No subject

the pissed off archers on the last day of fighting.  More on that later)

There seemed to be very little problems with the functionality of arrows
equipped with the APDs.  Crossbows seemed particularly unaffected.  As the
war went on the archers seemed to get more and more comfortable with them.
There was the expected loss in range but despite the archers kept the
spearmen on the run and I know at least one spearmen or was killed almost 30
times in the ravine battle by the Trimaran crossbowmen.  There were no
archery related injuries that I am aware off.

We did have some problems with APDs during inspection.  The most common
problem during inspection was with PE Pipe (siloflex) APDs that did not have
the edges smoothed by filing, or melting, or with a router etc.  It is
amazing how sharp the edges can be on the pipe after it is cut.  There were
also a number of Golf Tube APD that did not have the edges covered with tape
and were therefore somewhat sharp.  In most of the cases where we had to
reject APDs on this basis we set down right there at inspection point and as
a group helped the archer correct the problems with our knives, files, and
tape.

The second biggest problem was with APD's that were placed too far down the
shaft and would have allowed more and a half-inch of the shafts and nock to
enter the helm.  Once again there was lots of retaping and adjusting of the
APDs at the war.

Finally there were some but very few APDs rejected because they were not
constructed to any of the approved designs and a few that were simply poorly
and sloppily made and didn't have secure attachments.

Tessa approved a few new APD designs including a 160 PSI PE pipe design from
Robert the Bald with a square cut front and one from Sir Erica using large
and heavy suction cups.  I am sure they will be announced real soon.

There was another ruling change that does not affect Ansteorrans directly
but we should all probably be aware of it.  In the past the Trimarans have
not required that Baldar Blunts have tape over the bead of the blunt.  They
have only required tape around the collar of the blunt.  As you all know
here under the Sable Star we have for a while required the tape over the
head (also a Meridian requirement) and the Society rules say that they must
have the tape over the head or something that requires an equal level of
attachment as approved by the Kingdom Archery Marshal.  Well, after the
ravine battle there were loose Baldar Blunts all over the ravine and they
all came from shafts that had only had the tape around the collar.  Lady
Tessa and Sir Erlingen (the Society Earl Marshal) decided that tape around
the collar obviously did not provide an equal level of attachment and asked
the Trimarans to put a strip of tape over the head of all of their Baldar
Blunts.

We rejected a few handbows as being over powered and a few crossbows (only a
very few) were over the 75 pound limit specified in the Gulf War
conventions.

One problem in the fort battle was that is was often impossible to tell
Ballista Bolts from Golf Tube Arrows.  The war conventions required that the
heads of large ballista bolts be taped in red tape but there are some other
kingdoms (like the middle who had a pretty large force at the war including
some archers) that require that the heads of their Golf Tube Arrows be
covered in red tape.

Another problem emerged on the final day of fighting.  As most of you know,
the conventions of the war are that all archers are Touch Kill.  On the last
day there was a new interpretation of "Touch Kill" by the marshals in
charge.  They declared that this meant ANY touch even a touch from an arrow
and ANYWHERE on your person.  That means if you are a archer and an enemy
archer lobs an arrow at you from 60 yards away and manages to hit you on the
foot that was a TOUCH and you are dead.  You cant loose a leg because
touches on your leg by an enemy arrow will kill and if you are hit by an
enemy arrow on your quiver or on your weapon that also counts as a touch and
you are dead.  As you imagine there were LOTS of pissed off archers and I
got slapped down for apparently being too vocal with my objections.


Well that is all for now.  It is late, I am still tired from war, and I
still have a lot of email to read.

Always in Service,

Lord Eadric Anstapa
Coastal Regional Archery Marshal, Ansteorra
eadric at scabrewer.com