General SCA Thread

[LadyTevar]

Oyez, Oyez, My Lords and Ladies!

It is with heavy heart I announce the death of Tomas le Devoue, 4th Baron of the Barony of Blackstone Mountain.

Baron Tomas had been valiantly fighting Kidney Cancer, and was undergoing surgery at John Hopkins Hospital in Maryland. He had come through the surgery fine, but a few hours later died of complications.

He was not a young man when he began his reign, but he was full of life. He learned to fence, practiced archery, and aided his wife Rowan with all manner of A&S projects. Baron Tomas was also a flirt, collecting quite the collection of ladies for his 'Baronial Harem' over the years, all in great fun. He was a gentleman, and a wise head in counsel.

So, My Lords and Ladies, please join me in raising a cup to the memory of Baron Tomas, and then drink deep to drown the sorrow his death leaves behind.

[LadyTevar]

Greetings unto the Knowne Worlde from Lord Taranach McLeod of the Shadowclans,

This Missive is to inform, detail and coordinate the efforts for the
Pennsic Children's Water Battle.

I am your humble servant and coordinator for the activity and can be
found at the Shadowclans encampment located in N33 near the five
points road by the west gate. (Look for the big gothic cathedral). I
should be arriving by Saturday, August 7th.

Monetary donations can be made via Paypal to pinkfluffydoom@msn.com,
funds should arrive preferably by Friday, July 30th if possible to
expedite getting the order, although any donations coming in
afterwards would be fine. Please include a note with your Scadian and
mundane names and such so we know where it's coming from. We will be
ordering the toys from this fund rather than taking toy donations as
it really works best to have the same stuff in all three hundred bags.
Please consider smaller toy donations for the Children's Fete.

If anyone would like to donate their old (but functional) super
soakers or other implements of watery destruction, this would also be
helpful. We lose a fair number every year to the hordes of marauding
children as well as the PA weather, some get broken and some just
fail.

Candy donations should be limited to sets of 300 or more like items
and can be delivered to Lady Ameris or myself at the Shadowclans
encampment on N33 block. We're the ones with the big cathedral gate.
If either of us are not there please attach a note with your
name/group name and leave it with Frodak or Robert. PLEASE NO
CHOCOLATE!! Lady Ameris can also be reached for any further questions
regarding the "treasure" through her e-mail account,
sca.ameris@gmail.com which she will be checking throughout the war.

Volunteers are needed at a couple of times, anybody wishing to help
stuff "treasure bags" the first week should contact Lady Ameris
directly to find out details. We will need several volunteers early in
the morning (Around 7am) on the morning of the battle to help
transport equipment to the battlefield and to get the water filling
process started. This will not take long and three or four people to
monitor the filling will be needed from then until around 11am. We
would ask that the rest of the volunteers start showing up at the fort
by 11:00am (or the Shadowclans encampment just prior) and no later
than 11:30 so that we can disseminate the safety information to the
marshals and combatants as well as take care of any last minute setup
before the battle. I will be present at the encampment in the early
morning and between there and the castle from then until 11:00am when
I will be at the castle til the end.

Anyone wishing to Volunteer as part of the crew please send me an
e-mail at Taranach@gmail.com with who you are, number of volunteers
and their names, which group they are with and what role they wish to
play, i.e. adult combatant, setup or cleanup, or Marshal (please bring
a Marshal tabard and sports whistle!) I can also be reached at
570-267-4940 beforehand and once I am onsite.

We look forward to hosting a fantastic Water Battle this year thanks
to your generous support and volunteering. Vivat to all who can help!

Lord Taranach McLeod
Æthelmearc Siege Brigadier
Shadowclans East

[The Yosemite Bear]

*eyes supersoaker sitting on bookcase next to dalek*

now getting the damn thing across the country....

[LadyTevar]

Had a Pennsic Pity Party last night. Good food, lots of good company, and just enough booze to make everyone feel happy.

[Mobiboros]

Got back from Pennsic late last night.
Good war. Very hot the beginning of war week. Fought less than I usually do. But overall I had a lot of fun.

East and Allies Won, but the Mid and allies accorded themselves well.

[Rogue 9]

So what's this I'm hearing about the East, shields, giant suction cups, and changing the war rules mid-battle?

[Mobiboros]

So what's this I'm hearing about the East, shields, giant suction cups, and changing the war rules mid-battle?

Ha! Awesome. That actually got out.

