Impetus now avaliable on Digital + my plans

Impetus here my favourite Ancients/Medieval rule set will soon be released in Digital format by Wargames Vault for those looking for a more inexpensive way to try or own the rules. The rule set will be the original version so you will need to get any errata from the Impetus web site which is of course free.

I expect the period supplements will follow at some point, but in the time being there are lists included in the book to get you started. Impetus without doubt looks better then game out there with it's approach to diorama type basing which also has the added benefit of making transportation and casualty removal much easier. The game rewards good strategic play, but with a healthy dose of chance where the game can change around which keeps players on their toes and involved. Basically, if you play good your likely to win, but it's far from guaranteed. It also has a nice new forum to visit here and where your questions are pretty quickly answered often by the author himself and a blog here.

Some samples from my El Cid army based for Impetus that I did awhile back:

So, if you were ever curious about Impetus now is the time to check it out!

On to other issues.....I'm not an especially prolific poster but even for me lately things have been pretty slow around here for the past couple months with the heat and just a general lethargy that has set in. I'm having problems focusing on any one thing and just keep starting and stopping which in effect has left me with quite a few half painted units sitting on my desk.

One issue I'm having is scale for Ancient/Medieval periods. Ancient/Medieval gaming really benefits from having multiple armies to game to keep things interesting so this poses problems.  I just can't decide if I should focus on 15/18mm or 28mm.  15/18mm is far more practical in terms storage, gaming space and quicker to finish armies making variety much more possible, but I really prefer the look of 28mm armies and games plus it's frankly more fun to paint and easier to do as my eyes get older, but of course it takes a lot longer to finish armies reducing variety and needs more storage. It's been such a conundrum for me that I really have not done nearly as much as I would have liked by now as I'm always in a state of procrastination on it!

Fortunately, I don't have this issue with horse and musket armies (which are also nice in small scales btw,) but I have solidly decided on my preferred larger 28mm awhile back ( AWI/ACW/SYW )as variety is not quite as important and fighting the same opposition does not get boring due to the historical line up. I find with these periods once you have the core forces to have a game it's only a matter of adding units at your leisure to make bigger games which is just fine with 28mm.

Skirmish goes without saying in that 28mm is ideal scale for whatever period and is pretty self explanatory so doesn't present any issues with me.

Currently working on ACW, AWI, LR, Ayyubbids, SCW etc....................... oh well the life of a gamer I suppose....



  

Operation Squad

A game out of Italy formally titled Operation World War II, but has since changed to Operation Squad from Warlord Games is probably the best skirmish game I've ever played and that's saying something.  These Italians keep making games I like a great deal with Impetus for my Medieval/Ancients and now this for my skirmish games.

The rules are extremely easy to learn and play great straight from the book without any need to modify, however they are also constructed in such a way that house rules can also be added without any difficulties at all if you want to adjust them for your gaming tastes, terrain or particular environment or scenario you have in mind. They have enough lists to get you going from all the major powers(3 each) and if something isn't there you want it wouldn't be difficult to come up with your own as the formula they use is pretty simple.

It's designed with 28mm gaming in mind, but of course you could play it at whatever scale you wish with some tweeks. It uses between 10 to 15 miniatures per side with initiative deciding the order figures are activated. Once initiative is decided by a roll a player activates a figure by declaring an action and then the opponent declares a reaction. This continues until either a player chooses not to react or 3 actions/reactions have been declared. The actions/reactions are then resolved until completed and then another set of actions/reactions are done etc. until all models are finished and thus ending a turn.

Weapons have a set number of dice per shot with additional dice for modifiers and the defender gets a sort of saving throw with x number of dice plus additional dice for modifiers for each shot. IMHO  , because of how the modifiers work in the game you get a very satisfactory and realistic game of squad level tactics that is neither too quick nor too slow to complete(roughly 2 hrs or so).

