Rusted Woodlands Tourney

Last night was a small tournament in Rusted Woodlands. I went to the finals and lost to Quintus. It was a good night. I've also been to a couple of Brooklyn practices since Pennsic. I'm trying to increase my helmet time.

TECHNIQUE
I finished my new shield for Pennsic (though it's only painted black), and I've been using that. It's an inch shorter, but still hung with a lot of shield above my hand. I am losing my leg a bit more than I was with the old shield. However, I'm moving it much better, and I've been winning a lot with it.

I've been trying to use primarily a Bellatrix overhead return and counter hip technique. I've been working on improving my teardrop return as well. My speed is pretty good as a result, but I'm a bit wild on my defense.

I used my heavy sword a lot last night. Oddly, unlike at Crown, I had trouble getting a couple of people to take shots, whereas with my light sword it was no problem. That's opposite.

I also, on Paul's suggestion, used boxing wraps on my hands and wrists. This was designed to help strengthen my wrist and lock them into place (Paul uses a locked wrist, something I've always struggled with). This cost me about 30% of my usual offense.

FIGHTING
If you are on facebook, the tournament was live streamed by Mabel Fortune. (There's more than one video, so look around on her page). I fought eight fights last night. Tanaka dropped out before I got to him. I lost my first round fight to Lou (go figure, Lou and I would meet in the first round), but won all the rest of my round robin fights, including against Sir Eric Hundeman, the only other knight I fought. My toughest fight, not unsurprisingly, was against my squire Padraig. It got down to me, Lou, and Quintus, each with one loss (to one of the others--I beat Quintus, he beat Lou, Lou beat me). Lou and Qunitus fought, and Quintus won, but then Lou dropped out, leaving me and Quintus to fight the finals. Instead of a single fight, or two of three sword and shield mess, I suggested we mix it up. He chose greatsword. That's the only fight I'm disapointed in. He cought me thiking--a big transition window as I as changing my stance. Stabbed me right in the face. My choice was second, so I chose daggers, since we might not have gotten to it. I beat him in a great dagger fight. Last we used the big honking mauls, and he clobbered me. I mean Bam-Bam style. It was a really fun night, but boy do I have a long way to go!

My best takeaway was that, of the four knights in the list, I was the only one who didn't drop out (it was SO FREAKING HOT in there. I drank a Gallon of water. No, really: Padraig brought me an unopened gallon jug, and I finished it between my first fight and my last). My endurance is better than I thought.

There are 64 days until Crown. I've booked my flights. My next time in armor will likely be Sunday in Iron Bog.

Leaving Pennsic

Apparently, it’s not as easy to blog about the war as I thought.

I’m leaving Pennsic. We are on the PA turnpike heading toward Jersey. Some of our gear is wet. We are tired. Very tired. I wanted to blog the war every day, but Pennsic got in the way. It was a long war, but I still didn’t spend enough time with my friends who were there. Some I barely saw, some not at all. The only time I got to the bog I was working security, but I did make it to Bardici twice. 

I ate poorly. 

I drank beer. 

I spent time with King Agrippa and his king consort Davyd, who is funny and nice and one of the greatest clothes horses I’ve met. 

There was a blowup in Trimaris. Eilis said it was always the “A” kingdom’s that caused trouble—Ansteora, An Tir, A-Traris. Their king is an obnoxious troll. Before it all went down, I commented to someone that I thought he was trying to get R&D’d. This—elevating a known racist to a peerage order in a secret court over the objections of the entire order—managed to troll about two thirds of the SCA, of which I am sure he is proud. #istandwitdavius means I object to what the king has done. It will all be hashed out over the next few months. Expect fallout. Nuff said. 

FIGHTING

Saturday was Aedult Swim. The heat index was over 100. The small amount of fighting the day before has exhausted me. I fought ten fighters, including four knights: Sir Luis from the Middle, Duke Garrick Von Kopke, Ajax and Geoffrey Scott. I took 2 of 3 from Ajax and went even with Luis and Geoffrey. I was dead afterward. 

