War Camp 2025 Postmortem

War Camp 2025 was a grand success. We had twenty people in two lances positioned in the wilderness undergoing this high-intensity exercise, as well as a functioning base camp for extra logistic support.

I was the quartermaster for Gold Lance, and I am very proud of our team for maintaining its composure, coordination, and being so well-disciplined amidst a quite intimidating force. Kudos to our troops: our Knight Caelyn, our quartermaster Ryan, our man-at-arms Lonnie, our esquires Charles and Richard, Cade our handgonner, our spearmen Mike and Glenn, and our tireless valets James and Masashi.

This year, we established a solid Base Camp, which offered logistics, support, and easy access for late arrivals, as well as somewhere to rest or recover in the event of an injury or exhaustion. Pardon the chain link and some modernities here, but we had a fully enclosed fence around the encampment with two large gates. We were even able to drill camp defense scenarios within the confines of the fort.

Friday night the whole company camped together at base camp, and in the morning we struck our camp, loaded our carts, and mustered for troop inspections and unit drilling. After our company was all assembled, a disagreement over contract specifics quickly turned into an all-out brawl after Black Lance attempted to seize control of the mission. Our brave Gold Lance troops fought them back and they routed into the woods, only now they blocked the road which our client entrusted us with keeping safe.

So off into the wilderness we went, in search of the traitors.

Our march was arduous. The Black Lance had a one-hour headstart on us, so we were forced to be wary of ambush behind every tree. Our handcart had to constantly stop and negotiate the difficult terrain, and the wheels were not affixed very securely to the axle at all. Caelyn sent Lonnie, Charles, and I to sweep the woods on either side and forward of the wagon train, and we did not see any enemy so we hastened to find a campsite.

Once we had found a good campsite, I explored further down a slope and then could spy Black Lance through the trees, or their tent at least, so we moved a little further away so as to not be next-door neighbors. We should have probably attacked them then, but our wagon train was weary and we needed to find a spot and drop our packs, quickly. We pressed forward, but eventually found a decent spot just a bit further away.

We began setting up our camp, and we did it as quietly as we could. We stationed two men to patrol the woods around our campsite, and we sent another three to scout and watch the enemy camp, in order to alert us of their movement. The rest of us went to pitching tents. We were lucky to have gotten the main tent up, because our scouts came running through the trees to tell us that the enemy was on the move.

Within moments, gunfire erupted as Cade fired off a signal, and hot on his tails were three of the enemy. We immediately met them on the road and fended them off, when we saw our flank begin to fall apart as another group had burst through the trees and had immediately taken Caelyn captive. We were forced to stand down, and we watched nine men haul off our knight. We were all in low spirits, so I met with the men and we took out some money and apple cider for her ransom. We went to their camp, paid her ransom, and negotiated a truce for an hour and a half.

We were all in a pretty dismal state, so both sides welcomed the truce to give us a chance to set up our camps and hydrate a little. Once the truce was over, our camp was approached by a group of unarmored men from their team, harassing us from the woods and throwing sticks before darting back to their camp. We figured that was enough, and it was time to take the fight to them.

We assembled two forces. One force would have 7 people and would harass and bother the other camp, but not advancing until the second force of 3 people made it successfully behind their defenses. Our flanking lance moved first, because they were forced to take the long way around, and the rest of us marched on the camp.

As we came upon their camp, and our gonner fired off some warning shots, we came to terms with how defensible their position really was. Their camp was positioned securely on the other side of a dry creek bed, making it an excellent defensive position like a moat. Large rocks threatened sprained ankles to anyone crossing under threat, and we tried for a long time to draw them out. None of their team took the bait, and nobody from our team made it across the creek bed. Eventually, we had lost enough of our men fruitlessly that we were ordered to fall back. As we retreated, our flanking lance arrived into position and were dealing blows to the enemy. Some of us who routed gained courage, and joined in helping our fellows achieve what they could. After re-assaulting their camp from the other direction, we made off with one prisoner before retreating.

When we got back to our camp, we paid off the prisoner with enough coin that he ended up betraying his team and bringing us their banner. We were surprised that worked, but coin is certainly motive enough for treachery. Then as his loyalty was found suspect, the rest of his team invaded our camp in retaliation. This was when the tide was turned, as we fended off their assault, taking some of their men prisoner but handing over the spy, who was then court martialed by a trial by combat in the witness of the Company Captain.

Our condotte instructed us to lead the villagers, who were staying in base camp, all the way to our camp in safety. Truth be told, when it came time for us to escort the commoners to safety, the Black Lance had just about had it and was too exhausted to make any aggression towards the poor villagers, who likely had nothing of importance anyway, they must have figured.

Once the villagers had came and went, we prepared for the night. The Black Lance had negotiated a truce until nightfall, and so we obliged and used that time to prepare our supper and repose. A lot of us had pushed ourselves very hard, and we had one casualty to exhaustion and dehydration, who went back to the base camp to recuperate.

Once darkness had struck, we set our watch order. Charles took the first watch, and every few minutes the entire camp erupted in panic at some imagined noise or the illusion of a figure in the dark of the woods. We put out all our fires and candlelight, and we finally turned the tide with a solid job of night watch from Charles, repelling an attack in the pitch blackness of night, taking some prisoners of the raiding party and following up with a successful counterattack on their camp during the night. Lonnie single-handedly snuck into their captain’s tent while he slept, while everyone else surrounded their unguarded camp and awoke them with the crack of black powder as we covered our withdraw.

In the morning, we geared up for another assault on their camp, launching a flanking party while of us took the long route to their camp, but that mostly ended in a stalemate and we were forced to withdraw. We did learn that they meant to attack the base camp, so we returned to camp to gear up for the final battle.

Unfortunately, they were ahead of us on the trail, and nobody wanted to engage the other on such narrow terrain. So we followed behind at a distance but we knew we had to warn base camp. Cade and I took to running off trail, parallel in hopes of outpacing them and sending warning ahead of us. Once we had outpaced them a considerable distance, Cade continued to base camp to muster the camp’s defense. Fearing that our two main groups had engaged, I sprinted back through underbrush to rendezvous with the rest of Gold Lance. We continued following behind Black Lance for fear of engagement on the terrain, but as they made it to camp we saw the base camp levied for defense of their gate. Black Lance attacked us first, but base camp’s forces sallied out to attack the rear of their line. Fully surrounded, Black Lance finally surrendered.

This is quickly becoming my favorite event that we do, and a huge thanks to everyone on both teams that helped make it happen. We will continue this event next year, refining and expanding upon elements of the war game to help it run more smoothly in the future. We pushed everyone hard, some people tapped out or turned in early, some pushed themselves in ways they didn’t see possible. Good on everyone for knowing their limits and prioritizing safety, but I hope everyone had a blast, and we are looking forward to seeing all the more photos and perspectives that come