As Mark will be in Italy for 2 weeks (a cock up by his travel agent), March will not be the month of Grand Armee (as planned). Instead Russ has stepped into the breach and is going to be putting on a number of Impetus battles.
So to test the rules he came round last night with some Persians and Spartans to take me on and see how easy (or not) they were to pick up.
Russ let me choose sides so the Spartans it was. Impetus allows you to pretty much stick terrain wherever you want so I placed it on both sides to create a channel (so it would be hard to outflank me) and a nice gentle hill in the middle (to sit my spears and skirmishers on) and cavalry on the left and centre rear (basically a mobile reserve).
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| Spartans ready! |
The Persians won the initiative and moved first. Each unit can move a number of times but the more moves it takes and the further from the commander they go, the more likely it will go Disordered - essentially putting a big sign up saying 'Please attack me!'.
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| Spartans get to the hill first. |
As I got used to the rules, it all seemed quite well thought out. Overtly aggressive tactics can put you in the soup - like pursuing after a round of melee. You pursue - do damage - pursue then find yourself surrounded by the enemy and destroyed (as my peltasts discovered).
As this wasn't a 'real' battle we weren't too concerned about the result ( I WON! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!). It was just to get an idea as to how the mechanics worked.
I found the rules easy to follow (although we messed a couple of things up like charges and moving into the flanks) and - more importantly - quite well thought out. It is somewhere between FOG and Warmaster Ancients - but without most of the foibles of those two sets. Keeping your general away from the action and sending a unit out on its own is courting disaster.
What I also liked was the Destiny roll - where a particularly crucial roll for you or your opponent can be taken again (or made to take again). We both used up most of ours - usually to make the other roll again like when Russ rolled a '1' and his hoplites survived a devastating attack. The re-roll saw them condemned.
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| Persian light horse in a spot of bother. Kill them all! |
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| My peltasts get some good rolling in against hoplites and decide to follow up their success. Now you see them.... |
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| ...and now you don't. Don't get greedy should be the tagline to Impetus. |
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| Typical Russ dice - baked in the oven at 260 degrees for 30 minutes. |
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| The Persians fail to kick the Spartans off the hill. |
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| Last turn. The Persians have lost 2 cavalry and 2 hoplites. The Spartans have lost 1 peltast and their sense of direction. |
Overall a very good set of rules and I'm looking forward to Impetus month!
