There are 14 Special Characters that you can take for the Brets.
Almost all of them come with a sidekick or mount of some kind. I will look at them in order from cheapest to most expensive.
Roland Le Marechal [78 pts]
Roland is a Knightly Champion, mounted on a Bretonnian Warhorse. A normal Knightly Champion (same stats) costs 48 pts, 30 pts less than Roland.
So, what do you get for your 30 pts? Well, it appears that you get a 25 pt magic item, and the other 5 pts are probably for the privilege of being Roland. :) Either that or you're buying the Knight's Virtue twice. Here's a cost breakdown:
48 Knightly Champion, with Knight's Virtue (and equipment)
25 Roland's Warhorn
5 Who knows?
===================
78 points total.
Now, Roland's Warhorn. It basically makes every flyer within 18" fly high (enemies only, excuse me.) They have to sit there and do nothing until they pass a Ld check.
Pretty ugly, really. You can use his horn every magic phase, if I am reading this right, and the flyers can't even attack other flyers until they make that Ld test. If your opponent's general is mounted on a dragon, well, let's just say that he might be really and truly annoyed when his general can't use his dragon's mighty frost breath that round on your charging knights. Or hey, make him flee, then whip out your bowman's Sky Arrow and shoot him down. If you use this combo, I recommend shouting "Pull!" right before you blow his general straight to hell. That'll learn him for trying to cheese you like that.
Bertrand the Brigand [83 pts]
Ok, let's see here, I'll bet he's a Commoner Champion...yup, looks like he is, but he gets +1 BS, and +1 Ld. Since he's a Bowman Champion that would make him 33 pts normally. So, where do your 50 pts go?
Well, first, he comes with 2(!) sidekicks. Little John and Friar Tuck, err.. you know what I mean. Hugo Le Petit is a bowman with +1 BS, +2 S, and +1 T, plus his bow shots use his strength for damage So he's worth a good chunk of points (hard to say exactly how many.) Gui le Gros is a bowman with +1 BS and his wineskin. Being a bowman of bergerac he's worth 9 pts, plus change for the wineskin, which has an effect I wouldn't use unless there were units fleeing towards the Bowmen of Bergerac.
Now, Bertrand gets a re-roll on his to-hit rolls with his bow, and a 5 pt magic item, which is actually pretty good (an arrow that no normal armour can save against, and always wounds if it hits.)
PLUS, any bowmen led by Bertrand can become bowmen of bergerac for 1 pt each. For that 1 pt, they get +1 BS, and get to skirmish, and so essentially become good squires with longbows.
Now for an attempt at a point breakdown:
33 Bertrand (Commoner Champion w/ Longbow)
9 Gui le Gros ("The Fat Man", Bowman of Bergerac)
9 Hugo le Petit (Bowman of Bergerac)
5 The Black Arrow
28 Hugo's Strength and Toughness, Bertrand's stuff, Gui's wine.
===========
83 points total.
Now, if you ask me, you're getting a deal. In fact, Bertrand may be the best special character in the book. That +1 BS skill for 1 pt thing is one of the sweetest plums you're likely to come across. I dare say it's hideously underpriced.
Obviously, the thing to do with Bertrand is to stick as many of your bowmen in his unit as you think you can get away with, and stick him towards the front of your deployment zone. Then, just hold your ground and fire.
A second possibility is useful if you have a wall on your side of the table. Deploy his unit behind the wall in one or two ranks in skirmish formation. You'll be able to shoot your enemy to bits and he'll have to climb over that blasted wall and dig you out. Of course, even with 6's to hit, Bret. bowmen are pathetic in HtH. You'll probably lose even with a wall there to defend. Oh well. Try and keep the enemy away for as long as possible.
Reynard le Chasseur [90 pts]
Ok, Reynard is a Knightly Champion with +1 A, and costs 52 pts more than your average Knightly Champion. For his 52 pts, you get the +1 A, two wolf-hounds, a boar spear, and the ability to give a unit of mounted squires the Knight's Virtue. The +1 A would cost 25 pts to get with a magic item. The wolf-hounds look to be a bit more effective than men-at-arms, but less effective than a Commoner Champion. I would rate them around 15 pts each. The Boar Spear is a normal spear that can cause an opponent to lose 1d6 attacks if Reynard gets to attack first. That's easily worth 30 pts, and probably a little more. The ability to give mounted squires the Knight's virtue is worth 5 pts for every squire in the unit, usually no more than 10, so say 50 pts.
