King’s Assessment, 2014   35 comments

Ibrahim, Gaiwn, and myself squeezed into Gawin’s hatchback and drove out to rural Virginia. At one point we stalled out on a gravel mountain road and had to push. It was that kind of day.

The Site

Chantilly Festival Farm only opened a little over a year ago, and the place is beautiful – 90 acres of more-or-less gently rolling hills and woods. It provides a scenic view of the Appalachians, and at night you can see the Milky Way. The site’s still developing its infrastructure but was quite sufficient to our needs. It’s out in the middle of nowhere, but could probably host a war. Only downside is that the hills get a bit tiring after a day of fighting. It was a bit unfortunate that turnout was middling. I hope to see more events at this place.

Friday

The schedule had interesting rapier things starting early, so we arrived early, noonish. Nobody else seemed to be as enthusiastic. Getting people to come out on Fridays seems like it’s always going to be a challenge … thoughts?

Eventually we were able to round up five other fencers and fought a few impromptu melees of little note. At the end, I requested Windmasters vs The World; Aldemere was happy to oblige. Arrayed against the Windy Kitties were six: Ragnar Ribcracker, Lily, Colin of Black Diamond, Hector (aka Former Cornerback, Ballet, and Destreza Guy – one to keep an eye on), and two recent auths.

They came at us in three pairs; we split. Ibrahim led Hector and a new auth around the field in a big, slow circle while I kept Lily and Colin occupied. When Gawin killed off Ragnar I cheated over towards him; we ended up swapping and I stabbed the new auth before running to Gawin’s aid. I was in a wonderful position to DFB Colin when Gawin lost his footing (running backwards downhill will do that) and a hold was called. Blech. Colin got me and lost an arm for his trouble, while Lily and Gawin doubled. Ibrahim, unable to delay any longer, managed to take one more before being overwhelmed.

Thus was Windmasters’ arrogance checked. But I believe that if there’d been no hold, we’d have won that.

Saturday – Woods

Caitlin was leading activities, and Pennsic conventions (i.e. tip cuts) were in effect. A couple Aethelmearcians had traveled down from Pittsburgh to observe the vaunted Atlantian melee tactics, and their attempts to show us what tip cuts felt like went mostly ignored through the day. Turnout was about 20.

Melees began with a 10-minute rezzing woods battle, with three flags across the middle. Three-dimensional slopes are difficult to explain without pictures. Relevantly, Red rez was on higher ground than Blue rez; one flag, “top”, was an uphill climb from each, though closer to Red; one, “bottom”, was downhill from each but closer to Blue; and the “middle” flag was equidistant from the two but fairly close to the “top” flag.

The first run-through was Black Diamond vs Everyone Else. Black Diamond naturally included a lot of their locals and Scholars, while Everyone Else included the kind of people who will drive several hours to an event. Needless to say, although I was in command of Everyone Else, I didn’t have to do much.

For the second run-through, a couple of the senior fighters swapped sides. Everyone Else was outnumbered by two or three, and more evenly matched in skill; to make matters worse, we were using the Blue rez point this time. I tried to get us to focus on the top flag, but we had a lot of difficulty with it. Because we were outnumbered I was forced to fight instead of simply commanding from afar, and we did not move or engage as well. We never had any flags for long.

For the third run, switching back to a favorable rez point, we were able to come out slightly ahead. Admonishing my team not to engage in outnumbered fights helped, as did appointing Gawin a local commander at the top flag. It’s amazing how blind people get when there are swords pointed at them.

By now a few things were obvious. Most notably, the team that controlled the top flag tended to dominate – and the team rezzing from “Red” tended to have an easier time of it. The high ground gave easy access to a flanking position on the middle flag, so holding the one usually meant holding the other. The bottom flag only attracted a handful of skirmishers throughout. Although sending people up to the top flag ran the risk of tiring them, the other team also had an uphill slog. I micromanaged rotating fighters through the uphill position to keep them from getting tired. Except Windmasters. They were always up top, because we have cardio.

The last couple melees saw Gawin and myself opposed as commanders of a five-minute, one-flag battle. Teams were re-picked kickball style. Gawin, getting the first pick, selected Connor. Connor refused, saying he was marshaling. As we finished picking, the teams numbered 9-8, so Connor joined my team to even it out. Which probably did more than even it out. Eh.

The first run had my team at the Red rez. Our line proved stronger, and took the center early, repelling a couple attacks. Perhaps because there was only one flag, though, we lost our previous focus on holding the high ground. Ibrahim and two or three of his friends kept on showing up on our flank, and we had trouble pushing them off owing to the slope. He was instrumental in knocking our line back from the flag and probably deserves the credit for his team’s victory.

In the second run, at Blue rez, I decided to try something different. The high ground had been dominant all day, so I decided to load the other flank to see what would happen. Interestingly, this threat pulled several of their good fighters, including Ibrahim, and they completely forgot about keeping the high ground. We were able to hold it throughout the battle with just two of our own, and had the flag for almost the entire battle.

Saturday – Field

A very long lunch break followed, and because Court was comparatively early (4:30), we had little in the way of field battles. Teams were re-sorted and command was given to junior fighters, including Ibrahim; he did well enough for his first time, but seemed a bit overwhelmed. His idea to load the flanks, take the high ground, and press on the flank was pretty standard but not bad; unfortunately, our line was significantly weaker, and we were only able to successfully execute once in three runs.

Ibrahim asked me afterward about how to command. The question caught me a bit off-guard, to be honest. Even in WMH, we don’t really have a structure for “how to command effectively”; we just make everyone do it, give feedback, and they learn. Food for another post …

After this, Caitlin asked Gawin and myself to command, without weapons. I specifically remember the phrase “good example” being used as justification. There may be hope for us after all. We micromanaged our lines with gusto; for me, the exercise felt a little silly, but I do not know if others learned anything by observing.

Afterwards was Court and pickups, in which I was too tired to lunge but not so tired that the Aethelmearcian don, Will, didn’t recognize extended quarta and pay a few compliments. Still have a long ways to go. Chatting with Caitlin suggested that some Atlantian practices/units would be receptive to a “drill of the week”. I’d like to gauge interest on this. If it’s true, I’d very much be willing to delve into that kind of project post-Pennsic. It’d be restricted to the basics of Italian rapier, since that’s all I’m competent to teach, but I imagine much of that – or at least the framework – can be translated.

Windmasters – and other baronial units, for that matter – were generally allowed to stick together throughout the melees. This makes me very hopeful for the future. Encouraging fighters to identify as part of a baronial unit, rather than as a collection of individuals who happen to live near one another, could have some great results. It encourages fencers to help one another and come out to events together, to practice melee, and to participate on a larger scale (since they see themselves as part of the barony, not just as part of the Academie). Maybe some friendly rivalries will develop!

Lessons for the Day

Your tl;dr:

– High ground is very useful, even without ranged weapons
– Atlantians don’t know what tip cuts feel like, and so don’t take them. This may explain a certain reputation we have at Pennsic
– “Fall back” is a very useful command
– Falling back when outnumbered, instead of dying, is a good way to keep your energy up
– You’d do well to keep an eye on Ibrahim
– “Front 180” does not mean “the other guy can see you”. If you get stabbed by a sword you never saw, it doesn’t mean your attacker was out of the front 180.
– There may be interest in a “Drill of the Week”. More research/feedback is needed
– The idea of keeping baronial units intact at events seems to be taking hold. This is good
– Despite the small sizes of the melees, Run Right/Left was never called. Press, Fall Back, and Step were all present. Even Charge came out once. 😉

Posted July 8, 2014 by Ruairc in Events, Melee

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