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New icon?
I've got space for one more icon... what shall it be? I'm thinking now that I have the shiney new helm, that a fighting pic would be nice. So I made up a couple of icons using my pics from this weekend...
So which one do you like? A, B or neither, try again? And yes, that is an ugly circa 1960s gymnasium in the background. I'll take a new pic when summer comes and I can take it outside, but that's gonna be a while.
Hjalti finished my shiney new helm last week. Put in the chin strap at Wednesday fighter practice and then got to fight in it for the first time this weekend. After wearing the non-custom helm for so long, I'd gotten used to having a bar right in front of my eyes. Kinda strange to have it spaced out right. I still have to put the black suede on the back so I can look like all the other Vikings, but I can fight in it at least.
The fighting this weekend was pretty good. It was all war practice, so my bread-and-butter. Wernar split us into 4 equal teams, but didn't split the weapons styles easily. The groups were then randomly paired, so we'd have a chance to work in units with different people, instead of the same people every time. Different commanders were chosen and different strategies were tried. I just tried to stick with my unit and hold the shield wall. I'm not good for much else at this point. I think I died in every battle, but a moment the opponents waste killing me is a moment that our better fighters can take advantage of, so it's all good.
The second drill was to practice movement. Pivoting, advancing and side-stepping a whole line, while maintaining cohesiveness. This is something I am good at. I take orders well, and I know how to stick with the guys next to me.
Then we did a 3-man warlord tourney thing, which was intended to practice re-grouping quickly.
Next, there was a neat "reinforcements" battle. Everyone divided into teams of 6, with 3 teams per side. The first team on each side would engage, Wernar would count to a specified number (I think he started with 30 seconds but moved it back to 20 on the next run) and the next teams would join, count again, and the final teams would join. Good for practicing re-grouping, working around the dead and evaluating a changing battle field. I sat out with the girls who had been hit hard and grabbed a snack and just watched these drills. Fun to watch.
I can't exactly remember what the final drill was. Maybe more of the first drill series, but with a day's worth of experience behind us?
After all this, I did a few pick-ups with Kalira. I enjoy fighting her, we are fairly evenly matched and neither of us throws too hard, so we walk away bruise-free. Also fought one pick-up with a guy who made it his goal to fight everyone that showed up at least once. It was a double-kill, with him hitting me only a fraction of a second before I hit him. So that was a nice note to end on (for a newbie fighter that hasn't come out to a practice since new years).
I didn't take any excessive shots this weekend. In fact, most of the shots I took I suspect others would have called "light". I didn't have any bruising at all (which is always appreciated) and the only shot I took that really hurt was a crossbow shot to a padded but unrmoured armpit. Robert (one of the passengers in my van) actually hit me by accident when his intended target died as he was shooting. He felt bad about it, but 5 miuntes or so after it happened I couldn't feel it, so no biggie.
A few others took shots that hurt (usually to under-armoured areas) and there were no really severe injuries to speak of. Which is good since we were MILES from any sort of medical help. Probably a good 4 hour drive to the nearest decent hospital. We had people come from two other Kingdoms, which is always fun, and they were really nice and friendly. Made me want to go to their events for sure.
The worst injuries actually happened outside the sanctioned fighting... the guys came up with this game they call Homme-ball (pronounced Homey-ball), but which I prefer to call "idiot-ball". The idea is as follows:
Get your hockey gloves and your weapons, two hockey nets and those ubiquitous "gym balls" that we all played dodgeball with as kids. Two balls if you're feeling really adventurous. Divide yourself into two evenish teams. Put a goalie in each net. Now try to hit the balls into the nets using your weapons, don't bother counting the goals though.
The keen observer will notice a major problem with this plan, namely the presence of big sicks and the lack of any real armour. I didn't play this game, merely watched as I set up my sleeping area behind the barricades. I left the gymnasium to the following conversation:
"Did you lose a tooth"
Pulling a piece of tooth from his mouth "Nah, just part of one"
In a whole weekend of this idiotic game, there was only a split lip, and a tiny, coarse-sand-sized bit of tooth lost. I am amazed.
