Gulf War 2010
Stef, Zoe, Aedinius, Franki and I all piled into the van and sped off to Mississippi with the trailer in tow. It was a fabulous week. Zoe and Franki made new friends, I got to fight and carouse a bunch, and Stef got to shop and take some classes. We ended up with no pictures from our camp, but I've found some random fighting shots.
If you're looking to play Where's Waldo, I'm always in the red jupon. I'm on the left in the pic above. That was the day of the open field battle.
This is the Bryn Gwlad War Company before the ravine battle. Rachel and Helene got the barding for the gear cart put together. Aedinius (in the scale shirt next to me) fought like a lion despite some spearmen targeting him below the belt.
I didn't fight as closely with the war company this year since I was Lt. General of Ansteorra's southern region, so I did get to go to the commander's meetings and Bryn Gwlad was one of the units under my command. I missed some of the close contact and camaraderie of running with the crew, but the command role was a lot of fun too. The vantage point I got let me see some outstanding team work between Maelgwyn and Artorius in the ravine, the tenacity of the whole left line in the town battle- big asside- my new buddy Sarin, from North Shield commanded the leftmost edge of our line in the town, and his crew stood up Blood Guard, which is rightly considered one of the top units in the Knowne World- phenomenal column charges by the Midrealm, and Bryn Gwlad led a charge into the castle on Saturday that had me grinning ear to ear.
Rhoadd and CAID lined up with Bryn Gwlad before the open field:
I conferred with Il Generalisimo Caladin before the open field. I wore my pig face and sabatons that day so I'd be well kitted for The Deed.
The Deed is a fight unlike most others in the SCA. It's a two sided ransom melee. If you manage to strike three good blows to your opponent's head they're stunned, and you can take them captive. Open grille face plates are simply safety gear, so they don't count as armour. Thrusts to unarmoured bits can kill you, which means you're out of the combat. Maile counts as protection against those thrusts, so most of us wore maile. I went out of my way to add maile to the backs of my thighs to reduce the odds of getting taken out. I've discussed some of my preparations and similar deeds here.
These end up being a vicious, violent swirl of gorgeous armour, and an excuse to trade some great loot. This is gives a good idea of what the chaos looks like.
Here I'm taking Thomas captive. He tried to save one of his team mates whom I was taking off to be ransomed. We had a good little fight until he fell and was forced to yield. You can see a decent shot of my bardiche (the pole arm) here.
I love the armour in this shot. I'm taking another hostage (with sweet finger gauntlets) back to our lines. You can see Sir Nigel in the background in the beautiful cased greaves. I got mistaken for him 5 times at this war because our kits are looking similar. Fortunately his friends and admirers are very nice.
A cool shot of the victorious French side:
I love the token ransoms folks bring to these. I traded a necklace Domino made for me out of glass beads to Mandin (he's on the left above with the pole hammer) for a ring. I gave another necklace to Seamus, whom I unfortunately don't have a picture of, for an outstanding pole fight from the second time we ran the scenario. I received a fantastic pair of garters, a book on 15th century horsemanship, and a great big pile of crisp belt studs. Some of them were surprisingly fitting, as they were coquilles St. Jaques- the symbol for pilgrims to the shrine of Santiago de Compostella. We'd decided at the war that Zoe would have a persona from Compostella.
A lot of other great stuff happened that I don't have pictures to help tell about. I got to play a bagpipes with Al Cofrin, who had some tips and tricks to share. Wolgemut played at the Knowne World Party. I donated a keg of apple cider to the festivities, it got drained quite quickly, and I had a great chat with Jean-Paul de Calmont while his comrades served the brew. We had a great gathering of folks from The Armour Archive in our camp Wednesday night which gave us all a chance to talk to Nissan Maxima (whom we made a major point of killing in the town battle, since he's too lethal to let live), and Mistress Marcele (Tasha who's practically a patron saint on that board, with good reason) commended me for my head to toe outfit. I guess girls really do care about shoes and hats more than most guys do.
