U equals 1cm

Further to my agonising about the "correct" value for U with 15mm scale figures in Impetus I've had a comment back in the forum that referred me back to the rules.  U is 1cm for 15mm and 2cm for 25mm with the 15mm scale taking precedence.  U equals 1 inch is just an option.

While of course I can make U and size I want, the rules really do mean for it to be 1cm.

Pity as I rather liked to bigger move distance.

Might all change with Impetus II anyway...

Anyway, it's nice to be wring once in a while :-)

Early Macedonian Successors vs Indians with U equals 17mm

Yesterday Mark Woods gracefully agreed to test out Impetus using U equals 17mm.  We both fielded 500 point armies and the game took around five hours to play.

My Macedonians starting 20U from the centre line.

The Indian opponents

I get off to a bad start with my double moves producing disorder.

The Indians have massed their elephants on my right.

I start shuffling things around to meet them.

By the end of the second turn I've advanced, but still have disorder to contend with.

By the end of turn three my left and centre are ready for action.

Even on my right I'm feeling good about the situation.

My brave lads.

Gotta love the three deep pike blocks.

My Thracians charge only to fall foul of the dice Gods.

The centre does little better.

My main pike block is stalled.

The poor fighting continues.  Even through I am throwing more dice, I am not getting the hits.  The enemy are!

More crunch on the right.  Nothing good comes of it.  

End of turn four and I have a massive hole on my left and my pike and hoplites have failed to make an impression on the centre.

Turn five and the right is fully engaged.

While on the left my remaining Thracians have pushed on while the CinC with the Companions is getting ready to advance.  There has been a dramatic turnaround in the centre with my pike and spears carrying all before them.  Phew.  Finally.

Note the purpose made ruler at the very top left of the photo.

My left wing cavalry are buying time.

My CinC is in.  Thracian light cavalry is occupying the Indian Royal Guard and my centre infantry is fanning out.

The right is looking precarious.  The pike are doing well, but the Hoplites are going down.  The Greek light cavalry is fighting for its life.

The Last Turn

The carnage in the next turn saw the Greek right flank command break, but also saw the Indian right and centre break.  It was damn close.  Just three points separated the two armies.

The Indian Royal Guard couldn't catch the Thracian Light Cavalry and had taken punishment from their javelins.

The Companions are just about spent, but with the help of the troops from the centre finally prevailed over the Indian right wing commander.

The remaining Thracian infantry had chased some of the Indians from the field.

The centre pike unit was heading for the enemy camp.

The Greek right has just about disappeared.  The remaining pike and light cavalry would be removed at the end of the turn.

Critical action that would have swung the game, but at the very bottom of this picture, the Indian chariots have just failed tho take the Greek camp (which was just a patch of muddy ground - must get around to finishing my camps).  The chariots got the hits, but I rolled a one and while reduced, the camp was still standing.  Its loss would have inflicted a further three points of damage to the Macedonians which would have placed them on their break point.

A failed attempt to get a bird's eye view of the end of the battle.  I couldn't get up high enough to get the whole table in.

Great game.  Every unit saw action and just about the whole table was fought over.

In my opinion having U equal 17mm made for a more dynamic game.  It also gave me back the feeling I had with my very first games of Impetus (with 25mm figures and U equal to an inch), of definitive moves.

Roman Cavalry plus how I base my figures

Building a Roman Army in 1/72nd scale for DBA has been a long term project. Strange how a different set of rules has given this project some impetus.

My plan had been to convert Airfix US Cavalry and I'd made a small step in this direction.  It was going to take time...

Then I saw these and I thought, why not.

The twelve figures were perfect for Impetus.

I had fun painting them.

They look okay...

But I'm not totally happy with them.  Looking at the full sized photos shows a number of imperfections in the basic figure that I don't find with 15mm metal figures these days.  So it goes.

How I Base My Figures

While doing these a friend asked me about my basing technique.  These guys provided a useful work-in-progress.  The following photos were taken with either my iPad or iPhone, whatever I had to hand, and are not the best I'm afraid.

This is the big secret to my success: polyfilla.  I hand cut plasticard bases, rough them up with sandpaper and secure figure using PVA glue.

After letting them dry (a day is good) I then apply the plaster.

This is the tool I use.

Mostly works fine, but sometimes I also use a toothpick to get into tight places.  Again, set aside to dry and generally I leave it for a day, even though the plaster dries much quicker than that.

Then a coat of Tamiya Flat Earth, my standard colour for bases.  Note the to do list, that's just for immediate projects that I wrote for myself before going on holiday.  It's there to keep the wet edges of my modelling surface.

I dry brushed a mix of white and earth coloured paint that I had ready to hand on my wet pallette.  I generally don't do that step with 15mm figures unless there is a lot of base showing.

