Sunday I went to Dragons Forge (Oregon City, OR) for a special event. My fighting company, the Harbingers, was challenged by the Arcana. The chosen field of battle was Dragons Forge.
At one time my company was a decent size. I think we have a little over 20 members and at our height, most of them were active. Now we only have 3 active members, two semi-active members and one pledge, although he is active. We were only able to muster up 4 people for the battle. Kormac, Kungpow, Pyro and myself. Arcana on the other hand was able to bring 7 members.
The day started out with a hold the point game ran by Pyro. The teams had to hold an island which was in the middle of a “lake”. To get to the island you had to heel toe your way to the point. You had to hold it for one minute. You can watch one of the rounds HERE. After the game we did the Harbingers vs Arcana battles.
The battles took the form of militia games, so there was armor and projectiles but no class abilities. The first two battles were won by Arcana, which wasn’t unexpected considering they outnumbered us almost two to one. However I was pleased with our tactics. I advised we split into two groups and surround them so they had to fight us back to back, which worked both times. If one side was able to break through, we would have been able to hit the other side’s backs with ease.
The next two battles were four vs four. Those games were closer, but we still lost them both. The last two battles we invited the 3 newer players to join the Harbinger’s side, evening up the odds. We lost the first battle and won the second battle.
I wasn’t too surprised with the outcomes, other than the one win we got. I assumed we were not going to get a win considering the people participating, but we managed to out maneuver Arcana enough to get that final win. If Gustav wasn’t sick we would have stood a better chance, he’s a better fighter and that would make Arcana have only a two person advantage, which wouldn’t have been such a big issue.
After the company battles were over everyone took a break. Critias and my Man at Arms, Ozzward did a best to ten short sword battle which you can watch HERE. Ozzward got smashed, but I wasn’t to surprised, he almost exclusively uses a sword and shield and he’s still rather new. I think it was a good learning experience for him. After the the battle I did a bit of teaching. I talked to him about his stance, his guard and a bit about his temperament. If you watch the video you might be able to tell he was holding his guard up to high and at the wrong angle. I also suggested he be a bit more patient. Being aggressive has its place, but so does waiting. He needs to know when to make the choice of which to use. I had a lot of fun teaching. I really look forward to working with him on his short sword work and seeing him improve. I have always wanted to have someone I could teach my approach to sword fighting, especially single sword. It’s exciting!
After the break we played one more class battle game, a capture the flag battle game. It was a basic game, each side had a flag and to score a point you needed to have both flags at your base. You could see one of the rounds HERE.
For the first time in a long time I was able to see a video of my fighting. One of the rounds of the company battle, which were short, was recorded. I was able to see some issues I had that I will need to correct. I was fighting sword and board. I was holding my sword ridiculously high, something which I don’t do when I short sword fight. I really need to work on translating my success with short sword to sword and board. I’ve had this realization before but I’m not sure why I haven’t. Maybe I just feel lazier when I’m fighting with a shield.
I also think my medium shield might be a bit to big for my short sword style of fighting. After Olympiad, when my small shield has been scored, I will try fighting with a small shield again and see if that helps. Right now I want it to stay as it is till it’s been scored. Ideally I should probably have a shield bigger than my small shield but a tad smaller than my medium shield. It would also help if I wasn’t so fat but that’s a whole other issue.
After the day was over most of us journeyed to a restaurant for afters. We did a round table where most people shared what they had recently achieved and what they were working on. It has been a while since we did a round table so it was nice that we got a chance to do it. It’s a Harbinger tradition which I love.
Next weekend House Gravy will be doing a demo at FandomPDX. Sadly we have very few members actually showing up to help. As it stands we have Uriel, Kormac and myself. Darb was going to go but he broke a few ribs and understandably, won’t be able to make it.
We are also be doing a tournament. We’ll have to ask for non-House Gravy members to help though. Akryn is also organizing a fan table for the weekend, which I plan to help with but it isn’t a House Gravy specific activity. I suspected Uriel and Kormac will still help with it though.
I hope everyone had a good New Year’s Eve! I look forward to seeing what this new year will bring
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