Played our first series of IMPETUS games this weekend

Two battles, Republican Roman vs. Gallic tribes, and Greek Hoplites vs Persians. Both turned out as might be expected, Greeks beating the Persians, and Romans on top of the Gauls.

The interesting part of these rules though, was the way the battles went. Romans withstood a big Gallic assault that fragmented coming in (three double deep impetuous warbands) and each ended up attacking individually (die rolls that added to normal movement during a charge is what fragmented the attacks), and the Romans were able to use adjoining support units to blunt each attack. Pilum throws had some effect but not overwhelming. Each Gallic unit threw 10 dice (4 for attack, 4 for impetus, and +2 for double deep formations). Romans by themselves get 6-dice back, but added +3 for each supporting unit.

One lucky instance was a 3-damage against one of my stands that luckily I caused 4-damage against the attack Gallic warband. Both rolled high, victory to the Romans.

Cavalry moved to the flanks and the battlelines definately were the determining factors in the first game.

Even with rule reviews we were over in less then 1.5 hours.

The game was enjoyed by all.

We then set up a second game with Greeks and Persians. The Greeks advanced on a broad front and as the Persians I had a horrible starting position, my cavalry kept getting disordered by some bowmen in a woods, my light infantry and levies got crunched by hoplites, and my mercenary hoplites got trapped behind a kardaces unit and was attacked in flank and front, but it was still fun to play and that game took less then an hour.

All in all, we are happy with the rules, and are going to play again next weekend with a few more folks.