For the 2nd part of my tactica I desire to give an overview about how the game plays in different phases and how to prepare for it. 

Again this is to help you play a better game not to limit you to my tactics and my observations.  This section is to give you an idea how the flow of battle goes and how you should deal with each section.

As with many things keep in mind that nothing survives contact with the enemy and remember this is just a guideline.  Keep your wits around you and keep your plans fluid.  Also play your own game, keep your opponent guessing and don't become predictable.

For the LADY!

ARMY CONSTRUCTION

So now that you have a decent idea of the uses of your units, let's look at creating an army list.

The first things that are needed are: a unit of Knights of the Realm, a general and the Battle Standard Bearer.  I like to kick things off with a unit of 9 Knights of the realm, 8 if you plan to have a mounted character join them with full command.  It is a very balanced unit that will be able to cover for anything.

The others depend on the point level of the game.  I personally recommend a lord for your general if at all possible.  The extra leadership goes a long way.  A BSB is a standard and was already covered in the characters section.  Once you have decided on the characters you should also have a bodyguard for them.  The key thing is to keep the bodyguard consistent with the characters ability.  You don't want a combat lord wasting his talents in a unit that is often fighting fire support units as an example.  And you don't want your pricey wizard in a suicide unit.

When creating an all comers army list you should bring a counter to everything that is dangerous to our knights.  Consider the big things that may be everywhere.  Warmachines, Fast enemies, Powerful magic, powerful infantry blocks, Monsters and ranged units.  These are the big things that our army should be prepared to deal with.  Keep in mind that some may already be countered by the characters and their bodyguards.

Try to keep a decent balance between dealing with all the threats.  You don't need to go overboard to prepare for them just make sure you have what you deem to be enough.  You can only learn what is enough by experience.  Do you need a unit for thing?  Not really, several things can pull double duty.  Pegasus knights for example can deal with ranged units and war machines.  Be prepared however since defeating your counters is often your enemies top priorities.  For Pegasus Knights again, warmachines and shooting units often try to take them out before they can do their damage.  So be prepared for that, either by redundancy or by support.

Once you have prepared units to deal with the threats mentioned then you must put some extra so you can play all phases of the game.  Make sure you can Shoot, cast Magic and Fight.  Often this is already taken care of by preparing to fight the previous things but in case it's not you should make sure that every aspect can be played.  I also recommend a bit of a balance too.  If you put too much into any one category you risk losing simply because what you face negates that category.  Spread your points around some, it doesn't have to be an even split but keep it active enough to participate. I use about a: 60% combat, 20% shooting and 20% magic support, spread.  This lets me have enough shooting to be effective, enough magic to be effective, and enough combat to hopefully crush the things that pop up.

If you have an overarching plan then every unit should play into that plan.  Use any extra points you have left to make your army work better.  As an example, Many units perform best when they can be deployed after seeing the foes deployment.  To help see others deployment you could take several small archer units and place them first.  This also boosts your shooting ability.  Pulling double duty is always welcomed.

Every unit should be able to contribute something to the overall battle plan.  This doesn't mean that it will contribute a lot to every battle just that it could contribute.  For example peasant bowmen seldom deal much damage to warriors of chaos.  This doesn't mean that I should never take them in an all comers list because as a counter they deal a decent amount of damage to high elves.  Since they may be less than stellar in one match make sure the lack of action won't lose you the game.  This is done by versatility, double duty, and not letting any single unit get too expensive.

You should note that there is a lot of freedom in creating an army list.  This is because as long as you follow a few simple rules you can take anything you'd like.  In fact take any unit that you find works well for you.  Sometimes having experience with a unit is more important than anything else.  There are still some basics but don't be afraid to break them if you must.  The basic rules in essence are:

Cover your weaknesses,

Play all phases of the game,

Don't let anything get too expensive,

Don't pin your hopes on one unit,

and have a plan going in. 

Deployment

Tactics for deployment are believe it or not just as important as tactics for any other aspect of the game.  By seeing where your foe wishes to go and where he places certain units one can determine his battle plan and be prepared to counter it.  Interestingly enough there are only a few different battle plans that can be used, all of which are easy to determine.

The first is the most obvious and usually only used by either small but powerful armies or rookies.  This tactic is best described as the CHARGE!!!  Tactic.  Though I personally like to refer to it as the Waaagh! tactic because it is very orky.  In essence they line up across the table and double time it as fast as they can across to hit you in the middle of your lines.  Break it and just try to fight everything nearby.  The key to seeing if your foe is doing this is if his most powerful units are placed in the middle of the enemy army.  To counter this you can flank around him and avoid the potent unit in the center while killing the rest of his army.  Whittle down his giant unit because that's what he is counting on to win the game.

