[Steppes] Steppes Fighter Practice 8-15-04

[meggiddo at netzero.net]

Heilsa,

News of Important! Please Attend to these words of Importance!

There are now three more authorized heavy fighters to defend the borders
and increase the ranks of fighters that will answer the call to arms.

They are:

Chiara,
Matt,
and
Josh.

They were welcome in true style at Sunday's Fighter Practice with the
best possible means at the disposal of the rest of the heavy fighters.
By practicing the highest and final form of diplomacy - that of battle.

Note on this summary of the fighter practice, anyone can add to what I
record here for the future histories of the Steppes Fighter Practice.
Afterall, there are just as many triumphs and defeats here, as on the
tournament or the melee/battelfields and thus should be recorded.

Additional attendees:

Sir Duncan,
Derrick,
Morgan,
Kim,
Roc,
Icia,
Nicole,
Aria,
Donyell,
Hosey,
Nikko,
Jon,
Tori,
Bobby - interested in siege weapons and a friend of Aria's,
Robert,
Vicki,
Robert from the Mid Realm,
Linda,
Levi,
Tracy,


Individual or one-to-one fighting became the order of the day. 

Including valuable instruction from Sir Duncan which range from proper
placement of one's feet, to how to defend with and against shield, or
sword and spear, and/or two weapon style.

Chiara received further instruction from Hosey on using a fiberglass
spear. She has order a fiberglass round tube to be made into a legal
spear for war.

Centurion Morgan, recently return from the North (Cleveland), and was
in  excellent form and in the proper mind set for some practice. He
provided both instruction as well as being an excellent opponent for one
and all who came forth and requested his attention.

Hosey provided additional instruction to Matt on the finer arts of
defense.

There were a number of individual contests occurring throughout the
practice. The ones that I remember occurred from the middle to the end
of the practice. I do not recall the earlier contests.

Sir Duncan fighting with s sword and inverted spear;

Josh and Matt fighting with two weapons;

Roc and Matt fighting. I would mention that Matt has been and continues
to use one of the small bucklers from either Hosey or Morgan. Matt is
getting decent with this combination of small shield and sword.

Roc and Josh fighting; Josh does enjoy fighting with two weapons.

Morgan and Vicki - fighting traditional shield and sword.

Hosey and Roc fighting with war shields and swords. It was indeed an
interesting contest to witness, a good number of combinations were used
by both in order to defeat the other.  

Aria once again provided his pell for practice.

Combat archery practice was employed to continue re-building stamina
necessary to take the field at Gothic Wars.

Various questions were raised concerning armor and where to acquire said
pieces. There are a couple of good and excellent craftmans here in the
local area to assist those who need armor, including SCA legal helms,
all at reasonable prices. Roc is one of those who have the nexessary
knowledge, skills and the tools to build most types of armor. Additional
plus is that he is at the fighter practice as well. 

There are two more weeks available before Gothic Wars, September 3rd
through 6th. 


A number of newcomers stopped to witness the fighting prowess of the
fighters engaged in the various activities related to improving the
martial skills necessary to be success upon either the tournament field
and/or the melee/battle field. Among these newcomers were a family from
another kingdom, Atenveldt I believe. Questions were answer by all as
well as some names where exchanged for future follow up. 

Bobby, he is one of the newcomers mentioned above, as stated above he is
interest in siege weapons and had a list of various engines he would
like to build and eventually take upon the battlefield in the future. I
and several others answered as many of his questions as possible. In
additional, with the "Complete Participants Handbook for the Kingdom of
Ansteorra" which I used to review with him, which answered several more
questions. I recommended to Bobby that he needed to contact the local
siege marshal for further information. 

To contact Bobby, he can be contacted through either Vicki, Aria, and/or
Donyell.


Two weeks to go until Gothic Wars - more melee practice will be the
order of the day for the next two practices. The plans are to split the
time between one-on-one fighting and melee practice. So come prepare for
both.

Remember to pace yourselves. You want the other side to "run out of gas"
before you do!

The sun pavilion was set up and again I thank Vicki, Aria, Donyell,
Tori, and Nikko for their assistance in set-up and tear down. 

I will mention that all who was present once again show excellent
"common sense" with regard to the slighter higher temperatures than what
we have had in recent weeks. Still, it was below normal for this time to
year, almost like a Texas Autumn here in August.

I would recommend that all present need to plan on bring at least a
gallon of water, if so desire, additional liquids and some type of high
energy snack food. 

Remember - Gothic Wars is two weeks away. There will be both tournament
as well as war activities over this weekend.

If you intend to fight on the melee field at this event - then where
have you been? 

Now is the time to try out any new formations and/or tactics while you
can fine tune them. And not on the battlefield itself!


Michael Fray
Unit Combat Artillery for the Condottieri
CA Marshal
Steppes DKM
King's Archer
Holder of the Gryce