D.R.A.I.C.H. - Taming the Horselords

How to beat those cowardly High Elves?

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Stonecutter
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D.R.A.I.C.H. - Taming the Horselords

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Taming the Horse Lords – How to Beat the Bretonnians

Based On: Bretonnian Army Book dated 2003, Druchii Army Book dated 2008 and BRB v 7.0 rules.
The following is an analysis of the Bretonnian army from a Druchii standpoint or, more specifically, how to turn the horse loving humans into suitable slaves or hydra fodder!! By first gaining an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the Bretonnians, a druchii general will be better able to adjust their own battle plan so as to take maximum advantage of this knowledge in order to expedite their foe’s demise.
STRENGTHS:
While the Bretonni are renowned for their cavalry, they have three major strengths:
1) Lance Formation (LF)
2) Characters; and
3) Peasants. Yes, that last item is correct and not a spelling error!!
LANCE FORMATION:
First off, when arranged in ranks 3 wide, Bretonnian cavalry is in LF and not only gains rank bonuses but is also able to attack with all the flanking models on the charge. This means that a lance of 9 models, arranged 3 x 3, will have a +2 rank bonus and will have 7 models attacking on the charge. Furthermore, Bretonnian damsels (aka wizards) can hide inside the lance in the middle of the 2nd or 3rd rank and still function normally except for having line of sight. In a similar vein, command models can be placed in the 2nd rank if characters fill the front rank and still bestow all of their benefits. Therefore, thanks to the LF, even the weakest of Bretonnian knights are a significant danger on the charge and can break non-stubborn units quite easily. Supported by characters that can be tuned to specific roles and the regular knight lances become even more powerful and able to take on progressively tougher targets.
There are five different types of knights that can appear in a Bretonnian army and a quick summary is provided below. The non-flying cavalry all moves 8” and charges 16” even though they are barded and have a 2+ armour save – this means that an army that is not march blocked can be hitting your own troops on turn 2! If the army prays for the Lady’s Blessing after deployment, it grants choice of first move to the opponent but all cavalry benefit from the Lady’s Blessing, a 6+ ward save that improves to 5+ versus S5 or better. Of note, if a challenge is refused or a unit flees, this blessing is lost for the rest of the game:
1. Knights Errant – Very low cost core cavalry with WS3/LD7 that suffer from impetuousness (test on leadership or forced to declare a charge against a foe in range). They must pursue or overrun due to impetuousness. They can take a banner to make them S6 on the charge but then suffer a –2 penalty on their impetuous checks.
2. Knights of the Realm – Standard core cavalry with similar stats to druchii warriors except they have poorer initiative.
3. Questing Knights – Slightly more expensive than realm knights but they re-roll failed psychology tests, are S4 and I4 but have great weapons instead of lances.
4. Grail Knights – The elite of Bretonnia and only 1 unit can be fielded without a special character. High weapon skill and 2 attacks each make them extremely deadly in LF. They are immune to psychology, have magical attacks and gain the Lady’s Blessing even if the army does not pray.
5. Pegasus Knights – The army is usually restricted to only one unit and that is good news as these are hard hitting flying cavalry with 2 wounds, a 3+ save and the Lady’s Blessing. The mounts give 2 x S4 attacks each and thus even a unit of 3 can really hurt druchii both on the charge and in subsequent rounds if used on a flank. They move 8” on the ground and skirmish with 360 line of sight and thus are able to charge units in difficult terrain quite easily. If the Bretonnian general is mounted on a royal Pegasus, then the 0-1 limit is lifted and up to 4 units can be taken.
CHARACTERS:
The Bretonnians must take a BSB and this does not count toward hero choices. While the Bretonnian fighting characters have standard human stats and don’t appear too dangerous, they can be tailored through virtues (deity like powers) and magic items to make them excellent character or monster killers. They can all choose a vow (knightly, questing or grail), which allows them to join the appropriate or lesser unit of knights and gives them similar abilities to those knights. The virtues are more important however and some of the most common virtues are ones that allow re-rolls to hit and to wound in challenges, killing blow vs large targets, additional attacks for every wounding hit on the charge, +1 to combat resolution, ignore panic from missile and magic and re-rolling all to hits and to wound versus S5 or better opponents. Combining the virtues with magic items that permit re-rolls of failed armour saves or a 4+ ward save can make a Lord level character very survivable and able to dish out wounds in a protracted combat. Due to point constraints, hero level characters are used in supporting roles and generally cannot have strong virtue/magic item combinations without making them fairly vulnerable.
Although the army BSB can take a banner to negate enemy rank bonuses and a virtue, this is rare since it is expensive and leaves the BSB very vulnerable to attack. The damsels cannot take virtues but give MR1 to any unit they join.
PEASANTS:
The peasants have very low stats (WS2 and LD5) and many Bretonnian players disdain them, taking only a single unit of skirmish archers. However, the value of peasants is that they are very cheap, gain the LD of any knight unit within 6”, do not cause panic in the knights and any standard taken by them works normally but does not grant victory points if captured. The archers can be a lethal threat to druchii, especially in large numbers, as they have 30” range, can have flaming attacks and cost about half of what repeater crossbows cost. This massed fire can wipe out dark riders, cause numerous wounds on elite druchii infantry or drop a few wounds on a hydra, making its breath attack far less effective.
