The Weekly Warfare   Musings martial from across the SCA

Armored Woods Battle: A Good Walk Spoiled

Tuesday morning I dragged the cart full of armor up Mt. Eislinn and, being all warmed up and stuff, proceeded to try to find someone to hit.  His Excellency was gone in to town to find a way to resolve flooding issues in his tent, and the gathered fighters milled around until Alain nominated me to be in charge.  If people want to run that risk, let ’em.  We had 3 shieldmen, 3 spearmen, and me and my polearm, so we columned up right near the front of Atlantia and prepared to set out (though, not before a Mid Realm guerilla-hornet stung Gawin and me in the eye).

The woods battle plan was an interesting experiment: Both sides’ rez points (more “Rez zones” than rez points, walled off with tape) were at one end of a rough rectangle, with the woods sloping uphill from there.  The idea, basically, was that this would guarantee more or less equal hikes from rez point to the banner, though the The Mid Realm, having lost the valley battle the day before, was given a banner to place and station units around in the woods before Lay On.

The Mid favored their side (the “left” side of the woods) with the banner placement, though we didn’t know where it would be.  Some of their forces were placed at the top of the hill on the right side, facing Atlantia’s rez point, to interdict our advance.  What this would really mean is that their forces were spread out through the woods, not concentrated, and susceptible to being dispatched in detail by flying columns.  Like the East, Aethelmarc, and Atlantia formed.

Atlantia’s column (With, as mentioned, Windmasters near the front) formed the right edge of the East’s army.  We were going to march up the hill and hit flank of that picket line. Which we did.  Without breaking pace.  The picket crumbled in front of us, we kept moving, and soon found ourselves on top of their banner, which had already been occupied by an Aethelmarcian or Eastern unit.  At this point I had not even gotten to swing at somebody, and Windmasters was down only one fighter.  Atlantia rallied, regrouped, and formed up as a reinforcing unit behind the Eastern army, which was by this point already closing off the exit from the Mid’s rez zone.  From here on out, it got dull.

The front couldn’t have been more than fifty feet, so we were stacked row upon row and couldn’t really even get close to the line for a long time.  At one point I found a small rise to stand on, and saw a field of helmets forward and back, just a huge mass of humanity with only a few of them in the middle engaged in a shoving and hitting match.  The rest of us were just enjoying nature.  Eventually Atlantia moved forward, reinforced, and we received a charge during which I received a spear shot while grounding a shieldman, so it was back to rez for me.  In total I maybe engaged five times, always when we received charges.  The Mid would charge, their charge would disintegrate, and we’d step forward three paces.  Wash, rinse, repeat for most of an hour.  Eventually, the kings of the East and Mid parlayed and the Mid yielded the point, but requested to continue fighting.  Sides were balanced a little bit and the fighting continued, but I was already headed down to

The Rapier Field Battle

This was the rapier 40 for XL battles, the one where all our fencers, including our honorary citizens, turned out to fight alongside us.  All told we had nearly 30 fighters (not quite 40, but dang close) with Windmasters capes on, and it was glorious.

Atlantia had the left flank, Windmasters formed the right end of Atlantia’s line, so we were center-left (More Bill Clinton than Dennis Kucinich).  The plan was Atlantia would charge, roll the enemy, and sweep down the field, also known as “S.O.P.”  At lay on we set out at a trot.  Aethelmarc and Trimaris, in the center, trailed behind us a little bit and I had some unpleasant premonitions, but the enemy unit in front of us was sliding up-field to face us, and opening a huge gap of their own.  Windmasters hit, occupied that unit, and Letia with her flanking unit charged into the backfield.  Trimaris came running in to join them, but I pointed out that there was a reserve unit coming upfield to hit us, and maybe Trimaris could do something with that.  About the time I finished that conversation, the enemy unit in front of us had disintegrated and Atlantia was rolling in a body towards the center, with Windmasters’ banner at the fore.

Really it was pretty sweet (Thank you Mistress Clare for taking these!)

I was well back from the army, was unlikely to catch up, so I pulled mop-up duty and dispatched solo fighters until the end of the fighting.

Remember that thing I said about not optimally planned?  Yeah, the second field battle was a stellar example.  Here, again, was another “great experiment”, though this one was not cancelled.  The two sides each had 100 hay bales that they could place on the field.  Bales could be fought over, but not stepped over.

The East, blessed with numerical superiority and Atlantia, declined to waste energy on that.  The Mid, outnumbered and Atlantia-deprived, did exactly what they should have done: Made a limited front that they could defend with a killing cup.  I really can’t fault them for it, it was tactically the right thing to do.  But it was a stupid battle.  Luckily I, for various reasons, took myself off the field at the start of it and got to sit on a hay bale and watch, and also do pickups with other fighters from the Knowne Worlde.

Oh, and the Windmasters Banner was at the front, again.

There was a small bit of entertainment.  Due to the construction of the Mid’s “barn”, there was a small gap between two haybales, covered by a third.  The marshal said if we could get through, we could get through, but the Mid king was certain nobody could fit through.  The Mid king did not know about the Benjamin Delivery System.  Ben dropped his swords, wiggled through the hole, had his swords handed to him, and set about DFB’ing the killing cup.  Another fencer or two squeezed through, too, before a marshal yelled “Hold” and bawled out the Atlantians responsible for this.  The Mid King insisted the bales had been moved (they hadn’t) and the marshal kept the Atlantians in hold until the end of the battle.  But damn it was funny.

At some point, the East stepped back, the Mid came out, there was some fighting, and then the Mid fell back into the barn.  The East eventually pushed in, and it was over.  But those pickup fights sure were fun.