The second is often called the hammer and anvil.  It is in essence attack by a flank.  It even doubles as a flank denial at times.  This is common for armies that have decent powerful infantry while cav are expensive yet powerful.  A large unit is deployed centrally that is designed to hold you up while faster or more powerful units sweep your flanks in.  This works best if there is a weak flank so if you suspect your foe of doing this deploy a worthy counter unit to the flank or deploy anything valuable on the opposite flank.  Characteristics of this tactic is a stubborn or tough unit in the center with either fast or heavy hitting units on one flank.

The third is a double flank threat.  It is very similar to the hammer and anvil except fast or powerful units are deployed on each flank.  This threatens to envelop you while the center simply holds.  Fast units sweep your backline of support while the heavier units collapse your flanks.  This is characteristic of armies that have ready access to powerful cav, and mediocre horde infantry (sound familiar?  It should)  It is on occasion preformed by pure infantry with hard hitting units on the flank and tough units in center.  To defeat this you can either match them strength for strength, block a flank and overwhelm one side, or even risk punching through the likely weak center.  A Symmetrical deployment is a common characteristic of this tactic.  Tough in center, power on edges.

The fourth and final is the castle.  This blatantly says "Here we are, we out gun you and will shoot you dead enough so we can fight you when you get here".  This tactic is typical of dwarfs and other armies with an abundance of warmachines, shooting or occasionally magic.  First off... I hate this tactic, it generally turns out to be a boring game of "How many made it in to combat?".   There are two ways to deal with this tactic, the first is try and outrange them.  Our missile weapons have a very long range, greater than the handguns which is the typical thing that would worry our knights.  The other tactic is just get in there as fast as possible and have all of them hit in one weaker area.  If you're in combat then they are not shooting at you.  You can tell this tactic because they will deploy in a half circle around their warmachines, or a line if it's just plain shooting.

Now that we know what we are up against which ones work well for us?  The answer is all but the last one.  A well balanced Bretonnian army can play the triple threat of all three decent aggressive tactics.  An interesting thing is that what defines our basic knights the most is a joined character.  Characters are joined last giving us the ability adapt to the battlefield at the very end.  Do you want that stubborn guy in the middle to anchor things? Or as a flank denial?  Well you often get to pick at the end.

The biggest thing about deployment is forcing your opponent reveal his plan before you reveal yours.  This gives you the advantage of being able to create favorable matchups or overwhelm a certain part of his army.  Of course he is often trying to do the same to you.  This is why certain cheap units are taken, peasant bowmen for us, so we have a chance to figure out what they're doing because of this I recommend never placing first if possible.  Let your foe place first if you win the roll off.  Since we pray to the lady there is no bonus for placing the army first.  Watch and prepare to counter them.

Since determining strategy is such a big thing placing your biggest most powerful unit as soon as possible is more likely to give away your plan and ruin your day.  Keep your own plan as hidden as possible for as long as possible, the less your foe knows about your plan the more likely he is to make a placing mistake and grant you the advantage. I often deploy everything else before I deploy a single knight unit.  This includes trebuchets and M@A (Which I tend to place in the center due to its staying power).  The days of riding forth and right through an enemy are gone, adapt by finding weak points that you can hammer through.  These are found in the deployment so it is important to get it right.

If you don't get the chance to see their deployment prepare yourself for a quick response deployment.  Our knights are fast enough to redeploy on the first turn if placed close together.  It gives you a weakness to template weapons but after the redeploy you should have enough space so that it doesn't hurt too badly.  Whatever you do don't deploy so that's it obvious what you're doing unless you plan to use the incredible speed of the knights to redeploy.  This can change an attack by right flank that he is expecting to an attack by left flank where he is weak.  This is why I deploy cheap bowmen first.  They are cheap and reasonably effective wherever I place them so it reveal little about my plan while I get to see his plan.

And being able to redeploy quickly is our greatest strength in the deployment phase no one quite knows where we will be striking and as such must defend all flanks.  That is nearly impossible to be effective if you throw your full might against one side.  Keep this in mind when you deploy, most other armies are infantry based and as so can't keep up.

The next important thing to consider is your battle line.  This is the line that defines where your effective control of the battlefield is.  If this breaks you may be in serious trouble so keep it consistent.  A nice fluid line that shows where you have control is ideal.  If your battle line begins to look like a circle that's called collapsing the battle line and is generally bad to have happen. 

With Bretonnia one of my favorite tricks is to have 2 battle lines.  One on each flank.  They work separately to try and force a foes battle line to break.  It is dangerous if they try to totally engage one side but often they can't afford to ignore the other side.  If our army wasn't as fast I would not recommend this tactic because we often need the speed to avoid dangerous things that half our strength can't deal with.

Obviously I can't give any solid advice on a phase that depends mostly on your opponent but I will say have a plan of your own going in.  Place following that plan until it is determined that your plan will not work, hopefully this happens before the end of the deployment.