The peasant infantry is armed similar to spear warriors and while less capable, still grant the same SCR for far fewer points and without the chance of giving up another 100 VPs for the banner. The last great value of peasants is the strategic advantage of being able to deploy them first so that the cavalry can be better located where it is most needed. The army can field a peasant infantry unit called the grail relique and battle pilgrims that gains the Lady’s blessing, is stubborn and has hatred but it is fairly expensive and subject to psychology, hence rarely taken.
WEAKNESSES:
There are 3 major weaknesses to the Bretonnian army:
1) Cavalry focus
2) Magic
3) Psychology
CAVALRY FOCUS:
Even with relatively inexpensive knights as core choices, the cavalry focus and extra BSB character means a Bretonnian army will likely only be able to field 6 or 7 units, meaning a more numerous force can gain a deployment advantage. Adding to this the usual requirement to pray for the Lady’s Blessing, and an opponent is also granted the choice of first move in the game. The cavalry focus also means that most of the army cannot enter buildings and the LF gives the unit HUGE FLANKS. Apart from a poor lord mount choice in the hippodonkey, the army has no fear or terror causing units. Lastly, the army has no offensive infantry that can operate on its own and, worse yet, has no scouts whatsoever.
MAGIC:
Bretonnian damsels may only select from the lore of life or beasts, both of which are very poor in terms of offensive spells. The default lore of life spell is annoying as it goes off on 4+ and cuts movement to one-half but the offensive spells require line of sight (impossible for a damsel in a lance unless the target is on a hill or in a building) and, at worst, do d6 hits. The lore of beast default spell is useless as Bret characters must come mounted unless a virtue is taken which puts them on foot and no self-respecting Bretonnian noble would ever lower themselves to join the peasant rabble in the mud!! However, beast cowers is effective at freezing a cavalry/monster unit ANYWHERE on the board from moving and the wolf hunts can give the knights a 2d6” extra move on top of the 16” march or 20” fly for the Pegasus knights!! Notwithstanding the good spells in the two lores, the lack of offensiveness and randomness of spell selection mean even a magic heavy Bretonnian army (an extreme rarity) is not much of a threat.
PSYCHOLOGY:
Only grail knights and characters are immune to psychology and thus most of the army can be subject to terror bombing, panic or other psychology tests. While the knights have decent leadership, the peasants are very vulnerable on their own and can be readily broken or made to panic – a good thing to keep in mind when facing an extended line of flaming archers.
DRUCHII TACTICS:
With a solid understanding of the Bretonnians, we can now apply some druchii cunning to exploit our own army’s abilities. While numerous possibilities exist thanks to the many excellent druchii units, the field will be narrowed to examining how to use each phase of the turn to best advantage.
Deployment Phase - Knowing that you are likely to go first, ensure that there is blocking terrain in the middle of the board to help force the lances into channels and to provide a midpoint for your own mobile troops to occupy without being exposed to a lance charge. Your own missile troops need to be set up to allow concentrated fire into the channels while allowing your own close combat forces to threaten any encroaching lances. Additional terrain in or near the Bretonnian deployment zone will also allow for later placement of scouts.
Movement Phase – If possible, try to march block part of the army with scouts or flyers (terrain blocking LOS helps harpies live longer!!) and move to deal with the remainder, advancing missile troops just enough to be in range and any hydra and/or dark riders to the mid point terrain pieces established during deployment. In later turns, the hydra (or dragon/manticore if you have one) can be moved to flame and terror bomb from flanks while the fast cav dance around the lances and shoot but beware of the Pegasus knights. Bait units can be used to redirect lances away from high value units or to set up a hammer and anvil for the next turn’s close combat phase.
Magic Phase - Parking sorceresses in buildings gives them immunity to the lances, large target and 360 line of sight and an ability to attack any lance within range so a building near a board midpoint is ideal. Most Bretonnian armies have 1-2 scroll caddies and thus are well protected for the first couple of turns. However, in a prolonged battle, the lore of metal is deadly to knights and will eventually start causing serious harm. However, dark magic, death and fire are all effective as even S4 magic missiles will bring down T3 knights eventually while soul stealer and black horror can readily devastate a unit with a bit of luck. Doom and darkness is excellent if used in conjunction with terror bombing or panic checks caused by other magic or missile fire.
A very different approach is to exploit the Bretonnian weak magic phase and bring extra missile and combat troops instead of sorceresses. For the cost of sorceresses, druchii can field a lot of RXBs or excellent close combat troops with little risk of suffering much damage from the enemy magic phase.