Okay so no shit there I was...
Rapier Town battle, 5 flags to start, no death from behind, infinite resurrection, no RBGs but otherwise standard weapons restrictions.

Less than 5 minutes in a hold was called. The war commanders were in conference. We popped our tops and took a seat. Turns out of of the guys in my unit (Stabbity Doom, comprised of ppl who had no bigger units for form with) was using a Heavy List Spear as a Rigid Parry. Odd in itself but not illegal by the rules. Odder still because the tip had a suction cup in it (not giant, it was the same size as a standard spearhead, 3"). Again, very odd but not against the rules, per se (as a marshal myself, I'd have not allowed it but that's another discussion altogether). During this long hold the following negotiation was reached:
We'd cut down the number of flags from 5 to 3 because the field was just too damn large for the number of rapier fighters (A few hundred, but still way too big a field). The Spear would be removed from the field at the request of the Midrealm size, but also any shield larger than a standard size heater shield would be also removed (at the request of the eastern side).

Now, further, at the end of the battle (even though the East was ahead on points), we agreed to the Midrealm request. That request being that we wipe the points, everyone back on the field, no resurrection, last man standing.

And this turned into a rout. The East literally swept the field clean in like 2-3 minutes.

So it wasn't so much changing the war rules mid-battle as realizing there needed to actually be some sort of rules of order or people would bring ridiculous things onto the field.

That was the one Rapier snafu during the entire war.

[Rogue 9]

So what I'm hearing here is that your army... sucks?

More seriously: The suction cup idea was illegal and unsafe. There are no limitations on shield sizes in the Pennsic conventions. If the East wanted them, they should have negotiated for them, not cheated like the dishonorable sons of whores your command staff apparently are. Let's be crystal clear: It was not awesome. They cheated, and in admitting they were cheating argued that they'd give up cheating if legal shields were also removed from the field. Had I been there, my response would have been that if your commanders wanted my shield off the field they were perfectly free to kill me, and it would go when I did. I have no idea what would possess anyone to actually give in to such a demand.

[Mobiboros]

So what I'm hearing here is that your army... sucks?

Given we were outnumbered 1.3 to 1 and we swept all the warpoints by a wide margin in each battle. No, I'd say what you're hearing is that the midrealm army fought like hot garbage.

More seriously: The suction cup idea was illegal and unsafe.

Nnnno, it's perfectly legal. As I said, I'm a Marshal. There's nothing illegal about it. It's kinda idiotic from a tactical POV as in Rapier is won't stick to anything (since you can't strike with a rigid parry object), but it's not illegal.

<snip uninformed rant>

[/quote]

Okay, let me back up. My last post I was telling a story. I'll lay out in plain form what occurred. 5 minutes into the battle there were a number of "Illegal" moves done with "unwieldy" objects. The spear was excessively long and presented a tripping hazard but the wardoors created a previously unforseen problem. Shield bashing and shield charging, largely due to the weilders not being able to see what was in front of them. My wingman was knocked on his ass, I was bashed on my side hard enough to knock me into the guy next to me. And we weren't the only ones. A general hold was called and it was determined that objects larger than a standard heater or kite shield would be removed from the field for safety concerns. It wasn't a negotiation or concession really. But Schtick was HIGHLY played up this year. What it was was both sides realizing that there were safety concerns that had been unforseen due to so many Heavy List fighters coming over to Rapier and just bringing their gear.

That's all. No cheating. No dishonourable conduct. It was completely a safety concern voiced by both sides.

[Rogue 9]

So what I'm hearing here is that your army... sucks?

Given we were outnumbered 1.3 to 1 and we swept all the warpoints by a wide margin in each battle. No, I'd say what you're hearing is that the midrealm army fought like hot garbage.

Suction cups? Suck? Okay, fine, be that way.

More seriously: The suction cup idea was illegal and unsafe.

Nnnno, it's perfectly legal. As I said, I'm a Marshal. There's nothing illegal about it. It's kinda idiotic from a tactical POV as in Rapier is won't stick to anything (since you can't strike with a rigid parry object), but it's not illegal.

If it won't stick to anything because you can't strike with it, why do I hear about shields being ripped from people's hands by them?

