Twilight of the Sun King

Before we start our next campaign we're playing a few weeks of new rules to try them out. The first was Twilight of the Sun King (ToSK) that depicts the battles of the late 17th and early 18th century, so overlapping with the early era depicted in the Beneath the Lilly Banners rules. 

ToSK is very different though being aimed at fighting very large games at a smaller scale, with 6mm, 15mm and 20mm all being suitable scales. The key "USP" of these rules is that shooting, combat, and morale are all bundled together into a single mechanic. Attacking the enemy causes them to take a morale test which can result in lose of strength or complete routing.

Supporting lines are crucial giving both morale advantage and also limiting how far units may be pushed back. Artillery provides long range bombardments that can disrupt enemy movement but cause little damage.   

For the first practice game we played a Great North War scenario pitting Swedes against Saxons. The smaller Saxon force was outclassed by the better Swedish troops. 

Swedish foot

Swedish horse

The other key mechanic is that units may move straight ahead but any other manoeuvre needs a action test based the units quality, including wheeling in a charge. So better units can move fairly freely but poorer ones need to stick to simple plans.   

Saxon defenders

After a few turns two things became obvious; cavalry need to attack in deep formations and angles really matter as its fairly easy to get charged in the flanks. As charged cavalry must conform to their attackers you can manipulate your opponents and open up flanks for follow-up units.   

 We're still learning the game but its clear its a quick game with fairly small unit footprints, so meeting its aim of large scale battles.