In this era of weakened cavalry Bretonnia really seems to have received the cold shoulder from GW, if not the shaft in general. However, what really allows the Lords and Paladins of Bretonnia to be such a formidable force in my opinion are the knightly virtues and variety of unique items that they have in their army book. So as a Bretonnian player, I thought it only fair to list the ones that I think are the most effective on the battlefield. Note that this with the 2003 army book, and when the newest Bretonnian army book does come out, I will be doing a similar list but with the new book. So, without further ado, let's take a look at the virtues that seem to help tip the balance of the scales ever so slightly in the favor of Bretonnia.
#5: Virtue of Noble Disdain
For 20 points, the Knight has Hatred for all enemies with ranged weapons, this includes war machine crews. Additionally, the unit that the knight is in never take Panic tests if 25% or more of the unit is killed off by shooting, magic, etc. (basically everything not close combat related). One of my favorite ways to deal with artillery is to put a Paladin (you can use a Lord if you want to remove the 0-1 unit restriction on Pegasus Knights but I always run with the Paladin) on a Royal Pegasus with this virtue in a group of Pegasus Knights. I don't care if it's Chaos Dwarves I'm dealing with, this unit combination will tear through anything that has the potential to shoot at me. The key to making this work though is to take the attention away from this group. The need to avoid enemy chaff and unwanted magical attention is the key to making this strategy work. Whenever I take my Bretonnians to a tournament, this is a Paladin build I almost always take due to the presence of large amounts of Empire and Dwarf players. Even Ogre Ironblasters fall before this build. If you're having a problem dealing with artillery in general as a Bretonnian, then this is a solution that might work for you. There are two things that absolutely must happen for you to make this work. First, you need to make sure your enemy is not very familiar with Bretonnians. Players who come into contact with them a lot know that the Bretonnian Paladins and Lords are most certainly to be feared. Second, you need something to take the pressure off of this unit. A decoy unit so to speak. Mounted Yeoman work relatively well for this, but lone character are even better. Especially ones with little more than their base armor and Blessing of the Lady attached to it. Counter their chaff, blow it to pieces, get their artillery and magic users attention away from them, I don't care. If you want a sure fire way to blow through artillery, then those are some things that might help you do so.
#4: Virtue of the Impetuous Knight
For 35 points, the knight and any mounted unit he is in add +D6 for the first charge that they declare. If the charge is failed, they do not receive the extra +D6 to their failed charge movement. It's generally a good rule never to put characters in a unit of Errant Knights. However, this is the one exception in my humble opinion. The key to Errant Knights is to get them into a combat you know that you will loose. Think if this lance as a kamikaze pilot of sorts. You want to keep it as under costed as is physically possible. Pay the points for the Paladin (never a Lord for this one), the lance for the Paladin, this virtue, and as many Errant Knights as you deem prudent for the situation. However, there is one caveat to this combination. They absolutely must have the Errantry Banner. This lance has one primary purposes, seek and if that's not possible then die trying to hold the enemy back as long as is possible. What you will have is a unit that can charge a potential of 26" with 10-12 (for ranks of 3-4 deep respectively) S6 attacks, not including the attacks made by the horses. Even units with heavy armor and shields (infantry) will get no save and the unit is ITP when it charges. I have used this tactic to destroy a bunker of 23 Chaos Warriors and their BSB. I killed 10 of them, they swung back nailed me for 4, I won combat, I broke them, ran them down, and it was so very beautiful. I've used it to also slow down a horde of Hammerers long enough for me to get a few more Trebuchet shots on them before beating them down with another lance. It's really great at dealing with lone monsters. If you need a Cygor or a Hell Pit Abomination taken out, this is a great way to do it. Again, I cannot stress enough that you must keep this unit as cheap as is physically possible. If this virtue remains untouched and GW follows their usual habits, then this tactic will become more cost efficient then ever before. However, I probably shouldn't have said that, and if there are any GW executives reading this, forget what I just said. I command you!
