Warhammer Fantasy Battles 6th Edition: Empire vs Brettonia 2

Gather 'round and listen to a tale of noble knights and fickle fortunes!

In this battle report, we'll be again chronicling a battle between Brettonia and The Empire, this time at 1200 pts.

The Armies

Brettonian Army



Paladin - General 95pts
-Barded Warhorse
-Lance
-Shield
-Virtue of Discipline (1st)

Paladin - Battle Standard Bearer 74 pts
-Barded Warhorse

Paladin 136 pts
-Royal Pegasus
-Lance
-Shield
-Virtue of Noble Disdain (1st)

8x Knights of the Realm 216 pts

8x Knights of the Realm 216 pts

8x Knights of the Realm 216 pts

5x Mounted Yeomen 87 pts

10x Peasant Bowmen Skirmishers 70 pts
-Shields

Field Trebuchet 90 pts

Of course, I can't speak for Mike's strategy, but if I had to guess, I would say the strategy was in true Brettonian fashion; hit hard with the lance formations of knights and their embedded heroes. The trebuchet would keep me from getting too comfortable or at least punish my forces for not engaging in melee. The mounted yeomen could counter march blocking pistoliers or opportunistically get flank charges when available. The peasant bowmen skirmishers could scout and war machine hunt, given the opportunity. The pegasus mounted paladin could deal with march blocking fast cavalry, ranged units, war machines, or lend his weight to a charge.

Empire Army


Captain - General 78 pts
-Barded Warhorse
-Great Weapon
-Full Plate Armor
-Shield

Captain - Battle Standard Bearer 157 pts
-Banner of Sigismund
-Barded Warhorse
-Full Plate Armor

Battle Wizard of the Celestial Order (Magic Level 2) 95 pts

7x Knightly Orders of the Inner Circle 232 pts
-Musician
1x First Knight

9x Handgunners 105 pts
1x Marksman
-Hochland Long Rifle

9x Handgunners 105 pts
1x Marksman
-Hochland Long Rifle

4x Pistoliers 102 pts
1x Marksman

9x Huntsmen 106 pts
1x Marksman

20x Flagellants 220 pts

My strategy was based around, you guessed it, defense. I would attempt to slow his lances with my pistoliers, thin them with my handguns, and hold against the inevitable impact with my unbreakable flagellants. The knights were actually intended to be a defensive force, as 1+ saves are quite hard to break. I also super charged the unit with my general and battle standard bearer, who carried The Banner of Sigismund, which made his unit stubborn. Even in the event of a disastrous charge, the banner could allow for a re-rollable, unmodified leadership 8 test. I had a feeling a trebuchet might make an appearance, so I also brought scouting, skirmishing archers to hopefully cause some panic tests or slow its rate of fire. Lastly, my wizard would at worst provide some rerolls with Second Sign of Amul, at best Uranon's Thunder Bolt and its brutal armor ignoring strength 4, D6 hits.

Fortunately for me, I rolled exactly those two spells, so it was on!

Deployment

We rolled for for scenario and landed on scenario 3 - Meeting Engagement. In this scenario, our forces would deploy from a column of march, so each of us would need to write up a list of our units and deploy them in order, starting in the center of our deployment zones and expanding outwards, representing new units arriving from the column arriving at the battlefield. The game would last six turns total.



The table's terrain set up.



Both forces deployed.

Turn 1

As is their right, the Brettonians bent the knee and prayed to their Lady for her protection and favor. This ceded the first turn to me.

The Empire

I advanced my pistoliers as quickly as possible up to march block the two lances of knights on the left flank. I also advanced my huntsmen to get into better range of the trebuchet and its crew. 


In the magic phase, a Uranon's Thunder Bolt smote three knights on the left flank. An incredible start, but would Ranald's favor last? The knights bravely weathered the bolt and passed their leadership test.


Shooting was uneventful as I chose not to fire my handguns, knowing the knights were well out of range.

Brettonia

Mike's forces charged my pistoliers, who fled in response (as fast cavalry do). This slowed them a bit, but overall his forces were still able to advance fairly unmolested. His trebuchet did kill one of my knights, but the damage was fortunately minimal.




