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!