wish to cover what they do to an opponent here.
First off deployment is key for a unit that can't move. On top a tower, hiding in trees. Someplace that is hard for the enemy to
assault I often find that smack dab in
the middle of the army is a safe deployment.
After all who wants to fight through the center of an army? Either that or one on each flank with a touch
of support to prevent fast cav. Also
enemy shooting is surprisingly effective so at the edge of the table is
preferable.
Second is the effect that they have on your foe. They force him to spread out his army or risk
them causing more damage. And forcing
out units is how our knights can eliminate them one at a time. It is this threat that I think is the most
valuable thing about the trebuchet.
One thing that should never be underestimated is how much
the foe will try to destroy these pieces of artillery. If they are dedicating too much to kill the
trebuchet, let them. After killing the
trebuchet the enemy is exposed to a counter attack. Just make sure that it is worth it.
Also I recommend taking more than one in case they do manage
to blow themselves up. Personally I
think that they are almost required in these days. They hit hard but also force people to
respond to them which often gets an advantage in your favor.
Also special note must be noted about the ability to kill
giant monsters. D6 wounds is not to be underestimated.
How I field them: 2 trebuchets
What are they good at? forcing enemies apart
What are they ok at?
Doing damage, killing monsters
What are they bad at? taking hits and fighting.
Grail Knights (GK) The holy warriors of Bretonnia.
The number of times that these guys have won me games is
amazing. They are the most potent of our
knights but also the most expensive knights barring pegasus knights. A unit of these is about 150% the price of
the more basic knights. Expect to spend
nearly 400 points on these guys. But
with the high stats they are much more resilient to the instant death spells.
On paper they die just as easily as any other knight but
don't let that deter you. That are still
rather tough to kill as are all of our knights.
However if there was a unit you wanted to protect against shooting it
would be this one. This is due to the
overwhelming power these guys pack on the charge. If there ever was a unit that required the
charge to get the most I find it to be this one. a charge from 9 of them grants
you 15, S6 attacks and 7, S3 at WS 5 and Initiative 5. OW.
Few things can take this without losing at least a rank. Aimed at a WS 4 unit... That is about 10 dead
guys. A full 2 ranks.
If the foe doesn't break then they still provide 9, S4
attacks. This is respectable but it is
wasting their true potential. My
preferred targets with grail knights are units that will not be getting steadfast,
or at least won't be getting steadfast after I hit. You will have to determine if you think you
will lose a knight to the counter attack or not. Weak units most likely will not, but even if
they do kill one knight, so they are still steadfast, you have staying power
against them and will grind them down so don't fear too much. Obviously you should expect to lose a knight
or two if they are armed with great weapons or flails. Even halberds can pose a decent threat but even
the great weapons with 10 attacks only on average kill 2.
In the new meta game shooting units have become a little
less common and huge blocks of infantry rule the day. This is both good news and bad news for the
grails. It's good news because they have
a better chance of surviving and it is almost bad news because they can't break
a large ranked up unit to start the game.
This current trend is more beneficial to the grails than harmful. It allows them to take a less protected
position on deployment.
The two most useful places to deploy grail knights are
dependent on what you want them to do.
If you go into a battle with a plan then deployment should not be a
problem. If you wish to run them up the
center then an early deployment will force a foe to show his hand and whether
or not he dares to face you head on. If
you wish to flank them then a far deployment is best done later on. Each has their own tactics.
The head on mid
charge is best done when the opponent has placed units that are entirely
designed to slow down and hold your knights in the middle, while he plans to
win by flanking after you get stuck in.
While an average unit of 25 may be enough to slow down the average
Knight of the Realm unit it isn't enough to stop a full grail knight unit with
perhaps a touch of support. The principle behind this is that if you break a
hole in his lines and now you have a bunch of tempting rear charges to break
enemy units. The enemy will have to
respond to you being behind him. This
simple move can wreck an entire plan and force the enemy to reveal valuable
flanks which will can give you the victory.