Missile Phase – The ability of RXBs to mass fire armour piercing shots make them very effective at dealing with T3 Bretonnian knights, who will fail their armour save one third of the time and then only get a 6+ ward due to S3. RBTs are even more effective with excellent range and –2 to the armour save and also have a dramatic psychological affect on most knights, who will go to extreme lengths to avoid being targeted by them. Pegasus knights should be the #1 target as there are no penalties for shooting at them, their mobility and hitting power is a severe threat to your own missile troops, they threaten your own army’s mobility and a single casualty will cause a panic check. Grail knights would be a #2 priority although a character on a royal Pegasus or Hippodonkey is inviting as the steed can be readily shot out from underneath the character, leaving them on foot and neutering both their movement and any magic lance they might be carrying. A black dragon breath attack can hit an entire lance and has the added bonus of a –3 LD check to declare a charge if it is not a unit of grail knights - assuming that it passes its terror check and does not flee!
Close Combat – Due to the ability of lances to charge 16” or Pegasus to go 20”, the most likely case is that the Bretonnians will get in a charge on your own troops, which is usually very bad unless you have ASF. Units without the ASF banner, full of assassins or stubborn (black guard or khainites within 12” of a CoB) are likely to be seriously beat by such a charge and subsequently run down. However, there is a way to allow such a charge and still win by using a hammer and anvil tactic as follows:
Move a sacrificial lamb (dark riders or small unit of spears) forward and have them hold against the charge. Ensure the lamb is aligned to redirect the lance overrun/pursuit onto a close (~6” away) PoK character or hydra with the result that the ensuing combat will be fought during your own next turn. By positioning a real hammer to hit the flank of the lance during your own turn’s charge phase (in such a location that a lance that chooses not to overrun is still going to be flanked), you will have simultaneous charges. Since druchii have higher initiative (except for grail knights, who are still beat by witch elves, black guard and cold one knights), the charging flanking unit will attack first and lay some serious hurt on the lance. Witch elves with the AP banner, execs buffed by +1 attack from the CoB are both excellent hammers on their own while the PoK character or hydra will surrender the fewest wounds to the charging lance’s surviving models but even a block of spears will suffice as the anvil if the hammer is hard enough. A cold one chariot can actually form a surprise anvil (most people expect it to be used as a hammer) as its weapon skill, toughness and armour save mean it can survive the charge (except from grail knights) or, at worst, give up only 4 wounds. The lance flank is huge and the hammer can be 9 infantry or 8 cavalry models wide to hit the three Bretonnian knights awaiting them.
Another variation of the hammer and anvil is to use a stubborn unit as the bait. Keep a BSB nearby and let the stubborn unit handle the first charge and then counter charge. This is more expensive than the lamb approach and the stubborn unit must be of a robust size to survive the initial charge, keeping in mind that a lance of 9 grail knights with 2 characters can dish out 21 x S6 and 9 x S3 attacks on the charge.
The last part of the combat is the victorious pursuit. After breaking the lance, you will be forced to pursue due to hatred. For this reason, you may need to block your own pursuit path with friendly troops to limit the pursuit to prevent your own troops from exposing a flank. In addition, the blocking troops will auto-destroy the lance when it flees through them, making the round up of new slaves all the easier!!!
TUNING A LIST & SPECIAL CHARACTERS
While it is generally best to be ready for any foe, there are times when you will be raiding Bretonnia directly and will not have to worry about any other foes. In these instances, you can tailor your own force to bring the most effective troops available. Simply decide on how you would best like to defeat the foe and choose your troops accordingly. Shades and harpies are must haves to assist in limiting mobility and redirecting charges or for taking out lines of peasant archers but after that depends entirely on personal preference. If you want missiles and magic, avoid blocks of infantry except for a large block of spears to provide extra power to the sacrificial dagger armed supreme sorceress. Want to go a combat route, a CoB and a BSB are must haves and the CoB can support elite, ASF infantry or hammer units such as cold one knights or hydras with the knights and hydras able to autobreak lances through outnumbering with a fear and/or terror causing opponent.
The Bretonnians have some special characters that may arise from time to time, especially in larger battles. The Green Knight is a terror causing, ethereal stalker who arrives on a random roll in any natural terrain piece or can move from one natural piece to another during the remaining moves phase once he is on the board. He is a significant threat to missile troops and RBTs both for the terror checks and lack of static combat resolution of these units. However, he suffers instability like undead if beat in combat and may return but suffers a penalty each time he is killed on his appearance roll. Apart from hoping your opponent rolls poorly to have the Green Knight appear, magical attacks or static combat resolution are the best approaches after ensuring that natural terrain pieces are located away from your deployment zone.
King Louen Leoncoeur arrives on a slightly improved hippodonkey, provides 18” leadership, has regeneration, is very good in challenges and allows multiple units of grail knights to be taken. If he is killed, the entire army checks for panic and any surviving units become stubborn but don’t let that stay your assassin’s hand when the opportunity arises J
The Fey Enchantress also allows extra grail knights to be taken and is inserted into the unit as it forms her bodyguard. While she can take any lore in the book, she is most effective with the lore of life. Her other great advantage is that the Lady’s Blessing comes for free, without praying, so the Bretonnian player will have a chance of going first. Both the Fey Enchantress and the King are very expensive and are unlikely to appear in anything less than a 3,000 point battle.
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