Quote:
Originally Posted by Radio_Star
After mulling over the nation a bit, the lack of astral (or, more precisely, astral counters) would probably be the death of Bretonnia.
Even though you get a neat little MR booster for your sacreds, the arcane bolts, oppositions, arcane dominations and, more to the point, mind hunts and magic duels would be absolutely brutal.
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Yeah, your astral access is pretty minor (not counting heroes, both mage heroes have S3), but enough to feeblemind Mind Hunters with some S1 Grail Maidens.
Arcane Bolts and oppositions are painful, but are not impossible to counter, you just need decoys with high size and hp to make the enemy mages target them over your Grail Knights. Elementals are good (Bottle of Living Water is good for this purpose), as are Crushers, Wooden Constructs, Fall Bears and Summer Lions. All have high size(over 3) and have more hp that Grail Knights, Dukes, Grail Heroes or Damsels.
As for the battlefield wide "screw magic units" counters, things are a bit more difficult. Astral bless helps, as does casting antimagic or the Virtue of Purity. What I'd suggest is to just bench the magical units if the opponent shows astral mages able to casts those high S spells. You can thug out Marquis instead of Dukes and just use hordes of Errants instead of Grail Knights. Just remember to accomapnay the army with some Damsels equipped with mr boost items. With their high mr, they will be nearly immune to the "negates-easily" BF spells, but their presence will make the opponent cast those scripted BF spells, essentially wasting him mage turns, fatigue and gems.
But you are right, one of the main weaknessess of Bretonnia is its predictability. You can't just focus on Dukes or Grail Knights and expect the opponent to roll over, mix it up a little. This is just one reason why astral pretender is good for Breton.