#3: Virtue of Stoicism
For 35 points, the knight and the unit he is in may re-roll failed break tests. For 35 points, you get a unit-sized version of a BSB. Do I even need to say how awesome that is?! I mean, that's almost as cool as a Slann being both a BSB and a General. And there's no restrictions on how many times this can be done, you can effectively tie up a horde simply by making re-rolls. Combined this with Bretonnia's army wide Ward Save and high Armor Saves, and you get a unit that's just as capable of tar-pitting as a host of Undead units. While it's not the most blatantly powerful virtue, it is a very useful one, especially if you want a lance designated for operating outside of the reach of your normal BSB. For example, a lance designated for going after fast cavalry and getting into combats where they will be unsupported. That being said, do not take this on the unit you want to make your BSB. I wouldn't suggest this on a Lord that's capable of being your General, but on a normal Lord or Paladin I think it works just dandy. It's also very utilitarian, making it useful in almost every army build and almost every situation. Great virtue to have, never gone wrong with it before, it's relatively well costed, I see no down sides to it, and that alone makes it very good for an army that seems to be dependent on getting into combat.
#2: Virtue of Duty
Before we go any further, I would like to clarify that I didn't put this virtue on here because it's the same as my last name. Although that doesn't hurt it either! For 30 points, your Paladin or Lord (cannot be taken by the army's General) adds +1 combat resolution to whatever fight(s) he takes part in. If you thought that the Orc Warboss ability to call a Waghh! was awesome, then you have no idea how powerful this virtue is. This virtue helps mitigate one of the biggest weakness that the Bretonnian army has. Generating static combat resolution. Turns on which we charge into combat, we are an army to be feared. However, the following turns we become little more than paper tigers. Being at -2S is not good. Hitting at anything below S4 is never good! Thus, Bretonnian knights run into the problems when we cannot break the enemy on the turn in which we charge. Even then, because of our superior defensive abilities, we can remain on the board even after charging, we simply cannot hit back for very much. This means the combat resolution tends to be very slight after the turn that we charged on. Thus, having an automatic +1 is so very useful. Opinions on who to give this virtue are varied. Some players like to hand it over to their BSB, others just like to kit out an extra Paladin or Lord and call it good. Either way, you cannot really go wrong in my opinion. If we were an army with a new book, I would think this is kinda cheesy. However, since our list of disadvantages never seems to end, I think all's fair in love and espeically warhammer! I made a pun!
#1: Virtue of Heroism
I know, I know, it's the copout of all copouts, but can you really blame me? I mean, what else in the game is really capable of dealing out this kind of power? For 40 points, you get the Heroic Killing Blow special rule. Not familiar with the rule? Allow me to explain with so much affection. Killing Blow is a rule that automatically wounds on a roll of 6. No armor saves may be taken against these attacks or pretty much any other kind of save with the exception of a ward save. This rule does not work on monsters or multi-wound models. Heroic Killing Blow removes the last two restrictions. That's right, this ability can one-shot anything in the game. Steam Tanks die from a single 6 rolled by knights with this rule. Deamon Princes are sent back into the Chaos Realm without making a single action because of this rule. If your General does not have this virtue, or at the very least another Lord (putting it on a Paladin is a ridiculous waste) you have made a mistake. If you make a list that does not include this virtue, you have made a mistake. Make your list again, and then come back. People often speak as a warhammer army being a bag of tools. Sometimes you need hammers, sometimes you need corkscrews. This is not even in that same realm. This, this is a goddamned nuclear missile to be launched at whatever you absolutely positively must kill. I don't care if you bring Nagash, an HKB Lord is like the end all equation. It doesn't really matter what he hits, he will, luck and dice providing, kill whatever he fights. If this virtue does not make into the next book in the exact same form as this one, GW had better have a good mother fucking reason why! We'd better have a minimum Strength and Toughness value 5, on our goddamned peasants before this rule can be allowed to go away! When/if it does, I will cry. I will cry long and hard, and I will never truly recover.
So that's the Top 5 Knightly Virtues in my personal opinion, and if you don't like them, then make a youtube channel or your own blog and then write your own list up. Either way, I couldn't care less. If you really like this list and would like to see more Bretonnian related posts on the blog then please comment below. If you'd like to see something else, then comment too, I really need feedback to determine the future course of this blog.
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