The project

I have always been a bit of a butterfly when it comes to projects. Most all periods of history fascinate me, and unfortunately that makes it hard to narrow down a project and keep focused. Take this post from Jet at Geektactica - lovely stuff there. Makes it hard for me to keep to the Greek/Persian project. So, I am also thinking about a 13th century set! The pertinent army lists would be Feudal French, Imperial German, and Communal Italian.

The big deciding factor will be the availability of good minis, although the feudal armies might mesh better with the eventual fantasy armies project...

In the good news department, the bases order from Litko has shipped, so I need to get going with getting some paint on my minis.

New download site for Impetus Fantasy

Previously, the rules for Impetus Fantasy were only on eSnips. They are now (as per this post on the Impetus forum) available through Hotfile - see this link


UPDATE (10-2011) - Basic Impetus Fantasy is now here as per this post on the Impetus forum.

UPDATE (10-2013) - Basic Impetus Fantasy is now on the main Impetus site - download it here.

UPDATE (07-2015) - Basic Impetus Fantasy is now available at Wargames Vault - get it here.


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Slow progress

Small steps toward getting the first battalion done!

1. The minis are about half-way done with painting. I am finding that, for the mainly darkly-colored units, white primer is not such a good choice. The second battalion will be using black gesso for primer.

2. Bases - I forgot about the bases when I placed the order for the minis. So, I sent off an order with Litko - hopefully they will arrive later this month.

3. Rules - The delay in ordering bases corresponds with my indecision on a rules choice. In the end, I am going to try a modified Impetus set. Miniatures Wargames #322 has an interesting article on a conversion of Impetus to the AWI, which I am using as a starting point.


I'll post pics when I get something done!

Links

On the left I have added a series of links for Impetus-related information, including free downloads.

Blogs & stuff

What is going on here at the El Grego table? Well, I am trying to both narrow my focus and expand my coverage, if that makes any sense. By narrowing my focus, I am trying to only work on a limited set of projects (yeah right) and get something done. To help with that, I have narrowed down my project list a bit, I think, and mostly by scale:

28mm - only for skirmishes and sticking with fantasy. Right now focusing on Tékumel minis, but if I ever find those shields I will finish off that group of orcs...

15mm - mass battles, both historical and fantasy with Imagi-nation-style stuff also.

1/2400+1/3000 - naval, historical.


Makes sense, right?

So, here is the 'expand my coverage' bit:

Blog #1 - the one you are reading right now, The Pewter-Pixel Wars. This blog will be focused on 28mm skirmish games and minis.

Blog #2 - my naval gaming blog, Mini Ship Gaming. Historical naval gaming using 1/2400 and 1/3000 scale minis.

Blog #3 - the oddball blog, Threwdish Ways. This one is focused on the Half Continent, created by DM Cornish as set out in the Monster Blood Tattoo book series. There will be a mix of everything here, from skirmishes in 28mm to 15mm mass battles to naval games. This is my Imagi-nations blog!

Blog #4 - my mass battles blog, Battles in 15mm. The newest blog in the line-up, featuring the rules set Impetus. Eventually, this will have historical and fantasy armies and battles. If you are looking for more Impetus information, please visit/bookmark/follow this blog.


There you go. Hopefully you will find something interesting on one of them. It might not make much sense, but they do say - 'Dilution is the solution...'


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Previous Impetus work

Just to start off, here is a link to one of my other blogs with posts about Impetus - hopefully I will remember to expand upon it here. I did not get very far with using 28mm minis for this project; 15mm will be a better fit for mass battles I think.

Starting off...

The first post!

This blog is going to be my repository of information and pics on my miniatures gaming activities in 15mm. It is intended that the main focus will be mass-battle games, not skirmishes which are covered more thoroughly on my main blog - Pewter-Pixel Wars. Historical and fantasy genres will be included.

The rules set that is leading the pack right now is Impetus, authored by Lorenzo Sartori and modified by others along the way.

Basic Impetus - Fantasy edition

The long-awaited fantasy supplement to the Basic Impetus rules is available:

Basic Impetus - Fantasy

It is a PDF, and best of all it is free!


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Base basics

My initial order of Impetus-sized bases from Litko arrived recently:


These three bags will be enough for 45 Impetus units! These are very nice bases.

I do have another worry - what sort of adhesive should I use? Having 7 to 10 metal minis on one base will get a bit weighty; I can not hope that, even with the 3mm base, the units will always be handled by the base - some one (probably me!) will pick up the unit by one mini and I would prefer that it not break off. I might need to use the hot-glue gun that is hiding around here, somewhere.

The base color is another item to consider. I typically use craft paints for bulk area painting, but my usual base color - Territorial Beige from Apple Barrel - is too dark from the dry scrub look that I want to portray (it works great for a more temperate area), so some new paints will be on the shopping list.


