[Ansteorra-missile] Rules Clairifications Questions(Very Long)

[Greylond Aston]

Hello, I'm glad that this new list was opened up has I
have some questions regarding rules clairifications.

I have some questions about a ruling at the Three
Kings Melee from last Saturday. There were a couple of
things that happened that were all inter-related to
the issue and areas where we were just plain in the
wrong. Those issues not dealing with my confusion over
rules have been dealt with and I'd like to apologize
to anyone involved for any hard feelings coming out of
what was otherwise a very fun weekend.

First for any who aren't familar with the situation
allow me to set it up. Everything that follows is from
my point of view as I understood it at the time. If
I'm mistaken or misunderstood about anything then I
apologize and would appreciate the necessary
correction.

There were two of us on the field carrying
experimental Staff Slings. The weapons were
experimental due to being longer than the standard
staff sling. The slingers were Torryn Seven Stiches
and myself. The actual report on the experimental
weapons is being sent to the Kingdom Earl Marshall and
Kingdom Archery Marshall. It will also be made
availible to all via a webpage soon.

The actual rules clairifications that this message
deals with is with the Armor requirement rules and not
the experimental weapons.

Torryn and myself were previously only authorized
under the older "White Diamond" non-contact rules as
Siege Crewman. We both have been on the battlefield as
Non-Contact Siege Crewmen so we are familar with the
Armor Requirements for Non-Contact Siege. I was
recently authorized as a Non-Contact Combat Archer and
Slings with the new Red Pheon rules. Torryn was
trained and authorized with the Staff Sling and
briefed on the new Red Pheon rules. Our battle plans
for employing the slings were as follows, I was to use
the Sling as long as tactically possible and switch to
a bow when needed. Torryn would only use the Sling in
situations when her siege weapon(Lothair's
Assenbrusier) was unavailible.

I'm familar with the newer Ansteorran Siege armor
rules under which a Non-Contact Siege Crewman is
allowed to wear half-gauntlets. I have looked at the
Participents Handbook that is availible to me(the one
on the Ansteorra website) and I am unable to find the
rules allowing half-gauntlets for Non-Contact Siege
Crew but I've been told by more than one Authorizing
Siege Marshall that it is legal. Torryn was armored as
a Non-Contact Siege Crewman since that was going to be
her primary role.

Since I was intending to be on the field as a
Non-Contact Combat Archer I had a half-gauntlet on my
right hand and a full one on my Bow-hand.

Since Ansteorra recently changed the Non-Contact to
Red Pheons to match Society InterKingdom Standards and
we were employing a weapon that we had never used on
the battlefield, I went back over the Participent's
handbook again. The references to Combat Archers
throughout the rules were a little confusing to me as
sometimes it seems to be refering specifically to ALL
missle weapon users and sometimes to only those using
Bows and Crossbows. Going through the rules I found
very little specific rules govering Armored
Non-Contact Participents and some of the ones that I
did find seemed(at least to me) to be contradicted by
the newer Non-Contact Siege Crew rules that had be
taught to me. Also, it was hard for me to find
specific armor rules for Non-Contact Missle Users who
weren't using a Bow(or Crossbow). The one place that I
did find very specific rules governing Non-Contact
Missle Users(Non-Bow\Crossbow) was in the SCA Missile
Combat Plus Supplement(found on the SEM webpage at
http://www.sca.org/officers/marshal/combat/archery/index.html
) which states in part on page 2;

DEFINITIONS
1. Light Weapons:
Projectile weapons including, but not limited to, bows
and arrows, crossbows and bolts,
slings and stones or bullets, javelins, darts, and
throwing axes. Other weapons in this
class, including knives and siege engines, exist and
have been used.


And on Page 5 of the same document

Non-Contact Armor Requirements:
1. In combat situations where light weapons are used
exclusively, the minimum requirement is a fencing
mask. The mask or helm must cover the front and sides
of the head, and be fastened in such a manner as to
prevent it from coming off or being
significantly dislodged during normal use. In
addition, the back of the head must be
covered with heavy padding, at a minimum.
A barred or visor slotted helm of 18 gauge metal,
which otherwise meets the minimum
SCA construction standards, is acceptable. A helm
without legal face bars or slots shall
have all openings covered with well-secured perforated
metal, chain mail, or stout wire
mesh with openings of no more than 1/4 inch (soldered
or woven). Window screen or
galvanized hardware cloth is not acceptable.
Shatterproof plastic such as Lexan, of a
minimum 1/8 inch thickness, may also be used.
If chain mail is used, the links must be hard
tempered, welded, soldered, or otherwise
strengthened to avoid opening under impact.

2. If non-contact missile users are to be on the field
during mixed combat, they must wear
a helm which meets the minimum SCA construction
standards, except that it may be
made of 18 gauge steel. It must be padded adequately
to protect against an
unintentional blow. However, if the helm resembles a
standard heavy combat helm it
must be made of 16 gauge or heavier steel. The helm
shall be marked with 4 inch or
taller red pheons of the Interkingdom Non-Contact
symbol.

3. Puncture- and thrust-resistant padding for the back
of the head, the throat, and the
neck is required. Tournament combat helms and neck
armor are acceptable equivalents.

4. Kidney and groin armor meeting minimum SCA tourney
standards is required.

5. A minimum of leather gloves shall be worn on the
hands.

6. It is required that shoes or boots be worn on the
feet.

7. Protection for the knees of resilient material is
required.

Note: that the rule that I am concerned with is Point
5.

 Before the battle the Kingdom Earl Marshall gave us
permission to us the Staff slings with Half-Gauntlets.
Partway through the first battle our army commander
had called for more of to us, anyone who was
authorized to do so, to switch to Bows if we could do
so due to our side losing most of our archers that we
started with, so I dropped my sling and switched to my
bow. That left Torryn as the only Slinger on the
field. There were a couple of different issues to come
up but the one that I'm concerned with in this email
message is the armor one. We were told that Torryn
couldn't be using a Staff Sling with Half-Gauntlets.
We tried to explain that the Kingdom Earl Marshall
gave us permission to do so and we were told that
Society Rules didn't allow it which confused me
because as I read the Society Rules Non-Contact Missle
Users can use Leather Gloves as the . Not wanting to
debate the issue on the field and developing an armor
problem just after the first battle I sat the next
battle out( I also sat out to fix a problem that was
raised with our sling stones, but as I said that is
another issue and that was corrected before the ammo
was used again) Torryn, apparently, was still not very
clear on the issue and started the next battle with
what we thought was Society legal armor for a
Non-Contact Participent. She told to not use the Staff
Sling so she stepped out of the second battle and
after a break she came back during the Fort Battle as
a Non-Contact Siege Crewman only(her Staff Sling
stayed off of the field for the rest of the day). Due
to the issues raised I attempted to use a Staff Sling
with a borrowed full gauntlet but it wasn't designed
to be used to pick up Sling Stones so I switched to a
Bow for the rest of the day so that we could get on
with the melee and discuss this in the proper forum.

I have gone back and re-read the rulebooks that I
re-downloaded today (yesterday was spent with HL
Ironwyrm's computer issue) and I find myself still in
a state of confusion. So before I get back on the
field I'd like to ask for clairifications of the rules
governing Non-Contact(Red Pheon) Missle Users(Archers
and those who use weapons other than Bows/Crossbows)
in use in Ansteorra. If there are updated versions of
the Rules out there could someone point me to them?
Please don't email them to me as my email box is near
the limit and a large attachment would shut it down. I
can provide another email address that can receive
large attachments if needed.

Thank you for taking the time to read through this
long monster of an email.


YIS

Greylond Aston

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