WMAW 2013

[Sir Edward]

They said 4 days for the event to fill, but only 30 minutes for the on-site rooms to fill. Wow.

[Sir James A]

They said 4 days for the event to fill, but only 30 minutes for the on-site rooms to fill. Wow.

Wow, 30 minutes? That's impressive!

[Sir Wolf]

Wow, 30 minutes? That's impressive!

snicker snicker, thats what she said snicker cough sputter

[Sir William]

Wow, 30 minutes? That's impressive!

snicker snicker, thats what she said snicker cough sputter

Beat me to it.  lol

[Sir Edward]

From Greg Mele today:

A quick note that, due to cancellations, we now have five spaces open for WMAW - so if you are interested and able, contact the Registrar right away!

[Sir Edward]

Well, we're on the last day at the event here so far. I'll have to write up some more later when I'm home and recovering. I'm already pretty sore, but only have a few bruises.

As far as major event injuries go, I think 4 people ended up with finger injuries. One or two broken, and one with the thumb-nail blown off. There was a mild shoulder dislocation too.

I mentioned this on facebook, but wanted to repeat it here too. On Friday, they had the armored "deed of arms", which has gradually grown over the last few events. They have heralds announce each combatant, and put their banners out on display during the bouts. This year, for his 60th birthday, Bob Charrette wanted to fight for 60 minutes in the list. They interspersed his bouts with other bouts.

Before the deed of arms started, Sean Hayes taught an armored-drills class, which I kitted up for. I've still never been invited to participate in the deed (it's very much an invitation-only thing). After the deed was over, I was still in kit, and one of the fine gentlemen (the very chivalrous Christian Cameron) invited me to have a bout with him. I was very honored to hear him say to one of the other participants "he's worthy".

I ended up fighting 3 bouts in rapid succession, and then a 4th after a short break. I got thrown around like a rag-doll, but loved every minute of it. I got a few good hits in, but clearly got owned. But it was a blast.

As I said on facebook, the fact that these fine men decided to include me and have a chance to bout after the official deed of arms was over, was quite the honor, and I'm extremely grateful to them.

[Ian]

Congratulations Ed.  Sounds like a great time!  One of the things I'm most looking forward to at DoK this year is to get to meet Bob Charette, since the whole 'Peel' thing is partially responsible for my getting in to Living History in the first place.

I've always had great respect for Christian Cameron as well.  Was he in his 14th century gear?  He made a very fancy version of the Charles de Blois pourpoint from Tasha's pattern that I've only seen photographs of, but boy are they great.  Perhaps in 2015 you'll be in the Deed good Sir Edward!!

[Sir Wolf]

awesomeeeeeeee

[Sir James A]

Huzzah for harnessfechten! Coming to the dark side for a demo or two??

[Sir Edward]

Yeah, Christian was in his full 14th century gear, with surcoat and plaque belt. Even the under-garments are fantastic. He's very much the gentleman, on top of having a great kit, and really knowing his stuff.

I had never really talked directly to Bob Charrette before this event, though he and I were aware of each other. What I didn't know is that he used to sculpt D&D figures for Ral Partha, way back when (disclaimer: someone else was telling me this, and I didn't verify it with him). He is quite the sculptor though. He hand-made figurines as gifts for the combatants in the Deed of Arms.

The Saturday-night Feast was fantastic as always, including the demo bouts. Jesse Kulla recorded them with his phone, and has posted a couple already. These are probably the two most interesting to watch for specific reasons:

First is the knife-fight between Thayne Alexander and Keith Jennings. What's hard to see in the video is that the strikes were not light or incidental. When they hit each other, these were solid strikes. After watching it, you might agree with my feeling that I don't want to EVER get into a real knife fight:



The second one is a messer fight between Roland Warzecha and Jake Norwood. They wore almost no protective gear; mainly just "goggles" that protect the eyes and nose. The reason for this was that they wanted a fight where they truly respect the weapons, and try very hard not to get touched. It made for a very dynamic and tense duel:

[Ian]

Man, that knife fight looks so lethal and intense... that's really awesome.  And yes, I echo your sentiment, I would much rather bring a gun to a knife fight any day of the week.  The winner in a knife fight is often not in much better shape than the loser.

I never really saw good messer fighting, and always thought the weapon itself looked rather cumbersome.  However, that bout in the second video really showed the true elegance of that weapon.  Very impressive on all accounts!

Good stuff Sir Ed, looks like an amazing time!!

[Sir Edward]

Oh yes, it was a great event this year. It always is, but they keep refining details and inviting some new instructors each year. It's the one place you get to see international training come together like this.

I did a really good job of pacing myself. Most of the bruises, and soreness I accumulated is already fading, since I took it easy the last couple of days there. I did get a lot of fights in, and took some fun classes.

Oh, and one of the lectures I was in was about this English manuscript from the Marquis of Newcastle. It starts off explaining that his martial technique is designed to defeat ALL weapons (and he goes into excruciating detail, listing them), and he wanted to pass it on to his sons, but was dismayed that they showed no interest in learning it. So he wrote it down so that they could learn it later, in case he took it to his grave. Paul Wagner is currently transcribing the manuscript, but so far he's gotten the core of the art out. I can sum it up in one word: "LOL".    I'll have to show it to some folks here in person later. There's really no good way to describe it. It's completely ridiculous, and yet, I think there's something to it (in the sense that he just surprised people by doing something weird, and survived on the losing side of the English civil war).

[Sir Brian]

Awesome videos! Truly I wish I could have made it this year.   

Alas I hope I can still make it to DoK! Lord knows I’ve shelled out enough $$$ buying stuff in preparation. 

[Sir James A]

First is the knife-fight between Thayne Alexander and Keith Jennings. What's hard to see in the video is that the strikes were not light or incidental. When they hit each other, these were solid strikes. After watching it, you might agree with my feeling that I don't want to EVER get into a real knife fight:

I had that feeling a year or so ago after I saw this video:



It gets *real* at a little after the 1 minute mark.

The WMAW knife fight was great too. They really turn everything up a notch for that event. Maybe I'll make 2015.

[Ian]

Yeah knife fights are absolutely vicious.  In that video around the point where it got 'real' you see that in what.... about 2 seconds he pretty much ventilated that guy from stomach to neck and there was nothing he could do about it.  There's a certain level of brutality in a knife fight that's just not seen in many other types of weapon fights.  It's pure overwhelming violence of action with intent to kill.

It's over so quick, and you can just imagine if that were real, the attacker would just turn and walk away and that other guy would just bleed out on the floor in a few seconds with virtually every major organ on the left side of his body punctured, and his neck torn open.  And really, after that first or second stab, the shock and incapacitation that occurs might even prevent you from attempting to stop the rest of those attacks, not that it would matter.