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

 Hi 

Peter came over last week for a game of Basic Impetus. I painted up a Classical Indian army, (mostly from Museum Miniatures with a few Forged in Battle units ) ages ago and wanted to get them on the table, so we went with Classical Indian vs Alexanders Macedonians.

We had a great game , but unfortunately, I got so caught up in the game, I forgot to keep notes , or take many pictures. So no real context, just a scattering of random in game shots that may not be in sequence...

We finished the first game quite quickly, so had time for a second game, for which we swapped armies. 

I managed to loose both games, but with different armies. I really like the Indian army, it has an unusual composition and is very colourful on the table. 

The Macedonian Companions with the blonde gobshite just visible.

One unit of Indian Elephants , being screened by some of the most useless cavalry in the game.

The Phalanx advances with undeserved confidence.

Macedonian left wing, composed of Thessalian cavalry, light cavalry , peltasts and mercenary Hoplites.

Nelly is surrounded by long pointy things

Some pike about to become a speed bump.

It's all getting a bit messy.

Indian longbows proved their worth in both games.

Massed longbows, a great bunch of lads. 

Things are about to get stompy..

Peter lining up the Macedonians for the second game.

Line up for the second game , with fresh coffee....

A mighty Empire will fall....

Hi Guys

A brief write up of a Basic Impetus game between myself & Ed the other evening. As a change from the usual Cartahge /Rome games we have often played of late, we dusted out some old figues, Early Achemenid Persians and Lydians. We used the standard list for EAP and the army list for the Lydians was from the one kindly supplied by Jim Webster via the BI forum. http://impetus.forumsland.com/impetus-about3412.html

Ed was playing the Persians and I took the role of  Croesus (!). The lydians were attacking and Ed set up the terrain. He deployed first then Iset up opposite.

Positions at set up

Turn 1; The Lydians won the initiative and moved forward in a general advance. The Persians just moved up their cavalry and light horse, the infantry staying put for now.

End of turn 1

Turn 2; Persians win initiative, their light horse chages the Lydian light horse, forcing it back and then destroying it. The Lydian heavy foot slog forward.

End of turn 2

Turn 3; Lydians win the initiative, their cavalry charge the Persian light horse and destroys them, but takes 2 points of damage in the process. The Lydian general charges the Persian general and causes 1 point of damage and drives him back , but fails to maintain contact. The Lydian peltasts advance and loose a volley of javelins at the levy, and rolls 3 6's. I assume the levy is done for, but they roll a 1 on their check and are merely disrupted. Ed is somewhat smug....

The Persian cavalry charge the Lydian cavalry in the flank and destroy it. The Persian general charges the Lydian general, but is pushed back and killed. The Persian infantry try a long range volley against the hoplites in front of them, but it is ineffective. The levy charge the peltasts but no ones scores a hit.

End of turn 3

 Turn 4; Lydian initiative, the Lydian General wheels towards the flank of the Persian sparabara and the hoplites advance. The levy vs peltast fight again yields no hits.  The Persian cavalry wheels towards the flank of the hoplites, while a volley from the immortals in the middle of the Persian infantry line score 2 points of damage on the advancing centre unit of the hoplites, but the sparabara on either side of the immortals fail to do any damage on the advancing spearmen. The levy finally get swarmed over by the peltasts.


End of turn 4

Turn 5; Lydian initiative, the Lydian general charges the flank of the sparabara but fail to land a hit, the shame ! The hoplites all advance and the peltasts destot a second levy unit with a volley of javelins. The immortals destroys the centre hoplite unit and the sparabara drive back the Lydian general, inflicting 1 point of damage while taking none themselves....

End of Turn 5

 Turn 6; Lydian initiative, the Lydian general charges again against the sparabara who had driven him back, this time destroying them. The hoplites contach the Persian bow line but fight with little effect.  The persian light horse charges the Lydian general in the rear and destroys him. This breaks the Lydians and loses the game for me  :(

End of turn 6

We swapped forces and played a second game. This was a second win for Ed, and one of the few games we have played which was very one-sided. The Persians were wiped out out the Lydians taking a single loss. Much tea was drunk and good fun was had. Ed has a hugely inflated sense of the Levys worth, but they always seem to perform way above their stat line for him....

Game 2 set-up

Phil

Pictures of Ancients Impetus game

Hi guys

a freind came over a while back to try out Impetus. He is an avid gamer, but rarely plays ancients, being unhappy with DBMM , and had agreed to give Basic Impetus a go. We played our favourite current pairs of armies, Alexander vs Darius.

We had two good games of BI, and our new player was well pleased with the rules,having gotten very good use out of a scythed chariot. We had a large 3 way game of Dystopian wars afterwards. All in all, an excellent day of gaming with plenty of laughs and copious amounts of tea drunk.

Pictures of Basic Impetus game

Hi Guys

Ed & I played two games of Basic Impetus last night, Macedonian versus Persians. We had planned to do a full write up with sequenced pictures but there were a good few interuptions and we got caught up in the game before we realised we hadnt taken a photo in about 4 turns. So instead, here is a few shots from both games.

The games were good fun. The first was a close game, with the Persians winning. The second was even closer, with the Macedonians winning, just. Two wins for Ed, so he must have been cheating or using tactics or something. Most  of the units with good stats were underwhealing do to appalingly bad luck, and the dregs of the levy performing well above expectations. The scythed chariot finally killed something ( a unit of pike) but ran out of steam and bit the dust. Might take on the Galatians next to see how loony Celts vs Pike phalanx works out.

