We had another go at Impetus on Thursday (the battle of Hydaspes again but we swapped sides). Myself and John were now penalised by not having machine gun armed elephants as Mark and Ian had in the last game. We also found during the game that we had been adversely penalised in other ways - like rolling twice as much as we needed to to move the pike (which explains why it never got in when we had them). We also found other small elements which - Russ admits - were pretty much down to him still getting to grips with the rules.
These little differences aside, the battle went quite well for the Persians initially. What we failed to do though was get the chariots in line on the left flank and get an elephant over there as well. This was mainly doe to two factors - elephants are category C (which means they are likely to go disrupted if they move too far or try to turn) and the chariots cannot be bolstered by the general (so you basically have to get them in quick or keep them on opportunity).
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| Ian and Mark with their Macedonians. Boooo! |
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| They get their skirmishers forward to kill the elephants |
Our plan was to rumble the elephants forward BUT also accompanied by archers and javelinmen to kill the elephant killers and so leave the field open for the elephants to move in for the kill. Our other plan (which didn't quite happen) was to get out of the way of the pike (letting them hit thin air) then close on both flanks if we could.
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| The problem - anything that moved more than once was likely to go disordered on the Persian side. This was especially true of the chariots - which could not be rallied by the general and so needed 5 or 6 to rally. |
We moved everything forward (in order to close with other troops before the pike got there. In hindsight we simply should have kept the troops back and got them into line. For example, as you can see above, the chariots were in two banks - not good. But moving them would have meant them going disordered. Still, lessons learned for next time.
By the river (as we found when we were the Macedonians) its pretty difficult to cross. The Macedonian archers kept us at bay for a bit but as soon as Ian moved them down river (to attack our cavalry over the river) then our javelinmen moved up to pepper the hoplites. John took up the dice challenge and got three hits with three dice!
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| Persians chuck javelins over the river. |
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| Three dice, three hits! |
This (together with a bad roll from Ian) meant one of the hoplite units was virtually annihilated. No river crossing here!
In the middle, the elephants were (despite being reduced in power) awesomely effective. The hypaspists came out to play but the combination of shooting with 6 dice then charging in with 6 dice (no impetus due to meeting long spear) meant that a whole lot of hurt can still be derived from the elephants.
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| Shoot first.... |
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| ...then charge in! |
We certainly found (except when I threw the dice) that the Indian power is in the bow. Again, the set up (as with the chariots) didn't suit us and the bow were behind one another. Of course, the ones behind can get indirect fire - but its not the same as full frontal firepower!
So the start of the battle went well for the Indians. The hypaspists fared badly from being charged in the flank by some Indian javelins (having been disordered by mass shooting from elephants, bows and javelins).
Pretty soon both sets of hypaspists were in serious bother - one dead, the other close to being so.
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| The overall battlefield. Looking good for Porus. |
Unlike last week, we brought Porus with us so he could bring his influence to bear from the back of his war elephant. This proved quite crucial in places as we managed to get a few units un-disordered thanks to the guy with the biggest turban on the field.
The Macedonian cavalry were still holding back (not wanting to expose themselves as losing the cavalry meant losing the battle). They were certainly giving the elephant a wide berth (apart from some light cavalry who took some pot-shots - to some effect).
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| Hypaspists facing a world of hurt. |
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| And there they go! |
However, we couldn't keep the cavalry back forever. Eventually both flanks moved up. In consequence we angled some archers towards the right and got some shooting in (crucially causing a casualty so the front unit wasn't fresh and so lost its impetus bonus). Whoop!
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| Archers angle to protect the flank. |
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| On the other flank - the javelinmen finish off the hoplites. |
But it couldn't go our way for ever. As time was passing, Ian and Mark went for it. The pike pushed forward as did the cavalry on both flanks.
