# Starting help. (Don't worry, I know what army I want)



## Calamari (Feb 13, 2009)

I was going to get started on a Fantasy army a while ago but I got side tracked by my shiney new 40k army 

Anway I have decided to go with Brettonians after looking at things around the forum and I was wondering what to get. I haven't got a clue on what is effective in this game and I know very little of the rules (I will be getting a rulebook soon hopefully lol).

I was thinking of getting two units of Knights of the Realm, two untis of Men at Arms and two units of Peasant Archers and some kind of lord type person. I would like to get this because it is basically two battleforce sets with 1 more character so will hopefully keep the cost down.

Firstly, how many points would this net me? (I haven't had a chance to sit with army book yet). Second, is this a good idea for a starting army? Thirdly where should I go from here?

I have no idea about equiping any of the units yet because I don't have the book yet


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## Erie Ed (Feb 21, 2009)

Grail Knights and Pegasus Knights are always solid


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## neilbatte (Jan 2, 2008)

The battalion boxed set is a fairly good place to start with Brettonians.
I don't reccommend getting to many men at arms to start with ( They have their uses but Brettonians are a cavalry force) At least get a few games in once you see the armybook and then decide on the infantry. 
The best thing I can recommend to help you build an army is to look through the exising army list section there are some good lists about and while you won't understand everything on the list without the book it will at least show you how some people get the ballance between foot and cavalry.


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## NagashKhemmler (Apr 28, 2009)

There are two ways you can approach brettonians, remember firstly you get an additional character, which is great I like to plan around 2000 points. It depends also what you like, brettonians can be competitive in many ways so it's possible to make many variants.

For a newer player, I would reccomend two solid units of men at arms for SCR (probably 2x20). I haven't found the bowmen for brettonians to be useful for my army, opting mostly for a pure combat army. On top of the men at arms, then throw in as much cavalry as you can, your biggest weakness really is magic, but I would probably just go for MR and 1-2 casters with some nice heroes to give you a real kick in melee combat. Get the MR in your important units and you should be 'ok' in the magic phase.

So in summary for 2000 points I'd probably have 2x men at arms, 2x knights of the realm, pegasus knights x2 even, cause i just love them that much, and as many special knights as you can cram in, with some tooled up heroes/lords.

I don't have my list/book where I am atm, but I would personally go for basically a pure knight force but in this case you need to use units for simultaneous charges, with your speed the enemy won't get off many spells, if he spams wizards your speed will ensure he gets 1-2 spells off, high armour means many spells bounce. Mostly I use this force, cause it looks so damn cool and is fun to play with! Has issues versus high elves though.


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

Problem with MaA, is that they're so shite (WS2 means that even state troops and goblins hit more often, and more accurate than you, and you hit elite units on 5's, which is bad odds, considering SCR is usually what is needed to beat them), they're not much use, especially as they're so slow.

Pegasus are nice units - good War Machine, and lone character hunters (typically mages, although even Dwarf slayers will fall under a charge of a Champion Pegasus Knight).

Archers, however, are quite good. They at least have BS3, and can have Stakes to protect them. Also, Trolls are a great weakness of your Knight units, and if you know you are fighting lots of them (Chaos Troll army), then Braziers are the way to go. With BS3, they're as accurate as Empire archers/hand gunners, and can thin some ranks, even 3 kills in a unit charged by a Knight Unit can remove a Rank bonus, and if small enough (Chaos Warriors and Saurus come to mind), can cause a Panic Check.

People say that when your Knights charge through, they become useless. To be honest, then the people who say that don't really know what they're on about - you won't ever be able to equal unit sizes/number of Knight units with even Chaos Warriors or Saurus and Monster heavy Lizards, as they are just that expensive (and rightly so, the Lance and the Lance Formation hits like a son of a bitch, 6 Knights in a lance formation give 6 Str 5 Attacks and a rank bonus with a Standard, you're looking at basic +2 Combat Resolution, and after a round of combat, 2-3 wounds and possibly outnumber, so your enemies down by 1 from a rank, and loses hit outnumber, hefty charge for 150ish points, although you'll want about 8-9 to make them more useful (what's that? +3 SCR Knights ohreally?)).

Get 2-3 units of Knight Cavalry as the core, and then a unit or two of Archers, 10 strong. Unfortunately, you only come with enough parts to make 16, so will need to scrounge to make some more. Add in a BSB and a Paladin, and you're set with a 1000 point army.


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## karlhunt (Mar 24, 2009)

I'm in the camp of don't bother with Men at arms, they suck in a fight! Pick up a few archers to encourage your enemy to come to you. You can also use them with their 30" range to pick at enemy units and soften them up for the knightly charge. As far as what to buy, I would get one batallion tops then get some good strong units like pegassi more KotR and an elite knight unit. If you really want some foot sloggers pick up the Grail Relique. I ignore magic for the most part and just charge in as fast as you can (and as Brets you can get there mighty quick). Try and make it a point to charge the units that can actually hurt you over time first. If they have a Mettal Wizard you will have some problems until you kill him so charge his unit first. Lore of beasts could be a problem too. Use your Pegassi to kill off warmachines in the order of Bolt Throwers, Cannons, Volly/organ Guns, everything else. Remember to use the blessing of the lady and try to give your genral's unit a ward vs missiles when going against anyone with strong, rank penetrating, war machines. Asside from that you can do very well by concentrating your force at one point then moving on to the rest of the enemy army. Try not to ever charge a single unit of knights into anything with SCR, two units work fine though. Remember, lance formation is your friend. It will allow up to three units of knights to charge into a single block of enemy troops. That quickly puts SCR on your side. Use it!


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## Calamari (Feb 13, 2009)

Ok then I won't bother getting two Battalions if Men at Arms realy do suck lol. I'll get one battalion, one box of archers, two more boxes of KotR and a Paladin and a BSB. Does that sound good?

Thanks for the tactics help everyone


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## HorusReborn (Nov 19, 2008)

umm yeah men at arms suck.. buuuutttt they are highly useful. People forget this game is a strategy game and the MaA can be used to tie up the units so you can open up the charges for your knights. They are fodder for the Lady man, and are very useful despite their weak stats! Get the battalions, don't tool up your MaA and set your knights up for the charge. You can use the MaA to A) tie up the enemy units, or to set up a flank charge for your knights to hit the enemy in the flanks and wipe everything out. Would suck if your knights couldn't get the charge off, I see it all the time!


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## torealis (Dec 27, 2006)

Men at Arms are too slow to tie up units, they always end up at least 2 turns behind the knights. With brets, you can't go wrong with lots of knights and a turn 2 charge.


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## Franko1111 (Jun 25, 2008)

I just want to say that you should get the battle force and play one or two small games and make your mind up after that after all no one can tell you how to play its something that has to be learnt:gamer2:

and I love MaA by the way and they alway have me think when I play them (after all if you get bloodletters locked in combat you will get SCR and win big time and they won't be caving up your Knightsk


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