Feldlager Brandenburg
Feldlager Brandenburg
A three-day, 15th-Century Live-Action Wargame at the Bergruine Brandenburg in Lauchröden, Germany
15-17 September 2023
Registration is Open
Registration is Open
Invited or want to be invited? Register now and we’ll get back to you with confirmation or questions.
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Generous Nobles and Valiant Gentles,
We are chasing a dream of ours that we hope to share with you. The Feldlager Lauchröden has always been an experiential event—a chance for us to briefly taste military life of the Middle Ages. This year, the year of our lord MMXXIII, our aim is to draw on the lessons of reenactment, the source-based approach of historical European martial arts, and the organizational tools of modern military training doctrine to lead us all a bit closer to realizing that dream. The outcome, we hope, will be something between a live-action wargame and medieval MILSIM with just a hint of histo-LARP for color and to enhance immersion.
Over two nights and two days, we hope to muster a late 15th century army of about 200 infantry and 30 to 50 cavalry. This army will train, stand watch, conduct patrols and skirmishes on foot and on horse, lay siege to a castle, and engage in unscripted pitched battle. At night, while some of the force conducts raids and reconnaissance, the rest will enjoy the castle tavern and campsite revelry with their brothers and sisters in arms.
Most participants will adopt various roles within the army for the duration of the weekend. Each military role belongs to a banner, and each banner will function as a stable unit, eating together, sleeping together, marching and fighting together. When the battle comes, your banner is your command and control, your rallying point, and your pride. You’ll have to defend it!
The military roles will include various forms of infantry (e.g., pikemen, men at arms, crossbowman, hand gunners, etc.), cavalry (light and heavy), artillery, and officers. The banners will operate on orders to patrol, defend the castle, storm the castle, scout the battlefield, find the enemy, to hold ground or to take it. Bannermen will need to lead their troops, make tactical decisions based on their intelligence and the conditions on the field, and achieve engagement objectives in order to improve their conditions for future engagements and the event’s culminating battle.
At night, when the banners return to the safety of the camp, most participants will enjoy the castle’s tavern and the camaraderie of their friends. Volunteers will have the opportunity to run special night scenarios such as collecting intelligence or hunting enemy scouts.
The captains and leaders will manage the army and its orders, reacting in real time to orders and intelligence from “off screen” sovereign lords or events. Captains will assign orders to each banner, and the banners will follow their bannerman in execution of those orders. Because this is a wargame, the external events (or “injects”) may be scripted, but the way the participants respond to them is not. The strategic and tactical decisions of commanders at all levels—and the on-the-field performance of their units—will have lasting impact on each unit and the disposition of the final battle. Unit commanders will also be responsible for learning select historical tactics, formations, and practices and training/leading their units to use them in the field.
Certain conventions of reenactment and Live Action Roleplay (LARP) will add to the event through semi-staged vignettes which, like the military engagements, will have an impact on each side’s disposition in the skirmishes, siege, and final battle. LARP-focused participants will take on the roles of nobles, messengers, and other personalities embedded within the army. In addition to playing out their roles in vignettes and war-councils, these players will both enhance the sense of immersion and act as special “units” at the commanders’ disposal for negotiations and other non-combat missions. Additional common LARP conventions such as “in time” and “out time” will be used as well.
Behind the scenes, the event will be managed using modern military exercise methods and organization. Most participants will belong to the “Blue Team,” the players in the game acting as leaders, soldiers, and camp followers. The “White Cell” will run the event behind the scenes, orchestrate the injects and off-screen events, feed intelligence to participants, and act as game-masters and referees. Finally a “Red Cell” will lead the daily OPFOR (opposing forces) missions, temporarily adopting banners assigned to the “other side” for the duration of an activity. Outside of the three color teams/cells is the ORGA, handling the administration of the event such as water, toilets, and other “real world” concerns.
In summary, we are combining historical reenactment’s focus on historicity and material culture, modern military wargaming’s organizational practices, LARP’s penchant for immersion, and HEMA’s focus on source interpretation (but to military sources instead of individual martial arts treatises) to create a late 15th century MILSIM live-action wargame. We hope that this sounds as incredible to you as it does to us, and we can’t wait for you to join us in this ambitious experiment.
