LR - Spring Melees?

[Adam Harrison]

Greetings,

I just watched the video footage taken this weekend.  It is some of the best
I have seen yet.

<snip>
> While transferring my stuff to the trailer, Bjorn took a personal
> interest in rebuilding my sword and did that on the road between
> Huntsville and the site. My sword is now lighter and has both a
> thrusting tip and a DynaGrip 9000 handle. That sounds more impressive
> than it is, but it works quite well.
After removing about two pounds of duct tape, of course.
The sword indeed works very well(It saved me several times).  If I had a
dremel to bore out the finger grooves more it would have been even better,
but hey, what Eagle scout doesn't know how to use a pocket knife?

<snip>
> > The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful.
>
> ...spare the policeman in Onalaska
Who was the SAME policeman that stopped Fearghus and Corwin on their way
back from a bordermarch event sometime in the past...

> > We all were up by 8:00 and getting armour on. Melees didn't actually
start
> > til about an hour or two later.
>
> 7:30 wakeup and 8:30 inspection. uh huh. Like THAT'S gonna happen...
> still, I was up and about by 8:15 or so, freezing and seeking the sun
> for warmth.
The heralds kept going "armor inspection closes in 15 minutes"  and we're
all going(in cheerleader type fashion) "what-ever".

>
> > There were about 40 fighters in all. The sides ended up to be the
> > Coastal region melee team against the 6 Arthurians,
> > Talon melee team, and Sir Wilhelm.

Plus a couple others, and after lunch Sir Henri and Sir Simon switched to
the Elfsea team.

> In fact, the marshals generally referred to the teams as Coastal and
> Elfsea.
>
> > The first scenario was the mock up ravine. Simply put, we were stuck
> > pigs in that one.
>
> Colorful, but accurate.
See it really wasn't a scenario.  Really!  It was a warm up for later...


> > We didn't last very long after that. The second battle in the
> > ravine was only slightly better.

The video shows us getting mauled pretty good, but my dad happened to walk
in when the surge was going on and he said something to the effect of "you
guys really do hit each other hard!"

>
> I attribute our poor showing in these scenarios as much to an iffy
> warmup as to anything else. Our time waiting for the melees to commence
> would have been better spent warming up with some pickup fights...

True, but then we would have missed Sir Keif going "OUTTA HERE!!!" and
flinging failed weapons this way and that...


>
> > The next scenario was a bridge battle. Once the coastal region was in
> > position, they charged our ranks immediately. Sluggy, Myself, Bjorn, and
> > Llew all made up the front line and took the brunt of the charge.
>
> We held them pretty well on that one. I don't remember exactly how I
> died in that scenario, but after I fell and turtled up, a Coastal guy
> tripped over me, wrenching my shield over flat and exposing my arm to
> anybody who cared to stomp on it. He was moaning occasionally and it
> turns out that he hit is head pretty hard when he fell. He complained
> that he hadn't even died in the battle, which was over by then.

Considering our odds, we held them very nicely, and the GIGANTIC throwing
axe Aradon gave me was pretty cool too.

As sluggy put it on the way home looking through the camera's viewfinder "it
looks like a person doing cartwheels!"

> In the defending scenario, I was legged pretty early on, but I knelt off
> the bridge, falling in the water. Crandall pointed this out to me,
> though he had to bang my head with his staff to get my attention.
Well, ya know, a marshal has to do what a marshal has to to...

>
> There was a woods battle scenario that ate us pretty badly. In the
> attacking scenario, Bjorn and I split off to stir it up as a glaive and
> shieldman. We did well for a bit, but we were flanked. In the confusion,
> Bjorn and I got separated a little. Once I found him again, he said to
> attack the spearmen. Unfortunately, he was looking a different group of
> spearmen than I was.
Once again outnumbered and flanked, we did very well.  I think you're
thinking of the second battle.  In the first one(which you describe above) I
stayed with you up until I went after Sir Alexis(the spearman).  The video
shows us doing our flanking maneuver rather perfectly.  It shows me running
offscreen to the left about to whack an unaware Alexis, and it clearly shows
sluggy in an intense fight with an enemy.  You are literally BOUNCING around
out there.  It looks sharp.

The second one, however, did not go so good for us.  we tried a single file
right, but half of the line stopped way short of the regroup point, it took
a couple of seconds for me to organize the fighters that got to the regroup
point, all the while going "what happened to everybody".  The enemy took
advantage of those precious few seconds and bum rushed our line from almost
all sides.  in the confusion I lost sight of our line; so I started whacking
everyone in my path until I found someone friendly.  Just as I did see
something resembling an Arthurian, Sir Simon hit me with a flat snap to the
face and I was down for the count.


> In the castle scenarios, I was pretty much the heavy cavalry with Lew
> and Armand as backup. We waited a long time to give the archers a chance
> to wither their numbers then charged the door.

The video of the first castle scenario doesn't show much except alot of
archery fire(due to a bad camera angle)

The sally port was not open on this particular battle.


> In the defense scenario, we made a thorough killing zone, flanking both
> sides of the inside of the castle with Arthurians on the right and
> Talons on the left, both with spearman, then Airaklee and a few other
> such veg-a-matics to clean the dregs that managed to make it through
> there. It was the only scenario we won and we suffered few if any losses
> in that battle. Not only did we win, but we won by a large margin!

The video shows a RIVER of dead bodies flowing through the castle gate!!!!!
We lost ONE fighter to their 25!!!!  It was beautiful!

> We had another scenario with the castle using the sallyport. Once again,
> the 1x4 barring the door was inadequate to the task and not only did I
> make it through the line and defend from a few fighters, we had time to
> reform another shield wall before being overwhelmed.

Llew and I made it all the way to the other side of the castle before
deciding to reform, in fact, he stopped in the opening on that side!  We put
up a good fight, but once again superior numbers won the day.  When
defending a castle, you should be able to withstand up to 3 to 1 odds
without much of a problem.  we were _Attacking_ against 2 to 1 odds.  To
succeed in assaulting as far as we did is a testament to our improving
skills as a combat unit.

<snip>

The resurrection battles were quite fun.  the entire battle up until I quit
is on tape, including a close up shot of a heated fight between myself and
Sir Alexis.

At one point I manage to get a cupshot on a guy(I didn't realize it at the
time, but that fighter was the one who was with the girl in the blue
dress...so I don't feel quite as bad...).  on the video you hear the guy go
"oooh"  and then our entire line goes "OOOOOOH"  It's rather funny.

> I'd like to say that my trick was unique. I had one beer with dinner
> then only two drinks the rest of the night. Ask thee not about the size
> of them.

or what you mixed....

>
> > The stew that Afan cooked was delicious.
Indeed it was.

<snip>
> > I'm not sure what time it was when we got up but it was definately later
> > than the day before.

I was reluctantly moving by 7:30...

<snip>. I am
> thankful that rather than a massive hangover, I had a mild hangover
> that, technically, is still with me today.

Heh heh.


> > The traditional stop at Golden Corral was made.
>
> They warned us as we went in that they were having troubles and would
> have only the buffet.
<snip>
Like that was a problem...

<snip>


The video shows the ferocity and intensity of the melees that often cannot
be captured on still camera.  In some scenes it is as though you are there
in the melee.

All in all it was a great event.

In service,
Bjorn to be Bouncy
(don't ask)

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