Twilight of the Sun King
NEW (May 2024):
Twilight of the Sun King: Scenario Book 4: Gå På!
We stock the Twilight of the Sun King rules and scenario books published by the Pike and Shot Society.
Twilight of the Sun King: Scenario Book 4: Gå På!
We stock the Twilight of the Sun King rules and scenario books published by the Pike and Shot Society.
Twilight of the Sun King
The Twilight of Sun King rules is a set designed to fight large historical battles on a reasonable sized table and with a reasonable number of figures. 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 2,000 or more foot or 1000 or more mounted and so the units are often the equivalent to a 'brigade'. 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 120mm (6 inches) the standard measurement unit in the game will be 60mm. 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.
The rules cover warfare in Europe in the era 1680 to 1721 and include a scenario for the battle of Fraustadt (1706). The focus is on the War of the League of Augsburg, the War of the Spanish Succession, the Great Northern War and the Ottoman wars of this time.
In addition to the scenarios in the rules there are 4 scenario book with other scenarios, see below.
These rules and scenarios are published by the Pike and Shot Society.
You can purchase these rules via the catalogue page - Catalogue
Scenario Books
Louis XIV at War: Scenario Book 1
Louis XIV at war is the first scenario booklet for the Twilight of the Sun King rules. It contains 10 scenarios from the War of the Grand Alliance (1688-97) and the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14). It features the following scenarios.
War of the Grand Alliance (1688-97) Scenarios.
Fleurus, 1690
Boyne, 1690
Landen/Neerwinden, 1693
Marsaglia, 1693
War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14) Scenarios.
Luzzara, 1702
Speyerbach, 1703
Blenheim, 1704
Ramillies, 1706
Almansa, 1707
Almenar, 1710
Ottoman and Great Northern Wars: Scenario Book 2
The second scenario booklet featuring battles from the Great Northern War (1700-21) and the Ottoman wars of the period is also available. It features the following scenarios.
Ottoman Wars Scenarios.
Parkany, 1683
Pruth, 1711
Peterwardein, 1716
Great Northern War (1700-21) Scenarios.
Narva, 1700
Crossing the Duna/Riga, 1701
Kliszow, 1702
Holowczyn, 1708
Lesnaja, 1708
Gadebusch, 1712
Storkyro, 1714
- Louis XIV vs. The Grand Alliance: Scenario Book 3
The third scenario book features 15 battle scenarios from the War of the Grand Alliance (1688-97) and the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14).
In addition recommended optional and amended rules are included for pursuit, replacing commanders, using D6 and an alternative play sequence. Finally also includes are modified quick reference play sheets for the above changes and also one for this era only, i.e. without unit types not used in these wars.
This booklet features the following scenarios.
The War of the Grand Alliance (1688-97) scenarios.
Walcourt, 1689
Staffarda, 1690
Aughrim, 1691
Steenkirk, 1692
Ter River/Torroella, 1694
The War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14) scenarios
Chiari, 1701
Friedlingen, 1702
Hochstadt, 1703
The Schellenberg, 1704
Cassano, 1705
Turin, 1706
Oudenaarde, 1708
Malplaquet, 1709
Saragossa, 1710
Villaviciosa, 1710
Gå På!: Scenario Book 4
The fourth scenario book focuses on the Great Northern War (1700-1721). It features 15 scenarios, 9 scenarios on historical battles and a further 6 historically based 'What if' battles.
The 'What if' battles feature historical armies which actually campaigned against each other but this did not lead to a battle. The exception to this is the option to fight a battle featuring all the Great Commanders of this era but with the armies they commanded at the time, 1707.
This booklet features the following scenarios.
The Great Northern War (1700-21) scenarios.
Hummelshof, 1702
Jakobstadt, 1704
Gemauerthof, 1705
Kalisz, 1706
Malatize or Dobroe, 1708
Koniecpol, 1708
Poltava, 1709
Helsingborg, 1710
Palkane, 1713
'What if' Battle scenarios.
Holstein, 1700
Grodno, 1706
Clash of the Titans, 1707 (Intervention in the War of Spanish Succession)
Horki, 1708
Ingermanland, 1708
Scania, 1716
Full colour maps can be found here - Maps