Adding this up, we come to the conclusion that Reynard is a very inexpensive deal:
48 Reynard (Knightly Champion
25 +1 Attack
30 Two Wolf-hounds (rough cost estimate.)
30 Boar Spear
50 10 Mounted Squires getting Knight's Virtue Free
===========
183 pts (But he only costs 90.)
I realize that I've changed my format with Reynard, but that's okay. I just wanted to show you why special characters should never be Tournament legal. They cost WAY too little. Hugo le Petit should have to pay a high cost for his +2 S, and +1 T, but he pays less than 28 pts for it. Gross.
Anyways, Reynard should be put in charge of mounted squires, by all means. You get some freebie pts out of doing that, and you have an all-terrain unit actually worth a damn. Arm the squires with bows, shields, and spears. This way you have a sniper unit that can charge into battle from the edge of a forest, or right across difficult terrain. With Reynard in the lead, they might even win. :)
An interesting thing about the boar spear is that it's not magical. That means it can't be nullified or destroyed by any means. If you can charge with him you'll almost certainly get to use the spear, and hey, dwarves and normal humans will be at your mercy with that big fat 4 Initiative. Anyways, he's fun to have just for the hounds and hawk.
Baron Odo d'Outremer [110 pts]
Again, a great deal. Odo gets a 30 pt magic item, is worth a fair chunk of change himself, and essentially gets a copy of himself, almost a two for one deal here. Let's look at the costs:
53 Questing Knight Champion (Odo)
30 Morning Star of Fracasse
27(!) Suliman le Saracen
==========
110 points total (Note that you're saving probably 15+ pts on Suliman.)
Now, Suliman is almost a Questing Champion himself. He lacks the 10 pt Questing virtue and a few other things, but he costs less than half what Odo costs. This is where your savings really comes in at. Plus, he is just about the only thing around that has a chance to beat the Helm of Eyes in initiative. Suliman is sort of the icing on the cake.
But let's look at Odo first. His main characteristic is that he has the Morning Star of Fracasse, which can destroy magic weapons. Plus, he hits at a 6 Strength the first round of any combat, which helps him get in the wound he needs to activate the Morning Star. Obviously, you should hurl him at whichever enemy has the biggest, ugliest magic weapon. The more points he can destroy with his Morning Star, the more likely you are to recoup the pts you spent on him. Remember, stat-wise he's not too hot, just an average Questing Champion. His weapon and his sidekick make him special.
Suliman's big thing is his war cry, which will let him attack first no matter what if his opponent fails a Leadership test. Of course, poor Suliman, being an average joe in all other ways, can't really DO anything with the initiative, having won it. He's just not that hot a fighter.
Still, by committing the duo to destroying big bad magic weapons, you can destroy more than their quota of enemy pts.
The Knight of the Perilous Lance [121 pts]
The "Knight" is a Knightly Hero with two virtues and two little quirks to him. His opponents save at -1, and he can re-roll his own saves.
So, to the tally board!:
78 Hero on Barded Warhorse
20 Knight's Virtue and Virtue of the Joust
23 -1 to enemy save, re-roll own save.
===========
121 points total.
Hmm. It would appear that he's only a little cheaper than he should be. The save re-roll is like the Dawnstone, a 25 pt magic item, and the -1 is like the Biting Blade, a 10 pt magic item. I'd say he only nets you around 12 pts for free, if you don't take into account that his items aren't magic, and can't be destroyed. If you want a tourny legal version of the "Knight", you could build one for 133 pts. It would be identical, except that its magic items could be destroyed or dispelled or whatnot.
Of course, I don't think much of this character. He wasn't really designed with a purpose in mind, he just deals wounds that are a little better than average, and he is a bit harder to kill. He's not really there to do anything in particular though, just sort of run around and vaguely kill anything that looks threatening. For 121/133pts, I would rather have a hero with a goal in mind, like Jasperre, or one of my own devising.
The Green Knight [170 pts]
Ok, first off, the Green Knight has some really pumped up stats, but ostensibly only 1 Attack (more on this later.) He doesn't really fit any single character type too well, the closest being the General's template.
