Well I am quite smitten by the Twilight of the Soldier Kings rules (TWIGLET) written by Nicolas Dorrell. I have tried them out with my 40mm SYW armies last summer and liked them quite a lot. Recently I got sick of how my 28mm AWI armies were based and un-based them all. I had been using them based in the 3-2-1 system for Rebels and Patriots, which I used for my own Light Bobs games. BTW scroll down to see my Gallery of AWI troops in the Battle of Camden.
3-2-1 Basing for Light Bobs in 28mm
Most of my figures are plastics from Perry miniatures, I up and sold off most of my metals as I debased the figures. I find the Perry’s to be very nice and they go together really easy. They also fit in nicely with their metal lines for those other minis you need.
Here is a tip: use Plastruct to put them together. The parts melt together almost instantly. Also this only works on plastics, it will literally run off any other material including your fingers 🙂
Plastrut Plastic Weld
Most of my units were 6 or 12 figures so as I rebased them I put 4 figures on a 40mm x 40mm stand. In most cases three such stands made up a unit, usually a regiment in this period (in reality a weak battalion). For Militia units I used 6 figures on a 40mm x 60mm stand with two such stands making up a unit. Artillery was a few gunners and a gun on a 40mm x 60mm stand and mounted troops were 3 figures on a 60mm x 60mm stand again with two stands making up a regiment.
In all of the above regiments their frontage when deployed in line is 120mm which is equal to two base widths (BW) in these rules. Note the hexes are only used to show terrain boundaries in this game.
AWI basing for TWIGLET
I have made some minor changes to TWIGLET as it is written at grand scale. For example the standard infantry unit is a brigade of 2500 men on two stands. Here are my changes which you will need the rules to make much sense out of. See here
Standard infantry unit is a battalion of 200 men.
I predetermined some unit morale grades but left the majority to be determined per the rules. All Regulars used the “C” row while Militia used the “E” row.
As for Fire Power it was decided that all American Regulars always had the higher level while Militia of both sides always had the lower.
Artillery in all but one case were 2 gun batteries. These were labeled small batteries. The Americans had one 4 gun battery which was considered average size.
Here is another review of his rules I liked.
Superfast Mollwitz – Twilight of the Soldier Kings
At under an hour, this was probably the fastest ever game I’ve played, apart from initial games of WRG with 2 or 3 units aside. Old School Tony contacted me the other day about his acquisition of Hallmark War of the League of Augsburg figures* and the Twilight of the Sun King rules by Nicholas Dorrell. OST was enthusiastic about the rules and used the phrase “less is more”, so I thought they must be worth a look. He sent links to Mr Dorrell’s YouTube account where he explains the principles of the rules and runs through some sample games.
* They look nice little figures (15mm).
As well as the Twilight of the Sun King rules, the author has also developed variants for the earlier 17th century (Twilight of the Divine Right) and for the mid-18th century (Twilight of the Soldier Kings). Mr Dorrell takes you through a turn by turn sample game of the Soldier King rules – the battle of Strehla, 1760. The videos are so helpful, and the rules seemingly so simple, you almost don’t need to buy the rules.
Being a blog on wargaming in general by Chris Parker
Video Zoom Game Report and D-Day to Berlin Scenario Release
On May 21, 22 and 23, 2021 my game club MHWA (the Maine Historical Wargamers Association) held their second Virtual Huzzah game convention. This convention in the past has been held every spring about this time at the Double Tree Hotel in Portland Maine. With Covid-19 however this years was again canceled.
Fingers crossed the club has decided to extend next years convention to four days. Yowza that is going to be fun.
Now as a newbie to Zoom and online gaming I was quite nervous and uneducated. This may seem a little bit strange considering I am a PC tech and fix computers and even build websites. I ignored the first virtual event, just shrugging it off as a novelty. Well when this called “Hold the Line” one came around I jumped in with all four limbs. I created a Zoom account and played a few games with my friends that they hosted, well I was hooked.