<snip uninformed rant>

Okay, let me back up. My last post I was telling a story. I'll lay out in plain form what occurred. 5 minutes into the battle there were a number of "Illegal" moves done with "unwieldy" objects. The spear was excessively long and presented a tripping hazard but the wardoors created a previously unforseen problem. Shield bashing and shield charging, largely due to the weilders not being able to see what was in front of them. My wingman was knocked on his ass, I was bashed on my side hard enough to knock me into the guy next to me. And we weren't the only ones. A general hold was called and it was determined that objects larger than a standard heater or kite shield would be removed from the field for safety concerns. It wasn't a negotiation or concession really. But Schtick was HIGHLY played up this year. What it was was both sides realizing that there were safety concerns that had been unforseen due to so many Heavy List fighters coming over to Rapier and just bringing their gear.

That's all. No cheating. No dishonourable conduct. It was completely a safety concern voiced by both sides.

That's... something of a surprise. I didn't go to the war, but I go to events and kingdom war practices and we've been drilling shield wall tactics for over a year (as Baroness Warder Brighid well knows, I might add, seeing how she was our general before moving to Boston). The town battle scenario was meticulously duplicated at Simple Day and we drilled it until the chirurgeons made us stop due to heat danger. What you describe did not happen once at that or any other practice, for the simple reason that the plan was to kneel with the shields in the passes and doorways defined by the scenario (incidentally, since the battle revolved around relatively narrow fixed points, why did it matter how big the field was?) and not move to provide cover for the case line immediately behind. If this was happening, why are you the only Easterner of several I've heard from who gives anything other than whining about "overuse of scutums" as explanation for using equipment designed to bind and remove shields?

There are ways to break a shield wall. The East had lots of time to learn them; Brighid moved and went from heading our command structure to essentially heading yours at the beginning of the year knowing both our tactics and how to beat them. Instead, the option taken was apparently cheap tricks followed by a forced last minute change in a year's worth of drill. At my local practice we went out every week and ran that shit into the ground; you're surprised things went south after invalidating the entire Midrealm battle strategy?

[Mobiboros]

Suction cups? Suck? Okay, fine, be that way.

I missed the pun. My bad on that
Uhm, if it helps the Aethemearcian (-martian? -merean?) king fought like a wolf in the woods in Rapier.

If it won't stick to anything because you can't strike with it, why do I hear about shields being ripped from people's hands by them?

That's cause ppl like to tell stories. The guy was in my unit. It's a 9ft spear he was weilding one handed as a parry object. He didn't stick it to anything. It was a tripping hazard hough

In Heavy List he stuck it to things (Breastplates, metal shields, etc...). But in HL spearhooks are crazy polearms are common.

What you describe did not happen once at that or any other practice, for the simple reason that the plan was to kneel with the shields in the passes and doorways defined by the scenario

Then someone didn't give the right commands as they didn't kneel with them at all. Possibly because they didn't get to the doorways due to the big shields moving slower than the opposing force sprinting.

(incidentally, since the battle revolved around relatively narrow fixed points, why did it matter how big the field was?)

Because each side basically had a flag right out outside their res point. They were eliminated so that no one was forced to stand like 100ft away from the fun happening to guard essentially useless flags for both sides.

Also, relatively narrow is a good term. The corridors between buildings easily fit 20+ ppl abread, and the "doorways" were 4 ppl wide.

If this was happening, why are you the only Easterner of several I've heard from who gives anything other than whining about "overuse of scutums" as explanation for using equipment designed to bind and remove shields?

Cause ppl like to whine? Whereas I'm being honest as a marshal who was near where the deliberations were happening.

I could give less a damn about shield size. A scutum is idiotic to use because I am going to win fighting case against a guy who's maneuvarability is down due to the weight, who's vision is obscured due to it's size and who only has 1 weapon that i can bind up and still attack. The problem was shield bashing and safety.

There are ways to break a shield wall. The East had lots of time to learn them;

Ah, we know, were very good at it actually. A shield wall in rapier is rather a terrible tactic truly. A rapier can very easily get through tiny gaps. We've done it in years past.

Brighid moved and went from heading our command structure to essentially heading yours

I have no idea who Brighid is. Ogedai, Caine and Natalya were our command structure along with Edward, Marguerite and the Bloodguard.

Instead, the option taken was apparently cheap tricks followed by a forced last minute change in a year's worth of drill.

Actually we lost our large shields also as a result. Ya'll weren't the only one with shield units. It wasn't cheap tricks, it was safety. Ppl were getting knocked down, knocked over haybales, etc... it rapidly was dangerous. Maybe it was the heat (90 degrees, 50+% humidity, heat index over 100) making ppl stupid. But there it is. Both sides agreed it was a safety issue.

At my local practice we went out every week and ran that shit into the ground; you're surprised things went south after invalidating the entire Midrealm battle strategy?

