Bringing Bretonnia Into the Future Part 5

Now we get into the Special section of the Bretonnian book, and boy are we in need of a serious overhaul. Whereas the Hero and Lord section just need to be a little more filled out and the Core section needs only a slight overhaul, this is the section that needs not only an overhaul and a filling out, but also reductions, modifications, and some serious retooling. First, let's start with the Questing Knights. These guys are rocking an impressive stat line of WS4, S4, T3, I4, and 1 attack. They're kitted out with heavy armor, a shield, and mounted on barded warhorses, meaning they have an armor save of 3+ in close combat and 2+ for shooting and they're armed with a great weapon. Meaning they hit ASL and are hitting at S5. These guys, just these guys. First off, they have a serious problem with being at the price that they are. 28 points a guy plus upgrades means that you are going to being spending a fuck-ton of points in this section on a unit that to be honest will not be worth the amount you spend. First off, I really think that these guys should have the ability to be unmounted for a much reduced price. It would be an interesting tactical option and I would like to seem some heavy infantry in this army in the future. Second, these guys are honestly an answer looking for a question. With so many things at ASF in the game right now, things with ASL, even hitting at a high Strength, will not be able to survive the grinding that they will go through. They also need more attacks, I think two attacks (three for the Paragon) would make up for the turn placement of the combat. Maybe finding a way to make them hit at their base I would be nice too. I mean, it's the problem I have with my Saurus Cold One Riders. They charge in, and then they have to wait and let the people you just charged into hit first and wipe you out. All in all, these guys need a severe overhauling to make them a possible option instead of the unit you almost never see but always hear off like they are now. Next up we have the Pegasus Knights and you better bet your ass that I want these guys re-tooled. So first off, they have this horribly inconvenient caveat regarding how many of them can be fielded on the field. Normally, you are only allowed to field a single unit of 3-10, but normally you'll see 3 or 4 at most. Unless you take a Knight Lord on a Pegasus, then you can only have one unit on the board. Period. However, if you do pay this tax, you can remove this restriction. If you ever watch Anthony from the Sustainable Center's Bretonnian battle reports, you'll notice he takes a lone Lord (nicknamed Lord Flappy-Bird) on a Pegasus specifically to unlock the best chaff in the army currently. They're 55 points a model with the stat line of a Knight of the Realm. They need to be cheaper and I really don't think you should need to include full command upgrades, unless you give us the option to put them in Lance Formation. That would be badass! And of course the restriction thing needs to absolutely go away. Okay, now we go onto what is one of my favorite units in this army, the Grail Reliquae with the Battle Pilgrims. For 118 points, you get a model with Hatred and Stubborn. The 6 Pilgrims that come with it have the same stat line as a Man-At-Arms, but with re-rolls and always using their base Leadership of 8. The Reliquae itself is identical to the Pilgrim's in terms of stats barring it has 6 wounds and 4 attacks. What's also really cool, is that the group (even though they have the Peasant's Duty) benefits from having the Blessing of the Lady. However, the one bad thing about this is that there's also a caveat to this unit that really chaps my ass a whole lot. In order to field this unit, you must have a model with the Grail Vow. This means either taking a character with the Grail Vow or a bus of Grail Knights. Considering I'm not a big fan of doing either of these, I've slowly had to adapt to this restriction in order to field the one sticky infantry unit in all of the army. So, this model needs a new model, because the old one is hideous, expensive, and uber-rare right now. Second, the restriction while unfair, I would not bitch too much if it stayed. Third, I think I would like to see this in the Rare section of the book. Considering you can only take one of them per army, I really think that they should have some level of synergy with their Grail Knight counterparts. BTW, putting a Grail Knight Paladin with the Empathy Vow in the unit kitted out with a badass weapon, totally fun build. The points to add Pilgrims needs to decrease, the Pilgrims need higher WS, and this thing needs a new kit. Also, in my opinion, it needs to be relocated to the Rare section in the next codex. Finally, we get to the Mounted Yeomen, probably the most utilitarian chaff in the book next to Pegasus Knights. For 15 points a model, you get a mounted peasant with a slightly higher stat line then the usual peasant troops. They're armed with spears and bows, but can be upgraded to have shields and/or light armor. However, you will almost never see these upgrades, especially since the latter upgrade takes away the Fast Cavalry rule. First off, these guys are fine as it it, just need to be relocated to the Core section. Almost every other book has chaff in their core sections, why not Bretonnia? So, now that we finished up with what's in the book right now let's take a look at what we might like to see in the new codex. First off, we need a monster cav unit. Something like Demigryph Knights (cough Hippogryph Knights cough) would probably be best. Next, we need some elite infnatry in this section. Whether it's Questing Knights on foot or something else, we need it badly in this meta of Warhammer. Next, we need some kind of unique unit to Bretonnia. Something only we have that no other army has. This can be a variety of things, but I'm thinking maybe some fey creatures that we can field (maybe with Ethereal Special Rule?) or some fey knights perhaps? Either way, having only four units in a Special section is just laughable. Now, because I haven't put one of these out in a while, I felt it only fair to include the Rare section of the book as well. So, the first of two units in our Rare section, the Grail Knights. They're a very solid choice because they're very armored up, have the ward save, magical attacks, ITP, and they have S4, with which a lance is really really nice. However, they're T3 and are 38 points a pop. Way too expensive for what they currently do, but they're almost a must-have because they can just chew through units like nothing else. At least that's what I've found. Plus they make a great Death Star because they can all act as a unit champion, keeping your HKB lord safe from annoying and potentially dangerous challenges. They need to stay because they are very much iconic, but they need to be dropped in price and made into a conversion kit with Questing Knights. Finally, we have the Trebuchets, who need to stay as they are because they are awesome! I'm serious, if I had to pick three things that I absolutely wanted to stay, it would be the following in this order exactly. The Lance Formation, the Virtue of Heroism, and the Trebuchet. It is, in my opinion the second best artillery piece for their cost, beaten only by the ridiculously powerful Skaven War Lightning Cannons (watch SkavenAZ's channel to learn about how disgustingly powerful that and the rest of the stuff in the Skaven codex is). It needs a conversion piece and a new model as well, because seeing a gigantic bolt-thrower in this army would be really, really nice. Think basically a gigantic crossbow, bigger than the other stuff in the game. So that finishes up the units, and next part will be dealing with the Virtues and the Virtues alone, items will be the final post in the series. Until next time, stay strong Bretonnian players, stay strong.