Image Clarity Is Poor
One thing that bothered me though was the clarity of the video images I was watching. I guess a lot of people use the camera built into their laptops. I wasn’t happy with those so I started researching webcams and wound up buying a pair of Razer Kiyp Webcams. I will present a separate Blog post next week with my findings.
Razer Kiyp Webcam
So I stepped up and committed to run three events. Two were 15mm WWII using my new rules D-Day to Berlin. Those events were both the same game. Breakthrough to Bastogne. The cool thing was the first game ended at the night time turn of day one. The second game I ran had the game pickup in the morning and play game two. Great games with six players each. Russ Lockwood has done a very in depth review of DDtB as he played. I will post that soon as well.
I also ran a 40mm American Revolution Game of the battle of Guilford Courthouse. I mostly use miniatures from Old Glory and Sash and Saber. Great figures at an affordable price AND made in America 🙂 If you deal with them please tell them Chris Parker sent you, Russ has been helping me with my “Helen of Toy project”.
For the rules I aptly used the game of the same name as the convention, “Hold The Line”. This was a hexed board game but I had a cloth with 5″ hexes. This was left over from my Memoir 44 days.
While we played the game I taped it. I have now uploaded it onto YouTube. I must warn you the video is about 90 minutes long. I find it fascinating to watch. We had 5 players and i ran one camera on each side. I doubt if many will watch it I will present the link here.
Without cheating anybody that emails me back the last unit to be destroyed in the game will get a free digital copy of my original Medieval Wargame Rules Knighthood.
You can reply to ddtb@chrisparkergames.com
Let me wrap this up by saying that I liked this Zoom virtual gaming so much that this weekend my Brother Dave who lives in Florida and my good friend Mark who lives in Manchester NH are going to play a game of American Revolution using my Light Bobs rules. I am thinking I will play out one of the two flank attacks at Guilford Courthouse. I will be sure to record it in full and post it along with a Blog update.
Image Credit Below
By User:Richard Harvey – self, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1164510
Sixth Panzer Armee – D-Day to Berlin Scenario released
I have released my first scenario for D-Day to Berlin. The scenario is titled “Six Panzer Armee” and it covers the northern attack of the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge.
What I found fascinating about this part of the Battle of the Bulge was the majority of the armored Divisions were in this Army Group, yet none of them took part in the first day assault. The majority of the troops will hastily raised Volksgrenadiers. Furthermore the Germans mustered together 50 Stuka dive bombers. Wow.
The opening day saw 2 Allied Divisions face off against 5 German Divisions. An amazing fight. I based my idea from a game by Victory Point Games called “Paul Koenigs: 6th Panzer Army”. I chose to use the German spelling of the army which was the Sixth Panzer Armee.
Well in closing I hope you all found some interesting bits in this Blog post. Though I am promoting my rules I also try to provide you some useful information and a little humor.
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Hey Friends
I have had an urge to paint up a diorama of the Helen of Toy, American Revolution set. I am thinking 25/28mm scale but for the life of me, I cannot seem to find any kneeling, firing, regulars. Does anybody have any suggestions?
Thanks
Chris
First off a hearty thank you to Russ from Old Glory 25’s for just up and sending me all the miniatures I needed as well as a single cannon and mounted officer. This was such an amazing gesture.
I have a lot of his figures in my collections and now I have more. Thank you Old Glory 🙂
Old Glory 25’s
Well I have the “Mericans” all based and primed white. I started block painting them in batches. i am using some new brushes I get from Amazon and of Liquitex Flow Aid. I have painted maybe three hours and got the primary colors blocked in.
Now to let them dry overnight.
More Soon
Chris
FOLLOW UP TWO
OK the “Merricans” are nearly done. I am attaching a picture of them below.
I am starting to think about the British side. As I think I have written they all are wearing a brass miter style hat. Old Glory sent me enough hat men to do them but at the moment I think that is cheating. Hmm, I ordered up a 1:72 set of plastic figures from HAT. They arrived but are just to small.
The pondering continues.
Chris
By the way please have a look at my AWI skirmish rules “Light Bobs” here >>>.
