Blackstone Raid XVI ----- Part 1
This weekend was great fun. Oona and I went to Blackstone Raids in West Virginia.
The drive was long. It was a little over 6 hours door to door. This is because there is no straight route across West Virginia. I will be glad when 33 is opened as a limited access highway across the state.
We arrived on sight at close to 3:00 AM Saturday morning. We unpacked and went straight to bed. At about 7:50 AM, I was awake so we got up and went to town for coffee not knowing how things worked on site. After getting coffee in town we came back and proceeded to armor up. After getting into armor we headed to inspection.
This was the toughest inspection I have ever been through. I have to do some repairs on the bars on my helm because two had gaps that I had to fill by wrapping the bar with duck tape. I have been fighting in this helmet for 6 years and never had any problems. But once that was fixed I got my sticker after going through the talk about how I should wear rigid armor that covers my back. The weapons were no problem except my black low profile tip. They wanted that taped red. So, we are both past inspection. Now where do we fight?
Well, Oona and I were suppose to be meeting other people there but they wussed out on us. I am not going to mention any names, Llyr so don’t worry….. Oops.
So, we live in the kingdom of Atlantia. Mind you I am not Atlantian, I am Preachain. Saying this out loud in front of some Atlantians did not go over well. Go figure. The mercenary business is not favored in the kingdom that I am supposed to be in. Well we like to play nice and it was the home team Æthelmearc that they wanted us to fight for and I was happy with that. Now we know what side to fight on, the next question is who to line up with.
We spot this friendly looking group in red and black with a yellow lightning bolt. What was there group? “The Great Dark Hoard” or some such thing. Apparently they are know or something. I was even told that we (Preachain and Anglesey) had fought with them before. Did I mention that I was from Clanne Preachain and Oona is from Anglesey? Ok, good enough for me. Now for the fighting.
Well all who know me understand that I am all about making friends and keeping my mouth shut so I don’t offend anyone. ;-p I will try to do that in my blog too…… Now where was I???? Oh, that’s right, the fighting.
Well the fighting was great after Oona and I realized we should not go in with a group we were not use to fighting with. We hung back together and ran for the gap that opened. I would get myself into trouble and Oona would buy me time with her spear. It is a lovely sight to see her spear zip around from behind my shield and take out 1 of the 3 guys gunning for me. Oops, one of them hit my sword with his helm. Doh, the other hit my shield and I accidentally hit him in the helm with my sword while I was reaching around my shield to see if he was OK. Where is Oona? Oh, that guy just ran into her spear. Doh… Now I’ve gone and put my head in the way of that guys sword. I will just lie here and relax. So that is how the field battles went. Loads of fun. I think there were 4 field battles. Then we did 3 bridge battles.
Some how I became a lone shield man on the first bridge battle then I got legged and the guys with the long weapons behind me backed up. I was then just a speed bump. The other two bridge battles went better for me and Oona was rocking with her spear fencing work. I got into some good shoving matches and even found myself alive behind the enemy when a hold was called, still standing, never even tripped on that push. The only guy who realized I was there was a spearman that was coming back from resurrection. “Lay on”! I managed to catch the guy beside me by surprise then went for the spearman and found myself going off the bridge when a couple more guys noticed me. Oh well, back to res point. And did I mention the fighting was GREAT!!!!!!!! Nothing but friendly people trying to hit me.
To be continued…………………….
The drive was long. It was a little over 6 hours door to door. This is because there is no straight route across West Virginia. I will be glad when 33 is opened as a limited access highway across the state.
We arrived on sight at close to 3:00 AM Saturday morning. We unpacked and went straight to bed. At about 7:50 AM, I was awake so we got up and went to town for coffee not knowing how things worked on site. After getting coffee in town we came back and proceeded to armor up. After getting into armor we headed to inspection.
This was the toughest inspection I have ever been through. I have to do some repairs on the bars on my helm because two had gaps that I had to fill by wrapping the bar with duck tape. I have been fighting in this helmet for 6 years and never had any problems. But once that was fixed I got my sticker after going through the talk about how I should wear rigid armor that covers my back. The weapons were no problem except my black low profile tip. They wanted that taped red. So, we are both past inspection. Now where do we fight?
Well, Oona and I were suppose to be meeting other people there but they wussed out on us. I am not going to mention any names, Llyr so don’t worry….. Oops.
So, we live in the kingdom of Atlantia. Mind you I am not Atlantian, I am Preachain. Saying this out loud in front of some Atlantians did not go over well. Go figure. The mercenary business is not favored in the kingdom that I am supposed to be in. Well we like to play nice and it was the home team Æthelmearc that they wanted us to fight for and I was happy with that. Now we know what side to fight on, the next question is who to line up with.
We spot this friendly looking group in red and black with a yellow lightning bolt. What was there group? “The Great Dark Hoard” or some such thing. Apparently they are know or something. I was even told that we (Preachain and Anglesey) had fought with them before. Did I mention that I was from Clanne Preachain and Oona is from Anglesey? Ok, good enough for me. Now for the fighting.
Well all who know me understand that I am all about making friends and keeping my mouth shut so I don’t offend anyone. ;-p I will try to do that in my blog too…… Now where was I???? Oh, that’s right, the fighting.
Well the fighting was great after Oona and I realized we should not go in with a group we were not use to fighting with. We hung back together and ran for the gap that opened. I would get myself into trouble and Oona would buy me time with her spear. It is a lovely sight to see her spear zip around from behind my shield and take out 1 of the 3 guys gunning for me. Oops, one of them hit my sword with his helm. Doh, the other hit my shield and I accidentally hit him in the helm with my sword while I was reaching around my shield to see if he was OK. Where is Oona? Oh, that guy just ran into her spear. Doh… Now I’ve gone and put my head in the way of that guys sword. I will just lie here and relax. So that is how the field battles went. Loads of fun. I think there were 4 field battles. Then we did 3 bridge battles.
Some how I became a lone shield man on the first bridge battle then I got legged and the guys with the long weapons behind me backed up. I was then just a speed bump. The other two bridge battles went better for me and Oona was rocking with her spear fencing work. I got into some good shoving matches and even found myself alive behind the enemy when a hold was called, still standing, never even tripped on that push. The only guy who realized I was there was a spearman that was coming back from resurrection. “Lay on”! I managed to catch the guy beside me by surprise then went for the spearman and found myself going off the bridge when a couple more guys noticed me. Oh well, back to res point. And did I mention the fighting was GREAT!!!!!!!! Nothing but friendly people trying to hit me.
To be continued…………………….
Labels: armored combat, Blackstone Raid XVI, SCA
posted by Ondrædan á Júzki | 2:02 PM
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