Taken with permission of Skavenblight
What would the Bretonnian army be
without characters?
Awnser: A Lot Of Knights
Characters & Support:
I guess this kind of goes along with what your opponent is
playing. Whilest some armies have few characters, some have an
abundance. I try to match (Or exceed if possible) what you think
your opponent is going to spend on characters. Let us be warned,
if you rely too much on characters or do not take any at all, you
are missing a vital support factor that could lead to your
defeat. In the earlyer days of warhammer, there was a saying:
"A character is nothing without a unit to back him up."
Now, in this day of Magic Gadgets of death and Magic Spells of
Killing Really Good, someone might need to be careful how they
invest in that statement. When I design my army, first I put a
hero in every unit. Even if you cannot afford magic items for
them *I usualy give them none anyway) there is that extra 3
attacks and LD support that will be there when you need it. If
for nothing else than to challenge that Chaos Lord Of Khorne On
Emperor Dragon with the Blade of Leaping Death and the armor of
killing everything.
Characters & Virtues:
To not buy a character virtues is
to commit sacralige. Not only are you required to buy one, but
for the general, battle standard, and heroes you can have an
additional one. I try to keep my virtues to a minimal amount of
variety, unless I have a specific task in mind where it would
require me to do things that I would normaly not do. (Example:
The virtue that makes you immune to magic, the virtue that causes
hatred twords troops with missile weapons, ect.)
I highly reccomend the virtue of purity or the virtue of
countercharge for those heroes who would be in knight units, as
this applies to the knights too. I also think the virtue that
adds D6" to your charge is quite good if you need to cover a
lot of ground. (Example: Facing 15 Repeater Bolt Throwers) If you
take countercharging, you will always have your lances at str. 6.
Very useful indeed, and against slower races, you might even get
to go first in hand to hand as it is based on Iniative.
Characters By Themselves:
Well, I think the days of lone heroes (other than on monsters)
are long gone. But if you do happen to feild a hero by himself
for whatever reason (remember that mages are not knights and
cannot take knightly virtues) there are a few things to put in
the back of your mind. There are several virtues that are
extreamly good with lone characters. First, the virtue of
immunity to magic. Very good against those opponents who like to
kill your characters with spells. Second, the virtue of the
impetuous knight, which allows you to gain an extra attack for
those that hit the first time. (As my friend Bob Yager pointed
out, very good with the hydra sword.) I also reccomend the Tress
of Isolude with the blade of leaping gold, and the virtue of
impetuous knight. For a hero, that gives him 6 attacks hitting on
a 2+, then for every hit he gets he gains another attack, again
hitting on 2+.When you have his attacks worked out, (He will have
about 9 or 10) he will then roll to wound his opponent on a 2+
regardless of toughness. The tress offers no armor save and thus
your opponent can only save with wards. Another crowd pleaser.