Arne Koets
Jake Norwood
Nick Kraus
…and the rest of the Feldlager 2023 ORGA
p.s. More information will be published in text and in video in the near future here at feldlager.eu and via Facebook, including our rules for fighting on the field, the event storyline, and how you can participate to help us pull this ambition event off…because we’re going to need your help!
Wait a minute! I’ve still got questions!
Well okay then. We’ll try.
What about…
Food?
Participants will need to provide their own food for the duration of the event. Water will be free and plentiful on-site, and the tavern will be serving drinks at night. We ask that the food you bring and your methods of preparation be suitable to the time period we’re recreating. Hard-core participants are welcome to survive on hard-tack for the weekend; the less adventurous need simply hide any modern tools or preparation so as to not reduce the immersion for the other participants.
Kit Standards?
Clothing, arms, armor, and other equipment should be appropriate to a military camp between 1460-1480 in western and central Europe. As a minimum guideline, please see the standards for the Company of Saint George here and here.
We also encourage participants to bring the quantity and types of gear appropriate to a military camp as opposed to the kind of tent-opulence often seen at reenactment tournaments. Ultimately, however, the role each participant is filling should dictate the specifics.
Non-military participants?
A large number of roles will be available for those who don’t wish to or aren’t able to participate as infantry and cavalry. In addition to support roles, valets, water-carriers, and various camp roles, Feldlager will also require assistants to the White Cell and ORGA. Whatever your abilities, there’s probably a place for you to play along with us.
Tell me more about…
MILSIM
First and foremost, Feldlager 2023 is a MILSIM-focused live-action Wargame. MILSIM, or Military Simulation, refers to live-acted simulation of armed conflict scenarios, often for both entertainment/sporting purposes or as a form of historical reenactment including “activities that strive to provide an experience of combat, simulate battlefield missions, or replicate military service-style training” (Wikipedia). At Feldlager 2023, the MILSIM approach will primarily be felt in the organization of the camp, the army’s actions, and in the way that commanders and their units function throughout their assignments and orders from patrol to battlefield and beyond.
HEMA
Historical European Martial Arts is a wide range of activities around the study, recreation, and practice of historical (mostly medieval) martial arts forms drawn from period sources such as the German Fechtbucher. Although many of this year’s participants are expected to be HEMAists focused on Harnischfechten, the primary contribution from the HEMA approach at this year’s Feldlager will be in the attempt to study, interpret, and practice the formations and tactics found in period military sources such as Philip von Seldenneck, Mathias von Kemnat, Orso degli Orsini, Václav Vlček z Čenova, Vegetius, and others. The onus for this will primarily fall on the commanders (captains and bannermen), who will need to study and practice beforehand and train their banners as quickly as possible when the real weekend comes!
LARP
Live Action Role Playing is (LARP) “is a form of role-playing game where the participants physically portray their characters...[in] a fictional setting, improvising their characters' speech and movements somewhat like actors in improvisational theatre” (Wikipedia et al.).
Feldlager 2023 is not primarily a LARP event (unless you count MILSIM as LARP…which is a defensible position), but LARP’s influence will be felt throughout the weekend. LARP-focused players will engage in diplomacy, espionage, and will help bring the White Cell’s injects to life through vignettes and daily interactions throughout the camp and on the field. Certain LARP conventions have influenced the design of the wargame and the combat system, as well as the use of “in time” and “out time” across different camp and field activities.
Historical Reenactment
Historical Reenactment is “an educational or entertainment activity in which mainly amateur hobbyists and history enthusiasts dress in historic uniforms or costumes and follow a plan to recreate aspects of a historical event or period” (Wikipedia). Many historical reenactment events focus on a specific battle or historical event and tend to have a heavy emphasis on material culture.
To an outside observer, Feldlager will look more like a 15th century reenactment event than anything else—and rightly so. Feldlager relies on reenactment conventions, equipment, and above all...reenactors! Feldlager is not a reenactment in the strictest sense, however, as we will not be recreating a specific event or even a specific time or place in history—the driving story will be fiction, amalgamated from several real events across a span of over 20 years. As such, the reenactment components of Feldlager are probably closer to “histo-LARP” than pure reenactment or living history.
