Kirchendorf by Twilight: battle report

Almost a month ago I set up a game to try out Nick Dorrell's Twilight of the Divine Right rules for the Pike and Shot period, with their scenario for the Battle of Cheriton -  albeit somewhat Germanicised to a Thirty Years War conflict at the fictional 'Kirchendorf'.  Real life rather got in the way in the meantime, but this week I have finally come back to the table, and fought out the battle. The opposing Imperial and French  forces have been described in my earlier post,  now we can see their deployment on turn 1.

Starting positions: Imperialist in foreground

 

It's quite a 'busy' battlefield, but probably the most important feature is the South Spur, running roughly across the middle of the field. This is the highest point and blocks line of sight, so the main bodies of both armies cannot see each other at the start. Note the single French foot regiment ( de Lisle )  on the South Spur, holding the road, and also the body of detached Imperial musketeers placed far forward to hold the woods at top right - they will be hoping their comrades make smart progress to support them.  The Imperial main body is in the foreground, with Mauer (Waller)'s infantry and guns in the centre, and Balvier (Balfour)'s cavalry divided between left and right wings - a unit of Dragoons on the right, who may be able to assist in the woodland.  The French main body is in the distance, with sub commander Le Quatre (Forth)'s wing of two cavalry regiments to the left ( he also commands the advanced infantry on the South Spur )  and the rest under Sautville (Hopton) to  the centre and right - on the end of the line an unit of Elite musketeers (with 'Assault Tactics' characteristic of firing salvee and then charging to contact)  prepares to clear the woodland.  Most regiments started in 'march column', though the Imperial guns were deployed for firing, to bombard de Lisle's regiment on the spur.  Bombardment forces the victim to take an 'Action Test' before ANY move, in effect making it possible for them to be 'pinned down' by the cannonade.  The Imperialists had a slightly larger force and were also a little closer to the highest ground, so perhaps had an advantage, but they would have to turf out  de Lisle's unit from a good defensive position, and the French had dashing 'Swedish' style cavalry,  which may be at an advantage against the more plodding 'Dutch' style Imperial horsemen. So, all to play for..

Turn 2: Imperial guns take aim

The rules assign various characteristics to each unit, such as quality (raw/trained/elite), proportion of musket to pike, cavalry drill type  and  unit size etc - instead of drawing up a roster sheet (which I find I never quite remember to keep an eye on), I  placed small paper labels with each unit giving that information. Admittedly a bit untidy, but useful  for a trial of unfamilar rules. I suspect simple markers could be used, and these could be minimised ( for example no need to mark the cavalry types, as all the Imperialists are 'Dutch style' and all the French are 'Swedish style' ). 

Turn 4: Imperial horse crests the hill

 

By Turn 4, the Imperialist cavalry had more or less reached the high ground of the South Spur . though some units on their left had lagged behind due to their sluggishness in changing from column to line before climing the hill - most moves more complicated than straight ahead require an 'Action Test' roll of one D6, and the dice were not with Balvier's units ( commanders can be used to give an extra attempt if close enough, but even Balvier's encouragement failed this time).   In the centre, the slower Imperial foot approached the hill, where de Lisle's regiment awaited.

 

Turn 5 and battle joined

 

Turn 5 saw battle really commence, as the opposing cavalry came to grips on both flanks. Given their different fighting  styles, the French attempted to charge while the Imperialists halted and levelled their pistols, trusting to their firepower and uphill advantage. Charging to contact requires an Action Test, and the left-hand French unit failed that test, while their comrades charged home, weathering the volley of pistol shot and contacting their opponents, but not being able to push them back. On the other flank things were more messy, with the leading French regiment charging uphill into contact, but their  second regiment being caught in the flank by Imperial Dragoons, who hastily fired from the saddle. Now these rules have no 'shooting' or 'melee' mechanisms - rather, when fired on or in contact with the enemy, units must take a Morale Test to see how they fare. That French cavalry unit, both under fire and threatened from the flank, rolled low and failed the test. As a 'Large' cavalry regiment they could stand three morale fails before breaking - so, two 'lives' left.  The Dragoons' intervention, plus the rather cramped space between wood and hill, made it difficult for the French cavalry to deploy for a full-blooded attack. In the centre, the Imperial foot closed on de Lisle's regiment on the hill, who gave the leading regiment a volley, which they shrugged off. Over in the wood, the Imperial musketeers had lined the edge of the trees to fire from cover - the French musketeers advanced and gave an opening salvo, but to no effect. 

