Assemble your retinue and join the war camp!

Join us October 10-12 for some field operations in medieval military style. We will have two opposing mercenary companies camped in different areas, with a day full of skirmishes and scenarios to follow. Night raids, ransom & capture, open field battle, ambush & scouting scenarios, and more will be played out.

Fully unscripted and unscheduled. From the start of the event to the end, any engagement with the enemy is possible. 24 hours of engagement time. 

This is not a harnischfechten event, this is a combination of reenactment, bushcraft, milsim larp, and live action wargaming. Harnischfechten kits can work, but full harnesses are limited to one knight per team and all kits should be optimized for mobility and ease of wearing versus sheer protective value. 

We trek far out from any modern amenities and from any modern lighting or roads. Pack in what you can carry, and only carry what you need: bedroll, water bottle, weapons, and armor.

This is a closed event, subject to invite and approval, but anyone is welcome to apply. There will be a $40 fee per person to help cover costs. For those of you who don’t want to sleep rough and carry in your belongings, we will also have a base camp a little further from the action but closer to amenities.

Approximate schedule:

Friday, October 10th

• 5-6 pm arrival to site, set up base camp near trailhead

• 7 pm dinner at base camp, everyone eats and camps together, gets daily wages

Saturday, October 11th

• 7 am - Break camp and load carts, preparing for journey. Base camp can remain assembled.

• 8:30 am - Eat breakfast, get daily wages, then armoring up

• 10 am - Drilling, combat rules overview, final talks and explanations

• 11 am - Contract is read, company splits, big battle in base camp

• 11:30 am - Gold Lance gets mad, departs on trail

• 1 pm - Black Lance finishes armoring up, exercise begins. No time-outs or breaks for 24 hours.

Sunday, October 12th

• Get daily wage at breakfast

• 12 pm - Exercise ends, everyone gathers for lunch

• 2 pm - Breakdown camps and return to vehicles

• 3 pm - Depart site

  
  

Narrative

You are part of the Company of the Lynx Argent, a free company of condottieri which received a contract to keep the local roads safe from violent brigands and rogue mercenaries, enabling free trade in the region. Your company assembles and makes its camp on Friday night along the trailhead, preparing for its journey along the road. The next morning, your company breaks its camp, conducts drills and some mass melee training, when word of a rival contract reaches your company. This causes division in the ranks, and Sir Austin and Dame Caelyn, both the two leaders underneath Sir Eppler, split the company in half and, after a grand battle, each lance takes off into the woods from there, each establishing a separate camp and hoping for a better defensive position against their newly-turned enemies.

Your current client is a powerful local lord, Duke Federico de Sforzano, with whom you have done business in the past. He always pays well, and always has consistent work. It’s safe.

This border region is also contested by the Marchese de Firenze, and a letter reaches your party that the Marchese offers a condotte of a much higher price but for much more dangerous work: committing treason against your lord and securing the border region for him and his own interests.  

Your company has much internal debate over whether or not to switch contracts and betray your client, but the Marchese has offered a significantly higher payout to those who would defend his interests in the border, rather than de Sforzano’s. De Sforzano has had a longstanding relationship with your company, and there is never a shortage of work. 

Some of you feared that allying yourselves with the Marchese would give a lot of money all at once, but that work would dry up once word got around that your company was untrustworthy, and that even the Marchese would not have enough work for you in his continued employ.

Others felt that Sforzano had been underpaying your company for a while now, and that you should be taking the Marchese’s new price.

This caused a division in the company, which split into the Gold Company, which follows the condotte from the Duke de Sforzano, and the Black Company, which accepts the condotte from the Marchese de Firenze. The Black Company starts with more coins due to their more expensive condotte, but the Company starts with better equipment and some more heavily armed soldiers.

Once the divisions have set in, one company flees into the woods, hoping to fall back and establish a defensive position, and the other company follows them and sets up their own camp along the forest road, from which they can launch offensives from a more forward operating position than their base camp would allow.

Overall Objectives

• Capture the enemy banner and fly it over your camp (1 point)

• Secure enemy intelligence (1 point)

• Capture the enemy’s knight (1 point each time)

• Control the most money (1 point at the end of exercise)

• Win combat engagements (1 point each)

• Find cached loot (1 point)

Gold Company objective: Duke de Sforzano’s Condotte

• Convince opposing team members to defect, ultimately uniting the Lynx Argent under one banner. 

