Do's and Don'ts of Events

I had a longer post written, but somehow lost a good chunk somewhere.  Hopefully most of what was lost is still covered.

After arriving at the site, your first stop should be "troll".  This is where you'll sign in and pay for the event. Information and a map are also usually found here, as are any rules specific to the site. It is a good idea to know what rules the event is using ahead of time (Belegarth, Dagorhir, or some Realm's specific rules), and read up on any differences between your home practice and the event.  When in doubt, ask when you arrive.

After checking in, drop off your gear at weapons check (if it is open). If you haven't already marked your gear in a way you can identify it, do so before dropping it off.  Also, make sure they are marked according the rules (like green tape on the pommel for a stabbing sword).

The biggest events are a series of day events strung together with entertainment, feasts, nightlife, and camping.  After you are all checked in and waiting for weapons to be checked, it is a good time to set up camp (and change into garb). Most realms/groups camp together.  The map at troll often has these campsites marked to help you find where to set up with your group.

Before weapons check closes, there will usually be a variety of sparring, classes, and pick up battles.  This is a good chance to fight a few veterans from other realms.  If you aren't sure who to talk to, ask a vet from your realm to introduce you to a few people.

After a long day of fighting, there will usually be a Feast provided by the event, followed by any nightlife at the various group camps.  To really get a feel for each of the units and realms camping out, you need to go visit their camps.  It is best to travel around with a vet that knows the various groups well.  Just be sure to say "Hail Camp" as you approach so they know someone is coming to visit.  Introduce yourself and hang out for a while.

Sometimes, units will have ceremonies, promotions, and the like.  Most of the time, outsiders aren't welcome for them.  If they ask you to leave, do so, but don't feel bad about it.  They are probably just about to have a meeting or other unit business that doesn't involve you.

A few do's and don'ts of events:

1) DO: Take your hits!  I'm required to say that first.  Do your best to take them accurately and portray them quickly.  If you get confused, just take death.

2) DON'T: Call your hits on other people. It is on their honor to take them (see number 1).  If you have problems with an individual, ask a herald.

3) DO: Hit hard.  More adrenaline, more armor, and long days of fighting seem to increase people's hit tolerance at events. Shots that might get taken at a local practice may not be hard enough for someone to feel through armor and in the heat of the moment.

4) DON'T: Hit too hard.  There is no reason to go at 100% full force on your swings.  You want to strike a balance between power and control. Safety is key.

5) DO: Seek advice, training, and sparring during breaks.  If you see someone fight well in a style you want to learn, ask them to spar or for some tips.  Most veterans are happy to share their experience.

6) DO: Swing!! A lot of fighters find event fighting intimidating.  Just go for it.  You'll probably die one way or another during a battle, it might as well be while taking someone else out with you.

7) DON'T: Dive headfirst into the enemy. Aggression is good, but carelessly throwing your life away isn't helping your team.  Wait for a good opportunity.

8) DON'T: Walk through the weapons check area!  You will be yelled at, I promise.  Always walk around.  We don't want someone getting hit with a backswing because they walked through.

9) DO: Have fun, on and off the field. Even if you aren't winning fights, have a good time trying something fun.  Take in the opportunity to socialize with long time veterans and various units.

10) DON'T: Overdo it. Many events are at dry parks, but where alcohol is permitted, be responsible. The last thing you want is to be carried back to your tent or make a terrible impression. Besides, too much consumption will likely ruin your next day of fighting.

11) DO: Be respectful of other camps. This is their home for the week, so respect the rough boundaries around camps and their property.  "Hail Camp" before entering their area.

12) DO: Volunteer to help.  Events are a ton of work.  If you are qualified to help in some way, don't hesitate to volunteer.  Even if they don't need help, you can always make sure to clean up your campsite and trash.

13) DON'T: Argue with heralds.  Take the hits they call.  If you disagree, ask them after the fight.

14) DO: Know the rules. Even vets should reread the rules on occasion. Any rules that deviate from the national rules are likely to be posted at the event.  See this post: Unwritten Rules.

15) DO: Sign up for classes ahead of time.  All sorts of classes are made available at big events, both for fighting and crafting. This is a great chance to learn from veterans and skilled craftsmen.

