Impetus Battle Report - Rodger's Victory

Rodger of Lynn, the impetuous and rather pompous nephew of Sir James Stockwood, had been away in southern France during the Spring march of the mercenary army. After completing his uncle's (bogus?) errand, Rodger and his men re-joined the army as Stockwood moved the line north towards the hilly woodlands of the Swiss border. Scouts had reported that the Milanese army was in hot pursuit - Prosciutto was determined to see Stockwood and his men vacate the Milanese countryside entirely.

With Rodger returning to command the cavalry (much to the chagrin of Etienne De Garde), Stockwood decided to consolidate the mercenary army and prepared to make a stand. Rodger's time away had obviously impacted the lad in some mysterious way, for he took his command seriously and made efforts to win the men's confidence and trust.


The Battlefield:

Stockwood deployed his line near the mercenary camp, flanked by a river and the forest beyond. The infantry took advantage of the cover offered by the rough ground while Rodger prepared the mounted men-at-arms to counter-charge, as per his uncle's orders.

Before long, the entire Milanese army was spotted cresting the hills to the south.


The Battle:

The Milanese army led by General Francesco Prosciutto.

Stockwood ordered the infantry forward. His plan was to increase the threat of the archers, and hopefully, to cause the Italian general to split his cavalry line.

Prosciutto reformed his line in response to Stockwood's deployment. The infantry was ordered around the flanks while the cavalry held the centre.


A view of the field just moments before engagement.


Skirmishing broke out in the center of the field, with the Breton javelinmen sending the Italian crossbowmen to flight.


The mercenary crossbowmen held the Italians back on the flank as well. Things were already looking dour for the Milanese.


When the Italian skirmishers started breaking up and fleeing, Stockwood tightened the infantry line and ordered repeated volleys of arrows fired towards the left-most cavalry flank.


The first unit of heavy cavalry (led by none other than Giovanni the Black himself) failed to reach the mercenary line before suffering serious disorder from the hail of arrows.


Meanwhile, in a surprising display of self-control, Rodger held the mercenary horse in position until the last moment (i.e. on opportunity) and counter-charged the right-most cavalry flank.


Rodger found himself in melee with Prosciutto and his household, and even managed to hold the line during the bloodiest of the fighting (He even rolled box cars during an initiative roll and escalated to the dizzying heights of a Fair general)


As the rest of Giovanni's flank charged towards the archers, confusion and disorder caused the line to break, and mercenary arrows caused numerous fatal wounds. (Chris needed to roll a "2" or better to reach my line - he rolled at "1." Oh well - JET)


Stockwood ordered all archers within earshot to fall back, and with his men, seized the initiative and charged into the disordered knights.


By this time, Rodger and Beauregard's men were crushing Prosciutto's line, while Etienne and his knights broke the remainder of the Italian's right flank.


Within minutes of the cavalry engagement, the mercenary men-at-arms, with the help of the veteran archers, had broken the Milanese army. Stockwood was even more pleased when he found that Rodger and his knights had captured the Milanese general Francesco Prosciutto.



Aftermath:

Chris emailed me this little account of the post-battle drama the morning after our game. I think it provides an entertaining note to end on, so I'll leave it there until next time.

From the Annales Milanorum:

...And when his ransom was paid and he was returned to the city, Gen. Prosciutto was approached to lead a delegation to the mercenaries in order to broker a cessation of hostilities. The general angrily responded, citing that the Englishman had, during Prosciutto's captivity, at various times mocked him before the assembled soldiery and also urinated on his favourite clothes (looted from the Milanese camp), evacuated his nostrils in the general`s shirt and fondled his genitalia (although scholars disagree on the validity of this last claim). He is quoted as having said: "We have no peace while he hold my favourite hat hostage eh? No! Not while my haberdashery sit in chains!"...

...Following the destruction of the Milanese army, his holiness pope Benedict the twit forthwith published the bull 'Supplicato' (called 'Capitulato' by his critics) in which he begged Stockwood not to bring his army south of the Po river. As the area around Milan was already south of the Po, Stockwood wrote a letter to pope Benedict suggesting that "His holiness poke his head back up the arse in which it has been kept ere now..."