These rules are designed for WWII, but can easily be used for any period using fire arms that you care to play with only a few modifications.  To me this is very exciting as I'm a slow painter and wargaming butterfly on top that which makes it difficult for me to collect for games as it takes me quite some time before I have enough painted to do so. This game now makes it possible for me to collect several different theatres in WWII plus diverse amount of other periods I care to try. Now, when I paint 10 or so figures they will see action right away and not months or even years later after sitting on shelf waiting for enough figures to be finished so I can play whatever system I'm collecting for!

Also, the table requirement isn't big which makes building and collecting terrain for it inexpensive and relatively quick to do. Of course the game could be expanded in size if you wish by simply doubling the squads, but again these rules are not really designed for larger then squad level play with probably 2 squads a side being the very maximum.

The book itself is soft cover with about 45p. all color on high grade paper with inserts that can photocopied or removed and used if you wish. The layout could have been better in finding things for the occasional question, but fortunately you won't really need to after a couple games. They should have added more fluff and pics for the price they are asking which is quite a bit for a small book, but lucky for them the rules are good enough and so it's well worth it. When one views it at just a bit more expensive then Disposable Heroes(another fav of mine) which is only black and white on cheap paper then it's even easier to swallow. This isn't the most detailed set of rules for low level WWII skirmish games I've played, but it sure is the most fun!

They also just released a vehicle supplement for you heavy metal fans to be used in your games which I haven't had a chance to try out yet:

Lot's more rules reviews to come as I purchased a truck load this year!!

British Grenadier Deluxe Edition by Eclaireur

I've finally got my hands on it and to say I'm impressed with the new deluxe edition of  British Grenadier would be a huge understatement! In my opinion it's the most beautifully made wargames book I've seen to date and the one I just bought isn't even the gentlemen's edition! I felt I didn't deserve that as I tend to not treat my wargames books with the best of care. However, had I known just how nice this was going to be I might have reconsidered and gone for the gentlemen's edition in spite of my dodgy handling of books.

On to a little description. The cover is hardback made in a lovely glossy deep brown with a fine cursive script featuring the now famous British Grenadier of the previous rule set. The inside jacket and  pages use an aged Betsy Ross Star Spangled banner as the background rather then just plain white. The pages are of high quality and superb binding from what I can observe.

The book is lavishly illustrated with inspiring full coloured pictures of figures, battle scenes, drawing and painting. Many fine figure painters work is featured in the book , but a large percentage of them are by Giles Allison whom I consider to be the foremost figure painter of this period and who's body of work in terms of scope and standard of excellence sets the bar. He's the main reason I started the period and blogging a few years back and I strongly recommend visiting his blog at
 http://gilesallison.blogspot.com/
Basically, the format and presentation of the entire book just exudes period feel like nothing I've seen and makes you feel like humming Yankee Doodle as you read it!

British Grenadier is set in the American War of Independence and can be played in several scales from 6mm to 40mm with 28mm and 15mm being the most common.  Basing is generally multi-figure with an average of 4-6 infantry per base and 2 cavalry if at all present as this war was dominated by infantry with cavalry being a pretty small percentage.

The rules themselves are simulation in nature and quite sophisticated where the author tries to present you with the difficulties of commanding troops in North America and does an excellent job of doing so. They deny you full command of each troop forcing you to use well thought out battle plans and making you judge when to use your limited command options to achieve the best effect. Moving formed bodies of troops was difficult in this theatre and the rules reflect this very well indeed.

This isn't a beer and pretzel type of game as it takes time to develop, but still isn't overly burdensome in record keeping and charts either where a few tokens will cover most of what you need, because of this the game flows very nicely once you have the feel for the rules. It's also not a tournament type of game and is best suited for club play and Demo's as it's mainly centred around historical engagements where scenario conditions decide the victor. British Grenadier already has 3 published scenario books and includes 4 scenario's in the rules themselves to keep you busy a plenty, however if there is something you wish to do not already covered the author gives a guideline on how to do so.

