Defined or Random movement in game

[Aart Brouwer]

(ah well a few months late, but maybe of interest)

It certainly is. I'd been looking at Impetus and Impetus Baroque with an eye to my future Renaissance exploits and then decided to wait for Warlord (publishers of BP) to come up with their Renaissance rules. But I may just buy the Impetus book anyway, I'm hearing good things about it all the time.

Cheers,
Aart

[Kassad]

When I play with my friends or "human" opponents I prefer a defined movement, less things are left to lucky dice.
When I play solo instead I prefer random movement to increase the "fog of war". I found this smart mechanic for random movement in this blog.
http://solowargamingshow.blogspot.com/2011/04/wargaming-tip-variable-movement.html

[meledward23]

Aart, Impetus is good.

Basic Impetus will give you a feel for the combat mechanics and is a free pdf download.

Things full Impetus offers not in basic:
Better use of skrimishers
Opportunity, shooting at enemies on their turn,
Countercharging? (might be in basic, dont recall)
more details on commands etc.

I really enjoy Impetus as it is the best historical game I have played for ancients. I am not sure how it fits other periods. But, it is a little more "involved" than I would like. Not complex, I just mean it is a game that requires constant attention and is a good game. But I dont get that much time without distractions and when I do, it is usually just an excuse to push lead and hide from the family while jawboning with a friend. So I am either going back to Basic Impetus or WMA or similar, lighthearted type system (HC might make the cut, but I like BI's combat mechanism better)

4 years ago, Impetus would be my only ancients game. Time was abundant and I didnt have kids.

[FierceKitty]

Someday somebody will have to explain to me just why people play warnaster. It seemell all rules and excessive diice rolling, and no tactic sor command decisions, when I tried it.

[Kassad]

Someday somebody will have to explain to me just why people play warnaster. It seemell all rules and excessive diice rolling, and no tactic sor command decisions, when I tried it.

I think because it' s a easy sistem, with a easy replica of command structure. All my friends loves warmaster. The thing I can' t understannd is the units fix base number, don' t matter if you field a phalanx, cohort or huge warband... strange approach for me. However is not my favorite ruleset.

[DanJ]

Someday somebody will have to explain to me just why people play warnaster.

I really like Warmaster, especially Warmaster Ancients, it's relatively simple and straight forward to play and like many rules hard to master.

There are strange things about it however and the standard unit size is one of them.  However it's a top down and abstracted game system and you have to forgive the anomalies and look at the overall game and results.  This is especially true as you play larger and larger games, luck becomes less and less vital as the dice rolls inevitably even out to average.

It's also useful to be able to sit back and look at the game from a soldiers point of view reather than just from a "Damn I've failed my command roll again" perspective.  In a recent game I wanted some infantry to advance out of a wood and attack my opponent's cavalry, after three attempts the cavalry had passed by and the opportunity had passed.  However I was able to take some consolation by seeing the situation from the infantry's point of view, "Wot, charge them nasty heavy cavalry wot's already smashed the cream of our chivalry just because that general way over there is jumping up and down, waving big flag and blowing them trumpets?  No way, we're staying in this nice safe wood and will live to fight another day."

[Sandinista]

It's also useful to be able to sit back and look at the game from a soldiers point of view reather than just from a "Damn I've failed my command roll again" perspective.  In a recent game I wanted some infantry to advance out of a wood and attack my opponent's cavalry, after three attempts the cavalry had passed by and the opportunity had passed.  However I was able to take some consolation by seeing the situation from the infantry's point of view, "Wot, charge them nasty heavy cavalry wot's already smashed the cream of our chivalry just because that general way over there is jumping up and down, waving big flag and blowing them trumpets?  No way, we're staying in this nice safe wood and will live to fight another day."

I agree, there is always a "reason" why the command roll fails  , same applies in BKC too.