Pennsic 46 - War Points and Tournaments

Tournaments!

I only managed to participate in two tournaments this year, but they were both good experiences. On Wednesday after the Woods Battle all of us folks who work from manuals trekked our way to the fencing field in order to fight in the By the Book tournament. Despite the wretched timing, I think there was a bigger turnout than last year, which was great! Because of the wretched timing, it ran up against the Edmund the Lame Memorial Tournament, and was changed from its normal round robin setup, which was less great.

There were three lists, each with about 10 people. We ended up fighting double elimination, just to get done in time for Eastern Court. I fought Rafael of the Thieves of Hearts first, and we had a close fight, but he eventually won. I followed that up by fighting Remy (a thing I definitely never do). This was particularly unfortunate since I don't think that my Fabris fighting is the best way for me to fight him (I don't have specific thoughts on the why of this, but I probably should develop some). I stuck by the point of the tournament and stayed within the realms of Fabris, and he did in fact defeat me.

I admit, I've never been more ok with getting out of a tournament quickly. A shower before court was calling my name.

It turned out sticking to Fabris as well as I could was definitely the right play. I ended up winning the prize for best showing the style I intended to! For this I (amusingly) acquired a new book on I33.

The other tournament I took part in was the Ladies' Tourney. 40 women came out to play for that one, which was amazing. Each list had 10 people - mine included both Rowan and Camille, but I got to fight 7 people who I didn't know, too. I had specifically decided to make it to this tournament so that I could be there for women fencers, and try to be a role model (it's still occasionally strange to think of myself as a role model, but I do realize it's true). So I made myself make conversation and be more gregarious than I might normally be in a tournament. It ended up being quite fun, and I had several good fights. I made it out of my pool into the single elimination, best two of three, final 8.

I fought Eirne from Eoldermere. I had never fought her before, and she was a unique combination of quite tall and very aggressive. She's also quite fast. I won the first pass, but she adjusted quickly to my own aggression and she daggered me the other two fights. I was particularly vulnerable to that style, since I was fighting buckler, and I applaud her quick learning in the fights.

She went on to fight in the finals against Isolde. They had some vicious (but courteous!) fights, and in the end Isolde won the day.

I was very glad to have fought in that tournament, and I'm likely to participate again.

War Points!

Tuesday, the longest day, and yet not as long as I was worried it would be. The weather I'm sure helped with that feeling. It was gorgeous.

There were four Field Battles, each worth a war point. The Handsome Boys were holding down the north side of the field. The intention was that we push through the other side, with the Thieves and the Calivers, and be the hammer to the anvil that was waiting on the other side of the field. When this was planned, there was a single caveat- that we probably wouldn't be able to do this if we ended up across from Atlantia. And of course, we did end up in that position, and we did not generally manage to break through. But we held out long enough for people to our south do turn into a hammer, and it was amazing. I know that the Southern Army was the hammer at times (and they were inducted into the Blue Tyger Legion for their efforts!), and Loch Levan was able to find an internal flank and open them like a can. We won all four runs, but we had to work for them. The army really came together for these fights.

The Ruins Battle was much the same as in previous years, although the flags seemed even more off centered than usual. The Handsome Boys spent the first two thirds of the battle smashing into the other side up by the castle. We tried to find holes all up and down their line, and down into the building, and while we had some good pushes we never managed to get through. We did keep them very busy, and so our compatriots to the south were able to take advantage and own the flags down there.

After we switched sides, taking and keeping the top two flags became much easier, thanks to the distance difference. I believe that I heard that we mostly retained the southern flags, too. So again, the army worked beautifully. 

Wednesday was the Woods Battle. Our job was flag three, which the enemy barely tried to touch. They had one push where they almost got to our flag, and then they never really tried again. We had skirmishers out in front of the line, and the other side didn't want to get past them. So our line did a great job, even if we did a lot of looking pretty. Sometimes it's exactly what a soldier needs to do.

The other two flags had much more pressure on them, but still came away successful. 

And last we had the Stronghold Battle on Friday. This first came into being last year, and was an interesting experiment, but ended up being a very small amount of fighting. Two changes this year made the entire war point much more fun - the defending team had an easier time rezzing, and we ran three times for each side. The times for the three runs were added, and the lower cumulative time won the war point.

The Purple side defended first. Handsome Boys were with the Thieves of Hearts on the right side. We would send some people forward to distract their line, and then stand for as long as we could. We had some issues with falling back with the rest of the army, and so we had to recover from a few gaps. But in the end we held them off for something like 6, 4, and 3 minutes (I don't have the specific times, unfortunately.) Good on them for adjusting and learning. This scenario really shows that sort of thing.

When we attacked, we were very aggressive. The flanks especially were told to push through and around, and each time one side or the other managed to do that. As our general, Remy carried a standard to whichever our closest rez point was so everyone could see how far we had gotten, and this was extremely useful.

I love this war point. I love the short, intense fighting, on both sides. I look forward to seeing it continue to morph and grow.

The Purple Army did a fantastic job all week, and it was an absolute pleasure to fight alongside you. Thank you also to the other side for for being skilled and courteous opponents. 

