Just picked up a copy of these rules on recommendation from a buddy and will be hopefully playing a agme in the next week.

I noticed they had a photo or two of PD figs - anyone played these at all? What are people's thoughts?

I haven't played the full rules...I play the Basic version, mostly due to time but will be buying the rule Baroque version when they are released

This is one of my favourite sites

http://www.fat-wally.com/Impetvs.html

 :)These IMHO are one of the best rules sets around,(for me maybe the best) I've played loads of games with them.  :)Enjoy

Mr Fenton thanks for posting that link a great Blog . Also we found the full version played quicker I would recommend giving it a go.

Regards
Jason.

I also thoroughly recommend the rules - the full set adds heaps more flavour, colour and decision nodes into the free basic set

Impetus really rejuvenated our ancients mojo after the slow agonising death that was the DBM-FOG war.

Fun, fast and surprisingly authentic - although some of the free online lists are very flaky but then they are free, those in the Extra Impetus books are much better. And the forum is extremely helpful

Have fun, if you run into trouble deciphering some of the Italian-English transliterations just shout up, the key is the game really doesn't try and overcomplicate things, the simple answer is probably the correct one.

I too can't wait for the full Baroque - it was promised for Salute but I fear I will be disappointed.

They're probably our favourite rules at the club for ancients / medieval too. They can sometimes be a little obtuse in places, but that's translation issues more than anything, I think. They play pretty quickly once you get the hang of them though, and they're far more enjoyable than DBM/FoG.

Hi

These sound really interesting. Can someone let me know what size bases they use (for 10mmm and 15mm figures) and where I can get a copy of the rules.

many thanks. Paul

If you based in the UK then North Star I think is your best bet

Base sizes arent fixed...People who play in 6 or 10mm use 60x30 or 80x40 ,l in 28mm they go up to 120x60

they have been designed to fit in with other rulesets

North Star have just received a restock - £27.50 incl P&P in the UK and arrived in two days

Bloody good set of rules, IMO. We've run through a lot and been jaded by many, but Impetus really picked up our Ancients & Medieval games - got loads of use out of otherwise languishing for years 15's! So much so we're off into 10mm for some periods we haven't covered before. Well, only partly covered... everyone needs more pike, pilum and elephants, right?

Quote from: T13A on 02 April 2014, 09:27:52 AM
Hi

These sound really interesting. Can someone let me know what size bases they use (for 10mmm and 15mm figures) and where I can get a copy of the rules.

many thanks. Paul

As others have said North Star is your UK dealer.

For basing you have the following:
Only frontage is critical - the depths can be altered if wanted but this is standard

Cavalry / Mounted Troops = 80mm x 60mm
Close Order "heavy" infantry = 80mm x 30mm
Loose Order and Missile infantry = 80mm x 40mm
Skirmishers = 80mm x 20mm (although many use greater depth)

Chariots, elephants, artillery, etc = 80mm x 60mm

As to numbers of troops that is of no consequence, building a vignette on the base is the idea. However in 15mm I went with:
cataphracts = 8 figs
heavy cavalry = 6 figs
light cavalry = 4 figs
pikes = 16 figs
other close order "heavy" foot = 12 figs
loose order, warband, thureophoroi or auxilia type foot = 8 figs
missile troops = 8 figs
skirmishers = 4 figs

note some troops (hoplites, pikes, warband) can form 'large units' of more than one base so that should be born in mind when making the vignettes.

there are heaps of excellent photos on the web - try BigRedBat for instance http://bigredbat.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-min=2013-01-01T00:00:00Z&updated-max=2014-01-01T00:00:00Z&max-results=50

or there are some dodgy photos on my flickr page below

For 10mm I'd just add more figs to the 80mm standard to look good. Although the 6mm standard is a 60mm base and you could opt for that. Check what others in the area have done or if you're trailblazing do what you think looks best. Using the 80mm standard would at least allow you to play v 15mm armies and 10mm WM armies (the basing is essentially 4 WRG or WM bases to a unit footprint), whereas 60mm would leave you in limbo I think.

hope that helps

Enjoy - Impetus is heaps of fun, just don't expect to control everything, the best you can do is stack the odds but fate may have other ideas!

