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Battle of Brothers
Jul. 26th, 2010 11:51 amLast month Robert and I trekked into the wilds of Flintheath (Norfolk), to join in the battle of brothers - this is an ambitious event intended to set up a friendly rivalry between ourselves in ID and the principality of Nordmark.
So far, only Duke Sven has attended on behalf of Nordmark, with his son - and this year he left his son behind.
So he scrambled some willing troops from ID to make up the numbers, and carried on a series of small-scale melee scenarios in an attempt to take over the principality.
Awkward enough having to buy local troops to run an invasion, but they got trounced.
Because of small numbers, there's very little melee training for most Insulae Draconis fighters, which is a shame, because I think most of them would enjoy it. Those who know the most about it are generally from other kingdoms, or are visiting from Nordmark. Sven himself is pretty accomplished, and generally holds his own at Pennsic. So it was a big learning experience for many of the ID fighters, even the medium to long-term fighters - rules of engagement, keeping together, coping with long-weaponed snipers, etc.
Sir Vitus even commended Lady Katherine from Thamesreach for doing her part in the melee - being a shield isn't always glamourous in a melee, but she did a good job, and kept a safe place for the long weapons to work from.
The ID side had the honour of being led by our princess AEringunnr herself - she'd re-authorised after a layoff of 7 or so years (her son is 6), and was delighting in once more being in the press of the shield wall. It was really a pleasure to hear her calling for Nordmark blood in the engagements. :-)
In the afternoon, I felt like the Pied Piper, calling up any archers who wanted to shoot to the small and slightly remote archery range to practice - I was pleasantly surprised to find a dozen archers showing up, including some newcomers. All my arrows were promptly loaned out and we kept the range open for a couple of hours to warm up, then run a speed round, then a wand shoot, just for fun. I felt like I'd been run over by a truck by the end, running from one end of the range to the other, helping newer archers and chasing long-lost arrows into the nettles, but noone complained, and everyone seemed to have a good time.
There was a fierce rivalry over the wand shoot, but I feel that Lady Caitlin, who split a wand with her first arrow, was easily the winner, over a second archer who split a wand spectacularly (it blew up and shattered, it really did) after several shots.
I'd lucked out, actually - I'd found new wands for free at the local Travis Perkins (lumberyard), in the form of spacing strips - thin slats of wood inserted between stacks of lumber to allow the forklift to slide its blades between them for lifting. They were just the right size and quality (ie. cheap) and, when fished out of the yard's dumpster, the price was right! (For Canadians - picture a slat from a wood-and-wire snow fence, and that's about the size of a wand).
I'm taking almost a dozen to Raglan for a rematch of this event.
Argh - just lost the second half of this post! May return to it, to describe dinner and evening.
So far, only Duke Sven has attended on behalf of Nordmark, with his son - and this year he left his son behind.
So he scrambled some willing troops from ID to make up the numbers, and carried on a series of small-scale melee scenarios in an attempt to take over the principality.
Awkward enough having to buy local troops to run an invasion, but they got trounced.
Because of small numbers, there's very little melee training for most Insulae Draconis fighters, which is a shame, because I think most of them would enjoy it. Those who know the most about it are generally from other kingdoms, or are visiting from Nordmark. Sven himself is pretty accomplished, and generally holds his own at Pennsic. So it was a big learning experience for many of the ID fighters, even the medium to long-term fighters - rules of engagement, keeping together, coping with long-weaponed snipers, etc.
Sir Vitus even commended Lady Katherine from Thamesreach for doing her part in the melee - being a shield isn't always glamourous in a melee, but she did a good job, and kept a safe place for the long weapons to work from.
The ID side had the honour of being led by our princess AEringunnr herself - she'd re-authorised after a layoff of 7 or so years (her son is 6), and was delighting in once more being in the press of the shield wall. It was really a pleasure to hear her calling for Nordmark blood in the engagements. :-)
In the afternoon, I felt like the Pied Piper, calling up any archers who wanted to shoot to the small and slightly remote archery range to practice - I was pleasantly surprised to find a dozen archers showing up, including some newcomers. All my arrows were promptly loaned out and we kept the range open for a couple of hours to warm up, then run a speed round, then a wand shoot, just for fun. I felt like I'd been run over by a truck by the end, running from one end of the range to the other, helping newer archers and chasing long-lost arrows into the nettles, but noone complained, and everyone seemed to have a good time.
There was a fierce rivalry over the wand shoot, but I feel that Lady Caitlin, who split a wand with her first arrow, was easily the winner, over a second archer who split a wand spectacularly (it blew up and shattered, it really did) after several shots.
I'd lucked out, actually - I'd found new wands for free at the local Travis Perkins (lumberyard), in the form of spacing strips - thin slats of wood inserted between stacks of lumber to allow the forklift to slide its blades between them for lifting. They were just the right size and quality (ie. cheap) and, when fished out of the yard's dumpster, the price was right! (For Canadians - picture a slat from a wood-and-wire snow fence, and that's about the size of a wand).
I'm taking almost a dozen to Raglan for a rematch of this event.
Argh - just lost the second half of this post! May return to it, to describe dinner and evening.
