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| 1692 The fight has moved to England.. Ireland is almost all under Jacobite rule. |
Organizing our Battle for Britain 1692 weekender has taken more
creative effort than any of our other multiplayer events in the last decade. The main
reason being that I wanted to run a campaign style ramp up in the immediate few
weeks before the event. This meant creating orbats and a back story for the
fifteen commanders taking part.
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| The dark days of 1690 have given way to an opportunity to send the invaders home |
Compiling that number of commands and then imagining a
context for each and a narrative that was to some extent interwoven with those
of other players took time and paperwork but I feel the sense of anticipation
it generated in the players was worth it. They entered into the spirit with
creative writing, letters, dispatches, secret notes, plots, inducements and the
like flying about for about three weeks before we all got together.
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| Can I really regain the throne? |
My plan was to send three detailed dispatches to each player
all roughly a week apart and each representing a month’s time lapse with the
first being dated in mid-June and the last in mid-August. The result of this
was to provide each player with some familiarity with their force, an
appreciation of the challenges facing their cause and a connection to certain
units.
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| These men of Enniskillen think not and will fight to ensure the Protestant succession |
The actual event will see the players having known their
commands over several campaign months and suffering the triumphs and set backs
of recruiting, attrition, disease, sabotage, intrigue, training, small battles
and acts of God.
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| Who can be trusted? Kirke? Churchill? - the political landscape is confused |
I chose to have neither King directly involved in the
campaign. King James remained with his Court in Dublin whilst King William
shuttled between London and Holland trying to keep the Grand Alliance together
in the face of a war on two fronts.
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| The Boyne was a triumph but that was two years ago, now the rivers of Britain are the focus |
I allocated the commander roles based on personal
preference, the gamer’s personalities all of whom I know very well and making
an entertaining chemistry for the table top battles. We had a mixture of Scots,
English, Irish and Welsh players and that fitted very well with the need for an
‘All British lslands’ mix with some French, Dutch and Germans thrown in for
spice.
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| Choose your King! And Fight for Britain! |
In part two I'll explain a little more about the background prep.