The flanking grail knights work under the principle that
most enemy units placed to stop them will be swept away under their power. This leaves them basically unstopped on the
flanks where they will run and try to collapse the sides and break everything
in on the foes units. Once again the
opponent must react to them or simply be overwhelmed by the power of the grail
knights. However if you intend to flank
with this unit you have to know where the battle line has been drawn. This requires the grails to be placed near
the end of your deployment.
Either way a big thing that the grails have is the ability
to take on a unit that would stop a unit of KOTR or even QK because they
probably won't stop a unit of grails.
Often times people deploy a unit across from one of your units that they
think will defeat yours. The grails
provide trump to these situations.
People seldom expect near double the number of attacks at the high WS
and higher Strength of the grails.
Consider using the "bait and swap" technique. Place a unit of knight of the realm across
from a unit that they would be stuck against and be ground down. When your foe fails to provide adequate
support since he knows he'll win that fight have the grail knights cross in
front of the Knights of the realm who cross behind and deal with the enemy that
was supposed to fight the grails. This
works well because what people often put across from the grails are units
designed to tar pit them. The KOTR can
sit there and be stuck in while the more powerful grails are free to cause all
sorts of problems with the foe.
This simple ability to cause problems is one of the grails
greatest strength. Not just damage,
though they are good at that. Not to
mention that people that have played Bretonnia fear the grails. They really do. People will avoid the grail knights unless
they have a stubborn unit of a truly rock solid unit. Both of which the grails should be
avoiding. Don't be surprised if people
overreact to the unit and respond far more than what is needed.
If this happens don't panic.
This is extremely beneficial to you if you take advantage of it
correctly. If they overreact then they
often will be out of position. If they
are focused on the grails then they are ignoring the rest of your army. In this situation consider not attacking with
the grail knights at all. Keep them in a
threatening position and while he prepares for the charge herd him into a poor
defensive position. When he's there he
should be easy pickings for the rest of your knights.
One disadvantage of the grail knights is the inability to
flee from charges. This can really hurt
if you aren't prepared for it. Due to
this the grail knights should not be in the very front of the army. Keep them a touch behind another unit if there
is any risk of them being charged by something threatening. Usually keep your distance and use the better
movement to be dangerous beyond the enemy charge range.
As for being able to challenge with any model this has its
benefits and its disadvantages. The
disadvantage is that a weak character can challenge and avoid the full brunt of
the unit. The advantage is that you can
challenge and avoid the full brunt of the character. This may not seem like much but suppose he
was on a dragon then he only kills one model a turn as opposed to 3 or 4. This lets you tar pit dangerous things until
you can get support and your monster killers in. Consider this a last option for dealing with
powerful characters.
On the subject of characters... I dislike putting combat
characters in the Grail knights. They
are plenty powerful without adding in the often overkill combat Lord or Paladin,
not to mention it costs valuable points since they must have the grail vow. I do however often field a damsel or more
likely the prophetess in the unit. This
is dangerous due to the miscast chance killing every grail knight and it has
happened a couple times. The reason why
I field a wizard in the middle of the unit is that her Magic resistance helps
remove the grail knights from the valid magic target section. With the prophetess they are getting a 4+ and
often a 3+ ward save against magic. With
saves like that people seriously reconsider casting magic at them. It's a win/win situation. If they cast magic at them it is greatly
hampered, if they don't then the most powerful unit in your army must be bested
in combat. In order to help reduce the risk
of killing my own knights I make sure to be using throne of vines for any serious
magic mayhem. Also if she has
regrowth... I'm healing my grail knights whenever one gets downed.
I also recommend having a warbanner with them. They are still a fire magnet and having the
extra resolution can help negate losing a rank.
Don't be confined to a single banner though there are many banners that
they can wield well. On the subject of
size you can have a unit as small as 3 but I find it more a waste of points
except in small games. Same goes for
6. Take them as the typical 9 man unit. Any more than that and they become far too
expensive. You still need to be able to
overcome the loss of the unit if worse comes to worse and when the unit costs a
giant chunk it becomes that much harder.
