Back on the Horse

So Wednesday night I *finally* got to Nutley. Yay! I didn't do too much. I just fought four people: Henreich, Bill, Kelson, and Gavlin. It was fun. Kelson took ma apart like a surgeon. He said my attacks were very quick. The others I killed much more than they killed me. Considering I was using my buckler that was very cool. My best near shot on Kelson was a face thrust that he went all kung fu on me and trapped between his basket hilt and shield about an inch from his grill. My best kills, as usual, were pary 5/cut 5, and a hook thrust. I was right about where I should be--beating the unbelteds and getting a rough fight from the duke.

I am having the same dilemma I was having last year. I am killing a few more people using hauoc's sword foot forward closed form style but I enjoy it less than fighting the open radnor/belatrix style. Oh well.

Today I had a killer spin workout.

WESTERN 12TH NIGHT

Yes, our party rocked. But that's not why I brought it up here.

You can learn a lot talking to dukes. Three things came up at Western 12th Night that are worth making note of. One has to do with our old war horse topic of shield sizes. I heard this at knight's council, but since it has nothing to do with anything I think I can repeat it. They were talking about a foreign Duke who wanted to visit the west and who had asked if he could use his big shield, to which one of the Western dukes said "Sure, if he wants to give me the advantage." That's the axiom in the West, that big shields make fighters sloppy and less effective, and that big shields are a handicap not an advantage (hence the comment to Ben that his 36" heater would make him a worse fighter). That's because until recently they'd never seen a good fighter with a big shield. An Andreas or a Darius would give them fits.

Two other things. Rolf was talking to Hauoc. They're two dukes I fight a lot. Hauoc took me out of the last two West Crowns I fought in. Hauoc said two things that were really good, neither of which had really occurred to me. The first was that when you duck backward to avoid a shot, as Hauoc used to do, you actually open yourself up more because most people when they do that leave their shield in place and move their bodies back. This takes them away from their shield and opens them up more. Not a lot of people do this on the East Coast, but when someone does it's best to throw a flat offside head shot. The other things Hauoc mentioned was the rule of first fastest (which has to be a saganism). People load up to throw their fastest shot first, and their next shot will be the shot they are cocked up for from their. This is why people normally go right/left. Instinctively we tend to know that and look for an offside to follow an onside shot. Hauoc doesn't worry about anything that might be slower, like a shot that takes time to develop with a fake or a molinee, because those aren't fast and he'll pick that up. Two Junes ago (when he and Rolf were the finalists and they both beat me in the tourney), after our fight Hauoc had said I'd surprised him because he had expected me to use a lot of fakes and I had used a very basic offense with him, as I've been doing lately. It shocked him a bit and I almost got him with a 1-2-body thrust.

So remember about ducking backward and the rule of first fastest. You learn a lot from dukes.