Sunday, August 22, 2010

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

9 comments:

Craig C said...

Looks like it was a lot of fun.

I prefer the look of 28mm figures and will no longer be buying 15mm.

I get round the table size issue by using 8cm widths (15mm basing basically) with my 28mm figures.

My son and I had our first game of WoTR using DBA last night. I am tempted to start him on an Impetus version soon

Craig

Sire Godefroy said...

Must be pure joy to have such beautiful armies at hand.
However, those regimental bases are a shame - hopefully your fellow will update to a new design or, even better, to Impetus basing.

Cheers
SG

Monty said...

Great stuff - I remain interested in Impetus and have started down the 10mm route, before grinding to a halt in favour(at the moment) of moderns and Ambush Alley. I have to admit, I do like GW's LOTR range of minis too, just a little too expensive though...

Monty

JET (aka Jason) said...

@Craig,
We all love the look of 28mm as well. However, as we are interested in numerous historical periods and armies we thought that it would be easier on our painting time and our wallets to stay with 15mm for those armies. We are actually considering changing our 28mm units from inches to 2cm/unit.

@SG,
Chris has supplied these armies as a makeshift way to get the larger group playing and learning the rules. He is actually painting another force for 28mm Impetus and will be basing it specifically for Impetus, fear not! I also pass along his apologies for the unfinished unit trays.

@Monty,
I have a 10mm Carthaginian army painted, and if anyone ever presents a 10mm army I shall be ready to play. I buy all of my plastics at Maelstrom UK in the UK. The 10-15% discount + FREE shipping worldwide makes for a considerable saving.

Anonymous said...

This is a great way of trying the Impetus ruleset without buying up a whole new set of minis. Brilliant! I'm going to give it a go. Thanks for the inspiration, and the excellent batreps.

JET (aka Jason) said...

You're very welcome. It's nice to know that someone reads the damn things. ;)

CounterFett said...

Hi! I was inspired by your posts and have been trying to find the impetus fantasy rules. I got the official link on esnips, but even after downloading their tool, it would not let me download it.

I guess I was lucky, one guy said it gave his computer some viruses. It just wouldn't let me download. Have you come across anywhere else that it is posted, or can you send it to me?

Tankred said...

Thanks a lot for your inspiration. We just made our first LotR impetus game and I liked it very much. I hope this will finde some friends.

roma912 said...

Good battle reports, great pictures and some inspiration to get back on with the Spartan's that are looking sorry for themselves on the painting table.