King of Buccaneers

So this was an epic undertaking. When Barry first unveiled the 4Play scenario pack concept, he invited me to join in. While I had a pile of ideas, I quickly realized I didn't have the models to present them in the manner I wished. We were eyeball deep in Mad for War at the time. As naval gaming had never been a passion of mine, I set out to read some books on the subject to see what all the fuss was about.

Being a proud gentleman of Virginia, I decided to focus on events on this side of the Pond. There were small actions all up and down the coast of colonies, but what drew more of my attention were exploits of the pirates, buccaneers, and privateers. Scattered all through the exploits of these sea dogs were small unit land actions that are perfect for Beneath the Lily Banners and Donnybrook! While they weren't painted, I had a pile of lead I'd amassed for pursuing our period into the Caribbean (after Barry's great game I'd attended in the Old Country).

The Battle of Panama featured an army of buccaneer infantry against a mixed force of Spanish uniformed troops, native auxiliaries, poor artillery (some sources say any guns were left to defend the city), two large units of cavalry (extremely rare in this theater), and herd of oxen! Any time I start a collection, I always look for these kinds of mixed forces so avoid the fatigue of painting six identical battalions. I felt like this would be an amazing looking force on the tabletop.

The King of Buccaneers 4Play PDF is 20 pages and includes two scenarios for Beneath the Lily Banners and one for Donnybrook.

The first game is a 4Play BLB assault on the breach of the San Lorenzo fort which guarded the mouth of the Chagres—the route Henry Morgan had chosen for his invasion of Panama. At the time, the fort was a crude affair of earthen walls between timber palisades. I didn't have anything like that in my collection either (sigh), so I set out to build  a custom 24x24 inch tile for the game.

The second game is a standard-sized Donnybrook game on a 48x48 inch table. The encounter is fictional ambush as only a token resistance was staged as the pirates hacked their way through the jungle. It represents the Spanish intent rather than actual defense. As with the previous game, I wanted an bit of terrain I didn't have and custom built the ruined chapel for the center of the table.

The final game is a 4Play X BLB battle, featuring eight units per side on a 48x48 inch table set to last eight turns. 

I had a blast playing all three of these games. I'm hoping to explore more scenarios for the Caribbean in the future, including adding more uniformed units (I cunningly chose to paint my Spanish militia in the uniform of the French de la Marine so with a flag swap I have the start of another army).

You can grab a copy of King of Buccaneers at the Warfare Miniature USA shop!

Hopefully I'll have some more scenarios to add the the collection this year.

Donnybrook Essentials

It's been ten years since Barry and I published Donnybrook, our skirmish rules for 1660-1760. The book has been sold out for a while. We intend to release a second edition with the detail and full color treatment for which we are known (no date... it's in the queue... lol), there's a project I've been wanting to do for a while.

My introduction to wargaming was with the black and white booklets, wrapped with cardstock covers and saddle stitched bindings of the 70s and 80s. I love the slick production and beautiful photographs found in modern publications, but I still drag out these old books from time to time—WRG's Wargames Rules 3000BC to 1485AD, De Bellis Antiquitatis, the original Dungeons & Dragons, and many offerings from Partizan Press (including David O'Brien's Skirmish Battles of the American War of Independence). 

The old school renaissance in gaming isn't new. There is something very charming about these old books and it's long been an ambition of mine to do something similar.

The day before Christmas, I sat down at my computer to try and get an idea of what an old school version of Donnybrook might look like. After laying out a few chapters, my OCD took over and I was hooked. Over the course of the next few weeks I spent many hours forcing the manuscript into the half-sized pages and madly scribbling new drawings (or reimagining old) with which to crown the tiny volume. Finally, I had a couple of copies produced by a local office supply store. 

 

I am extremely happy with the results. The book is 5.5"x11" and 36 pages, printed on 24lb matte paper (the shine in the photos above is just the desk lamps reflecting the ink) with a 110lb cardstock cover. It will include a full page, double-sided play sheet (folded neatly tucked inside). All of the rules needed for swashbuckling adventures can be found in Donnybrook Essentials.

