Fantasy Impetus and HOTT

Ok, so I am / was having a dilemma with regards to basing 28mm armies for multiple game systems. The two game systems I have been interested in are Hordes of the Things (HOTT) and Basic Impetus Fantasy / Impetus Fantasy (BIF / IF).

Now HOTT being a DBA variant it uses the standard 6cm frontage bases which is a nice size and includes such things as heroes and wizards.

Impetus on the other hand uses a 12cm frontage base. Now immediately you say...thats easy, just make 2 HOTT elements of the same type equal 1 Impetus element & make a secondary base for that purpose.

True that would be one option. The other thing with Impetus (and my reading of it may be wrong) is that special characters and monsters would use a half sized frontage edge. OK so now we are looking at a 6cm frontage base again.

So my solution is to stick with a 6cm frontage base for all my elements. This in my view will allow impetus games that with armies occupying half the space, will allow for more maneuverability.

Another nice thing about HOTT is that they give a representative number of figures for bases based on type, ie: 3 figures for a shooter element, 4 for a spear, 3-4 for a blade etc. Impetus leaves it open to the player, which does allow more flexibility to add character to the bases.

I prefer the "known" number of figures per base, it then makes gathering figures for the army easier.

So now that the intro and my intent is laid out, I have started with an Orc/Goblin army using the Basic Impetus Fantasy list found here.

 The image above is of a Goblin Archer (Shortbow A) Impetus element or a Shooter element for HOTT. The figures are a mix of old Ral Partha goblins (centre figure) and various generations of GW figures.

I then added a text strip with basic stats which is only used for Impetus. There are other abilites for the element such as missile weapon type and other abilities, in thier case Cowardly. These would be listed on the master army list. For HOTT the element is just used as they type it is, in this case a Shooter.

One thing to be thoughtful of when building the element, is that HOTT elements are based on weapon types...so for instance you can have Spear or Blade. Thus when building the element, try to place weaponry that matches the categories, so they can be multi-use.

For my goblin FL troops, I will be making several bases of just spear armed and the others blade armed.

So there is my plan. I realize that my army would not be acceptable for an "Impetus Tournament", but then I don't plan on playing in any. Like my friend Tim in Saskatoon, I will likely build several armies that others can use when they visit, but thats a long way off.

Stay tuned as other elements roll off the workbench and as always comments are welcome.