8th Ed. Keep getting run down by Bretonnia

[Dreyer]

So last night and many sundays before that I have met with my gaming group to play. I had a game vs Bretonnia (we played 1000pt). He had a big block of Knights of the realm with a prophetess and his bsb another small knights errant unit and two units of bowmen(I think). I had a unit of 23 saurus with spears and scarvet within it, 2 10 block of skirmish skinks plus priest a stegadon and a salamander. he quickly hunted down my saurus with his big block and charged me in the front winning the combat by 6 and I was down to roll insanse courage. I didnt make the roll of course and my unit fled and got overrun.
having nothing left except some skinks and the steg, suffice it to say I lost the game.

So my question is. What can I do about the "the knight bus"? (about 10 kotr plus the 2 characters and the magic item that gives the mounts 1 plus strenght)

 

[ForgottenKnight2001]

Your best option for dealing with big blocks of brettonians in my experience has been strategic use of the skirmishers and screens.

If your units are placed like this

..../
.../

------
------

where the / is the skinks and the - the saurus, you can make him charge the skinks (the drawing doesn't do it justice) and counter charge when the skinks explode and run. If he blows through the skinks (which he probably will) he misses your unit of saurus and if he doesn't roll high enough, exposes the flank to your saurus.

You could also try using a skrox unit. He'll kill lots, but your 2-3 kroxigors will hopefully deal a bit of damage to him, possibly even reducing the number of ranks he has. Since you only have to kill 4 knights to take out 2 ranks, 9 Krox attacks might work. Also, the stand and shoot w/ the poison might take 1 or 2 out to start.

 

[Arli]

I have been regularly beaten by Bretts....

Admitting the problem is first. In my experience, If at all possible, do not let them charge your saurus. Hang back and wait for them to get within a charge range (or bog em down with skinks). Most of their power will come from the charge. If they do not get that, they are not nearly as bad.

Make sure you take a BSB. Even if it is a skink chief bsb. You need the reroll when you do not have a slann to boost the LD.

Take two units of two salamanders at least. If I were you, I would drop the steg for this. If you were using EOTG, so be it. use some of those extra points for a scar-vet bsb (add cold one and get the 1+ armor save).

Another note worthy thing. If you take a Skrox unit, they do cause fear. Granted, this will not usually matter, sometimes it pays.

When you get to a points level that allows a slann. Take lore of light. Birona's timewarp will ruin his day. Saurus with a 2d6 +8 inch charge ftw. Skrox with a 2d6+10 inch charge ftw.

 

[Dreyer]

Thanks to the both of you for the replies. Dont have any krox as of yet but I will try the other stuff until I get some.

 

[Arli]

At 1000 pts, you should only need at most maybe 3 Kroxigors (possibly 4). If it is a friendly game, ask if you could proxy some.

 

[Raijing]

In my experience (which is to say about once a week) when my friend plays his brets i tend to field my Warriors to get the most ranks and therefore get stubborn. if he cant win that first round is more than likely ill just grind him down. its almost gotten to the point when he and i play that whoever gets first deployment will win...

 

[BEEGfrog]

You also need to think about how you deploy and the terrain you have on the board.

Linear obstacles and buildings are good against Brets as they don't get charge bonusses when you are defending behind/within them. Brettonians without lance bonus are nowhere near as scary as when they get the charge bonus.

Also things which cause dangerous terrain tests for cavalry are good.

Woods and other terrain that cause skirmishers to be steadfast are good if he doesn't eliminate the entire unit in the first turn.

When facing a faster army it can be useful to deploy in a corner of the table so one flank is guarded by the table edge. There are risks to this as it is also easier to flee off the board (and an opportunity if you can get a powerful unit to pursue a weak unit of the board and out of action for a turn).

Salamanders can be good against heavily armoured units if you can get enough of them under a template, don't expect many units to panic, you just need to weaken them before combat. Salamanders in a building in front of your main battle line are very scary for opponents as they gain 360 degree LOS.

 

[Stonecutter]

I play Brets myself and what everyone here has already recommended makes a lot of sense - use terrain to your advantage to force difficult terrain tests, defend an obstacle and use the skirmishers to redirect the knight bus. Without changing your list too much, here are some tactics to help out:

1. Shoot with the skirmishers - eventually they will roll 1s on the AS. The skinks can march and shoot so with care, you should be able to avoid the charge arc and blast away every turn.

2. Use the sally but position it to flee - even one template hit from a sally will ruin the knights' day. If you fire from woods, that will force difficult terrain tests if he charges and you flee so even if the sally gets caught, a few knights likely will have died.

3. Use steggie as an anvil - with the scar vet general within 12", march the steggie up to the front of the bus and position it 1" away so that they cannot avoid a charge into it. At the same time, your saurus block moves to a flanking position. Steggie should live and pin the knight bus since he is stubborn 8. On your turn, charge the knight's flank with the saurus infantry and you will grind it down. This works well if you have been able to kill off a few knights before hand as it makes it more likely that steggie won't lose all his wounds.

That should do it. Good luck!!

 

[Dreyer]

Thanks everybody for all the help! Ill be sure to try all those things out next gaming weekend.

 

[Dreyer]

I was thinking about putting the crown of command in with my saurus block so his knights couldnt break me on the first turn, that way my stegadon would have time to come to the rescue.

Could that work?

 

[Arli]

Yea, that would do it. Just make sure that you take the saurus champion. I assume the crown will be on a scar vet. That way, the unit champion can take the challenge. Keeping the scar vet from being in a challenge.