Brettonian Help for an 11 year old

[Grailkeeper]

My Cousin has started to play fantasy, he got the rule books etc as well as the starter kit yesterday. I'm at least one edition behind in my knowledge of fantasy, so I was hoping the Gestalt out there would be able to give me a hand in giving him advice. I did recommend he get a damsel as a magician- any other advice?

[Wildeybeast]

Pick another army. Brets are generally considered a very tough army to play with in their current form

[Grailkeeper]

Unfortunately he has his heart set on them. He'll mostly be playing against Skaven and High elves thanks to the Isle of Blood

[ForsakenImp]

There's two forms of brets- Knight Heavy, and Peasant heavy with knight backup. I'm a Knight Heavy guy, so if he wants lots of peasants, ignore my post.

Trebuchets are worth their weight in Gold vs the Hordes of Skaven, and should be able to help with the big bad units of elves. He'll always want the max amount of Trebuchets.

Damsels are great as well. With the Dispel Scroll and the bret item that works like a dispel scroll, he can hold off those killer spells that eat units with no saves allowed. Plus, the Base Spell from the Lore of Beasts is amazing for brets and a lvl 2 can get it off on two dice on average when targeting brets.

Heros look nice, but rarely swing a combat by themselves. Only go loading up if you need a certain job done that a unit can't do as effectively, as combat resolution wise they are a waste (i.e. if you need to kill t6 or higher monster, giving units buffs, ect, but not just to help kill).

Bret units need to be large to avoid having the enemy be steadfast after a charge. Try and put most of his non-trebuchet points into Knights of the Realm, as a couple good big blocks of KOTR slam through most things. Small knight units are only useful for getting into the rear and hitting warmachines and archer units.

Brets win by point denial usually- as an army they don't hold up in a long engagement, but can have local superiority due to the small frontage and heavy points cost of most knights. Most of my wins are from dominating an area and refusing to engage elsewhere. Help him realize he can't just charge one versus one, but should gang up on a unit or two with multiple units, then break through and circle around for another pass. This might be a bit much for an 11 year old, but is the only way brets stand a chance- hit hard and use those horses to keep on moving by so they don't get charged in return.

TL:DR- This is for Knight heavy, not peasant heavy. Load up on Knights Errant or Knights of the Realm in big units, and smash through a unit or two with his whole army and circle around for another pass. After the initial pass he should be winning, so it's more important to minimize losses than try for another risky kill. Not including max trebuchets is a intentional choice to be worse. Dispel Scroll spells that don't allow saves, he can eat losing a knight or two to other spells.

P.S.- Brets can be a challenge to play, but usually have at least one turn where they're charging and kicking face. If that part of the game is played up and milked for all the enjoyment it's worth, he may enjoy brets even though he might loose quite a bit.

P.p.s. http://www.roundtable-bretonnia.org is the premier Bretonnian site, very useful! Of course, we love helping here as well.

[Abides]

My best advice is start with two scratch built Trebuchets. As an 11 year old, he'll love building his own and its a great intro to modelling as well as a cornerstone of the army.
By "starter set" do you mean the Bret battalion box?
What point size do you see him playing at? 1000 for now?
If so, buy one more box of knights and stick the archers in the men at arms block. Ideally the knights should be 9 in a unit, but an 8 man lance can work.
Add a damsel in there, give her Beasts lore and the icon that gives the infantry the blessing.
Solid beginner 1k list, probably what hell be seeing from the other beginners with IOB.

[Cherub]

The best advice you can have is just to have fun. Through a game or 2 if you have to but make sure they are having lots of fun. Brets are not a point and click army, they take alot of tactics to win, but even losing are fun to paint and play with. They are my wife's only army and only now after 6 years has she even started to look at other armies. And she does quite well with them to boot.
My gaming club has been playing lots of games with our kids now that they are old enough to start painting and playing and the very best advice any of us can give is just to focus on making sure that they are having fun. Lots of different scenarios are one good way to keep the fun factor.

[xxvaderxx]

Sounds good to me, brets play like any other army in the game this edition, blocks front and center, cav flanks.