16) DO: Arrive early.  Try to be at the event as/before weapons check opens.

17) DO: Hydrate! It is easy to forget to take a break and grab some water. I pack a mix of water and sports drinks, along with a few easy snacks.

18) DO: Check your gear ahead of time.  Even if you aren't sure how to check weapons, have a vet check your gear a few weeks before the event.  This gives you time to make repairs and break in new blades.

Unwritten Rules

If you've read the Book of War for Belegarth, you've heard of "medieval combat precedent".  The phrase gets tossed out quite a bit during rules discussions, especially those between fighters from various realms/regions.  Part of the reason for this is that the rules for Belegarth (and Dagorhir) leave several items open to interpretation.  The rules are sparse to allow ease of use, which also means some rules aren't fully explained.

This leaves us with a several "grey" areas that some people play a little differently than the rules might suggest.  The following list is by no means comprehensive, but covers a few of the most common.  Check with your local realms and events to see how they play the them.

In no particular order:

1) "Shot in motion".  According to the rules, when your arm gets hit (or your body), you drop what is in your hands.  However, a large portion of the sport plays shot in motion, where you can finish any swing that was already started and have it count, within reason.  The opposite approach is "atomic clock", where the swing is discounted immediately.

2) "Double tapped legs". Subsequent strikes to a disabled leg are ignored, unless both knees are down or you are rolling, etc.  However, many play that you must be portraying the wound before that rule applies, meaning two hits to the leg while you are standing can kill you.  You can avoid any confusion by taking the wound quickly (and wearing good knee pads...).

3) "Grappling".  Armored fighters can't initiate grapples against unarmored fighters. Archers can't grapple.  However, the rules don't mention grabbing equipment.  Grabbing a spear shaft isn't generally considered a grapple.  But what about a sword handle, a strap shield? There isn't much precedent, so I usually use safety as a test.  An archer grabbing a spear to defend themself isn't placing the spearman in danger (6' away), but grabbing a weapon handle might place both of them in danger of the poky bits from the arrows and bow. My opponent can easily let go of their weapon to get out of the situation if I grab their handle, but not if I grab their strap shield.

4) "Head, then body".  The rules say to take the worst of the hits of a strike hits more than one zone. But the head is an illegal target, so what happens when a shot hits the head, then hits body?  Two sides to this one, either the "worst" means "bad for you, take the body" or "illegal target is worst, ignore the rest".  Precedent, from back when, was that this is a body shot.  Recently, more people air on the side of it being counted as a head shot.  I generally try to gauge it based on how much of a head hit it was.  Grazing a bit of an ear and landing solid on body, it's a body shot.  Blazing me in the side of the dome and carrying a somewhat light hit down into the body, it's a headshot.  This varies greatly from fighter to fighter.  Best advice, avoid hitting people in the head.

5) "Late hits". See number 1. Your opponent throws a shot after he's been hit in that arm, so it doesn't count.  But, you got hit and started dropping your gear.  He says "late", implying you are still alive and should keep fighting.  All fine and good.  Though, none of this is in the rules.  Normally, if you take an injury, the herald is the only one that can/should "heal" a wound, and even that is a stretch.  However, "late" calls help keep people happy and fighting, and are generally accepted.  Just give fighters nearby a friendly heads up that you are still alive.  If you've been dead for a while, just stay dead, especially if being alive again would give you a very big advantage (behind enemy lines, etc) that you didn't already have.

6) "Point!". Guy throws a javelin, hits with the haft, then yells "point!" expectantly, thinking he has landed a good, point first javelin hit.  The rules are honor based, you are in no way bound to his call of point,  if it indeed hit with the haft.  This call is something that probably should be replaced with "haft" or "nothing" when the thrower is pretty sure the hit wasn't valid, or "javelin" if someone is looking around to see what hit them.

7) "Pool cueing double greens". There was recently a large discussion about this one.  Pool cueing is letting the spear/glaive slide through one hand while pushing with the other.  Dagorhir specifically labels this as a one-handed stab, Bele doesn't specify. I call them as a single when I glaive, but others want to call them double.  This is because the rules say "when wielded with two hands", leaving the amount of effort applied by the second hand undefined. Many play it like Dagorhir, where both hands have to be firmly gripping the weapon from the start of the stab until contact is made.