I myself run a heavy double flank attack going in.  Grail knights on one flank, two KOTR on the other.  My general with his KOTR and M@A in the middle, With the general closer to the knights he gets a leadership spread and doubles up with the BSB in a KOTR unit.  Though those often switch due to enemy placement.  I find it surprisingly effective, since he usually only has one unit that can deal with a knight charge and they tend to wish to fight the grails which leaves my other strong flank the ability to sweep right through.  If he charges forward M@A rank up for steadfast and with the BSB and general nearby they are not going anywhere.  Leaving the rest of my army time to mop up or weaken the dangerous units with range.  It hasn't failed me yet and I doubt it will since if it looks like it won't work I change it, since I have the multiple bowmen units I usually get to see the enemy plan.

 OPENING TACTICS

The battle is often broken down into 3 distinct sections.  The first is the opening.  This consists of usually turn 1 and 2.  This is where we force weaknesses and inflict damage to make difficult units killable.  I shall break down each section based upon the 4 major aspects of Warhammer.  Movement, Magic, Shooting and Combat.  Keep in mind that most of the opening is simply determining what can be killed by what and getting the correct units into place.  A lot of this is determined by your deployment.  Good deployment leads to a good opening.

Opening Movement

The opening movement phase generally consists of moving around to weaker spots getting units to where they are most needed.  As well as faster units trying to get in to combat to eliminate different threats.  In the opening phases move your knights around to locate weaknesses in formation.  Stack the forces in your favor on one side, get favorable matchups.  This is also when we must also eliminate fast units that threaten our back lines while our fast units try to eliminate enemy back lines.

This first turns also reveals the plans that were put into place during the deployment.  If you were able to correctly predict and counter deploy to the enemies strategy then you have the advantage.  Press the attack on the advantage you've gained.  Hit the weak spot quickly and with great force.  Don't ever over extend yourself and keep a fluid battle line.  Force him to react to you if you have the advantage in movement.

If you were not able to deploy to create a weakness and instead have a disadvantage yourself you must quickly remedy that.  Use the great movement to redeploy correctly to counter the situation and don't worry about how silly the movements may look.  I've had crisscrossing knights before and it worked out well enough at the end.  Point is make sure you've matched your rock with his scissors before you consider going on the offensive.  Better to wait a turn and enter combat prepared then to enter early and lose a flank later on.

At the end of turn 2 you should have your plan put into action with no backing out.  Your fate will be sealed after the opening so treat it seriously.  Very seriously. 

As an important note if you successfully defend your back lines and fire support from the enemy fast units then a great luxury is now yours.  You now out gun your foe.  This is the goal of opening movement battles.  Have more fire support than your foe.  If you are unlikely to achieve this then consider getting into combat quickly.  This is often the case when the foe castles in the corner.  Against the average opponent combat should not be needed this early and it is often desirable to avoid it on a large scale for a while.

While the bulk of your forces have their future determined by your plan keep your fast anti-support units like Pegasus knights and Mounted yeoman in mind.  It is their goal to help you achieve having a greater fire support base.  Obvious targets are war machines and ranged units but do not forget the wizards.

When determining targets for your anti support units make sure you determine a valid threat level.  A threat level determines what you would sacrifice to destroy the enemy unit.  An archer unit is a low threat and usually I don't even have to deal with it,  a cannon is a moderate threat, I would certainly risk my pegasus to destroy them. A level 4 mage may well swing the battle in his favor and I would sacrifice a whole knight unit to eliminate them quickly.  Once you have determined the threat, act upon it.  Destroy high level targets first and quickly, moderate are as soon as reasonably possible and low are when you get around to it.

In movement you must respond to these threats as they arise.  The biggest threats to neutralize in the opening are things that have either powerful shooting or magic.  Eliminate these threats quickly and the game will become yours.  Also keep your advantage pressed if you have one don't let up the pressure if you have an advantage and eliminate enemy fire support.  These should be your main goals of the opening movement.

Magic

Magic for Bretonnia in the opening tends to be long range damage spells.  Buffs are not as important is dealing damage here.  As such the main thing is target priority.

Light magic missiles are best targeted at fast enemy units and enemy fire support.  You are trying to eliminate entire units to further protect your fire support base.  If you can kill a whole unit near others do so and aim for panic checks in nearby units.  Multiple light missiles is one way to use the early magic phase.  Also consider some remains in play spells.

Heavy magic attack spells should best be targeted at large units.  If you have the dwellers below try to target units that have characters, especially wizards.  They may very well die to it.  It is also a reasonable risk to attempt irresistible force for such powerful spells.  Especially if you are casting from the lore of life since you can heal your wounds later on.  Be wary if you suspect your foe of having a feedback scroll.

A lot of early magic is trying to determine who is more effective in the magic phase.  Can you shut them down or are they shutting you down?  Since it is so early in the game you should use this time to try and pull out dispel scrolls and other one-time use magic defenses.  The best was to go about doing this is using big powerful damage spells.  If it goes off irresistibly then you cause damage, sometimes severe, if it doesn't and they scroll it then they are defenseless later on in the game.

