Hey guys,
I played a game using the Grand Army of Bretonnia yesterday, and I have to say that I really enjoyed the way it played. Very different from the 6th edition Bretonnians in some respects, and certainly much more offensively oriented. Not having the Blessing (or in this case, the Lady's Boon) in melee hurt a bit, but even without it the knights aren't exactly frail. I was expecting to have to lean on spells from the Lore of Life to compensate for the lack of a ward save in melee, but my opponent had very strong magic defense (Dwarfs with an Anvil of Doom, so he commonly had more dispel dice than I had power dice), and I never rolled more than six or seven for my magic dice, so I only managed to get three or four spells off the entire game. Nevertheless that 2+ armour save still goes a long way. The impact hits are a strong remedy against rubber lancing, and even with average rolling (the highest I rolled for the impact hits was an '8'), increase considerably the offensive impact of a knightly charge. For kicks and giggles I ran Louen Leoncoeur and the Green Knight in the same game, which is probably not optimal, but even so, I was very pleased with how they performed - especially Louen, who manages to be a total beast even without a ward save in melee - much superior to his 6th edition incarnation. The Green Knight was also better than I expected. As with any ambushers, it's a bit of a toss up when he's going to make his appearance, but when he does he's well worth his 350 point price tag, in my opinion. As a final note, I was skeptical of losing the ability to place one's wizards out of harm's way in the centre of a lance formation, but the Protect the Dame! special rule ended up being sufficient, at least for this game.
Overall, I found that the army functioned well, and the knights themselves are able to run independently of character support, and don't need to resort to multi-charging to the same extent, which is just as well, because the units of knights are too thick to easily do so anyway. Also, please forgive the lack of painted models, our gaming group has only relatively recently started playing Warhammer Fantasy and I was originally playing Tomb Kings. I should also point out that my opponent suffered from consistently atrocious luck throughout the battle (and was very gracious about it), so the outcome of the battle has more to do with that than any skill on my part.
Anyway, the lists...
Lords
King Louen Leoncoeur - 505 points (Army General)
Matron of the Lady
+Level 4 Wizard
+Barded Bretonnian Warhorse
Magic Items:
+Earthing Rod
+Seed of Rebirth
Total: 256 points
Lore: Lore of Life
Spells:
1. Earthblood
2. Throne of Vines
3. Regrowth
4. The Dwellers Below
Heroes
Paladin
+Barded Bretonnian Warhorse
+Shield
+Lance
Magic Standard:
+The Standard of the King
Total: 165 points
Damsel of the Lady
+Level 2 Wizard
+Barded Bretonnian Warhorse
Magic Items:
+Dispel Scroll
Total: 139 points
Lore: Lore of Life
Spells:
1. Earthblood
2. Flesh to Stone
Core
Knights of the Realm
+18 Knights of the Realm
+Musician
+Standard Bearer
~Magic Standard: Lichebone Pennant
+Champion (Gallant Knight)
Total: 490 points
Errantry Knights
+16 Errantry Knights
+Musician
+Standard Bearer
+Champion (Cavalier)
Total: 345 points
Special (the Grail Knights are in the special section because of Louen Leoncoeur's 'All the King's Men' special rule)
Grail Knights
+8 Grail Knights
+Musician
+Standard Bearer
~ Magic Standard: The Standard of Shielding
Total: 510 points
Rare
Trebuchet - 120 points
Trebuchet - 120 points
The Green Knight - 350 points
The Dwarfs' list was, approximately -
Runelord with an Anvil of Doom
Grim Burloksson
Thane BSB with three Runes of Slowness
60 Thunderers with shields in a unit with Grim and the BSB
Cannon with the Rune of Immolation and a rune to re-roll misfires
20 Hammerers with a rune of some sort that gives them 2 extra static combat resolution
20 Ironbreakers with the stubborn rune
2 units of 20 Miners with steam drills on the champion
Our group has a few house rules before we start up. First of all, we use a mixture of the mundane terrain table from the 6th edition rule book, and the magic terrain of 8th edition, and we have one of the other members of the gaming group who is not playing in any given game set up the table. Secondly, if models with Terror are involved in a close combat (unless they are slain before combat is resolved), Steadfast and Stubborn enemy units take half the leadership penalty for lost combat rounding down (ie. a combat lost by 5 would produce a leadership penalty of 2, a combat lost by 6 a leadership penalty of 3 etc.). Thirdly, forests and certain other large terrain pieces block line of sight altogether regardless of true line of sight.
Turn 1
A river splits the field in half. With Bretonnia I'm very used to having more drops than my opponent (very useful for trying to counter-deploy), whereas this time I didn't, so I clumped up on one side of the river, trusting that the speed of my cavalry would allow me to redeploy if needs be. The KotR with the Damsel are on the far right side beside King Louen, the Grails in the centre with the BSB, the Errants on the far left with the Matron. My opponent deploys the massed Thunderers on his far right with Grim Burloksson and the BSB, the Hammerers in the centre and the Ironbreakers on his left flank. I have the good fortune of going first.
After moving forward at full gallop, I six diced the overcast version of The Dwellers Below on the big Thunderer unit, got a miscast/irresistible force, and killed 24 of the 60 models, although none of the characters were slain. My wizards suffer magical feedback, and both take a wound. One Trebuchet did work against the Hammerers as well, with some tremendously lucky shooting, but the other misfired and couldn't shoot in turn 2 either. Louen Leoncoeur hid from my opponent's cannon behind a forest alongside the Knights of the Realm. The Dwarfs shoot at me, but are hindered by firing at long range, and so do not accomplish much.
