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Friday, November 20, 2015

Late Romans(West) vs Early Anglo Saxon

The battle in full swing!

Nick and I had a very nice fun little Basic Impetus bash last Saturday featuring Nick as the Late Romans (west) vs myself running the Early Anglo Saxons. Nick has played little to none in regards to Impetus so I thought playing a game of Basic Impetus was a great way to ease him into the rules instead of going straight into full Impetus. In some ways Basic Impetus is as good as full Impetus when taking in certain factors. For example it's far easier to collect Basic Impetus armies especially in 28mm and the rules are simplified allowing an easier learning curve both at an introductory level and if you play infrequently to remember the rules. You also need less space to play. However regular full Impetus does allow more tactical options and gives a fuller experience, but that comes with cost in both time to play, space needed and bigger collections. At the moment I like the idea of Basic Impetus at 28mm and full Impetus at 15mm, but that's not set in stone as I'll play full Impetus at 28mm as well. I would say it's more of a guide for now and see how things develop.

The game itself was great fun and Nick who is normally a skirmish type gamer really enjoyed the game as well. A real nice feature of Basic Impetus is that you don't have a lot of units so each unit becomes important so you really need to think about what you want to do. I suppose what I like most about Impetus is the big bases, because of the visual aspect and the ease of movement. The game itself was a tight one, but in the end the Roman's prevailed in large part to the excellent performance of their cavalry. Nick who normally has difficulties in getting something in the win column largely due to his poor dice rolling this time was able to come out the winner and throw back the uncivilized barbarians. Of course this is only temporary as the Saxons will have their revenge!:-)

Still need to work on the photography, but hopefully you'll enjoy the pics I was able to half decently take. Nick has decided to leave his lovely Late Romans at my house so he doesn't need to drag them out of the attic any more which is a boon for me! Thanks Nick! Since he kindly has allowed me to use them in his absence it will give me something for my Saxons to fight as I'm still developing my own Late Roman army although my cataphracts did manage to get on the table for their first game albeit not controlled by myself.

Well I must say I'm pretty pumped to get painting some more Impetus armies so stay tuned for more of that soon!

Thanks for viewing!

The Late Romans line up for battle.
Screaming insults the Saxons form up.
Late Roman cavalry hoping to outflank the Saxon battle line.
Late Roman infantry lock shields and advance.
A massive melee erupts across the battlefield.
Cataphracts hoping to punch a hole through the Saxons instead become boged down in close fighting.
Saxons push the center, but struggle on the flanks.
Cataphracts grind down one unit, but find the Saxon Generals unit a much tougher challenge.
End game with Late Roman heavy cavalry catching a large unit in the flank collapsing both the unit and the Saxon army with it.



50 comments:

  1. A Basic Impetvs game is excellent! Nothing encourages paint flowing from the brush than an inspiring game.
    Photos look great to me and I do enjoy seeing the large Impetvs bases. I have been slow to migrate from the Basic to the Full game because I find the basic game so much fun. Of course, we add Evasion to BI.

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    1. Thanks a lot Jonathan! Basic Impetus is great fun, but regular Impetus does have more tactical challenges and armies have a more defined historical behaviour because of this. Anyhow both are great and I happily play either!:-)

      Christopher

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  2. Remarkable game!
    Офигенно 8)

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  3. Looks wonderful Christopher! Might have to give these rules a crack sometime.

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    1. Thank you kindly Rodger and I highly recommend giving the rules a go!

      Christopher

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  4. Cracking looking and sounding game Christopher.

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  5. That looks stunning.
    Basic Impetus has never really appealed to me, but those figures look amazing

    Tom

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    1. Thank you very much Tom. Well if Impetus isn't for you, but you like the large base visual appeal then Hail Caesar, Sword and Spear, and To the Strongest for example can easily adapt to large bases if your looking for an alternative.

      Christopher

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  6. Beautiful collection you've got there Christopher - and that gaming mat looks way better than the standard GW stuff we've got here. Where did you get it?

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    1. Thank you Sören although the Late Romans bar the cataphracts are my friends Nick, but all the Saxons except one base are mine. The mat is actually a green blanket that I sprayed with various colours to get the shade I wanted. It still needs a bit more work as I haven't quite got want I'm after yet, but I'm still pleased at the progress.

      Christopher

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  7. Very nice looking game and lovely painted minis!!!

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  8. Top notch end of games report and awesome painted figures to boot as well! - Marvelous!

    cheers,

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    1. Thank you very much Phil I'm happy you enjoyed the table!