Any less than 9 and they will struggle to break anything due to
steadfast.
How I field them: 8 strong.
Full command with warbanner.
What are they good at? Most things. Overwhelming units.
What are they ok at?
Prolonged fights. Being more powerful Knights of the Realm,
What are they bad at? Being cheap. Fleeing.
Tactica
Characters.
The first thing to talk about is how to prepare the
character. Looking at combat characters
first. The first thing you need to ask
yourself "Where do I want this guy to go?" Then laugh and ask yourself "What do I
NEED him to do?" This highly depends on where he is being
placed. Most often I find that he is
either in KOTR or KE. Often what is
needed is the ability to cover for the core knights weakness. What is their weakness? Subsequent rounds of combat against well
armored opponents. Because of this I
find the best way to equip the character is with strength boosting items like:
Sword of might, Ogre blade and the Birthsword of Carcassone. All are a reasonable point cost for at least
a sustained Strength of 5.
Just by adding a simple character you've turned a prolonged
fight that would likely go against you to one that is very winnable. The character will contribute about 2 kills
to the combat per turn, this helps grind down the enemy as well. It adds the killiness of a reasonable combat
unit to the good armor of our knights to create a lethal combination. We don't lose many models due to the great
saves and we are killing a few back. By
this simple addition more tactics are revealed to us as well. Now when we get stuck in it isn't just to
stay there till the rest of the army wipes up it's to win it. 25 man blocks are valid targets again. The
charge will hurt and then the character will drain them to nothing.
Against enemy characters the boosted strength is also quite
handy. Low armor saves are popular these
days and anything to reduce it is handy.
However if you are worried that you may face a character you must see to
your own defenses. Dragon helm, and the
enchanted shield are both cheap items to give you a 1+ save. A save of that caliber is hard to shift not
to mention the ward save on top of it.
If you feel the need go with the gromril great helm for the same save
but now it is re-rollable. You could
also take the Dawnstone for a similar effect.
However the gromril ends up being cheaper by 5 points. So if you have two characters you can give
them both that awesome save.
If the character is going to join some Questing Knights then
he doesn't need to worry about covering for high strength attacks. Instead he is either worried about providing
the high initiative to kill before getting struck or about providing some horde
killing to the unit. Either way a
boosted strength doesn't hurt and neither does defense. The only difference here is I would consider
taking things that grant extra attacks instead of just strength. Sword of Battle, Sword of Strife and even the
virtue of the ideal are good choices. (Did you know with a lord we can get 8
attacks at WS8, I7, S4, with the right gear?)
The tricky part is balancing survival with damage. Without damage there really isn't a point to
taking them, without defense they are free points. You also want to make sure that they have
defense in the way of units so I try to limit myself to at most one character
per unit. If you have more than one in
the unit then it is just a huge bullseye and may well spell the end of the
unit. Keep your army points spread out
so the loss doesn't hurt as much.
The epitome of damage vs. survival is the magic users. Our damsels are very well protected in our
knight units but it brings a lot of risk to the knights riding with her. For her it is survival of those around her. If placed in peasants then killing them hurts
less but they are far more exposed. For
them it depends on what you wish for them to do. If I intend to spam Dwellers Below with max
dice then damsel with M@A it is! If she
is there for support spells then in the knights she goes.
I personally like to field two. One level 4 and one level 2. Casting from the same lore. This helps me choose where my spells are
going and basically guarantees that I have the spells that I want somewhere on
the field. It also give me variety so I
can choose whether to support or go for damage.
When using the lore of life and in a unit of peasants don't be afraid to
throw 6 dice at a big spell and hope for irresistible force. Often the sacrifice is worth it and when she
casts again she heals a wound before the 2nd miscast hits. This way you have only to fear the instant
death result. Even in Knights consider
throwing a lot of dice into a spell if you think the sacrifice would be worth
it.
