Six years ago, I got the chance to attend Scots Welsh War for the first time, and it proved to be my favourite event. It was a slew of poor choices and misadventures, but that had nothing to do with the event itself. The journey to get there was a pain, but finally getting in armour and being a part of large formations as they slammed into each other was the missing piece in my “the Dream”. That’s it: I was sold. This would be a part of my life for as long as I could keep it.
Due to mundane issues, I was forced to move away first from Trimaris and then from the SCA as a whole for several years. I never stopped trying to get back into the SCA, but it just didn’t work out. After getting back to Trimaris, I was able to begin playing again. My first camp away back was again Scots Welsh, and what a disaster that was: broken down vehicles, failed authorizations, and general misery abounded. Finally, a year later at my third Scots Welsh, the tradition broke: the journey was smooth, I was able to authorize, and even got some decent fighting in. I was on my way to being an actual heavy fighter.This year marks my fourth Scots Welsh, and one year since my authorization as a Heavy fighter. In that time, I have fought at every event I have attended with only one exception. It's been a hard path so far, but I have learned a ton.
Due to logistical issues this year,Scots Welsh War Practice was combined with An Crosaire’s St Valentines Massacre, making it a very activity-packed event. There were amazing classes and a strong Art Sci competition. Due to the amount of fighting, I was unable to participate in any of them. I would still like to extend thanks to Randy Asplund for coming down to Trimaris to teach a day of classes. I wish I had gotten the chance to attend one or two.
The fighting was broken into two different parts: War Practice, and the Baronial Champion Tourney. The baronial champion tourney was held first. Now, I am still a pretty new fighter, so my ability to do well in a tourney is directly related to the luck of the draw in which opponents I get. I always make it a point to try and learn from every match, but if I draw a person who has 3-4 times the fighting experience I have, it's going to be a rough time for me. The format used was a speed tournament to try and save time. Basically, you line up the fighters and pair the first with the last to go fight their match, continuing to pair everyone so that the fights in each round happen more or less at the same time. After the first round, there is a loser line and a winner line. These lines are paired off in the same way. After any fighter has lost twice, he is eliminated. This continues until there is one fighter left.
In the first round, I drew Lord Valentin. I had never met him before, but I knew that he was a squire. We squared off, and he killed me in a single shot. My stance left my head wide open. He saw the gap and took clean advantage of it. This is a disadvantage of spending some time out of armour, stupid little mistakes like this are costly. In the second round, I drew Baron Killian Bruce: it's not a lucky day for me when I get someone that good out of the loser line. I took my stance, went very defensive so I could watch what was going on. The first thing I saw was that he was a lefty. Thankfully, our local squire Kjartan had given me some tips for my defense against lefties. I was able to survive a few passes with the Baron before he ended the tourney for me with a strong wrap to the back of my head. The rest of the tourney, I watched from the sidelines. It ended with a match between Sir Subadai Baavgai and Lord Joshue le Charmonte. Joshue put a brave attempt, but Sir Subadai is just too deadly with his glaive and took the day.
Now onto my favourite part! War practice! This Gulf Wars will be the first I'll be able to attend, so Scots Welsh was important for me to get some idea of what I needed to be doing while at war. For the day, I would be fighting with Jarl Ari Tyrbrandr and his house. Vikarr Bjornsson would also be with us. Jarl Ari assigned John Reinhardt to sort of guide us on the field since he is an experienced shield man, so we linked shields and stayed with him the whole day. The goal of war practice is to run through as many of the war scenarios as possible. This practice we ran field battles, breach drills, bridge battles, and a resurrection battle to test endurance.
For the field battles, John was given the primus position with myself and Vikarr supporting him. I am sorry to say that I did not really meet the rest of my line when we were actually in line. Too many people, and I was a little hyper focused on what was going on. Many strategies were used to display what we would be doing while at war. It went very well for the blue team, and we actually managed to come out victorious in all the field scenarios except one. The most fun I had during the field battles was during an exercise to help the crap-ton of new combat archers that we had get used to ranging and firing from behind the shield lines. It was good practice for the shield guys in holding up a line and being aware of targets. It also taught me communication with the back ranks. Vikarr and I had an archer directly behind us that was vocal and asking for targets, which made for a very good team.