8) "Calling colors". While the Belegarth rules only specify that you need to call "two" when attacking from behind with a two-handed weapon, the general practice is to call the type of hit if it is anything other than a one-handed, swung weapon. Preference seems to be calling colors: red for class two and green for class three, while calling blue for one handers from behind.  Also, calling stabs as "single" or "double" is acceptable, especially for polearms that switch between one and two handed often.

9) "acknowledging hits". Calling hand, armor, light, garb, graze, pierced arms, and any other call about how you got hit and didn't take a wound or die isn't required by the rules.  However, playability says otherwise.  Even if it is a few second afterwards, a call can help clear up the situation and prevent your opponent from getting upset that you aren't taking hits.  As long as you are correctly taking your hits, missing a call here or there isn't the end of the world, just do your best to call what you can.

10) "Solid Shield Breaking Hits".  Different places have different standards on how hard a class two weapon needs to hit a shield to qualify as a shield breaking hit, especially when adding in Dagorhir* realms.  Some realms encourage the idea that it only needs to be as hard it would need to be to count against a limb. Most large events play it as needing a significant amount of extra power to break shields.  This probably comes from the historical/practical argument of "would that shot have actually damaged a shield in a significant way".  I prefer the heavier hitting style, on both sides of the hit.  As a two-hander, I'd rather people only take "good" swings, rather than lighter hits that weren't intended to break their shield.  As a shieldman, I expect other red users to be capable of the same hits.

*Dagorhir has a few extra rules towards discounting the hits that could easily be misread to mean "if it hits a weapon first, it doesn't count." As best I can tell, that isn't at all the intention, but I have seen it played as such.
---
Parting thought: bastard swords (min red) aren't really intended to be great for breaking shields. Try hunting armor instead.

Heralds

Dude, I totally killed you."
"There's no way that was your arm, you're dead."
"Point, that javelin killed you."

--Random, but common phrases uttered on the fields of Belegarth and Dagorhir.


First off, a reminder: heralds/marshals are the only people who can call someone "dead" or even bring someone back to life.  Archers are the only fighters that can call their shots (as in that arrow hit you in the torso, not arm). Even calling "point" on a javelin is pushing the boundaries of acceptable practices, especially if you follow it with the expectation that they take the hit.  Granted, I occasionally find myself questioning how someone took (or didn't take) a hit, but I usually try to ask them when the fight is over. Or keep swinging until one of us calls themself dead.

"But what if I know, 100%, that guy is cheating?"

Well, that is why we have heralds.  Ideally, their presence alone will keep most people honest, to the best of their hit registering ability.  Of course, people will miss shots or end up in a confusing situations.  This is where heralds start making calls in order to clean up the situation.

Not every call they make will be 100% accurate, and that is ok.  They are trying to fix a bad situation, and will do their best to call someone dead before things get too complicated or messy.  They also won't hesitate to call people dead for safety reasons, because maintaining a safe field is far more important than one fighter's success.

"That herald made a bad call, I disagree, I'll give him a piece of my mind."

Adrenaline plus being told you are dead, when "clearly" you weren't, trips that moment when you want to argue with someone.  Stop, breath, calm down.  Remember, Bele and Dag specifically give heralds the right to kick you off of the field if you are being a problem. Arguing with one probably is a quick way to get them to send you to the sidelines.  And if they don't, I know quite a few people that would be happy to escort you there.

After the fight, ask them, politely. Sometimes their vantage point gives them a better angle to judge some shots.  Other times it is worse.  Sometimes what you felt and what they saw are two very different things.  They made the call that seemed the most appropriate from their perspective. Oh well, move along, the next fight is starting in about ten seconds.

"I've never seen that herald fight, they don't know enough to call hits."

Fighting and heralding are two very different things.  There are good fighters that are terrible at it, and there are people that rarely or never fight that are incredible at it.  Odds are, if a non-fighter is heralding, they've actually read and studied the rules far more than most fighters.  I also know quite a few great heralds that rarely fight today, but have a long career before you even caught a glimpse of them.