Magic defense is best spent determining what you can take and what you can't.  Enemy spells will be cast, just do your best to make sure that they are not devastating spells.  Light missile spells and buffs you usually can safely let go.  In fact if you can make them cast a buff by placement of threatening knights consider that a victory for you.  If at all possible try to save any dispel scrolls you have through the opening phase.  Unless it looks like you will eliminate their wizards early of course.

Personally I recommend either big spells against well armored foes or weak spells to eliminate enemy artillery or fast light units.

Shooting

Shooting functions much like the magic phase.  Bowmen target light fast threatening targets to our back lines while the trebuchets target large blocks on infantry and other high priority targets.  In this case it is usually better to fire the heavy weapons first.

Hopefully the threat of the trebuchet also spreads out the enemy a bit so of all the targets to consider pay special attention to the ones that stay close to other units.  The more divided the enemy army the greater our army stands together.  And since it stands together it can pick apart the dispersed army.

In some circumstances the biggest threats are flying monsters Trebuchets were designed to drop these suckers.  Any and every rock possible should be spent firing at flying monsters like dragons.  These are the bane of our existence and should be dealt with quite quickly before they ruin our day.

However certain tactics come into play since shooting is done one unit at a time.  If the aforementioned light units are taken out of the picture (or never existed) what do these units fire at?  The answer is that they: try to support the combat, cause panic and eliminate.

Speaking about the last first, eliminate.  Very few targets will be eliminated by bowmen alone however a Large target may be on its last wound after the trebuchet hit.  It would be wasteful to spend an entire trebuchet shot at the same target so spend some bowmen.  That plucky shot has downed many a giant and even a couple dragons.  Finish the job with the cheap bowmen.  The only other target that may be eliminated is warmachines.  A 6 in the right spot means a dead crew and after a couple of volleys reduced power for the warmachine and possibly death.

Cause panic is the next one.  This is simple and known to many generals already, if you can get a unit to take a panic check you might not have to worry about it anymore and it might just take a few other units with them (Skaven and gobbos anyone?)  in their path to flee.  Simply pick out targets that are lightly armored with few numbers.  You can also fire at large units that the Treb didn't quite bring to a panic check.

Lastly support the combat.  Fire to remove a rank off that unit, soften the blow, reduce the chance for steadfast.  If you have a choice fire at units that will be in combat sooner than later.  Hit the targets to whittle them down for the inevitable midgame damage.

Shooting is very much a situational thing.  This phase you have to play by ear.

Combat

There should be a minimal of combat.  Most combat is either overwhelming or delaying.  Support units should be easily overwhelmed by what is sent against them.  After combat you should be prepared to redirect down flanks or get to a safe area.

Overall combat is very light at this time in the game.  Usually your fast units slicing through his support and your other units stopping his fast ones. A key thing to be careful of is that you don't have to pursue his fast units if you think it will put you in a disadvantageous place.

Fast stubborn units can also delay entire units to allow the rest of your army a chance to break the unit later.

Final Thoughts

The opening is where games are decided.  Eliminate the greatest opening threats that you can as quickly as you can and don't be afraid to sacrifice to do it.  Make sure you use speed to get the foe off balance and keep him there.  This is where you must force your foe to dance to YOUR tune.  If you have a strong opening the rest of the game will fall into place.

MIDGAME TACTICS

This is where serious battle is joined.  You put your plan against your foes and see who comes out on top.  You've done some damage, hopefully you've won the support battle, you've seen your foes plan and hopefully out maneuvered him.  This is where surprises are revealed and battles are truly decided.  One note is if you have won the support battle already by turn 3 there is no need to enter this phase while you still can whittle down your foes with magic and shooting while maintaining a strong position.  Some games I don't enter here until turn 5 when the enemy has been shot nearly dead.  Other games I can skip this phase all together and go straight to end game if I control the support lines.

Movement 

Bring the lance home.  Get into combat with what you can kill and avoid or hold up what you can't.  This phase is often quite short and involves charging or pulling back.

If you have a unit where you want it... Kill it.  Charge it.  Break it. Run it down.  No mercy.  If you don't have a unit where it is easily killable you have a few choices.  Force it, bait it, stall it, and avoid it.

Force it is just that.  You charge in anyways.  You may not kill it on the charge but you have the power to grind it down.  Be careful with this tactic while it may grant you the victory over the unit in time, you must be careful to prevent the enemy from bringing more into the combat that could sway the tide.  If you will kill them eventually and they have no support this is the tactic to use.

Bait it.  You lure the unit further away from the main force so that it is isolated.  Once it is without support it should be easy pickings.  Make your knights retreat a step or two, try to bring the unit with you.  If you fall back your foe may think that he has a chance to defeat you and follow.  Once without support hit him hard and fast.  The problem with this tactic is it is based on deception and your foe may not fall for it.

Stall it.  You may be able to charge and inflict damage but have no chance of breaking or being broken by it.  Often this is those pesky ranked up units, steadfast units.  In order to prevent them from having free reign across the board you lock them in combat.  Then you have a tickle fight for the rest of the game.  Or until you get support to bail them out.  This is best used if you are certain that you have support nearby.

