Adding Evasion to Basic Impetus

Not wanting this to disappear in the old Forum but to be available to newcomers here are my additional rules for Evasion.

The major hole in Basic Impetus is Evasion. I'm fed up with the number of times a passerby at the club has snorted in derision as my Parthian light horse get caught by advancing enemy foot getting a back to back move, usually adding the comment, "in real life they would have scampered away easily" True! So we have added evasion rules to BI. Here they are:


1. Evasion is a move in Basic Impetus available to any friendly skirmisher or light horse unit when an enemy unit able to charge declares a charge move which would result in the skirmisher or light horse unit being contacted to the front. Charges to the rear or flank may not be evaded.

2. Such a friendly unit with an impetus value of its own may choose to evade or stand its ground. Any such unit with no impetus value must evade.

3. An evade move is a full move directly to the rear ending up facing the same way. If a friendly unit is interpenetrated then the evading unit may halt immediately behind the interpenetrated unit if it wishes or continue to make a full move. If the interpenetrating unit ends its move still interpenetrating it may be moved further to clear the friendly interpenetrated unit. If this interpenetrated unit itself subsequently evades then the previously interpenetrating unit may not evade a second time in this move.

4 If any evading unit is contacted at the end of its move it must fight.

5. Units declaring a charge which would contact a unit which can and does decide to evade may halt after a normal move if it would have contacted the evading unit within that distance if the evading unit had not evaded, or it may roll to extend its charge move. If it does so and does not make contact with an enemy unit it will end its move disordered. If it halted after a normal move it will not be disordered. If after either move it makes contact with an enemy unit it must fight it.

Hi

That is how we play it, except that the charging unit is now disrupted if it fails to contact, and the evader is left facing away from the charger

Phil

Interesting I was looking at playing a first game of Basic Impetus, with Arab vs Crusaders, and was startled to find no evade move for light cav or skirmishers...

Thinking of avoidance for Basic Impetus - after playing many, many, many games but only with various ancient armies. It would perhaps be interesting, and very simple to allow any faster unit to avoid any slower one. Avoiding one being exclusively cavalry though.

I think a lot of people just add in an evade move similar to that used in Full Impetus

BI is a free intro set - I don't think it should have published amendments to add in the "missing" elements that exist in Impetus.

Want the full game buy it - you can always leave out the bits you don't like but expanding the free version to avoid the purchase seems ethically questionable to me. Certainly publishing the mechanics oversteps a line in my book.

Nonsense. Having an evade rule make the rules much more attractive to new players. Having this in a printed form is essential. No one is making money off the augmented set but it is allowing BI players to have a better, more accurate game.

It makes the free introductory rules more attractive as a full set, thus leaching sales from the actual full rule set.

Public forums are full of posts, saying "don't buy the rules just d/l BI and add evade/opportunity/multiple commands".

Sure BI lacks things - it's meant to because the next step is supposed to be to buy the missing elements, not chuck 'em in for free.

I find it disgraceful - your conscience is your affair.

Yet it was Lorenzo who published the BI rules - is he infringing his own copyright? Leeching sales from himself? What nonsense! BI are an excellent set of rules and stand by themselves with some necessary additions. Those who wish to move to the full set are perfectly at liberty to do so. You would have everyone forced to do so or continue to use a set of rules everyone accepts are incomplete. That I find not disgraceful but ridiculous.