Sunday I was an alternate for the Belted Champions team but did not get in. Due to the heat there were almost no pickups. I got two sets in. 

Monday was my favorite battle, the open field. I took my six foot pole ax. The official count had us outnumbered by 300. We took two of five. Later that day was Gui’s William Marshal tournament. I took four ransoms, including ten Robert Macphearson sovereigns, worth a buck apiece at his booth. I got into good fights with Bryce and Donegal. In the last fight, I used my poleax again and slew mightily. 

Tuesday was the woods fight. I fought spear and ditched both my breastplate and surcotte. I got some wicked bruises, got to comand a bit, and did not collapse. 

Wednesday was the best day. It wasn’t quite as hot. I was on the field from 10:30 to five, with some time out to help Paul teach a class. I was fighting really well. I fought a lot more fights than I had on Saturday. I bested a lot of guys, including a couple of Dukes. Only one fighter, a count from Drachenwald, had taken more than me (3 of 5). Then I sought out humility. I wasn’t going to fight Rangvaldr. I was tired. Then I thought to myself “why would I duck Ramgvaldr?” I knew what he would do and how he would do it, but it was interesting being on the receiving end. I’d been working on his center mass boxing style a bit that day. Watching him do it was impressive. 

Thursday was the Bridge, and all I fought was spear. We faced the tuchux. It was a brawl. 

I didn’t fight on Friday. 

Last Pennsic I added 50 squats to my daily routine of 50 push-ups and 100 pell strikes. It has definitely helped. 

It’s 84 days until Crown. My next time in armor will be Tuesday at McCxarren Park. 

Pennsic chronicles 8/4

So I making an effort beginning with Pennsic to go back to writing this blog. But it’s easy to blog about the war.

Friday at peace week. Time to get inspected. Some marshals failed my sword because, and I’m not kidding, it was perfect. It fit exactly with an air marshal engage and they said, “can’t use this one. Put a single layer of duct tape along each side and it will pass. By the way, the gauge he was using was not designed to be a negative gauge, meaning that it was supposed to fit perfectly. Actually, I just acquiesced and smiled.

There was almost nobody out there. I was shocked to see how few people were fighting pick ups on Friday. Not only that, but against my very first opponent, a Roman name Valerian, my new shield broke. The palm strap snapped. So I got in one set of sword and shield fights. I thought a night, I don’t know his name, using my sword and Buckler. My booklet is really heavy. It’s made of marine grade plywood with channel edging and heater hose. It doesn’t move very fast, and I’m behind on my blocks a lot, but you cannot blow through it. When you hit it it stops your sword. He was kind of shocked that I killed him as many times as I did. I thought a fairly new fighter named off using my broadsword and short sword combination. I find that when I’m finding weapons form that I don’t use very often, it’s difficult for me to hold back against a new fighter. I’m working I’m just making my form work and I’m kind of extra focused on my blocks. The result was that I beat them a lot, and was unable to do a lot of training until we got off the field and I could tell him what I thought he was doing. Keeping with this use all the stuff you brought to the field theme, I went out pull her next. And the guy who came out towards me was in a perfect Norman kit with a short pole arm and he was taller than me and he had a white belt on and I knew just from the way he walked he was good.  I said out loud to myself “this will be humbling.”  Turns out he was duke Edward of the red, a pole arm God from up in Canada. Oh my God! Was he good. My polar and has an ex head on it. It’s a bit heavy and a bit slow. He was just whipping all around minute. I acquitted myself fairly well. I had a lot of good blocks, and I made him work, but I only came close with one thrust that died before it got to him. I even saw a thing that he was doing, blocking the outside of my pulled in countering with a headshot, but I kept giving it to him anyway. I thought oh this will beat it. Ha ha ha. He’s the tall guy in mail in the background. The skinny one with the coif. Who looks like trouble.

Saturday is Aedult Swim.