Avoid it.  If your foe has a deathstar unit running around that you have NO hope of breaking...  Avoid it, but don't just send nothing after it.  Keep a unit threatening it at a long charge range if possible.  This makes your opponent think that you are just trying to whittle him down before combat (which is true) and makes him likely to advance and chase the threatening unit around.  It's bait that should never be caught.  It keeps his biggie out of action until you are ready for it.

That are the 4 basic things that your battle line may be doing but what about your support?  Your pegasus knights have swept the back lines so now what do they do?  They add things to any of the previous tactics but most likely the break it philosophy.  Unsure if a unit will break if charged?  Have the pegs charge in the back as support.    Special mention must be made to how wonderful they are at avoiding and baiting targets.  Best unit for baiting and playing cat and mouse in our army.  Also they make good bail out units if they can get a rear charge.

Magic

Well when you've got your knights stuck in and are ready for the magic phase it is time to change magic tactics.  Instead of just causing the damage the focus has shifted to support.  Keeping our guys alive and making sure the enemy gets hit harder are now key.

I find the lore of life spells to be better in the opening but I find the lore of beasts to be better in mid game.  It has superior support magic.  It makes your knights hit harder and live a touch longer.  Anyways your spells should be simple here. Buff and more buff. 

Since the lore of beasts has such an awesome signature spell you can have more than one of them in your army.  If you have this spell, spam it with as few dice as possible.  Often now is not the time for a miscast.  As an exception... if you have a damsel in combat... Throw the dice to try for the miscast.  There's a good chance it will hurt them more than you.

After you have exhausted your buff spells check if you have any hex spells.  Cast them in any combats you are worried about.  It's like buffing your guys indirectly so they are useful as well.

The key thing to consider here is which support magic MUST you get off?  Cast that one last with the most dice possible.  If you're lucky you have drained your foes dispel dice and he can't stop it.  If he is saving dice to dispel you throw a bunch of dice at it to finish things off.

As an example: I have three wizards, 2 beasts and one life.  I really, REALLY, want to get off the +1 S and +1 T spell on a unit of Knights of the realm because I am worried that combat might go poorly.  I first try to cast it from one beasts wizard at bare minimum needed for it to go off since they both know this spell it's safe to try this.   It's me testing to see if he views the combat the same way.  He throws his dice to dispel it.  I realize that he considers this combat iffy as well and wants to help his unit survive. I have enough dice remaining to try and cast about 2 more spells, say 6.  I try to cast flesh to stone on two dice.  I am testing to see if he will dispel this so his damage is greater against me.  If he throws dice at it,  I have more dice to cast my final spell than he has to dispel.  If he doesn't I have at least one buff off and a legitimate chance of casting the second one with 4 dice.

That's just an example of how this magic phase is a struggle to get the vital spell off where it is needed.

Shooting

Your targets have now become either units that are being baited or avoided. Preferably the later.  Honestly with the amount of combat that should be going on you have very little targets.

Aim at units that are too powerful and that you are avoiding.  If you are unable to do that generally the best thing is to shoot at valid targets.  Even the Trebuchet.  Special mention must be made of the ability to drop units to 25% or below.  If you have that chance jump on it.  They only rally on snake eyes at 25% so they are effectively killed.

Your shooting phases are likely to be light or nonexistent.  Don't fret they should have done their job already and they'll get targets soon.

Combat

Here is the meat of what you will be doing.  Since this is a subset of the movement phase it is likely that most of combat is just running itself.  In fact there are only two aspects of combat that you can control.  Directing attacks at characters and challenges.

Allow me to draw a distinction between characters.  Soft, medium and hard.  Soft characters are ones that will not do much to you and are easy to kill, like wizards.  Medium have threat potential but not great and mediocre armor, I put Battle standard bearers here usually.  Hard are just that.  They will inflict damage and it will be tough to penetrate the armor.

I only recommend directing attacks at soft and sometimes medium characters.  Avoid hard characters unless you can punch through his armor with your character.  Wizards are great squishy things that you want dead, feel free to direct any attacks at them and similar characters.  Medium characters deserve attacks on the charge and from your own characters.  You need that boost of strength to puncture armor usually.  if you can drop a BSB that's a great help to you.  Of course directing attacks may come at the price of inflicting less wounds on the unit.  Less wounds means less likely to break.  If you are close to removing steadfast and the character doesn't confer stubborn then ignore him.  Kill his unit and make him test on snake eyes.  Soft characters are the exception since they often are very easy to hurt, only direct enough attacks to kill them and no more, your horses can pick up the slack after the knights. 

As for challenges I will narrow it down to 2 circumstances.  Character in the unit and no character in the unit.  If there is no character in the unit... Challenge with your unit champ.  You may wonder why I suggest swapping a possible 3 kills for 1; it's quite simple. My unit champs seldom inflict more than one wound and reducing the counter attacks against the unit is quite beneficial.

