BatRep of Roman V Dacian Basic Impetus

Keen to play with these rules for a second time, we stayed with period for out next game. That's three games played two weeks between each, HOORAY.

Well that's something to cheer about, what is not is the epic fail of downloading the photo's from my camera, managed to delete them so no pics so you will just have to take my word for it.

Again we went with the Impetuous Light Rules but this time instead of the Gauls we played the Dacian force against the Romans. These are the free to download rules and armies from the Internet and are designed to act as an hook for the full rules. Well it looks like it is working as Barry is hoping Santa or the Birthday Fairy brings them for him. Well we certainly got a good game out of them. I had failed to get round to re-reading the rules but they are so basic it's not difficult to pick them up after just two weeks. We set up the terrain then diced for table sides and then diced for forces. I was keen to get the Romans again and was lucky enough to get them. Once we were set up and I looked opposite at the massed forces I was not so sure. A quick count of units and it was confirmed, Barry had 3 more units than me and as one of my units was ART B I felt he had 4 more! But three of mine are rather tough Legion guys and regards Cav mine again was of better quality. I set up with a double Legion (large unit - two made into one) centre right with the Art B and Archers centre left with the other Legion and my unit of Cav on my far left. My right itself was the two Axillia one behind the other. Three hills dominated my side of the field, two out front (one each flank) whilst the main one was angled through the middle with the crest forward of my start position. I planned to hold the left hill with my Cav and send my double Legion beyond the crest of the main hill. To make sure this happened I needed the Initiative in the first turn. I did not get it but Barry just sent skirmish units forward and so I was able to get the ground I wanted.

Both of us stood off each other with his skirmish line happy to send arrows at my unit whilst my archers and Art B fired on targets, neither really doing much. Barry wanted to get his Javalin armed skirmish unit into range and temped me to charge in with my Auxilia which rolled very well routing the skirmishers and clearing the way to push on the right. The stand off on my left continued for a while but with it becoming obvious I was not going to come off the hill Barry sent in some of his best troops, with support from behind. Now Barry was rolling something like 13 dice to my 7 so it did not look like I would hold for long but again I rolled well whilst Barry just got the one result so I knocked him back off the hill with loss. This was the story of the fight for these units all day until near the end after losing no casualties my Medium Cav destroyed the front unit of heavy infantry. Meanwhile in the centre I charged the bow armed skirmishers with the second auxillia but these evaded leaving me close to the Dacian main line. The medium unit facing me charged in with support but again the dice were kind and I survived the initial charge just disordered. My double Legion was making steady progress to support him whilst the Art B continued to keep the unit on my Auxillia's flank disordered and started to reduce it's strength. A archer unit had positioned itself so as to temp (I think force) me to charge it with the other auillia which again went well for me as I drove it over the right flank hill in some disorder. But in doing so it allowed a medium unit to get behind him. Fast forward two turns and he was the meat in a Dacian sandwich!

Over on the left the Med Cav was keeping the Heavy foot entertained so I moved the spare Legion forward to clear the medium foot and light horse away from my Cav. The medium foot was punished but in shear desperation to buy time to reorganise the foot Barry charged the lights into my Legion and the unthinkable happened. Yes I dropped it two levels with the Pilum but still they charged in and disordered me! From this point onwards the combination of medium foot crashing into my Legion only to be thrown back followed by his Light Cav rescuing the situation for yet another turn. It should not have happened once but it happened time and again. Sure I was wearing them down and it was really just a repeating freak of the dice but still it was interesting to watch it play out.

In the centre no such suttle action was in play. My Auxillia after standing against a supported attack was now driving the Dacians back mainly due to their reduced support as my Legions smashed into the best supporting unit and was to keep on driving until the unit was destroyed. The whole centre started to melt away and whilst my unfortunate Auxillia was being whittled down it was not being destroyed fast enough. This allowed the victorious Legions to turn about and join the rear of the melee and smash the medium unit. Meanwhile the Axillia in the centre turned to menace the Light Cav/Medium Infantry Combo. Quickly from here I managed to get the required points to break Barry's Army. I had suffered less than I deserved and in fairness Barry was diced rotten and not once did he moan. Though I think one die of his will be held in high esteem being about the only thing that kept him in the game, this being the roll a 1 die that was the start of the save roll.

It was great to get a game played to a conclusion and it's a real shame I have no pics as Barry had in the last two weeks flocked his bases and this really finished off the units.

Having played further into a game and being more astute to what was going on we started to pick holes in the rules. These holes will of course be filled by the full rule set but for the most part we were able to work out something reasonable and now plan to work a few of these observations into the rules we are using at the moment. Obviously a lot depends on when we get the full rules and if we like what it brings. For me when you play with so few units I don't want to get too bogged down and think we could make the basic version work well for us. Next up for me will be some sample playing of the Field Of Glory rules. First on my own to get a feel for them and reduce the page turning in a face to face game and then probably with Lee over the Festive Period. Matt also wants to try them so again plenty of opportunity to test drive them.

Next up for Barry and me will be a small 6mm Naps Battle with his newly painted Brits that look just right for the scale. When he told me he painted them all in just 4 mornings my jaw dropped. No way could I have painted so much in so little time and made them look half as good. My only conciliation is that today I finished six French Dragoon Regiments, the subject of the next post.

