[Ansteorra-archery] Survival of Combat Archery

[ld.blackmoon]

greetings 

master pug , it may be a quick and dirty version of the history, but a very accurate one it is indeed ; )
and much better written than my earlier reply.

be safe, be happy, have fun
arthur 
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Pug Bainter 
  To: 'Archery within the Kingdom of Ansteorra' 
  Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 8:05 AM
  Subject: [Ansteorra-archery] Survival of Combat Archery


  Good Morning,

    I think there is something that a few of us have seen because of our roles
  in the upper archery marshal arena, that the majority of the archers have
  not. This viewpoint is one that gives new light onto some of the arguments
  when issues with Combat Archery come up. This is a very simplified history
  with a lot of other arguments in between, but it gives you an idea.

    Combat Archery was founded and there were very few archers, but they were
  having fun and kept coming back despite having their ammo destroyed all the
  time because of the materials. In general the fighters are having a good
  time with it because there are so few archers that even the good ones can
  only make a limited amount of difference to a major battle.

    During all of this there are a vocal group of fighters including Knights
  that are arguing that Combat Archery is unsafe and unrealistic. It should be
  banned from the SCA so we can get on with fighting like real men do.

    At some point early in my fighting career (about 10-11 years ago now),
  Combat Archery made a big leap in effectiveness on the battle field. This
  effectiveness was due to two factors, the quality of the archers and the
  quantity of the archers. Because of this, the argument about combat archery
  not being safe came up and APDs were created a year or so later. This caused
  a lot of combat archers to drop off the field because of the anger they had
  or the cost/hassle of getting their equipment up to standard.

    During all of this there are a vocal group of fighters including Knights
  that are arguing that Combat Archery is unsafe and unrealistic. It should be
  banned from the SCA so we can get on with fighting like real men do.

    This was fine for a couple years and then enough archers had switched to
  crossbow because of the effectiveness and the quality and quantity of
  archers went up. Because of this, the argument about it not being safe came
  up because of the complex rules and there being too many styles of ammo and
  APD. This caused some angst and cost/hassle so some combat archers dropped
  off the field.

    During all of this there are a vocal group of fighters including Knights
  that are arguing that Combat Archery is unsafe and unrealistic. It should be
  banned from the SCA so we can get on with fighting like real men do.

    There was a new design of Baldar blunts (eggs) that were sold without
  going through the proper approval process. This caused a lot of archers to
  spend money since they were very effective with the way they transferred
  energy which meant that fighters called their shots more often. After going
  through some testing, these were found to be unsafe and recalled. This
  caused some angst and cost/hassle so some combat archers dropped off the
  field.

    During all of this there are a vocal group of fighters including Knights
  that are arguing that Combat Archery is unsafe and unrealistic. It should be
  banned from the SCA so we can get on with fighting like real men do.

    Things settled down and archers came back to the field. This last year,
  there were incidents with the recall of the one piece Baldar blunts because
  of a design flaw as well as with some ammo at Pennsic that started another
  argument about the safety of Combat Archery. This caused several years worth
  of Baldar blunt purchases to be replaced, as well as all UHMW ammo to have
  to add foam and meet previously non-existent maximum amounts of foam in
  front of the head rules. This caused some angst and cost/hassle but it looks
  like it did not cause any combat archers to drop off the field. Matter of
  fact, because of intelligently planning ahead and working with other
  kingdoms there have been few enough changes to the Ansteorran combat archers
  in the last several years that I think we are getting more archers back on
  the field.

    During all of this there are a vocal group of fighters including Knights
  that are arguing that Combat Archery is unsafe and unrealistic. It should be
  banned from the SCA so we can get on with fighting like real men do.

    There were lots of side arguments during all of this including some of my
  favorites of just using plain UHMW heads without padding, getting rid of
  weight limits on bows, and using golf ball heads without padding. As well,
  some of the Kingdoms weren't as well informed during the rules changes and
  their archers are having some problems now. There are a couple kingdoms that
  have fairly light poundage on their crossbows and the most recent Society
  rules changes has caused a fair number of the weapons to not be legal
  anymore and has probably caused their archers to be angry and incur more
  cost to get back on the field, if they do at all right now. Fortunately for
  us we paid attention to the data our marshals had gathered and knew that the
  change would impact very few, if any, of our combat archers.

    So for us, our Earl Marshal, our Archery Marshals, and our Crown, we have
  to figure out how to be diplomatic and logical in our fight to keep combat
  archery around. We have to take the moral high ground since anything else
  will just prove 'their' point. While we may not like it or understand why it
  really matters in the long run, unfortunately it sometimes means only being
  able to carry 15 pieces of ammo at a time in the ravine in order to have
  Combat Archery at all in the ravine.

    This is *not* to say that we just roll over whenever something stupid
  comes out, but it does mean we have to be well informed about the
  circumstances and plead a reasonable case and not an emotional knee jerk
  reaction. This will help combat archery to survive.

    Btw, the vocal group of fighters and Knights against this is a very small
  group, but they are so rabid about their argument that they can cause even
  the most pro-archery people to throw up their arms in surrender. I was
  talking to a Knight about it just this weekend who had finally given up
  because of the way it was making him to react.

  Ciao,

  Pug Bainter
  Phelim Gervase called Pug
  Dark Horde Moritu - Barony of Bryn Gwlad - Kingdom of Ansteorra
  pug at pug.net



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