This is a guide to help people get more from their armies.  I wrote this to help people get a quick overview of how to play a better game by giving some tactics and discussing how each of the phases of the game should be played.

It is my hope that this helps new players get their footing in the game and hopefully become a better player capable of competing even at a tournament levels.  I also hope that it can serve as a bit of a reminder to old veterans to help raise their level of gameplay and show that things can be very deep and complicated.

 What this is not intended to do is to be an absolute word on all things Bretonnia.  This is to get your foot in the door and give you a solid base on how to play the game.  It is YOUR job to take the army and make it your own.  Do not let this trap you into just playing what I recommend.  Take some tips but develop your own tactics. Play your game, not mine.

Lastly... Have fun!  We are playing a GAME.  Games are supposed to be FUN!

 This section is dedicated to the the units in our armyand what they can be used for and what they can do.

For the LADY!

Unleashing the Full Might of Bretonnia.                                                                                                                                                 Tactica By: Saint of Virtue (Nathan R)

There are 2 critical keys to playing with Bretonnia, 2 things that must always be kept in mind and I think are more important for us than anyone else.  The first is the classic "Know thyself".  This goes far... FAR beyond such simple thoughts as knowing your units and will be the first thing discussed.  The second is the compliment of the first "Know thy Enemy" discussed second and I will finish with General tactics.

KNOW THYSELF

Ask yourself: "How well do I know this army?".  Do you just know the units?  Do you just know how each thing performs?  These are the type of things we will discuss here.  I will start with an in-depth look at each of our units.

Knights of the Realm (KOTR).  This is the work horse of our army.

Let's look at the stats. Decent WS.  Average everything else.  Whee.  Well, stats are not where they shine.  In fact it shows a glaring weakness to spells such as "Purple Sun of Xerxes" and 'the Dwellers below"  Both such spell ignore the greatest strength about knights of the realm which is our armor.  They key component is the WS here.  It means that most of the large chinsy horde units are hit on 3's.  This contributes to the hard hitting power of the lance on the charge where we inflict most of our damage.  However in this day and age this alone is seldom enough to break heavy infantry units.  Other Cav stand less of a chance if we charge and it is almost certainly a death sentence or at least a break sentence due to the basic resolution of 4 going in.  Even the mightiest knights in the game would think twice about letting themselves be charged.  Where our knights really shine is in the survival section.  The heavy armor combined with the blessing of the lady means that most things will have a heck of a time killing them.  Or more specifically... ALL of them.  If even one survives he can run away to deny the opponent valuable VP.  Also one model is all you need to flank so even 1 knight can be effective.

When combined with other units they can contribute much needed kills to a combat.  I highly recommend flanking with them for extra resolution.  When it comes down to it Knights of the realm are our masters of combat resolution.  Hard to kill, reasonable point cost and the ability to cause actual damage all contribute to this.  One thing to consider is that even without lances they get a grand total of 10 S3 attacks, (as an interesting note this is the same amount of attacks a normal infantry unit 5 wide gets minus champion).  This is usually enough to cause a couple kills.  Combine this with the static ranks and you have a unit that is often quite hard to shift.  Because of this advantage I do not recommend fielding units smaller than at least 8 knights + character.  Basically you get the same number of attacks as the foe but you have better armor and often better WS.  This often adds up to a winning fight.

With the advent of hordes and the return of larger units even a unit of 12 is possible and decently effective.  Will this break units that are 10 deep? Not immediately but unless the unit is unbreakable there is a decent chance of breaking it eventually through sheer perseverance.  Elimination of the enemy general and BSB will certainly aid this endeavor.  A common tactic of mine is to charge an infantry unit about 25-30 strong head on.  Consider the lances on the charge as bonus kills and models you don't need to eliminate to remove steadfast.  Also due to the small frontage only 5 models will ever be in Base to base contact.  This limits the number of counter attacks that will be received taking a full 30 attacks from a horde to a mere 15.  

I list them as decent at fighting monsters because they are cheap(ish) And due to the survival rating of these knights they often will win combat, so barring stubborn they may break the foe.  Also due to being Cav they are immune to Thunder stomp and stomp.  So just the base number of attacks against WS4 and 2+ armor 5+ ward saves.  Think that can break 3-4 combat res?  Not often but if the monster stays you may certainly be in trouble.