Thanks for reading,
JET

Warmachine Action: Epic Deneghra Takes the Field

Tonight Marc and his lady accompanied Allison and I to the Hong Kong restaurant for some decent Chinese food. After stuffing ourselves silly, Marc and I thought that a couple of games of Warmachine would make for a fine dessert, so it was off to my trusty geek-room. Ken gave Marc a very finely painted Epic Deneghra for Xmas (more on that at the end-JET), so Marc brought her to the table for a 35-point smash-up against Haley.

Early on in the first game, Marc moved the bulk of his force up behind the stone walls (pre-painted resin scenery from Marc for Xmas - JET) while I spread the Cygnar force out, ready to shoot down whatever I could.


Haley kept Temporal Barrier going for the entire game. The impeded movement combined with the lowered DEF is particularly crippling to most Cryx forces.


Notice the placement of the bloat thrall? The next turn, he was even closer to the Necrosurgeon and Deneghra. A well-placed shot from the Defender caused the bloat thrall to explode, taking a number of mechanithralls and Gorman with it. The POW 14 blast caused seven points of damage on Dennie as well.


I had planned on casting Temporal Barrier again and picking off another couple of models. However, since Deneghra was almost at half DMG, I moved Haley up, feated and took a couple of hand cannon shots, and then, using the arc node from the Lancer (top left), cast Arcane Bolt at the Cryxian caster and finished her off.


The first game went relatively quickly, so we decided to throw down again. I advanced with a pair of Lancers, ready to cast Scramble or Chain Lightning at the first opportunity.


This time, however, Marc kept the majority of his force to my extreme right and marched his infantry through the canyon.


Haley prepared her shooting line. The idea here was to take down the entire unit of mechanithralls so that they Necrosurgeon couldn't revive any of them.


Haley feated. The Long Gunners moved up and annihilated the thrall unit. Haley kept Temporal Barrier going, and more importantly, camped a couple of FOC so that she could use her Vortex Spear to negate enemy spells. After nullifying spells cast by Deathjack and the Skarlock, Deneghra moved up onto the nearby hill and tried to spell Haley with very little effect.


Even though Marc had made Dennie ethereal, Haley's spear is a magical weapon, so she charged in and with eight focus (thanks to the Squire), she finished off Deneghra again.


We managed to play two great games, but I suffer no inflated ego. Marc was clumsily using a new caster while I was using an old stand-by. Still, we all had fun - even Ken who sat in the bleachers nodding off throughout the action.

And speaking of Ken, he and I played a game of Hordes last night at Marc's house. It was a Troll vs. Skorne smashathon, and what a lot of smashing there was! We each annihilated the other's force, and although I never took many clear photos, here's a shot of an epic melee between the Dire Troll Mauler and the Titan Gladiator. The Titan took the Dire Troll down to one damage point, and the next turn, the Troll killed the Titan. I almost felt bad (almost).


Anyway, after a lot of smashing, I had almost taken out Morghoul. On Ken's last turn, he had one long shot (literally) to take out Hoarluk. The Titan Cannoneer shot, missed, but still hit Hoarluk with the scatter.  Furthermore, although Hoarluk had three fury, the Impaler was the only surviving beast and was already at its maximum fury allowance of three, so damage transference was not an option.  However, Ken would have to roll a 17 or an 18 on three dice to win. Sadly, the photo tells the story.


Finally, Ken gave Marc and I very thoughtful and individualized gifts for Xmas this year. He purchased, and more impressively, painted each of us a model for our armies, in our colour schemes. For Marc, he painted the Epic Deneghra model featured in the battles just covered. For me, he painted Viktor Pendrake, which was very cool, since I can field him in both my Cygnar and Trollblood armies.



For those of you who have seen photos of Ken's Menoth and Orboros forces throughout my previous battle reports, you'll have noticed that he's no slouch with a paintbrush, and the value of these gifts (and I feel comfortable speaking for Marc here) cannot be measured monetarily.

Thanks for reading,
JET

Impetus Battle Report - The Flight of the Free Company

Chris had recently finished painting his first 300 points of Milanese, so in spite of the many chores leading up to Xmas, we had to find time to throw down earlier this week. The native Milanese general Francesco Prosciutto surveyed the battlefield before the engagement, determined to send the mercenary forces of John Stockwood fleeing from the field.