Imperial Dragoons (upper right) cause chaos

 

Turn 6 brought first blood, rather unexpectedly. On the far left, the French cavalry unit which had failed to charge was in turn charged by the opposing Imperial regiment, clearly encouraged by the Frenchmen's hestitancy. The dice gods then intervened - if the modified roll of two D6 in a Morale Test is 3 or less, the unit is routed, and the hapless French regiment scored '2' and were duly routed. That left only one French cavalry unit against three Imperial on that flank, not good news. On the other flank also the French did poorly, with their unit which had charged up the hill into melee failing their Morale Test in melee and being forced to retreat, while their comrades failed Action Tests ( including  a 're-roll' by their commander ) and were unable to charge the Dragoons, and the regiment under fire failed yet another action test and could not even retreat out of the way! Thanks to those Dragoons and the  dice gods, confusion reigned in the French ranks.  In the centre,  Imperial foot succeeded in charging de Lisle's regiment - the Imperialists had more Pikes in their 'MX' ( Mixed) category regiments than the French 'MH' ( Musket Heavy ) foot, so they needed to get into contact, while the French would have preferred to stand off and trade musket  volleys.  De Lisle took a morale fail and fell back a little, while the leading Imperial unit passed their morale test, albeit requiring their Wing commander to attach himself and give a  re-roll after an initial fail. French infantry from the main body were advancing in support of their hard-pressed comrades, but were still some way back. In the woods, the French musketeers may have been 'elite' but they couldn't roll an Action Test success, and thus could not nerve themselves to charge into melee after giving their salvos.   

Turn 7 : Dragoons swept away by French charges

 

In Turn 7, the French left-wing cavalry pulled itself together, finally rolling good enough dice for a 'Swedish style'  charge  against the plucky  Imperial dragoons. The dragoons had little chance, caught by a solid wall of 'regular' cavalry ( with  the attackers' rear support giving a further bonus ) - with a 'minus 4' on 2D6, they rolled '5' and were instantly routed. The French tested to pursue, and couldn't restrain themselves, dashing forward past the end of the Imperial line, and were joined by their rear support unit too. That left two regiments of enemy  cavalry behind the Imperial flank. and caused some consternation. The French success was tempered somewhat by another of their  cavalry units on that flank failing to charge yet again, allowing their  Imperialist opponents to plod forward and ply them with pistol balls. On the other flank the sole remaining French cavalry held on grimly in melee, as did de Lisle's foot regiment, albeit taking casulaties, while further French foot came up in support and traded volleys with Imperial foot on the hill. Finally in the wood, their much-vaunted Elite musketeers still didn't fancy getting the lace on their tunics caught up in in the branches of the trees, and failed again to charge into contact! 

If the previous turn gave the French some cause for optimism, this was to be cruelly dashed on Turn 8. First over on the left, while Le Quatre's  cavalry unit hung on, de Lisle's foot failed a final Morale Test in melee and were routed. That meant that Le Quatre's wing  had lost two out of three units, and must undergo a 'Wing Morale' test - they passed, but would have to test again every turn, and failure would put the whole army at risk. Worse still was to come on the right, where a French cavalry unit under pistol fire from Imperial cavalry failed its Morale test - the French commander Sautville ( aka Hopton )  attached himself to them and re-rolled - only for the result to cause the rout of the cavalry regiment, and Sautville's own death in the rout! Disaster for the French, losing their army commander! 

The leaderless French tried to press on in Turn 9, despite Imperial pressure all along the line - Le Quatre's  sole remaining cavalry unit failed its morale test and was forced to retreat, and an infantry regiment in the centre,  another cavalry regiment and finally the musketeers attacking the wood  also failed tests under fire - for the musketeers, it was their last 'life', and they routed. On top of all that, what was left of Le Quatre's wing now failed its morale test and was routed, removing its remaining cavalry unit. That in turn triggered a morale test for the whole army - thankfully for them, the dice came up '6' and the army held on. Realistically their best option looked to be to begin to retire, and  with three 'Swedish' cavalry regiments still active on the left flank, there was at least a good chance of covering the retreat of infantry and guns. But even that turned out to be too optimisitic, as the dice gods intervened - two of the three cavalry regiments failed their Action Tests and refused to charge. Sometimes the dice reflect the mood of the army.. At this point, I ended the game - the French army was facing a morale test each succeeding turn, requiring 5 or 6 on 1D6 to stay in the game. With three cavalry and two infantry regiments left facing six cavalry and five infantry regiments, the situation looked pretty hopeless. 