      Christopher

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  9. Those figures look so good on the gaming table. I would thing photographing this many figures and such wide angles difficult. You've nothing to apologise for, these look great.

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    1. Thank you very much Anne for the support I'm always a bit uncertain about my photography.

      Christopher

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  10. Wow Christopher, they are all beautiful painted and based figures, they look terrific on your nice wargame table and photos are great too! I too love the blanket you used for the ground, a great idea and looks better than the grass mats that can be purchased!

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  11. Superb looking game and collection of figures :)
    I've not had great experiences playing Impetus but the love the idea of the game and probably should give it more time...!

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    1. Thank you very much Mike. I've read your experiences with Impetus and think it a case of bad luck that soured your experiences. However, I'm prejudiced towards the system as it's my favourite so while I of course think you should give it another try I also understand not every game strikes the same note with everyone.

      Christopher

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  12. Nice one! I think your pictures look great. Seems like BI would be the perfect game for a Skirmish player to cross over without to many "heavy" rules. Cheers

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    1. Thank you kindly Nate! Yes, I think that's part of the reason Nick enjoyed the game.

      Christopher

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  13. It was a great game Chris! We've played a lot of great games over time but this one really got me hooked... I even pulled out my as yet unpainted stuff and might have a few new units for our next game. This time based directly for Impetus me thinks.

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    1. It was indeed a great game! I'm very, very pleased to hear that you are motivated to both collect and play more Impetus my favourite gaming system!! I love ancient armies and battles especially in 28mm so I'm really excited you wish to pursue this type of gaming! Be warned it's addictive as there are so many armies and periods to choose from. With this in mind I think Impetus armies are going to dominate my painting table for the foreseeable future. Oh btw, if our armies get really big we can also play big battle Basic Impetus which is simply doubling the list or of course playing full Impetus so you can always add to an army and not fear that they won't get used.;-) I agree basing directly for Impetus is visually better then sabot basing and I'll do that as much as possible.

      Christopher

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  14. Splendid game with lovely troops, Christopher. You really should submit and article to a gaming mag - this would be well-received for sure.

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    1. Thank you very much Dean! I'm a terrible writer so I don't know if I would be of much use, but if a magazine were to contact me I might do something. I don't mind submitting painted figures for wargames rules and magazines, but I'm not very confident on the writing aspect. Anyhow I do really appreciate the vote of confidence.:-)

      Christopher

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  15. Superb looking game Christopher!

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  16. Now that is what I call two wonderfully painted armies.
    The Saxons are going to have a hard time on the flanks against all that cavalry.

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    1. Thank you very much Pat. Yes indeed the cavalry are pretty tough for the Saxons, but they outclass the Roman infantry so it balances out. It was a close fight which is a testament to the relative equality of the armies.

      Christopher

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  17. Superb looking game with tons of eye candy!

    It's been a while since I played BI but I remember the rules as very fun indeed. Your post actually got me thinking about setting up a game with my 28 mm Dark Ages stuff ... :)

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    1. Thank you very much Jonas! I'd advise you to give in to the temptation as you will quickly remember why you liked the game so much!

      Christopher

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  18. Wonderful looking game, thanks for sharing the write up and pics.

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    1. Thank you kindly Jason I'm happy you enjoyed the report.

      Christopher

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  19. Great looking game and superbly painted armies. Been noticing quite a few bloggers mentioning Basic Impetus of late and strangely I am heading back that way myself. Both systems have their pros and cons however time is prime moverat the moment. Great work and inspirational as well!

    Cheers, Ross

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    1. Thank you very much Ross. No question time is a big bonus with Basic Impetus. I think another reason full Impetus is losing ground to basic at the moment is the errata. It changes too often and the whole thing needs to be tightened up in terms of clarification of the rules and additional new rules settled . Hopefully Impetus version 2 will address these issues and if so will for sure pick up steam again. In the mean time Basic Impetus is pretty solid and perhaps with just a few minor tweaks should easily fill the time in between. Like you said, both versions have their pluses and minus.

      Christopher

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  20. Excellent looking forces there Christopher! I'm off to paint more Late Romans now.

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  21. Christopher - great looking figs and terrain as usual! Superb! Keep em' coming!

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  22. Man that's a stunning battlefield Christopher!!! This would make me go out and buy figures!!!!

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    1. Cheers Paul! Always doing my best to help gamers part with their money.:-)

      Christopher

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