Pennsic XLV

Pennsic was warm, and humid. But that didn't stop me from having a great time, and being very busy.

I went to command meetings with Countess Marguerite as the leaders of the Handsome Boys. These were generally fast and organized. And more often than not, the plans that were put in place by General Malocchio were very successful.

I moved a lot of hay bales, and so did many other people. Thank you to everyone who helped out with that - without you we would never have gotten to fight.

I went to a class on padded embroidery. The kit was fantastic, but the class was far too short to get to everything, and unfortunately the bits I'd hoped to see (detached button stitch around wire frames) were all at the end. Hopefully the kit will prove useful on its own.

I did some heralding, mostly behind the scenes, but I read a little.

I played music vaguely in public and it went ok, and want to see about starting to get involved playing music for dancing. Because who needs free time.

I fought my fellow Handsome Boys for our annual Handsomest Boy prize. I'm actually not terribly pleased with my fighting in that tournament, but the important part is that we continue to go together every year and celebrate the awesome people in our number. Congratulations to Urraka and Catalina!

I slogged through a long, late battle on Monday. I spent most of my time up at the castle with the Handsome Boy and Calivers, and generally speaking we had a delightful, friendly time. The flag traded hands in a way that we expected, but we were always able to get it back. We managed to not lose anyone to the heat - people took breaks, but no one was ever out for the battle.
I was occasionally sent further down the line the orchard, and helped with a good push, and stopped a break through in our line.
If not for the ridiculous holds and how late we started I would have come out of this battling feeling only good things about my performance and the performance of my unit.

I ran through Tuesday's battle. The speed certainly made up for Monday's pain. Six total minutes fighting, with not a single hold. It was fast, it was furious, and I really enjoyed it. Being the defenders first was a little disheartening - they did it so quickly! We never got to rez! But it turns out that's just how the battle works. We did amazing when we were on the offense, and tore through their lines. And we did it 46 seconds faster than they did!
I think this could be a really fun battle to run several times in row. It's faster even than the field battle, and that could make for some interesting adjustments in tactics as you went.

I was really looking forward to the woods on Thursday, and was sad about all of the weather problems. I'm kind of glad we didn't do the backup battle, partially because I was done with moving hay bales by then. Next year, hopefully, we can get our woods on again.

I was frustrated by Friday's field battle. Our first run had a lot of small mistakes that added up. We spread out too much on our end, and we paid the price. The second run went much better, but we still couldn't pull it out. On the third go, the troops were moved around. It was now the Handsome Boys job to push instead of hold, and once again they pushed gloriously.

I did pickups with a lot of great people - although not as many as I may have liked. That's been a common theme I've heard.

I fought in the Ansteorra tournament. I didn't do as well as I would have liked, but I had good opponents (all from Ansteorra!) and good feedback. Primarily - watch my distance, and make sure I turn my hand all the way to seconda or quarta when gaining the blade. Both of these mistakes got me killed. Both of them are fixable.

I fought in the By the Book Tournament for the very first time. I used Fabris, of course, and I was doing quite well. Unfortunately, the heat of the day and some visible lightning caused all battlefield activities to be canceled before we could finish the tournament. Next year I'll definitely be doing this one again.

Best of all, I watched people I love and respect be recognized in a variety of ways. Lupold and Sorcha were brought into the OGR. Dionisio and Doroga were made OSRs. The Handsome Boys were recognized by induction to the Blue Tyger Legion (which will have its own post when I figure out the words).

Fencing Catchup

I went down to the Southern Region Fencing Practice and much melee was had, as well as a qualifying tournament for champs.

In the tournament I was out in three, but my two losses were the first and second placers. I fought Antonio first, and didn't get as warmed up as I might have wanted to. I was using buckler, which may or may not have been a good choice. He got me under my right arm, which as we'll see is a pattern that I need to work on.
We fought again later (I kept buckler, because I wanted to experiment some) and things went ok.
I did other pickups that were also a lot of fun.
Melee was mostly me, Sorcha, and Urraka working together on the far edge. We did a couple of really good things, and a couple of times where we pushed too hard or not enough.

All in all, it was a great time and even though it was very far away, I'm glad we made the trip. Thanks for hosting, Southern Region!

I had a good practice the next Monday. I fought case with a dagger, which I usually try to avoid, and I actually did quite well. I always knew that buckler vs case was a crutch, I just wasn't too worried about getting rid of it. But I won't argue if I've managed to by accident.

Then Roses happened. I showed up very briefly (it was a busy weekend!) but I got to fight in the champs qualifier again, as well as the melee tryouts. This time I fought four fights before I was out, but both of my losses were again under my right arm - and only one of those was a lefty. I again fought the first and second place finishers. This time while I lost to the first place, I won against the second, and I am very excited about that. I had surprise on my side, but I made use of it.