Do we really think NFL, NBA, or NHL refs are amazing, former pro players?  Probably not, but they have spent a good deal of time learning how to do the job.

"I want to herald!"

Great.  First things first, read the rules, a few times. Make sure to ask vets how your realm (or event) are handling any grey areas (that probably should be another post, huh?).  I don't recommend starting at an event, get some training by following a good herald at a local practice. Make sure to ask what they are seeing and hearing. And yes, the sound of a sword hitting a shield is different that it hitting a body.

Different heralds have different approaches.  I air on the side of "looked like it was probably blocked enough to be light" and try to only make calls if truly necessary.  Others take the "I saw it make contact and he didn't call light, so he's dead" approach, and make several calls.  Neither are perfect; I miss a few shots that should be called, but their style makes a few more "bad" calls.  Try to strike a balance and set a standard for when you want to step in and make a call.  Just be sure you are close to the fight, move with the battle.

Oddly enough, I usually end up making far more calls about arrows than poor hit taking. Archers and targets can't always see deflection or where the arrow hit.  Being perpendicular to the shot gives you a great angle to judge. Because arrow rules are less well know to newer fighters and smaller realms, this is when knowing the rulebook well comes in handy.

TL;DR: Listen to heralds, they are doing you a favor by running the field so everyone else can fight.

Take your hits!

Glaive

Okfest was a great event. Had a great time. I also had several people ask me for a few tips and tricks to using a glaive. I have a guide floating around the net, though it is a bit out of date. If you want to see a sampling of glaive fighting, check out this video. (I may be a little biased to recommend watching it...)
I decided it might be a good idea to jot down the basics from scratch, because I haven't thought about it for a while. This is geared mostly towards learning to break shields in an safe and efficient way. This isn't always the best place to start for someone completely new to red weapons, so I'd recommend some practice off the field to gauge your ability to do so safely.

One of the first things I hear from people (except those using a ultralight glaive) is about how heavy the weapon is. Most people attempt to wield it more like a spear, and try generating power for shield breaking hits from a low stance. That is rarely going to work and will be very tiring.

The weight in the head of a glaive is a great tool to use to help you get good, solid hits. Starting with a high stance, gravity will do most of the work. You really only have to push/pull for the first half of the swing to get a medium power shield break. Much more than that is mostly wasted effort and adds a bit of danger. Applying too much power for the strike usually means you will spend that much extra to recover from it.

Shield Breaking

The main shield breaking hit I use starts in a high stance, with the tip of the glaive being nearly pointed strait up, then coming down at around a 45 degree angle. The angle changes for safety and space available to swing.  Tightly packed lines make this more dangerous and push the swing to more of a 60-70 degree angle. The target is the shoulder, not the shield. If they block, great, it is probably a solid, shield breaking hit. If they don't, they are dead, even better. Obviously, there is inherent danger to the target's head here, so please get some practice before going onto the field and trying this.

Of course, without a proper base, all that weight swinging around will take you off balance. Take a nice, wide stance, with your front leg and top hand on the same side as you are striking at, ie. right foot/hand forward for breaking shields. Grip the glaive so that your back/bottom hand is against the pommel and your front/top hand is close to the incidental padding. While swinging, this gives you a good mix of control and range.  Moving your front hand back reduces control, but adds reach and vise versa.

As you swing, you will shift your weight forward, bending the front knee slightly. With the swing, push out with your front hand as you pull your back hand towards your hip. As you recover, you shift your weight back, extending the front leg and pulling your lead hand back. This not only helps generate power, but also modifies your range in the most advantageous way. You gain several inches of reach for striking, and then take away that much from the enemy's counter.  By pulling your center of gravity and hand back, you also block off one of the most probable returns, that which targets your arm closest to the enemy.

If your hits aren't landing sufficient to break a shield, add a little bit of twist in your hip and push/pull through a wider part of your swing. If you feel too slow on recovery, back off some of your power for the swing. Ideally, you want to ride the fine line between speed and power until you can safely throw a large number of shots quickly that will still be hard enough to break shields.  All of that being secondary to safety.  Only add power when absolutely necessary, because more power means more risk to the opponent.

