"Anyone played Baroque rules?" Topic

And how it feels? Esp. For 30yw

Whenever he lets it go, I will buy the pdf version;))

Baroque rules?

According to TMP posters, all rules are broke…

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

link

Interesting. That link gives me the following:

"Access to the website dadiepiombo.it/english-baroque.html has been blocked as the category malware-sites has been blocked: "

Well it worked for me (McAfee didn't kick up a fuss).

Baroque is apparently based on Impetus, there is a forum to discuss them here:
link

No problem here. I simply clicked the mouse in an uncondescending manner.

Six games played so far for ECW and loving the rules. Massive improvement on the basic Impetus mechanics IMHO.

Biggest difference is that the old Zone of Contact is gone replaced by a Reaction (think Overwatch) system. Units react to some circumstances including such as being charged, shot at, enemy movement, etc. They have one attempt per turn (only) to react and depending upon the action triggering and their desired response they have to pass a discipline test, which has situational modifiers.

Also units can have Special Characteristics such as Preacher/Agitators, Feared Unit, Iron Officers, Master Gunners, Motivated Fighters, Well Trained Shooters, Demotivated Troops. These involve re-rolls to sometimes combat rolls, Discipline tests or Cohesion tests.

Add a lot of flavour and fun and make the action unpredictable.

The method for choosing who deploys terrain, how much and what has changed plus who places it and who deploys first.

Basically the goalposts have really moved, in a very good way.

I posted an AAR on the Impetus/Baroque Forum…

link

Measuring distances is different too. Baroque Units (BU) are half of a base frontage. So, as in my case with 15mm figures with each unit having a 12cm frontage 1 BU = 6cm.

it gives very good period feel in our estimation.

FW has given good accounts above, another significant difference from Impetus is that there are no group moves, which tidies things up no end.

As you would expect the rules are more shooty orientated than Impetus and pike & musket battalia have ratings to reflect different ratios, resulting in shooting or melee modifiers depending on that ratio rather than endless different types of P&M unit.

Differences in horse styles comes out well with pistol wielding 'trotters' handling very differently from flash 'gallopers' and reiters (especially in deep formations) are not to be sniggered at.

The morale rules have also shifted dramatically with real and genuine consideration needing to be made for voluntary withdrawal of units from the field before they are destroyed or broken – fighting to the last man is actively discouraged. As a consequence reserves are a necessity and for once in a wargame have real purpose.

I heartily recommend them – best set of rules for the period I've played to date.

They've encouraged me to generate new armies – WIP pictures below
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Cheers Zipp.

Zipp makes a very important point about the Morale rules and breakpoints. Fighting to the last is now quite dumb. Spoiling attack to exhaust the enemy then get the heck out are a really viable tactic.

Once a unit is below half strength of its initial VBU, it is Exhausted, can't use its Impetus Factor, can't react, and loses its VD from its VD Total. If it's VBU falls to 0 it is Routed and it loses DOUBLE its VBU.

A command is broken when the total of its VDT reaches 0, but units may still fight on if they pass an immediate Discipline Test.

All of the above results in a fantastic narrative and it feels very in period.

Nice basing method Zippee. I am using Peter Pig figs but still have not decided on basing. The default position is to use the basing in the new Regiment of Foote rules, but am rather inclined to go for something a bit larger scale, such as this or Wally's (love the site Wal!)

Ta chum

Baroque is to Impetus as Basic Baroque is to Basic Impatus?

Just in case anyone is confused – VD is essentially the units worth in morale or victory points (you just have to get over some of the Italian abbreviations), the sum of those make a command's VDT (morale total and the sum of those the army's total). So when a unit is exhausted the command loses that unit's VD value, if the unit is routed it loses that value again. If the VDT reaches 0 the command breaks – units may stay on table disheartened but fragile.

A broken command deducts its entire VDT from the army total. You can probably guess what happens if the army level reaches zero.

So withdrawing (voluntarily removing from table – not compulsory and also not guaranteed) is very sensible if units or commands are getting fragile.

For clarity VBU is not a morale factor its a combined combat factor, reflecting endurance and performance, this gets nibbled away by poor combat results eating into the units cohesion and it's will to continue.

Thanks and this sounds very ( as expected) promising). Looks like combining buyings for it and Fire & Sword will be in end of the year plans.

Molto bene, bravo Lorenzo!

We've played perhaps 5 ECW games and it does the job for relatively quick, easy but having the right flavor.

We enjoyed Baroque very much for the ECW.
BatRep of one game is here:
link

I thought that they were going to call it Barack Impetus.

"I thought that they were going to call it Barack Impetus."

There is a special Louisiana version coming with that name. Actually, it will sell in all of redneck USA so keep your eyes peeled.

Thanks Marcus. I'll be on the lookout for it. :^)

Can the improvements made in Baroque be applied to Impetus?

Yup, Impetus 2 will use some of the Baroque mechanisms like the reaction system according to the author.