Impetus Battle Report - 28mm Fantasy Test Games

We finally had the opportunity to try some games of Impetus Fantasy using Chris's collection of 28mm Lord of the Ring models. He put together two 250-point forces - an Elf-Gondor alliance vs. the forces of Mordor.

In the first game, Chris commanded the forces of evil and I took command of the good army. As you can see, Chris put his painted models in GW's movement trays for the War of the Ring game. These bases have a frontage of about 11.5 cm. It's a shame that they weren't a tiny bit wider.

The good army was much smaller than the evil army.


The orcs were fielded as large warbands. This was the first time that anyone in our group has ever used Large Units in Impetus. They are quite effective when used correctly.


The orc warband smashed into the elf archers but, thanks to a miscarriage of fortune, the orcs were driven back and destroyed shortly after by the combined efforts of the elf spearmen and the elf archers. The elves are VBU:4, armed with longbow A, and have the Eagle Eyed ability, so they are pretty nasty at range.


The Gondor heavy foot units have the Long Spear ability which turned out to be useless in a game with no cavalry.


During the final battle of the first game, my orcs charged Chris's general's unit and won the combat. Chris rolled a 6 on the cohesion test and, after all variables were taken into account, the entire army fled the field.


"Whaddya gonna do? Let's play again!"


Chris played the good army this time and spent the first half of the game putting most of his melee units on Opportunity while I advanced.


The orcish menace.


I assume that there's a special place in the Grey Havens for Elves who die at the hands of goblins. Oh, for shame!


Thanks to the following official rules amendment, formed missile troops and light foot are even more handy when deployed in front of heavy foot:

Amendment to Paragraph 5.10.1 Voluntary Interpenetration.
Units of Missile troops (T) and Light Infantry (FL), except for Impetuous troops, can be interpenetrated by any type of troops and for the purposes of Interpenetration they behave like units of Skirmishers (S), and so are placed behind the interpenetrating unit even if the interpenetration is not complete.
Missile troops and Light Infantry (not impetuous) can also interpenetrate any type of Unit or Large Unit (including Schiltron, Pikemen and Impetuous troops).

The Impetus gods shone down on me again as I drove Chris's good army from the field.


For the third game, I went back to the good side of the table while Ken stepped in the command the evil army. I took less photos at this point (I was getting tired of taking photos) but I remember quite clearly that Ken rolled over my army.

An eye candy shot of Chris's elf archers. Can't remember why I took it now.


Ken used the mass of goblins very effectively to swarm my heavy foot.


The evil army arrives at my line in more or less good order and starts the business of changing the history of Middle Earth.


Another shot of the elf archers.

Thoughts & Commentary

Impetus is pretty much my favourite ruleset. It combines the perfect balance of intensity and relaxing gameplay. However, I'll be honest - I still prefer my 15mm historical game. Now, don't get me wrong. I'll be starting a 28mm Impetus Fantasy army this week and I'm overjoyed that the group has embraced my favourite ruleset, but it won't be stopping me from proceeding with my historical projects. Thoughts in no particular order:

1. Scale
   Although 28mm minis are more detailed and all that, I find that 15mm armies strike the right balance of detail and ease of painting. Furthermore, the 6x4 table that we are usually restricted to is a relatively larger playing surface when the 15mm armies are on the table. So, on one hand, the game is faster with 28mm (where inches are used instead of cm) but there is less maneuver than in the 15mm game.
   
   
2. Complexity
   In short, the historical armies tend to be comprised of units that are more consistent in their make-up. In other words, all FL in Impetus move 8cm and tend to have similar (if any) abilities. One thing I like about Impetus is that I don't have to get into remembering different abilities (or at least very few). I can play the unit types without getting caught up in special rules, if that makes any sense.
   
   
3. Genre
   Finally, I'm just plain more interested in historical armies these days than in fantasy ones.

So, there it is, the beginning of an era, I'm sure. For those looking for a decisive and rich fantasy ruleset I would strongly recommend Impetus Fantasy. I'll be posting units as they are painted, so don't stray too far.

Thanks for reading,
JET