Breaking my word RE: SCA tactics

From: Mike Dawson <mdawson_at_mac.com>
Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2001 08:24:02 -0500


On Tuesday, January 23, 2001, at 12:18 AM, Kevin Rose wrote:

> They charged
> into the enemy line with lowered pikes. Blew a hole in the line, then do
> a right face and charged down the line. Sudden end to the fun.
>
> The SCA decided to outlaw this tactic.

Great story. However, out of politeness I'll say that this story must have grown in the telling, because at least the last part is simply untrue.

No maneuver like that is "outlawed" in SCA fighting. There are rules for engagement in SCA, but none for how one charges or turns. And anyone stopping to do a real "drill field" right face would get swamped while they paused.

And if 8 rookie spearmen charged any decent squad of typical mixed weapon fighters, they would be dead dead dead.

I'm not terribly familiar with Swiss Pike, (my specialty is late 12th-early 13th Norman) but I believe in the real world it relied on much longer spears than allowed in the SCA. Nor were they big on charging.

As for Rocky attacking "weak points" on individuals, this may be the root of the misunderstanding. The SCA does prohibit _intentionally_ aiming at the throat, groin and inside of the elbow, and hands and from the knee down are not valid targets.

Please help me stop writing about this on the list now.

Mike Dawson Macintosh Tech Director on severance mdawson_at_mac.com http://homepage.mac.com/mdawson Sent to you using Mac OS X - the future of Macs!


End of The Glorantha Digest V8 #225


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