Melees this time we were split up based on our units, so I was with Urraka and Katsu (for the event was very Handsome Boy light, and out Southern folks are going to fight with the South this year). The teams seemed pretty evenly matched - we would go back and forth on who won. We started near an end, and the other side steamrolled everyone during the first fight. They were extremely aggressive and we weren't remotely ready for it. After that we were in the middle, and had to make choices about whether to push or not. There was one time we should have pushed but instead did the stop and fence thing that is always awful, but we fixed that in future times. All in all, I was quite happy with how things went.

One thing that I noticed between the two tournaments was that my between fights time was very different. At the regional practice I tried to be all calm and not be distracted by anyone around me - which was helped by the fact that most of the people who might distract me were running the tournament. And by the third fight I was shaky and having adrenaline problems. At Roses there were a whole bunch of people that I was talking to and we would communally rest between the bouts. And even though it was ridiculously hot out, I didn't end up shaky or anything. Although I was definitely tired by the fourth fight.
I'm not entirely certain there's a causal relationship here. I also had much longer fights at the regional. But it's something I want to keep an eye on.

Practice Report - Lochleven Special Edition

The Lochleven practice this year was particularly melee-tastic. I'm okay with this, because the practice is always certain to have a good number and temperament of people to keep melee fun for hours. The only downside is that I did not get a lot of one on one fighting in.

We did some fox and hound drills for warm ups. This is a simple drill with three people - one person (fox) against two (hounds). If a hound kills the fox, they become the fox and new people cycle in. When the fox kills a hound the hound is immediately replaced.

We started with practicing zippering an opposing line. On the melee field you are engaged with the entire line if you are engaged with one person in that line. This means that if you can kill the person on the end and take their place, you can continue to kill down the line quite a ways before someone notices you. But this is only worthwhile if you have your line backing you up.
For the drill we created two lines of people who would fight with intent, but not take any hits from those across from them. One person would be outside the lines. At some point they would choose either line and start the zipper action. It was up to the opposing line to notice this, and follow in. It was also up to the line getting killed to try and recover from the action.
Observations from zippering -
     - The offensive line would win more often the defensive line. It is hard to recover from a good zipper (which is, of course, the point.)
     - The main way that the defensive line could recover was angle back as a line, removing the end (the weak part of the line) from the most dangerous part of the zipper. This could generally only be successfully done if the attackers hesitated.
     - The attackers could get in their own way. The initial zipperer needs to stay at a pretty significant angle to allow their friends to help without just blocking their path. Also, as the defensive line dies and gets shorter, the offensive line will inevitably push some people out. Those people can still be useful by screening or by going all the way around behind the defensive line (in the event that there are no reinforcements coming for them).

Like all drills, it only partially covered the experience of zippering, but I think people were more comfortable with it when we were done.

Next came doors! Doors are often the bane of fencing melees. We can't charge in our game, which makes a well made kill pocket difficult to counter. We set up a 9 foot door (about average for Pennsic) and put 7 or so people inside. Everyone else was on the outside. No one got any rezes. The task, of course, was simple - kill everyone on the other side of the door.
There was a learning curve for this drill. Breaking a kill pocket requires a delicate balance. You must be willing to sacrifice yourself - but only at the right time, and when you have support. You must be willing to throw yourself on swords - but without charging or bodily contact. You must all pile into the door and overwhelm your opponents - without getting in each other's way. A delicate, vicious, bruising, balance.
A certain amount of success comes from comfort level with that balance. There are definitely small scale tactics than can be used - shields make a good first rank, long weapons are good in the kill pocket, etc. But none of it matters if the attackers don't have comfort and trust in each other.

Then came larger scale melees. We did a simple 10 minute rez with one flag (since there were about 10 people on a team) with an undisclosed flag check. My team held the flag most of the time, and sure enough, we won that one.

We ran a small scale version of the new Pennsic War Point three times. We had three flags that needs to be captured by the offense, and each time they captured a flag their resurrection point moved to that flag, allowing for fast resurrections on their end. The defense started at the first flag and had to run back to their far rez point each time. It was a timed battle, to see who could capture all three flags the quickest. We were play testing it and finding kinks in the rules just as much as we were trying to teach the fighters how it would work. Our field was too small to get the full idea, but it seemed like it will be an interesting battle with a lot of new tactics when it is scaled up.

Bonus Monday practice!
After fighting with my buckler all Sunday for melees I decided it was buckler day at practice, too. I think it went pretty well. The buckler fighting that was working so well for me back in the fall (Fabris type dagger stnaces...but with buckler!) isn't working anymore, and I'm not certain what changed. But other techniques - more upright, weight back ones - are working better. Also, some of the dagger stances that I had barely touched in the fall were working - with sword in second or first instead of third.
I was being more aggressive. I fought Donovan near the end of the night and the first half we was wrecking me. I took a step back and tried to switch on(off?) my brain, and the difference was very obvious to both of us. The last few fights trended much more in my favor. I also fought Will Deth, who is a skilled and unique case fighter who has swords for miles. Last time I fought him, a week or two ago, it was with dagger and I was destroyed. This time I took buckler, and not only did it give me a better case defense (which I already knew) but I think knowing that upped my confidence and therefore my aggression. And all of those things added up to much better fights.