[Impetvs] Those bloody Byzantines Again

Had another throw down with Jamie and his disciplined crew of Romans. In this case of course they are the Holy Roman Empire of Byzantium. We ran half of our usual strength in an effort to speed up the game on a school night. So just 300 points in one command each.
I had four Cav-Med, four C-Light and three Foot-Light units, average command and a poor general.
Maximus had a single C-M, five(?) F-M (experienced and green), four F-L (archers and slingers) and a ballista.

The Byzantine baggage

All we knew was there was some very nice stuff right there for the taking. Gold, weapons, slaves, you name it...

Bulgarian baggage

We also intended to keep the dirty Holy Roman mitts off of our pigs and women!

Pecheneg and Bulgarian light cavalry leading the mediums

Ingeniously stacked up in the middle! C-L's in front and C-M's behind.

Those Bulgar nobles know how to dress

I usually run six of these quote medium cavalry endquote. So today I was feeling a bit thin.

Slavic javelinmen covering our right flank

Love these units, good staying power, a decent ranged attack at close. Cheaper than cavalry.

Impetuous medium cavalry

This unit is always scary but my C-L's were able to shoot them to death when they attacked and their support faltered. Then we ate them and their horses...

Maximus!

I can pretty much guarantee that I will attack Maimus on sight. He has invaded our lands like some kind of codependent. We require his head on a spear.

Medium (or heavy) infantry in Jamie's distinctive checkerboard formation

It's a good tactic with these units it make them very hard to isolate or finish off. Also he can springboard off of them pretty well.

Dirty slingers from Rhodes probably

Jamie is often very dangerous with these but tonight he wasn't having his usual luck.

Slavic peltasts push up the right in support

My Slavs got hammered by the archers and the ballista on my right. They held pretty well, making decent rolls and only slowly losing VBU.

The Khans wingman smites some Roman medium infantry

My C-M's weren't shy jumping forward into the Roman lines multiple times after they were prepped by Composite B fire from the C-L's. (So disrupted usually.)

He likes to lead from the front. Just outside of the frame...

Here he is at it again! I think he popped that unit as well, but soon after we took a few hits from those pesky Roman infantry.

Some seriously battered cavalry

By closing time we had both seriously put the boot into each other but I had killed more points worth.

So finally a narrow victory against Maximus!

Thanks Jamie very fun game! I thought that you would get a report out first. Sorry about eating your equestrians.

[Impetvs] Clan Dulo are still trying to repeat their early victories...

Those bloody Byzantines, always hanging around ruining our 'spoils of war'. We had been hanging out all winter enjoying the fruits of civilization when suddenly in the early spring, bam. The Legion!
Jamie shows up with his well trained combined arms force from Eastern Rome er Byzantium. We had been talking about doing Impetvs again for ages just like last time. We have another scheduled game in three weeks now. (Do or die!)

The Khan leads a counterattack!

I need the games to get the rules stuck into my head. For example, you have to roll for every unit that moves more than one activation. If your troops are decent, discipline B, you have a 50% chance of having the unit become disordered. I learn this every year! At least in the photo I managed to keep three CM as a group with the Khan, so +1 or 66% chance of maintaining order after a double move. So them I moved three times. (face palm)

Our center of two CM in the late snow.

Jamie's army is, as I said a good mix. A couple Sarmatians, a couple stands of legionarii (heavy infantry) and a few medium infantry, (pilum scattered around) as well as a couple auxilia (slingers) and a couple sagitarii (archers). They all sound like Battlestar Galactica planets to my non-classical trained ass. Suspiciously effective though. He usually doesn't double move, or you know, go disordered.

Down the line towards our encampment of ger.

Which just makes my cavalry's hooves itch for movement, double or triple movement! It's a sickness I know. I'm used to it though, we hurtle into his line on my right and knock a VBU out of a heavy infantry unit. His generals.;-)
Of course he counterattacks.

Our source of firewood for the winter...

One of his two cavalry units is lurking behind the town while two of his medium infantry move through the center. Additionally on my left the slavic levee are having a hard time and my Pechenegs are going disordered. Go figure, don't over rev the engine!

This is why we play Impetvs. THE FRAY!

Jamie just edges me out in the end. I made several mistakes and our dice were pretty even overall with wildly bizarre rolls on both sides.
Cheers Jamie always fun to chat and kill each other!

Sorry about the photos, I immediately got stuck in a failed a bunch of disorder rolls. It took all of my meagre attention to keep in the fight. Also it was dark. Hopefully Jamie will post a more balanced review with better pics!

[Impetvs] Bulgarian, it's what's for dinner.

Again facing the Evil Empire(tm) of Jamie's Romans (Byzantines). It had been ages since I've managed a game with Jamie so I was pretty stoked to hang out and throw down with Impetvs. I had more men painted up so we could run a 400 point match up of two commands each. 

I had 5 Medium Cav of Bulgar Nobles, 5 Light Cav (with Comp B) of Bulgars and their Pecheneg allies, 2 Bulgar Skirmishers (with Short B ) and 3 Slavic Light Infantry (with Javelins). Average command and 2 Poor Generals.

Jamie had 3 Heavy Cav Sarmatians (Impetuous), 4 Heavy Infantry (with Pilum), 1 Medium Cav, 1 Light Cav, 2 Skirmishers (with slings), 2 Skirmishers (with javelins), a Ballista type thingy. (Close to this eh Jamie?)

