Knights, Danzig, and an Emperor’s Pet Elephant: A Crash Course in Impetus

Not too long ago, Max and I received an exclusive introduction to Impetus at the clubhouse of "Zamgwürfelt" in Munich, hosted by Bernhard and Bernhard, who also provided the miniatures. We played a 400-point game fielding Imperial Germans against the Teutonic Order, the latter reinforced by a contingent of allied troops from Danzig.

True to tradition and ancient custom, the German princes have always preferred to beat each other over the helm with great enthusiasm. Exactly what the dispute was about could no longer be recalled by anyone involved afterwards—only that it crashed and banged thoroughly, leaving more than one rather dented helmet behind on the field of battle.

We were far too busy grappling with the new rules to produce a proper, detailed AAR, so today we are making an exception with just a few photos and commentary.

I promise to do better in the future!

The deployment—Imperial Germans at the bottom, whose left flank I am commanding, and the Teutonic Order at the top, whose left flank Max is leading (in this case, the Danzig contingent).

My command, consisting of light cavalry with crossbows, a unit of crossbowmen, infantry, and two heavy cavalry units.

That lot rolling straight toward me, including heavily armored knight-brethren on horse and on foot... this is going to be so much fun ... 👀

The men of Danzig march up with flying banners and standards.

Center and right flank of the Imperial Germans—perhaps a bit dry to look at, but solid blocks of infantry and cavalry. The elephant is the Emperor's pet and did not participate in the fight 😂

I try to maneuver into favorable positions to prevent the knight-brethren from deploying their full force and to weaken them with ranged fire beforehand; otherwise, things promised to turn quite ugly for my troops.

Meanwhile, the units in our center and right flank are deploying as well.

My cavalry secures the hollow way through which enemy cavalry can only approach single-file. My crossbowmen are supposed to drive the skirmishers out of the wheat field so they can target the dismounted knights, while the heavy infantry provides cover.

The Danzig forces charge headlong and recklessly straight into our infantry...

... and pull off a breakthrough!

The cavalry on our right wing immediately finds itself in trouble as the Danzig troops ruthlessly exploit their success.

The knight-brethren charge; I counterattack and manage to push them back, but that’s about it. One of my cavalry units is now in a rather awkward position, currently wondering how on earth they managed to get themselves into such a spot.

Somehow our cavalry manages to stabilize the situation, and the Danzig troops run out of steam.

The overall situation—we are holding firm on the left, while the center and right flank, though thinned out, managed to turn the tide and are now advancing victoriously against the rest of the Danzig forces.

The skirmishers are chased off the battlefield, the Order's light cavalry doesn't dare advance, and I succeeded in pushing back both the dismounted and mounted knight-brethren! At the same time, the Order's center and left flank completely collapse, and the remaining Danzig troops flee the field. Consequently, the Teutonic Knights are left with no choice but to retreat as well to avoid total annihilation.

Conclusion

The game and the rules were an absolute blast! A big thank you once again to Bernhard and Bernhard for providing the brilliantly painted miniatures and introducing us to the Impetus rules.

Unfortunately, we’ve really caught the bug now. Especially since another interested player joined us during the match—we’ve all agreed to launch an escalation campaign: the Peloponnesian War. More details on that will follow here on the blog very soon 😉