The tactics for the Bretonnian army are very simple. The army is based on the power of the Bretonnian Knights. A Bretonnian army without knights WILL lose the battle. This one of the main reasons why a Bretonnian army must contain at least 25% knights. The army can not be made of knights alone however. (actually it can but it would be stupid) A souport of commoners will help your chances of victory a lot. Archers are a must especially if you are up against an army with alot of infantry.

The most important thing in the Bretonnian Army is by far the Knights. There are four different types of knights to choose from. I personally only ever use two of them. The Grail Knights and the Knights of the Realm. I find that the Questing Knights arn't really any better than Knights of the Realm. They cost two more points and their models cost a lot of money. The Knight Enrants (don't think I spelled that right!) are inferior to the other three types and I don't think they are worth bothering with. When ever possible I take a unit of Grail Knights. They are the best Bretonnian Knights because they have 5 weapon skill, 9 Leadership and they are not affected by phycology of any kind. This is important to me since I play the Undead and Chaos most of the time. Unfortunatly each Bretonnian army can have only the one unit of Grail Knights. So I recomend taking 2 or even 3 units of Knights of the Realm. These groups of knights should always be taken in either a unit of 6 or a unit of 10 so that they can use the Lance Formation well. If you don't know what the lance formation is then read the book!

Knights work best when they charge. They are vunerable when they don't get to charge. They can also be devistated by warmachines like the Repeter Bolt Throwers of the Elves. The best way to avoid damage to your knights and to insure they get to charge is to cover them with commoners. By this I mean put a mobile unit of infantry or mounted squires infront of the knights. These units can be removed later on and use to harrase enemy units of add a few victory points to an important combat. commoners can be used in other ways as well. Mounted squires can be equiped with alot of weapons if you want they to play an active role in combat or they can be lightly armed and just serve as souport units. I think it is always a good idea to give them bows because you never know what a few arrows can do. While I'm talking about arrows the archers are very important to a Bretonnian army. A group of 15 archers aranged in the Arrow Head formation can all shoot and they start any combat they get into with three combat points (4 with a standard which you should give to them). Use archers to weaken large infantry units or kill the horses on a chariot. Shooting at heavy cavalry will usually be a wast of time. The last group of commoners are the men at arms. Taking a unit of 20 men at arms with spears or halberds is not a bad Idea in a large battle. Use them to defend your flanks or your archers.

Characters are also a big part of the Bretonnian army. This is evedent from the fact that a Bretonnian army is allowed to be up to 75% charactes. You must have a general to begin with. The general should always be on a mount of some kind. In a small army this will usually be a horse. In a large battle I prefer to mount my general on a Blue Emperor Dragon! That makes him a tough customer indead. I almost always give my general the virtue of knightly temper. It is only 25pts and can really help in a combat. The only exeption to this is that sometimes I give him the virtue of devotion if I am up against the Undead since their magic is so strong. As far as magic items go I like to give my general a sword, either the Hydra Sword of the Frost Blade. Then I give him the Armour of Brilliance and the Black Amulet. Those choices will make a general very hard to kill and will allow him to do a lot of damage to his opponents. I don't use much in the way of heros or champions because I usually spend my points on other things.

A wizard is alway be a useful addition to any army. Even though the Bretonnia army can only use battle magic the wizard can still be used to counter enemy magic. Who knows you might just get Destruction and Fireball, then you can really kick some ass. Back to countering magic though. A Bretonnian wizard should be designed to prevent the opposition from ruling the magic phase. There are two ways to acomplish this and both should usually be employed. The first way is to make your wizard a level 4 mage lord. This means that your wizard will be equal or greater than the enemy wizard unless they are using a special character. A level 4 Bretonnian wizard is not as expensive as a level 4 wizard in an army that relies a lot on its magic. The second way is with magic items. There are two magic items in particular which will always come in handy. The first is the Skull Staff and the other is a Dispel Scroll. The Skull Staff gives your wizard +1 on his dispel roles. A Dispel Scroll can be used to stop a powerful spell in its tracks. Remember to use your Dispel Scroll (or scrolls) with caution since they can only be used once. Giving your wizard another cheap magic item like the Amber Amulet can make her last longer. A dead wizard is not a good wizard.

The last element of the Bretonnian army is the special characters. There are a lot of special characters who can be a great deal of help in combat. My personal favorite is the Green Knight. he is not the most powerful attacker in the warhammer world but he is very hard to kill. He only costs 170pts which is not much for a character who can hold up an entire unit. Another character who can be helpful is the Fay Enchantress. Her spells are nothing spectacular, but if an enemy character gets turned into a frog then his power will be somewhat reduced. I have also used Bertrand the archer in my time. He can help a unit of archers become a huge threat to enemy infantry units.

That's all for now. If you have any questions, comments, complaints, ideas or additions feel free to e-mail me using the button at the bottom of the screen.