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Wargaming Tekumel, part 5

I am going to try for 'many topics one post' with this post...

There are some great comments to one of my previous posts, and it is easier to comment and expand on them here instead of in the Comments section. It does require me to explain the Impetus rules a bit more closely.

Units have 7 basic characteristics: class, base size, move rating, VBU, Impetus, point value, and any special notes.

CLASS: There are several classes for the troops - heavy infantry (FP), light infantry (FL), missile troops (T), skirmishers (S), artillery (ART), elephants (EL, but will represent Serudla, Sro, etc), and a variety of mounted troops which I am not going to worry about until I start up the historical counterpart.

(the abbreviations might not seem appropriate, but are taken directly from the Impetus rules and are a holdover from the original version of the rules which are written in Italian)

BASE SIZE: The size of the base for each individual unit is typically based on the Class of the troops. In Impetus, the base width is most important. 120mm is the standard base width when using 25/28mm miniatures. The base depth varies per class: heavy infantry use a 40mm depth; light infantry and missile units use 60mm; skirmishers use 30mm. Artillery and large creatures can have a base depth that fits with the minis being used; this can be 80mm or more if necessary. I like the different base sizes for the different troops, as it is a subtle mnemonic device to remind players of their troop's capabilities.

MOVE RATING: This is how far a unit can move on the tabletop each turn. This is often related to the unit's class. In the historical unit ratings, a unit of heavy infantry typically has a move of 5U (U is a generic Unit of measure which is different for the minis used, i.e. 1U = 1cm for 15mm minis, 1U = 2cm for 25/28mm minis). Light infantry and skirmishers typically have a Move of 8U. Thus, a unit's CLASS, BASE SIZE, and MOVE are all interconnected.

VBU: Ah, now for the good stuff. VBU is a unit's Basic Combat Value. This is the number of D6 dice that a unit has for melee and/or missile combat. This can be increased due to charging or reduced due to losses, among other things. When looking through the unit stats for the historical armies on the Impetus site, the highest VBU for foot troops is 6 (16th century samurai). I intend to use this as the 'top end' of the scale for human troops on Tékumel, so the first cohort of the First Legion of Ever Present Glory will have a VBU of 6.

IMPETUS: Another important number. The Impetus rating of a unit is the number of bonus D6 that can be thrown when a unit charges. This number ranges from 0 to 4 for foot troops. If a unit has an Impetus rating of 0, it can not charge. Skirmishers and most missile and light troops have an Impetus of 0. There are, of course, exceptions and this number, along with the VBU, will be one of the more 'interesting' parts of my project as I come up with combat values for all of my troops.

POINT VALUE: Listed as VD (Demoralisation Value) in the Impetus rules, each unit has a value or cost in the army. This can range from 1 to 3. When a unit is routed (destroyed), the Point Value is subtracted from the army total, and when the army loses 50% of its points, the army is routed and the game has ended.

SPECIAL NOTES: This can be as simple as listing the missile weapon used - slings, javelins, long bows, etc. to noting any special detail a unit might have. Some troops are Impetuous - they must pursue a retreating enemy unit. Others might have special movement allowances. It is just a small patch of chrome to help differentiate special units.



There are several points that I will need to re-align for the conversion of the historical Impetus rules into the Tékumeli Impetus version. The most obvious is the VBU + Impetus values for the individual legions. This is where my friends Kagesh and Chirine make some very useful insights. The missile-equipped cohorts of the heavy infantry legions should be quite capable of melee combat, if not so well-equipped as their specialized counterparts in the legion. By giving these cohorts an Impetus score, it makes them much more useful for combat and it gives the player a choice - melee or missile fire (you can not do both in Impetus). I do not think that a specialized missile unit, say the Legion of the Clan of the Broken Bough, should have an Impetus score, therefore they are unable to charge the enemy (a unit without an Impetus score can defend itself if charged, however).

In relation to this, I am thinking that there needs to be an addition to a unit's characteristics. A Missile score, I think, will be very useful to help differentiate between special missile units - like the Broken Bough troops - and the bow-armed heavy infantry troops. A cohort of Broken Bough troops should be able to outshoot the Ever Present Glory cohorts in my opinion, but as Impetus is written, they could not unless the Broken Bough unit has a large VBU, which would then make the lightly-armored and armed missile troops very good in melee. Hmmm, more calculations!

I am also not a big fan of unit point values. I might not use this at all, or I might alter the army's break point value from 50%. A scenario could change that to, say, 40% for troops or leaders that are not that interested in fighting or are exhausted. The army break point could go up - 60% or more if the army is suitably desperate.

