First 400-point Impetus Game Against Marc's English

After a long yet steady road, Marc finally had his completed army for Impetus ready last Saturday night. It was with great excitement that we deployed our 400-point armies and got down to business. Here were the forces we used:

Marc's English (399 pts)

• Average CS, Charismatic General x1, Fair General x1
• Longbowmen (T) x6 (two units were Discipline A)
• Dismounted Men-at-arms (FP) x2
• Welsh Spearmen (FL) x3
• Breton Javelins (S) x2
• King and Household (CP) x1
• Hobilars (CM) x1
• Cohesion re-roll x1

My Free Company (398 pts)

• Average CS, Fair General x2
• Longbowmen (T) x3
• Dismounted Men-at-arms (FP) x4
• Peasants (FP) x2
• English Mounted Knights (CP) x1
• French Mounted Knights (CP) x2
• Crossbowmen (S) x2
• Breton Javelins (S) x3
• Cohesion re-roll x1

The battlefield was a wide open plain with some gentle rolling hills. The bulk of the game (which was a long one for Impetus) saw Marc's force trying to occupy and defend a hill while I tried to drive his defenders from their entrenched position.

My impetous knights advanced under the cover of skirmishers toward Marc's right flank.



Marc wasted no time in advancing his infantry line to the hill. With all of those longbows threatening me at range, I had no choice by to advance and engage.

Breton skirmishers formed my first wave and, it must be said, they did an admirable job of tying up and disordering the enemy archers.

The fleet-footed Welsh charged out from behind Marc's archers and drove most of my skirmishers back towards my line.

In the meantime, Sir Jonathan Deere led an assault from my right flank towards the enemy cavalry. It was an interesting back and forth affair which I eventually won.

Although my French knights found their Marc (get it...), without any support they were quickly overwhelmed by enemy infantry.

By the time my full assault of the hill began, my army was well-limbed.

My infantry was doing an admirable job but, just as I had victory in my grasp, Marc's infantry defeated one key unit of men-at-arms. With my breakpoint reached, the Free Company broke and left Marc's English as the lords of the field.

A truly excellent game. Either Marc and I are equally matched or benefit from equal amounts of luck. As with most of our games, victory always comes at the closest of margins.

There's one small subordinate command that I've been having great luck with so I'll share it with the rest of you medieval generals. I deploy a unit of dismounted men-at-arms (with attached general) flanked by two units of peasants and behind a line of three javelinmen. In other words, the men-at-arms are VD:3 while the other five units are VD:1 for a total of eight. If the general leads from the back (and stays out of danger), the enemy must destroy four of the other units in order to route the command and, even better, if the command does route, it's only a tiny portion of the entire army and so is complete disposable.

As a final note, there's a new player in the group who is quite taken with Impetus. I believe he is going to embark on a Teutonic army project. As usualy, the rest of us shall support and coax him along. More opponents is always a good thing.

Thanks for reading,

JET