Impetus in Adelaide II Mongols vs Indians

In a second Impetus battle in Adelaide, this time with 500 point armies on a six x four table, the Expert Mongol general Elaurant Khan led his cavalry against the massed bow and fearsome elephants of the Indian Rajah Mike the Magnificent.

The battle occurred on the Salisbury Plain, with a flat hill in the centre, a walled field on the Mongol left, and a forest on the Mongol right. The. Mongols had ten light cavalry units, four A grade cavalry, and two more fair generals. Rajah Mike had four elephants(!), many upgraded archers, four swordmen, Maiden Guard, a chariot unit, medium cavalry and some foot bow skirmishers. Elaurant Khan went in the centre with most of the cavalry and a light horse screen, with a light horse screen on each flank. Rajah Mike also took the centre with many elephants and archers. A second general with archers was on the left while a third with the cavalry was on the right.

Elaurant Khan sent his light cavalry screen forward in the centre to pin the enemy and on each flank to turn the Indians. Rajah Mike went forward quickly in the centre with elephants and bows and on the right with cavalry and held back on the left. The Indians promptly disordered themselves but it hardly mattered as the Mongols followed suit in their part of the turn. The following rounds of bow fire went badly against the Mongols, who rarely hurt the Izindians, but suffered badly from their return fire in the centre.

Rajah Mike ordered his elephants forward in the centre. First they made the weakened light horse screen in the centre retreat, and then they charged one of the Mongol cavalry units behind. This proved an unpleasant experience for the Mongol cavalry, who fled. The centre cavalry spent the rest of the game avoiding the Indian elephants.

Meanwhile the left and right flank Mongols were struggling to outflank the Indian flank guards. Partly in desperation, the remaining Mongol CP launched charges on the archer units on the ends of the Indian line. These proved successful and finally opened the Indian lines up for exploitation.

The Mongol right flank Light Horse finally got to the Indian cavalry, destroying them with close range bow fire (deadly). This broke the Indian right flank. So when we called it a night the Indians had all but broken the. Mongol centre, while the Mongols had broken on the eastern flank. It was an exciting game, with some armies that were well balanced.

What did I learn?
1. Do not waste those re rolls you can buy on maybe killing individual units. Save them for when your or his general is at stake.

2. A single Expert general is invaluable. You can use it to either win or defer initiative. In rolling to get initiative you can keep using it if it does not win the die roll.

3. Deciding when to go onto Opportunity is critical for cavalry. If I had done so with my cavalry when the jumbos were approaching, they might have lived.

So lots of fun. I am practicing with 500 points for the forthcoming CanCon competition.

Hi never played a 500 point game ... how long does this size game typically take?

Sounds like a fun game !

Cheers Jez

We took about 2 1/2 hours and we are still learning. In our experience Impetus is much faster than FOG.

Yes Impetus can be a lot quicker than DBMM as well.

With 500 point battles you've got to bear in mind that a 500 point Carthaginian v Spanish battle will be a lot bigger than a 500 point high medieval game where you've 40 point units wandering about

Jim

Good point Jim. For comparison, in this 500 point game, both sides had three commands of four or five units each. That proved quite playable.

Yes, 500 points with three commands can be a good two hour game.
The problem with having only one command a side is that it sometimes just slows the game down and reduces it to battering each other to death by attrition.