Hey all,
Dave and I played a 2k game last night, ('dry') undead vs. Bretonia (the trial list). I don't actually own the models for the latter, so I used proxies. As a general description of the army selections: Dave took 4 skeleton cav and 2 chariots, skull chukkers and bone throwers, one bone giant, and tons (tonnes for you eastern hemisphere types, right?
) of skeletons and bowmen. He had a breakpoint of 13 IIRC. I took 4 units of knights, 2 units of grail knights, 2 squires, a trebuchet, 3 peasants (one being grail pilgrims), then a bunch of men-at-arms and bowmen. My breakpoint was 3.
As for a quick batrep: I deployed with my expendable units supporting my trebuchet in a long line, the squires on the left and the knights in two brigades on the right. Dave's deployment opposite was similar, although his cavalry/chariots were concentrated. The first few turns my command was mediocre at best, while the undead moved quite well, forming a very pretty line. As my knights were hidden behind my line, Dave had to go through the underlings first. We traded a few charges along the lines, the bretonians winning their fair share, but coming out slightly worse as I had fewer units. Meanwhile, my general was able to move the knight brigades from the right to the left flank. Once they met up with the squires on Dave's right flank, they were positioned for a final desperate charge. The grail knights did nothing, being first depleted by skull chukker fire, then doomed and despaired. They were in a perfect position to counter-attack the undead that had finished wiping out my center, but just sat there b/c of the spells cast on them. But back to the last desperate charge: Two units of knights and the squires (the only cav not doomed/despaired) charged via initiative and orders to contact a lot of weak units (bowmen, skeletons, bone throwers) in the flank, wiping out 4-5 units; then, my last units of men-at-arms and bowmen charged his center brigade, knocking out two more. Despite wiping out most of my army, the undead reached breakpoint first, and I won. We both agreed that had the undead been facing a 'normal' army, the battle would have been over long ago, in favor of the undead.
Although this was Dave's first battle with the undead, as far as I could tell he did everything right: command rolls went well, keeping the army concentrated, liberal use of doom and despair (grrrr...), getting skull chukker shots on my knights, etc. He even zapped my trebuchet with a deathbolt spell that drove the thing back by >10cm and killing it (double grrrr!), as well as killing a unit of knights with a combination of the same spell, skull chukkers, and bone throwers. My strategy was simply to keep the supporting units between my knights and the enemy, and charge when the time was right. As well as he was moving his army, he still couldn't get around the underlings fast enough to get to the true objective: my knights. Even though it felt like I was losing most of the battle, the final charge worked.
So, my question to the forum is this: how do you beat Bretonia, given that you most likely have to fight through unit after unit of troops (in this case over 1k's worth) that don't count towards breakpoint? We played on a standard-sized board (about 6'x4' I think), so unless the bretonian player obliges his adversary by exposing his knights, it is probably exceedingly difficult to completely ignore the rest of the army to get at the knights. I have always read online that bretonia is a tricky army to use, but this strategy seems pretty tough to beat, given that the generalship was equal in this battle and that the command and magic edge definitely went to the undead for much of the game. If it works when command was not going well for the Bretonians, how hard are they to beat when their command roles work well? Ironically, the various supporting units in the bretonian army are worth less to their general than the reanimated corpses of the undead army, because they don't count towards breakpoint (everyone knows this, but I just think its funny). I should state for clarity that in general my command rolls were mediocre, but when it counted (e.g. moving the knights the entire length of the board over three turns) it was good. Its a rare battle indeed when an army has bad command rolls the entire game.
Dave, feel free to chime in with important details I might have missed.