They also are quite good at being a character delivery or survival service.  Being difficult to kill means that they provide needed bodies to protect the valuable characters.  They can make sure that the lord gets in to cause damage or that the Prophetess stays alive.  Make sure not to make the unit too expensive by putting more than one hero in it because then it is just a target and will draw TOO much fire.

My personal recommendation for this unit is 9 strong.  Any less is ineffective, any more is just extra bodies though another rank may be nice and would certainly have its uses.  I prefer to keep my units rather cheap, Around 250 as opposed to 325.  That's a whole unit of Peasant bowmen.  Also run them in tandem with the rest of the army, they only should be alone in small games.  I run them straight up the center to bog  down and injure the expensive enemy units that live by numbers, or they target units with squishy characters because their loss doesn't mean the game is gone.  At the end of the day THIS is the unit I rely on.

What are they good for?  Supporting charges, Holding up things, Elimination of fire support, Bodyguard.

What are they ok at?  Combined charges, eliminating targets, Threats, Killing monsters.

What are they bad at?  Prolonged fights with powerful foes.  Armor piercing weapons.

Knight Errant (KE)   I often consider this the throwaway unit.

First off what makes this unit different then the Knights of the Realm?  They are cheaper, have a lower WS, a lower leadership, and are frenzied on the charge without the extra attack. So in my book I count one advantage: Cheaper; and one that could go either way: Frenzy charge.  I often find that the disadvantages to this unit are not worth the fact that they are cheaper by 4 points.  I know some people swear that the immunity to fear and terror is priceless.  It is nice, for a turn.  Most things that cause fear are also unbreakable, then the lower LD comes around and says they're WS 1.  So why take them?  Aren't KOTR better at everything?  Well in order to get the FULL value out of the Knights errant you need to consider the magic item section.  They have a banner that has been tailored specifically for them.

I never field a unit of Knights Errant without the banner of errantry.  This limits me to one per army and in essence means that they cost about 22 points per model which is still cheaper than KOTR.  It gives them the hitting strength of grail knights on the charge.  It is due to this lone banner that their purpose tends to be drastically different than that of the reliable KOTR.  It makes them more likely to go flying off after the enemy.

Once again let us look at their strengths which are similar to the KOTR.  They are pretty tough to kill.  Good armor and the blessing make them tough to shift.  That's where the survivability ends however, they suffer against the more elite infantry of WS 4.  Being hit on 3+ adds up quickly.  Also only hitting on 4+ (Usually) against most hordes means that they will kill less, which in turn makes them less valuable at breaking after the charge.  In fact the only infantry that I recommend charging with Knights Errant rather than Knights of the Realm are the ones that are elite enough to have WS 5.  This is where cheaper comes in, you lose less points when you would have lost the same number of models.

Where I find they shine the most is rather fluffy.  Monsters and other large targets fear the boost in strength to 6 far more than WS 4.  Giants can be hit and reliably wounded about 4 times in one turn of combat with a single lance of 9.  Once again they enemy is reduced to just their attacks. No stomp or thunderstomp. At the higher strength the very annoying Hydra gets no armor save, this helps offset the hatred first round.  Not only are their lances more effective against large monsters but the higher strength also means that monster infantry is a little more scared of them. (They score NEARLY identical wounds to KOTR)

The higher strength also means that they often hurt other heavy cav better than the KOTR.  Most heavy cav pack at least a WS 4 so the higher strength is useful.  The problem with this tactic is that if the enemy is within 20 you may try to make a nearly impossible charge and end up close enough for them to counter charge.  Which will likely hurt.  Their unreliability hurts them here.  Also due to the unreliability of Knights Errant I do not recommend putting character that you don't want to lose in the unit.

Now what I find their greatest tactic involves losing them.  I have often referred to them as a "Fire and Forget Missile".   Since I know they will charge at SOME point I just ram the unit into the single most dangerous unit in my foes army.  And by "dangerous" I mean dangerous to my army not on a unit to unit basis.  This often involves a powerful wizard in the other unit. On the charge they should remain in combat and may even win.  After that you simply hope they stay locked in combat for as long as possible so keep the BSB and General near.  If it is a wizard then the knights just may kill it or wound it severely.  That's their points back right there.  After that it's just bonus what they do.  I find the greatest part is the dilemma that it puts the enemy player in.  If he leaves them alone the KE may very well do enough damage to kill a wizard, or break the unit especially if it was just a mage bodyguard unit.  If he decides to flank them he exposes his side and rear to the rest of our army.  If he chooses the 2nd option... Your unit is most likely dead but the game may have just been won. And all for less than 250 points of KE.  It is surprisingly reasonable to field them at 12 strong if you plan on doing this.  Harder to shift with the extra rank means that your foe has a bigger dilemma.  If you think this is worth the cost of 10 peasant bowmen is a matter of preference.

