Carcassonne is a playable subfaction of Bretonnia introduced in Total War: Warhammer. It is led by The Fay Enchantress and can be found in southern Bretonnia.
Bretonnia is the largest and most powerful nation of men in the Old World, after The Empire. They are less technologically advanced than their neighbours, but are sheltered and protected by their geography. Carcassone is the seat of the Fay Enchantress, a spiritual leader for the people. Bretonnian society has a strict division between the nobles and knights, and the lowly peasants who often live in squalor. The race is strongly based on arthurian legends and medieval France. Their armies consist of more numerous, cheaper peasant units fighting alongside a variety of powerful knights.
How they play[ | ]
A summary of Bretonnia gameplay:
- Units: Strong knight cavalry, backed up by cheap peasant infantry. Plenty of flying units.
- Regiments of Renown: These are unique, more elite versions of regular Bretonnia units.
- Chivalry: Noble actions provide faction-wide bonuses, while acting unchivalrously incurs penalties.
- The Green Knight: A unique hero unit that becomes available to summon after reaching certain thresholds of chivalry.
- Peasant Economy: Peasants both work the land, and also fight in armies. Recruiting too many peasant units hampers your economy.
- Lance Formation: This special formation, unique to Bretonnia, allows their cavalry to pierce through enemy lines.
Background[ | ]
| “ | We keep the Orcs from the rest of Bretonnia. It is our duty, and we ask no reward but that we be allowed to do it. We are Carcassonne, and we will fight! | „ |
The Lady of the Lake is the principle Bretonnian deity, said to embody the pure, noble, courageous spirit for which the Kingdom is known. Her earthly representative is the Fay Enchantress, who watches over Bretonnia from her tower in Carcassonne and upon whose wise counsel King Louen depends. In fact, during times of dynastic crisis, the Enchantress is empowered to choose the next Royarch from amongst the Dukes and has, on at least one prior occasion, stripped a tyrannical or cruel ruler of his throne and commanded his own Knights to forcibly expel the oppressor from the Kingdom! Whilst undoubtedly ancient – some say thousands of years old even – the Enchantress appears to all as a beautiful young woman and is reincarnated instantly as soon as her host body wears out. Although undoubtedly a fearsome sorceress more than capable of defeating her enemies by herself, the Fay Enchantress is served by her loyal body of Grail Knights, whose lives are sworn to protect her person and obey any and all commands. She is also served by the Damsels and Prophetesses of the Lady, who are called into her service as children and become her acolytes, eventually having not insignificant magical powers of their own.
The Enchantress is the one who rouses the usually competitive Dukedoms of Bretonnia into united action when the Kingdom is threatened by evil forces from without. It has even been known, at times of mortal peril, for her to ride into battle ahead of an army of her fiercely-loyal Grail Knights. On the battlefield, she uses magic to both protect Bretonnian forces from attack or weaken and strike down the foe – sometimes with a single, furious stare!
It was Duke Lambard of Carcassonne, one of the famed Companions of Gilles the Uniter, who first adopted the image of the sword for his nation’s Heraldry. Although Carcassonne was one of few Bretonnian provinces that did not see a Great Battle on its lands, Lambard rode out to fight victoriously in nine of them. The blade symbolises Carcassonne’s warrior-culture, attested by their centuries-old tradition of gifting every newborn son a freshly-forged sword, which they are made to touch as soon as they enter the world. It is then ornamentally placed above their cots until it can be wielded.
In campaign[ | ]
Lord choices[ | ]
- The Fay Enchantress - A powerful spellcaster who uses the Lore of Life.
Faction effects[ | ]
Image of the Lady: +5 peasants available to the faction- Casualty replenishment rate: +15%
Lord effects[ | ]
See Fay Enchantress
Additional starting units[ | ]
See Fay Enchantress
Start position[ | ]
The Old World, Mortal Empires & Immortal Empires:
The Season of Revelation:
Victory objectives[ | ]
Immortal Empires[ | ]
Short Campaign Victory[ | ]
- Occupy, loot, raze, or sack 30 different settlements
- Complete the Troth of Virtue Vow with the Fay Enchantress
Long Campaign Victory[ | ]
- Occupy, loot, raze, or sack 70 different settlements
- Attain 10,000 Chivalry
- Complete the final Errantry War batttle
Diplomacy[ | ]
Starting agreements[ | ]
Mortal Empires
- War with Dreadfleet
Immortal Empires
- War with Red Cloud
- Non-aggression pact with Talsyn
Diplomatic traits[ | ]
- Aggressive - Belligerent and wermongering, their armies reach far with little regard for defence.
