For rapier fighting, there is exactly one approved method for defending a gate, door, fort, castle, or any other structure with an access point limited to 1-5 fighters wide: form a killing cup, stab anybody who tries to come through the door. A properly formed killing cup is a semicircle, centered on the doorway, with […]
Archive for May 2009
Wistric’s Weekly Warfare 20: Limited Fronts and Killing Cups 7 comments
Newbie Question of the Week 5 comments
What do you consider the most challenging guard to face, and how do you counter it? That may not be the best way to phrase the question, so I’ll add a bit of explanation. One of my biggest challenges lately has been learning to engage the blade of an opponent in a guard other than […]
Wistric’s Weekly Warfare 19: Period Warfare and You 4 comments
In 1503, 8,000 Spanish infantry were dug in on the heights of Cerignola, in Italy, near Naples. They were in southern Italy, so far from Spain, as part of an agreement between King Ferdinand I of Spain and King Louis XII of France, by which they would divide Naples between the two nations. Unfortunately, things […]
Wistric’s Pet Peeve: “Bouncy Draws” and Other Bullshit 3 comments
(in which Wistric speaks in an ungentlemanly way of ungentlemanly behavior) Lords and ladies, we too often forget that we are allegedly playing with Ginsu-sharp steel. Many are the times when I’ve laid blade on an opponent’s neck and pulled. Sometimes, the motion of the opponent INTO the blade can cause the sword to […]
Wistric’s Weekly Warfare 18: Maneuvers and Commands worth Knowing 1 comment
(With input from Dante di Pietro and Celric d’Ravelle) A while back on the Atlantian Rapier Discussion Boards, we had a thread about which commands and maneuvers every Atlantian fencer should know. That, combined with my own thoughts, led to this list: Forming a Unit: Rally: Form as a unit on the person […]
Newbie Question of the Week 1 comment
What is your thought process when addressing problems or challenges? Last time I asked about peeves and solutions. I got peeves but no solutions, so rather than just ask for solutions, I figured it would be more productive to first ask how you apply your problem-solving skills. When you come across something that’s not going […]
Wistric’s Weekly Warfare 17: Group Initiative 5 comments
Having discussed the role played by personal initiative last month, and the calculus of costs and benefits, risks and rewards, we reached the conclusion that there’s no hard and fast rule for when to take personal initiative. You could say the same of group initiative. But you’d be wrong. As a unit, whenever possible, you take […]