Fantasy Impetus: First 300-point Game

Last night four of the guys in the group brought their Fantasy Impetus armies out for some bashing and smashing. My first game was against Marc's High Elves. We've both just finished painting up to the 300-point level so it was the largest fantasy game we had played so far.

Marc's starting army consisted of FP x2 (Spearmen), CP x2 (Knights), Art x1 (Bolt Thrower), CH-Hero x1 (Elven Archer Hero), M x1 (Great Wurm), and of course, and Expert general with a Good command structure.

We used the road rules, which meant that these goblin units could make two moves without making a disorder check.

Marc began wheeling his army in order to give his knights access to the open ground.

By the second turn, this is how things looked. Notice the Elven Knights (left) preparing to charge the goblin skirmishers and medium cavalry (right). Now, also notice the position of the goblin hero near the middle-bottom of the photo. Keep that in mind.

Heroes move like skirmishers so broken ground has no effect on them. Doesn't Marc's bow-armed hero look sexy?

As I pointed out above... When Marc declared the charge towards my goblin cavalry, we discovered that he would cut through my heroes ZOC. I took advantage of this and opportunity charged him. As you can see above, my hero caused a hit (rather unfortunate for the elves) and stayed fresh.

As it turns out, the combat wore on...

...and believe it or not, Bloodmoon routed the elven cavalry all by his lonesome.

On the other side of the field, Marc's dragon came charging into my shaman and his boys. This encounter went on for a few turns and, although my shaman was eventually defeated, the Great Wurm was seriously limbed and had little effect on the rest of the battle.

My light cavalry tried their best to harass the elven spear but, thanks to their being heavy foot with shield wall, they were nigh invulnerable to that level of missile fire.

While all of the other shenanigans were going on, Marc charged his second unit of knights towards my wolf riders. Sadly (snicker), he rolled on less than he needed to make the charge distance.

By the following turn, combined fire from my wolf riders and my skirmishers caused serious damage. Furthermore, my spearmen and Marc's hero rushed in to join the scuffle.

The hero defeated the spearmen (handily) and charged forward into my general's entourage.

My wolf riders eventually routed the knights and made their way back around towards the elven hero. We were both mere points away from breaking but, after a lucky shot, the wolf riders took out the hero with their bows and won me the game.

My second game of the evening was against Chris's rat men.

The filth-ridden general and his rats.

We deployed about forty inches apart.

I deployed my light cavalry on my far-left flank. As you can see, there's still one rider not painted yet.

Chris chose to attack in waves as I moved up to the road and waited. He left his mass of infantry on opportunity back in his deployment zone and sent out his rat ogres and his skirmishers.

The light cavalry made their way around Chris's flank, but the bulk of the game was spent dealing with one wayward unit of rat men.

As with my first game against the elves, my shaman spent the majority of the game holding up a monster.

My wolf riders put their bows to good use by cleaning out a unit of skirmishers and almost annihilating this rat ogre. They finished off the game by charging into a unit of rat men.

rat slingers moving through the forest.

And here's every Impetus player's dream: I managed to pull off a group counter-charge and even up my goblins' odds against the impetuous rat men.

Although Chris was starting to get some units around my flank, it was too late - I destroyed a unit of rat men and caused the army to rout. Two victories in one night!

I managed to quickly stick my nose (and my camera) in on Chris's and Chris's game. I can't remember what happened but it looked great.

I'm almost finished my 400-point goal for this project and, although it's been fun and I'm pleased with my results, I'm more certain than ever that I am first and foremost a 15mm historical guy. The historical armies (as well as the stricter limitations in the army lists) inspire me more and 15mm, although not always substantially cheaper than some 28mm options, really allows an Impetus player to make the most of a 6x4 foot gaming area.

Thanks for reading,
JET