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I blame my gaming mate Nigel. He had remarked how his Early Imperial Romans had not seen gaming action in years.
I had painted them for him well over ten years ago and our group had basically got out of Ancients as a gaming
period after widespread disillusionment with DBM. We had moved onto Lard rules and were more than happy with
Then Essex Miniatures ran an excellent 'buy three get the cheapest free' DBA army offer over summer.
Whilst hating DBM I have always had a soft spot for WRG's 'De Bellis Antiquitatis'. It was DBA that got me back into
wargaming whilst I was at Uni in the early 1990's. My son Jack is a toddler but is showing real interest in daddy's toys
and I can see the point where he will be cutting his gaming teeth on DBA. Max and Clive both have young sons too
and it was greed that DBA would probably be the first set we'd all use, should they show an interest in gaming.
I had sold my previous Ancients collection in the late 1990's. If I was going to get into some Ancients this time around
I wanted some armies I've not had before. Previously I'd had Late Carthaginian, Ancient British, Marian Roman,
Skythian, Pontic, Hunnic, Patrician Imperial Roman and Parthian.
I'm really not fond of non-historical opponents fighting. I really don't even like armies from the same period who didn't
fight each other meeting on the tabletop. Personally, it all feels a bit like fantasy gaming which has always repelled me
as frankly a bit daft. Maybe its the archaeologist in me. Yes I did a degree in 'digging holes and tea drinking'.
So this time around I ordered three Dacian and three Middle Imperial Roman DBA armies from Esssex. I've always had
a soft spot for the Dacian army and I reckon they're one of the most flexible warband armies available plus they fought
some legendary campaigns against the Early Imperial Romans, which Nige had. Middle Imperial Roman is a really
interesting army as it is the army which fought largely amongst itself destabilising the Empire and faced the 'third
century crisis' when large parts of the Empire were lost to the barbarians, and then recaptured. The Carpi or
Cappadocae were essentially 'free Dacians' living outside the Empire and fought the Middle Imperials, so that was OK
in my book.
I painted up the Dacians very quickly and had a couple of DBA, and large sized DBA, games but they didn't quite
satisfy.
Then another of my gaming mates Paul mentioned Dadi and Piombi's 'Basic Impetus' as an alternative to DBA. These
are free to download here
I roped in Max, Clive and Nige and we played two games of Dacians Vs Early Imperial Roman. The Dacians won both
times but to our surprise we really like the rules. We were all pleasantly surprised that armies seemed to fight the way
that we'd envisaged Ancient armies fought. The game was less a game of geometry (as DBA and DBM frequently
seem to be) and more of tactics. Also the command and control issues were very challenging. Now used as we are to
the ways of the Lard command and control difficulty is our bread and butter. We actually don't like rules where you
can do everything you want with your army and where units seem to acquire a life of their own.
In a nutshell Basic Impetus is about disorder and impetus. Trying to maintain cohesion in your troops and hitting the
enemy with impetus is really what the rules are all about. The basing scheme is flexible. For 15mm all units have a
size of DBA bases (twice the size for skirmishing infantry) but the number of figures on a unit base is up to you. This
allows for imagination to run wild a bit with each unit base becoming a little diorama. I decided to stick to standard
DBx sized bases though, as these are the period standard now, grouping these for Impetus.
Basic Impetus was a lot of fun but we were a little dismayed how easily the Dacians could move and fight. We soon
moved onto full fat Impetus which had more 'chrome', period feel, and slightly more complex rules. I was not
convinced that the chrome was worth it initially until I played the first game of Impetus. I am very much anti-Roman in
my views but Roman armies are tough in Impetus. They can chuck pila, are better led and better disciplined and
auxiliaries in particular can usually outfight barbarian warbands. A Roman army in Impetus essentially fights and feels
like a Roman army should. Other Ancient rules don't seem to reflect this enough in my opinion.
So far we've had Early and Middle Imperial Roman's Vs Dacians/Carpi, Early Imperial Roman Civil Wars, and
Palmyrans (Paul's) Vs Middle Imperials.
Fired by renewed enthusiasm the summer painting schedule increased ten fold. I found myself painting 300-400
figures per month with considerable ease. Max has been bitten by the bug and has been repainting and rebasing his
remaining Ancients and Dark Age figures. Clive has been using 'Basic Baroque' to fight the English Civil War and is
dusting off his Wars of the Roses collection. Nige has been enjoying letting his Early Imperial Romans get the dust
blown off them and Paul seen his Palmyran's prove victorious against Middle Imperials. All in all we have very
definitely caught the Impetus bug this summer and its pace shows no slacking off as yet.
I am a weak, weak man. My Middle Imperial Roman quickly became two armies, an earlier Severan and a later
Aurelianic, then began to morph into Late Imperial Roman. My Dacians, with Sarmatian allies, became also Carpi (Free
Dacians), with Gothic allies.
My weaknesses for light infantry and cavalry (particularly light cavalry) are no secret. So, I increased the Gothic
troops and made an early Ostrogothic army too. Lots of skirmishing archers and lots of cavalry boxes ticked. I really
like horse archers too though, and in particular Huns, but having trying to pick armies who are historical opponents
which I haven't owned before lead me to looking at Alan Sarmatians. These are very Hun like really, infact they were
absorbed by them at one stage, but they are not dressed as Huns, so they fitted the bill nicely.
So, finally folks (....drum roll) I give you my new Ancients collection of almost 1,000 figures painted in just over two
summer months. More pics will be added as the armies are padded out. Hopefully I'll be adding some pics and after
action reports too at some stage.