So how is this different than Donnybrook?

First and foremost, there are rule updates—not a ton, but there are a few things over the years that haven't worked as intended or were just unclear. Troop ability types have been changed to match Beneath the Lily Banners, with Recruits becoming Raw and Elite, Veteran. If you already have a copy of Donnybrook, you don't NEED this book, but you may find it handier to use at the game table.

The largest change (and biggest omission) is the lack of faction lists. I've long intended to change how these were presented. They have always been meant as guidelines for new gamers, but were never meant to be set in stone. Barry and I break them on a regular basis to fit the stories we tell. Factions WILL return in the second edition, but didn't seem necessary for Donnybrook Essentials.

To ensure you still have plenty of variety when building your forces, Special Characters have been expanded. There are nine "generic" Characters you can choose to bolster your forces. While some of these Characters are more appropriate for certain armies, your narrative may justify their inclusion in your force. For example, the Master of Hounds may be a common component of a Highlander or Cultist force, but if your Army Captain's raison d'être is hunting, he may have a pack of wolfhounds in tow.

Donnybrook Essentials also features an Events section, optional rules, and a sample scenario (The Curious Case of Peter Pett, adapted from one of Barry's 4Play scenarios). It will still be a couple of weeks before this is available as we work through the logistics, but it will be offered in hard copy and PDF. If you buy the book, we will include the PDF free of charge.

Get your copy at Warfare Miniatures USA!

Captain Morgan

 Following on the heels of my last command vignette, I present Captain Henry Morgan!

Though Henry Morgan is often thought of as a pirate, he considered himself a patriot and privateer and always fought under the colors of England. His forays outside of letters of marque were often due to the glacial rate that news travelled at the time ("What do you mean we made peace with Spain?"). Despite being placed under arrest by the crown in 1672 (a move to appease Spain after the sack of Panama), he was granted a Knight Bachelor by King Charles II and appointed as deputy governor of Jamaica in 1674.

I love making these kinds of bases and it's a treat after painting so many rank and file. This group displays a minor conversion. The brilliant Wargames Foundry model of Henry Morgan was looking back over his shoulder in a "This way, dogs!" kinda pose. This is fine for single figures, but as the center piece of vignette it meant he would either be facing away from the front of the base or look more like he is encouraging a hasty retreat! I made quick work of this problem with a jeweler's saw - the only tricky part was preserving the goatee...

The stones on the base were actual slate chips (the kind they make for landscaping in lieu of mulch). I didn't want to remove Morgan from his integral base because I didn't want to try and drill pins into the slate, nor trust the dubious solidity of glue two tiny feet to the stone. I trimmed the round edges from the metal base and scored the sides with a Dremel to mimic the texture of the slate. It turns our the silly thing was almost completely covered by the basing material and I probably could have skipped this step entirely! 

This vignette represents nearly the last thing I needed to paint for the campaign. I have a few flags to make for the Spanish cavalry and a handful of characters to paint for the Donnybrook scenario that falls between the two BLB games, but I will soon be able to round up a few partners and throw some dice!

Look for the 4Play Invasion of Panama PDF this summer! 

The Natives are Restless

Forging on with Henry Morgan's invasion of Panama in 1671! One of the things that drew my attention to this theater was the variety of troops required. The Spanish forces are small and always supplemented with mulattos and native indians.

First up, I have several units of black militia. The training of these troops was suspect, at best. I've chosen to represent them in two ways. The first are (poorly) drilled troops equipped with firearms and led by European officers. This unit carries the flag of Varagua City, a town which sent troops to help defend Panama against Morgan's assault. These will count as All Musket in my games.

The second type of black militia are poorly armed with bows, spears, and other close combat weapons. I'm using the rules for Highlanders from The War of Three Kings to represent these.

Next up are the Central American natives (painted more like South American tribesmen, but they will work well enough for me), again treated as Highlanders.

