Last night me and five other old Impetus players sat around a table and watched \ assisted \ hindered as a game of Impetus 2 was played.
Quick digression. Impetus is a set of Ancient \ Medieval battle rules from Lorenzo Sartori that were released rather a long time ago and were my no 1 go to rules. They arrived and were adopted at about the same time as plastic 28mm ancients were becoming available and it was a match made in heaven. Actually Italy, as that's where Lorenzo hails from, but you get the message. Lorenzo managed to create a fluid and exciting game and over the years I collected rather a lot of armies and played many, many games, including lots of tournaments which were never that large but always friendly and interesting. Impetus was also a great antidote to the "Boutique" nature of modern wargaming - all those terribly throw away small scale skirmish systems which have become the norm in modern wargaming. To do an Impetus army is a long term project, quite possibly open ended one. It was good to have a commitment.
The problem was every year as more players joined, more army lists were added and the tournament scene grew, a new set of annual tournament amendments were needed. After five years or so the main rules were now wandering away from the original and a new edition was needed if just to tidy up. But Lorenzo took his time. Lots of time. As this was happening the flow of new players dried up - it was difficult to recruit new players with the pitch "you need this set of rules, and then modify them with this sheaf of printouts until v2 arrives", and many players have moved on or decided to wait for v2. He's been working on version 2 for about five years and when version 2 was finally released in January my enthusiasm was tempered with some reservations.
So back to last night. After a few shaky starts it started to feel good - rather good. The same smooth play, the core mechanics are solid but have been streamlined. There are some differences which may impact on the overall game, but it is all looking good. There are some changes needed in my armies - mainly the change to basing generals individually, and the old "Rolls of Destiny" have gone, replaced by a new card system which seems quite interesting. Anyway, I'm feeling the old juices flowing again.
So back around our table last night it was rather good. The vibe was something like I imagine a group of old musicians getting back together - including the same frictions and bloody annoying youngsters, but after a while we found we were slipping into a good, familiar and comfortable groove - it was all good.
So I'm now looking for some nice Thracian Commanders to paint up, and some light cavalry, and ..................
:-)
