Beneath the Lily Banners

 Pre-orders coming soon...

For Ireland and King James!

We are happy to announce the release of our latest book, For Ireland and King James!

From the back cover:

It is time to give the Irish army which fought against Willem van Oranje between 1689 and 1691, the attention it has long been denied. For nearly three years it campaigned without proper resources and funding. Its opponents were in the main, professionals from all over Europe. 

Against a backdrop of enormous political and social upheaval it continued to fight for King James II/VII whilst being constantly weakened by factionalism and cynical manipulation from Versailles.

This book is a guide to the infantry regiments which fought in the final campaign during the summer of 1691 culminating in the Battle of Aughrim and the second siege of Limerick. It provides invaluable insight into the provenance, officers and history of each formation. It is lavishly illustrated by Clarence Harrison and provides inspiration for wargamers to recreate the campaigns fought in Ireland on the tabletop.

Hardcover, 88 pages, 32 color plates and two maps.

League of Augsburg Shop (for most of the world)

Warfare Miniatures USA (for, well... the USA)

This was a huge project and we are proud of the results. You can grab a preview PDF here!

A YouTube Channel for the League of Augsburg!

Barry Hilton has started his long promised commitment to video content. He has made a short introductory video to Mad for War which I have uploaded to YouTube on a League of Augsburg channel. My hope is that both Barry and I will use this channel to support Donnybrook, Beneath the Lily Banners, Republic to Empire, Victory Without Quarter and Mad for War. 

We have a few instructional videos to upload over the next few days. These provide a walk through the core mechanics of the rules for Mad for War and a couple of short example games.

It would be great if you would subscribe to the channel and support our continuing crusade to bring 17th century gaming to the wider wargaming community. Thanks in advance!

The link is here. Click and have a look!

Mad for War Trailer

Learning all the way but was fun to do.

Donnybrook at Sea!

Avast! We are very excited to launch Donnybrook at Sea! 

Donnybrook at Sea has 58 pages packed with naval rules for Donnybrook, unit guides, ship type guides, a full example scenario and extensive period primers for exciting naval combat from 1640 to 1783 (and a bit farther in either direction... many of you use Donnybrook for periods beyond the ones it was designed for).

Donnybrook at Sea has an extensive ship type reference section

The supplement is available in pdf only for now. It is important you have Donnybrook to play with the naval rules because many of the core mechanisms are applied for figure activation and combat.

To help you choose your units there are pages of examples

We are offering Donnybrook at Sea for $13.25 and if you don't already have Donnybrook you can pick up both pdfs at a special price of $22.50.

There is an exciting and challenging scenario set in Brazil between two naval powerhouse nations

You can get it in the shops here:

Donnybrook at Sea (League of Augusburg Shop)

Donnybrook at Sea (Warfare Miniatures USA)

Donnybrook AND Donnybrook at Sea Bundle Deal (League of Augsburg Shop)

Donnybrook AND Donnybrook at Sea Bundle Deal (Warfare Miniatures USA)

Marlborough's Amphibious Operations

I'm happy to announce Barry Hilton and I have a new uniform guide available!

This one deals with the ambitious and extremely successful amphibious campaign undertaken by the Earl of Marlborough against Cork and Kinsale in the autumn of 1690. Involving thousands of troops fresh from England, sailors hauling guns across land, grenadier led assauts and desperate resistance from the garrisons, this is a detailed synthesis created by cross-referencing multiple sources and applying a knowledge of the troops involved and the campaign in general to produce a wargaming friendly guide to both armies.

It is by far our largest individual pdf with ten pages of full color plates (more than forty units) including details of the Jacobite garrisons of both towns.

It's available at the Warfare Miniatures USA store for instant download! Barry is planning on publishing several scenarios to accompany this release on the League of Augsburg blog! Stay tuned...

The Guns of August 2018, Sunday

Whew! Third game went totally different from the previous two. Though the Jacobites did manage to get all of their plunder across the ford (in eleven turns.. don't tell Dannie), they were slaughtered to a man save several units of horse who retreated in good order from the field.