Finally, a unit I don't specifically need for my current scenario, but they fit in with the rest. These are Ruga Ruga from the Wargames Foundry 19th century range, but I intend to field them as African pirates, escaped (or freed) slaves, or simply brigands. I was careful to avoid models with Remington rifles, cartridge belts, and the like. They will probably join Morgan's crew in the final attack.

I'm getting close to having everything I need. I still to paint a second unit of Central American natives, a handful officers (for the BLB scenarios) and characters (for Donnybrook).

Just in case I haven't mentioned this, I'm planning on publishing this project as a 4Play pack with three linked games so you can replay this short campaign! I don't have a time frame, but I'm hoping it will be available this summer...

More soon!

 

Buccaneers, Pirates, and Privateers

One of the things I knew I would need when I decided to jump into the Caribbean theater were pirates... lots and lots of pirates!

These models can be used as privateers and general ship crew for every nation in the West Indies throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. There will be a few anachronisms of dress across this broad range - tricorns in 1635 and ECW era trousers in 1750 - but the general appearance will serve, at least for me.

Right away, I knew I wanted to be able to use the collection for Donnybrook and Beneath the Lily Banners - The War of Three Kings and that meant finding a basing method that would work for either game. One option would be sabot bases, to group six singly mounted bases, but I've never likes the look of those. My foot dragoons for BLB have been simply left as skirmishers and I crowd them together to represent a standard formation.

In A Taste of Victory, Barry classifies ship crews as 'Tribal Infantry' and suggests using the rules for Highlanders from BLB:W3K to represent them. To me, that suggested not only different fighting abilities, but a different look on the table top.

I decided to go with a multiple basing system, inspired by Dalauppror years ago, that I've used for several other projects. This system combines the ease of movement and look of small vignettes with the flexibility of singly based models. They will also fit on my ships when it's time for Donnybrook at Sea! These bases can be clustered tightly together (they are spread out a bit for the photographs to try and show off the individual models) and only end up slightly wider than my regimental troops, which would not be unexpected for rabble!

I'll be adding more of these fellows in the future (I have at least another two units of 12 and there are characters on the way), but this is what I need for my current goal. These were fun to paint, but also took me longer than usual - the variety being both a blessing and a curse in these regards. With so many other models in the queue, I'm moving on to other things for the collection, but I'm really hoping to focus on this theater for some time.

I was torn on the basing for these... they will look a little strange on the deck of a ship. Mounting them on wooden planks would have required removing the integral base and they would have looked equally as strange on land.

We'll see how that goes... more soon!

Adventures in the Caribbean

Hi, folks! It's been a while since I've had time to blog, but I wanted to introduce my project for 2021...

From the collection of Mr. Hilton

When I travelled to Scotland for an LoA weekender a few years back, one of the games Barry was running was part of their ongoing Battle for Britain, set against a fictional, but possible series of events where the war between the kings continued beyond Aughrim. One of the theaters that opened up in this imagi-nation conflict was Jamaica. The eclectic collection of models and units gathered for this Caribbean campaign was amazing and the kind of forces that the wargamer and painter in me loves. It went onto my "to do" list, but other projects pushed it to back of the shelf and it faded to a dim memory.

Fast forward to 2020 and Donnybrook at Sea. This project sprouted from Mad for War, a book Barry and I were already working on. We compiled the supplement for Donnybrook in a matter of weeks not months, but somehow I wound up with half a dozen 28mm ship models. I started buying models to crew said ships, initially with an eye to fighting fictional battles as part of my 1690 Ireland project. 

I am complete novice to naval gaming and in order to get into the spirit while we were working on both projects, I began a spending spree on Amazon, buying both general and a few specific titles. I stumbled on the exploits of Henry Morgan and was struck by how well his battles would translate onto the table... ironically NOT involving all of these shiny new boats I was amassing.

Then A Taste of Victory (a book I had nothing to do with) landed at my door. Tucked away among the other scenarios was Sugar War!, set in Martinique and using some of the same units that had appeared in the Jamaica games. I'd already been thinking about the sorts of units I would need for Morgan's campaigns and this was the clincher. 