I'm also starting to rethink the base sizes. Maybe the bow-armed cohorts of a heavy infantry legion should be on the heavy infantry bases (120mm x 40mm) instead of the light infantry/missile bases (120mm x 60mm). All of the cohorts of the heavy infantry legion should have the same move rating, yes? ... hmmmmmm





Wow, lots of words there - I hope you made it through without a headache!


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Another Tékumel unit formation

Since I am almost done with the first of my Tékumel units for Impetus (just need the bases from Litko), I decided to start to work on the next set - archers from the Legion of Ever Present Glory. This legion has six cohorts of archers; in the scale of Impetus, I have enough minis for two. The little question of the moment is the formation on the base.



'Two Moons' (base dimensions in red)

The original unit formation calls for two concentric half circles of troops. The Impetus base is not quite big enough to convey the proper image of the formation but it is close. I'm not certain if I want to use 9 minis for the unit, especially since I will only use one of the leader minis in the units.

Here is the alternate style for the unit:


Only eight minis on this base. It should look good and it should be different enough from the unit styles of the heavy infantry cohorts. These archers definitely do not have the same combat qualities as the close combat troops, even though they are in the same legion.


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Reptiliads!

Recently, I found quite a nice surprise mixed in with some old gaming material - a bag of old Rafm Reptiliads minis. These fantasy reptile minis are 25mm, and date back to 1983. They were originally purchased and painted by my friend Ben, who used them in his epic Morrow Project RPG campaign. The Morrow Project is a RPG occurring in a post-apocalyptic society, and these Reptiliads were some of the antagonists. Long after the game finished, I traded Ben these minis, and a large boxful of anime-style models from the 1980's, for a good-sized stack of ACW books that I had no place to store.


Here are some pics:


The Reptiliad force. The back row are pikemen or halberdiers, I believe. The front row has a command group, with the general on the left, a shaman (third from left), and 2 bident troops (?). Also shown are the assorted bits - pikes, halberds, standards, etc.


They are in decent shape after being in a plastic bag stuffed in a box for 12 or so years! I do plan to strip and repaint them. A couple of the troops, especially two of the pikemen, are missing limbs so that will be a project in itself to recreate them.



And some support troops:


These are gilla-worms, the lower caste of Reptiliad society. They are used as skirmish troops, and some of them are mounted, the equivalent of light cavalry.



And the best part:



War Turtle! I really do like this mini, and it (the whole group actually) bring back some great gaming memories.

Eventually, I want to do an Impetus army with these minis. Some of the minis are still available, the gilla-worms and the war turtle (!) especially. Unfortunately, Rafm remastered the Reptiliads in 1999, and the new ones are much larger, to fit in the the 28-30mm crowd. Since this is a long-term project, I have the time to track down some of the older Reptiliad minis; there might even be a local game store with some old stock still hanging on the wall...


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Fantasy Impetus?

(hmmm - Blogger dissolved my original typing here, so here goes another try...)

Seems like there are several groups working on a fantasy version of Impetus - there are several posts on a fantasy version at the Impetus forums; here is another site in Italian about fantasy Impetus; and AONeil has started one at his web site.

I have a few ideas also, especially towards using Tékumel as the background.  One would be a simple addition to the roll for unit damage if the affected unit has steel armor.  Steel armor is a big improvement on Tékumel, since the planet tends to be metal-poor.

I do want to keep the modifications for my version of fantasy Impetus to a minimum, though.

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Wargaming Tékumel, part 4

I sat down over the week-end and hashed out some of the basic unit formations that are typically used in Tékumeli battles and attempted to convert them over to the Impetus basing system. (These formations are found in the rules set Warfare on Tékumel, by Bill Faulkner, copies of which can be found on the TékumelMinis Yahoogroup.) Some of the formations just do not fit on the bases for heavy infantry in Impetus, but many do.

This formation is the 'Embrace of Nayári' (the base dimensions are in red). The ends of this unit project forward, and are meant to penetrate into or envelop an opponent.

'Blade of the Sword', a formation that has few ranks, intended to cover a wide frontage.

'Garment of Idéssa', a checkerboard or quinqunx-style formation. This one is a bit harder to portray on the Impetus bases, but maybe two bases in a Large Unit group would look better.

'Stone Mountain', your typical wargaming unit formation. I will probably reserve this formation to those units that are armed with pikes, to help alleviate any confusion with long spear-armed units.

'Teeth of Krá', where the unit is formed into wedges, in order to penetrate the opposing formation. This array, along with the 'Garment of Idéssa' above, are two types of formations that would never be used by the non-human Shén or Ahoggyá, who liken these fancy displays to 'silly human folk dancing'.

There is one other formation, preferred by Livyáni forces, that is a single large wedge. It is too large for a single base, but, if I ever procure a Livyáni force, could be represented by two bases paired as a single Large Unit. There is also one formation that would look best for missile troops; when I have a unit of archers ready I will use that at least once.

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