Twilight of the Soldier Kings
New (August 2022):
Scenario Book 1 is now available as a PDF.
In addition the rules and some scenarios are now available in French as a PDF - PDF Rules & Scenarios
Scenario Book 1 is now available as a PDF.
In addition the rules and some scenarios are now available in French as a PDF - PDF Rules & Scenarios
Twilight of the Soldier Kings
The Twilight of the Soldier Kings rules is a set designed to fight large historical battles on a reasonable sized table and with a reasonable number of figures in the era of Fredereick the Great (1730 to 1770). The player is the army commander seeking to marshal the full forces that their historical counterpart had to achieve victory and not some colonel or brigadier controlling a few battalions or squadrons in the fight for some sector of a battlefield. The concentration is on the 'big picture' rather on relatively unimportant details. The rules reward historic tactics and practices while making typical 'gamer' tactics obsolete. So, players will want their forces to be in at least two lines with a reserve and not strung out in a line as is commonly done in other rules.
The system is intuitive and easy to pick up. The units are around 2,500 infantry, around 1,200 cavalry and 12 to 20 guns and so the units are often a brigade of around 4 infantry battalions or 8 to 12 cavalry squadrons. The scale is flexible with all distances, ranges, movements based on half of the frontage of the units you use. For example, if your units have a frontage of perhaps 100mm (4 inches) the standard measurement unit in the game will be 50mm (2 inches). There is no figure removal so you can base you units as you wish, with any number or size of figures on a base, etc. As long as the units are the same frontage it does not matter and indeed neither does it if the armies involved are based differently.
While any unit size can be used if the frontage of a unit is in the region of 120mm then most battles can be fought on a table 1.8m by 1.2m (6 feet by 4 feet) or similar. Most standard battles should be playable in a typical afternoon or evening playing session. It is possible to play 'Manoeuvre' battles in which the attacker has extra options to attack but will usually require a larger table. In a standard battle the armies are on table in their half of the table and generally facing up to each other. While in a manoeuvre battle the defending army is in active and placed in the centre of the table with a wide area empty of troops around them. The attacking army can then attempt to march around the defending army to attack from one or more different directions. Alternatively the attacking army can arrive on table in sections from all edges of the table in a converging attack. Of course these manoeuvres might not work or can be delayed or the inactive defenders can activate and react to the situation.
The rules include scenarios for the battles of Mollwitz (1741), Kolin (1757), Krefeld (1758) and a generic Manoeuvre battle based on the battles of Hochkirch and Zorndorf (both 1758).
In addition to the scenarios in the rules there is a scenario book with 12 other scenarios.
You can purchase these rules via the catalogue page - Catalogue
Le Crépuscule des Rois Soldats
Version française de la règle "Twilight of the Soldier Kings". Traduction : Philippe Evrard.
La dernière extension de la série de règles "Twilight" (Le crépuscule), comprenant les derniers errata officiels.
Cette règle couvre la période qui suit la mort du Roi Soleil, en se concentrant sur les batailles européennes entre 1730 et 1780, en particulier la guerre de Succession d'Autriche et la guerre de Sept ans. La règle comprend des scénarios pour les batailles de :
Mollwitz, 10 avril 1741
Kolin, 18 juin 1757
Krefeld, 23 juin 1758
Twilight of the Soldier Kings: Scenario Book 1
This is the first of the scenario books for the Twilight of the Soldier Kings rules. It contains scenarios for the following battles.
The War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748)
Chotusitz, 1742
Dettingen, 1743
Madonna dell'Olmo, 1744
Kesselsdorf, 1745
Lauffeld, 1747
The Seven Years War (1756-1763)
Rossbach, 1757
Leuthen, 1757
Zorndorf, 1758
Minden, 1759
Korbitz, 1759
Warburg, 1760
Torgau, 1760
Regimental Scale Supplement: (Version française disponible)
This is a supplement to the original Brigade level rules. These are supplementary and adaptions of the rules for using a 'regiment', usually about 2 battalions, as a game unit rather than around 4 battalions for a unit in the original rules. They give more detail to the game and allow smaller real battles to be fought than are possible with the orgiinal set.
The supplement includes the battle of Clostercamp, 1760 scenario in both Regimental and Brigade scale.
This is available in both English and French but only as a PDF. The original rules are required to use this supplement.
PDF Scenarios:
There is a growing selection of PDF only scenarios here - PDF's
PDF Scenarios Available (October 2023):
PDF Scenarios Available (October 2023):
Bassignana, 21st April 1745
Fontenoy, 11th May 1745 (Version française disponible)
Piacenza, 16th June, 1745
Rocoux, 11th October 1746
Lobositz, 1st October 1756
Reichenberg, 21st April 1757
Hastenbeck, 26th July 1757
Gross-Jagersdorf, 30th August 1757
Moys, 7th September 1757
Bergen, 13th April 1759
Kunersdorf, 12th August 1759
Strehla, 20th August 1760
Clostercamp, 15th October 1760 (Version française disponible): Only available as part of the Regimental Scale Supplement, see above. Brigade and Regimental Scale
Reichenbach, 16th August 1762