High to Low Sweep

Without doubt, there are many other targets than shields. The reason to learn/master the above is so you develop body mechanics that help you with other strikes, and to get into a flow that will reduce the chances of headshots. Your next primary target is then the opponent's lead leg. If you start from the high stance, you can switch to targeting a leg mid-swing by lifting your back hand. The effect should be a smooth curve, pulling around the shield to hit mid-calf or higher.

High to Low sweep at close range, at about the point of impact.
Photo by: Ellie Apland

Most people learning this shot at first put more effort into it than needed, resulting in a lot of wasted effort.  That "smooth" feeling is from letting the glaive do the work.  The proper leg hit here is actually less effort than a heavy shield hit.  You are still doing the push/pull mechanic with your arms, but are now doing so more to change the direction than to add power.  If you find your back/abs/arms are getting sore or feeling overworked doing this shot, change when you start the curve (when you raise your back hand).  Also, remember, the front/top hand ends up going through a curved motion and should act as a fulcrum for the glaive's rotation, but you are letting gravity do the work of adding most of the power to the shot.

The first few times you try this, you'll see a good bit of success, especially at events.  However, veteran fighters will look to cut the angle of the attack off, either by advancing into the incidental padding or pushing their shield down to cut off the curve before it gets to their leg.  You really need to make this more of a "as needed" shot, rather than your main tool.  Make them raise their shield by throwing a few good shoulder shots, then switch to one of these.  With an ultralight glaive, you can also fake this shot, then go for their shoulder.

High to Low to Backhand

Should you miss the leg sweep (or do so intentionally), you now have the glaive on the opponent's sword side, under their guard. This is the perfect opportunity to hit them with a backhand strike. Targeting their arm or armpit mirrors the body mechanics of the normal recovery from a swing. To hit lower (under their guard towards the hip), you'll need to roll your right shoulder back. Rocking back here causes the blade to rotate so you don't flat them and changes the angle of recovery to hit them hip level. It should feel like you are leaning back, into the swing.  This also adds to the overall power of the shot.

You will rarely be breaking shields here, but you can easily generate the power needed to punch through body armor.  Even if you only manage a light shield shot, you've now forced the opponent to worry about you.  Very few will rush against the backhand, because they will often have to open themselves up (or punch block a glaive...) in order to get to you without taking a hip shot. 

This is where working with another reach weapon can really make a difference. By pressuring the lower sword side, the opponent is usually going to expose their upper shield side.  If you have a buddy glaive to your right, the normal shield breaking swing will often be a shoulder shot now.  Even someone with a longsword might benefit from the opening you make here.

Suppression

The other nice thing about the backhand is that you don't have to target the person that you "missed" with the leg sweep.  Once the sweep is completed, you can pull your hands in a bit and sweep past your initial target, then extend your arms to hit a different target altogether. By switching targets in this way, it forces a larger group of people to worry about you. It also keeps that new target from rushing you, which he was probably thinking about when you swung. This is what I generally refer to as "suppression", pushing your weight around to force people to deal with you.

The ones pointed out are prime targets to be dispatched by either you, or your buddy with a polearm.  The corner's of a kill pocket offer you targets if a friendly polearm is stuck in the middle of one. 

 

Regardless of the actual damage you deal, suppressing a group of enemies, at the very least, buys your team time to deal with them. One sweep can get 5-6 people to back up or shift their stance to dodge.  Several sweeps and stabs can cause a large kill pocket to form around you, but not advance. This is dangerous for you, but does open a few people up.  The enemy to either side of the kill pocket (the ones that didn't curve away from you) are now exposed on their flank facing the kill pocket. This is a GREAT time to switch positions to the edge of the pocket, and destroy one of those guys. 

If you see another glaive suppressing a kill pocket, those edges are also a great spot to line up in support.  The corners of the pocket (the first guy turned in a bit) are weak to just outside of the pocket. You can line up roughly across from the first guy that didn't turn into the pocket and stab along the side of the pocket.  You won't get too many stabs in before they end up shifting to counter it, but if you hurry, you might break the pocket open.

