My previous post covered basic Pennsic stuff and camp life. This one ventures out to Court and the Battlefield.
A note about photography: I like taking pictures, I hate sitting in front of a computer futzing with them. I have hundreds of shots that will never see the light of day. I just can’t face spending time cooking them down. What you see here, and everywhere on this blog and my wiki are fast, fat edits, selecting the top 5% or less of the shots and giving them a light touch. Which means my hard drive has tons more if there’s something you think I shot but don’t see, ask. I also prefer landscapes to people. All that said, I took the court pictures and the Allied Champions Battle picture in this set. Jess had the camera on Bridge Battle day and Sam/Corwyn had it on Field Battle day. The lead picture is of the Clan Oldcastle gathering at Pennsic. I don’t know who took this one, several people had a camera.
First up are a couple of pictures of Atlantian Royal Court. As is tradition, it was held Wednesday of War Week, 6pm in the “great hall” (a giant metal pole barn). This is always a challenging photo shoot. Court runs 90 min +- 30 min, so the sunlight gets redder and dimmer as court goes on as we approach sunset. That light is flooding in through two open roll-up doors situated to either side of the royals. The floor is lit mercury vapor lights from the high ceiling. They aren’t super bright, but they contribute a (not very nice) blue tint. Yay for shooting RAW so we can correct the color temp in post.
I couldn’t stay very long to do some pressing issues, so there are only two good shots here. The first is Prince Ragnar speaking for an award recipient (I forget who). The second is the Queen placing a laurel wreath on Sophia the Orange during her elevation to the Order of the Laurel.
 Prince Ragnar at Atlantian Court Pennsic 50 |
 Sophia the Orange’s Laurel Ceremony |
“War Week” is when all the good stuff happens. Just as you feel like you’ve caught up with most folks you want to see and have perused the merchants for nth tine, the big official events start. Opening Ceremonies happens on Sunday. I don’t go. It’s fine, you should definitely see it once, it’s quite a show. But, it’s peoply and unless you are Somebody (i.e., Royalty of one of the participating Kingdoms) it’s hard to hear.
Monday there are Champions Battles. There is a Belted Champions Battle, open to only members of the Order of Chivalry of the Middle and East Kingdoms, usually 40 or 50 per side, and an Unbelted Champions Battle, same restrictions, but the participants cannot be knights. And there is an Allied Champions Battle. This one is bigger, and it’s not one and done, it’s a 60 minute battle with resurrection. Usually quite a fun fight, facing the best of the participants from the Allied kingdoms. I did not participate this year and only one of the photos I took passes muster. This is Her Grace Sir Signy chatting with some of the other Atlantian knights before the fight.
Tuesday was the Bridge Battles. I did participate in those. It’s the best 3 out of 5 with a 15 minute time limit and 15 minutes between each. Muster is 9:30 am, first battle is 10:00 am and it continues from there. Usually over and done around noon. There are more battles in the afternoon for the rapier folks, but I don’t participate in that sport.
There are 5 bridges (apparently it’s a busy river crossing). Two 18′ wide, 100′ long bridges on either side of a 27′ wide, 100′ long bridge. Victory goes to the side that controls the most bridges with “control” meaning possession of the center of the bridge. If the center is contested at the end, the fighters within 9′ of the center line get to fight it out to determine the winner. You’ve noticed that 9′ and multiples of 9′ crop up a lot here. That’s the length of the spears we use, so they make a handy measure. Atlanita’s army was fairly small this year, somewhere around 75-80 I am guessing, yet we were still given the choice assignment of the center bridge.
The battles are some of the roughest because of the narrow confines of the bridge (if you step or are pushed over the hay bales that mark the sides of each bridge, you’re out). Ther’s a lot of pushing and shoving and pressing and I don’t need to do that anymore with my back, so I fight with a glave (a sword on a stick, 7′ long) or a spear (9′ long) so I can stay out of the press as much as possible and still contribute. It helps being 6’4″ so I can see and reach over most fighters in the line.
 Fighter Level view of a bridge battle |
 Galmr with glave wating for the next battle |
Wednesday was the Wood Battle. Everyone gets a ride up to a patch of woods at the North end of the property and fights a 1.5 or 2 hour resurrection battle in the wood. I do not participate in those any more either. It’s a huge logistical PITA getting out there and supplied with water and such. Then the battle itself is just non-nonsensical. Medieval armies did not fight in woods. They used woods to protect their flanks. Of course, in our game, no one has horses, so it’s less of a barrier, but it’s a great way to get poison ivy or blow a knee, so I pass on that these days.
Thursday was Field Battle Day. This is the best one, everyone lines up and it’s a straight up fight. Also the best of 5 to give people a chance to enjoy having 1500 or 2000 people on the field at once. I also fought spear in this one. I don’t need to be in shield wall charges anymore either and again, with my reach and experience, I can take out quite a few folks given a chance.
The strategy was the basic “git’em”. We lined up near the right flank with a couple other small units and attacked straight across the field. This is slightly uphill from our starting position, but has a commanding view of the rest of the field, so it’s important terrain. In the first three battles, we smashed the units opposing us on the hill, turned left and rolled down on the rest of the army and won handily. The Eastern army tried a few things to block us, but none of them worked, we won the point handily. We fight all 5 battles regardless if one side has already won the point. It’s too much fun to stop short. So, we switched things up and tried a few fancier tactics, neither worked and we lost the last two.
 Using a spear for the field battles at Pennsic |
 A Field Battle at Pennsic 50 |
 Lined up and waiting for the start |
 Watching on the sideline after being killed |
 Lining up for the next battle |
 And the one after that. |
My patience with these WordPress editors has reached it’s limit. All of them suck. I may add more pictures later.