Slavic light infantry guarding the baggage train

Pecheneg light cavalry ready to break out into the open

Above we see a classic rookie move by me. I could have just passed through the units in front of them but instead constrained my movements voluntarily!

Bulgars on the right

Again, these guys didn't need any help. Just hang out move forward draw fire and that's it. But no, I couldn't stick to my plan.

Byzantine General hovering close to camp, later we would drink from his skull

Sarmatians hiding behind a shrubbery

Sarmatians in the open, making me worry...

First activation, four disrupted cavalry stands from double moving

This Sarmatian charges my skirmishers and smashes one to pieces

Those disrupted Bulgar Nobles are about to get charged

On my far left, some cheeky Byzantine Medium Cavalry is making a run for the baggage

Slavic light infantry lurking in a wood

Bulgar Nobles smash into the Sarmatians on the right.

Another group of Bulgar Medium Cavalry getting attacked

Above that's VBU 2 left as well as being disrupted, it had just fought off the Sarmatians in front of it. It held on for a bit longer.
Shortly after this I lost another CM so my right hand command broke, breaking my army.
Very fun game, it was only frustrating because I was relearning mistakes that have already made! It was a while ago, but there you are. It wasn't the dice, just those couple mistakes.
Huzzah Jamie!

[Impetvs] Clan Dulo Nobles and the Khan!

Finally got the last two stands of my Bulgar medium cavalry done.

The Khan with bodyguards and musicians

Clan Dulo Nobles and Champions

Clan Dulo shield next to the clan enforcer's

Combined with my other units I should have a decent 500 point unit.
CM Cavalry M-10, VBU-6; 29 pts each x5
CL Light Cav M-12, VBU-3; Comp B 25 pts x2
S Cav Archers M-12, VBU-2; Short Bow B 12 pts x2
CL Nomad Allies M-12, VBU-3; Comp B 25 pts x3
FL Allied Slavs M-8, VBU-4; Javelins 19 pts x6

408 points, so with a commander and a command scheme...

"Why we fight" - 28mm objectives

Just finished up my baggage train for my Impetvs army of Bulgars as well as a cool wagon for use with SAGA.

Refugees or battlefield scavengers?

Should probably make some baggage eh?

My yurts that I started nearly a year ago!

Shields represent Tengri and the Pechenegs respectively.

Note cart of pillaged firewood and Bulgarian coin representing Asparakh.

"If it keeps on rainin..."

"the levee's gonna break."
So I finally got most of my Slavs finished. I plan on using them for both my SAGA warband as a levee unit, that won't break of course but will in fact die to a man on order.;-)
I will also use them as an infantry back up for my Bulgar army. They will be FL Warriors, again representing Slavs with javelins.

Somehow, I'm out of practice with the bloody 28mm figures, must be all the 6mm tanks I've been doing.
Also, these Gripping Beast sculpts aren't as good as some of the other 28's I've done in recent memory. Overall the poses are good though, so suitable for backup troops, hopefully everyone will just look at the shields.8P

Axe wielding lunatic Slavs, on old shield sketches

A couple 'javelins', next time I'm using different spears, these were fiddly as.

Some of my fave mini's from this set

One unit in their sabot

The two axe, three spear mix looks good.

Add a caller with an ox horn and you have a warband!

Kind of missing my FoW army and their collection of .50 cal MG's for some reason.

In other news, I got some time to bust out the Saharianas this weekend, hopefully I won't get distracted by too much 6mm Soviet stuff.
I'm working so I'm jsut going to have Saturday at Conquest. I think that Pooch and I are still going to do a LRDG vs Saharianas demonstration.
Other ideas are 15mm Force on Force Vietnam, or our 6mm EPIC Modern.

Getting back on the horse...

They look naked for now, but that's 35 dice of MG's in MW!

Had a great vacation, saw a lot of very interesting things and places and some of it will even drive me to model and wargame better and more. Since I've been back I've had a  few projects in the works. First off is the above. MW Armored Cavalry M3 armored cars. Now, in Flames of War V3 the cav is even better! Wheeled movement is further and the ability to remove gone to ground is an ability for individual teams when they pass a skill test! Cool stuff! (For me anyway, being a bit of a cav specialist/ addicted to pennants.)

This is in here though, because I successfully stripped a bunch of paint off of a couple of them. I used toilet cleaner and elbow grease. Is there Simple Green here? I have done a ton of custom fitting and plan on fully bristling them up with mg's and jerry cans etc for Tunisia, Sicily, Italy.

Follow me into the breech tovarich!

Also in the works are my Impetus reinforcements [FL with javelin], diguised as a SAGA Warband. My Gripping Beast Slavs are pretty close...

Our armor makes us look like vikings but...

...as are my Warriors [FP with spears]...

These Crusader minis are awesome. Kyivan Rus!

 ...but my coolest will be the Varangians [FP!]. Ahem, Kyivan Rus.

No longer as blank as this

They are all reliant on my next phase of shield manufacture and artistry. I've been finding some cool ideas though and actually got a good start tonight.

Here are some of the idea's that I've dug up and like. I'm a sucker for the ouroboros of course.
I have starts on most of these.

Lastly are my SAGA objective, fatigue markers, and my wizard. These are great looking minis from Crusader and easily fit into most warbands.
Yes, my fracking wizard;-)