Phil

Basic Impetus- Greeks Vs Persians

I played two very good games of Basic Impetus last night against Ed. We used the standard rules but allowed light horse and skirmishers to flee from an enemy charge if they had no impetus rating.

For the first game, I had the Early achaemenid Persians, with 2 units of medium cavalry, 2 units light cavalry with bows, 1 unit of Immortals, 2 units of sparabara, 2 units of skirmishers and 2 units of heavy foot levies, who were absolute dross. The general was with one of the medium cavalry .

EARLY ACHEMENID PERSIANS (VDT=19/10)

Nr	Type	M	VBU	I	VD	Notes
2	CM(*)	10	4	1	3
2	CL	12	3	1	1	composite bow B - Skytians or Bactrians
1	T	6	5	2	3	short bow A - Immortals
2	T	6	4	1	2	short bow A - Sparabara
2	S	8	2	0	1	short bow B
2	FP	5	2	1	1	Levies

The Early Persian army list for Basic Impetus



Ed had the Asiatic city state Greeks. He had 1 unit of medium cavalry, 1 unit of light cavalry, 5 units of heavy foot hoplites and 2 units of skirmishers with bows. The General was with one of the hoplite units.

MAGNA GRAECIA, THESSALIANS AND ASIAN CITIES (VDT=20/10)

Nr	Type	M	VBU	I	VD	Notes
1	CM	10	4	1	2
1	CL	12	3	1	1
5	FP(*)	5	5	2	3	long spear
2	S	8	2	0	1	short bow B, sling or javelin

The Asiatic Greek city state army list for Basic Impetus



We rolled for attacker and it was the Persians who attacked. The Greeks set up the terrain, and then deployed first. The board looked like this

The first turn was a general advance on both sides, but the Greek cavalry stay out of harms way ( officially he called them a reserve, but they were too valuable to risk near the enemy as they couldn't fight their way through a fog...)



End of turn 1



Turn 2, The Greeks won initiative and advanced forward, the Persians advancing slightly on the flanks, holding in the centre. The Immortals fired at long range at the hoplites in front of them, causing some disruption, but no hits.



End of Turn 2.



Turn 3, Persian won initiative and sent another few volleys towards the Greeks, causing more distruption, but no damage.

End of Turn 3

Turn 4, Initiative to the Persians, some advancing by the Greeks and much shape throwing on either sides but little damage caused on either side.

End of Turn 4







Turn 5. Greeks win initiative and run amok. His hoplites on his right flank drive off my Light horse and his generals hoplite unit charges my cavalry causing some damage. My light horse on the right charge his general, a desperate move to try to take pressure off the cavalry unit currently being perferated by Greek spears. The light horse gets slapped soundly and is sent fleeing back. In the melee between the spears and the medium cavalry, the persians are driven back again but the Greeks cannot maintain contact. The Immortals give the Greeks a volley ( rolled a double 6!) and they fluff their hit test, taking 3 points of damage and look very shaky.

End of Turn 5

Turn 6. The Persians win initiative but their bowfire is ineffective. The Greeks move forward again. The hoplites on the Greek right charge the levy in from of them. The levy act like speed bumps, slowing the Greeks for a moment before being driven over. The Greek general charges the damaged Persian cavalry to his front, driving them back again with more damage.



End of Turn 6



Turn 7, The Persians win the initiative and the Immortals destroy the hoplites in front of them with another heavy volley. That is the high point of turn 7 for the persians. The hoplites on the Greek right charge the sparabara in front of them. The Greek general charges the shattered Persian cavalry and finishes them off. The Greek light horse charges and drives back the Persian light horse on my right. Things are looking back for the Persians.....

End of Turn 7

Turn 8. Greeks take the initiative  ( again :(  ). His light horse charges my skirmishers who flee. His light horse then contacts my light horse, driving them from the board. His pursuit took his light horse into the back of my fleeing skirmishers with predictable results. The Persians are now very close to breaking. His hoplites charge the Sparabara unit, driving them back with 3 points of damage to their VBU. My Immortals wheel to their right to threaten the flank of the hoplites while my general on my right wheels towards the Greek general.

End of Turn 8

Turn 9. Greeks take the initiative but cause little damage. My Immortals charge the flank of the hoplites and destroy them. The Persian general lines up for a charge on the Greek skirmishers.

End of Turn 9



Turn 10. The Persians win the initiative. The Persian general charges the skirmishers. They flee behind the hoplite general who is a bit worse for wear at this stage. The cavalry charge takes them into contact with hoplite general. The Greeks are destroyed and are now only 1 point away from breaking themselves. The cavalry follows up and hits the rear of the Greek skirmishers who had just fled from them. The skirmishers are ridden down and the Persians snatch a (Pyrrhic) victory from the jaws of defeat.

End of Turn 10.



Hardly a glorious victory for the empire, but a very enjoyable game that took about 90 minutes to play to a finish. The Persian bowfire wittled down the Greeks, weakening them just enough to give me a chance later on. The fact that the Persian general was in the right place at the right time was an accident, not planning on my part, I only brought him right so he would have enough room to turn around to face my left. He plugged the gap that appeared in front of him and he got lucky.

We swapped sides for our second game, I took the Greeks while Ed took the Persians. The bowfire was more effective this time, helped by me rolling incredibly baddly for damage checks and my general appeared to be wearing magnetic, arrow attracting armour... . After 1 hour of play the Greeks had broken, causing minimal damage to the Persians. At least I scored some damage on the Immortals, but not much   :(

A very good pair of games with good fights, a few mistakes and plenty of laughs.

Phil