Next came breach drills. We managed to hold the line when it came to not letting our enemies into the fort. On the flip side we also failed to make the breach into the fort. It is very rough being in that tight press of shields. Both on the attack and the defense it was amazing to me how much damage the archers and spearmen attacking through the windows can do. I only fell victim to it once, but it reminded me very clearly that you need to be aware of your surroundings even in a push. As I was supporting the line against the breach, the shieldman that had been watching the wall had been killed by ballistae fire. This allowed a spearman to walk up and just start murdering everyone within reach before we noticed he was there. When it was our turn to assault the breach, we managed to push through and make a hole, but lost shield cohesion. This allowed a properly placed spearman to kill each warrior as he came through the gap. All in all, this is a tough way to get into a castle when the defenders have nothing else occupying their attention.
The bridge battles are where I feel I learned the most. By this time I had broken the handle on my round war shield and was being loaned one by the gracious Baron of Oldenfeld, Miklos von Baeker. This shield was a tall heater shape and handled a little bit differently. It had flat sides, which made it lock into place with my shield brothers much more easily. For the majority of the bridge battles, blue ran over the white team. The main strength of the white team as it got divided that morning was not in their shields, but their polearms. This meant that with a solid push, we could get through to them. It also appeared to me that the blue team worked better as a unit, protecting ourselves and allowing our limited poles to do their job. During one push, I fell forward over the enemy shields and was grounded. My shield was stuck and I was completely surrounded by people. I got onto my knees, my arm still in my shield and started trying to support my side. I don’t know how effective I was, but I tried. Once the push was over, I released my shield and fought single sword for the remainder of that scenario. I was then informed that: 1. I shouldn’t leave my shield behind, and 2. if I am going to drop my shield in a melee, just putting my hand behind my back isn’t enough: it needs a gauntlet. Two mistakes I will not make again! Halfway through the bridge scenarios, Jarl Ari and I were transferred to the white team. This allowed me to learn what it felt like to get hit by a superior mass of shields. Needless to say, I was not enough to turn the tide. I did get to practice dying defensively though!
After a short break to hydrate and rest, we were called together for the instructions for resurrection battle. There would be a single building in the center of the field, both sides would have unlimited resurrections, there would be archers on both sides, and it would last until half of one side dropped out. This was gearing up to be an exhausting fight. John was injured in the bridge battles, so he sat this one out. He gave me his shield so I could try yet another type of shield and get a feel for other things. His was a shorter heater, and it performed really well for a res battle. Something heavier, like my round, would have certainly not been ideal.
It would have just ended up tiring me out faster. The res battle is fast paced with a ton of things going on, so I can’t comment on everything. What I will say is that in a battle where the entire victory condition is endurance, the main thing is to prevent your guys from walking back to res point as often as possible. Which meant switching out who was calling reinforcements, so different people could rest up, and making sure that support was applied where it was needed. I even got an opportunity to direct traffic. Lesson learned there: speak up! Between the sound of battle and the deafening effect of helms, you need to scream to be heard. I would love to say that I lasted until the end of the res battle, but I dropped out close to the end. I just didn’t have anymore to give. Now I know I need to keep building my endurance to last for those longer fights.
The day's battles done, I got the chance to sit down and talk to Jarl Ari to see how I performed. He was kind in his assessment, saying I can follow orders. I know that I have plenty to learn as far as fighting is concerned, but I'm grateful for all the guidance I can get. Southkeep’s fighters went North and showed them that we weren’t just laying around down here. We are starting to build an army. It was very good, a fine day of fighting.
I learned a lot, but the thing that really stuck out to me was the discussion about shield shape and tactics. I was told that round shields are good, but they work best when you have a unit trained to fight together and all using the same type of shield. The rectangles that are more common in the SCA are easier to link with the strange shapes that you might find. With this new information, and a broken war shield, I will be making myself a rectangle shield. Hopefully it will be done in time for war. This is going to be one of those times where I am putting SCA combat style ahead of historical accuracy. My reason for that is that I believe the ancestors would have fought with whatever worked best to get the job done. While most of my gear is set up to honour them and the way they fought, I can’t work as a team if I am not taking the advice of my commander. Now I just need to figure out how to curve a 2x4 sheet of plywood pine…
I would like to thank the Barony of An Crosaire for an amazing event. I had a really good time. Lately, I'd found myself talking a lot about switching to being an assault trooper in war. That was the talk of someone who had lost their way. The fighting at this event was amazing, and it reminded me why I had a shield in the first place. There's very little that is more fun than repelling a charge, arm in arm with your shield-brothers. I am back now. Let's do this!
Photos by: THL Tristum de Kerjean
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