At the end of the day the key to using Knights Errant effectively is in the deployment phase.  Deploy them across from what you want them to fight.  Otherwise they will end up fighting what your foe wants them to fight which is bad for you.  They MUST have a plan at the beginning of the fight.  Are you going to try and run the flank?  How about Right into the gut?  Are they monster hunting?  All of this MUST be decided when they're placed on the table.  Just make sure to keep your throwaway unit cheap enough to throwaway.

How I field them: One unit, 9 strong, banner of Errantry and Full Command.  Either they Monster hunt, flank or suicide.

What are they good for?  Supporting charges, Killing monsters, Distraction, Sacrificing themselves.

What are they ok at?  Combined charges, Elimination of fire support, Killing Cav.

What are they bad at?  Prolonged fights with foes.  Armor piercing weapons, Staying in one place!

Men At Arms (M@A)  The Bretonnian horde!

And the first of our lowborn units.  Once again stats leave something to be desired but 3 dramatically stand out.  WS, LD and the low point cost.  Again average I and low S show a weakness to certain spells which are the most effective way of killing these guys.  The biggest thing this unit has is the incredible cheapness of this unit, followed by the equipment.  This unit is our only viable horde unit and they are decent at it.  They are packing decent armor, for light infantry, (which is better against shooting) and with halberds they pack a decent punch.  Never underestimate the power of large amounts of S4 attacks.

As our "go to" infantry unit in a non infantry army I've found this unit to be rather unique.  Want steadfast?  Go here.  Want ranks to break enemy units?  Here again.  The problem?  They're not all that good at it... By themselves.  Their own Leadership will seldom keep them around  so a nearby knight unit must be nearby to herd the peasants and keep them in the fight.  The knight unit must also stay nearby to prevent panic tests.  Since they are slow compared to the rest of the force. This may present problems with the knights going ahead.  The other problem is people tend to avoid them in favor of attacking the knights, if they can't get in combat steadfast does nothing.

They do not fare well when fighting other horde units.  Most others are cheaper and can afford more bodies which lends itself to the M@A losing and breaking as soon as anything else comes their way.  Combine this with most enemy units avoiding them and having lots of extra ranks doesn't not help this unit all that much.  Most infantry of the same size will cut them down without a second thought.  Fortunately if you're fighting an infantry unit you should be much bigger.

 A key thing about M@A is being able to take hits and lose people without you caring.  I often laugh when my M@A suffer casualties and mock my opponent if he missed any swings.  Because of the need to be able to take wounds I highly recommend fielding units with more ranks than they need. I recommend you go for 5 ranks, 6 at most, in their typical formation be it normal or horde.  They are cheap enough that the bodies are useful but make sure you don't spend too much on a unit, Keep them cheap so if they break you don't lose much.  In fact name one peasant Bob and challenge your foe to kill him.

As for damage output there are 2 formations I recommend.  The first is 7 wide, the second is full blown horde. At 5 deep this is 35 and 50 M@A respectively.    The first formation grants you an impressive 14 attacks to the front because just about every unit will be frontage 5 and the extra attacks from being frontage 7 instead of 5 helps counter the poor weapon skill.  It has a wound absorption of 21 before attacks are lost.  22 before they have no ranks.  This I find to be a cheap but effective unit that is more designed for direct damage.  It works great for supporting your flanks or even throwing it in to bail out knight units.  I consider it a great unit to work as your reserves.  This plays perfectly into the fact that they are slower.  By the time they catch up they're needed.  This plays into more aggressive strategies very well.  If you are playing defensive you could also keep them in the flank and act like they will flank any enemies that charge.