If he has a character that is squishy in the unit challenge don't bother to challenge if you have a character or the unit champ in contact with his character,  direct your attacks at the squishy character since they often are easier to kill.  This way even if you fail to break them you've gained points for the character.  If you are worried about them having steadfast and a single kill may make the difference then it is possible to direct the full attacks at the unit but this is a rare occurrence. 

If there is a medium character if you have a character in contact with him don't challenge but direct all attacks at him.  If you just have a unit champ ignore him.  If your character is not in contact with his, challenge with your character.  You should easily wipe out his champ that he will accept with.  If you are still in combat issue another challenge and kill his character.  Once again characters are often worth a large chunk of points

If he has a rock solid character challenge with your champion.  Hopefully kill the champion that accepts and then challenge again.  In essence you sacrifice your champion for a turn to keep more of your unit alive.  In essence you want his rock solid fighting character wasting his power against your simple champion.

One thing that I have noticed is that hard characters tend to run in hard units, medium in medium and soft in soft.  I have never figured out why.  Occasionally I see a soft in a medium but it is rare.  This helps us overwhelm the soft and medium units since characters are the number one danger to our knights.  Against the hard units our goal is to simply survive.

As to whether you should pursue or not.  I recommend pursuit unless they are below %25 unit strength.  Not only do you get 25 victory points for their banner but you often will kill the whole unit. 

Final Thoughts

Midgame is where most serious combat and hence serious damage.  Most of what happens here is based on the opening but it is still important to do it right.  Eliminate things you can and try to hold on till you can deal with things that you can't break.

ENDGAME

When you enter this area of the game it is important to take stock of where you are.  There are 3 different places you may be.  You may be winning handily, you may be close, or you may be losing.  Each area requires different tactics.

Movement 

If you are winning you have two options.  Avoid the enemy or finish them off.  Avoid them is quite obvious.  You just do not engage in combat and pull your units out of range of the enemy.  This is definitely the safest of the options.  Not terribly exciting but it is effective.  It isn't terribly effective if there is a lot of shooting in your opponents lines.  It is the simplest thing to do though just avoid anything left.

I recommend this if your knights are badly damaged with only one or two guys left.  It is called points denial and it keeps a win from becoming a loss.  If you still have more than 25%  in your unit don't be afraid to flee with an attempt to rally.  It is often better to flee  and attempt to rally then to try and outfight something you can't outfit.

The other thing that your units can do is what I call mop up.  This is designed to turn a win into a crushing victory.  Basically you hunt down the units that are almost dead and turn them fully dead.  Again if they are less than 25% then you probably don't need to hunt them down.  Chase down the units that are dinged up with the units that are not dinged up badly.

It is a little more risky because your dice may betray you but it can turn a normal victory into a crushing victory.  Basically these two tactics are your big options.  Avoid or destroy.  Avoid the difficult enemies and crush the weaker ones.

If things are going badly for you have two options.  One is try to turn it around and the other is to simply survive.  During a friendly game I say go for broke and try to turn it around.  This is where the odds are against you but you are still going to try and crush enemy units.  Aim as much of your army as you can against single units.  Do as much damage as possible but keep your forces together to consolidate the force that you have left.  If you have enemy units that are almost dead finish them off first, unless their points won't bring you back into the game.

If you are in a tournament setting with different levels of victory then you are simply trying to survive oftentimes to save points.  In this circumstance you should keep your units alive and aim for objectives and the points.  So use avoidance tactics.  Denying your foe points is often a big thing during tournaments and keeping your own points as high as possible.  Do this by hitting what is safe to kill and avoiding what may defeat you.

If things are close the game becomes more difficult.  First thing to do is take stock of what shape you're in.  If you're in healthy shape, or if you're completely banged up.  If you're in bad shape consider using the avoidance tactics and settle for a draw.  If you are in rather healthy shape it's time to hit as much as you can to get the edge.  Aim for the weaker units and avoid the stronger units.  Take out the units enough to get ahead and play it safe.  Aim for the weakened units that should break easily.  Then know which units you can lose in order to kill more than you lose.  If you can lose a trebuchet to kill a 200 point unit consider it a fair trade.

Also do not forget objectives in certain scenarios.  Move units that are not busy surviving or killing to take objectives.  Bowmen are a valid choice for this tactic.

 Magic

Magic has gone round in complete circle.  Once again our magic has become elimination of enemy units just as it was in the opening.  If a unit is fleeing and close to 25% bring them below that so that it becomes almost impossible to rally.  See the "opening" phase for more information on elimination of enemy units.  The biggest difference is that your targets are no longer just small fast units.

 It is now the units that are closest to death that are your targets.  Also consider the point value of what you're zapping magically.  If you have the remains of a unit that cost 400 points, and the remains of a unit that cost 200 points...  Aim for the most expensive unit that is likely to be killed.

If you can get a unit running there is a chance it won't stop.  Aim for panic if elimination is not a valid option.  Once again I believe that it's gone around to fighting like in the opening.  I do NOT recommend throwing more dice than needed to cast a spell.  A miscast could well cost you the game.  In fact if you don't have any targets that are weak enough to be killed; don't cast spells.  Don't risk your wizard.