Supply Lines

Many of the notable works about military strategy (Art of War, The Prince, etc) talk at length about supply lines. Sword fighters often disregard those chapters because it rarely comes into play. While much of the more large scale, strategic applications will rarely be simulated by Belegarth, it did occur to me that sometimes we see a smaller scale of supply lines: respawns.

At WAR this weekend, it became paramount to control the flow of respawns, much as one might cut off supplies before a siege, etc. Those paths that connected the respawn point to an objective could be compared to a main supply route. By raiding or blockading such areas, a team could reduce the enemy's ability to reinforce or control objectives.




I may have swapped my colors around.  This is what it looked like during the first round (actual headband colors are opposite).  Not to scale, of course, but the path for the red respawn is more direct to the action, and is very difficult to cut off from its own castle.

Red team used this idea to come back from a large deficit in the second half. Rather than simply attack and hold the objectives, the team pushed past them to control the supply lines, leaving only a small reserve to secure the objective. Of course, this strategy was much stronger from the higher, more open ground which red team started with in the second round.

From the forest side, this strategy is much harder, largely because the open field allows the hill side free access to two objectives from their respawn point. That makes it only really possible for a strong forest team to choke off three points from the enemy supply route. The hill side can, with less people, choke off all five objectives from the supply route. Previous years saw some of this, but the forest side castle and respawn point were in slightly better positions to counteract blockades.  Due to the location this year, the blue respawn point doesn't force the enemy to fight on two fronts to siege the castle.



Correct team coloring this time.  Red team had all five points controlled early by blocking off the two main supply routes out of the blue team respawn.  Thanks to a sneaky group (and Liz, all her fault), they were able to deploy a small force behind red lines.

You can see in the above picture, that a small force of red team was able to tie up a much larger force, using the natural choke points and limiting the blue team's ability to attack anywhere other than a prepared front.  Because blue team needs to get out of this choke point in order to gain any ground, they have to be very aggressive in attacking.  This makes kill pockets and solid defense with support weapons extremely effective for the red team.

Valkyries (mobile respawn points) could act as forward bases, opening new supply lines for their team.  While often they end up being more of a tool for getting troops to the front faster, this role as a sort of supply base also allowed a team to break blockades with a small number of troops.  By taking a longer, more difficult path around the enemy, the Valkyrie and a small group could end up behind enemy lines.

It was thanks to this raid on the backfield that allows blue team some room to breathe and finally push out of the choke points.  Even though the group in the backfield was small, the additional casualties weakens the front line and runs through Valkyrie respawns quickly.  It also forces red team to take a wider front to try to block off the advance.

The backfield raiding, though, wasn't quite enough to stifle the damage already done by red team holding all five objectives for an extended period, but it did prevent them from gaining a decisive lead.  The final score was only separated by a single point (equivalent to 1 minute of holding your own castle).

TL;DR: The path to the respawn point acts as a supply route in traditional military strategy.  Take the supply route and you can control the area much more effectively.

Shield Work

It just occurred to me, after demonstrating how to kill a legged opponent to a new fighter, that I had completely missed the topic of shield work on here. Most early training focuses on defense and a few basic strikes, but often misses the utility of using a shield on the offense.

I realize some of this needs to be elaborated on, or at least needs pictures. I'll see if I can't get around to updating it soon*.

Bashing
Knocking people over can sometimes be the simplest way to finish a fight or break a stalemate. Unless your opponents are pretty decent with the wrap shot while falling, a good shield bash can leave you with a variety of openings to exploit. If you manage to knock then down, their legs will become the obvious targets. If they keep their footing (or stay up on that knee), you might get a chance to hit an opening as they use their arms to balance, thereby opening their guard slightly.

One thing to keep in mind while bashing is that your shield will have a tendency to rise while extending your arms. This gives you a good chance of bashing someone in the face, or pushing their shield into it. It is advisable to bend at the knees and then lean into the bash, thus giving it extra power and reducing the chances of face bashing due to the lowered stance. Placing your sword hand behind the shield and pushing will add a little extra stability.

