1/72 Lord of the Rings Basic Impetus

My buddy Chris came over last night for a test game of my Lord of the Rings adaptation of Basic Impetus. Finally my 1/72 fantasy stuff hits the table!

I set out a basic meeting engagement to try out the rules, which differ from the various internet versions by abstracting magic (no special abilities). With 120mm frontages, I used a 6x4' table. As the lists look, the evil army has more punch but less mobility and missile options. We each had 12 bases.

Good had 3x medium cavalry, 3x light foot, 2x skirmishers, 2x heavy foot (dwarves), and 2x bow. Evil had 2x warg riders, 1x uruk-hai, 6x light foot, 2x skirmishers and 1x troll.

With more space than the frontages could cover, there was a fair bit of maneuvering on both flanks. On the left, Rohan cavalry advanced again against the troll. This match up seemed pretty even. On the right, the warg riders took on some Rohan bow, again with fairly "historical" results given the relative abilities of the units.

The game decided in the middle, however, as the line of heavies collided and pushed back and forth. Eventually, the evil side broke just ahead of the good. I have one more playtest scheduled and then will bring it out to the club on November 17th. If it seems to work, I'll then bring out a double-sized games (4x12') in early December.

As was foretold by the Oracle of Coltphi, there is not quite enough thematic feel to the game yet--a bit too dark ages. So I'm going to add in some pre-game rolls for magic items (which modify basic unit stats or set up) to get at the trinketry magic in LotR. I'm also going to create some rules whereby heroes not only duel if they meet on the field, but they affect the stats of the unit they are with. I'm really trying to stay away from special rules because, as Chris said, "special abilities are just a vector of abuse". Ahem!

Next up: Likely from 15mm medieval foot, then maybe a few more 1/72 foot and mounted to fill out the Rohan lines. Then perhaps some 15mm Marian Romans for sale. Oh, an a DBA tourney on Remembrance Day!