For magic items on these wizards I stick with support
items. Dispel scrolls and the like. Things that I've liked to play around with
are. Prayer icon to grant M@A the
blessing, (already mentioned) Chalice of malefure with lore of life in case
they get hurt, extra dispel dice doesn't hurt.
A sneaky trick is to combine the feedback scroll with the silver mirror. You've got a decent chance of wiping out
enemy wizards with the total amount of defensive punch you've got. Once again survival vs. damage. I HIGHLY recommend a lvl 4 prophetess if at
all possible. Even if you must make her
bare bones take her. The bonus 4 to
dispelling means you have a chance in the magic phase.
For the lord that will be your general I recommend survival
over damage. He provides valuable
leadership and is worth an extra 100 points if killed, however if it is a lord
he can bring the hurt as well. A
favorite tactic of mine is to join him to a unit that has the banner of
discipline for a whopping LD10 to spread around my army. Know where he is needed. It often is in the middle of the battle and
is determined by his equipment. If you
built one tough to kill get him stuck in with things that won't break him. If he is stubborn due to crown of command
definitely get him in and stuck. Our
characters are often safest when engaged with weak enemies. There are a couple ways to have this guy
kitted out.
The first is the unmovable wall. Gromril, Crown of command, +35 points of
whatever (I say birthsword). Stubborn,
with a1+ rerollable, Armor save? And the
unit he's with gains this stubborn benefit?
Yes, please. He is true points
denial surviving and dealing a bit of damage.
Few things can shift him. If you
are worried about heavier things like characters and monster and are less
worried about troops change it a bit.
Virtue of Heroism, Crown of command, Dawnstone. 2+ re-rollable save while stubborn with
killing blow against the world.
Decent... decent...
There are many different get ups used for Generals and
lords. We have a sticky thread for just
htat purpose, I won't ramble on about others that have been done to death I'll
just share what mine has.
In all honesty he is the one character that I personally
lean towards fluffy with. Mine has the
Virtue of heroism, Gromril great helm, and Sword of swift slaying, (Or the
sword of striking depending on mood.) I
have him hunt down other characters and monster to killing blow them. He's quite tough to kill too. Is hunting down the biggest enemies on the
field the safest thing to do with your general... Nope, but it is fun to have
the heroes challenge the big things.
Another special character that we are required to take is a
Battle Standard Bearer. I will confess.
I. LOVE. THIS. GUY. I used to swear that
he was the heart of Bretonnia before the new rules. Guess what?
Nothing has changed. If anything
being able to re-roll any leadership check means that he is worth even
more. This man can keep your army in the
game when all hope looks lost. As such
he should be where the fighting is thickest. Preferably just out of reach of
other enemy characters that could kill him.
As a key central part of the army a lot of his power comes
from him not dying. I recommend the
enchanted shield (cause we can now) for a 1+ save. Hard to kill = good. Then
after that it is your choice to balance survival vs. damage. I run mine with Ogre blade and enchanted
shield. This means that he often adds
about 3 combat resolution to any battle, 2 from kills and 1 from being a BSB.
The greatest danger for the BSB is to end up fighting
something that can kill him easily.
Enemy characters and Monsters come quickly to mind. Even against many enemy hero level characters
he has a bit of an edge because of his good saves being almost for free. So don't be afraid to put him in the thick of
things as long as it's reasonable. He
does die instantly if the unit he is in breaks so you have to choose your
battles a little more carefully then with the general.
A key thing to remember when picking your characters is
variety. You must be able to respond to
all threats. The best way to do this is
to have a little bit of everything. You
don't want to neglect your magic in this meta game nor the leadership aspect. Used correctly characters alter the entire
face of your army granting you powerful tactics.
The characters I usually field:
LORD with equipment described above.
BSB with equipment described above.
Damsel lvl 2 Prayer Icon. Lore of Life
Prophetess lvl 4 on horse. Chalice of Malefur. Lore of life.
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