Remember Limerick! - The War of the Two Kings. Ireland 1689-91

Remember Limerick! (RL!) is the seventh volume of Red Sash Games' Lace Wars series, and opens a new subject, the Nine Years War, sometimes called the War of the League of Augsburg, It is a two-player simulation of the Cogadh An Dá Rí, The War of the Two Kings, otherwise the Williamite War in Ireland. The conflict lasted from 1689 to 1691, and saw two pitched battles - one the largest ever fought on Irish soil - many skirmishes, and several desperate sieges. King James - Dismal Jamie - abandoned the struggle early on, but by that point the Irish were fighting for themselves.

Toward the end of the 17th Century, at a time when Europe is consumed by war, the powerful Catholic dynasty of the Habsburgs, and the Pope, have formed an unnatural league with the Protestant states of northern Germany, and with the Prince of Orange, de facto ruler of the Netherlands, against their coreligionists, the French. They oppose the overweening ambitions of the Sun King, Louis XIV. To augment the strength of the League, William, Prince of Orange, has taken advantage of popular dissatisfaction with his father-in-law, King James II, to engineer an armed coup and take over the government of England. This will help fill the coffers of the League and ensure that England does not ally with France.

But the English throne brings with it the governance of Scotland and of Ireland. While some in these countries welcome the Glorious Revolution, many do not. Especially is this so in Ireland, where a small Protestant minority lords it over a helot population of Irish and Anglo-Irish Catholics - an Ascendancy secured only a generation before by the swords of Oliver Cromwell's men and still maintained by force of arms and by force of English Law. In the last years of King James' rule, his Deputy, Richard Talbot, Earl of Tyrconnel, has worked hard to overturn this Cromwellian Settlement, stuffing the Administration and the Army with Catholics. The Protestants are afraid.

King James, abandoned by many that he trusted, including his own family, suffers a nervous breakdown and leaves England for France, determined to devote the rest of his life to religious pursuits. But his cousin, King Louis, points to Ireland as a place where a fallen monarch may retrieve his fortunes. Tyrconnel and the new Irish Army, and a picked brigade of veteran French, will enable James to drive his son-in-law from the British Isles - and incidentally, force Dutch Billy to withdraw much of his army from the Low Countries, where the French hope to gain much in the next few campaigns. The last Irish "rebellion" lasted eleven years....

RL! examines both the conventional fighting and the rapparee war, and the difficulties of supporting large forces in a poor country - and by sea, too, since Ireland is an island separated from England and France by some very dangerous waters. Will French victories against the Dutch on the Continent force the Williamites to divert money and troops from Ireland, or will the Irish peace party reach an accommodation with King Billy? For once, you are not in control. All you can hope to do is enhance your Prestige, so that when the war ends you can find decent employment in the Emperor's war against the Turk....

Components

1) One map representing Ireland, derived from a mix of modern cartography and period maps. Scale is 4 leagues (16 Km) per hex.

2) 480 counters representing the forces of the Williamites and the Jacobites: Irish, English, Scottish, Dutch, French, Danish, and Huguenot. Scale is Battalion - that is, the playing pieces represent battalions and regiments.

3) Rules, charts, tables, and display cards.

4) An historical commentary.