Dadi&Piombo. the official magazine for Impetus players. the italian quarterly for wargamers

Transcription

1 Dadi&Piombo the italian quarterly for wargamers Sa mp le file Issues with English texts now available as PDF from Wargames Vault the official magazine for Impetus players

2 Rules for miniature battles in the Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance periods Design and development Lorenzo Sartori Main playtesters Marco Cardano, Gino De Finis, Giacomo Fedele, Marco Gnagnetti, Marco Guarnieri, Roberto Idiometri, Sandro Matteoni, Ezio Milvo, Luca Pellattiero, Fabrizio Soldani, Yuri Vantin, Arrigo Velicogna. Clubs that helped with playtesting AFBIS (Florence), La Piccola Armata (Turin), Primo Leggero (Milan), Signifer Club (Vicenza). Translation Andrew Carless Proof reading Mike Parsons, Tom Primrose Graphic design Baueda Wargames Cover photo Frederic Machu Layout Zev Multimediale sas - zev@zev.it Printed in Italy by Indygraf sas - Publisher Sartori Lorenzo Editore via don Mazzolari, Chieve (Cr) 2008 Lorenzo Sartori All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

3 Designer s Notes THE AIM OF THIS SIMULATION In any wargame, simulation is a compromise between reality and game play. As with all compromises, you need to focus upon the objectives, know what you want to obtain and decide what you are willing to leave out. You have to choose your view of the battlefield. There s no point in wasting time on the details of the wound that a crossbow bolt may cause at 30 metres to a knight with partial plate armour when the aim is to simulate large battles between masses of often poorly trained men divided into classes but united by similar superstitions and, in some cases, great individualism. Impetus simulates the behaviour of these units and examines their ability to inflict damage and maintain cohesion in the critical moments of the battle. THE END BEFORE THE MEANS Wargame rules are often divided into those that attempt to recreate the process and those that strive towards a result. Without reaching certain abstractions seen in some recent sets of rules, Impetus is certainly part of the second category. This implies, for example, that if a turn indicatively represents minutes of real battle and archers are only allowed to fire once, it doesn t necessarily mean that an archer could only fire once every 15 minutes, but rather than the effect of missile fire is summed up in one firing phase and even the rate of fire, which was different for an English archer in the 100 Years War or for a Genoan crossbowman, is summed up in their probability of inflicting damage. UNPREDICTABILITY A fundamental characteristic of Impetus is the unpredictability factor. It is hard to say exactly what will happen on the battlefield in the next turn thanks to a turn sequence that breaks away from the rigid logic of alternate moves. You are allowed to measure distances before you move, even if there is nothing to prevent players from agreeing differently. But you won t always be able to plan the distance you ll cover with a charge and you won t always reach a melee in the conditions you had hoped for. You can t trust the quality of your Generals too much either as their performance is not constant. All of these variables involve the players more emotionally in the game, and help them to abandon a too rational and chess-like approach. 28mm Gripping Beast THE VISUAL ASPECT Impetus is a three-dimensional wargame so it s important that the typical atmosphere of a battlefield in Ancient times or during the Renaissance is represented in the visual aspect of the miniatures deployed on the table. The use of larger bases allows the creation of small dioramas that can more easily represent the formations of the period. Unlike other rules, in Impetus units remain on the table until they are routed and thus eliminated from play and there is no 2

