Twilight of the Sun King

[urbancohort]

Dear Pendrakeners: anyone played this ruleset from the Pike and Shot Society? Thought, recommendations? Many thanks.

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[toxicpixie]

Yes, it's rather good (sample size several read throughs and a single test game); there's been a flurry of new players on their yahoo! Group recently and I think we've all posted the same questions so whilst the intent is good I think there's an element of assumption about the writing/editing...

That said there's a clarification/FAQ just gone up which addresses them, along with a load of scenarios so there's plenty to get stuck in with!

The rules really felt "in period", supported lines are vital, the evolution of pike, matchlock, flintlock etc all felt good, cavalry-infantry interaction worked nicely.

The flavour may not be to everyone's taste though - there's no separate shooting or melee as such, you just force your opponent to take morale tests by putting them under pressure, getting into musket range, melee, threatening unsecured infantry with cavalry etc. Then as morale points drop you have manage the attrition and know when to rotate Brigades out before the y become totally spent.

Really elegant ideas but not going to be to everyone's taste
They

[urbancohort]

Toxoc; thanks for quick reply. I have 'invested' in these rules... interested to know where they sit with experienced wargamers...

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[toxicpixie]

Pleasure! I'm sure Hwicce can extol their virtues better as he's been using them at conventions, and I highly recommend the Twiglet yahoo group as well

[Leman]

Sounds like a really interesting system. would it work with 28mm? Nice to see that the Yahoo group are Marmite lovers!

[toxicpixie]

It'd work with 28mm, sure. The nominal base size is 60mm wide, 30mm deep, with two bases to the unit - my solo effort and hwicces "travel" shownversion use a single 60mm wide base per unit. The scenarios & rules are rated by base widths so if you have larger or smaller bases you can easily play with them. Unless your 28's are on massive base widths you'll be fine, although even if they are you'd just need a huge table

[Leman]

I am basing on 60x60, so should be ok.

[toxicpixie]

I can't see as it's likely to be a problem Either using two bases for a brigade or four for a really wide, meaty unit. That'd look ace, but you'd need a wide table for it

[Leman]

The club can  provide an 8'x6'

[toxicpixie]

That'd do the bigger scenarios at a 120mm unit frontage (two 60mm bases) from memory, like Blenheim. My scenario book is in the loft or I'd check

Or the smaller scenarios with the huge 240mm wide unit size...

Everything's measured in base widths so you can scale appropriately I'm surprised Hwicce hasn't appeared, he's usually the "go to man" for Twiglet for the forum!

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/TwilightSK/conversations/messages

That's the group, it's a "request to join" but Vincent was pretty quick to approve membership (time difference to the US ), & there's loads of scenarios in the files plus I think a new QRS and the FAQ which should give you the barebones of the flavour... I'm not st my main machine and I can't find their forum link or I'd post that as well!

[Hwiccee]

urbancohort: The rules are aimed at doing large historical battles in a reasonable amount of time and with a reasonable number of troops, see below. Therefore the rules are looking at the big pictures which is not to all people's taste. Please feel free to ask any questions you might have here or elsewhere.

Leman: Basing is not important and the idea is that you use whatever suits you. All measurements are in 'Base Widths' and the base width is whatever half the frontage of the infantry/cavalry units you have. As already mentioned we use 60mm frontage bases, depth is not important, but use 1 to 4 bases as a unit depending on the circumstances of the game we are playing. Here is a game we ran at Salute using effectively 4 bases per unit in 6mm -  http://www.lead-adventure.de/index.php?topic=100047.0 and http://wfgamers.freeforums.net/thread/28/kalisz-salute-2017

In any case with a 'Base Width' of 60mm the largest battles are on 8' (Blenheim/Neerwinden) or 9' (Ramillies) table but most battles are on 4' to 6' tables. If space is short (and assuming you have 60mm bases) then you can half these frontages. The battle in the picture is on an 8' table with 60mm bases but would be on a 4' table usually (with 2 times 60mm bases as a unit).


The next scenario book with GNW and Ottoman battles should be out in a few months and also a ECW/TYW version & further scenario books are on the way.

[toxicpixie]

The Ottoman scenarios might get me to finally finish my Ottomans, finally! Only three years so far...

[Leman]

Seriously good looking battle. Very inspiring.