If your looking to get into AWI wargaming then I can think of no other rule set better for this period and I strongly recommend that you should pick up a copy. You can get a copy from Caliver Books http://www.caliverbooks.com/

British Grenadier has a forum that is well supported by a great bunch of  knowledgeable and nice group of gentlemen that will answer most any question you have. They helped me a great deal when I got started(and still do!). The forum can be found here http://generaldebrigade.greatboard.com/viewforum.php?f=13

For those who already own a copy of the previous British Grenadier and don't think they need the deluxe version then think again!! The new version has some new rule changes that reduce arty effect and improve the chance of a successful bayonet assault and a few others, but mainly it's just so well done it's worth it!!!!

I wish I had time to work on some more AWI as I'm now chomping at the bit to do so, but I have a priority project I must complete first. Five star inspiring stuff folks! 





  

Hail Caesar

I gave this opinion on the WAB forum and thought I would share it on my blog.
I've been reading HC and so far my opinion is.......I'm impressed! I like the mechanics of the game, orders and blunders mechanism, and the ability to design battles and armies as you see them reflected in history. It does require an emphasis on game building which I find very nice.
While I do enjoy points driven gaming(WAB, Impetus etc.), I equally enjoy the freedom to design armies and battles free from points limitations to better reflect a more historical gaming experience(simulation gaming in other words HC ,F&F BG etc.)where battles were seldom fair and therefore requires one to design scenario goals and objectives to level the field rather then abstract points.
An interesting point about HC is it's geared towards multiple players that can be played with just 2 players while most other systems are designed for 2 players that can be played with multiples. This should not be over looked as large battles will run very smoothly with HC as that's it's comfort zone and requires very little adjustment.
This type of gaming is ideal for club/group gaming or demo games. If your a little weary of the tournaments and want to try a change of pace then Hail Caesar is something to try.
Generally it's designed for large games due to the high figure count, but will still work with moderate sized armies.
If your a small sized collector say in 10mm or 15mm this system will actually give you the rule set to take advantage of large collections that you otherwise couldn't fully use them all and for the 28mm gamer a chance to really pool a lot of miniatures together with friends and not worry if you have too much as the rules allow for adjustments in scenario's and unit capabilities to help off set any large disadvantage to one side or the other.
If your looking for absolute fair then this isn't for you, but if your looking to just play your miniatures with some freedom and let history design your armies then I really recommend HC.
Another point is I really like Impetus and HC easily accommodates the basing which is nice. I'm a huge fan of Impetus basing, but was always concerned it made playing other systems difficult, but not so with HC thus any army I base for Impetus I can use with HC as well which avoids any army becoming to narrow in possibilities.
Also, I heard Rick has published some lists in the yahoo group. I personally hope that's as far as it goes and no more lists are added or ever published. Lists will eventually replace players freedom and in the case of HC I think that's not a good thing. Many games have lists and that's good, but I also like games without them and so I hope HC avoids this.

