"Basic - / Impetus: structural limitations?" Topic

All this chat about Impetus got my curiosity peaked – so I read Basic Impetus ( BI) and the tutorial. It certainly looks worth a go and price (free) is right.

As an avid DBA fan, I know that every set of rules has limits and problems within their machanics and structures. For example, in DBA the Scots Common Army v 100YW English is both historical and a great game matchup. Unfortunately the same can't be said of the 100YW English v French, which is unfortunate. Now you can tweak the game to make the English Bw effective v the French Bd, but AS WRITTEN the rules don't play that out well.

So my question is what are the similar probs weaknesses in Impetus. Because I'm intersted in some quicker fun playable rules for chariots to pike snd shotte.

One advantage is you won't need to rebase your DBx stuff – though you will need x4 of everything to make an impetus base. Don't think there are inter-generational problems with the armies. Some people swear by light cav bow armies though you do need to know what you're doing with them to be effective it seems – from reading others' AARs. Much prefer the additional rules of regular impetus (no real need to expand your armies too much to do regular impetus) as adds a great deal to the game. You don't need to throw the baby out with the bath-water; keep your DBx stuff and expand each army a little to Impetus basing.

oh, and English Longbow can be brutal -get some stakes out front though!

Ok but where do the mechanics have problems is my question.

Re-torsioning the ballistae after a heavy rain?

Well..as I've said have not seen many issues with armies fighting other armies in the same periods. The mechanic, I guess you can call it, that upsets many is the wild variance in results depending upon your die roll – sometimes your most stalwart unit can falter when least expected. Some prefer a more predictable result table I guess.

Agreed. I like Basic Impetus just fine, but one of my main gaming pals hates the way some units don't fold under heavy pressure (mine, thanks to hot dice) while others (his, lousy dice) rout when yelled at.

Since he won't play it, I don't. Maybe he's forgotten and I can try it again…

Depdening on your tastes rolls can lead non-fresh units that have suffered losses to destory fresh units that have suffured no losses. I think BI dosen't guarentee you a historical result but it also doesn't make it impossible to get it ala DBA. But I will stress that it dosen't guarentee you a historical. It's all up to luck or more sceintifically the probability distribution :)

Some people may also be a little unhappy with the very deadly results of flank attacks.

The major diffrence you are going to see is that it will take some more time to play and a lot more dice rolling then DBA.

The biggest problem I had is that Psiloi or LH that move have a hard time opening fire and if the target has moved may not fire at all. I have learned that it has been fixed on the forums by Lorenzo.

Well, I suppose you could switch the mechanic to a 2d6 bell curve. Or go straight to 2d4 without changing any numbers- that's about a 5 for the center of the bell curve.

Since DBA uses a dice off with beating and doubling your opponent as result makers, it's not quite as variable.

Only if you think that the double 5 and 6 for hits give slow battles.

though you will need x4 of everything to make an impetus base.

Actually, you can play with DBA bases and cut all ranges and rates by half. Play on a DBA board and you are off to the races. I think vtsaogames played some with DBx basing and he had no complaints.

You could also just double base DBA elements on movement tray Impetus bases. That is my current strategy with my Byzantines.

"Actually, you can play with DBA bases and cut all ranges and rates by half. Play on a DBA board and you are off to the races."

Yes, works fine. Now to deal with the dicey cohesion test results…

Another quick solution is to just use the rules for Hordes of the Things as they actually produce a more historcial result for medieval battles (esp HYW) than DBA.

TomT