The Battlefield:

The terrain was rather typical. We casually laid out some hills, a forest, and a couple of fields, with the center of the battlefield left more or less open. The top of the photo shows Chris's main line (CPx4 screened by Sx4) with infantry to his left, ready to defend the hill.


The bottom of the photo shows the mercenary force deployed in groups. From L to R: two units of javelinmen, three groups of longbowmen supported by men-at-arms, and finally, two units of mercenary knights and a unit of javelinmen.


Right Flank:

Etienne De Garde (fair general) led the mercenary right-flank. Stockwood had coincidentally sent his nephew Rodger of Lynn on a minor diplomatic errand to the south of France just a day before the battle.


Across the field, the Milanese city militia were ordered to march to the hill and to entrench themselves as speedily as possible.


De Garde urged the knights towards the Italian line, convinced that the crushing speed of the warhorses would ride down the enemy.


Unfortunately, just as the mercenary knights began to crest the hill, the evening sun shone blindingly in their faces. The ensuing confusion caused the cavalry line to break formation, and the necessary force was lost. The Italian militia, holding the high ground with spears set to take the charge, drove the mercenaries back down the hill.


Before the battle had ended, De Garde's command was routed and fled the field.



Main Line:

While Etienne and his men were bringing shame to the De Garde name, Stockwood advanced the main line cautiously and began raining arrows down on the approaching Italians.


The Milanese cavalry advanced steadily despite the long-range missile threat.


In a shocking display of zealous chivalry, Francesco Prosciutto and his personal guard charged forward towards the mercenary infantry. Before making contact, some Italian knights were injured or killed by well-aimed arrows.


The longbowmen fled through the men-at-arms to their rear, and before long, a desperate melee had broken out. Stockwood was sure that the Italian general would be captured or perhaps even killed.


Just as the center unit of mercenary men-at-arms was re-deploying to come join in the melee, the Italian knight Giovanni the Black led a ferocious charge against them. (I took a photo of the dice roll to accurately capture said ferocity - JET)


Needless to say, Giovanni and his men were the decisive victors of the engagement.


Stockwood and his veterans found themselves in melee as well. Unfortunately however, the battle had already been decided, so Stockwood had to give the order to fall back. Another victory for the Italians.



Aftermath:

How I love this game! Impetus is one of those rare games (much like Legends of the Old West for me) where I don't care whether I win or lose - I always have fun. I think my line was spread too thin, and I was too aggressive with my right flank. With my core of archers and footmen, I should be holding my heavy cavalry back in support of the infantry line. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

Chris is painting his elite Familia Ducale and his artillery unit, which will take him to the 400-point goal for this project. I expect that one of our next battle reports will be a a 400-point engagement. In the meantime, it's midnight on Christmas day, my wife and son are long asleep, and I think it's time that I followed their example.

Thanks for reading (and Happy Holidays),
JET

Workbench Update: Projects Old and New

With Xmas day just a week away, and being bombarded with lots of Xmas-related responsiblities, my geeking has certainly slowed down. That's not to say it's stopped, however. More importantly, I'm off during the entire week after the big day, and I plan on accomplishing something geek-related during that time.


Last night I cleaned up and mounted all of the models for my Chaos in Carpathia Werewolf warband, as shown above. Rumour has it that I'll be getting a collection of 28mm rural eastern european buildings for Xmas, so it shouldn't take very long to get this project up and running. After writing this post, I'll be getting the base-material down on these minis and plan to prime them sometime tomorrow. Chris E. plans on starting his Monster Hunter warband as well, and I believe that both Marc (probably Monster Hunters) and Ken (probably Vampires) will find themselves involved in this project before long.



For the Impetus fans out there, here's a shot of the first unit-in-progress for my 28mm Corrupted army for Impetus Fantasy. This base will obviously be a base of CP with my one and only general. When the painting is finished, the minis will be removed from the black bases and mounted to the wooden base under them. I predict that their first opponents will be Marc's Elves.



