Little Wars, April 27 - 29

Little Wars is coming up quick, and for me, Impetus is it's name!!

I'm  looking forward to running a Vikings invading Ireland scenario Friday morning.  A lot of effort went into balancing out what is a tough match-up for the Irish in a straight tournament game.  Here are some teaser shots --

Vikings move in on the Irish village

But find their flank "a hangin' in the breeze"

There will also be two other Impetus games run, each by a different group.  So three groups are running games this year.  There will be a game of Adrianople, and one set in Japan.

I'm runninng an Impetus Open Saturday night, and continuing open gaming Sunday. I reserved space for the Open Saturday evening from 6 pm until 2 am. Several friends have commented on the hours, so I want to clarify this.

These open gaming times are to encourage regional players to meet each other and have fun gaming some small games. The Saturday Open will include awards for the best painted army and the best player. These awards will be presented between 10:30 and 11. I trust a couple of games will have been played by everyone interested by then.

I reserved this time so that interested people could play until they closed the doors on 'em. There was never any intention that you had to play the entire 8 hours!! But for the die-hard enthusiasts, you can.

Gunthar, painted by Jim Smiley, St. Paul Irregulars

Victory, painted by Jack Ladd, St. Paul Irregulars

Sunday will be very relaxed -- we have space for the day and can do whatever seems appropriate for the people around.  Replay some of the earlier games, play a group game, have some learning games, or matches against other Impetus fans!  If you're curious about Impetus, you have lots of opportunities to learn more.

I'm looking forward to Little Wars, which is the regional gamers mixer.  There will be friends from all over the region there, and I'm sure that I will make new friends this year.

Viking 28mm army - rebasing deep units for Impetus

I collected my Viking army over several years, and based it up awhile ago to play "It's Magic" and "Might of Arms" with.  It's Magic is a local game with a lot of play testing that Peter & I enjoy playing, and Might of Arms is a fine set of published rules -- really old WRG rules made playable in an evening.

Both rulesets do not reduce unit sizes by removing casualties -- so I used big bases.  I have subsequently discovered Impetus, and like this ruleset a lot.  In Impetus many armies have units that are more than one stand deep, or deep units.  The Vikings are one of these.  So I played my Vikings as deep units but didn't like the look -- I based them as one-base equals one-unit.  Therefore, I compacted the figures in the middle of the base to both protect the figures from handling during play, and to visually make a tight formation on the base.  As single-base units this works great, but makes the deep unit look like one unit behind another, not one unit.  I never liked this, and finally determined to see if I couldn't improve the look (my pride in the Irish encouraged me to raise the appearance of their opponents, I believe).  So I unbased some of the figures from their 6 cm x 12 cm bases, and rebased them on 4 cm x 12 cm bases, in one rank on the leading edge of the base.

New deep unit basing on the front left unit and rear units, old deep unit "stacked unt" basing on the front right unit.

 You can see that the effect from the side is very improved.  However, it isn't perfect.  The ranks should be even.  I may rebase the rest of the army later, burt I will certainly base all future deep units at the same time so that I can compose them to appear as one unit.

I think that the view from the front is now much improved, however.  The following pictures show that.

The new basing system seen from the front.



The Viking envassion of Ireland had three Viking divisions.  The left wing was commanded by the least inspiring Jarl in the army.

Vikinng left wing division

The center and right had commanders of far more reknown, known and respected throughout the land.

Center and right divisions

The hard fought battle between the invading Vikings and the local Irish will be discussed in a future post!

Viking host desending on the peaceful Irish village

Jarl Asbjorn

I did Jarl Asbjorn back in the '80's.  I was active in the local figure society, the Minnesota Miniature Figure Society, and did quite a few collector figures at the time.

I believe the figure is a Post Militaire Series 66 viking.   I did the shore and rock carving with balsa and Durham Rock-Hard putty, and the water is a two-part resin product.  I can't remember much more about making the water -- looking at it now I believe the waves are clear sealer, like you would use on a sink.

Anyway, without further ado . . .

It was fun photographing the Jarl, and I am sure I will share other of my past collector figure pieces from time to time.