Impetus

First impression is two thumbs up! However I'll start with a small critique.
I received the main Impetus rulebook 2 weeks ago and imho I think it needs an aesthetic update to come on line with the current rule book's hitting the market. It needs to be hardback and the photo's updated. Some of armies/units looked quite good, but too many didn't show the great basing potential Impetus offers in diorama type basing which anaesthetically is such a strong point of the system . However, I'm happy that I bought the rules.:-)
Some of the translation was a little dodgy, but since I'm dyslexic resulting in my writing also being dodgy even in my own language and the book originally in Italian I'll give that an understanding wink and a pass.
That said the rules are easy to understand and are not overly complex. The structure of armies and organization seems very good and flexible with an emphasis on results over process which is nice for game flow.
It offers an Impetus Bonus rule which is another nice factor of the game where you receive this on charges when Fresh(no wounds suffered) and not disordered which will make players think about when committing their best troops. To early and they will wear out too soon or too late and your army will already have suffered too much damage to come back.
Today at our club we played Impetus for the first time using the Basic Impetus version to just get a feel for the game before moving on to full Impetus later on. This leads to the other nice point about Impetus is they offer both a free scaled down version with the option of buying the full version.
Any ways, I had a great time and really enjoyed the pace of the game and unpredictability built into it. Results were fast and furious and packed a lot of drama.This was a very welcome change from FOG with it's grinding approach that I quite frankly find boring. I also believe it to be superior in play over DBA/DBMM  because in view DBA/DBMM are to slow to react to changing situations and single dice rolls deciding everything.  Of course that's just IMHO, but it is how I feel.
We played Normans(my friend) vs Saxons(me) which at first I thought might not have that many tactical decisions as the Saxon player will generally start in shieldwall. However, during the course of the game situations came up where the Saxon player had to decide if he wanted to take advantage of situations by moving. So, what I thought might be a static game, actually turned into manoeuvre. In the end the Saxons prevailed, but I think the Normans could equally have won on another occasion had the dice been a bit nicer to the Normans.
I'm looking forward to more games and hopefully my friends at the club will play some more games. They want to try FOG which I will accommodate, but hopefully like me they will end up preferring Impetus.
There is no doubt Impetus will become my 15mm game of choice and will also join the ranks of top 28mm games I play for sure for Ancient and Medieval gaming . Really enjoyed this game folks!
Sorry, no pics, but I'll try to remember next time.
I also just received Hail Caesar in the mail! :-) However I'll leave that review for another time.

Clash of Empires

Just got my copy yesterday. It arrived damaged which didn't please me, but I tried to set that aside in my observation.
Clash of Empires is a rule set designed for playing the Ancient Period right on up to late Medieval and is a successor game to Warhammer Ancient Battles. This has largely came about due to the poor support from FW/GW in handling WAB and the pages of Errata.
The book is a nice hardback with lots of useful diagrams and pictures. Easy to read and understand with a very nice summery at the back. Worth buying for sure.
However, to be fair when comparing the look and layout of this book to WAB2 here is my opinion:

Cover of the book- WAB2 looks better.
Pages-Grainy feel and somewhat cheap. WAB2 superior quality in this.
Art work- Again, vastly prefer the WAB artists and artwork
Photo's- Yet once again, WAB2 has superior photographs without any blurred images and dark pictures found in some picks in COE. Generally, the armies shown in WAB2 are better painted then in COE as well. Not to say there are not some really nicely painted mini's in COE which there are!
WAB2 is more expensive then COE, but this is justified by the higher quality.


As we know, looks are only a part of the package with the rules themselves the other.


Here is a quick observation of the rules themselves:


I Like:
-Basing similar to WAB2 makes easy transitions between the two games, however I wish they would have followed WAB2 exactly even if they say it's not important to avoid any confusion.
- minimum unit size
-Abundance of helpful diagrams
-Oblique manoeuvre
-Interpenetration of units allows for ease of movement
-Impetuous/Reckless troops(an extra rule that makes controlling some troops more difficult and adds flavour)
-Massed fire not allowed vs chargers or units with rear rank in woods
-Disruption(extra element not found in WAB that adds an extra level to the state of troops)
-Bonus to combat for closest unit to General( nice that the general can effect combat in units he is not personally in)
-Limited amount of skirmish units(very nice, as I hate clouds of skirmishers)
-Easily understood and mechanics similar to WAB
-Nice summery

I Don't like:
-Centimetres instead on inches!!
-Maximums on unit sizes.(I personally like to decide that)
-No BSB(I like a BSB to steady the line)
-Rolling to kill/Wound after armour saves(Prefer the WAB2 order)
-Only one character per unit
-Unit standards and musicians having no effect in
combat
-Prefer percentage to slots when choosing my
armies

Undecided(must play test):
-Discipline tests(Tests you have to make before making certain manoeuvres)
-Forming square as that's really not a typical ancient
manoeuvre, but could be good for play.
-Intercept(Allows cavalry and chariots to intercept flank and rear charges)
- Concerned it may be to easy to kill characters in close combat(2 wounds on a unit and roll a d6 and character is killed on a 1)
-Much, much more that will come to light after playing


Overall, on the basis of rules I don't think I will change from WAB2 to COE as my primary Ancients game even with FW/GW mistakes as I still think WAB2 is a great game. But, for sure I will add COE to games that I play and why not I say as basing similarities makes hopping between the two pretty painless!