Flocked using my own blend of three or more different commercial flocks, secured with a 50:50 mix of water and PVA glue.

After another day to allow the flocking to fully dry they get a spray of matt varnish.

This photo is odd, but I rather like it.

I then waited a week before spraying with Plasti-Dip (which I've started using on my soft plastic figures).  Then left it a day before taking the final photos.  It doesn't pay to rush these things.

I'm still a few bases of Bd and Ps short for my Roman DBA army - give it time, give it time.

Impetus U

Preamble

My first game of Impetus was using 25mm figures and U equals 1 inch.  My second game was using 1/72^nd scale figures and U equals 1 inch.  My third game was using 15mm figures (my preferred scale, or rather the scale of the overwhelming majority of my ancient figures and those of the people I regularly game with) and U equals a piddly 1 centimetre.

In the handling and positioning of troops on the battlefield it is easy to “bump” them by a cm and hard to tell this has happened.  It also means that moves seem to be less definitive (think bold, meaningful, determined or just clear).

When I looked at the ratio of frontage of the unit to the distance it could move I became a little concerned.  At this point I should state that I have a previously played a lot of DBA and was always snarky about the variation in a 25mm game of DBA versus a 15mm game (there were moves you could do in 25mm that couldn’t be done in 15mm, closing the gate being the main one).

On top of that I was just finding U equal to 1cm was annoyingly fiddly.

What to do?

Unit Frontage to U ratio

For 25mm, with a frontage of 120mm per unit, U equals 1 inch or 25.4mm, ratio 1:0.212.

For 15mm, with a frontage of 80mm per unit, U equals 1cm or 10mm, ratio 1:0.125.

Applying the same ratio as for 25mm scale to the 15mm scale gives a value of U equals 17mm.

The Battlefield (1.2.1)

Table Size

A standard sized table is 6 foot by 4 foot (180x120cm), well at least for FoG it is.  The Advanced Impetus Tournament Rules seem to favour this sized table for 15mm Tournaments (although 300 and 350 point games can use 120x90cm or 120x120cm) and for 300 point 25mm Tournaments.

Battlefield Size 300 Points

Advised minimum battlefield size for 25mm, 300 points is 180x120cm or 71x47U

Advised minimum battlefield size for 15mm, 300 points is 120x90cm or 120x90U

Battlefield Size 500 Points

Advised minimum battlefield size for 25mm, 500 points is 240x180cm or 94x71U

Advised minimum battlefield size for 15mm, 500 points is 180x120cm or 180x120U

Battlefield Size U Equals 17mm

For 300 points minimum battlefield size of 120x90cm is 71x53U

For 500 points the minimum battlefield size of 180x120cm is 106x71U

Deployment (3.4)

The Impetus rules give this in terms of U with each command being deployed at least 30U from the centre line and at least 12U from the side edge except for 300 point 25mm games when the deployment from the centre line is reduced to 12U.

Tournament Games Deployment

This is changed for tournament games where armies can be deployed at least 20U from the centre line for a 6x4 table and on a smaller table 15U from the centre line or 25U from the baseline.

What would that mean for a 15mm game played with U equals 17mm on a 6x4 table?  The depth of the table in U is 71U.  With a 20U deployment from the centreline that would leave just over 15U for the depth of each armies’ deployment zone.

Unit Depth

The deepest unit is a triple pike block at 9cm (or just over 5U) so that should present no problems with U equals 17mm on a 6x4 table.

Conclusion

So U=17mm for 15mm games should work on a 180x120cm table with deployment 20U from the centre line.

The proof will be a game.

PS. Making up the ruler was very easy using a Table in Microsoft Word.  The settings allow you to specify the cell size in mm.  Print, trim, laminate and trim and ruler(s) are ready for use.

Saga Three Ways

Paul with his work in progress Vikings, Stas with his Pagan Rus and my Vikings met in a Feast of Crows.

The Pagan Rus

Bungled photo of my Vikings

The Other Vikings

We all had similar sized forces with no missile troops and hearthguard at least fifty percent.

Pagan Rus as seen through the blood mist of berserker rage 

(No idea what happened to that photo)

Another weird photo as my guys go into the woods.

The Rus hit the other Vikings.

A bunch of my warriors eye the opposition.  The snow looks deep.

While some of my hearthguard look at the opposition on the other side.

My beserkers take out the Rus warlord.  For once they rolled good, real good.

The other Vikings attack, but my Warlord resists.

The Pagan Rus moving up to attack.

We hold off against the other Vikings.

But are pushed by by the Rus.

We maybe few, but at least I kept my Warlord, the other Viking's Warlord having fallen to the Rus.

Stas won by a long way (26 points) and Paul and I effectively tied (at around 13 points) when Paul's use of Valhalla was properly accounted for.  I claimed morale victory as only my Warlord still stood upon the snowy landscape.