4 progressive removal of figures. You may wish to use the markers that you can download from the Dadi&Piombo web site. If you want to further improve the visual aspect of your battlefield then replace the markers with little three-dimensional scenes... you won t regret it! SIMPLE GAME MECHANICS Despite the fact that these rules are well structured, the game is still fast moving, as another aim of Impetus is to allow the reconstruction of an entire battle in an evening. The game mechanics are simple and it s easy to remember the rules after your first few battles, so the need to refer to the manual during play is reduced to a minimum. AFFORDABLE You don t need huge numbers of miniatures to play Impetus. In order to build a typical 15mm 500-point army you ll need around miniatures, and this number drops dramatically for 25/28mm armies thanks to the flexible basing system (see 1.3), making this scale affordable too. The points system allows for smaller battles with less miniatures, or pitched battles with hundreds of miniatures and several players on each side. SUPPORT You will find scenarios, army lists and rules clarifications in the wargames magazine Dadi&Piombo ( and also in future supplements. There is also an official forum at and a mailing list at IMPETVS@yahoogroups.com, where you can meet the international community of Impetus players, discuss rules interpretations, and find out about news and appointments regarding the game. GLOSSARY Base, a number of miniatures fixed onto a rectangular support, corresponding to a Unit Impetus bonus, see 7.4 Depth bonus, see 7.3 C-in-C, Commander-in-Chief, see 2.7 Commanders, see 2.7 Command, a number of Units under the orders of a Commander. An army has from 1 to 4 Commands. d6, a six-sided die Discipline see 2.4 Disorder see Active player is the player with the initiative Large Unit, a permanent Unit comprising 2 or 3 Units e.g. Pikemen. Group of Units, two or more Units that are temporarily next to each other and that act together Impetuous (troops), see 5.3 Opportunity, see U, Unit of measurement for movement and distances, see 1.4 Unit, basic tactical element, see 2.3 Command Structure, see 2.7 Cohesion Test, see 6.2 Discipline Test, see VBU (Basic Unit Value), see 2.3 VD (Demoralisation Value), see 8.1 VDT (Total Demoralisation Value), see 8.1 As you will have noticed, we have chosen not to translate the codes that identify troop types and have kept the original Italian version instead. Although FP (Heavy Infantry) could have been translated as HI, hopefully the fact that we ve left them like this means that you will have much greater access to forums that are dedicated to Impetus all over the world as well as the Army Lists that are published by users from all five continents. In the same way, you ll be able to publish your Army Lists without any modification at all. The other abbreviations used in the game (VBU, etc) have also been left in Italian for the same reason. 3

5 CONTENTS 1.0 INTRODUCTION p THE MANUAL 1.2 MATERIAL NEEDED The Battlefield 1.3 BASING Base Sizes Number of Miniatures on a base/unit Basing Commanders 1.4 GAME SCALE 1.5 MARKERS Defending a Built-Up Area 2.0 THE TROOPS p ARMY BUILDING 2.2 CLASSIFICATION OF TROOP TYPES 2.3 THE UNITS 2.4 DISCIPLINE The Discipline Test 2.5 LARGE UNITS AND GROUPS OF UNITS Large Units Groups of Units 2.6 UNIT STATUS Fresh and Worn Units Routed Units Disordered Units Units and Groups on Opportunity 2.7 COMMANDERS AND COM- MAND STRUCTURE Genius and Charismatic Commanders Incompetent and Cowardly Commanders Changing the General s Level 2.8 BAGGAGE 3.0 TERRAIN AND DEPLOYMENT p TERRAIN Terrain types and effects on movement Fords and Bridges Terrain types, Line of Sight and effect on combat 3.2 SIZE AND SHAPE 3.3 PREPARING THE TERRAIN 3.4 DEPLOYMENT 3.5 AMBUSHES 3.6 PERMANENT FORTIFICATION AND PROTECTION Permanent Fortifications Protection 4.0 INITIATIVE AND ACTIVATION p ACTIVATION AND THE TURN SEQUENCE Deciding Initiative and Activation of Units/Groups Rally Actions of Units on Opportunity 4.2 ZONE OF CONTROL AND OPPORTUNITY 5.0 MOVEMENT p IN GENERAL 5.2 GROUP MOVEMENT 5.3 MOVEMENT OF IMPETUOUS TROOPS 5.4 WHEELING AND OTHER MOVEMENTS Wheels Sideways and oblique movement Movement to the rear Wheels, sideways and oblique movement by Groups About turn 5.5 MOVEMENT OF WAR CHA- RIOTS 5.6 MOVEMENT WITH MOBILE DEFENCES Pointed stakes Pavises 5.7 MOVEMENT OF ARTILLERY 5.8 CHARGES Charge Movement Bonus Opportunity Charge 5.9 COUNTER-CHARGES Counter-charging 5.10 INTERPENETRATION Voluntary Interpenetration Involuntary Interpenetration Interpenetration by wheeling Line relief between Hastati and Principes 5.11 EVASION AND DISENGAGE- MENT Evasion by Light Cavalry and Skirmishers Evasion and limitations to firing Disengagement 5.12 DISMOUNTING 5.13 COOPERATION BETWEEN HARQUEBUSIERS, MUSKE- TEERS AND PIKEMEN 5.14 OFF-TABLE MOVEMENT 6.0 FIRING p IN GENERAL Firing Firing Table Modifiers to the number of dice Damage inflicted 6.2 COHESION TEST Losses due to Accumulation of Disorder after receiving fire Panicked Elephants after receiving fire Losing a Commander under fire 6.3 FIRING LIMITATIONS Firing arc Visibility and Measurement Target engaged in melee Firing Priorities 6.4 INDIRECT FIRE 6.5 OPPORTUNITY FIRE 6.6 THROWING THE PILUM 7.0 MELEE p IN GENERAL 7.2 DIRECTION OF THE CHARGE AND EFFECTS Frontal Charge Charge from the Flank or Rear 7.3 DEPTH BONUS OF LARGE UNITS 7.4 IMPETUS BONUS 7.5 OTHER TACTICAL MODIFIERS 7.6 FIGHTING A MELEE Loss due to Accumulation of Disorder after melee Loss of Melee and Retreat of the defeated Unit Retreat of a Unit engaged on the flank Pursuit Melee in more than one phase Losing a Commander in melee 7.7 MELEE WITH MULTIPLE UNITS Contact between non-parallel lines Contact between parallel lines Multiple melee Multiple melee in more than one phase 7.8 DISPERSION OF SKIRMIS- HERS Skirmishers in melee with Scythed Chariots and Elephants 7.9 ARTILLERY IN MELEE 7.10 SACKING BAGGAGE 8.0 VICTORY CONDITIONS p GENERAL RULE 8.2 LOSS OF A COMMANDER A Commander flees Capture or death of a Commander 4