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| Macedonian cavalry line us up on the left. |
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| They also charge us on the right. |
This was where we had the main run-in as well. At this point, it was not going too bad for us. But then (against all odds) we won the initiative with a 6,6. This put Porus up a level and gave us the chance to straighten up, put ourselves in a good position, undisorder the chariots etc. But (as a rule change which Russ had allowed) both sides could use the destiny roll for initiative as well as disorder. This gave the Macedonians a huge advantage. They took it now - rolling a 1 into a 6. The big argument now started as we could not influence that dice roll (only one Destiny per dice). The Macedonians had already used up 2 of the 3 (we hadn't used any) but at this crucial time we were hugely penalised - and could do nothing about it.
It swung the battle. The Macedonians essentially had two turns to our none (something I don't like about Impetus). With Class A troops this means that some units (like the Thessalian Cavalry) moved multiple turns and charged our medium cavalry - and Alexander's Companions charged the 'stationary' chariots.
Just an interlude here. I suppose its a figure of speech but its a distinction that needs addressing. The chariots were in motion (from the previous turn) so they can't be deemed to have stopped or be stationary - it is simply that the 'turn' passed to the other player so their forward movement is not recognised. Yet they get penalised for being 'stationary'?!?
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| Our left flank in trouble. See how far Alexander is from the action... |
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| Not any more! |
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| Pike also manage multiple moves - grrrrr! |
This meant that our left flank was crushed and our right wasn't looking to rosy either (despite two elephants heading that way). The pike also got multiple moves in - preventing us from moving our archers a) out of their way and b) onto their flank.
This pretty much led to a full breakdown - especially as (when it became our turn again) we were in no position to do much about what had just happened. The chariots were now alone and (as no longer 'fresh') could charge but being disordered as well meant that this occurred at a disadvantage. We already had the Thessalian cavalry on the flank of the chariots (having moved a huge distance - including through the Persian medium cavalry!). When we did charge we lost - and then the next load of controversy occurred. Alexander kept coming forward in pursuit, bouncing into unit after unit of our staggered chariots (which became disordered in their turn). Essentially he wiped out two units of chariots in OUR turn and left the remaining two in such a mess that they were out of the game.
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| Alexander starts moving through our troops in our turn. Jonno wasn't too happy about this! |
Although there was plenty more battle to go, I think myself and John (once again) felt we'd been hit more by the rules than the opposition and the willingness to continue (even if there had been time) wasn't really there.
John made a good point - that we need to read the rules ourselves as we were all relying on Russ to make the calls (he's the only one who's read the rules, after all) and Russ himself admitted that he'd made some mistakes along the way. I'm sure this would mean that
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| The end result - the Persians are mullered. |
Interestingly many of the bits I don't like about the rules, other do like. Rolling for initiative each turn sounds like a fair way to do things, but (as we found) if your opponent moves twice when you can't - at a crucial stage of the battle - then bad things are likely to happen. Ian and Mark both admitted that had the Persians won that last initiative then it was likely we would have won. As it was - we didn't and got hammered. That sums it up for me.
Again, Russ said that he'd extended the Destiny roll use and - with hindsight - maybe it should stick with its use in the rules (undisordering troops and combat - not initiative).
There are other elements of Impetus that do cause bother. A few units on the table were strength 6 or 7 with a similar impetus bonus. These can be hugely powerful (almost like Hero figures in Warhammer) where they are almost impossible to damage and can dish out hurt beyond all reasonable capacity (and I include our elephants in that). FOG for me has a better balance of troops and you fight on fairer terms. When the pike did eventually get in, they were very powerful but the Companian cavalry became the new elephants - 12 dice at impact and they can just keep going and going! We hit Alexander a few times and he came away with nary a scratch. At the same time he wiped out the best part of 4 heavy chariots!
Similarly the generals. A Genius at +4 is 100% better than a +2 General - meaning that initiative is almost certainly guaranteed. In FOG, and inspired commander (+2) doesn't give the same level of guarantee - which I personally think is better / fairer.
Impetus is a set of rules designed to get a result. That they will. Whether the result seems fair or whether you feel your generalship has been rewarded is another matter. We're learning (the battle was certainly tighter this time - until the 'double move') and hopefully we'll get to some level of competence. But any feedback from other people re: their Impetus experiences gratefully received.
Next week - Zama. And hopefully a good, clean fight with head holding and 'you're kidding me!' reduced to a minimum!