Return to Kirchendorf, by Twilight

Having used the introductory Cheriton scenario to put on a trial game using In Deo Veritas rules, it was very convenient to find that the same battle is also one of the introductory scenarios in the Twilight of the Divine Right rulebook. A great chance to compare and contrast the two systems!  (Fleurus, 1622 is also an introductory game in both sets - perhaps because they both involve fairly small forces and should be quite simple battles? Twilight was published in 2018 and IDV only in 2020, so perhaps the latter couldn't resist being 'inspired' by the former? ) . So, let's look at the battle  again, this time through  the Twilight lens. 

First thing to note is the much wider area of battlefield that is used - where IDV started with the armies close together and action imminent in a relatively small space, Twilight places them much further apart and with a commensurately wider field of action and much more terrain.  Here is the map they use  ( I photographed the page from the rulebook, if this breaks any copyright then I will be happy to remove if asked ):  

That's an awful lot of hills..

The previous game really only covered the Cheriton Wood and Middle Spur area in the centre, as you can see this is much wider.  The main armies start on baselines and behind ridges, so main bodies can't actually see each other at the start.  Parliament has an advance party of detached musketeers in Cheriton Wood ( top right ) , and the Royalists have a foot regiment on the highest ground, marked 'Lisle' in the centre of the map - so there should be some action pretty quickly as the respective main battles run into  those two parties. 

Ok, so how about trying to set up that table? One nice thing about the rules is that they use 'Base Widths' for measurement, and the size of the battlefield is given in Base Widths (BW)  too. That made it quite simple to scale the suggested 20BW by 20BW battlefield to my roughly 3 feet by 3 feet table - I have ended up with a 'Base Width' of 40mm as a result.    What was not so simple was finding all those hills and roads - it took almost every piece of 15mm  terrain I had!  Luckily I made a habit some years ago of picking up a few more hills from Total System Scenic ( TSS ) every time I went to the SELWG show at Crytal Palace - several of these were taken out of their stapled bags for the first time for this setup. 

I had just about enough terrain!

Note that the higher 'South Spur' is made by the time-honoured method  of placing CD cases under the cloth for the first contour,  then TSS hill pieces on top for the second contour.  Not so elegant, but effective.

Now for the opposing forces: as in the previous game, I have used my vintage 15mm Thirty Years War 'Imperialists'  to stand in for Parliament, and French as substitute Royalists. Given the 30YW setting, this will of course again be the imagined battle of Kirchendorf.  Forces as follows: 

The Imperialist / Parliamentary army..

First the Imperialists ( Parliament ), commanded by Waller ( shall we call him a Germanic-style  'Mauer' ? ), organised as follows: 

Infantry ( Waller / 'Mauer' ) 

     1 unit Detached Musketeers, Trained, 'M' ( Muskets only )

     3 units Trained, 'MX'  ( about 3:2 muskets to  pikes )

     1 unit Trained, 'MX'   ( London Trained Band ) 

     1 Field Gun,  Trained

Cavalry ( Balfour,  google translate suggests 'Balvier' ) 

    2  units Trained, Dutch style

    4 units Trained,  Dutch Style 

    1 unit Trained, Dragoons 

 

..and their French/Royalist opponents

Now the French ( Royalists ),  commanded jointly by Hopton and Forth, organised as follows:

Left Wing ( Hopton  - shall we call him Sautville [ hop' + 'town' ] in French? It has a ring to it..  ):

        Detached Musketeers : 1 unit Elite, Small, 'Assault Tactics', Musket only 

         2 units Infantry,  Trained, Small, 'MX'  

         1 Field Gun, Trained 

         2 units Cavalry, Trained, Large, Swedish style 

         2 units Cavalry, Trained, Swedish style 

Right Wing ( Forth - I'll go with Le Quatre, which is cheating, I know! ) :

        1 unit Infantry, Trained, Small, 'MH'  ( about 2:1 muskets to pikes ) 

        2 units Cavalry, Trained, Swedish Style

I had some fun with English to German and English to French translation web pages for the commanders' names, but of course plenty of English, Scots, and Irish ( and no doubt,  Welsh ) officers fought in the Thirty Years War, in many forces on all sides, so I could have just kept  the English names, I guess!    

A few words of explanation - units are 'Regiments' or equivalent, and each unit ( except guns and baggage ) has two bases.  A standard Infantry 'regiment' is made up  of about 1,000 troops,  but they can also be designated as 'Small' (about 800)  or 'Large' (about 1200). Infantry are also categorised by the ratio of Musket to Pike  - see 'M', 'MX', 'MH' in the descriptions above, and then there are some other special attributes such as the 'Assault Tactics' which denotes foot who fire a salvo and immediately charge into combat. 

Cavalry regiments are about 500 for a standard unit,  400 for Small and 600 for Large. As you can see they are also categorised in different ways, and we have Swedish ( charge at the trot firing pistols as they close ),  and Dutch ( fire pistols first, then charge if the target is disrupted ) style horse,  and some  Dragoons.    

Artillery are either Field Guns ( 3 to 12 pounders )  or Light Guns ( under 3 pounder ) - we have only Field Guns. Both armies have a 'Baggage' unit - 'used to show the direction for pursuit', say the rules. 

Finally, all units have a 'quality' rating which is 'Raw', 'Trained' or 'Elite' - self-explanatory, I hope. I think you can see that there is quite a bit more detail to keep up with in the makeup of units than there was in In Deo Veritas - I think I'm glad to see things like 'Swedish' and 'Dutch' style cavalry being included, though they ( and the musket:pike  ratios for foot ) will need to be remembered and recorded on some sort of roster,  or by using labels or markers.  

Over all, the Imperialists have 5 Foot and 7 Horse units, versus the French 4 Foot and 6 Horse, and each side has one Field Gun battery - so a slight strength advantage to the Imperialists. The French have those 'Elite' musketeers, and perhaps a bit more 'dash' with their Swedish-style cavalry.  The  scenario Victory Condtions  are simple for this scenario - the Royalists ( French ) simply have to remain undefeated under the rules. As with IDV, the armies are organised in 'Wings', and if half of an army's Wings are lost then the army as whole tests for morale - failing that test results in defeat. 

Now at last, the table with forces deployed - not necessarily the final dispositions, just a trial to see what they looked like,  with Imperialist / Parliament nearest the camera.

As you can see, the armies fit into the space well enough - I was able to deploy the Imperialists near the camera in two lines, which is sensible for the period. The French are a little more spread out, with infantry in a single line - I may revisit that for the actual game. 

So there we are. I've had a read-through of the rules - I need to allocate some single mounted figures to be the commanders, but given that,  I think we are just about ready to go.  Alas 'real' life may now intervene, so there may be a bit of a pause before the game gets played, but I'll try to get it done as soon as I can.   

I hope this is interesting for readers,  I'm looking forward to playing the game and seeing how the rules play out, and reporting back on how it goes.  Until then, keep well, everyone.