Of course, this is where game balance takes a hike. Reading over what the Green Knight does, I'm a bit disgusted. Immune to psychology, 2+ natural dispel, 2+ special save versus wounds essentially, causes fear, and can sort of infiltrate into enemy territory. Ho ho ho.
Plus, his sword is a 70 pt magic item that deals 1d6 wounds when it hits or can be traded in for 1d6 attacks instead. Oh, and if the knight uses the single attack for 1d6 wounds, no armour saves are allowed versus it. All for the same cost as the Venom Blade. Revolting.
This guy is awfully unbalanced. Looking at his points tally:
100 General-like Stats
70 Dolorous Blade
15 Grail Virtue
40 Almost Virtue of Devotion
50+ Regeneration
?? Infiltration
?? Causes Fear
Not even taking everything into account he's worth at least 105 pts more than he costs. That's just putrid. He doesn't have any severe weaknesses, and his stats are really pretty dang good. As long as you are reasonably lucky, he'll act like a character with 3.5 Wounds and 3.5 Attacks. Blecch. See why I hate playing with special characters? It's a nuclear escalation of sorts, with each new special character trying to be cooler than those from the last books. On the bright side, the mini for this guy is gorgeous. I may not put the character in my army, but I'll sure use his mini as a hero of some sort. If I WERE to use him, I'd infiltrate him as far in as possible using his hermit knight rules, and try and claim a good sized chunk of my opponent's table side with his aid. Then, I'd simply point him at my enemy's war machines and let him beat the holy crap out of them while the rest of my army worked its way up to help him. Who cares if those dwarven war machines have a rune of immolation? There's a good chance he'll just pick his head back up and carry on with what he was doing.
Bohemond 'Beastslayer', Duc de Bastonne [200 pts]
Okay, he's a Grail Knight with some magic items and such that make him a little hard to ennumerate. Looking at his stats he's close to a Hero with +1 W and +1 Ld. His weapon gives him +2 S, and his shield can destroy magic weapons used against him.
So, let's try this:
78 Hero with Equipment
15 Grail Virtue
25 Virtue of the Impetuous Knight
30 Beast Mace
30 Bohemond's Shield
==========
178 points.
Of course, his mace is rather underpriced for what it does. It is really a combination of the Ogre Blade and the Bone Blade, for a total of 75 points. So, if we add that 45 pts in we get 223 pts. Despite the seemingly fair point cost at first, we still see that he's getting a little extra on the side, like all the special characters.
So, how best to use this guy...well, he can deal a disgusting amount of damage and he has 3 Wounds. He can destroy magic items if he gets lucky, and his WS is 5. Hmm. This guy is not as obviously ugly as say, The Green Knight, but consider his stats. Overall though, he's no more focused than the Knight of the Perilous Lance, just more expensive and better at killing.
If I were to take him (and I wouldn't) I'd put him in a unit of Knights Errant or Knights of the Realm as their leader. His Ld 9 makes him a great head honcho, and you are certainly going to pump up the unit's offensive capabilities with him, as well as give them a tiny bit of protection versus magic weapons.
Tristran le Troubadour [205 pts]
Tristran has the stats of a hero, an unarmed men-at-arm sidekick, The bare costs for that would be:
78 Hero with Equipment
10 Questing Virtue
15 Virtue of Noble Disdain
5 Man-at-arms
50 Jule's Dodging
5 Jule's Taunt
42 Tristran's Songs
After that though, you notice that Jules, his man-at-arms,
has a Move of 8 essentially, and +1 Initiative. Also, Tristran
gets three songs that he can sing. One of them is a 3+ natural
dispel, one gives him a Ld of 10, and one acts like a War Banner.
He can pick one to sing every turn.
Not only that, but Jules acts like he has on an Improved Ring of Darkness (50 pts), and a weakened Parrying Blade (5 pts). But, if Jules is killed, Tristan can't use his songs anymore, which makes this a risky character to take. Sure Jules is hit only on a 6, but your opponent only has to manage it once to rid himself of Tristran's songs.
This is the first Special Character I've seen that I actually wouldn't take for the point cost listed. Miracles do exist.
