"Impetus" Topic

Aside from taking a good look at DBA, I was also wondering whether Impetus was a good ruleset?

Thanks again for your time. :)

Try them and see:

link

I like them.

And Basic Impetus is free.

Cheap at twice the price.

Lots of free army lists too

We play basic impetus regularly and love it

if you do fb search there and look at some of the pages dedicated to it
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I always found Basic Impetus to be quite silly when ccompared to Real Impetus.

Impetus is a Corvette Classic and DBA is a tricycle.

Much prefer the full set of Impetus. Now as PDF if you don't want the book. My Burgundians claim they prefer these rules to any other.

I also like Full Impetus. Having said that, Basic Impetus is an excellent way to introduce someone to either wargaming, or historical gaming if they already play fantasy, SciFi, etc.

I made up several different ancient armies so I can let newbies try them out and see if they like the game. Once they are up on the rules, it's easy to introduce them to the full set.

The best bits of Impetus are in Basic Impetus

I quite like the game but it doesn't have all the answers.

Phil

If you are unsure of which rule set to try one option is to base for DBX and use them in clusters of 2 or 4 to make bases for impetus.

try Sword & Spear instead

I'm tempted to say I always found Full Impetus to be quite silly when ccompared to Basic Impetus but I won't. The full set of rules is, for me, much too complicated and fussy, what with multiple movement, a variety of morale classes, command control determined by dice etc. The Basic Impetus rules are excellent and provide an elegant approach to simple ancient and medieval wargames. In fact the best set of rules I've come across in all the years I've been wargaming the ancient period. We've been running a multiplayer ancient campaign using "Empire" and Basic Impetus now for about four years, just finished and we are going back to start it again 'cos the Roman player mucked it up so badly they need another go. Only one thing needs added to the Basic Impetus rules and that's rules for evasion and a simple set for that is available on the BI section of the Impetus Forum.

Of course they won't suit everyone, especially those for whom the nub of a game is the laborious counting up of endless plusses and minuses and the myriad "special" circumstances for which rules have to be bolted on. We wargamers are a broad church, after all. But if you like a clean, relatively fast and, above all, elegant approach to wargaming give them a try. They are still free, there are free army lists available (though we now use the main ruleset army lists which give greater variety for most armies). There is even a multi part You Tube series going into the rules with examples of play etc. Check out the Basic Impetus section of the Forum for access to all this. And have fun !

Very well put, 1ngram …

Phil

Someone – I forget who – once pointed out to me that a 'good ruleset' for anyone is likely to be whatever their local club, mates or prospective opponents are playing – because there's no point in being the only 'Basic Swords of Hail Empire and Dragons second edition, Medieval supplement (2.1)' within a hundred miles… even if they are the best set of wargames rules this side of the Horsehead Nebula.

Rick,

Square in the black. If you belong to a club, or know of a gaming group nearby, then going with what they are using is excellent advice.

I'll add this much: We all tend to end up using the rules set that best supports our own ideas of what combat from some era looked like, and how WE want the game to look.

For some, it's individual basing like WAB or HC, for others it's multiple stands of minis as in Warhammer Ancients, ETC, and for folks like me, it's large bases with each one being a separate unit.

That's the beauty of it all. We can find the rules that best suit our personal bias, and failing that, we can write our own.

Thanks for chiming in. I always value your input.

@Rick

I'll only be playing my brother, and maybe one other friend, so that doesn't apply for me and the purpose of the thread, which was wondering whether it was a good rule set and worth us playing.

But thanks for your input.

My review from a couple years back. link

Impetus can be had for about $15 USD at WGV. link

As mentioned, you can try the free version to see if you like the combat mechanics. Generally speaking I prefer Basic Impetus to the full version.

1ngram sort of echoed how I feel about the full game.

John

I agree very much with Rick,

If your local club does not play a game or a game is not played widely in tournaments then you will struggle to get games.

Personally I looked at Impetus and decided it was not for me but there are people who play it and have a good time.

If you are just looking for a ruleset for yourself and a friend or two then the best way to go is to pick a couple or three of the more popular sets and give them a try.

Different people different tastes.

Might of Arms.

1ngram is a big fan of Basic Impetus. Personally what he calls too complicated or fussy is what I find truly charming about the full game. And I should say that judging by the Forum 1ngram is in the minority with his opinion. I like playing with more than 50 figures per side and find the nuances in Impetus appealing.

As far as playing what your mates are playing that applies only up to a point. Lots of clubs have slowly switched from one rules set to another because of the conviction of a few players. Otherwise we'd all be playing WRG rules.

Alternatively, if you like the Impetus style of basing (fewer figures needed) and it's too much of a squeeze getting some of your chariot, infantry and cavalry on to the sometimes less than generously sized DBA bases then you could base your figures for Impetus and use those 80mm frontage elements for DBA.

In addition you could use the DBA army lists as a guide for making Impetus armies. Try both rulesets!

Very elegant game Impetus in my opinion and worth a look. Always enjoyable dynamic battles as well. These have a lot going on ….much more than what you think at first glance and things often don't go to plan. Great rules.

Impetus is my Ancient/Medieval rule set of choice and provides a fun dynamic game both in terms of how it looks and how it plays.

Christopher

I like Basic Impetus. But a steady gaming mate cannot abide the cohesion test. If you roll a 1, you cannot be killed. He was victimized twice by me rolling ones when he had set up killer attacks. I rolled one and passed my cohesion tests. In one case, to add injury to insult, he rolled a 6 on his cohesion test and routed. So two infantry units shrugged off a flanking attack by Hun noble cavalry (not light horse archers) and then the cavalry routed.

He won't play the game so it doesn't matter if I like the rules.

@vtsaogames

That's where Destiny dice rolls come in that can either be bought or have an agreed amount for each player where you could either re-roll an unlucky roll or have your opponent re-roll one of his lucky rolls. It really does help out with those situations.;-)

Christopher

1ngram, would be really interested in hearing more about your Empire/BI campaign rules. Have both games and would be keen to see how you are combining them in terms of scenario generation etc. Do you have your rules on the net somewhere, or in a doc you could send me? If so, my email is prufrock DOT japan AT gmail DOT com

Cheers,
Aaron

No problem Aaron. I will email you directly.

Thanks 1ngram, will look forward to it.