• Find undisputable proof of the Marchese’s treachery to return it to the Duke. 

Black Company objective: Marchese de Firenze’s Condotte

• Make it impossible for the Gold Company to assert control over the region. 

• Destabilize the region so that the Marchese can fully invade the territory under the guise of liberation and bringing peace. 

Equipment Requirements

Individual Gear

Please test your gear before the event, especially your sleep system and carrying systems. Sleep on your floor or in your backyard with your bedroll, fill up your pack with the stuff you plan to carry, armor up, and go for a walk around your neighborhood. The event will not really have much of a long distance hiking element to it, but you should be prepared to hike 1-2 miles carrying/wearing your kit. We will not have space to carry any personal gear in the carts. 

• Period clothing (hose, shoes, arming doublet or tunic)

• Extra warm layers (extra wool socks, a cloak, hood, or woolen cotte)

• Armor and equipment appropriate to their role in the lance, and optimized for soldiery (open helmets, torso protection, blunt steel polearm, blunt sword or dagger)

• Way to carry a sword or sidearm 

• Water costrel/period water container

• Martebo sack/basket pack/pack frame/blanket roll/other form of carrying system

• Bedroll (wool blanket/animal skins/canvas tick mattress)

• Belt pouch for personal effects

• Bowl & spoon (food plan will be optimized to not need any other dishes)

Team Gear

This stuff will ideally be stored and carried in handcarts and wheelbarrows, but depending on space some of it may have to be distributed across soldiers' packs.

• Toiletries kit (baby wipes, toilet paper, hand sanitizer, soap, small wooden bucket for washing or camp chores)

• First Aid Kit

• Small handheld radio (for emergency communication if cell service is low)

• Fire kit (flint & steel, lighter, tinder bundle, candle lantern, pillar candle, oil, rags & wire for torches)

• Tents enough for everyone (probably two or three small tents per team, this can be a basic tarp for a lean-to,  but it should fit in a cart and it’s poles should either be collapsible or improvised on-site)

• 2 handcarts/wagons/wheelbarrows (for the tents, food, and camp supplies, rather than personal gear)

• Food supplies (bread, dry goods, sausage, fruits, ideally optimizing the meal plans for one-pot meals which save on dishwashing)

• Cooking supplies (cauldron, ladle)

• Strongbox (with gold/silver/copper coinage, plus important papers)

• Water barrel (there will be several extra water caches around the site, but each team will have its own water supply)

What NOT to bring

• NO camp furniture, beds, tables, or chairs. Space in carts will be very limited, if some space is available it may be possible to bring a small amount of camp furniture but that should not be the expectation. 

• NO long tent poles that can’t be fit in the cart or easily carried

• NO fully enclosed heavy helmets

• NO ranged weapons 

• NO sharp swords or polearms

• NO synthetic swords or polearms

• NO modern backpacks

  
  

Equipment Loadouts

Our teams will be structured with 12 people each, so that there can be three individual 4-person lances per team, allowing us to divide up our fighting forces and focus on separate tasks.

Knight Banneret (1 per team)

• Military commander of the lance, wearing full armor and filling the chief place in the front lines.

• Fully armored except for one or two pieces (maybe ditch the legs, maybe ditch the arms, etc)

• Open faced helmet with partial neck protection (sallet & bevor/barbute/open faced bascinet & aventail)

• Pollaxe, sword, and dagger

• In command of the 1st lance: themselves, an esquire, a footman, and a handgonner

• Wages: 2s 6d per day

Knight Errant (1 per team)

• Identical in armament to the knight banneret, but not in charge of the entire retinue. 

• Fully armored except for one or two pieces (maybe ditch the legs, maybe ditch the arms, etc)

• Open faced helmet with partial neck protection (sallet & bevor/barbute/open faced bascinet & aventail)

• Pollaxe, sword, and dagger

• In command of the 2nd lance: themselves, an esquire, a footman, and a valet

• Wages: 2s per day

Quartermaster (1 per team)

• In charge of the administrative and intelligence functions of the lance, carries the lance banner and ledger, and has access to the strongbox.

• Open faced helmet (sallet/kettle hat/open faced bascinet)

• Half armor (cuirass & mail, greaves or pauldrons, gauntlets)

• Spear with banner, sword & dagger

• Commands the 3rd lance: themselves, two footmen, and a valet. 

