Impetvs: Totally historical batrep.

As a break from all the Infinity, Jason and I did something completely different: Impetvs 300pts in 28mm using our Roman civil war (take your pick) formula. 300pt armies, one command, half maxima and minima and we both used the Middle Imperial Romans list. Jason likes it for the Lanciarii and I have been missing my Sarmatians! In a break from tradition, we actually used the correct deployment method and wrote our unit locations down in secret. I never used to bother with that (since we always had two commands) but it is perfect for one command. It works great for Ancients as it allows you to say..... stack one flank with surprise Sarmatians!

 Both of us have Warlord games character figs. Jason has some kind of comedy Caesar and I have General Maximus. I deployed the bulk of the infantry in the centre, in front of my camp, these are to be the anvil. Off camera to the right is the Sarmatian hammer, ready to loop around the buildings and sack the traitor's camp.

 At first the plan went well. Impetuous troops can either move forward or towards the nearest enemy. So going straight forward up one flank is the perfect role for them. Until that is, they have to do something, then they get led around by the nose. So while my centre began to enjoy the attentions of Jason's lethal missile troops, the Sarmatians got seriously distracted...

 Maximus was left actually having to fight, as the initial Auxilia spearhead got quickly routed. Then their wingmen, then Legionaries, then more Legionaries.  The General himself came under attack quite early in the battle. I did manage to finally get that camp sacked and the Sarmatians even consented to go do something else. However, they were obviously hung over and unable to run able to just run over the enemy rear-guard.

 At the same time, my Equites (who I had hastily redeployed from the left flank) had got smashed and then run down from the rear as they fell back. More an more losses mounted up until I drew close to 50% losses and the Sarmatians were still taking their time. Last frame is poor old Quintus getting his lunch money stolen by some two-bit Gallic archers and losing me the game as he also lost me his 3 VD.

That was a crazy fun battle. I spent so much time cursing the poor performance of my troops and the lethality of Jason's. All the while, I kept holding out hope that the next turn the Sarmatians could sweep in and save it for me. But it was not to be. Good game Jason. We must do that again soon!

Thanks for reading.