Estrella Roundup

In case you hadn't heard somebody died at Estrella, a fighter named Albert from Starkhafn who passed away during the town battle. He collapsed and was treated by EMTs and medical personnel on the field but was never revived. Real death is a big shock in a game with so much pretend death. Real death doesn't belong. It also reminds us that, as this group gets older, this is going to happen more often. We have people who are grossly overweight pushing themselves hard physically wearing heavy, heat trapping gear, and people in their fifties and sixties running around like teenagers and hitting each other with sticks. And some of them are simply going to die. Maybe some of us.

So how was the war? For me it was great. In spite of the sea of mud the site became, I had a really good time. I fought well and I fought hard. I really only partied Saturday night (the only non-rainy night of the war), but I did have fun at the West Kingdom bash.

A few things I learned:

1.) Ok, this one I knew but it was revealing to have it demonstrated so forcefully: the center-grip is lousy against spears and polearms because a strong fighter can blow right through it with a thrust. This happened to me at Nutley a couple of weeks ago too. Thin is, that thrust is usually so hard that when it lands it will jack you up. Two of the thrusts that leas to my mild case of whiplash were in the town battle, six foot polearms only, where I got speared from inside one of the buildings while fighting at the windows, twice. The second time nearly ripped my shield out of my hand and my wrist was sore the rest of the war. I think the An Tirans actually brace their shields with their weapons in that situation, but then of course you can't kill anybody.

2.) Edric is using a really great foot stomp/face thrust. It's a lot like what he killed me with at the cancer tourney last Estrella, and it's a lot like Rolf's foot stomp/snap that I used to use a lot. I used it during pickups on Sunday and it worked well. I also managed to kill Edric by laying my sword on his shield rim and face thrusting him and a couple other ways. We had some really good fights.

3.) I love spear. I've been a shield guy in wars for almost thirty years, using spear only occasionally, but I'm really enjoying it these days. And I'm getting pretty fair with it. I killed a ton of people on the ford.

4.) I think shield leg forward is the best way to fight with the centergrip. I don't use the classic An Tir leg forward because my centergrip is a little smaller than that, mine is more square and taller. I still alternate sword and shield leg forward, but shield leg forward is working well for me. It also works with the bunny round and the buckler, so that shouldn't be surprising.

5.) at various times most of my tricks were working. I got people with the hook thrust, the cut and thrust, the stutter wrap, all my leg shots, a hidden snap, a timing snap, and Ed's version of the butterfly. I even killed a few people with a classic butterfly, which rarely works for me. I wasn't using a lot of footwork, but I didn't have to. As usualy, I'm still having trouble powering my legshots.