1st month spending 24 (Old school) Bowmen - £15 1 (Old school) Grail Knight Champion - £5 1 (Old school) Grail Knight Standard Bearer - £5 8 Knights of Bretonnia - £15 Total = £40 =£10 left carried over to next month A Tale of OGC Gamers Bretonnia Based on the White Dwarf series from 1999, OGC held its own army-building event. Starting with £50 in January 2004, players then had £25 a month to spend until June, for a total of £175. Players would then pit their armies in the Tale of Gamers only Tournament to decide the best winner. This part of the tale follows Simon Gray’s Bretonnian’s… Month 1 The land of Chivalry Deciding which army to collect was the hardest decision of all, as I really wanted to collect Bretonnia themed Blood Dragon army, but my conscience prevailed when Charly decided that he would rather collect the Dogs of War.  Saved from damnation, I went down the path of the virtuous and began mustering a Bretonnian war host… My Purchases this were limited at first, given that the new Bretonnian range wasn’t out until the last day of January, as was the army book.  Leaving all of my purchases until then would not be an option as the painting would give me a serious headache, so I decided to make a few sneaky purchases which saves me money in the long run.  Three boxes of the old Bretonnian archers gave me twenty-four bowmen to paint, and for a small sum of £15, I was off on my way to mustering the army.  Now, in the Bretonnian PDF it states that a battle standard bearer is mandatory, so that was what I bought next, with my Lord, both on horseback. For these, I used the soon to be retired Grail Knight champion and standard-bearer, as they were due to be replaced by the new Grail Knights.  For those two I forked out only £10 and was laughing all the way to my painting table until I realised the monotony of painting 24 almost identical models, however, the finished product was well worth the time and effort.  I now had time to kill before the rest of my first month’s purchases.  My heart was set on a new regiment of Knights of the Realm and £15 later I was sorted and I could now use the army book to find out exactly what to do with it all, leaving me to plan out my next few months’ purchases and £10 left over.  Coming up with a theme for the army was easy, as I was pretty much always set on the classic Bretonnian army, so that’s what I will get.  No namby pamby Trebuchets or Pegasus Knights for me.  No way.  Even though the trebuchet has strength ten.  I said no. I won’t betray the lady. Aaarrgh! Month 2 For King and Country! Well, as the time flies past and hours of painting come to fruition, phase two was about to begin. After the late purchase of the army book it is only now that I have a rough idea of what to include in my force, and so I have now drafted my army list. This month is going to be a big one in terms of painting, though it will pale in comparison to the vast amount of Bretonnians I got the month before. However, the end result of all that painting left me with a couple of units that would stand up to close scrutiny in the summer...     ...Now onto the purchases. This month saw a rather skint me running around calling in old debts in order to afford what I had intended to buy. A bit of cash later and I was off to seek more bowmen (a regiment box of 16, bringing me up to a total of 40), and I got another box of Knights of the Realm. It was time to hit the painting table. As far as selecting my army plan for 2,000 points, I decided to go through my original list and begin to remove the magic items, trying to find out how many points I could free up from some items that would only be of use against one opponent. Having saved forty points on my battle standard (which went from a 50 point item down to a ten point item), I managed to turn my bowmen into a skirmishing unit. This decision was somewhat influenced by the fact that they could all fire in this formation and finding a hill that could fit two ranks of twenty models on would not really be a good idea. I waved goodbye to my defensive stakes, feeling quite pleased (after all, it was something I no longer needed to paint)...     ...My noble and pure-hearted Bretonnians saw their first battle this month, against the foul beasts of the Forest 2nd month spending  £10 left carried over from last month  Bowmen Regiment - £15 8 Knights of Bretonnia - £15 Total = £30 £5 left carried over to next month 3rd month spending Box of Knights £15 Damsels Blister                   £8     Total:                                23 Last Month:                           2 £7 carried over till next month 4th month spending 4 Grail Knight Blisters £24   Total:                                24 Last Month:                           7 £8 carried over till next month 5th month spending Grail Knights Boxed Set £25 Bretonnian Hero               £7 Total:                                £32 Last Month:                          8 £1 carried over till next month of Arden. With 500 points on each side, the result was a draw. I learnt the deadliness of the lance formation in the charge, however, I also noticed that the Beastmen had a very useful tactical advantage with their ability to camp out in the woods. It