So over all, it was a great time. I loved getting to spend more time with my friends and family, commanding, fighting, and The Deed was again a major highlight of my war.
If you're looking to play Where's Waldo, I'm always in the red jupon. I'm on the left in the pic above. That was the day of the open field battle.
This is the Bryn Gwlad War Company before the ravine battle. Rachel and Helene got the barding for the gear cart put together. Aedinius (in the scale shirt next to me) fought like a lion despite some spearmen targeting him below the belt.
I didn't fight as closely with the war company this year since I was Lt. General of Ansteorra's southern region, so I did get to go to the commander's meetings and Bryn Gwlad was one of the units under my command. I missed some of the close contact and camaraderie of running with the crew, but the command role was a lot of fun too. The vantage point I got let me see some outstanding team work between Maelgwyn and Artorius in the ravine, the tenacity of the whole left line in the town battle- big asside- my new buddy Sarin, from North Shield commanded the leftmost edge of our line in the town, and his crew stood up Blood Guard, which is rightly considered one of the top units in the Knowne World- phenomenal column charges by the Midrealm, and Bryn Gwlad led a charge into the castle on Saturday that had me grinning ear to ear.Rhoadd and CAID lined up with Bryn Gwlad before the open field:
I conferred with Il Generalisimo Caladin before the open field. I wore my pig face and sabatons that day so I'd be well kitted for The Deed.
The Deed is a fight unlike most others in the SCA. It's a two sided ransom melee. If you manage to strike three good blows to your opponent's head they're stunned, and you can take them captive. Open grille face plates are simply safety gear, so they don't count as armour. Thrusts to unarmoured bits can kill you, which means you're out of the combat. Maile counts as protection against those thrusts, so most of us wore maile. I went out of my way to add maile to the backs of my thighs to reduce the odds of getting taken out. I've discussed some of my preparations and similar deeds here.These end up being a vicious, violent swirl of gorgeous armour, and an excuse to trade some great loot. This is gives a good idea of what the chaos looks like.
Here I'm taking Thomas captive. He tried to save one of his team mates whom I was taking off to be ransomed. We had a good little fight until he fell and was forced to yield. You can see a decent shot of my bardiche (the pole arm) here.
I love the armour in this shot. I'm taking another hostage (with sweet finger gauntlets) back to our lines. You can see Sir Nigel in the background in the beautiful cased greaves. I got mistaken for him 5 times at this war because our kits are looking similar. Fortunately his friends and admirers are very nice.
A cool shot of the victorious French side:
I love the token ransoms folks bring to these. I traded a necklace Domino made for me out of glass beads to Mandin (he's on the left above with the pole hammer) for a ring. I gave another necklace to Seamus, whom I unfortunately don't have a picture of, for an outstanding pole fight from the second time we ran the scenario. I received a fantastic pair of garters, a book on 15th century horsemanship, and a great big pile of crisp belt studs. Some of them were surprisingly fitting, as they were coquilles St. Jaques- the symbol for pilgrims to the shrine of Santiago de Compostella. We'd decided at the war that Zoe would have a persona from Compostella.A lot of other great stuff happened that I don't have pictures to help tell about. I got to play a bagpipes with Al Cofrin, who had some tips and tricks to share. Wolgemut played at the Knowne World Party. I donated a keg of apple cider to the festivities, it got drained quite quickly, and I had a great chat with Jean-Paul de Calmont while his comrades served the brew. We had a great gathering of folks from The Armour Archive in our camp Wednesday night which gave us all a chance to talk to Nissan Maxima (whom we made a major point of killing in the town battle, since he's too lethal to let live), and Mistress Marcele (Tasha who's practically a patron saint on that board, with good reason) commended me for my head to toe outfit. I guess girls really do care about shoes and hats more than most guys do.
So over all, it was a great time. I loved getting to spend more time with my friends and family, commanding, fighting, and The Deed was again a major highlight of my war.
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