I thought 60mm frontage was standard for 10mm sclae, 80mm is an option. Or is it vice versa? 

I've tried Basic Impetus and the full Monty, and settled on Basic with some added chrome from the full game. Any way, it's my preferred system

Quote from: Wulf on 02 April 2014, 04:22:00 PM
I thought 60mm frontage was standard for 10mm sclae, 80mm is an option. Or is it vice versa? 

Could be - I think it's in the usual middle ground of either/or but I don't have the book in front of me 

Besides Paul did ask for the 15mm basing conventions as well 

I think  one of the beauties of the game is that you can use what ever basing you want as long as both armies use the same frontage for their units

Just had a quick look - how well does it cope with bigger armies? The first page mentions 7-10 units, which for my group would  be regarded as pretty tiny. We would want at least twice that size.

Just up the points, as far as I am aware there are rules for allied generals etc

there is a nice set of free fantasy rules for it as well

Good stuff. I will have a proper look

Quote from: fred    12df on 02 April 2014, 05:17:31 PM
Just had a quick look - how well does it cope with bigger armies? The first page mentions 7-10 units, which for my group would  be regarded as pretty tiny. We would want at least twice that size.

Bear in mind that that is 28-40 WRG bases - so not that tiny. I think you'll find many of the assumptions in the rulebook presume 28mm figures which with the move distances and table size generates a smaller, tighter, less open game - the forum and competition circles discuss this quite a bit.

A lot depends on the type of army - your Gallic horde has a lot more units than does a late Byzantine, the points system assumes 350 or 500 for a game as a rule, 350 will give you a comfortable evening game of a couple of hours, 500 a longer game of 3 to 4 hours. Of course if you eschew points it matters not a jot

We find the system scales very well, the only issue (as with any variable command activation system) is in large multi-player games where some feel that waiting for others to have a turn is tedious. Personally I don't see it as much different from waiting on an IGOUGO system but it gets mentioned. But beyond that we've found it comfortable handles 1000 plus points - there doesn't seem to be a particularly pivot point where it becomes unwieldy, although deciding how many commands and such is important. The lists as presented are scaled for 500 points

As an example, a random pair of 500 point lists off of my hard drive reveals:

Konstantinian Byzantine
5 units of skoutatoi with supporting archers (that's two bases per unit - spears and bows)
6 units of Tagmatic Kavallaroi (heavy horse archers)
4 units of Pechenegs (light horse archers)
So that's 20 units

Normans in Siciliy
10 units of milites (heavy knights)
6 units of heavy infantry (spearmen)
2 units of crossbowmen (loose order)
6 units of archers (loose order)
So that's 24 units

hope that helps

These rules are popular at our club and have provided some excellent games. We've used the Basic rules for public participation games aimed at a younger audience with considerable success. Kids enjoyed the simplicity of the rules, the speed of play and the general buzz of the thing. They really do tempt me to get into Ancients wargaming........

At the moment I'm using Warmaster Ancients for the period, and enjoy them, but Impetus sounds interesting. However at well over a hundred euros for the set of rules and extras it would represent about half a years worth of my gaming budget. Anyone familiar with both Warmaster Ancients and Impetvs willing to have a go at a compare and contrast of the rules?

The basic rules and a shed load of armies for them are free - give them a whirl to start! You can scale that up without much effort if you want a "DBM sized game" rather than a "DBA sized game" - though that's not really a straight comparison as they're very different

The full rules are then all you really need, as you can bash up a proper army for those lists not covered by judicious use of the freebie lists and some brain noodling. Though the supplements are interesting and have loads of campaign stuff based on the extra lists they aren't as vital as (say) the Army Lists for DBM were...