As for the other formation, horde, it certainly is not practical to consider flanking.  This unit packs a whopping 30 attacks against a frontage of 8 or more.  It has a wound absorption of 20 before attacks are lost and 35 before all ranks are lost.  And even if you suffer down to there you can reform to absorb even more.  The extra attacks from a large frontage are often lost since you usually should not be fighting a horde, but you do gain an extra 7 swings on average.  Decent.  And if they decided to field frontage 7 wide for the previous reasons I mentioned... You get 27 swings to their 14.  This is ideal for destroying enemy units, almost double the attacks received.  The benefit of this formation is you often can out muscle non-horde infantry provided that they do not have a WS5 or higher.  Since the unit tends to be unwieldy again deployment is key. Get them where you need them and keep them there.  This is a unit that I tend to keep near the middle for leadership purposes, as well late game damage.

Another great use for them is in late game enemy units should be weakened enough that even elite units with powerful characters will not be able to break the large unit which will often be untouched.  Even enemy hordes are fightable if you've dropped a couple rocks into the middle of their lines.  What this means is that while your knights are great early turn fighters before they've lost enough wounds to neutralize them, your peasants are excellent late game fighters where they can capitalize on enemy units that have lost too many wounds.  There have been many times where things look bleak until my M@A hit and then the day swings in my favor.  Keep them near the enemy but don't commit them unless you need them to grind the enemy down, are capable of doing just that and the enemy won't annihilate them.

It is unlikely that the M@A will draw a lot of fire with knights still on the table and if they do, well your knights are not getting shot at.  Still a key thing about the M@A is the ability to take wounds.  As such anything that can be done to improve it late game when they reach combat helps.  Stat boosts are especially effective, but perhaps the easiest thing is to give them the blessing.  This is done by adding a damsel with the prayer icon to a unit. This improves the units survivability by a lot.  Which leads me to comment on the effectiveness of a damsel in a M@A unit.

She won't be killed by shooting of course and most magic won't touch her.  But compare this to a damsel in a knight unit.  If the damsel miscasts in knights it could kill a full 8 models in base to base which is most of the unit.  If she miscasts in a unit of M@A if she is correctly placed on a corner the damage is 3 peasants in base to base, 8 if it's the template and who cares if they all die?  This lets you cast with less fear of a miscast, it causes much less damage to your units.  With magic being as powerful as it is being able to try and get an irresistible force can be a powerful tactic.  More on this in the Damsel section.

If they have the blessing then this becomes a legitimate combat unit, at full strength capable of fighting just about every unit out there.  I highly recommend getting them stuck in with units that are packing great weapons.  Several monsters also suffer against the M@A with the blessing though peasants are stomped and thunderstomped good and dead.  For the most part though they just become better at what they did before just don't overextend them.  Though they do become better at holding the line.

How I run them: 50 strong. Banner, musician, damsel to give them the blessing and to miscast for pure damage.

What are they good for?  Supporting charges, late game heroics, taking hits, wearing down foes.

What are they ok at?  Combined charges, Stopping charges.

What are they bad at? fighting bigger hordes, fighting high WS things.

Peasant Bowmen (PB) The Blind Hedgehogs... Yes, that's what I name my unit.

Bretonnina has its primary fire support provided by these guys. Surprisingly cheap, they come with the range but lack power to crush many targets.  I'll cover their target priority in the shooting section.  If you take a unit of these, go into the battle and expect them to kill nothing.  Through sheer kills they seldom will earn their points back but that doesn't mean that they are not worth taking.

It used to be just a gimmick and in many ways it still is but defensive stakes have now turned out to be much more useful than at first thought.  They count as a fence according to our FAQ.  This means that the bowmen have deployed soft cover for themselves and units behind them.  In essence... This means that any unit shooting at peasant bowmen has a -1 to hit.  Let me explain what that means a bit more. Elves shooting at Peasant bowmen basically have the same BS. In fact the average BS 3 model will only hit on 6's if you keep them at long range.  Combine this with the overall cheapness of the unit and they can reliably win most ranged duels.  I don't think I need to mention how much the units behind appreciate the fence too.

It gets better too.  Stakes are still fences, which are obstacles.  Any Cav unit, Monster Cav or Chariot has to take a Dangerous terrain test if they charge our peasants, this could flat out kill a chariot.  And it gets better still!  In the first round of combat enemies suffer a -1 to hit in close combat.  It just means they hit on 4+ due to the poor WS but that's better than nothing.  I personally find the dangerous terrain test is a dramatic deterrent.  Most effective bowmen hunting units are Cavalry 5 wide, they may very well lose a couple models before the fight even starts and for cheap bowmen that's their points back right there.  It also may reduce the damage taken by enough so that the Bowmen may stay in combat that round and are able to be saved in the coming rounds.  Not only that but if you gave them braziers they cause fear in cav as well.