Turn 2

The Empire

My pistoliers managed to rally and do what they do best, get up in the face of knights and march block them! My knights repositioned to ready for the oncoming wave of knights who would undoubtedly be charging me in the coming turn. My flagellants shuffled slightly, better protecting my handgunners. My marksmen further advanced, closing the distance on the trebuchet and crew.

In the magic phase, my luck began turning. Mike was able to dispel my Second Sign of Amul and my wizard miscast Uranon's Thunderbolt, but fortunately I rolled a 8 on the table.

In the shooting phase, my handgunners unloaded into the oncoming lances, managing to bring down four more knights (brutal). My marksmen also were fortunate enough to kill one crewman of the trebuchet, forcing a panic test. Fortunately for Mike, every unit passed their tests, even the lowly leadership 5 peasants!

I knew the next turn would be critical and probably make or break my entire strategy.




Brettonia

This turn was so shocking that I actually forgot to take a picture. Mike declared charges with his pegasus paladin and knights of the realm against my inner circle knights...and failed. We were both left completely shocked as both the 16" cavalry and 20" flying charges missed their marks by fractions of an inch. Let me be clear, we both were certain he was in range, so this was a huge upset. Mike advanced his remaining knights to get into a supporting position, in the unlikely event that his knights survived the charge from my death star unit. His mounted yeomen also advanced marched, hoping to put my handgunners in danger. Mike's peasant bowmen also moved towards my huntsmen, but were unable to harm them. The trebuchet fired, but, fortunately for me, scattered off target.

Turn 3

The Empire

With the unbelievable turn of events that had just taken place, I declared a charge on Mike's pegasus paladin who was left painfully exposed before my knights. In a shameful display of dishonor, the paladin fled, losing his blessing and the favor of The Lady. My knights redirected into the lance behind him, causing great consternation amongst the Brettonian force.

In the remaining movement phase, my pistoliers moved to block the left lance, though, in an ironic twist of fate, was unable to march themselves. 

In the magic phase, I successfully cast Second Sign of Amul, but only rolled a 1 for the number of rerolls I'd gain. My Uranon's Thunderbolt failed to roll successfully on three dice, but such are the winds of magic.

In the shooting phase, my huntsmen failed to harm the trebuchet crew. I did manage to kill two knights and two mounted yeomen with massed handgun fire, but both passed their panic tests (even the peasants with their measly leadership 6!). Apparently, the Brettonians are made of sterner stuff.

The melee phase did not go as expected. Despite having the benefit of my lances making my knights strength 6 on the charge, not a single wound was suffered. Likewise, my general, who also benefited from a strength 6 charge, failed to wound a single knight! I even used my reroll from Second Sign of Amul, but to no effect. After a completely bloodless collision of steel and flesh, the Brettonians needed to test their leadership at -1 (7). Again, Mike's forces effortlessly passed their dice roll.

I now found myself in an impossible situation; locked in combat from the front and completely exposed on my flank.


Brettonia

Mike rallied his fleeing paladin without issue and turned him to face my forces. 

On the charge, the left lance charged my pistoliers, who held. I knew that if they fled, he could redirect his charge into my knights, who needed every bit of support they could get. His general's lance charged into the flank of my knights, who were forced to take a panic test (and passed).

Seeing his mounted yeomen dangerously close to scoring me victory points, he marched them behind the tower and out of threat from the huntsmen.

The unit of peasant bowmen advanced on my huntsmen and managed to bring one down with arrow fire.
The trebuchet suffered a misfire and, to Mike's chagrin, destroyed itself.

In the melee phase, pure tragedy struck. While I did manage to kill one Brettonian knight in the unit I had charged the previous turn, three of my knights were felled by the charging lance. While I was soundly defeated, I knew my banner granting stubbornness ensured that my knights (and two captains) would still only need to test on an 8 with reroll. Unbelievably, this was too much to ask of my knights, general, and battle standard bearer, who failed the initial leadership test and reroll. Mike pursued them and, just like that, my death star unit of inner circle knights, battle standard bearer, and general were destroyed.
My pistoliers met a similar fate, selling their lives to protect the second flank of my knights, though in vain.


Turn 4

The Empire

At this point, I was in serious danger. Any chance of winning seemed completely out of the question as the dice gods cackled impishly from the Empyrean.

