Twilight of the Soldier King Rules

Twilight of the Soldier Kings

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

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 🙂

Plastruct Plastic Adhesive

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

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

  1.  Standard infantry unit is a battalion of 200 men.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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

From Horse and Musket Gaming Blog

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.

Read the entire review here >>>


Enjoy this Gallery, click on any picture to enlarge it.

[ngg src=”galleries” ids=”11″ display=”basic_slideshow”](note – I earn a small commission if you use any Amazon link, thank you)

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