Which brings me to unit size. I have only found 2 sizes to be effective at all: 10ish and 20ish.  I'll talk about the 10 first.  What I mean by 10ish is that you could bump it up to 12 or even 14 if you have a few points floating around.  The principle is that it's two lines of models, just don't make it too big.   Peasant bowmen are the only unit that are effective when bought cheaply.  Take 10 M@A and you can't do anything... but 10 Bowmen on the other hand can still do their job.

The job of the smaller unit is twofold. Fire support is nice but not very damaging.  Where this unit comes into play is as a deployment.  It's a cheap unit that helps you see where your foe will be deploying. In fact I rarely put any upgrades with the smaller units just to make sure they stay really cheap.  Knowing what is where before you get to the power of your army is a wonderful advantage.  And after deployment they still can deal damage with their bows.  I like to deploy these at the far edges of my flanks.

The reason behind that is, most people don't consider them a very great threat.  Rightly so.  But they will either ignore them or have to send far too much after them.  Either situation is a win in my book.  If they are ignored that is 60 points that your opponent didn't kill so just by staying alive the peasants have done their job.  If your foe sends things after them well that's one unit that is not bothering your knights for a few turns.  It also would have to be a considerable force to truly shift the peasants.  A small unit of fast cav won't cut it anymore.  Even if you do lose them it's not a big deal.  They're dirt cheap and unlike the bigger unit they function quite well as a throwaway unit.

As for the big unit it works a bit differently than the small ones.  It is deployed with actual ranks usually 4 deep.  Keep in mind there is nothing stopping it from expanding for more shots if there are no threats.  This unit can still be deployed on the flanks but one thing has changed.  It is now a decent threat. It becomes more likely that units will be sent after them but it also becomes more likely that they can handle it.  You also lose 5 shots a turn when ranked up that wouldn't be lost in two units.  I do recommend a command on this unit, at least a banner.  A unit this size can actually be deployed in the middle of the forces and have a chance of survival.  In essence you have changed the means of survival that the bowmen have.

The smaller units survive because they are not a great threat and are thus ignored.  The bigger unit requires that an actual combat unit be sent after them and if you deployed correctly it will have to get through your powerful knight units.  Not only that but who would bother sending a combat unit after bowmen when there are the knight units around?  Once again the fact that they don't cause much direct damage plays into their favor.  It's just the bigger unit does cause more damage and may attract more attention.

Speaking of attention, keep the big unit near the knights.  The little units are not as critical to keep nearby since they draw less fire. As for actual characters the only one I would even think about recommending for joining the bowmen would be a damsel for many of the same reasons that she would be deployed with M@A.  She works best when deployed with the larger unit since the smaller ones tend to die to quickly and with a damsel they become a valid target.  It is not unheard of for the damsel to grant the blessing to the M@A and then run to the bowmen.  With the bowmen she is surprisingly safer since the unit is trying to avoid combat.  It can be risky to keep your fire support with your magic but it also can work well.

As for deployment this ties into the last option for the bowmen. Skirmish which I would only consider for a small unit. Since the stakes grant you the same defense against shooting why take it at all?  Only 2 reasons.   The first is if you intend to move and shoot.  The second would be if you intend to place them into forests.  In a forest they gain steadfast.  I still counter with "If they're in combat they're dead." So the only real reason would be move and shoot.  Which I find rather useless more often than not.  They already have long range and if there are no targets in range then advancing is quite safe for them.  So I honestly can't recommend having a skirmish unit.

So without skirmish the best places to deploy are in buildings.  They are steadfast in there and have wonderful protection.  The second would be smaller units on the flank angled slightly inwards so they can cover more of the center field.  The benefit being that this position is almost always useful and can be done early on in the deployment stage.  Larger units I recommend more centrally based.  Also a unit in between the Treb and enemy fire support never hurt either.  Since the Treb is taller and can fire over the archers but it is still behind a fence and becomes harder to hit.

How I field them: At least 3 units of 10 no upgrades.

What are they good at? Being ignored. Being Annoying. Seeing Deployments.

What are they ok at? Shooting to remove ranks.  Shooting to cause panic.

What are they bad at? Fighting.  Passing leadership checks because units flee through them.

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.