Mike 'Fat Bastard' MacNeill captained the Williamite assault while the dynamic duo father-son team of Rob and Justin Buck tried to keep the Jacobites in line. None of these gentlemen had ever played BLB, but it half way through they mostly figuring out their own factors and more or less running the game themselves and reminding me of the rules..

This battle had several twists and turns, including the first squadron of Tyrconnel's Horse DEFECTING to the enemy, two-thirds of the remaining brigade riding away after an errant flare was launched to signal retreat, and the Danish Guard trading fire with the Irish Guard and Lord Grand Prior's at point blank range for several turns. Despite harrowing losses, the Danes refused to retreat and died to the last man after have inflicting grievous wounds on the Irish Guard.

This battle lacked the huge cavalry scrums featured in the earlier games, though there were still several well timed charges (and one not so well timed).

Again, I'll write up these games in a bit. It was a good weekend - the players were good sports all around, embracing both good and bad luck as it fell and seemed to enjoy the games. It was a lot of work, but I will definitely plan to host a game at the February show in Williamsburg next year and may have the opportunity to put on another game at the museum later this year as well.

More soon...

The Guns of August 2018, Saturday

Real quick as I am beat.. two great games Saturday..

Left to right, Dannie Fogleman, Joe Brecher, Richard Jaekel, and Dick Goettel.. ALL of the these guys played in one of Barry and my sessions of the Pennyburn at Historicon. Some of them came from quite a ways, just to play BLB. I was stressed because in my haste Saturday morning I left the house without my QRS... THREE of them brought their own copies (thanks, for that, guys).

What a cool venue. While it lacked a huge food court (lunch and dinner were available in the form of sandwiches from Chick fil'A), my table was in the Weapons Hall in the middle of the Virginia War Museum.

Dannie and Dick both wanted another game and we were joined in the afternoon by Rob Eubanks. We played the same scenario, but the veterans switched sides to have a different perspective on the game.

There were lots of nice comments from people, interest in the Warfare range, and I even managed to sell some books. The event also saw the blooding of Hilton's Regiment (seen below with the blue and white flags.. will get proper photos of them in coming weeks as well), painted for my collection by THE Barry Hilton.. more on how that went soon..

I'll have a full account of the battles, as well as action from Sunday and the full scenario in a few days.

Crossing the Shannon - July 15, 1690

In the period between the Battle of the Boyne (July 1st, 1690) and The Battle of Aughrim (July 12th, 1691) a variety of smaller engagements took place in central and the south west Ireland.

This scenario is a fictitious encounter placed against the backdrop of small raids, sieges and low level actions which characterized the year following the Battle of the Boyne. Scenario Background King William’s multinational army is now in the ascendant in Ireland and the Jacobite Army of King James is restricted to the western counties of the island. An advanced guard, five small brigades of the Williamite Army, has come across a small Jacobite force which is attempting to transport plundered light cannons and other baggage across the River Shannon at a narrow ford. A small force of enemy troops is occupying a farm immediately in front of the advancing Williamite column obviously to act as a rearguard. No other enemy troops are visible, but rumors of the vaunted Jacobite cavalry have greeted the advance at every village and there might still be infantry on this side of the Shannon as well...

This game is inspired by the scenario included in the first edition of Beneath the Lily Banners (published 2008) and will be my offering for the Guns of August. It's been modified to suit my collection and several details altered to take into account the likely participants would be new to the rules. I want to be able to fight the game to a conclusion in the time allotted so troops will start a little closer together to get the action underway. I also changed the crossing from a ferry to a ford because this terrain is the beginning of a new direction for my efforts going forward. I wanted a river that would be more flexible for other tables than the 12-18" wide span I would have wanted to make a model ferry seem necessary. I'll get around to building a wider river when I design my tables for the Boyne..

The Guns of August show is at the Virginia War Museum in Newport News, VA on August 24th-26th. I will be running two games on Saturday at 10am and 2pm and another game on Sunday at 10am. There is no pre-registration for the event, so if you'd like to play in one of the games, just come on by - the scenario can be played by two or up to seven, but I'll find a command for you if we end up with more.

