| November 13,1999 |  ar of Three
Kings. The War of Three Kings is one of the events that originally
got me fighting in the SCA, so I am always hoping that the event goes
well, and this one certaintly did. I first re-joined the SCA in
October of 1997, and about two weekends after that, the fighters
went to Three Kings and kicked a ton of but. And they all came back
and were telling all kinds of neet war stories. And I thought, WOW!
thats what I want to do, tell war stories. :-) However, to tell war
stories, you have to learn how to fight. So I did, and here I am.
Also, a little bit of background about the War of Three Kings. War of Three Kings is a role-playing event inside of a role-playing event. All of us in the SCA role-play to some extent, but in War of Three Kings (WOTK), the autocrats usually pick some historical scenarios and let us play it out. Additionaly, the autocrats usually pick some of the people in the kingdom and let them act some of the "principle" parts and others play some supporting parts too. I think the very first one actually had three kings, but the ones that I have heard of or participated in have only had two, (although last years had William Wallace, Robert the Bruce, and Edward I, so thats kind of three kings, even though the scenarios we were playing Robert was not yet king, and William never was.)
But, back to the fighting. This was one of the best fighting events I have had in an extremely long time. It was really wonderful. People were calling very reasonable blows, I was fighting well, and I got to fight with all of my friends. I know that more often than not, I write in this journal regarding the things that I am not happy with or the things that really have hurt, upset me, but this is one weekend I was really happy with fighting. A couple of moments really stood out in my mind, and I would like to write them down. The first was in the first open field battle. Although, in truth it wasn't really on open field battle, it was an open marsh battle. The way the marsh worked is that there was an area outlined on the ground, where you had to kinda shuffle your way through. The shuffling was to simulate being stuck in a marsh, and to slow us down. Well both groups formed up right outside the marsh area and lay-on was called, and everybody just stood there. Well, in all honesty, I thought that going through the marsh and trying to engage them from inside the march was not a very smart idea, but there was a way to do it that instead worked very well. Duke Kein, has this plan known as "beta", and although most people in the kingdom dismiss it and ignore it, this time it really worked out well. What happened was this. Our side stood inside the marsh about 7 or 8 feet away from our opponents (Maude's forces) side. Then our spears and glaves come up into a psuedo-beta formation and began to devastate the opposing side. We literally worked up and down their line and killed most of them. This plan worked for two reasons : a) The opposing line stayed at our spear/glave range with their shields in front of them without allowing their spears to step up. This allowed us to decimate the opponents shield wall without serious opposition (which had the enemy spears mimic'd our formation, we would not have been able to do so), and then gave us easy access to their spear weapons and ... b) because the commanders did not register the range of the weapons and correct the situation. In general, the reason that the opposing side lost this battle is becuase of command. Our line's spears were able to engage the shields of the enemy from in front of our own shields. Now, normally this would be risky right? Because a shield charge would have overwhelmed our spears and probably gotten several of us killed, putting us at a severe disadvantage for the rest of the fight. However, our opponents were not inclined to consider a charge, because doing so would have taken them into the marsh and therefore would have (in our opponents mind) slowed them down. I think the enemy commander should have moved his troops back about 10 feet from the edge of the marsh, so as to hit us as we were exiting the marsh. The terrain change, couple with the ability to do a shield-heavy charge with us having a marshy terrain to worry about behind us, would have had us pensive and worried. As it was, completely in the marsh, our side, was relaxed and knew that if the enemy tried to charge us or engage, our spears would be relaxed and have plenty of time to retreat behind the safety of the shield wall. Well, good folks, I am going to work out a more formal examination of this battle, and will probably post the results up here later. All-in-all, WOTK had many awesome fights, and I had a good time in all of them.Sweet Dreams All, Jean Paul
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