My First "Impetus" Game : Renaissance

Renaissance is apt in more than one sense. I am old enough to remember the heady frenzy that struck the wargaming community as DBA took hold back in the early 1990's and I say this in a very positive sense. A gaming system that was quick and intuitive to pick up (barely ten pages of rules) but rich enough in historical with enough diversity and nuance to keep you interested especially with regard to campaign potential and making an army into an affordable commodity.

Impetus is currently doing the same for me (see below for my first game set-up, a 25/28mm unhistorical 300 point match up between a Renaissance Army of Florence (me) and some Nicophoerean Byzantines [I had never even heard of my opponents before which shows my ignorance]).

DBA's flaw to me was that it went big into DBM (and even now DBMM) but somehow the system broke along the way. I know many people who have played DBM and have liked it immensely (toiling through a hard apprenticeship "learning the rules" and the "DBM way"), yet I know many more who turned away dissatisfied with the whole experience. Saddened by the competition niggles or bittiness of a system that does seem to scale up correctly. These are my own opinions/observations and I hold no delusion to any authority on my part in making them. Since them I have been searching for that set of rules that has the balance right, Fields of Glory seemed close but I think Impetus (even after only one game) has it for me, I am hooked.

Impetus to me works well, scaled up form the twelve unit armies of DBA to something well short of the number of elements of DBM, but representing "blocks" instead. Thus above my renaissance army was eight formations (excluding the camp) facing eight, but using less figures than an equivalent DBM match-up. The formations have "factors" which describe the characteristics, pushing it a tab past DBM/DBA in complexity, but the gain is a better feel for how formations acted in mass. (No more the art of getting a single base in on the flank). It also reflects training, command structure and generalship relevant to the national army characteristics. (Below a closer look at my pointy Pike)

All damn good stuff
:)

Note: Basing wise my kit is based up on the DBA/DBM standardised base sizes, for Impetus these stands are stuck to bases which reflect the unit/formation size. As a rough rule of thumb, two bases can sub in for a formation stand.In my Impetus pike blocks above there is a Front Rank, supported by two Rear Ranks, in total six standard DBA/DBM bases. For a better visual effect I am even tempted to double up the Front Rank figures to four bases (you still have keft overs from the old DBM army lists).