AAR: Samurai (Impetus2) 22Sept2019

Ian and I continue to explore the ‘new’ Impetus 2^nd edition rules. This time I used my 28mm Samurai armies; two 400 point armies each with 3 commands. We played on a 6’x4’ table which meant a compact deployment, with little room for manoeuvre (on reflection, we should have opted to use a 8’x6’ table instead). The battlefield was again open, but I did place an impassable building on my right flank.

The early phases of the game saw my army advancing whilst Ian held back, this gave his bowmen a first chance to inflict damage which they duly did! The first moves of the game also saw 2 of my commanders improve grade and 1 of Ian’s commanders decline. The battle then proceeded in a ‘wave’ fashion, with the action moving from my left flank across my front towards my right flank.

View from my side of table. On the left, my mounted samurai charge Ian's peasants.

On the left, my mounted samurai charged Ian’s peasants expecting them to be easy meat. Although the samurai won, they did not initially destroy the peasants, who were forced back. The mounted samurai had to pursue to complete their eradication, which placed the victorious but disordered samurai in the table corner. The unit was out of command and refused to re-order, which they needed to do in order to change facing. Also they were attacked by more peasants which further delayed them. Meanwhile, Ian attacked and destroyed the bulk of my support troops on this flank, which broke the command.

The impassable building, and my central and right commands on either side.

In the centre, my arquebus armed teppo achieved some success before my foot samurai and ashigaru charged in. The resulting combat was bloody for both sides. I was worried when my left flank command collapsed (above) because it looked like Ian was in position to roll my army up. The game now threw a spanner into Ian’s plan; a weakened unit of his foot samurai charged a unit of my teppo in the rear. My teppo not only held but destroyed his samurai, which in turn broke his right-hand command. Suddenly my vulnerable flank was OK, and meanwhile a unit of my ashigaru achieved local success, destroying a couple of Ian’s units. The battle seemed to be in the balance, but the losses sustained by my central samurai and ashigaru told. A couple of units finally broke, and this pushed my army over its limit and yielded victory to Ian.

A side view of the game, my forces on the left and Ian to the right.

The action on my right-hand flank was minimal and a waste. Both of us thought there was room for 2 units to pass between the impassable building and table edge, but quickly found it was about 1cm to little! Therefore only a single unit could fight with no significant advantage to either side. I effectively tied down and wasted 3 potentially valuable units, whereas Ian only lost 1 unit. These troops could easily have turned the balance of power in the centre of the battlefield. I think this was the key error I made in the game, and an important lesson was learned – always measure before making plans, because the eye can deceive!

The game was tight and enjoyable. I think it needed to be played on a larger table size, and the congestion did result in a bit of a slogging match. We are both getting used to the ‘new’ rules and think they work well. They keep all the good elements of the original Impetus, and add/clarify areas such as unit reactions. Again, my only major criticism is the terrain selection aspect which continues to generate bare, open, uninteresting battlefields.