This past weekend, the wife and I attended Diamond Wars, an event put on the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). The theme? The battle of Bannockburn. over 800 attendees, and about 1/2 of those were there to fight.
Man, was it awesome. we had tourneys all day Friday, Friday night fights (think medieval tourney meets the WWF), and Saturday was the main battle, with almost 200 on a side fighting in open fields, ravines, bridges, and even in a fortified area (old lodge w/ wooden gate) w tunnels.
It was my first war…and I got smacked around aplenty. but it was incredibly fun! Sore as hell, and still feel a dent in my front teeth, but it was awesome. looking forward to the next one!
My lady wife, FaerieBeth is the minister of children for the Barony, so she was busy elsewhere. she did see me off, though…the road to the battlefield was edged by a rock wall on both sides and elevated cabins w/ balconies…and the women (those that do not fight…several women that I know do fight) got out and cheered us on as we left.
it was not really any sort of reenactment, just fun. we split into sides (Scots and English) and ran through several scenarios that the war-crat had thought up. I was with a company of mercenaries led by a Knight (thye head of my household is his squire) that offered to show me around. It was great fun.
Armor was a good variety, depending on the fighter- some are in it for the sport, and wear catchers knees and hocky gloves under baggy clothes to hid them, some go full gothic plate. I have a nice black leather and steel kit that I made myself, with a gambeson sewn by my lady. helms are all 12-14 gauge steel in a variety of designs.
Weapons varied from sword and shield (like me), to florentine (two sword) to spear, glave, greatsword, hammers, axes, thrown javelins, and bows/crossbows. no siege engines at this one, though they do come out to some wars. all weapons are made of rattan and foam (for shape more than padding). Everything is full-contact.
The command structure was loose- pretty much each knight had a company under his command, and they all conferred on general strategy before the battle commenced.
No one was seriously injured, though everyone was sore.
we’ve got another one for Samhein (pagan halloween) at the end of October, though it’ll be smaller. It’s theme is ‘Mongol invasion.’ looking forward to it!
Wait. Wait. You put on armor and go whack people with swords… and don’t even get arrested? Oh crap. I need more. Do people “die?” Is there a winner or a judge or anything, or just pure mayhem? This is the greatest thing I’ve ever heard.
where do you play? I’m in the Barony of Small Grey Bear, around the Little Rock area.
as for the other questions, yes, you ‘die’ when you get hit by a ‘good’ hit. In SCA combat, you call of your own shots. (no refs) The chivalric thing to do is to accept death and various woundings on your own. Most battles are fought to the last man, though they sometimes spice it up with hostages, strategic points, etc. In very big battles, there are ‘resurections’…either a certain number in the battle, or unlimited for a period of time. So if you get killed, you go back to the res point, have a drink, and then get back into it. Battles last from 30 minutes to 3+ hours.
Tourney situations are a bit different- it’s single combat, but many of the same rules apply. I’ve not done much more than practice tourneys. There was even a ‘Friday Night Fights’ at the last Diamond Wars- think a Knight’s Tale meets the WWF. each fighter had theme music, there were pre and post fight interviews, and the fights took place at night, in an outdoor boxing ring surrounded by wooden stands, lit by torchlight. Very cool. actually got the cops called on us for that because of the noise. seems we kept the folks that live across Lake Catherine up with our chanting and yelling.
Anyway, I’m very new, so I’m sure my explanations could are a bit rough. I’m sure that a veteran SCAdian will show up at some point and set me straight where I’ve left stuff out.
Oooh, Diamond Wars…I wanted to go to that. I’m in the process of moving to Meridies, and now I feel like I should have done it faster so I could have made the event : )