Bretonnian Teams in Blood Bowl: Criticism
[The Team] [Why These Bretonnians?] [Design Decisions] [Star Players] [Gallery + Cyanide] [Playbook] [Criticism]

Over the course of it's long creation process, the Bretonnian roster has evolved to accomodate lots of different points of critique. I feel that the team has dealt with the most common design complaints, while remaining true to both the fluff and the intended niche. However, whenever anyone inquires about rules for Bretonnians in Blood Bowl, a handful of gripes are repeated time and again:

Bretonnians do not belong in BB, because the BB-universe is not the Warhammer Universe!
While it is true that they're not the same universe, there are striking similarities. There could be BB-Bretonnians, just like there are BB-Skaven, BB-Chaos and BB-High Elfs.
They're neither Warhammer Bretonnians nor an army.
Or, to illustrate my point, I'll quote from the BB team lists: Black Orc, Troll Slayer, Skaven, Gutter Runner, Rat Ogre, Witch Elf, Chaos, Beastman, Chaos Warrior, Bull Centaur, Wardancer, Yethee, Saurus, Skink, Kroxigor, Khemri, Nurgle - not to mention teams like Middenheim Marauders or Lustria Croakers.

There is already a Bretonnian team in Blood Bowl. It's called the Human team!
The Human team does not encompass all human nations. The Norse and Amazon team are ample proof of that.

There just isn't room for a 4th human team!
There are 4 elf teams, 4 undead teams, 4 chaos teams - even 4 stunty teams.

Why would Bretonnian nobles employ useless peasant linemen?
Because somebody has to do the dirty work. But more importantly: Because this is a game.
Why do undead use zombies instead of wights? Why aren't all norse players berserkers? Why don't chaos have 0-8 chaos warriors.
Balance.

Bretonnians? Why not Eshin, Skryre, Kislev or Araby then?
Because the nation of Bretonnia is distinct enough to have it's own Warhammer army. So it could have it's own Blood Bowl team.
And importantly - having a Warhammer army means that there is plenty of fluff material written, plenty of miniatures for conversions and lots of fans who could port over to Blood Bowl.

Nobles and peasants in Blood Bowl? That's stupid - it's nothing like old established teams like Slann.
Feast your eyes on there from the 1st edition of BB.

I can't get over the fact that they're MA8 humans. That's just wrong.
Fair enough. But it makes the team very interesting to play. Change that and it just wouldn't be the same team.
Mind you, the concept isn't entirely outlandish. Human catchers are after all MA8.

They're overpowered. Or they're underpowered!
Our extensive playtest data show them to be neither - the playtesters said: Tier 1, outside of the top 5.

Hey - I went to the MBBL and checked their stats. They've got a win percentage of 62. That's broken!
Thanks for the well researched question.
However, in the MBBL the team has been played mainly by the best coaches.
I took the average win percentage of these coaches (excluding their tier 2 teams and their Bretonnian teams) and multiplied by their individual games with the Bretonnians.
If the Bretonnians had been completely average, these quality coaches would still have come out at just under 58%!

So - the Bretonnians are a spot better than average. Or, as I've said, Tier 1, outside of the top 5.