I've had this 15mm Hovels bridge lying around for almost two years now. Last week, Marc and I devised a simple "cross the river" scenario for Impetus and played the scenario with one river section designated as a ford. I realized that a bridge would be far cooler, hence the new paint job.


I decided not to base the bridge in its own section of river since I want to be able to use it along with multiple river collections in our group. Instead, I built a base for the bridge and sculpted some water flowing under it. It doesn't match up perfectly but it gets the idea across as far as I'm concerned.

As for the Impetus scenario, here are some random points Marc and I came up with during and after our test scenario last week:

• The attacker must have one appointed unit on the defender's side of the bridge at game end in order to win.
• A unit whose base is flush with a bridge entrance can engage in melee with an enemy unit on the opposite side.
• Entering a bridge causes disorder to all units except FP and S.
• We haven't yet figured out how to regulate crossing the bridge as (a) units can't fit on the bridge and (b) units have different depths. I'm sure we'll come up with a simple method to solve this minor issue.

Although not an official chapter in the Curse of the Dertflinghans campaign, I thought you folks might like to see a few photos from our Chaos in Carpathia game last night. We were playing at Chris's house and, after a long Summer of little to no wargaming, Chris and I decided to dust off the Gothic Horror models and get back at it. We played a good old Seek & Find scenario with my Hungarian Monster Hunters pitted against Chris's foul Nosferatu warband, the Red Brotherhood.

My Expedition Leader, Count Konrad von Krumm, set out into the forest with his son Helmut at his side. Villagers speak of ancient stones scattered through the forest near a ruined watchtower. These stones are rumoured to be covered with ancient engravings which might hold a clue to the origins of the Brotherhood and their dark master.


The Master's closest (but certainly not most trusted) servant Gideon skulked in the cave near some of the engravings.


Meanwhile in the woods, Dr. Franz Grunberg stumbled upon an ancient stone criss-crossed with engravings. "I say Bjorn, be a good fellow and keep watch while I take a rubbing."


Albrecht, another of the Brotherhood, hid in the shadows of the ruined tower, his supernatural senses aware of a human presence in the woods beyond. In the game, just as Albrecht was about to search the objective at his feet, Ernst Holdt skewered him with a fatal crossbow bolt. Sadly for Chris, this bad luck was only a foreshadowing of things to come.


In an attempt to jump the river and charge my leader, the Master Vampire missed his footing and fell into the river which carried him violently downstream into the marsh - not his finest moment. These are the scenes that never make it into the movie.


Eventually, the Master changed into a mighty beast and burst onto the bank, savage and, let's face it, a little embarrassed. Helmut von Krumm, who was filled with bloodlust after just defeating one vampire, faced the beast with equal savagery. When it was all said and done, Helmut put the creature down.


With the rest of the warband defeated, Gideon made a last stand against Lazlo the Wanderer. Realizing that he was on the bottom wrung of the engagement, he took the form of a great bat and fled the field.


What a battle! My Monster Hunters performed like a well-oiled machine. It was one of those rare games where my slayers spent the game slaying while my academics were successfully finding objectives. In the end, I had found all four objectives, slain the Master of Evil, and still held the Female Victim for a whopping total of six victory points. Chris took the overwhelming defeat like a gentleman.

From now on we'll be playing tailored scenarios. In other words, I will set the table up as a specific locale and each warband will have its own set of objectives. i.e. the Monster Hunters must hold the town hall and escort a innocent bystander to the town hall unharmed. The Monsters must take the town hall and capture the innocent bystander. Something like that. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks for reading,
JET

With three years of Impetus gaming under my belt, I've finally begun to get tired of using colored wooden markers for marking DISORDER and OPPORTUNITY. A month ago or so I ordered some 15mm medieval casualty minis from Essex. They're all based on round GW plastic bases.

Knights

Light Foot and Spearmen

Archers

With just over 20 units in my Free Company army I'm hoping that I'll never need more than 18 disorder markers. In any event, these little dioramas should greatly improve the look of our Impetus games.

Thanks for reading,
JET

So I've finally decided that it's time to replace my little red disorder markers for Impetus with something a little more visually appealing. I figure if I'm going to lose a game, it's just as well to look good while doing so. I ordered a few packs of medieval casualties from Essex and finally started at them last night.


As you can see, I've simply based one casualty on a round plastic base and painted it up. I've got 18 of these guys started and I"m actually painting them up as one big batch. I finished one off just so you guys could see how it's going to look. I've also painted up some random infantry figures which will be used as opportunity markers (to replace the green markers). Overall, I'm hoping that our games will look just a little sexier.

As I mentioned previously, you'll have to excuse my laxness in the blogging department. We've been spending the majority of our at-home time doing summer stuff - hiking, going to the beach, and chilling out with the kids. Furthermore, our summer geek nights (which still go ahead every Saturday night) have been dominated by board games. Fear not - the regular regime of painting, war-gaming, and blogging will be back in full swing when school starts up.

Thanks for reading,
JET

It's been a long hiatus for me but I'm finally back in the saddle (pun intended). Now that my painting area is unpacked and ready for action, I broke out the Avars and decided to paint this general model.


I know what you're thinking... what's with the pink? I don't know really. I just felt so confined by the rules of heraldry after painting my medieval army that this time around I wanted to go crazy. I may go back and get rid of the pink when the rest of the unit is done, or I may not. We'll see.

As for the disturbing lack of game reports, Summer so far has mostly been about board games, particularly Settlers of Catan and lots of two-player Twilight Struggle. So, the geeking is going strong, it just hasn't been in a very bloggable form. Now that I've found both my muse and my paintbrush, I hope to start producing at a reasonable rate again. Don't go too far.

Thanks for reading,
JET