Bretonnian Designer's Notes I
by Anthony Reynolds

I think one of the main strengths of the Bretonnians is that they appeal to so many people. I’d go out on a limb to say that pretty much everyone who likes Warhammer probably thinks that Knights, castles, and medieval battles are pretty cool. Even people who don’t know about Warhammer (gasp!) think that castles and Knights are pretty cool. Girlfriends and non-hobbyists can appreciate ranks of Knights, rather than giggling at funny little green men or asking why that guy has such a long neck (“That’s a banner on his back with a skull on top, dear” – true story). Just like the Lizardmen appealed to me because I liked playing with toy dinosaurs when I was little, the Bretonnians appeal to me because I used to like playing with toy knights. I reckon lots of people would agree with me. Simple as that really. Knights are cool.

Right, now that I have established that fact, on to the latest version of the army book itself. Long before any work was done on the book, lots of decisions about the Bretonnians were made, and a long list of questions were answered. How did we want to portray the Bretonnians in this incarnation? What miniatures would be included in the new range? Did the forces of Bretonnia need some new troops? Which troops needed to be revised? Who ate the last pie? What’s that smell?

A Darker Strain of Knight
Just by flicking through the Bretonnian book, you may notice that Bretonnia seems to be a slightly darker place than it has been in recent years. The Peasants look a little bit more hunched, ugly, and downtrodden (insert joke about the “closeness” of rural families here). The Knights are still shining paragons of virtue who fight against the horror of the world, but they are a bit more hardened and gritty than before. The castles look a little more Gormenghast or Jabberwocky than Disney. This change of style was a conscious decision made early on in the project, and we felt that the grittier feel is more in keeping with the Warhammer world. Now, no one wanted the pendulum to swing so far that Bretonnian Knights were depraved, arrogant, and corrupt, but darkening up their lives a little would make them more interesting and able to gel better with the rest of the game’s setting. We thought that emphasizing the contrasts of Bretonnia would function to convey the character of the place. The Knights make the Peasants look even more destitute than before, and the Peasants make the Knights look even more saintly and heroic. This contrast is shown beautifully in the artwork in the book – the artists really have outdone themselves once again.

The Blessing of the Lady
The Blessing of the Lady in the past gave protection from shots aimed at the precious Knights. The Bretonnians now have a war machine of their own and more things capable of taking out enemy missile troops and war machines (namely Pegasus Knights). One thing we never particularly liked about the old version of the Lady’s Blessing was that Bretonnian armies would pray to their goddess only when they were facing a missile-heavy opponent. If they were facing an army with little or no missile fire (and that is quite a few armies, including Chaos in its various guises and Vampire Counts), then the Bretonnians wouldn’t pray (why would they bother? Their goddess only helps them out against shooty enemies). Thus, the old version of the Lady’s Blessing didn’t really ring true to us. The Knights should want the Lady’s Blessing whenever they fought a battle, surely.

Therefore, we wanted the Blessing to be useful against any enemy. The Blessing turned out to be the part of the Bretonnians that underwent the most change from our early drafts. One early set of rules mechanics involved units generating “Blessing Dice,” with some units generating more than others and various levels of effect. While we quite liked these rules, they did turn out to be a bit of a pain to keep track of. These rules also encouraged armies to include the same types of units (the ones that generated a lot of Blessing Dice). In the end, we opted for a fairly simple system, which we believe creates the right feel.

To make the Blessing more universally useful, we decided to change it to a general ward save. This rule keeps things nice and easy and also allows the Lady’s Blessing to have an effect against any opponent. We decided that the ward save should get better against stronger attacks to simulate the Lady giving more protection against particularly dangerous foes – Dragons, Cannon, and mighty Heroes. We also liked the fact that the Bretonnian player would make the roll for his Blessing ward save. It’s very satisfying for a Bretonnian player to be able to shout, “The Lady saved me,” when he makes the roll.

The Lance Formation
Along with the Blessing, the Lance formation was the main thing that gave us a headache with the Bretonnian project. For months, we tossed around ideas for the Lance formation in our heads and tried to figure out ways for it to work more simply and more in line with the main rules. The problem was that the old triangular Lance formation, while looking lovely on the battlefield, was irritating. We pulled our hair out trying to keep the look of the old Lance formation but came to the conclusion that it was just too problematic. In a game of squares and rectangles, triangles just do not work. A nice, simple rule would be easier and quicker and would have a lot less room for confusion and misinterpretation. We also found in the past that the Lance formation really had no drawbacks. Strangely, it was a very solid defensive formation as well as devastating on the charge. We much prefer the idea of the Lance being devastating when charging but highly vulnerable when charged itself. Bretonnian players must be careful not to be caught out of position or outmaneuvered, or they’ll find themselves in trouble.
The formation that we ended up with is pretty much a mix of the old rules and a normal formation of troops. Basically, the Knights are arranged into ranks of three. In most respects, the Knights are treated like a normal unit, albeit a longer, thinner one than normal. As such, Knights in Lance formation follow most of the rules for a normal unit (including moving and flanks), with a few exceptions. Mainly, when a Lance unit charges, not only does the front rank fight, but everyone up the sides does so as well. In playtesting, everyone found this new Lance to their liking, as it was much easier to play than the old one, with pretty much the same results. Playing with the unit suddenly became more tactical as well. Bretonnian players now have (large) flanks to protect and really don’t want to get bogged down in protracted combats.

On to Bretonnian Designer's Notes: Part 2