The risk with bashing, is that you bring the plane of defense inside your opponents threat range. This makes it much easier for swings to get around your shield. Placing your bash slightly off-center, towards the opponent's sword, mitigates some of the risk. Regardless of precaution, wrap shots are still deadly at this range.

Checking/Punching
Shield contact is useful for moving the opponent's guard. Doing so without closing in to bash is often safer and can prove more effective. The key to a good shield punch or check is to move their guard while cutting off their angle of attack. A punch to the sword-side edge, for example, opens their shield side to attack while pushing their sword side back. Because of the position of the shields, their only clear targets are your shield leg and a high cross to the chest.

Checking their sword side is much safer, as their offense is pushed away and the angle of attack is more in your favor. Checking to the shield side is more dangerous (except in the case of lefty vs righty). When checking the shield side, your defenses move over, cutting off much of your own angles while offering your opponent a clear shot at your shield shoulder

The angle of the shield during a punch is usually vertical, hitting along the slot between their sword and shield. This causes the opposite edge to open up. Changing the angle changes the opening. Punching at a 45 degree angle along the top (read: dangerously close to face) opens the bottom edge to a hip wrap. Punching with the edge across the face of the shield acts much like a longer ranged bash, but opens up even more of your lower body. Punching downward (trying to catch some of the sword side curve on a round) sometimes lowers their defense against high crosses.

The Rip
A rip is using the back of the shield edge to pull open the opponent's defenses. By itself, it is fairly risky, greatly exposing your chest to high crosses or stabs from down swords. The range is much closer than more shield work, excluding the bash. I find that leading into the rip with a short cross to their sword while closing the distance to be quite effective. If you are lucky, the cross will force their sword into the path of the rip. In that case, the rip will turn all of their defense to their shield side, allowing you to easily dispatch them with a high cross.

If you miss the sword, they have two options. They can attack your shield side (which will become exposed as you follow through), or they can defend their exposed chest. Attacking means they will still be open to the high cross. Defending will negate the risk, but only serves to reset the fight into a very close range.

A note here, they can counter the rip with a short cross or high cross, potentially killing you or tying up your sword. Mitigate your risk by executing the whole combination (cross, rip, cross, for example) quickly. The less time your opponent has between steps, the less likely they are to counter.

Lands, Units, and Gear

I've had several people ask me a few good questions lately, so I thought it was probably a good idea to do another post.

I saw a thing on forgedfoam.com, can I get it delivered to practice?

The short answer is probably. Sirs Galin and Piper run the shop and frequent our practices. If they aren't too busy, they will usually accommodate such requests. Just send an email to orders@forgedfoam.com and ask before, instead of doing any orders. Makes sure to let them know you are a new fighter in Numenor.

Can I make my own gear?

Yes. A few recommendations here though. Get a vet to help you with your first attempts. Forged Foam does sell materials, and the foam they have is far better than using what you will find at Walmart. When in doubt, talk to some of us vets and we'll steer you in the right direction.

What is this lands thing I keep hearing about?

In the feudal system, a lord might give his knights lands to live on. Each knight would then have civilians living on their lands. Something like that anyway.

We are trying to emulate that within the local group by having knights take a few new people under their wing (living on their lands). Squires and retainers help the knights tend to their lands, mostly by helping train new fighters.

As they can, Knights and their subordinates will help get new fighters trained and into basic garb, with a goal of ensuring them some success at Oktoberfest. We might do a few lands battles or divvy up teams by lands on occasion, so knights get a chance to fight along side those living on their lands.

Fair warning, this is an old system that is being used for the first time in many years.

How do lands and units interact?

They don't. You can be part of any unit, regardless of whose land you are on. 

What exactly is a unit, anyway?

From a few friends that all want to wear the same style of garb, to extensive groups spread across the country, units are usually groups that work together on the field and enjoy hanging out off the field. At events like Oktoberfest, they'll almost always camp together.

Different units usually have different goals when fighting. Dark Guard likes to flank, Uruk-hai is usually armored up line fighters, and Dunedain teaches everyone archery. Talk to different people and ask about their unit, if you are interested. If you go to Oktoberfesr, ask a vet to show you around so you can meet units that don't have a local following.