I'm just finishing up a couple of Stormguard for my Cygnar army so that I can field a 10-man unit. Warmachine and Hordes are both growing in our group right now - In addition to Yours Truly (Cygnar, Trollbloods), we have Ken (Menoth, Orboros, Skorne), Keir (Khador, Cryx), Marc (Cryx), Chris H. (Khador), Stu (Cygnar), as well as Nick (Orboros) and Jordan (Everblight), a couple of new recruits with armies in progress. Although the Privateer Press games aren't my main gaming interest anymore, I still love both games, and am especially excited about playing a common game with a larger group. I would say that in a year we'll be having some truly grand Warmachine & Hordes tournaments.

And finally, again for the Impetus fans, all that Chris E. has left to paint for his 400-point Milanese army is one unit of artillery and one unit of heavy cavalry. When that happens, I'll be taking a bunch of photos and putting up a gallery post. Until then...

Thanks for reading,
JET

The Call of Corruption - Impetus Fantasy in 28mm

Although I quite recently updated you all on my upcoming projects for 2010, I've already added another to the list. Ever since some of the guys on the Impetus forum released the unofficial fantasy supplement, I've been digging through some odds and ends I have lying around and plan on putting some long-forgotten chaos models to good (evil?) use. This won't stop me from working on 15mm Dark Age Irish, Chaos in Carpathia, or Alkemy - it will just be thrown on the pile, and I'll hopefully have all of these projects accomplished before the baby arrives in July.

I plan on aiming for 400 points as it seems to be the most common game size in our group. Of course, many fantasy armies are composed of more expensive units, so a 400-point fantasy army will generally be smaller than a historical one. I'll briefly outline what I plan on doing.

Chaos Knights x 1 (CP)
I recently bought a box of the GW plastics, and it has to be said, they are awesome. I'm not as much of a fan of the GW sculpting style anymore, but the new Chaos units are an exception. I think I'll be putting three on the base, representing the general and his men. I was pondering four, but these guys are fairly bulky.

Chaos Warriors x 2 (FP)
Ken was kind enough to give me a box of chaos warriors some time ago, and it's high time that they were put to use. I have six models to use per base, so I'll likely add a little "something" to each unit to fill it out a bit. Can't tell you everything - there have to be some surprises ;).

Chaos Sorcerer x 1 (CH-Wizard)
The fantasy supplement has some new unit types, including the CH (or character) type. When fielded individually, these special units are based at half of the regular frontage and operate as any other unit in the game... except for the special abilities and spells of course. I have one of the newer plastic Empire wizards from GW which I may use for this unit, or I may go ahead and buy the current GW metal sorcerer with the horns.

Chaos Spawn x 1 (M)
The M (or monster) is another new unit type in the game. Most lists that include monsters have a generic enough stat line to allow any number of models to be fielded. Although a chaos army would look great with a shaggoth, giant, ogres, or even dragon, I just happen to have a metal chaos spawn still in the box. I look forward to putting it on the field.

Chaos Hounds x 2 (CL)
Although there aren't any light cavalry units in the Corrupted army list, the designers encourage players to use units from any of the other lists in order to accurately represent their armies. Since I have a box of the lovely plastic chaos hounds, I've decided to field a couple of units of close-combat light cavalry borrowed from the Orc list.

Evil Men x 3 (S)
I 'm generally not a rash consumer of geekly wares. In fact, I often put more thought into buying a $5.00 model than some of the guys put into buying a $500.00 army. However, about a year ago I bought a box of plastic GW crossbowmen. I'm going to do some minor conversions and paint them up as traitorous crossbow-toting cultists. It should be fun.

Daemons x 3 (S x 2 and FL x 1)
I have eight metal daemonettes and eight metal horrors of Tzeentch all painted-up for my Lost and the Damned army for 40k. Since I don't play 40k anymore, I am overjoyed to pull these guys out of storage and to re-base them for Impetus. The daemonettes will function as close-combat skirmishers while the Horrors will be a FL unit that my sorcerer will (hopefully) be summoning.

Anyway, that's the plan for now. Models for the first unit have been primed, so I expect to have a completed unit posted for your viewing pleasure in the not-too-distant future.

Thanks for reading,
JET