How it ended - Turn 9

So, a second  attempt at Cheriton/Kirchendorf was no more successful for the French/Royalists than the first, and also chimed with the historical outcome.  And what about the Twilight of the Divine Right rules?  I had heard varying reviews, frankly - see Nundanket's and MS Foy's blogs. I have to say, I quite liked them - but with some reservations, and I think MS Foy's analysis in his blogpost linked above puts many of those reservations pretty well.   However on the whole I did like the idea of the  'combat mechanism', whereby  no-one rolls dice for melee or shooting effects, but any unit that is in combat has to take a Morale Test, be they under fire or in close combat. Given the short range of musketry and pistol fire at this period, it seems appropriate to minimise the difference between fring and melee - though there are still defined ranges for firing, hence units can move into musket range and just fire, whereas making physical contact means a melee ( hmm, does that actually undermine  the concept of  rolling-up fire and melee into 'combat'? Pauses to suck a thoughtful tooth.. ).   The 'Action Test' mechanism was interesting, again I liked the idea, as it introduced a fair amount of uncertainty into proceedings - a unit ordered to make an extra move, charge into contact,  or make any complicated manoeuvre ( even a wheel or about face ), might fail their Action Test and remain rooted to the spot, while presumably the officers and  NCOs berated their confused or cowardly charges. Wing and army commanders could  give a limited number of units an 'extra move' - in effect allowing Action Tests to be re-rolled - so failures could sometimes be recovered from. This gave quite a few occasions when things did not go to plan in the heat of battle, which was good from a 'friction' point of view. However, I think the likelyhood of a failed  Action Test seemed too high in some circumstances - a particular example being the French army's 'Swedish style' cavalry failing repeatedly to charge against their 'Dutch Style' opponents. This was because the 'Dutch style' ability to use Defensive Fire modified  the Action Test roll, such that the 'Swedish' horse needed a 4,5 or 6 on 1D6 to charge - a 50% chance of failing the test. Now ( unless I've read the rules wrongly)  I can't really see that Prince Rupert's ECW Royalist cavalry would fail to charge the  Parliamentarian plodders of 1642/43 up to 50% of the time, just becuase of the Roundheads' ability to let off a ragged volley of pistol fire... Admittedly the 'Dutch style' cavalry would suffer a negative modifier in their morale test if they were contacted by the 'Swedish' horse, but that didn't seem to compensate, somehow. Also, I should add that the dice were really not with the French in this game - a real 'anything that can go wrong, will go wrong' situation seemed to occur whenever I rolled dice for the French player!  Anyway, I think a 'house rule' tweak is in order, to allow  'Swedish style'  cavalry to ignore defensive fire when testing to charge.     

My comment regarding reading the rules correctly is also relevant, as I'm afraid I did find these rules rather hard to understand from simply reading them!  This is perhaps  partly due to that novel combat mechanism, but in general I just found that I wasn't easily picking up the 'flow' of the game from simply reading the rules ( whereas the In Deo Veritas rules for the same period were very good in this respect).  What did help quite a lot, luckily, was a series of YouTube videos made by the Twilight  author, whereby he plays out a whole game, with many different troop types, to show how the rules work. Watching those, suddenly the scales fell from my eyes regarding the flow of the game - but of course, when playing one's own game, it's not easy to fire up your computer and then sift through a series of videos every time something in the rulebook is hard to understand. If I persist with the rules, I will need to re-read and re-watch, I think, and take some notes.  Another point ( though no fault of the rules )  was that my small table meant I had to use quite a  small 'Base Width'  of just 40mm, which meant that a regiment of two bases covered  an area of  80mm by  20mm. In 15mm,  that gave me 8 figures for a regiment, in a single line, which didn't look much like a 'Pike block'  to me.  At the recommended 60mm Base Width, I might just have fitted 24 figures in two ranks,  which would be better - but  I wonder if  6mm figures might give a better 'period'  look to the units, which are after all supposed to represent up to 1000 men for an Infantry unit.  

Having played both In DeoVeritas and Twilight of the Divine Right,  which is my preferred set? Well... I'm not sure! Both had many strengths, and both had issues that made me pause. I need to think about this, quite hard - I do think that some of my  issues with both sets would probably be solved by some 'house rules' tweaks - for example by introducing some variation in cavalry types to In Deo Veritas, and by adding some more modifiers to the  'Action Test' rolls in Twilight.   I hope my battle reports have given an idea of how the rules played out, and may have piqued some readers' interest in one or both sets.  I had fun playing both games, of course!   Other rule sets are, of course, available - and I have managed to accumulate quite a few.. There may be further trial games in the near future, though I will have to use another scenario : I think  Cheriton/Kirchendorf has been done to death now! 

We are now in that 'time speeds up' period before Xmas, where one suddenly realises just how much gift-buying and food-shopping etc still needs to be done in the next week. So I can't promise another game will be played before the big day,  though I may be able to squeeze in one more post later this week ( 'twas the night before...').  Meanwhile, I hope you've been interested in my efforts with Twilight of the Divine Right   and enjoyed reading the battle report, as I enjoyed playing the game and writing the report.  I'll sign off here - keep safe and well, everyone.