Monday, July 18, 2011

Saladin and the Ayyubid dynasty for Impetus


I've recently purchased a large amount of Legio Heroica's fantastic Muslim range for the Crusades. All the miniatures from this company are superb and probably the best 15mm I've ever seen. This is my first planned Impetus based army and I'm looking forward to doing it in between my El Cid and ACW projects.

This project idea started when two of my friends(Mixer and Jadwig) started collecting this range with Mixer collecting The Kingdom of Jerusalem Crusader army and Jadwig Fatamid Muslims. I was very interested in the miniatures, but not the rules they planned to use which was Fields of Glory which I personally find to be as much fun as watching paint dry on a damp day. So, I declined to start any armies for it until..............IMPETUS came along! These rules I found to be very exciting and this was the motivation I needed and so I set about convincing my friends to change the rules from FOG to Impetus.

Since I already own a Viking/Saxon and Norman armies for FOG(hence my experience at FOG) I blew the dust off them and invited my friends into giving Basic Impetus a try using these armies that only required a few very easy modifications to use. After two games Jadwig is on the fence and Mixer likes it and I'm very, very happy with the rules. This weekend we have a planned 300pts normal Impetus game on the blocks and with the additional rules I believe there is a good chance to swing Jadwig the rest of the way over the fence and further grab Mixer's enthusiasm.

The catch is that when they give a FOG a try I agreed to also participate so they can decide between the two systems. My fingers are crossed that they won't like FOG(Really, really hoping they don't!) and decide to remain with Impetus.

I really like Legio Herico's Crusader Kingdom range, but since I already have a Norman army that can easily be used as Crusaders I thought it more prudent to collect Saladin's Muslims first which is hardly a chore as these are just as equally superbly done and I'm also going to have fun with all the color and not to mention they can fight either of my friends armies or join Jadwigs Fatamid's and battle the Crusaders!

My approach will be to emphasize strong colors, clean painting and keep the intricate designs on clothes and such under raps as the effort doesn't pay out at 15mm. I want the army to look very vibrant and colorful on the wargames table and so I'm hoping to pull it off.

Not surprising I'm a huge fan of the film Kingdom of Heaven!

Thanks for reading