Tristran is far too vulnerable to losing Jules, and if you'll look above at the point cost breakdown, you'll see that losing Jules costs him about half his point value. But, for argument's sake, let's say I get a wild hair up my butt and want to try him out. Okay, so what do I use him for? Well, I suppose I'd stick him in charge of a unit of Questing Knights. That makes it a bit harder to kill off Jules, and Tristran's songs can benefit the whole unit. During the advance, I would have him sing his 3+ dispel song, on the charge I'd have him sing the +1 combat result song, and after that, I'd have him sing the Ld 10 song.
Jasperre le Beau, Dragonslayer [234 pts]
Ok, let's check out how Jasperre weighs in. He quite sensibly rides a pegasus to go hunting for large monsters. His magic items are probably the most effective I've seen in the book, and his cost actually adds up just about correctly. Here's his breakdown:
65 Hero (straight Hero, no stat changes.)
50 Rides Pegasus
4 Heavy Armour and Shield
35 Questing Virtue and Virtue of Valour
10 Helm of the Dragonslayer
50 Claw of Malgrimace
15 The Virtuous Lance
==============
229 points total. (So we're missing 5 points.)
What I'm thinking may have happened is Jasperre got bumped down from a Grail Knight to a Questing Knight at some point, and the points total never got changed. In fact, that's the only thing I could think of to make him better, is to get him the Grail Virtue. As it is, he has to make terror checks and such in order to go after Dragons, which would seem silly for an experienced Dragon Slayer.
However, Jasperre is better at what he does than any hero you could make using the existing Warhammer Magic items. Let's send him after a griffon, just out of curiousity:
Jasperre first uses the claw, taking away 5 attacks from the griffon. That was lucky, now the griffon gets no attacks at all this round.
Okay, next to see if Jasperre hits (4+, re-roll misses) 3 hits. I'm rolling better than average here, I guess. Now, to see if he wounds. His S is 8 against large monsters, so he wounds on 2+ (rolling) 2 wounds. Griffons don't get a save. Next we multiply the wounds (rolling) 3 wounds. Now we make the all important test to see if he kills it outright (rolling) a 4! Ding dong the griffon's dead!
Of course, Jasperre isn't much good against an actual dragon. Let's put him up against a small one:
Jasperre's claw: 4. Dragon attacks first unless Jasperre has charged, which for Jasperre's sake, we'll say he has. Now, for Jasperre's attacks: 2 hits. 2 wounds. But here's the problem, nothing Jasperre has helps him penetrate the dragon's scaly skin. Dragon rolls 2 saves: and gets 4+ on both. Jasperre has failed to hurt it. On the bright side, Jasperre can get lucky and roll a 6, killing the dragon even if he has failed to wound it at all! (rolling) Oh my god. Well, maybe he has his good points against dragons after all. I actually rolled a 6. Scratch one 450 pt dragon thanks to a 234 pt hero. Sheesh. I'd be so pissed if someone killed one of my dragons like that, I don't know what I'd do. I mean, Jasperre didn't even wound the dragon, but he still gets a 1 in 6 chance to exterminate it.
However, the above freak of the dice notwithstanding, you'd better remember that the lance only helps during the first round of combat. After that, you'd better get him to run for the hills, or he's dogmeat, claw or no claw.
Armand D'aquitaine [235 pts]
Armand is a Battle Standard Bearer with +1 WS and +2 Ld, which can be pretty dang handy for a BSB to have. Here's a points breakdown:
80 Battle Standard Bearer
11 Equipment
45 Grail Virtue and Virtue of Knightly Ardour
75 Banner of the Lady of the Lake
==============
211 points total. (We're paying 24 points for the +1 WS and +2 Ld.)
Let's see, +1 WS can be bought for 15 pts, which means we are paying 9 pts for +2 Ld, which is a darn good deal, assuming you actually want the Banner of the Lady of the Lake. It's a good banner, don't get me wrong. I just don't tend to use it much. Overall, Armand is a decent, but not excellent, buy, compared to the other Special Characters.
If you take him, I recommend that you keep him in a unit of Grail Knights. Of course, this makes that unit of Knights an incredibly luscious target for all sorts of BS. Expect dragons to attack them, giants to jump up and down on them, every kind of silliness your opponent can bring to bear. I fully expect that someone will figure out a way to kill them off.
But really, the only other option is to keep Armand back out of the battle, in which case you're really wasting 30 pts for his Knightly Ardour. Overall, I'd call Armand a bad strategic decision.
