Impetus battle report

Today we played the first game of Impetus using miniatures. Tom managed to make a bit of a killing on eBay and so we decided to recreate the Battle of Bosworth of 1487 - the final battle of the War of the Roses - using the 10mm miniatures he had bought. The outcome, as you will see, was slightly different though. Although we used fairly accurate armies it was by no means a serious recreation and was primarily a chance to 'test-drive' Tom's new minis.

Using the Basic Impetus rules we arranged some scenery on the table (two areas of boggy (difficult) ground, a forest and a hill). I was playing the House of Lancaster and Tom the House of York.

The green dice represented the VBU, or for those unfamiliar with the rules, essentially the remaining strength of the unit, while the red dice, irrespective of their value, represented whether a unit was 'disordered' thereby making them less effective than those that are 'fresh'.

By the time the scenery had been placed the army of the House of York was mostly arrayed on the hill with the forest on my left flank and two large areas of difficult ground separating us. This seemed to play into my hands as I had far more firepower than Tom and so decided to sit back and watch as his force slogged it across the bogs. Initially at least.

Here's how I set up...

And here's Tom's deployment. The hill was made by placing some appropriately-shaped sheets of corkboard under the mat.

Early on in the battle I decided to throw my original plan out and start marching towards Tom's army using my faster-moving ranged troops as a screen. Tom's Nobles and Light Cavalry units were making a flanking maneuver around the forest on my left and so, instead of giving them something to charge at, I decided to try something riskier and cross the bogs...

First blood to the House of Lancaster! Tom's Men-at-Arms take a hit from my Crossbowmen.

My army start the long trek across the difficult ground.

Tom's sneaky Light Cavalry unit biding it's time.

The armies meet...

An aerial view.

Charge!

My charge is repelled...

In the centre my troops are quickly warn down.

Tom's Nobles charge into mine and proceed to teach them a thing or two about hand-to-hand combat...

This picture tells pretty much the whole story. Tom's battleline has suffered no significant damage with all his units still on the board.

At the far end of the battle line my Men-at Arms await the charge of the Tom's Nobles whilst mine are looking vulnerable to a charge from Tom's Light Cavalry, the very unit and maneuver I'd been trying to avoid.

And the view from the Light Cavalry unit that, although not making it into combat, played a role in the battle and would have charged in had the game not ended.

So that was our first miniature-based game of Basic Impetus. It was certainly fun and looked fantastic and made a welcome change from just playing with pieces of card.
The game was basically decided on my choice to cross the bogs instead of waiting for Tom's army to come to me. I won't be making that mistake again! I think I should've been more preoccupied with trying to get my Men-at-Arms and Nobles into better positions. The Nobles basically botched their one charge of the game and the Men-at-Arms spent most of the game getting in the Nobles' way and ended up taking some damage when they retreated through them. My missile troops performed pretty well despite destroying none of Tom's units, they served to 'soften them up' somewhat.

J