I'll be collecting and painting forces to represent most of the different factions that fought for control of the West Indies in the last half of the 17th century. One of the great things about this collection is that many of the units are universal. Sailors and buccaneers of the region look pretty much the same, regardless of nation. Locally raised militia are similar. Uniformed units were usually poorly supplied and ragged. Using Sugar War! and the other inspiration mentioned above, I've laid out a cunning plan to get the most out of this collection and be able to fight battles across the entire theater.

I'll be building units for Beneath the Lily Banners (with companies as the standard unit rather than battalions) and Donnybrook. The variable basing seen on these units will work equally well for both as tribal or irregular forces, while close order troops will be on my usual BLB bases, like this militia company (which could be used for ANY nation and incidentally is painted as a French de la Marine company).

Command models will be based individually or on half hexes to give me the maximum flexibility in organizing units. So far, I've been using models from Wargames Foundry and the Northstar 1672 range, but I have a lot of Warfare Miniatures in the pile for regulars as well.

There are also terrain projects and 4Play Scenarios! I'll share more as the project continues and I'm hoping to make this my central focus for 2021.

Cheers!

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...

Hmmm? Oh.. yes, I'm still here..

It has been a very long time since I've posted. In fact I haven't really painted anything since.. err.. last November! I don't ever remember sitting out of the hobby for that long. There have been other things going on in my life and it seems like when I've had free time, the painting desk just wasn't calling to me.

I've been working on artwork for Talon & Claw, the Great Northern War supplement for The War of Three Kings and the book is almost ready to send to the printer. There is something about this stage of a project that seems to linger and it always takes longer to wade through the final edits, but the end is definitely in sight!

I'm ready to turn my full attention to Donnybrook Dark, a kind of Gothic horror setting for our popular skirmish rules...

The Mourne Vale lies between the kingdoms of Scandavia and Rusland. This fell region is a land of brooding forests, lonely hills, and haunted ruins, but amid it's desolation lies treasures of a forgotten empire. 

The king of Scandavia is wedded to a Fey Queen (some claim ensorceled). The men of Scandavia do not practice magic, but have an alliance with the folk of the Queen and may call on creatures of the forest and darker places when called to war. 

The shadowed realm of Rusland is ruled by a dread necromancer. Warlocks and sorcerers march in the armies along side mortal soldiers and they may call on dark powers, marshaling spirits, undead, and other wicked creatures to their banners.

Getting into the spirit, I was moved to actually take a brush to something - a dryad, one of the handmaidens of the Fey Queen. This model is from Reaper Miniatures.

These Fey folk are tree spirits who guard the dark forests of Scandavia, but may sometimes accompany mortal expeditions into the Mourne Vale, often with agendas known only to the Fey Queen. Dryads come in many forms, but the most common often appear as nymphs.

Dryad (d8)

Charm: A dryad may attempt to charm a target within 6 inches. Both roll an Ability Die. If the dryad's score is higher, the target acts under control of the dryad for the rest of the game. If the score is a tie, the dryad controls the target for one turn. If the victim's score is higher, that model is immune to the dryad's charms for the rest of the game. A dryad may only control one victim at a time.

Tree-Stride: A dryad that starts it's turn within 3 inches of a tree or wood may move to within 3 inches of any other tree within line of sight instead of making a normal move.

Fey Blade: A dryad may manifest an enchanted blade which is an anathema to the unquiet spirits of Rusland, allowing them to sever the tenuous energy that binds the undead to this plane. These may be actual swords or knives or may take the form of hooked claws as the dryad prefers. They are as deadly as normal blades would be against mortal foes as well.

Options: Lesser dryads or wood sprites (d6) lack the Fey Blade ability but are often encountered in small groups. The dreaded treekin (d10) replace the Charm ability with Terror which causes all mortal enemies within 12 inches and line of sight to test morale.

Or something like that. I'm still writing and I'm not sure these are the final rules for this creature.

I have some good ole fashion cuirassiers on the table next, also for Donnybrook. I'm hoping to be a little more prolific with my painting so hopefully my next post won't be as long in coming...