The War dummies dataset offers structured data on Dutch-involved organised armed confrontations from 1566 to 1812. Comprising 1216 records detailing the participation of 95 entities in 548 encounters across 50 wars, it fills a crucial need for well-structured, accessible, and reusable pre-1815 historical warfare data. Based on the comprehensive Military History of the Netherlands book series, it aligns with post-1815 conflict datasets like the Inter-State War Database of the Correlates of War Project and the Georeferenced Event Dataset of the Uppsala Conflict Data Program. This article outlines the data collection, structure, and potential research applications, and discusses data quality and potential biases. The War dummies codebook offers comprehensive variable descriptions.