Tourney Report

[higgins]

While Agamemnon was updating you guys on the game design progress, I was participating in the largest knightly tournament in Estonia. I managed to beat some Latvian guy I had never met before and then got crushed by a hulking bear of a scouts battalion dude straight back from Afghanistan. He was almost a head taller than me (or so it seemed) and went on to semi-finals.

Not bad for my first tournament ever. No prize. No injuries. No pics yet.

All is well.

[higgins]

So, I've received a couple of pics from the tourney I participated in. All four images are from my fight with the Latvian guy, whose name was Viktors. I was in leather with a green shield while my opponent was in maille with a blue shield.



Neither of us was too experienced, but I managed to hit him in the legs repeatedly with Bind & Strike, as seen in the image below.



We generally practice with smaller buhurt shields, so, it was really the first time I ever used a heater in a fight. It offered excellent protection. The helm was surprisingly hard to hit, unless you really let your guard down.



Here we're shield-punching each other in the face simultaneously.



I don't remember much what happened, but I scored a few good blows on his helm and managed to win. I received a few good hits myself as well. Hope I didn't bruise his shins too bad.

You can see more images from the tourney here.

[Daeruin]

Cool stuff!

[Marras]

Great pics!

Looks pretty brutal How 'full contact' those matches are?

[higgins]

I was participating in the lighter contact league where only clean sword strikes award points. The no-strike zones were the fingers and feet (small bones break easily), the back of the knee, groin, eyes, neck and the back of the head. Shield edge strikes to body and arms only, no pommel strikes, no kicks. Anemic swords strikes are invalid, so, you've got to connect with authority.

The heavier league rules (by which we generally train) fingers become a valid target again. All normal target areas are valid for the shield's edge and kicks -- but they need to visibly destabilize the opponent's stance to award a point. Wrestling techniques are allowed, except joint locks, arch throws and choking. Normal throws are good to go. Disarming also gives a point. And it requires stamina. Massive stamina.

As we use steel weapons and archaic protection, all thrusts are disallowed.

Here's an example fight from our heavy league... where my main training partner (black) goes against the captain of the Latvian national team (red). Those swift blows the Latvian delivered from his guard position were lighting fast and amazingly hard. He dented 12 gauge (2mm) greaves and completely bent (fanned out) the plates on one of the cuisses. The video does no justice to what kind of beast that man really was:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kL1oMNmwZpg[/youtube]

Basically, you've got to hit your opponent as hard as you can. With armor on, though... your blows are weakened considerably. When I put the armor on, my best blows are pretty much on the same level some of my weakest unarmored blows are. And I've improved a lot since I took up the sport.

Does that answer your question?

[Marras]

Great clip! And nice symbol on the black's shield . What kind of shields those are? They doesn't look all that large.

Anyway, looks pretty hard core and I can really see that it needs a lot of stamina. Even 5 minutes of hand to hand sparring in a hot room is tough and that's just with boxing gloves and shin guards. I wouldn't last a minute in that gear

But yes, that answered my question

BTW, have I already recommended Red Knight? I liked the book a lot but especially combat scenes were written really well.

[higgins]

Great clip! And nice symbol on the black's shield .

It's our national colors set up in crusader fashion.

What kind of shields those are? They doesn't look all that large.

The small rectangular "buhurt shields" are indeed a strange phenomena. You see them a lot in Battle of the Nations and HMB in general, but their most common usage is in 5vs5 and 21vs21 categories. I'm not sure about the etymology, but the word buhurt refers to those mass battles.

I've asked around about them in the local community, but despite HMB and Battle of the Nations having an authenticity committee and all, we pretty much suspect that they are a modern (Russian?) invention. They offer decent protection when you don't have to worry about arrows, bolts and lances like in a real battle and make an extremely handy way to punch someone in the face -- the shield is agile, light, yet hard-hitting and there's no chance of bending your wrist.

Granted, there are a few historical depictions of similar shields, but clearly their large prevalence in the medieval battlefields or tourneys has not been historically documented.

Anyway, looks pretty hard core and I can really see that it needs a lot of stamina. Even 5 minutes of hand to hand sparring in a hot room is tough and that's just with boxing gloves and shin guards.

Oh, absolutely. The lighter category I participated in was a 1 minute 30 seconds long match. If you win, repeat that with next opponent after a short break.

The Iron League is set up in a mind boggling 3x 2min rounds with one minute breaks between them. There is no next opponent, however -- winner's all time score gets modified and that's it.

BTW, have I already recommended Red Knight? I liked the book a lot but especially combat scenes were written really well.

I don't think you have.

[Marras]

In that clip the symbol seemed to be blue cross on a white background Still, great use of colours.

Thanks for the description of the shield!

That really sounds something that saps the strength out of you Good way to drive the stress out of your body.

Red Knight is written by a historian and re-enactor. Although the book has apparently more supernatural aspects than how I see Bastards will have, it might still be good inspiration at least to campaigns geared towards more Middle Ages than Renessaince.

[higgins]

In that clip the symbol seemed to be blue cross on a white background Still, great use of colours.

Oooh, NOW I get it.

Red Knight

I really need to check this one out. Thanks for the recommendation.

[higgins]

New tournament. New helm. Hopefully more pics soon.

[higgins]

Corner #1: Me.

The new helm had good ventilation and it was sturdy as hell. Excellent for training and battle, but not so good for point based tournament like this. Being so tall, it is easy to hit.



Corner #2: Madis from club Valhalla.

Big and strong. In fact, he broke my gauntlet.



He immediately seized initiative and bunched up on me. At one point he even managed to completely lift and turn my shield so that my arm was exposed to him and the shield's good side was against my chest. I never even thought such thing was possible and I definitely need to work on my shield technique to never have such thing happen again.

Also, note to self: stitch some of that tabard up on the sides to look a bit more photogenic the next time



The helm's limited field of vision combined with exhaustion definitely starts playing tricks on you. Here I'm thinking my opponent is much closer than he actually is, or else I wouldn't attempt such a close strike. At one point I was advancing towards him, he sidestepped and I kept walking... Had to make a 180 to find him again.



Such close contact tires you out like nothing else. In the end he defeated me with 11:12.



Here's the losers' round. Not many action shots, but look how close fitting the brigandine is. If you have good armor, you don't need as much padding. And it fully protects the sides as well. Doesn't even compare to the leather armor I had on. It almost looks as if I was wearing a cardboard box underneath that tunic, which is especially evident on the image below.



Also, here's proof that you don't need to actually have eyes on your opponent to connect with a blow In fact, I'm not even sure what I'm doing here. The opponent is well protected behind his shield as well as mine... and I'm getting the whack. Probably exhaustion making the decisions here.

In the background you can see the head referee with his bronze-tipped mace. In the preliminary armor check, he maced me in the fruits without any warning, then asked "Got anything in there?" -- the groin guard was mandatory and luckily I had mine on

He didn't strike hard, but it still would have been bad if I hadn't worn one

[Marras]

Looks like fun. But yes, always wear a cup in combat sports.

[higgins]

"Cup?" That's a new term for me... for that particular item.

But yes, you are absolutely right. I saw a Russian guy get kneed in the groin. He said he'll be definitely buying a "kitchen sink" for his next tourney.

[Agamemnon]

"Cup?" That's a new term for me... for that particular item.

But yes, you are absolutely right. I saw a Russian guy get kneed in the groin. He said he'll be definitely buying a "kitchen sink" for his next tourney.

Ah, yes. That's the common vernacular here. I'm surprised it didn't come up when you and I had that discussion!