It's here!

Regimental Fire and Fury just arrived in the post today shown below. Wow !! The book looks just fantastic and I'm more then pleased.

Looks to have nice rule adjustments as well and the eye candy is wonderful. After looking at the army size requirements I've realized I'll need to stay at 15mm to play this still as the both the army sizes and board sizes needed are beyond my ability at 28mm for this rule set. No worries as I have plenty of 15 ACW. It's all Old Glory and needs some touch ups (as I did all this many, many years ago) and re-basing to a standard size of 3 per base instead of the 3-5 I did earlier which makes aligning difficult. I'm inspired folks!
For 28mm ACW I'll use Guns at Gettysburg rule set as that's seems more prudent.;-)
Airborne remains my top focus, but in between drying times and project completion I'll start re-working my 15mm ACW and then later down the road start up the 28mm ACW.

Regimental Fire and Fury

Regimental Fire and Fury was released last year and I've just got around to ordering it do to first trying to clear my project loads, but have given in and decided to order it. I was going to wait until next year, but I really can't! I'll talk more about the game, but first I want to give some background on this period and what it means to me.
If some of you were curious as to what is my favourite period in history is, then the answer is the American Civil War. It's the period I've studied and read the most about in my life.
I was first introduced to the American Civil War when I was about 12 years old perusing a friend of my Fathers home library while visiting, who just happened to be a history teacher btw and grabbed the nearest book out of boredom. As fate would have it, I happened to take arguably the single greatest volume written on the subject by the greatest Civil War historian ever in my opinion for it's broad appeal. The book was The American Heritage Picture History of The Civil War by Pulitzer Prize-Winning Historian Bruce Catton.

I remember I was fascinated by the fantastic map pictures of battles in action and the massive wealth of wonderful pictures. This caused me to be curious what this was all about. Now comes the brilliance of the author in that he was able to write in manner that was both understandable for a youth and to capture his interest while at the same time provide an overview that satisfies an adult reader as well.
I read the book several times and continued to read other books on the subject from time to time.

The next event was when I was about 20+ years ago when I saw Ken Burns documentary The Civil War and that just blew me away.

Not only is this the greatest film documentary ever made on the American Civil War I personally think it was greatest film documentary ever made period with The World in Flames coming in a close second. Let's just say at this point I couldn't get enough of this period and began reading other works from Catton(more in depth works of his) and also Foote another fantastic historian who btw was featured in this very film.

It was at this point I first started Military wargaming using rules. My first set of rules was using Fire and Fury in 15mm using old glory miniatures. They revolutionized wargaming colour book formatting and had me drooling over it. The rules themselves are and still are best ever written for this period.

I've been playing the game ever since. Some of you may be asking why haven't we seen your mini's for this? The truth is I painted these miniatures so long ago that the painting is just awful and needs to be redone and really not worth posting. Also, I'm not that keen on painting 15mm any more as 25/28mm is my preferred scale and where I'm most happy these days. True, I do still do some 15mm, but on a much reduced miniature count and nothing like the vast amounts you need to play Brigade level F&F and so I'll just keep using my old stuff.

Now that you know some background you will understand why I'm so excited Regimental Fire & Fury has been released.......I can now use my favourite rules in 25/28mm!!Yes!!!! I know other rule sets have been released for this scale, but I wanted F & F which I knew was being play tested. I plan on using Perry and the older Foundry range. Expect to see in the future quite a bit of ACW coming up on this blog! I still intend to do most of my planned projects, but ACW could very well slip in this year at some point and no question feature regularly in the following years.
I'll discuss more about the rules themselves in another post. Until then keep your powder dry and thanks for reading.:-)