I'll have a report on the show and hopefully AAR's next week...

Interview: The War of Three Kings

This interview was recorded right after 1672 game using Nick Eyre's wonderful collection at WI headquarters. The game featured a numerically inferior Dutch Army taking on the mighty French during the infamous Rampjaar (Disaster Year).

Dan Faulconbridge of WI allowed a dodgy character to ramble on about the rules, why we made certain decisions and future developments from Warfare, WordTwister, and Quindia Studios.

Video Tour of The War of Three Kings

Wargames Illustrated posted a video where they give you a good look inside the War of Three Kings and discuss a few of the mechanics...

The Walls of Limerick, Part II

A little bit of math, lots of carving, and possibly some harsh words later...

The initial step, and the most important to get right, was to layout the front wall. This is where most of the harsh words came in. All of the angles had to meet up with each other and line up with the edges of the boards.

The walls were detailed by carving scattered stones with a scalple and then going over all of the cuts with a ball point pen. The pen makes a nice bevel on the edges of the stones and ensures the detail won't be filled in by the layers of paint coming up. Cutting the stones in initially with a blade means you can use a piece of balsa wood to press some of the stones into the surface which adds a cool bit of detail with very little extra effort. I'm going to add a few stones cut from slivers of foam that will stand out from the wall as well, adding yet another layer.

The windows were pressed down in the same manner as I just described. When painted it will add to the illusion of depth.

Very pleased how well all of the parts actually fit together...

So here's where I am after the weekend. The angled wall with the walkway will be attached to one board and the citadel and it's adjoining wall be attached to the other. The central wall with the gate will remain loose so it can be replaced with a section of rubble. No, this wasn't deja vu - I explained this in the first post, but I thought it made more sense now that there are photos!

Next up are the details.. gates, doors, trapdoors, stairs... stay tuned!

Oh! And thanks to everyone who reached out to send me photos from Limerick - your contributions are much appreciated!

The Walls of Limerick, Part I

Every so often I get the urge to launch some sort of stupid large project. Ever since my partner's series on the Walls of Derry, I've wanted to do something similar. My trip to Derry last year reinforced the desire. Finally, I'm planning to run some games at a small local show if my schedule works out - The Guns of August in Newport News, Virginia. Rather than just set up something from my existing collection, I decided to build a new table and go all out.

Sorting through the mound of books I've collected on the campaign of Ireland, my first inclination was to do something around Derry again. However, then I stumbled on the first siege of Limerick. Gamers often ignore sieges thinking them to be dull., static affairs of battering walls with cannons, but both Derry and Limerick feature several small actions in the form of sallies that make perfect tabletop games.

On August 20, 1690, the besieging Williamite army launched an assault from their siege trenches to capture Yellow Fort, a small, open-backed redoubt outside St John's Gate. It took several attempts, but they were successful. The Jacobites responded in force with a sally by four battalions of foot and three squadrons of horse, countered in turn by more infantry and cavalry from the Williamites, including one of my favorite unit - the Danish Foot Guard.

To bridge the gap between the small forces involved in the initial assault and the battalions that later took the field, I've also decided to reduce the man to model ratio which will give me foot battalions of five to seven stands rather than the standard three. This will allow me to represent the detachments with a significant number of models rather than the 4-5 each would muster at the default scale.

I'll go into more detail about the scenario and forces involved in a later post, but for now I just want to introduce the project.

The walls of Limerick were between 25 and 30 feet high with a narrow walkway on the top. A ditch was excavated outside the stone wall and the spoil used to build a counterscarp, covered way, and glacis. The tiny section of wall I'm building is St John's Gate, seen above on the left end of Irish Town. The old citadel near St John's Gate was pulled down and replaced with a new bastion and an earthen demilune constructed outside. My first step for any project like this is sketches which I then take to the computer to make a scale diagram. This was extremely important for this project because there are very few right angles and it was going to be a pain to make sure everything lines up properly.

