Heraldry & beating Bretonnians
After Adam's Bretonnian Tactica on Tuesday, we've put together Know Thy Foe: Bretonnians to make sure Bretonnian players don't have it all their own way. This Know Thy Foe article deals specifically with defeating the Knights of Bretonnia, but you'll find its advice useful when facing any cavalry heavy army.
Painting an army poses a very different challenge to painting a single miniature. Armies generally look best when all of the units have a similar feel to them, and can look a bit 'messy' when they're a collection of single miniatures that have been lumped together on the gaming table. Some people create a great-looking army by using matching shield designs, banners or movement trays, while others use a limited palette of colour across every model. Mark Wells, Games Workshop's Chief Executive and a fanatical hobbyist, has used a mixture of these techniques on his Bretonnian army, and succeeded in achieving a cohesive force while lending his knights their own identity.
Here's a look at Mark's army so far:
Mark has used varying shades of blue across his army and repeated the Lord's axe iconography on the shields of all of his Knights of the Realm - denoting them as belonging to the Lord. The Peasant Bowmen are actually the most lethal unit in Mark's army: having recently slain a Chaos Sorcerer, who was hiding in some woods, in a single volley.
These Knights of the Realm carry their Lord's crest on their shields and banner but maintain their own unique helms. Mark has used an often over-looked approach by applying a transfer to the banner. Click on the image for a side-on view of the unit.
Mark's Grail Knights look white at first glance, but actually have a blue-grey hue to them. This makes them stand out from the rest of the army and emphasises their purity and devotion.
The Pegasus Knights have been given their own heraldry but have still been painted in Mark's blue colour scheme. Click on the image for a closer look at the grey Pegasus, which gives Mark an easily identifiable unit champion.
Even though Mark's Peasant Bowmen have been painted in muted browns, he's tied them into the army by painting their shields and hoods in blues. Notice the Lord's symbol on their banner.
There was a great response to John Blanche's artwork yesterday, so here's some more:
