My local group tried Impetus and gave up on them, but I do know they have a loyal following. TTS has become our “go-to” set for ancient/medieval including WoTR but I know some think they don’t have enough period specific flavour. At the end of the day your troop types are largely longbow, bill and some knights. I think “Poleaxed” are quite old school but obviously have the bonus of being period specific.
Interesting which version the free Basic Impetus , the published Basic Impetus or Advanced Impetus?
Each is a different animal, the first two are like
wanking in my opinion. You get a result but not very satisfactory. Basic is too vanilla and is designed for a forty minute to 1 hour game for club meetings and hard head competition players.
Advanced Impetus can give you a proper working over, you feel like you are in a seesaw or tumbler when hand to hand is thick. The same historical battle can have huge variances in results depending upon who has the initiative and good dice rolls, and by tweaking wards and adding or removing generals it really can be a nail biter. The scope for multiple movement in a single turn and well drilled troops really changes it and sold it for me.
Although not a tournament player I did attend a number of Advanced Impetus tournaments in Australia, only one tournament over three days was themed late medieval early Renaissance. My Yorkists done quite well running second. 7 win games and one draw, so I was happy with the results.
Advanced Impetus bought me back to Medievals after Warhammer Ancients fell on its sword locally, tried Hail Caesar but that is like eating the same biscuit with different looking armies, Art de la Guerre is really micro millimetre competition play. DBM just hang me...
Cheers
Matt