Bretonnia is my #1 opponent, I have been playing against my friend with them for several years. And out of how ever many games we've played, lets just say its a perfectly round and even 100...He has only won maybe 5 games...probably gotten a draw on another 10...
He isn't the best player in the world, but he is no idiot either. Brets have the charge, but lizardmen have ALL the tools to handle them. What makes brets tough is the lance formation, and armor saves. The lance gives them rank bonus even though they are only 3 wide, and lets a unit of 9 (3x3) get a total of 8 attacks (they get free champs so they always have them) as the flanks of the unit can attack on the charge along with model in contact. That and being 3 wide limits the effectiveness of normal hammer units, a 6 wide cavalry hammer unit can only get 5 into contact making one guy unable to even help...
The weakness, the lance formation is only powerful on the charge, and having 150mm wide flanks give you juicy targets to easily negate ranks. The instant win against them, Re-ridrectors...Field 3 units of 10 skink skirmishers and 2 units of ranked skinks and every knight unit he has will never hit your blocks on the head. They will be redirected to an angle, and expose a flank...
As for armor, we have the tools!! EoTG ignores armor saves, Magic (not just slann, but uranon's thunderbolt, and rod of storms can help), Burning Blade of Chotec, Anything Str 5 + gives you a good chance of getting through armor. What makes the armor not that helpful is even though its hard to kill them, when not on the charge most of his knights are strength 3, toughness 3, and if you negate ranks, or charge them first, they don't hold up in combat....
Using theory-hammer and math-hammer there is no way lizardmen could EVER lose to bretonnia (other then luck, since it is a dice game). The bretonnian player has to play very smartly to get an advantage...
Some easy tricks without a slann for bretonnia are;
Engine of the Gods with Skink Escorts - Burning alignment, skinks to redirect, perfect combo. The only thing you need to be careful of is pegasus knights.
Engine of the Gods with Wardrums of Xahutec - Same idea as above except rather then redirect you march out of charge arcs, inbetween units, behind enemy lines, and just keep pulsing. As he looses those expensive grail knights, rank bonus, etc. He'll start focusing on the Engine, and let your other units control him, and get the charge. (slightly better combo then a simply skink escort)
5 Cold One Riders with Scar-Vet and Burning Blade of Chotec - This unit can hit hard enough at str 5 to do some dmg, plus the burning blade is nothing but win on knights. Use re-directors or charge the unit with skinks/terradons to hold them, then combo charge with these guys. For a nice surprise use Huanchi's Blessed totem for a 15-20 inch charge!!! Works great coming in from a flank to negate ranks of currently fighting knight blocks, and plow through with multiple overruns...
Salamander(s) - You may not like em, but as mentioned, against the T3 knights they work pretty well. Shoot from diagnols and if your really lucky watch the knights suddenly turn and flee. Definately helpful..
Oldblood on Cold One or Carnosaur with Burning Blade of Chotec or Blade of Tzunki - The name pretty much explains all. Burning blade is simple win. In a unit of cold ones amplifies the previous qualities, on a carnosaur opens up a world of hurt. 5 str 7 attacks, plus 6 with burning blade or tzunki from the oldblood. High enough unit strength to negate ranks, and get flank/rear bonus. Throw wardrums on this guy and use it to set up a nasty flank charge before your carno goes frenzied. Scares the brets until they rust their greaves.
There's probably more but I think I gave you a pretty good start... (there is still Magic, Warpsear+Ancient Steg combo, Terradon fleeing to put knight blocks in eachother's way, and more...)
Good Luck..
and i do dislike salamanders... only S3 and -3 to armor save is nice, but its a bit random... the move-and-fire part is nice tough, i might try them out.