really put an emphasis on the one weakness of my Lance Formation, namely its flanks. I was unwilling to allow a beast unit to hit me in the flanks so I spent a great deal of time manouvering my knights, but eventually, they pulled off a devastating charge, breaking a beast herd before them. The Lady had certainly blessed me as my holy crusade began... Month 3 Blessed be the Lady This month was quite sentimental for me as I strolled down to my local retailer and purchased my last box of Bretonnian Knights. With 24 Knights of the realm to command alongside my 40 bowmen, I had the makings of quite an impressive army. After gluing and undercoating them, I set off to obtain my next purchase for this month, my damsels of the lady. Surrendering myself to the new models (I really don't like the one on horseback), I was all set this month, and had (thanks to Luke for spawning the following phrase) 7 'floaty' pounds left over. I felt really pleased, because in terms of purchases to come, I was only faced with one paladin and 6 grail knights before I reached the target of 2,000 pts (and that's with as little 'beard' as I could possibly bring myself to use). That means that I  only have 2 more months and then I can spend as much as I like each month... Month 4 The final stage for my Bretonnian army has begun. With no more core units left to buy, and with the Grail Knights finally out in GW, I began my own quest for the sacred grail (i.e. the money needed to buy the £6 a piece little gimps). Now, in my tale of gamers budget, I had £32 available to spend this month, however, due to many unforseen necessary purchases this month, that sort of money was destined to be an unattainable goal for me, so I got 4 grail knights as opposed to the 5 that I could have afforded. Why didn't I get the boxed set? I can answer that simply enough. I do not want a standard bearer for the unit. Can you guess which unit my battle standard is going in? Having seen the pictures of them in the Bretonnian army book, I was not overly impressed with the models, but once I bought them, I got a better feel for all the details on them. Sticking them together was, for some reason, really difficult. Perhaps it was the fact that the Grail Knights began to do this weird, Jesus-esque thing where they turned super glue into water, or that the joints quite simply did not fit properly. The most annoying part was the legs. Why make a metal knight if he won't fit on the horse he's supposed to ride. I would have thought that, with so many years of making this mistake, the model designers would have finally overcome this major flaw. I never had problems like this with my Dwarfs. With 4 Grail Knights at my disposal, the big 2,000-point boundary was drawing ever closer (only a couple of hundred points to go now). Painting them was to be a welcome break from the thousands of models that had gone before them in my Tale of Gamers Army, and I settled down to a nice, relaxed month of painting (I must deny any suggestions that I've been slacking off in my painting duties). So far, I've been doing well to resist the Trebuchet (Strength 10 under the hole for God's sake), but with things looking like I'll have nothing left to buy in the final month, considering that all I need now is a lowly Paladin and 2 more grail knights. I suppose I could justify something for the painting competition from the new Bretonnian range. Something big. Something beaked. I do have a story line planned aswell, but that can be a nice treat for all you dedicated readers in the final month... Month 5 With my final purchases in sight one month before the Tale of Gamers was set to end, I headed down to games workshop once more. I was forced now to buy more Grail Knights than I would have fielded, as the magic item limit for all characters was now to be halved, so instead of buying the two I opted for the boxed set that I had previously snubbed. The reason for this was simple. After a little research, I discovered that the knights you get in the box can actually all be made into normal knights if desired. Picking up a lowly Paladin as well was all it took for me to finish off my bretonnians for the tournament. Army Total Spending = £149 Month 6 MWAHAHAHAHA!!! I had nothing left to purchase this month, with my army already being at the right size for the tournament, so I opted for a Warhammer Tower just to make the battlefields look prettier… How the Bretonnian’s fared You can find out all about the Bretonnian’s performance in the Fantasy Tournament in Motion 2004 section on the website. Here is a quick summary of how they performed… Tournament standing: 1st place (of 5) Bretonnia (Simon Gray) Lord - Lord (Warhorse, Lance, Grail Vows, Virtue of Confidence, Gauntlet of the Duel, Enchanted Shield)  212 pts Hero - Paladin (Warhorse , Battle Standard, Banner of Chalons, Grail Vow, Virtue of Discipline) 120 pts Paladin (Warhorse, Lane of Artois, Shield, Grail Vow) 120 pts Damsel (Warhorse, Level 2, Dispel Scroll) 144 pts Damsel (Level 2, Dispel Scroll) 130 pts Core - Knights of the Realm (12, full command) 312 pts Knights of the Realm (12, full command) 312 pts Bowmen (40 w/ skirmish) 300 pts Rare - Grail Knights (9 w/ musician) 352 pts Total - 2,004 pts