[Ansteorra-announce] Report on Heavy War Practice at Elfsea Defender

[GuyLestran at aol.com]

Greetings Heroes,

Here is a quick rundown on the Heavy War Practice.  We had 15-20 fighters
initially show.  This included two archers in armor.

Duke Kein spoke briefly on the following:

1. Establish a four tiered command structure:
A.    The Crown
B. Myself and my Lieutenant Generals (there will be two, they are as yet
unnamed).
C. Regional Commanders and their Seconds (Based on Geographical regions)
D. Unit Captains (A unit can be as few as 5 and as many as 30 fighters).
2. Establish a Universal set of commands:
A. These commands will be based on my "Stuff that Works for Me" essay, which
will soon be rewritten in a second edition to include new commands. It will
not be required that all units use all of these commands. All units should
KNOW these commands however.
3. Attempt to make it so that EVERY fighter in Ansteorra has a local unit
that he or she can practice
and/or train with.
4. Have every unit train at least monthly all year round.
5. To encourage and facilitate newcomers to the SCA and newcomers to heavy
fighting to don armor and take up weapons to defend their kingdom.
6. To encourage those who only wish to shoot a bow or carry a banner or man
a siege crew to practice those skills year round.
7. To train leaders who can lead troops on and off the field.
8. To not forget that much of what has made Ansteorran armies succeed in the
past is each soldier's individual prowess. The tourney field is practice for
the battlefield today as it was in the times that we recreate. Individual
skills should not be neglected.
9. To make sure that we are all still having fun.
10. To make an Army of Heroes!

His Grace also addressed two other issues, one was to have a heavy war
practice on the Saturdays of large events.  This was driven by the marked
decrease in fighters that usually show for Sunday practices because of day
tripping and the like.  His second was a desire to produce some sort of moral
lifting action much like Calontirs "Latin Practice,"  but different with a
unique Ansteorran Flavor.

We then went practiced commands from the new  command baseline, "Stuff that
Works for Me", for 15 minutes and then broke for court.

After court we had few fighters and worked several Melees. The first were
several Knights against the world open field scenarios.

We worked two on one drills after that.  A knight would go out against a
shieldman and polearm/Spear or against a shieldman and archer.  The knight
was not allowed to move until he was stuck at.  The idea was for the "team"
to maneuver the knight to where the polearm or archer could get a kill.  The
main lesson learned here was to maneuver the knight to where the polearm or
archer could get a kill, and the initial placement of the polearm or archer.
The idea is to start the pole/archer his open side, which is not where his
shield is.  Maneuver the opponent around so his non-shield side becomes open
and go for the kill.

The second drill was for the archers.  The non-archers lined up and advanced
either as a line or in Plan Beta to a line while the archer took shots at the
line. The main teaching points here involved increasing the rate of fire and
not always going for the kill.  Advancing lines often have legs exposed.

The last drill we did was a melees with the archers on one side. We did two
melees.  Again rate of fire was noted.  The archer of shots the archers got
off were few.  Much of this was to the restricted size of the field. There
was no where to run and little ground for the advancing side to cover to each
them.  Still we need to train on getting off accurate shots at a high rate of
fire.  I'm sure some of this was caused by the new ABDs on the shafts.

HE Kayleigh,  Rapier commander for Ansterroa also took a few moments and made
an announcement to the heavy fighters.  Any heavy fighter who supports the
light army on the field will be supplied with usable light armor (just the
shirt,  you supply the material, no mask, weapon or gloves either).

All those who attended got a lot out of the practice.  More would have been
learned had the numbers been greater.

I hear them......I hear the dogs of war baying in the distance.  They will be
here sooner then we think.  We must knock off the rust from the summer months
and both begin to make the effort to support war practices when they happen
and to begin adding our own practices.  We build units from the bottom up.
There are drills which can be done if only three heroes show for practice.
If you need help contact me and I will provide support.  Support your local
baronial and regional practices.  War skills degrade if not used.  Now is the
time to prepare.

I remain in service
Sir Guy
Kingdom Warlord and Executive Officer to Duke Kein