It was
time for Bob and I to dust off our Impetus Armies for another go. We had spent a long time playing Impetus week in and week out but with
various other things going on it seemed like ages since we had just
done a straight forward one-on-one game of Impetus.
I
brushed off my Medieval Polish army and Bob brought his Bactrians.
1600 years separated the two armies they seemed rather well matched.
I roled
as the attacker so deployed last. However my game plan was to stay
relatively stationary. Every time I have tried to be even slightly
aggressive with this army they get battered so I was determined not
to drawn in to a death charge.
I
anchored my left with the an artillery armed war wagon and defensive
wagon and then had two lots of crossbow armed miltia split by some
medium crossbow armed cavalry and some light horse dead centre.
Behind these and starting the game on opportunity were my three units
of Polish Knights (because they were on opportunity the normal rules
for impetuous troops moving as soon as the enemy were in range did
not apply). Both wings contained some skirmishing light horse.
Bob set
up with light horse on one wing. Then his Cataphract heavy cavalry.
Next to them were a large unit of heavy pike in phalanx and then on
his left some long spear armed light foot.
I knew
that I had nothing that could go toe-to-toe with the pike phalanx so
determined to keep that out of the game. I targeted the Cataphracts
as the game winner and had deployed my Knights opposite them. The
plan was to delay the rest of the enemy line while, weaken the
Cataphracts by sacrificing the first line of my medium and light
cavalry in my centre and then unleash the waiting Knights.
Bob came
forward in a steady line. I advanced my light horse on the left in
the hope of pushing aside the skirmishers and threatening the Pike
Phalanx’s flank.
I had
initial success on my right and burst through Bob’s skirmish line.
However his heavy foot were tougher than they looked. I got greedy
and rather than consolidate followed up a success and against my
better judgement charged his light foot with some light horse. The
result? Bobs light foot destroyed my light horse and then followed
up in to the flank of some other bow armed light horse who couldn’t
evade and were also destroyed.
However
my right still looked pretty strong and my left was solid thanks to
the presence of the war wagons. Bob could not get close enough on my
left to do any damage with his bow armed light and medium cavalry so
which came under artillery fire every time they got too close.
My cross
bow armed medium cavalry and bow armed Hungarian light horse started
inflicting casualties as Bob centre advanced. A charge by the
Cataphracts saw the first line of my centre destroyed but this then
opened the door for my Knights. Without delay the charged forward in
to the Cataphtracts.
A bloody
melee forward but in the last turn of the game I manage to knock off
the last of the Cataphract units causing that command to break and in
turn the army.
Finally
a victory for my Poles which I have been playing for two years with
hardly any success. The key was I think getting to deploy last and
therefore before choose my point of focus, keeping my knights fresh
by having them on opportunity and also some truly dreadful dice
rolling by Bob. In any event it was high fives all along the Polish line.