So which one do you like? A, B or neither, try again? And yes, that is an ugly circa 1960s gymnasium in the background. I'll take a new pic when summer comes and I can take it outside, but that's gonna be a while.
Hjalti finished my shiney new helm last week. Put in the chin strap at Wednesday fighter practice and then got to fight in it for the first time this weekend. After wearing the non-custom helm for so long, I'd gotten used to having a bar right in front of my eyes. Kinda strange to have it spaced out right. I still have to put the black suede on the back so I can look like all the other Vikings, but I can fight in it at least.
The fighting this weekend was pretty good. It was all war practice, so my bread-and-butter. Wernar split us into 4 equal teams, but didn't split the weapons styles easily. The groups were then randomly paired, so we'd have a chance to work in units with different people, instead of the same people every time. Different commanders were chosen and different strategies were tried. I just tried to stick with my unit and hold the shield wall. I'm not good for much else at this point. I think I died in every battle, but a moment the opponents waste killing me is a moment that our better fighters can take advantage of, so it's all good.
The second drill was to practice movement. Pivoting, advancing and side-stepping a whole line, while maintaining cohesiveness. This is something I am good at. I take orders well, and I know how to stick with the guys next to me.
Then we did a 3-man warlord tourney thing, which was intended to practice re-grouping quickly.
Next, there was a neat "reinforcements" battle. Everyone divided into teams of 6, with 3 teams per side. The first team on each side would engage, Wernar would count to a specified number (I think he started with 30 seconds but moved it back to 20 on the next run) and the next teams would join, count again, and the final teams would join. Good for practicing re-grouping, working around the dead and evaluating a changing battle field. I sat out with the girls who had been hit hard and grabbed a snack and just watched these drills. Fun to watch.
I can't exactly remember what the final drill was. Maybe more of the first drill series, but with a day's worth of experience behind us?
After all this, I did a few pick-ups with Kalira. I enjoy fighting her, we are fairly evenly matched and neither of us throws too hard, so we walk away bruise-free. Also fought one pick-up with a guy who made it his goal to fight everyone that showed up at least once. It was a double-kill, with him hitting me only a fraction of a second before I hit him. So that was a nice note to end on (for a newbie fighter that hasn't come out to a practice since new years).
I didn't take any excessive shots this weekend. In fact, most of the shots I took I suspect others would have called "light". I didn't have any bruising at all (which is always appreciated) and the only shot I took that really hurt was a crossbow shot to a padded but unrmoured armpit. Robert (one of the passengers in my van) actually hit me by accident when his intended target died as he was shooting. He felt bad about it, but 5 miuntes or so after it happened I couldn't feel it, so no biggie.
A few others took shots that hurt (usually to under-armoured areas) and there were no really severe injuries to speak of. Which is good since we were MILES from any sort of medical help. Probably a good 4 hour drive to the nearest decent hospital. We had people come from two other Kingdoms, which is always fun, and they were really nice and friendly. Made me want to go to their events for sure.
The worst injuries actually happened outside the sanctioned fighting... the guys came up with this game they call Homme-ball (pronounced Homey-ball), but which I prefer to call "idiot-ball". The idea is as follows:
Get your hockey gloves and your weapons, two hockey nets and those ubiquitous "gym balls" that we all played dodgeball with as kids. Two balls if you're feeling really adventurous. Divide yourself into two evenish teams. Put a goalie in each net. Now try to hit the balls into the nets using your weapons, don't bother counting the goals though.
The keen observer will notice a major problem with this plan, namely the presence of big sicks and the lack of any real armour. I didn't play this game, merely watched as I set up my sleeping area behind the barricades. I left the gymnasium to the following conversation:
"Did you lose a tooth"
Pulling a piece of tooth from his mouth "Nah, just part of one"
In a whole weekend of this idiotic game, there was only a split lip, and a tiny, coarse-sand-sized bit of tooth lost. I am amazed.