• Wages: 1s 6d per day

Esquire (2 per team)

• Half-armored backup to the knight, but also able to lead their own lance.

• Open faced helmet (sallet/kettle helm/open faced bascinet)

• Half armor (cuirass & mail, greaves or pauldrons, gauntlets)

• Polearm, sword, and dagger

• Wages: 1s per day

Handgonner (1 per team)

• Lightly armored ranged unit suitable for a variety of scouting roles.

• Open faced helmet (sallet/kettle hat/open faced bascinet/cervelliere)

• Torso protection optional (mail or simple breastplate only)

• Leather gloves

• Handgonne, powder flask, match cord

• Arming sword and/or buckler

• Wages: 6d per day

Footman (4 per team)

• Lightly armored infantry spearmen suitable for a variety of roles.

• Open faced helmet (sallet/kettle hat/open faced bascinet/cervelliere)

• Torso protection optional (mail or simple breastplate only)

• Leather gloves

• Spear, sword, and dagger

• Wages: 4d per day 

Valet (2 per team)

• Pulls handcarts, helps squiring, and only joins combat if necessary. Unarmored except for helmet. Wears a shield with a guige strap just in case of combat. 

• Poor levy open faced helmet (sallet/cervelliere/rope helmet)

• No armor

• Shield, sword, & dagger

• Wages: 2d per day 

Combat

The minimum gear requirement for all participants will be an open-faced helmet and leather gloves. The majority of combatants are expected to wear an open-faced helmet of some variety, as fully enclosed helmets are wildly unsuitable for the type of terrain and environment we will be fighting in. As such, we will not be using Lynx Accords or HEMA-style fighting at all. All combat will be done European reenactment style, and all participants must be vetted and comfortable with no-gear sparring. 

• Do not strike or thrust towards the face

• Pull your shots in regards to both target areas and force level

• Don’t escalate the intensity level in order to win

• Contact is OK to the body and arms, but must simply “touch” rather than be delivered with any force

Try to win the bind or the position, giving up when your opponent has a clear opening, even if they haven’t taken advantage of it. “Take a hit” by simply falling down/acting it out, falling back, running away, surrendering, or giving ground, depending on your judgment & the severity of wounds inflicted. 

Nobody should “die” and nobody “respawns”. If you are “wounded”, ham it up and act it out, give it a few minutes or until you have a chance to take a breather—retreat the combat, drink water, sit down for 5 minutes, eat something, and come back to the fight when you are ready.

Prisoners can be taken and ransomed, which proves to be an exciting bit of emergent gameplay. Ransom can be done for coin, for food, for water, or for any other barter that is agreed upon.

All weapons will be blunt steel, without rubber tips. Swords and daggers should be worn in a scabbard or frog. No sharp weapons should be taken, except for camp tools like an axe, saw, and knife, but they should not be worn under any conditions and should be stored separately. 

Coin & Wages

Duke de Sforzano's Wages

• For a knight, 2s per diem

• For a quartermaster, 1s 6d per diem

• For an armed esquire, 1s per diem

• For a gonner, archer, or crossbowman, 6d per diem

• For any infantry or footmen, 4d per diem

• For all valets and servants, 2d per diem

Marchese de Firenze's Wages

• For a knight, 2s 6d sign on-bonus, and 2s per diem

• For a quartermaster, 2s sign-on bonus and 1s 6d per diem

• For armed esquires, 1s sign-on bonus and 1s per diem

• For crossbowmen, gonners, or archers, 6d sign on bonus and 6d per diem

• For footmen and infantry, 6d sign on bonus and 4d per diem

• For valets, 4d sign-on bonus and 2d per diem

Currency valuation is as follows: gold coins are shillings, silver coins are sixpence (half a shilling), and bronze coins are pennies. There are twelve pence in a shilling, and twenty shillings in a pound.

Each team will have a small strongbox, managed by the quartermaster, which contains their coin and documents (such as letters, contracts, maps, and a ledger). Each person is contracted to receive their wage once per day, not including any bonuses or shares of loot or ransom. Each person will start with an extra few coins as a sign-on bonus. 

The quartermaster or the knight may reward bonuses or extra wages for specific tasks, but everyone should be paid their wage once at the beginning of each day. 

There is no real use for money except as ransom/bartering tokens and as a scoring mechanism. When you get injured, your opponent can take your money or can try to ransom you back to your team if they want more money than you have on you. Ransom can also be bartered in the form of food, equipment, or anything else.