Twilight of Divine Right Rules?

[wkeyser]

Hi does any one have any information on 'Twilight of Divine Right'  the Thirty Years War rules to be published by the pike and shot society?

Thanks

[Ragnar]

No information, but I will be following this with interest.

[WFGamers]

Hi,

Twilight of the Divine Right is a set covering the period 1618 -60 hopefully available in the next month or so. Also released will be an ECW scenario booklet with 10 historical battles in and a TYW scenario booklet with 12 battles (there is also 1 in of each in the rules). Others will be out later covering more TYW battles, Eastern European battles and the post TYW battles.

The rules are aimed at doing large historical battles in a reasonable amount of time and with a relatively small table and numbers of figures. So most historical battles are 1 player a side in a game that should take 4 hours or so. You can use any size figures/basing you like as long as all units have the same frontage. All game measurements are in multiples of half the frontage you use. Many people use a unit frontage of 100 to 120mm as this means most games are played on a table 1.8 meters by 1.2 meters (6 foot by 4 foot) or so.

A unit is around 1000 to 2000 infantry, depending on unit type, and half that for cavalry, again varying per type.

The focus is very much on the big picture and being an Army Commander, as opposed to a 'divisional' or 'brigade' commander. The system is unusual in that there is no 'combat' as such, units just take morale tests when in dangerous situations.

I am not sure what else to say but please ask if you want to know more.

[FifteensAway]

Sounds very much like it leans towards the warfare of maneuver - which would be appropriate.  Is that a reasonable assumption or way off base?

[wkeyser]

Would love to hear a little more detail, how does combat work, pike and shot units how do you represent them in combat. Command and control how is that handled.

For me it is the details that make a good set of rules not that you can finish a battle in 3hours!!!

How about some After action reports so we can get an idea of how it plays.

[WFGamers]

FifeteensAway: Yes I guess so but I also guess it depends on what exactly you mean by that?

[WFGamers]

wkeyser:

OK Before I go on I only mentioned the 3 hours to suggest we are looking at the big picture, so remember we are talking a reasonably large scale here. For example a TYW Swedish Brigade when they first intervene in the war is a single unit and also the tercios they faced. You fight with whole armies and the battles are not 'fair' - you get what the army historically had.

As mentioned there is no combat as such. If a unit is under fire, in melee or similar it has to take a morale test. If a unit fails it takes a 'hit', if it uses badly it is removed. Obviously things like unit quality, terrain and similar factors will apply to that test but also tactical factors. The most important of these are usually things like having rear support, secure flanks, etc. It is a brave general, with some exceptions, who doesn't fight as they historically did - i.e at least 2 lines, preferably more, and a good reserve. There are also tactical factors to reflect the different cavalry tactics, the pike/shot ratio, etc.

These combine with other factors to reflect the different troop types. Unit types can take a certain amount of 'hits' after which they are removed. Deep formations, like tercios, get more hits and sometimes other advantages but find it difficult to manoeuvre. Shallower formations have relatively more units, can manoeuvre better but less hits. Also the number of hits a unit has varies due to other factors - units can be 'Large' for example which gives an extra hit. So often the player is looking to press any advantages he thinks he might have while minimising the disadvantages, depending on the situation. There are various other things involved but the basic idea has been to try and reflect differences between units by relatively small differences between units, but which add up if you are doing what the historical commanders did.

The 'basic' command and control is handled by action tests which are movement tests you take when you try to do manoeuvres and by the benefit of doing what they actually did. One problem new player often have is they try to do 'gaming' kinds of things and these will just get you in trouble. The other role of the commanders is to use a limited number of command points they have to do something important, so maybe re-take an important action test. For example cavalry melees usually spiral out of control and so often the decisive factor is a commander managing to stop a unit pursuing at the right time or giving a unit a second chance to perform a failed manoeuvre.

It is difficult to describe really and I am afraid I haven't got any AAR's, but if you have some specific thing you would like to know about then please ask. It is a 'I go, u go' system with 3 phases per player/side. The phasing player moves, taking any action tests it needs to do. It then assigns any long range artillery fire/fire support it might have . Finally it makes opposing units take morale tests and if a command, usually a wing of an army or similar, has lost enough they might take a command morale test.

[wkeyser]

Thanks that is the description I was looking for and indeed I will have to get these as they sound interesting. Do you have a date of release.

William

[WFGamers]

Thanks William.

We are hoping to get them to the printer this week. I am not sure how long printing will take but I guess we should have them in a month, maybe less.