More than 300

I don't know much about Ancient warfare but I always enjoy the games.

Using the free set of rules Basic Impetus we hadn't determined a scenario. However Ade had brought more hoplites than you shake a stick at and Richard's Persians would have made Darius jealous.

We sorted out a couple of armies roughly from the lists and split each force into three, as there were six of us. Then haphazardly arranged some terrain on a 12' by 6' table.



As generally happens with such a lack of organisation we had a cracking game




Losing the initial dice roll the greeks set up first. With a long front to defend the greeks spread themselves thinly. One wing separated from the rest by a wood, admittedly filled with light infantry, and the other hiding behind a hill. Only the left hand wing had a unit of horse.

With the advantage of setting up second the Persians placed all their mass of horse on the right. In the centre the Immortals and on the left the sparabaras.

Moving first the Persians set their simple plan in motion. Charge in the horse on the right where they outnumbered the greek cavalry then swing them round the back and into the rear. In the centre and left the plan was to adopt hit and run tactics that slightly quicker bow armed troops can make against ponderous hoplites.

Of course the plan did not begin well with the greek horse holding their own although outnumbered three to one. The Immortals bows however began well while the sparabaras moved forward en masse.

The greek phalanx had little option than to simply advance and the initiative throw system meant that it was inevitable that they would make contact sooner or later. However the immortals proved more than a match and saw them off in style.



A phalanx hits the immortals.

In true Basic Impetus style the game swung to and fro but the advantage stayed with the Persians' archery which were able to inflict damage on the hoplites and thus remove the Impetus advantage before melee.

Brave sparabaras charge into a phalanx worn down by archery.

Once the Persian horse had destoyed the greek cavalry and were given free rein (pun intended) the hoplites proved too rigid a formation to deal with horse, bow and spearman and inevitably they were worn down and with very little Persian loss they reached their Demoralisation Value and had therefore lost.

Our group likes BI a lot and play it in preference to the full set, Impetus, a copy of which I think we all own. Definitely a case of fun over substance.

Cheese: le Pies d'Angloys. A little ripe!