6 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1 THE MANUAL Impetus is a set of wargame rules that aims to simulate battles with miniature figures in the Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance periods. The extremely flexible system allows you to recreate over 3,000 years of history, from Ancient Sumeria to the Great Italian Wars, without forgetting future expansions for other historical periods. You will find Army Lists at the back of this book that will help you to prepare some famous armies immediately, whilst at the same time providing examples of how these lists were designed. Other official lists, together with the historical presentation of some armies, will be published in further supplements and, together with scenarios, in the Dadi&Piombo wargames magazine. 1.2 MATERIAL NEEDED In order to play Impetus you ll need some miniatures. These rules let you use any scale of miniatures that are normally used for wargames: 25/28mm, 20mm (also known as 1/72), 15mm, 10mm and 5/6mm. You will also need a few 6-sided dice (hereafter called d6), a centimetre ruler, some markers (see 1.5) and a playing surface that recreates the battlefield, with hills, rivers, woods, villages and so on The Battlefield The size of the battlefield will vary according to the type of troops you use but above all it will depend on their scale. We advise these minimum measurements: SCALE 300 POINTS 500 POINTS 20-25/28mm 180x120cm 240x180cm mm 120x90cm 180x120cm 1.3 BASING In order to play, the miniatures must be based on rectangles of card, wood, plastic or another rigid material. These rectangles are called Bases. Often, different sets of rules indicate different basing systems and this creates countless problems for players. However it must also be said that for the period covered by Impetus we have seen a move towards standard base dimensions in recent years. Impetus uses a basing system that is compatible with the most commonly played game systems. In particular, a Unit in Impetus, that corresponds to a single large Base, has a frontage that is twice the standard used in the most commonly found games. The measurements that follow are not strict as regards base depth and thus allow the use of armies that have already been based for other systems, and 5

7 impetus Inglese finale :53 Pagina Base sizes Feudal Infantry 28mm Black Tree Design Seleucid Turks - 28mm Black Tree Design 25/28mm and 20mm (1/72) file For both 25/28mm and 20mm (1/72), all Units have a 12cm frontage. Depth may vary according to troop type: 16cm (or more if necessary) Cavalry 8cm Heavy Infantry 4cm (or 6cm) Light Infantry and Missile Troops 6cm Skirmishers 3 o 4cm Chariots, Artillery and Elephants 6cm (or 8cm) Sa mp le Wagenburg French Ordonnance - 20mm Zvezda Samnites - 20mm 6