[Bryn-gwlad] Archery and the Moustache War

[Stefan li Rous]

On Sep 1, 2006, at 6:43 AM, Chris Zakes wrote:
>> Thanks for telling me about the story and I look forward to hearing
>> the rest of it.
>
> I can give some more details on this.
>
> At the war, the Steppes had recruited quite a few "hotshot" fighters,
> most notably Duke Inman who was probably the best fighter in
> Ansteorra and one of the best in the entire SCA. Bryn Gwald, on the
> other hand, had mostly mid-level and beginner fighters but lots more
> archers with *lots* of arrows. In each melee, as soon as "lay on" was
> called, our archers started by picking off the top-level folks on the
> other side, and kept shooting until everyone on the other side was
> dead. I wasn't keeping score, but I'm pretty sure that Inman was
> killed within the first thirty seconds or so of *every* battle, and
> I'm not sure if he ever got to throw a blow all day. He was,
> understandably, *not* happy.
>
>          -Tivar Moondragon

I believe the Moustache War was my third SCA event (Yule Revel,  
Candlemas, Moustache War).

Yes, as Tivar mentions, some folks took the "war" way too seriously.  
Friday night I wandered over to the Steppes encampment. Since I'd  
grown up in Dallas I wanted to see what the folks there were like and  
perhaps make some new friends. The guards at the gate would have  
nothing of this and proceeded to let me know that since I was from  
Bryn Gwlad, I wasn't welcome there. Being new, I left. Now I would  
likely ignore them and walk on in or find another way in.

I don't remember the archery being as completely effective as Tivar  
relates. I certainly don't remember it being anywhere near one arrow  
shot, one less fighter on the other side or completely devastating a  
side before the lines engaged. I remember most of the arrows being  
rather ineffective, whether due to outright misses, deflections with  
shields or simply them being ignored by the fighters I don't know.  
However, Steppes had decided to simply stand there, figuring the Bryn  
Gwlad archers would simply run out of arrows and then Steppes would  
attack. Bryn Gwlad had a lot of arrows. And ever so often, one would  
connect and another Steppes fighter would go down. Meanwhile, since  
the two sides weren't close enough for the shieldmen or polearms to  
engage, few from Bryn Gwlad were being killed. Steppes had a few  
archers, but nowhere near the same number of arrows and their archers  
soon ran out.

I had hoped to have my armor and crossbow ready for this event, but  
like many of the archers are finding out in regards to the Bryn Gwlad  
Fall event, it takes a fair amount of time to get a full set of armor  
and archery equipment together along with all the qualifications needed.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****