AAR Battle of Annes Table

OK so this was not based on any real action as sooooooo many games are not, but it was on Anne's table so thanks MUM. 44 years old and still nips over to Mum's to game, bless. Well given Barry lives across the road and we were using his figures it seemed the easiest option. Not sure the manufactures but these are all 1/72 (20mm) plastics (though the cart mounted Art was metal and for a guess Irregular Miniature). We diced for sides and I got the Romans which was interesting as I have never ever ever played with Romans before. The game just like the one two weeks before was just to try out the rules. This being Basic Impetus which Barry is keen on given that they suit small numbers of units and given the scale we will only use small numbers on such a table, though we could nip to the local games store and play on a huge table if wished as we will possibly do with the 15mm.

I personally had grave doubts about the rules though they read fairly well I know chunks of the good stuff were missing. Just like the game before we set at the same time paying no attention to the other players positions etc. Under the assumption that we would be over in a couple of hours we started later than normal but with about 3 hours play time, plenty.

Barry set up his Gallic force up on the left my Romans on the right. More or less a straight up set up, Barry had Cav on both flanks whilst I only had the one Cav unit but I set up archers in front of a legion and ART on the hill. The warbands kept behind the crest fearing my mighty ART. As we were both more interested in trying the rules than winning the game we both were keen to come to grips in ways that under other circumstances we would not even think of. That said Barry managed to tempt my Cav out wide on my flank by offering a target that I had every right to expect a quick conclusion. This move indeed worked and sprung his three chariots to drive towards the infantry flank. I sent one of the two Auxilia to face these, OK they won't stand for ever but they should cause some damage, meanwhile I sent a Legion to play with a unit of skirmishers not even bothering to use the Pilum in first contact. The only other action at this stage was the other wing of Cav charging my other unit of Auxilia on my extreme left flank.

The only action that was conclusive first off was my Legion against the skirmish troops. I rolled oh so high and killed them all giving me first blood. This just exposed a war band with support which I received a charge from but this time I did use the Pilum and to some effect. This was an interesting combat as it swung back and forwards till...........

Not the way you want to roll, especially when they were rolling five dice to your seven! I passed the Cohesion test and as such managed to soldier on. At that point I had still to loose any loss whilst both warbands were down two levels. This scrap went on to the end with first one winning then the other, dice were fairly even once the disorders started to kick in but Barry struggled to do much in the way of casualties to me and they have lots of levels to resist damage.

This was the story through out the game, one side then the other seemed to get the upper hand. On my left the Auxilia had been disordered by the Cav but thanks in part to being uphill I continued to stave off being beaten and slowly the casualties rose. Barry decided after being pushed back twice for one last charge and the rolls went all my way and another unit routed from the field. This would allow this unit that was still in good condition to remove it's disorder then attack the flank of the double warband approaching my two Legion units still unblooded in the centre. The bow troops really to this point had done little as they could not fire into melee and I was not about to charge into a fight. The last skirmish unit approached them and I let them have a fairly unimpressive volley of arrows before they crashed into me guys. Well I won and caused a casualty forcing them to break off. Now I had a double warband to face. OK stand, fire and die or run away? Hell it's only plastic, fire away and ooch two damage, both are handed on to the back unit so no disorder or problems for the front guys, still every little helps for the Legions awaiting the main event.

Oh the joy, these two warbands crash into my poor bow troops and what happens? just a disorder thanks to some epic die rolling by me and average by Barry. Now my boys would stand for another turn allowing my flank troops to recover and make preparations to go in on the flank.

On their right I was still fighting off the `yes we can roll four sixes' and in fairness this was still any ones game. Both had survived another round of combat and both sides were becoming brittle, one more push could well have seen the winner though with the Chariot battle raging to the end how I would have reacted if I had won was up in the air but only bad things would have come from a Gallic win of this mini-fight.

Those damned Chariots!!, they seem to me at least far far too powerful on paper. In the game they just could not get the job done. One unit of Auxilia held all three off for the whole game but only by dicing Barry turn after turn after... you get the idea. The only bonus I had was that after a couple of rounds I was never facing more than two a turn and towards the end his strength was falling and losing these Chariots would have been high point values and a major blow but I was not in best of shape.

Well what should have been the easy battle (two or three dice advantage throughout) was at the start just a case of no result and then slowly gong my way before swinging to Barry right up to being down to one level left at game end. Still I had managed to halt, loose my disorder and was ready for that last charge, good rolls would win me the action but Barry pipping me with just a one 6 more than I had would kill my unit unless I rolled a 1 on the cohesion test. I would probably need two rounds to finish him off so odds were in favour of Barry in this one.

Well the kids needed collecting from school so we needed to call it at that point but it had been lots of fun and I can see that these rules work well for the limited number of units in play. The acid test was that I wanted to play to the end and I wanted to play another game soon. So we will try these rules again in the near future, however they are not without warts.

You don't shoot as your opponent charges in which is a big deal if they had the 2nd initiative in the last turn and first in the next. It seems not to pay any attention to armour or if you have shields or not. I don't like the idea of passing a cohesion test and because your disordered you lose a casualty anyway, why bother with the test for single casualties. It seems to be that if a unit lost three CP's if like I did it passes the CT then only a disorder happens? OK I had -3 o the test but the unit had 6 levels so still 50% chance to pass. Just quick fire problems that we can work out/through with more in depth play and maybe a house rule or two. Of course the real objective of these rules is to hook you to the main rules and get you to buy them. Barry is hooked but I already have the hook from Field of Glory and will be trying these out with the 15mm. Not sure I want to play both full sets for the two scales though taking a few bits from full Impetus and installing in the basic rules appeals. Once FoG has had a few games and we are happy (unhappy) with the rule set then I want to try out Impetus, that is unless FoG rocks, but does any rule set really tick all the boxes?