Sunday, January 30, 2011

Impetus Group Update

I haven't been posting quite as frequently lately, but there's been no shortage of painting and gaming going on in my life. I played two games of Impetus last night against Stu's Medieval Turks (Sultanate of Rum) but I forgot to take pictures once the action heated up. I thought I would take the opportunity to fill you folks in on Impetus plans and progress in the group.

The battlefield after the first turn. The core of my army
was made up of longbow backed up by men-at-arms.


First of all, the two main sub-projects in the group are 28mm Fantasy Impetus and 15mm Historical Impetus. As some of us are discovering, if you're not going to be playing on a large table (i.e. 6x8 ft), 28mm just doesn't offer the same level of maneuverer and counter-maneuver that 15mm does. 15mm historical (as some of you are likely aware) is certainly my preference and here's where those involved stand currently.

Marc: HYW English (not painted)
Has enough minis to build a 400-point HYW English army and plans to start in the fairly near future. He plays Impetus regularly now and learned the game playing 6mm Parthians vs Romans.

Chris: Italian City States (painted)/ Normans (not painted)
Has a full 400-point Italian City States (Milanese) army painted and plans to add some units now that Extra Impetus #3 has fleshed out the list. He also has a collection of Normans primed and ready for painting. I am currently trying to egg him on to get going on this OR to add some more units to his Milanese army. I think he's becoming a little distracted by 28mm painting so I'll leave him alone... for now.

Stu: Sultanate of Rum (painted)
Stu recently came to terms with his loathing of painting. To remedy this fact, he has allocated part of his wargaming budget to painting services and the Turkish force pictured above is the first of the commissions he's had done. I've been told that there are more 15mm Impetus commissions planned.

Ken: Aragonese (planned, not yet purchased)
This is the star painter of our group and, thanks to playing the FOG video game lately, his interest in Impetus has kicked into gear. As of last night, he said that he plans on starting a Medieval Spanish (Aragonese) army. It would be groovy to see.

Jason/JET/Me: Free Company (painted) / Norse-Irish (started)
My medieval Free Company army is one of my prized wargaming possessions and it's provided me with many hours of painting and playing enjoyment. I've started (and am about to re-start) a 15mm Irish army. The army was originally intended to be a Dark Age Norse-Irish army, but I may (or may not) paint units to morph it into a later medieval Irish army or a Early Irish army (i.e. fighting conquesting Romans and so on). In the future, there will be other 15mm Impetus armies - I just get such enjoyment out of planning and painting Impetus units.

The more I play Impetus, the more I love it. It is such a simple yet deep rules system. Just last night I had a few "aha" moments with regards to my impetuous heavy cavalry. Here they were at the beginning of the game. They performed quite well for me last night, mostly because I'm beginning to learn how to use their impetuous nature to my advantage.


Stu's medium Ghulam cavalry. At VBU:6 with composite bows, these guys are nothing to sneeze at. Last night, however, my longbowmen, with the help of one particularly courageous unit o dismounted men-at-arms, gave them a sound thrashing.


We'll be playing again next week and, for 15mm historical fans, my Free Company will be fielding some newly-painted units. I've said too much. You'll just have to check back next week. Until then...

Thanks for reading,
JET

2 comments:

Christopher(aka Axebreaker) said...

Lovely looking miniatures!I too want to game Impetus,but my schedule is free yet to do so,but I will do it in probably both 28mm and 15mm.I envy you your player reserves!

Cheers
Christopher

Sire Godefroy said...

Seconded. Regular gaming partners support one's efforts in so many ways. Thanks for sharing your experiences - it's good to see how gaming COULD work.

Cheers
SG