"Rules for the Thirty Years' War?" Topic

I'm considering a number of rulesets for medium-large actions of the Thirty Years' War: Baroque, De Bellis Renationis, Field of Glory: Renaissance, Liber Militum: Tercios, Repent or Die, Tilly's Very Bad Day, Twilight of Divine Right, and The Warre Game 1632. If there any rulesets I've left out, please add them.

I'm primarily interested in the Thirty Years' War, but if it can also cover other conflicts from the pike and shot such as the English Civil War, that would be even better.

Most of those would cover both 30YW and the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (of which the three English Civil Wars were a part) well. Although I don't know Warre Game or Tilly's at all.

Warlord's Pike and Shotte would be seamless, For King and Parliament has a 30YW variant in the offing I believe.

Of those that I know well Tercios, Baroque and Twilight are all good games and will do the job admirably.

I'm still seeking one that makes me happy for the era. Use to play Gush but those rules are too slow for modern taste and time. Then I reconfigured all my troops for FoG as that was the fave at my FLGS. The store is closed and I have found nothing that suits. Just an old curmudgeon I guess. It is too bad as these two periods are among my favorite and I have * separate 15mm and three 28mm armies for them!

I have used Tilly and Dutchman, Spaniard, Switzer, Swede (there is a supplement for Eastern but none for ECW). Dutchmen uses a 1 – 50 scale and 1" = 40 years for 15mm – link

I have wanted to try Twilight

Personally I enjoy and find easy to teach an old set Cavaliers and Roundheads and then adapting a bit for 15mm and for TYW (detailed review here link

A good listing of rules on this blog link

One other rules review – this one for In Deo Veritas

link

Problem with Cavaliers and Roundheads is that they are long out of print, secondhand copies usually sell for silly sums of money. Unless someone has found a pdf (legally of course)…

Field of Glory: Renaissance is also out of print (not sure if Partizan has plans for a reprint at some point), and Liber Militum: Tercios is a bit difficult to find.

I've heard the Twilight rules are often difficult to understand; it appears they require some "prior knowledge" before one can grasp the concepts.

The Twilight rules sometimes cause some players a few problems because they are quite a different concept to many rules. There is no combat instead units in dangerous situations, including combat, take modified morale tests. Also they are aimed at fighting large battles using full historical battles & so can be different to other rules aiming at smaller minor actions.

There is currently the Twilight of Divine Right rules and an Eastern supplement covering the Poles, Ottomans, etc, covering this era. In addition there are 2 Thirty Years War scenario books, an ECW scenario book and 3 scenario books for 'Eastern' battles are available – a post Thirty Years War 'Western' battles book will be available soon.

These are available direct from the society at link or at other retailers.

Through the Square Window

Dave, is there a link for that?

I've heard the Twilight rules are often difficult to understand; it appears they require some "prior knowledge" before one can grasp the concepts.

I hadn't noticed them being much more difficult to understand than other rules. There is the odd thing – mainly IMHO down to having lots of variation in unit types – but they aren't conceptually particularly hard. In any case, the author is really helpful and will sort out a clarification (if necessary) really quickly.

I played with Shagnasty's group with Gush; when I moved back to Dallas my group here played WRG Rennaissance which had lists to use designing your army.

A Renaissance variant for ADLG is currently under development and looks promising for this period. You can find the current version and army lists at link

Chris

We use Baroque – but I am seriously considering GaPa with the 30YW Supplement.

Don't forget Renatio et Gloriam. It's a great set!

Didn't know about the ADLG variant. Any projected release dates?

Also suggesting Through the Square Window (from Caliver in the UK or On Military Matters in the US). By Gordon Crawford & the Tradeston Wargames Group in Glasgow. Just bought a copy & liked it enough to rebase my 6 mm armies. Seems simple enough, covers all the bases & the author is around to answer any questions.