Clearly, no chargers to declare this turn; my forces would be selling their lives dearly. I did maneuver my huntsmen to fire upon the hiding mounted yeomen... every point counts!

My magic phase failed miserably, no spells were successfully cast.

In the shooting phase, the huntsmen were able to kill another mounted yeoman, forcing a panic test. The handgunners killed three knights total, two from the left unit and one from the knights behind the general's lance. The yeomen thankfully broke and ran, but the knights again passed their panic test. The knights were coming and there was not much I could do.


Brettonia

Two lances charged into my flagellants, considerably thinning the mob of madmen. The general and his remaining knights turned to face my right unit of handgunners, preparing to slaughter them on the coming turn. Mike's pegasus paladin flew across the field, threatening both my huntsmen and right handgunners.

Turn 5

The Empire

To conserve points, I ran my huntsmen into the woods and laid low. I desperately needed to preserve every point possible, if I had any hope of drawing.

Again, the magic phase was a complete failure.

Both units of handgunners fired upon the general's coming lance, laying three more knights low. To preserve their honor, the knights again passed their panic test.

In combat, more wounds were exchanged between the rabid flagellants and the chivalric knights as both savagely battled.


Brettonia

On his turn, Mike's pegasus paladin and general with remaining knight both charged my right unit of handgunners. His skirmishing peasant bowmen fired their bows at the handgunners behind the battling flagellants and knights, killing two of their number.

In response to his charges, my handgunners stand and shot. To everyone's disbelief, they managed to kill the pegasus of the charging paladin, leaving him out in the middle of the field on foot, thus failing his charge. Despite this stellar performance, they failed to damage the general or his accompanying knight, who quickly routed them in combat.




Turn 6

Strangely, I didn't seem to take pictures of the sixth turn, or at least I don't have any in my phone. As you can tell, however, things had come to a grinding halt. My handgunners had no viable targets and both my wizard and huntsmen hid behind trees, out of danger.

Mike's knights were stuck in with the unit of flagellants and his general's unit had no valid charges available. The only unit capable of possibly swinging the game further were his skirmishing peasant archers, who would need to either panic my handgunners or kill three more to count the unit as scoring. All table quadrants were contested and none could be captured within the turn.

Endgame

After totaling victory points, we found that the Brettonians led by a total of 147 points, 3 points shy of a minor victory. Somehow, despite Ranald's cold shoulder, my imperials managed to eke out a draw.

This was a pretty insane game; you know you're having bad luck when your opponent starts consoling you for the poor dice rolling they're seeing. If the abysmal charge of my knights wasn't bad enough, there were a few dice rolls I made where the vast majority of dice came up as 1's (no joke, 9/10 dice rolled in one case) which left both Mike and I groaning in disbelief.

One thing we discussed after the game was the unfortunate reality of playing Empire vs Brettonia, regardless of luck. I desperately want to avoid playing a gunline army; I think they're boring, not fun, lacking character, and ultimately lead to an arms race between players. If I go hard into a gunline, it's only one game before I face the dreaded "flying circus," a Brettonian army maxed-out with terrifying pegasus knights.
However, the reality is that every game where I bring melee units, save flagellants, the melee units underperform and, despite getting the charge on the Brettonian knights, simply cannot get through the armor and ward saves. Conversely, handguns are the pinnacle of weapon choice versus Brettonian knights; at strength 4, they don't trigger the 5+ ward save, but still reduce armor by 2, due to their additional armor penetration.
It's extremely tempting to just spam handguns relentlessly, but, as said before, that's just a gunline. In games where both players use "optimized" forces, you might as well flip a coin, since the game will be determined whether the gun line player can kill their enemy before they reach him or not. If the gun line player can destroy or rout his opponent's forces before he is able to charge him, then it's potentially a flawless victory. If not, the gun line player will be completely crushed as soon as they are engaged in melee.

Now, with all that whining out of the way, I'm not planning on bringing a gunline any time soon. I'll keep adding to my force and expanding my options, especially with juicy units like the dreaded steam tank, since there's more than one way to skin a Brettonian.

Thanks for coming by, I hope you enjoyed this battle report. Stay tuned for more reports coming soon.

-Nick

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