[Ansteorra-archery] Ansteorra-archery Digest, Vol 40, Issue 9

[Marlin and Amanda Stout]

Eric Brown wrote:
> What are CA Archers favorite scenarios and
> in a rough way, why?
Personally, any scenario in which I can actually shoot is pretty nice, 
in my book, so long as the rules don't make me ineffective. I've been in 
practice battles where I was required to only shoot certain opponents 
(like shieldmen) or to only shoot from (or into) a very limited area. 
Making the archers ineffective only gives you practice at fighting 
against ineffective archers.

A good example of a bad rule was some of the melee practices we used to 
have here in BG at the tennis courts. Archers could only fire in the 
direction of the chain-link backstop, so the easy way to neutralize an 
enemy archer was to slide over by the net, where the archer couldn't 
ever shoot. That eliminated the archer without ever throwing a blow at 
him, and usually left the archer's side outnumbered, since he was 
counted as a fighter when choosing sides. Not a very good situation, IMO.
>
> If you could make up an scenario, JUST to be extra fun for archers, 
> what would it be?
I think any kind of res battle's good for everyone. The archers get lots 
of chances to shoot, but the stick-fighters still get plenty of chances 
to whack folks. I've had some damn fun times at Gothic during the 
resurrection bridge battles, and shot so much that I've run out of ammo 
with time left for spear-play.

That said, any format that limits the combatants' ability to flank, like 
a bridge or gap, can be a load of fun for archers, since you're not as 
likely to get slaughtered by some speedy SOB making a quick dash behind 
the lines. One of the things I love so much about the ravine battles at 
Gulf is that you've got fairly static lines most of the time, with 
enough penetrations and flanking to keep everyone honest. As a melee 
fighter, I know I can get lots of fighting in, get killed, get water, 
and come back for more. As an archer I know that, so long as I keep 
alert to what's happening around me, I can get a lot of shooting in, get 
killed, get water, and come back for more.
>
> What do you guys think of Boat battles (We have not done them In my 
> memory since North sea raids.)
>
> When I first heard of boat battles I though they were the stupidest 
> thing I'd even seen, I even thought about
> boycotting them because I thought they were so stupid (and this was at 
> Pennsic)
>
> But after doing them I decided they were the best thing ever... and 
> they seem like a natural for archery IF you can have enough folks in
> the boat to allow archers to have both hands free. 
I think, like any scenario, it would depend on the overall rules. 
Speaking as an archer, so long as I can shoot from my boat at an enemy 
boat, it can be workable. Nowadays, with most kingdoms having ditched 
the 10' or 15' minimum ranges, they're much more workable for an archer. 
But I've seen them before where all the enemy had to do was get to melee 
range of your boat, 'grapple' it, and the archers couldn't fire back. So 
all the opposition needed was to have one guy with a sword in the front 
of their boat, and chase down an archers' boat, since the archers can't 
move their boat and shoot at the same time. Which left the archers 
wondering why they'd put on all those heavy clothes in the first place.

Charles
BG