For magic defense it is preventing the magic missiles and other damaging spells from going off.

Sorry this section is short but it is likely that most wizards are either dead or are trying to prevent themselves from dying.

Shooting

Shooting is almost identical to magic except no worries about a miscast.  Shoot to eliminate units or to prevent rallying.

If you are out of range use your peasant bowmen to take objectives. This phase has reduced efficiency except for elimination and prevention of rallying in this phase.  Occasionally panic checks can be caused and they can give you some points but they are unreliable at best.

Combat

Combat should be completely overwhelming of the foe in this stage of the game.  Give them no chance to survive.

If large dangerous combats cannot be avoided then do whatever you can to defend the characters that might be in the unit.  If the enemy unit doesn't have a character but might be dangerous to yours, challenge with the character to reduce incoming damage.   Now your character is simply interested in survival.  If the enemy unit can't hurt the character easily but the unit might be threatened (like spearmen) Don't challenge.  Let your character absorb the attacks to protect the unit.  Do the best thing to keep the most of your units alive. 

Keep everything possible alive while killing everything possible while in that confine.  Take survival over damage if at all possible.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Here the game has usually been decided before hand and it is just mop up for one army.  The trickiest part is keeping your victory in hand.  If you're losing it's an uphill fight to bring it into a draw.  If it's close then you have to make a choice, settle for a draw or try for the win.  Settle for a draw if your position is inferior and aim for the win if your position is superior.

 SNEAKY TRICKS AND TACTICS

Despite being the honorable knights we still have a sneaky trick or two that we can pull out.  Sun Tzu stated that "All warfare is based on deception."  These tricks deceive our foes and catch them off guard.  Even the simplest of tricks can throw a huge wrench in the foes battle plans.  Feel free to use some of my more common tactics and to develop your own.  There are more advanced tactics out there but what kind of magician reveals all his secrets?

Well protected wizards.  The damsel is arguably the best protected wizard in the game.  Our magic users are all but safe against anything but themselves.  Lore of life will also heal them if it goes off.  By keeping at least one wizard safely tucked away in a knight unit we can benefit from her dispel ability and earning her worth by defense.  If in a unit that miscasting will not terribly damage them, M@A for example, feel free to throw many dice at the spell since the next lore of life spell you cast will heal you from the likely wound you will suffer.  Also our blessing is still on the ladies to help save some of those wounds. 

Cheap heroes.  80 points gets us a 2+ save, the blessing, a lance and T4 with 2 wounds.  This characters are in essence unit champs on steroids and can help add survivability to an unit.  We get our ward save cheap and our 2+ save is cheap as well.  A chinsy guy can well throw the battle in your favor.

The Virtue of Heroism.  People know about this and fear it.  It is our great equalizer. You can drop just about anything with this ability.  Just having it nearby lets you negate certain large threats allowing you to focus your fire on other targets.  It is dangerous to characters and dragons alike and it always has a use.  It is rare to find an army without this virtue and there is a reason.  It's incredible for messing up enemy plans.  They may put a lot of faith in monsters and the virtue just kills them outright.  Often times monsters are one of the fastest things in the enemy army and dropping them gives our knights an advantage in the speed department.  Most people put some serious points in the damage output of monsters and rely on them for damage.  Remove that easily in one attack and it demoralizes the foe.

Fake charge.  Everyone knows Bretonnians charge right?  Prepare a charge into a flank and then "forget" to charge.  It gives them a chance to redeploy to face you, leaving their other flank open to a different charge.  You can also just lead a unit around like this while you whittle it down to make your victory more certain.  I like to use this one early so I can wear down units to make my charges more certain.  Just sit right outside of their charge range and wait for the right moment.

Battle line shift.  A personal favorite here.  Move 16 inches with every knight unit as far to one flank as you can.  You have basically shifted your line from in front of the foe to their flank.  They seldom have enough on the flank to deal with an entire force of our army and it will take too long to redeploy. Their flank guards vs. our flank with support from our main force.  Those are good odds for any Bretonnian, if used correctly this can be a game changer and can win you games.

Through the center.  If there is a unit that you can break mid lines go through it and reform so that you are facing the back of an enemy army.  He seldom will want the force of bretonnia hitting him in the rear and he will be forced to reform to have you but that leaves his back opened up to the majority of his army.  There is no winning situation for this and he will be in trouble no matter what he does.

The hero wall.  Since we have the smallest frontage of any unit we could place a unit with three characters in the front.  This means that no matter where we are fighting they will be fighting characters and can't harm our unit of knights by normal means.  Since our normal knights are obviously weaker than characters this preserves the unit while allowing them to contribute supporting attacks.  Due to the higher strength of Questing knights they are perfect for this.  The only problem is that you have a LOT of points in one unit and if there is a counter to the unit then you are in trouble.

