[Twilight of Divine Right] New Battle Report - Wimpfen 1622

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Heyhey, happy Sunday. Here's my latest battle report, covering yet again the battle of Wimpfen (1622). A week ago I played the game using the In Deo Veritas rules, this time I used the Twilight of Divine Right rules:

https://www.tabletopstories.net/language/en/2020/08/twilight-of-divine-right-battle-of-wimpfen/



Hope you enjoy the battle report!

[Codsticker]

Great pictures and report Sigur, and a really helpful  comparison of In IDV and ToDR.

[Antonio J Carrasco]

Great report! I am very tempted but don't know how to use it with 28mm. 

[Battle Brush Sigur]

@Codsticker: Thank you.

@Antonio J Carrasco: It's like playing any battles in 28mm, I suppose: All you need is a lot of space and somewhat shrunken units, and it will work. In Deo Veritas is made with 3 to 15mm in mind, but you can increase the base size a little (increase command ranges along with it. you could keep shooting and movement ranges, I think). Twilight of Divine Right's measurements are entirely based on Base Widths, so it'll scale along with your basing.

[WFGamers]

Another great AAR. Thanks for taking the time to do it.

[Battle Brush Sigur]

@WFGamers: Thank you for putting it up on the FB group while I was too exhausted to do so myself.  Yeah, those take a long time to do, especially seeing as I do'em in German and English. But oh well, it's all part of the fun.

[Andrew_McGuire]

I've read your review of the Twilight rules and am intrigued. I don't yet have any TYW forces, so won't be playing in the near future,  but have recently bought another TYW-themed set called Tercios, which appears to have received little coverage, other than a review in WSS some time ago.  I'm wondering whether anyone has experience with it, and ideally can make comparisons with ToDR.

[Battle Brush Sigur]

I keep hearing good things about Tercios. So far I haven't gotten the rules, because I was all busy getting behind In Deo Veritas, then getting back to Twilight of Divine Right to compare and finally find out which I liked better (with the pretty lame result that I really, really like both rules a lot. ), and there are more rules sets on my plate to get (back) to, so for now I think I'll stick to what I have.

All I can say is that Twilight of Divine Right plays really well. I assume it can be frustrating because combat can be rather unpredictable. Or not so much, and I just don't think properly before sending the boys in.

[Codsticker]

...and I just don't think properly before sending the boys in.

Sounds like you and I come from the same school of tactics...

[Andrew_McGuire]

In view of the battle report I'm tempted to by ToDR in spite of my ownership of Tercios and a set from, I think, the early nineties called Lion of the North (also unplayed). To complicate matters further, there's a set I've been watching for along time on eBay called Gott Mit Uns!, which is all I know about it.

Prior to adding to my rules collection, however, it might be an idea to get some figures, I suppose. I normally collect 28 mm, and have some Warlord Swedish infantry, but most of these sets appear geared towards 15 mm or smaller (which does make a realistic representation of the formations easier). I'd appreciate comments on the best ranges, particularly for Swedes and Imperialists in the 1630's onwards.

[Battle Brush Sigur]

@Codsticker:

@Andrew_McGuire: I think playing several rules sets for the same period is a great thing. I think most rules sets depicting battles are much more suited for play with smaller scale figures, but of course you can play with any size of figures you like as long as you a table that's large enough and enough storage space. Twilight of Divine Right uses Base Widths for measuring shooting ranges and movement. A unit in line (just two formations in the game: column and line) is 2BW wide, so in my case 1BW = 5cm.

There's several really nice 15mm ranges for the TYW out there. However, I never looked much into them as I decided to go 10mm. The 15mm ones I know first hand are Khurasan (really, really pretty) and Wagamer.pl's By Fire and Sword range, which has several units fitting the thirty years war. There used to be Testudo which were great, but I'm not sure they're still around.

Anyway, here's a listing by someone who's more in the know about 15mm TYW ranges than I am: https://balagan.info/15mm-wargaming-figures-for-the-thirty-years-war

[Andrew_McGuire]

I'm sure that "playing several sets for the same period" is indeed a great thing; simply owning a multitude of rules on one given conflict, at a similar scale, is, however, another matter altogether, though it's never stopped me up to now.

I've started reading Tercios and am quite impressed so far. I particularly like the card mechanism for assigning orders. However, nowhere in the rules is it stated where the very attractively designed cards are to be found. Perhaps the designer / publisher's website sheds some light on this, though I am yet to visit it, or even determine its existence.

There is an advert at the back of the rule book for Totentanz Miniatures, which is among the ranges discussed on the blog you kindly linked to. What I was not expecting was to discover another set of rules - written by the author of the blog - at least not with the alluring title Tilly's Very Bad Day, which suggests a different kind of publication altogether. Nevertheless, it demands investigation.

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Oh yes, I'm very keen on trying out Tilly's Very Bad Day as well. It's free to download from the blog I linked to.

[Andrew_McGuire]

And also available in print form via Lulu, unlike the also Tilly-centric Father Tilly, which used to be mentioned quite a lot.

[Battle Brush Sigur]

I got Father Tilly 4(?) years ago, but never tried it. Was a bit put off by a weird focus on 28mm and single- based figures IIRC.