You didn't plan for the contingency that the shield line would break up/fall apart? Ya'll didn't lose /all/ your shields, you only lost the 2.5ft wide, 4ft high wardoors (As did we). Which wasn't that many so far as I saw. You still had heaters and kites and rounds.

[LapsedPacifist]

I've been in the SCA off and on for 13-14 years, and fighting heavy off and on for ~10.

I really felt some reservations about my previous girlfriend's acceptance of it, and now my wife. But she wanted to go to an event, so this last weekend we packed up and hit the local war that some friends of mine were autocratting.

I lost all of the leather in my armor bag, so I wasn't able to fight. On Friday night there was a Jr. Marshall class so I took that so I could participate on some level. Had a good time. Learned that we are "quiet section" campers.

I had hoped that my wife would fall madly in love with the SCA and I could really become more active. Instead she had some fun and wants to go to some more events next season. I think I'll put that in the "W" column and hope she continues to enjoy it.

LP

[LadyTevar]

I'm glad your wife had fun, LP Which Kingdom? East? Atlantia?

[LapsedPacifist]

AnTir actually... Looks like I need to update my profile again.

[LadyTevar]

AnTir actually... Looks like I need to update my profile again.

Since your location says "EastCoast N. America"... yeah

[LadyTevar]

Nitram and I went to the Seige of Glengary event held in the Shire of Sylvan Glen, Aethelmearc. Enjoy the pictures!

[Rogue 9]

Won the thrown weapons tourney at Rendezvous at the Bridge on pure, dumb luck this weekend. I'd never thrown an axe a day in my life before. I was only over at the range in the first place to see if I still remembered how to throw a pilum.

[LadyTevar]

I hate feeling so tired that I have to miss an event.

On the other hand, I have 'won' the bid for AEthelmearc Spring Crown, which I didn't expect to get because the other bidder had never held Crown. Luckily(?) for me, the Majesties-to-be had been on the Thrones the last time we held Crown and adored the site. As soon as they saw we'd secured the same site, their minds were made up.

So, now I have insurance papers to acquire, event teaser/announcement to write, and other long-range planning. Only after January will I need to go frantic with the Reservationist and Cook and getting money to the right people at the right time. My plan for the Cook is easy -- ask her how much money she needs, what equipment I could get for her, and get out of her way.

[LadyTevar]

I find it amusing the first Royals to mark Blackstone Raid 20 as a Royal Progress was ATLANTIA. Our own AEthelmearc royals hadn't gotten that far yet!

So... 20yrs of Raids, big stuff planned. Trying to get Equestrian Games if we can. The Problem? It's Easter Weekend.

Then, two weekends later is AEthelmearc's Crown Tourney, which I'm autocratting. TRH (to be crowned in April) are already talking about how fantastic it was 2yrs back when we had Fall Crown at the same site. So many high expectations... I'm expecting it to pour the rain now.

[Michael Garrity]

Greetings all:

Is there any way I can use to find former members of the SCA? There is this one guy, Paul Marcute, who was involved in the SCA in the Salem, Massachusetts area in the early 1990s.
I commissioned a scabbard from him for my greatsword, I paid for it and then he seemingly dropped off the planet.

Mike Garrity

[LadyTevar]

Sorry, M'Lord... unless you want to try joining the email list-serv for East Kingdom, or taking out an advert in the Pikestaff, I do believe you're out of luck, and out of money.


However... which Kingdom are you living in now? Perhaps you may find another leatherworker to help you.

[Mobiboros]

Greetings all:

Is there any way I can use to find former members of the SCA? There is this one guy, Paul Marcute, who was involved in the SCA in the Salem, Massachusetts area in the early 1990s.
I commissioned a scabbard from him for my greatsword, I paid for it and then he seemingly dropped off the planet.

Mike Garrity

You could try one of the SCA Livejournal communities also. Maybe someone there knows the guy?

http://community.livejournal.com/sca/

[Michael Garrity]

Good Sir:

I have done as you suggested and posted my query on LiveJorunal. I have high hopes that I will at least find out what happened to Mr. Marcute.

My humble thanks for your kind suggestion:

Mike Garrity

[LadyTevar]

Still didn't answer my question, M'lord Garrety. Which kingdom do you owe allegiance?

[Michael Garrity]

Good Lady:

I have owed no allegiance to any kingdom since 1988, when I was living in in Colorado Springs in the Kingdom of the Outlands.

Mike Garrity