I spent a lot of time messing around with scales and angles to decide exactly how to lay this out. There were a few things to take into account...

1. I wanted to avoid a 'square' table. By this I mean 95% of games you usually see... side A is lined up on this table edge and Side B is on the other. The historical design actually helps this as the wall runs away from the gate at an angle. The battalions will actually end up facing down each other diagonally across the board.

2. I wanted the fortress to be permanently attached to the boards, but I wanted to keep things flexible so I can use these for other scenarios. What I decided was to use 2x2' boards. The bastion would be attached to one and the wall to the other, with the gate section remaining loose and 'bridging' the boards. This will allow me to replace that piece with a breach to play another style of game. Not sure if that makes sense, but it will be illustrated as the project progresses.

3. I wanted the counterscarp (and the siege trenches - more on that later) modeled as a permanent part of the boards, but decided to build the demiline as a separate model so I can use it as a redoubt in other games. The Yellow Fort will also be a separate model.

4. I wanted to be able to expand this in the future, possibly boards BEHIND the wall for urban based scenarios.

5. So, yeah - I'm building a new 4x8' table, the walls of Limerick, probably a few city buildings, siege trenches, and oh, and I need to paint around 120 infantry to bring my units up to strength at this scale... by the end of August.

Of course, no plan survives contact with the enemy and I'll get into the actual construction in the next post...

Wandering Around Ireland, Part VI

After deciding no one was going to attempt to follow in the steps of the Dutch Guard and cross the river, we climbed back up onto the road. Walking north we climbed a steep rise and then turned east to walk the area where the Williamite forces advanced. The area was enclosed in a cattle fence, though luckily there were no livestock present that day.

I thought this was a cool bit of detail below. Not that this crag was necessarily present in 1689, but it might have been. I just thought it looked like wargame terrain.

Something that doesn't come out in the photographs is the height of the slopes. Here we see a wee Hilton at the bottom of the hill down which the Williamite infantry would have marched on their way to the crossing. He's probably got a photo of a wee Harrison at the top of the hill..

The ridge north of the same position is possibly where some of the Williamite artillery was deployed.

A view east toward Grove Island. Yellow Island lies beyond, though I don't think it was visible in this photo. The islands were probably less heavily forested in 1690 - I believe the troops could see one another across the river. Contemporary drawings only show scattered trees, but you know how those artist types are...

There's a wee Talbot in the distance. This is one of the few photos I managed which shows how steep the slope leading down to the river is. Waaaay back in the distance you can see the support tower of a very modern bridge that spans the Boyne. That is just about where Drybridge is, the site of King William's less than graceful crossing. For those that don't know King William either climbed down from his horse after it got stuck half way across (or was thrown off depending on the account) and nearly drowned. A burly Enskillener carried/pulled the King across - far different than all of those heroic paintings of King Billy prancing across on a white steed...

Back on the southern side of the Boyne, this time facing west toward Grove Island... or maybe this was Yellow Island... hey, it's been a year. They were both there, I just don't remember which one this is.

Finally, this is aforementioned Drybridge, or thereabouts. We were in the shadow of that great beast of a new bridge. Again, I tried to get Barry and Bob to recreate this crossing, suggested that Bob would make a better Enskillener which put Barry the role of King... they just weren't going for it...

Up next is one of my favorite parts of the whole trip... the Hill of Donore.

The League of Augsburg Weekender

In a few short days, I will be boarding a plane bound for Scotland. I'm going in part to participate in a League of Augsburg weekender - a series of linked games that take place at a hotel over the course of several days (see one report here). This Spring's event features Donnybrook and Beneath the Lily Banners and continues a fictional campaign started last fall based around the premise that St Rhue was not slain at Aughrim and a Jacobite victory forced the Williamites from Ireland. In the Fall weekender, the games featured the Jacobite invasion of England and saw further victories, forcing William to return to Holland with his Dutch and Danes.

But apparently, that's not the end of it...