Tancred, Duc de Quenelles [265 pts]
Tancred is a General with +1 Ld, which is awesome. Not only that, but his value is nearly correct (?!). Adding his stuff up, we see that:
100 General
5 Equipment
30 Grail Virtue and Virtue of Purity
100 The Blade of Couronne
10 The Blessed Draught
25 The Grail Shield
===========
270 points total (5 free points.)
Not only that, but he can be mounted on a pegasus, or any other large monster you want! He's pretty much the only Special Character I've seen with any degree of customizability. I would definitely put him on a flying monster though, to get that 24" movement. He needs to bring the Blade to bear as soon as he possibly can, at least against an Undead army. Save his Draught for an important enemy, and be sure to keep the troops at his side so they can benefit from his awesome 10 Leadership.
Against undead armies, step one is to destroy their screaming skull catapults. Careful positioning of Tancred should cause them to simply explode in a puff of disgust.
Next, go beat upon any mounted vampires you see. This is a good opportunity to use his Blessed Draught. You might also just have him lead the charge into that skeleton mob that you hate so much. Set your tape measure to 3" and grin maliciously at your opponent. They hate that. If you can park it next to his necromancer, all the better.
On the downside, you can expect a total powered curse of years on this guy sooner or later. Sooner if you're playing with the forbidden rod. It's a pity they didn't invest the extra 35 pts to make Tancred REALLY worthwhile.
Against non-undead opponents...wait a minute, what the hell are you doing taking Tancred against non-undead opponents? He's almost totally useless without undead to spank!
Repanse de Lyonesse [310 pts]
She has a number of good points to her. Firstly, she is both a General and a Battle Standard Bearer. She causes fear, and has a unique magic standard which is pretty interesting. Her points break down like so:
100 General
11 Equipment
55 Knight's Virtue and Virtue of Devotion
100 Fleur de Lys Banner
50 Sword of Lyonesse
===========
316 points total. (We get 6 free points.)
The above doesn't take into account the fact that she causes fear, either, which on a magic weapon costs 35 pts.
So, she's immune to magic and fear, and she has some fairly anti-magic items, which are most useful against enemy wizards.
Obviously, her primary duties are to stick close to her troops and close to HtH with any enemy wizards she can spot. Of course, she's not too useful versus a Slann mage, since they'll probably have that sword of Coca Cola, or whatever it's called.
Her best point is that, being a battle standard and general rolled into one, she'll save you a lot of pts, which can be very important in those tight 2,000 pt battles.
Morgiana Le Fey [429 pts]
Morgiana is probably a hopeless case when it comes to quantifying her, but here goes:
287 Wizard Lord (with several stat mods: -1 S, -1 T, -1 W, -2 A, +1 Ld.)
90 Unicorn
40 Chalice of Potions
10 Morgiana's Mirror
30 Power Familiar
60 The Girdle of Gold
===========
517 points total (88 free points, but you have to take into account the lower stats.)
Of course, with Morgiana you always know what spells you will get, and the Favours are additional freebies that cost you nothing to use (except the Ban.)
Essentially, Morgiana is a huge deal. She's way too cheap for what she does. She is among the top 3 Special Characters for the Brets. The other two being the Green Knight and Bertrand the Brigand.
Tactics for using her? Well, let's see. Put her in charge of some Knights Errant with the Errantry Banner and preferably a hero or champion. Next, put another unit of knights next to them with the Standard of Sorcery, and pray for the Total Power card to fall into your lap.
First turn, you need to use either the red, white, or blue mists, depending on whether the enemy has lots of archers or lots of war machines. This assumes that you don't have another character on the job to take care of them. I would do this simply because I'll be danged if I'm going to lose a 400+ pt unit and my main wizard to a lucky cannon shot.
On your magic phase, try to get off the Mist of Chalons, maybe on your unit of men-at-arms, or your Grail Knights. Since you are going to have lots of WoM cards (thanks to the SoS and your Power Familiar), I also would try and get off the Doom of Dol. Nominating your General/Pegasus riding hero and his favorite character is sure to make him nervous.
