The Bretonnian Team - Full write-up

[plasmoid]

Hi all, following the debate we recetnly had in this forum, I now present you with the final version of our Bretonnian team. The team has reached it's 5th incarnation, is based on around 300 playtest games, as well as your feedback.
Enjoy!

_Introduction_
Today, blood bowl is a very well respected sport in Brettonia. It is considered a great test of martial skills, and is considered equal to jousting, in preparing knights for the rigours of war. Every baron wants his own team, and it is considered a great honour indeed to compete in the royal court leagues. Even fair damsels who set the errants for budding young knights, have started to request "the scoring of many touchdowns".

But this is not how it has always been.

In the early years of Blood Bowl, the brettonians knew little of the game, and indeed it was disdained as a pastime for the commoners and ruffians of lesser nations. This was only changed by a mistake on the part of Jean Pierre Sansfortune - a brave, though unlucky, questing knight. Roaming the grey mountains, he heard of a huge grail adorned with skulls, held in the imperial city of Altdorf.
This was surely the grail he thought.

Jean Pierre travelled to Altdorf, and learned of the terrible ordeal he had to endure in order to lay hands on the grail, a trial worthy of the bravest knight - and so he joined the Reikland Reavers. For many years he struggled, until finally one day, he lead (sort of) his team to victory at Blood Bowl XI. Imagine Jean Pierre's disappointment when he finally held the grail, for there was no liquid in it from which to sip, and no lady of the lake to present it to him. Shattered, and disgraced, he quit the team, to return to his native Brionne.

However, on the first night of his journey home, he had a vision, a true visitation from the lady of the lake herself. She granted him her favour, for succeeding in his arduous quest, having braved all perils, and done what no other knight had done before him.
Back in Brettonia he was greeted a hero, and from that day, the Bloodweiser trophy was considered a worthy alternative to the grail, and blood bowl the sport of the virtuous....

_Questing for the Grail_
Over the years a number of different Bretonnian teams have been available on the internet, and it seems that there have been 2 approaches to the team: One is to portray the Bretonnians as a team of knights, squires and hangers on, while the other is to make them very similar to the official human team. As the introduction reveals, I prefer a Bretonnian team with knights and squires. I like new teams to offer unique advantages and interesting challenges, rather than duplicate old ones.

It is well worth noting that these "knights" and "squires" are meant as cultural titles, in much in the same way as dwarven slayers, runners and longbeards - and are not meant to indicate that the knights are charging onto the pitch on their warhorses in lance formation. Also, these knights are playing in full Blood Bowl kit, not full plate mail. They are of course aristocrats playing Blood Bowl, not misplaced military personnel.

_The Players_
The team consists of 2x2 knights, and 4 squires to match these lieges. The rest of the team is made up of lowly peasants, who are terrible blood bowl players. As for the types of knights on the team, the choice was obvious: Knights errant are young reckless knights out to prove their mettle ( - perhaps on the blood bowl pitch?), while questing knights are out there looking for the grail - having formed a team in order to retrieve it! Both of these would have every reason to play Blood Bowl.

_The Stats_
Being a team of humans, there was no way that the players could have an ST or AG above 3. Instead, their great martial prowess would have to be portrayed with a handful of skills.

The knights errant are the teams flashy recievers, playing for glory, reputation, and the occasional fringe benefits. You know what those Bretonnians say: "Score on the pitch - score with the ladies". Their squires help fetch the ball, so their masters can concentrate on scoring.

The questing knights for their part are capable warriors, able to best 2 lesser men, or to vanquish terrible monsters. Their squires are trained to help out their lieges in the thick of the fighting.

The peasants? Cannon fodder to tie up the opposition while the knights take care of business.

The team rerolls are very expensive, to show that the peasants are not particularly skilled, while the knights are probably a little too interested in personal glory be labelled team players

_The Roster_
This is something like the 5th incarnation of this Bretonnian Team. Between each version has gone lots of playtest, and by now the team has seen action in more than 300 games. All this playtest resulted in a roster that was well balanced and fun to play, but didn't quite conform with the general conception of roster design. After a debate on the talkbloodbowl site, the team underwent some changes, and ended up like this:

# gc title stats access skills
0-2 110K Questing Knights 6339 G,ST block, multiple block, dauntless
0-2 70K Questor Squires 6338 G,ST guard
0-2 100K Errant Knights 7338 G,AG block, catch
0-2 60K Errant Squires 6338 G,PA Sure Hands
0-12 30K Peasants 6327 G -

ReRolls 70K. Apothecary and Wizard as normal. No Big Guy.

_The Team_
And that's the team. The team combines the very best of players with players that are next to worthless. Sure, the knights are truly awesome blood bowl players, but it will prove quite a challenge to any coach to make do with so few players of notable quality.

You can see a painted Bretonnian team here:
http://home.worldonline.dk/nyskes/bbowl/P_Bretonnia.htm