Turn 2
The Green Knight does not deign to appear this turn. The Grail Knights charge into the depleted Hammerer unit and lance them to a man (er...Dwarf). Then the Grails reform to charge the Ironbreakers from the flank the following turn. Louen Leoncoeur flies over the forest and positions himself to flank the Ironbreakers from the other side. The KotR move into the forest to position themselves for a frontal charge against the Ironbreakers in the following turn, losing three knights to dangerous terrain. On the other side of the river, the Errants attempt to charge, but fail because of the Dwarfs' Runes of Slowness on the BSB. They continue to be raked by missile fire, but between long range and cover from the hill the Dwarfs are only hitting on 6's and most of the knights weather the hail of shot. My opponent's Miners arrive and are deployed to reinforce his left flank.
Turn 3
The Green Knight arrives on the field, emerging from the rocks my opponent had used to anchor his flank! The triple charge against the Ironbreakers is successful, and as they lack their 5+ parry save against attacks coming in from the flanks, they are all slain. I reform my Grails and King Louen to receive the inevitable charge from the Dwarven Miners. If they can survive the fury of the Dwarven charge, with the Miners being strength 6 and their unit champion strength 7(!) they will likely be saved by the supernatural intervention of the Green Knight. If the Grail Knights or Louen Leoncoeur fold, the Miners could overrun into the flank of the Knights of the Realm, although I do my best to position the KotR in such a way that if my opponent will have to wheel a bit on the charge to jimmy the Miners into position to overrun into the KotR. I'm sweating at this point, especially because neither unit will have a ward save in the ensuing melee. On my opponent's third turn, the Miners successfully charge. King Louen and Beaquis sustain three or four wounds, but give as good as they get and manage to break the Miners and run them down. To my surprise, only two Grail Knights fall to the Dwarven mattocks thanks to some outrageously good rolling for armour saves. Even so, that amounts to a total of four unsaved wounds, and they lose the combat quite badly with the Dwarfs' static combat res. They're reduced to leadership 5 even with King Louen's Inspiring Presence, but unbelievably, the BSB's re-roll saves them, and I roll a 4 on my second attempt! Non nobis Domina!
On the other side of the river, the Knights Errant finally successfully charge the Thunderers, but lose several knights to the Dwarfs' stand and shoot. I do manage to cast Regrowth, however, reinforcing the unit with two knights, so the Errants will receive their full 2d6 impact hits, having exactly two ranks of six models as the combat begins. They do work, but the Dwarfs are numerous, and Grim Burloksson is putting out three strength 6 attacks per turn. The Errants win combat, but the Thunderers hold, and the Errants' ranks are thinning.
Turn 4
The Green Knight thunders into the flank of the Miners who are fighting the Grails. King Louen positions himself to charge the Dwarven cannon or Anvil of Doom the following turn (the remaining Dwarfs were all outside of his front arc). The KotR attempt to relieve the Errants, but fail their charge because of the Runes of Slowness, stumbling forward six inches. My opponent prevents me from casting Earthblood on my battered Errants. The Trebuchets attempt to shoot the Dwarfs' cannon, which looks to be aimed at King Louen, but one scatters off target and the other misfires (again, getting exactly the same result as the first misfire). One of the crewmen beats the uncooperative Trebuchet with his stick - the peasant equivalent of tech support.
The Grails and the Green Knight manage to beat the Miners handily, and the Green Knight runs down the unit. The Grail Knights reform to ford the river, and assault the Dwarfs who yet remain upon the field. The Errants fare exceedingly poorly in this combat, and are reduced to a mere five knights plus the Matron. However, the Lady is yet with us, and the flower of Bretonnian chivalry passes another break test on leadership 5, this time without the aid of the BSB, since I roll a 3 and 1 on my 2d6. I do realize that I've made a rather serious error, however, because my opponent's cannon will be able to shoot through the Green knight on his turn and hit King Louen as well...
Not surprisingly my opponent avails himself of this opportunity. The cannon hits both the Green Knight and Louen Leoncoeur, but my poor opponent rolls a 1 to wound the Green Knight, so he survives wholly unscathed, and King Louen fails his ward save, but narrowly escapes the jaws of death with one wound remaining.
Turn 5
The Knights of the Realm successfully charge the flank of the Thunderers, despite the Runes of Slowness, although one knight drowns (dangerous terrain) as the unit fords the river. The Green Knight fails his charge against the Anvil of Doom, but the Grail Knights don't, and gallop full tilt across the river, although at the expense of one of their number being wounded. King Louen charges the Dwarfs' cannon, offended by the presence of dishonourable gunpowder artillery, no less because its iron shot was directed against his own majestic person.
The King of Bretonnia and Beaquis cut the cannon's crew to ribbons in the ensuing melee, but alas, the treacherous Dwarfs strike the Rune of Immolation, and the cannon explodes in a fiery conflagration. Louen Leoncoeur fails his armour save and is slain along with Beaquis in the inescapable inferno. The Grail Knights impact with the Anvil of Doom and inflict three wounds with their lances, sustaining two in return. The Errants are almost slain to a man, so that only the unit champion remains, protecting the Matron of the Lady to the last. However, the charging KotR arrive just in time, driving the Thunderers from the field with impact hits and lances, although they escape the pursuit of the irate and bloodied Errant champion. At this point we call the game, and the forces of Bretonnia have the victory!