In the meantime, if you have Total Power, it's time to go kill his General (don't waste Doom of Dol on him, we're going to kill him in a much crueler way.) Use Beguilement of Blondel to clear a space for your Knights Errant and Morgiana to get close to the General, then Total Power your Spiteful Glance. Poof, the enemy General is a frog, even if he used to be a Slann Mage on Palanquin. Now, chortle with glee, zing him with a smart-*** remark like "It's not easy being green." and have Morgiana make a run for it as he brings his entire army to bear on her (trust me, once you've turned a 900 pt character into a frog, your opponent will be a little pissed.)
It's not a bad idea if you can save an Escape card for Morgiana, just in case the unthinkable happens, like a Giant Jumping Up and Down on her. ("Make my boss a frog willya. *STOMPSTOMPSTOMP*")
Of the various mist colours, I would ignore yellow, as the other mists are all better than it (although violet isn't all that great.) Red, white, and blue are your best colours. Remember though, you only get to use the chalice once, so choose wisely, my son. (Nodding at Bret general lying in a pool of his own blood, "He chose...poorly.")
Louen Leoncouer, the Lionhearted [505 pts]
Louen pretty much adds up correctly. Here's his breakdown:
100 General (with +1 Leadership.)
145 Hippogriff
15 Grail Virtue
15 Crown of Bretonnia
75 Armour of Brilliance
30 Lion Lance
75 Tabard of Kings
============
455 points total (Which means we're paying 50 points for the Lionheart
Virtue and +1 Ld, which is pretty well worth it.)
Louen is a pretty darn good general. I see one really big faux pas in his design though. He has no defense against war machines. One lucky shot and bye-bye 505 pts. As you might expect, I have a problem with this. If they had only given him a special save somewhere, I wouldn't mind too badly, but as it stands, you HAVE to use Louen to kill your opponent's war machines before you can do anything else.
But, overlooking that flaw, let's say I take him. First of all is the need to decide on what stats to try and improve with the Crown. Here's my recommended order for him: T, W, A, WS, S.
Next, we have to realize that his S is always at least 5. On a charge, it's always at least 7. If you roll a 3 for his virtue, we're talking a S 9. For true ridiculousness, if you improve his S and roll a 3 on your charge for his virtue, he'll have a S 10, meaning that any hit that connects will wound unless the opponent has a special save (and most important enemies do.)
Now, it is rather important for Louen to charge into battle. It lets you use his magic lance (which gives you a free S6 hit.)
So, remember, Louen is really strong, but he has a glass jaw. If you can do something for him to get him a special save (Protect spell is about all I can think of.) then do so by all means. And hey, if you're fighting someone with no war machines, let 'em have it!
Final Analysis of the Special Characters:
First of all, I don't recommend the use of Special Characters. The miniatures are too costly, their points cost makes them irresistable targets, you have little or no control over their setup, and they are unfairly cheap.
Granted, they add colour to the game, but I am of the opinion that all characters in a game should follow the rules, and adhere to the basic point cost formulas. I find that I get more enjoyment from a well performed tactical maneuver than by running amok through my opponent's army with an unstoppable character.
That having been said, I'm going to rank the Bretonnian Special Characters here, from best buy to worst buy. Each will have a sentence or so of commentary.
The Green Knight: The king of limburger. Really cheap, terribly hard to kill, starts in your opponent's lap, more or less. A hideous thing to whip out on a good friend. The mini's nice, though.
Bertrand the Brigand: He seems to get an awful lot of stuff for the tiny sum you pay for him.
Repanse de Lyonesse: She is a cheap magic-proof general that can double as a Battle Standard, or who can act totally as the Battle Standard Bearer, with much better stats.
Tancred, duc de Quenelles: Awesome against undead. Nigh unto useless against everyone else.
Reynard le Chasseur: Wolves, a hawk, 50 pts of free virtues to hand out to mounted squires. What's not to like?
Bohemond, Duke of Bastonne: Barely falls under this category. He's just not very well designed. A great hero has a goal in mind, he's just a pumped up knight. Plus, at exactly 200 pts, he's just barely worth 2 VP. Sigh.
The Knight of the Perilous Lance: Likewise, only less so.
Armand d'Aquitaine: Expensive
Standard Bearer. Very vulnerable to death. Worth 3 VP to your
enemy, but he only has 1 Wound. Unbelievable that they would
make such a piece of junk. He has a virtue that is really only
good if you charge him into battle, but you can't afford to do
that, because if he gets killed, you lose 3 VP, and your Battle
Standard to boot. I'll say it again. Ptooi.