Basic Impetus, Classical Indian Vs Later Achaemenid Persian

 Hi Guys

I played a solo game of Basic Impetus today, just to get back into the mind set to paint some ancients. 

I went with the standard list for both armies ( Basic Impetus doesn't have a points system, but every army has a few options to swap out , upgrade or downgrade some units) and kept the terrain fairly simple as I hadnt played BI in quite a while.

All figures are 15mm, painted by me, and are mostly Museum & Xyston, with a few unknowns in there. 

Turn 1 was everyone doing a general advance and the Persian cavalry on their right flank going out wide. 

Turn 2 was closing to spitting disatnce, witht the Persians causing some disruption with missile fire .

A Persian scythed chariot closes with their social betters with bad intent.

Turn 3 saw Thracian foot charge at skirmishers who fled, got caught and destroyed. The follow up move brought the Thracians into melee with an archer unit who the also destroyed, but having punched through were now at a bit of a loss. The Pesian General rides down some lowly skirmishers while the Saka cavalry charge some Indian archers and come to an abrupt halt. Indian Elephants chase off some skirmishers & others bounce of Persian light foot.  The scythed chariot charged the Indian heavy chariots but comes off worse & gets destroyed.

Inian General on Elephant with dainty parasol, while Saka cavalry bear down on lowly archers.

Indian Heavy foot have dispatched the Greek Hoplites, but taken some damage in return.  

Archers struggle with Saka cavalry while the Indian cavalry lines up an ill concieved charge...

Turn 4 

The Indian heavy chariot caught the Scythian light horse from behind & destroys it, while the Indian General on Elephant barely manages to dispatch some skirmishers. Indian medium cavaly, charges gloriously into the Thracians and get wiped out without causing a scratch in return. 

The hard pressed archers who had struggled against the Saka cavalry finaly force them backnout of contact, when an immpressive volley from their neighboring archers destroys the elite Saka. The damaged archer unit doesnt have long to savour the victory as they are finished of by a javelin volley from the Thracians (easily the Persians most effective unit in todays game !)

Javelin armed light foot square up against an elephant, while the Persian General sneaks by

Turn 5

The Persian General cant resist getting a flank charge in, even though horse vs Elephant is a poor choice...

Not much else happens beyond a little manouvering as most units are quite battered by this stage. 

Scruffy hillmen with nowhere to go. 

The Indian heavy foot and the battered chariot sandwich a unit of light foot, who exit the battlefield.

The Persian General tries a flank charge on the Elephant but it doesnt end well for him..

During Turn 6, which was to be the last turn anyway, the Persian army broke. The loss of the Saka & the Hoplites were costly along with some other low value troops, but the death of the General took them past their break point , the scythed chariot doesnt count towards this as the have a morale value of zero, as no one expects them to last long. 

The Indians have sustained quite a few casualties, but all are low value troops , so they are no where near breaking. 

I had good fun playing this, it was nice to play a system I havent used in a while & the rules came back to me very quickly. 

Phil

King David 300pts

 Hi

I had another go at the old King David rules yesterday, but playing solo. Both games were 300pts, getting close to the upper limits of what the system can comfortably handle, with the suggested size being 200-250pts, but as I had the day to myself, I wanted to try a bigger army. First game was New Kingdom Egyptians VS Sea Peoples, and the second Hittite vs Assyrian. Both games were from ( very ) approx 1200bc. 

I didn't bother with the Divine Favour rules as , given that I was playing solo, forcing myself to reroll and trying to counteract that would get very confusing very quickly, as I would forget who I was supposed to be rolling for ( or against).. 

I found the Hero mechanism of the game fun, with most of the effects having a penalty as well as a bonus. I gave Rameses II the Gazelle hero type, as a bonus to movement seemed appropriate. He hurtled off at high speed and met his ancestors shortly thereafter. The initiative penalty this forced on the Egyptians proved disastrous , and ended in ignominious defeat, with  the loss that broke the army being a light chariot without the Action points to turn going full speed straight ahead into impassible ground ( an oasis) and dying.

The second game was more balanced, with the chariots proving their worth ( and high points cost) on both sides and the Infantry archers achieving little of value. The Hittites had the better of the clash and came back from an early set back to win the game. Rolling very well for trophies ( a D6 roll of a 6 after destroying an enemy in melee gives an extra victory point along with the value of the unit ) meant that they broke the Assyrians before their counterattack could gain ground. 

Overall, I really enjoy this quirky rule set. The back & forth  initiative system could have been messy, but marking each activated unit with a little D6 kept it clear enough and lead to a chaotic battlefield rather than the standard activation systems we are more familiar with. The chariots are very difficult to control once they inevitably speed out of command distance and careen around the battle field doing drive bys and crashing into each other.