# Doing 14th-century English style Bretonnians, what to take and how to make?



## The Sullen One (Nov 9, 2008)

Thinking over the people playing Warhammer in my local Games Workshop, I realised that I've never seen anyone playing Bretonnians, who just happen to be my favourite Warhammer army.

Now one of my new year's resolutions, gaming-wise, was to start playing Warhammer, and I've had a great idea for a 14-century English style Bretonnian army. By this I mean that I want my knights to look a bit more late medieval than the current Bretonnian models, more variety with helmets and the like.

Beyond that I'd like to include some merchant cavalry (counting as Knights errant) to add some character and variety to the army. I'm thinking of using Empire Knight parts for these units.

The exception to this will be the Grail Knights, who I want to look visibly older than the rest of the army.

Another unit I want to add is some pavise crossbowmen (peasent bowmen with crossbows), which I'm thinking will be Men-at-arms with arms and crossbows from the Empire crossbowmen/gunner models.

Beyond this and the style I'm going for, my army will be fairly standard with all the usual features, lots of knights, with smaller numbers of infantry.

What I'm looking for is suggestions as to how I can bring these ideas to fruition, and what I should include in my army to make it fairly competitive.


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## Stella Cadente (Dec 25, 2006)

why not use 28mm medieval models?, easier really.
http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/medieval.asp
http://shop.warlordgames.co.uk/perry-miniatures-220-c.asp


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## The Sullen One (Nov 9, 2008)

Thanks for that Stella, the perry minatures in particular look great, and I'll use some of them if I can. However since the only players I know of play at my local Games Workshop, and since there's such a broad spectrum in terms of races played, I want to use as much Games Workshop models as I can.


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## maddermax (May 12, 2008)

That foundry stuff looks pretty good, you might be able to find some things that work well. Just be sure to check the scale before you buy it though, as even 28mm models have a lot of variations (GW uses 28mm "Heroic" as you know, which makes it hard to match). Some of their Early 100 years war stuff it pretty awesome....



The Sullen One said:


> Thinking over the people playing Warhammer in my local Games Workshop, I realised that I've never seen anyone playing Bretonnians, who just happen to be my favourite Warhammer army.
> 
> Now one of my new year's resolutions, gaming-wise, was to start playing Warhammer, and I've had a great idea for a 14-century English style Bretonnian army. By this I mean that I want my knights to look a bit more late medieval than the current Bretonnian models, more variety with helmets and the like.
> 
> ...


It sounds like a good idea, though most of what would make it a good 14th centuary force would be in the painting. Good hereldry is bloody hard to do, especially when you have to do it differently for each knight. Good luck with that, I might suggest checking out some of the heraldry of English kings and dukes, it might give you some ideas.


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## Alexious (Apr 13, 2009)

Hi Sullen,

Like your idea... however and I don't have a text handy... from memory the most notable battles of 14th century English forces were the other way around... with more foot than horse.

The one quote though which does stick in my head from the period... about Crecy was

Welsh and Irish infantrymen, carrying spears and knives, made up a disorderly mob of little use during battle, being mainly concerned with ransacking the countryside and murdering the inhabitants or pillaging the battlefield.

I always had the image in my head of some drunken irishman or welshman screaming hey frenchie can ya mother use a needle and thread? Then get er to stitch this one ya cheese eating surrender monkey...while gutting said french peasant with a large blade.

No offence to the french, irish or welsh intended by means of this post. 

Dont forget your longbows.... the 14th century is nothing without the bow and its rise to dominance. 

Lex.

P.S. I am quite fond of the Irish, Welsh... not so much the French..


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## The Sullen One (Nov 9, 2008)

Indeed the Hundred Years War did see the English make a transistion from mounted to foot, to the point where at Agincourt even Henry V fought on foot.

This is way I said English-style in the title. One of the things I've never understood about Warhammer is the lack of a playable English-type nation. After all you've got the Germanic Empire, the Franco-Arthurian Bretonnians, and even a sort of scandanavia in the form of the Norse.

Therefore I want to do an English looking army, and the best candidate for this is Bretonnia, well that and they're not as poncy as the Empire. So while my force will include standard archers in reflection of the historical importance of Longbows, it will also feature lots of cavalry as its a Bretonnian army.

The Pavise Crossbowmen on the other hand are there because I have a bit of a thing about crossbows.


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## maddermax (May 12, 2008)

Ah, if only longbows were actually up to scratch in game terms...

Just had a thought, What about making your militia cavalry using men-at-arms parts? A few of the arms, a few head swaps. You could possibly even have them with their square shields, though they'll probably be too bulky... Anyway, using peasant bits would make them look somewhat more Militia like.


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## Stella Cadente (Dec 25, 2006)

ahh if its primarily GW only you could try and get hold of some of the old Metal bretonian infantry, they looked exactly like english infantry back in the day, and the cavalry had a more fictional English look used on allot of artwork back then.

although if you just smooth down the current helmets and get rid of the mounted helmet icon figure head thingys, that might look better already


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## torealis (Dec 27, 2006)

Stella's right, check out the old men at arms with polearms and spears, they looked awesome.


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