The First of Many Hastings Battle Reports

As some of you may have noticed, this year it's the 950th anniversary of the Most Memorable Date In English History. Aside from a thread or two on Lead Adventure posting progress for mega-games at shows, I haven't really seen as many refights as I would have expected. So, needing an excuse to try out Basic Impetvs, I asked Derek to rustle up his Early Medieval legions and we gave it a go...

Harold's troops line Senlac Ridge, Huscarls (household troops) in the centre, Great Fyrd (Home Guard) covering the flanks and his main force of Fyrd (Territorial Army).

Duke William drew his practiced eye over Senlac ridge, where the usurper King Harold's troops stood between him and his rightful crown. Harold himself was in the centre, surrounded by his Huscarls, with weaker troops on the wings. The germ of a plan grew in William's mind: if he could overwhelm one flank, his knights stood an excellent chance of rolling up the Saxon battle line. He gave himself a quiet nod  before turning to bark orders to his men.

A rather nice close up. Harold's on the base with the flag.. Models are assorted Early Medieval types from Ebay, painted by a variety of sources but all rather good. There should probably be more kite shields, but you can't have everything.

The Normans were in no hurry to approach the ridgeline, fanning out over a wide front. The infantry spearheaded the advance, seeking to disrupt the English shieldwall so their betters could force it asunder. The knights held the flanks and reserve, aiming to pin the enemy in place to allow the infantry time enough to work.

Duke William orders a general advance. Breton light cavalry lead his right flank envelopment, infantry move up to soften the English centre, whilst the duke and his knights form a reserve and pin the other English flank in place.

The air was filled with the shouts of both sides as the Norman skirmishers drew ahead of the battle line and directed a shower of arrows and insults  towards the shieldwall. To their surprise , rather than stoically resisting the bombardment, a section of the English line broke forward and hurled themselves down the hill toward their foes! The fighting was brief; the skirmishers scattering in all directions from the close-packed English ranks, and those that did not flee were cut down where they stood.

Contact! Fyrd abandon the shieldwall and scatter the Norman skirmishers.

The Breton Alan the Red, leading the forces of the right flank, seized the opportunity and hurled his knights at the isolated band of English. The fight was fierce but one-sided as the Saxons, disorganised after their pursuit, could not stand against the horses and lances arrayed against them.

Knights waiting for the crossbowmen to weaken the English formations for a charge, hoping to catch someone in the rear. The two units opposing them haven't got a grey die behind them, so weren't actually in shieldwall. Not charging at this moment was a very bad move.

Harold was much shaken by this. His forces had been too few to cover the whole of the ridge in strength, and as a result he had been forced to allow the Breton light cavalry to encircle his left flank, and with the break in his shield wall, he was forced to pull back his line into a tighter circle of shields.

The Normans were content to allow these manoeuvres to take place, perhaps unwilling to commit to the combat before their infantry had further weakened the Saxon line. This hesitation was to prove fatal...

Having taken the bait and charged the Norman foot, the Huscarls find themselves caught in the open by knights.

Whilst the swirling melee on the Norman right had cost the English their skirmishers and a unit of Fyrd, in the centre the Norman foot were having more trouble, arrayed against the Saxon Huscarls and skirmishers, who slew many crossbowmen before being chased away. The main body of the Norman foot nobly did its work as a sacrifice, drawing half of the English King's Huscarls down the ridge and into charging distance of the cavalry.

The Normans, swarm round the English Shield-Fort, while the military of elites of Normandy and England slug it out in the centre.

Finally the battle was joined in earnest. Time after time the Norman Knights rode against the stoic Englishmen in their shieldwall, and time after time they could find no opening in the ranks to wreak havoc. The Huscarls, by contrast, could do little but hold a steadily shrinking circle against the repeated attacks of their foes until at the last their nerve broke and they were scattered.

More knights are committed to the fray, and the Huscarls finally start to crumble.

Sensing victory is close, William seeks a decisive confrontation with Harold, committing all of his reserves.

Trusting in the swiftness of his steeds and slow movement of the English, William gave a shout to heaven and led his knights straight for Harold's banner. Again the fighting was inconclusive, but this time help was on its way for the beleaguered English. The Duke's only hope was that Alan the Red could turn the left flank and precipitate a general rout before he was encircled himself.

The Norman Left breaks into chaos as the Fyrd unit runs amok amongst the crossbowmen

Even when charging from behind, the Bretons are cut to ribbons by the stalwart English

Having spent the better part of the day carefully riding around the English rear, the Breton light horse finally let loose and fell upon the rear ranks of their foes. But to the surprise of everyone, rather than scattering the fyrd before them, they were instead bloodily repulsed, with countless horsemen pitched from their saddles and the rest fleeing in panic. Things looked grim indeed for William.

Far from decisive, the melee in the centre grinds on, and both sides attempt to turn the flank.

At the finish, it was the English who moved the faster, sweeping round to charge in before the knights, moving as steadily and calmly as if exercising their horses could get behind Harold's huscarls. Finding his best troops sorely pressed by the English, to his chagrin Duke William was forced to sound the retreat, and trust in the castle he had erected at Hastings to hold off Harold's vengeance...

Normans looking increasingly battered, but holding on...

So there you have it: a long hard slog for both sides, but the famous Saxon Shieldwall held on for just  long enough to clench victory!

The Great Fyrd rout the Norman reserve, and it's all over!

So, what do I think of Impetvs? Well it has it's ups and downs. The restrictive movement rules add an element of Clausewtiz's 'Friction' which other games add through command rolls, as well as getting across the inertia of large bodies of troops in tight formation that characterise pitched battles at the time.
The combat is a bit more of a mixed bag. The need to roll double fives or sixes to score a 'hit' means that sometimes a heavy cavalry charge will grind to a halt in bad dice rolls. The long, inconclusive combats that really dragged this game to a crawl though, are because I couldn't find the rule that causes disordered troops to lose a point of 'strength' (called VBU) if they are disordered again.
My final issue with the rules is that they are a translation from Italian, and so can be rather idiosyncratic and hard to read which makes some of the important minutiae hard to pick up on.

Still, it was the first time either of us have Impetvsed, to I look forward to trying the rules again, hopefully properly next time!