Williamite forces still hold central England and Northern Ireland. No one seems to know what's going on in Scotland. And what the devil is Kirke up to in Jamaica?

One of the aspects that made the weekend so much fun was that each player was supplied with a character for the event and a personalized briefing, including several personal goals that character might have. There was apparently much scheming and back stabbing that arose from this with no hand from the umpires. It was such a success that the players asked if they could continue the campaign at the next event...

Spring 2017.

To say I am excited about this would be an understatement. Besides the whole traveling to Scotland thing, I am traveling to Scotland FOR A WARGAME! Early on, Barry asked if I wanted to play or GM and after some consideration, I chose 'play'. When will I get the chance again to participate in a game of this size (we are expecting fifteen or sixteen players last I heard)? I'll help out with the rules and set up and the early games on Saturday are slated for Donnybrook so I'll definitely be running some of those too.

As a player, my character was revealed to be Piers Butler, Lord Galmoy (I painted him for Historicon last year). While I won't share my briefing, I will share part of something Barry Hilton posted on the LoA blog last year...

Piers Butler, Lord Galmoy, was a character who polarized opinion. He is vilified in Protestant histories of the conflict as a brutal, duplicitous and arrogant man will little time for the niceties of war.

He was feared and respected as a dashing if bloody cavalry commander and his regiment of Horse were hated by the enemy. In certain accounts aspects of his conduct have been highlighted including the hanging and beheading of prisoners after he went back on a prisoner exchange deal. How much myth and post war propaganda have been built around him is unclear. 

I won't be bringing any models (EDIT... I had just enough room to pack my Lord Galmoy mini so I WILL be taking mine) as I'm traveling light, but the one above is Barry's excellent and haughty version. I am well pleased with my character (I wish I could share my brief because it is priceless, but I don't want tip off the victims, err.. enemies - maybe in the post report of the weekender)... he's been promoted to Major General of Horse by King James for heroic service and controls all cavalry serving His Catholic Majesty in southern England! I am looking forward to leading some suicidal charges against the traitorous rebels.

Besides the games (wait, there's MORE?), we are planning a three day trip to Ireland to tour most of the important battlefields that form the center of my League of Augsburg gaming - Derry, Enniskillen, Athlone, Aughrim, the Boyne, and a few others. I've been to lots of battlefields as you can't cross the street in Virginia without tripping over a piece of ground that someone fought over, but getting the chance to stand on the bank of the Boyne should fuel my wargaming ambitions for the rest of the year!

There will also be the chance to meet a score of people I've only been able to interact with through blogs, forums, and Facebook. Speaking of the last, I don't use Facebook much (normally restricted to sharing posts by others and occasionally sharing photos of minis), but I'll be posting lots of stuff during the trip. You can follow me there, Clarence Harrison, and I may get time to do another blog post at some point.

Anyway, I'm off to pack and rehearse some inspirational speeches for the lads!

Republic to Empire

Just a quick note to announce that Republic to Empire is now available in PDF form. As with BLB you can order hi-res and lo-res versions. What you choose depends on your preferred method of viewing. The lo-res version is designed for fast viewing on tablets and laptops. While you CAN print this version, the resolution won't be great. The high-res version looks great on tablets and PC's, especially on HD monitors, but may be slow to load. The hi-res version is designed to allow you to print sections (or the whole book if you want, though with ink prices these days it would probably be cheaper to order a book)! You order your copy in the League of Augsburg shop today!

'The superb presentation and wonderful pictures might lead the casual observer to believe that Republic to Empire is the equivalent of a coffee table book – a visual spectacle to be admired. And so they should be but there is far more than that! The rules are very well researched, clearly explained and most importantly, eminently playable. They are admirably suited to big battles but also to smaller games. Barry has introduced mechanisms designed to reduce the all seeing and instantly reactive abilities of the wargamer while rewarding initiative and forward thinking. This development really does help reflect the realities of the tactical battlefield of the time. Suffice it to say that this is NOT just another set of Napoleonic rules – it represents a real step forward in reflecting Napoleonic warfare on the wargame table' - Charles S. Grant