Character on the edge.  When I place my characters in my knight units and my M@A I place them on the edge.  Wizards in M@A will receive fewer attacks against them from smaller units since they must align so the maximum number of models are in base combat.  The wizard will only be corner to corner with one model so only 2 will normally be able to attack.  For knight characters (and unit champs) I place them on the edges.  If I challenge with them then the enemy will lose some attacks because they can't target him.  Also if wizards or other characters are placed on the edges of enemy units I at least get one model with multiple attacks going against him.

ENEMY TRICKS

So you're playing Bretonnia and are being an upstanding gamer.  You play by the rules, sure you may mess some of them up but it's only by honest mistake.  There are some people that don't play like that and find the best way to win is to try to catch you off guard by bending the rules in their favor.  SHAME ON THEM!!!  If they can't win by their tactics they don't deserve it.  Let this serve as a warning to all gamers of some of the tricks that can be used either intentionally or unintentionally to cheat the system.  Most importantly... If it sounds odd... ask to see the book or the army list.

"Funky movement"  Some people will move units without measuring.  I myself am often in this category.  I find little need to measure out anything when I move less than 10 inches or so.  With knights that move 16, this isn't a big issue.  The issue comes from people moving units near their maximum range and not measuring.  Did that unit move its full 8 inches?  Maybe it was a little more, You can't quite tell.  I had one foe who moved his guys a full 10 inches towards me when they where movement 4.  He moved them just that little bit extra to march block me.  I called him on it because I had measured from my knights to him earlier and knew the distance. 

Also be careful of the "sliding" tape measure.  What happens is they start to move the unit and the tape measure moves with them for an inch or so.  Sure it happens, sometimes the tape measure will move a bit when measuring  but some people do this on purpose.  Best way to avoid this is to give them a spotting finger.  Place your finger where he is going to move too before they start moving the unit.  It is easy to do, good players often will thank you for the sporting gesture and the bad ones start to fume.

"Oh... I forgot that"  This comes up with the negative rules a lot.  Often it is simple oversight but make sure you keep it in mind.  Does that model suffer from stupidity?  Make sure he rolls it.  Animosity?  Better be rolling it.  Fighting a fear causer?  They should be taking fear checks each turn.  Archeons sword hits a friend on a 1 to hit.  These little things help balance the game and if they forget it; it tips the scale to their favor.

"Magic item shuffle" So you are facing two enemy units that are identical except for the warbanner in one.  Make sure the warbanner stays in that unit and doesn't hop around.  Characters are the easiest ones to mix up.  You see two characters over there, both are the same type.  One is dangerous to your knights and the other is dangerous to your peasants.  Some people will switch the characters to their benefit.  Or others will switch their magic equipment depending on what they are fighting.  If it seems suspicious call them out on it.  Ask to see the army list.  Ask to see the army book if a magic item seems too powerful.  This can be a very difficult one, basically impossible in fact, to catch if you are playing closed list.  If you are not make sure you know which unit has what when it is placed.

"Crazy dice" Not all cheats with dice are by having bad dice.  The key thing to watch out here for is for the foe to be consistent.  Does he re-roll all the cocked dice?  Or just the ones that are missed and tap the table for the others to lay flat?  If he is doing that make sure he re-rolls the ones that were being tapped.  Another sneaky trick is not saying what the die roll is for.  I've seen some people casually roll dice on their side of the table while they wait, which is fine, but when they are rolling and suddenly interject with "Passed the panic test" You should question it: did he roll several times and then say it or did he point and then roll?  One smells like a cheat the other is fair, keep an eye out for these things.  Another one is rolling for leadership tests in a combined combat.  If he failed the test did he declare which unit was taking the test before he rolled?  Same goes for passing the test.  One opponent I played failed all but his most expensive units break test.  Not uncommon but the thing was he declared what unit was taking the test after he saw success.  Make him declare before rolling or have him randomize which ones passed the test.

"Doesn't count"  This one goes to the saddest of players.  You have done a roll that you clearly declared what it was for and it is the time for it.  However something "distracting" catches the eye of your foe and he looks away as you roll.  He turns around looks at the roll that you made and dislikes it.  "Sorry I wasn't paying attention.  Could you roll that again?"  This would invalidate a perfectly good roll.  I know sometimes it is genuine but still asking for a re-roll of a good roll is a sneaky trick.  If possible I do not roll if they are distracted.  If I see they are distracted when I am rolling the dice I refuse to touch the rolled dice, I actually put my hands behind my back, until he gets to see the roll.  Hard to say I did anything to the roll when my hands are behind my back.  That and I ask someone nearby to verify my roll if I must roll when they are busy.  That way I have a witness to back me up when I say I didn't touch the dice. 

 These are just a few ways people will try to cheat you out of a rightful victory. Be wary and don't be afraid to ask about certain things.  Good players don't mind the question and it may save you the game against the bad player while you besmirch his reputation forcing him to shape up.  That is a kicker, if someone is found to be cheating people will forever be on their guard against him which forces him to play a fair game.