- Unreliable - Agreements hold little sway. This one is not to be trusted.
- Underdog - Instead of trying to get to the top of the food chain, this one prefers joining a worthy faction in confederation.
Strategy[ | ]
Immortal Empires[ | ]
Geography, faction limitations and density of nearby enemies conspire to make Carcassonne one of the most challenging start positions in the game. The Fay Enchantress has the tools to endure and succeed, but this is not a campaign recommended for beginners, even on easier difficulties.
Once the initial Greenskins are dealt with, there are two potential courses of action:
- The most important early goal is to take out Broken Axe as rapidly as possible. You simply don't have time to mess around and ideally you have Grom off the board within the first 9 turns. Strategically, one way of dealing with him is to wait for him to attack Bordeleaux, then march over to Orcal Massif and take it while he's gone, depriving him of his main settlement. Another option is to swipe Aquitaine in the same scenario, but only if you're confident you can defeat his main army the next turn. In either case, recruiting an extra lord ASAP will give you some vital holding power against the swarms of Orcs you'll be dealing with.
- A risky alternate option, however, may be to beat Talsyn to the punch by conquering Parravon as quickly as possible before dealing with Grom. This is a very high-risk, high-reward move, and likely makes for a much more difficult early game (which is already the most difficult part of any campaign) for the sake of longer-term benefits. If secured, Parravon's province is extremely valuable for recruiting cavalry armies because of the Pastures resource in Quenelles (which allows for cheaper local recruitment of cav and, later on, global upkeep reduction to all knights) and, even more significantly, the extremely valuable Peaks of Parravon landmark building in Parravon. If you don't take these settlements within the first few turns, then Talsyn certainly will, depriving you of these very valuable regions until much later in the campaign when (if ever) you are ready and willing to turn on the Wood Elves or you can afford to purchase them from Orion. On the flip side, taking the time to fight Parravon will give Grom (and Ikit, see below) that much longer to build up steam, and at that point he will likely have started recruiting a second army at Orcal Massif, making him that much tougher to deal with.
Your second biggest threat after Grom is going to be Clan Skryre, but they are very difficult to do anything about in the early game thanks largely to the existence of Warherd of the Shadowgave. You can camp-creep through Estallia and take Morghur out relatively easily, but by the time you do so Ikit will almost certainly have declared on you and will have three or four armies going under, around and through you to massacre your provinces. His underway stance allows him to jump straight from Skavenblight into Castle Carcassonne's region, a major advantage you do not have. Because of this, it may make better sense to adopt a defensive posture to the south by leaving one army in ambush stance in Carcassonne, and use your main army to secure the north.
Mousillon can be a threat, but they have a lot of enemies and it's relatively easy to take them out and start putting their lands to good use. With your help, the Barrow Legion can be stopped before they snowball out of control as well. Doing this should give you bargaining chips with which to get trade deals and confederations out of nearby friendlies. In particular, getting a defensive alliance with Talsyn is incredibly useful since it will give you a more effective garrison in Castle Carcassone itself, and opens the possibility of filling out armies with vastly superior Wood Elf infantry and ranged units in the future. Rushing confederation with Couronne (ensuring you have enough chivalry to do this) is another tempting option.
Once this is done you should be in a better economic position to push through Estallia and kill Morghur without being overrun by the Skaven behind him, and once that is settled finally bring the war to the little bastards themselves. When Skavenblight falls, pat yourself on the back! The real difficulty of the campaign is over and you can take your glorious crusade wherever you damn well please.
Trivia[ | ]
- They also appear as a minor, non-playable faction in the Season of Revelation campaign.
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