War Combat

Introduction

This guide is intended to apply to the war combat that occurs in the war field. This includes Armoured, and Fencing Combat. Where advice is specific to only one of the combat styles this will be specifically stated.

Combat held on the tournament field is covered in a separate guide. Tournament Combat.

Marshal in charge of the event

The Baronial Marshal for a combat activity is NOT the default Marshal in Charge and they do NOT have the right to demand that they are.

The SCA martial rules require there to be an Authorised Marshal of each appropriate combat activity who is designated as the Marshal In Charge (MIC). This is an important reporting position and is also a part of the grievance/appeal chain should anything go wrong on the field.

However, this position does not mean that you need to spend your entire event doing this.

The Marshal in Charge of the event does NOT need to be the Marshal in Charge of each tournament. Feel free to delegate to other people.
The Marshal in Charge can still fight. Occasionally some people will have the opinion that the Marshal in Charge can’t/shouldn’t fight, this is not correct.

Reporting

Once the event is complete you must write up a report. The easiest way to make sure you don’t forget anything is to make sure it is written down during the event.

At the end of each session, double check with the marshals to see if there were any issues and write it down while everything is fresh in your mind.

Scheduling/Timing

Feedback from previous Canterbury Faires

Feedback from CF2024 had the following comments about the scheduling/timing.

Armoured combatants responded that 9am was too early to schedule a war scenario. Fencing did not have these comments, this is likely due to needing less time to get into armour.
Avoid the hottest part of the day (being the early afternoon).
The war sessions should be spread out across the event, not all at the start/end of the event.

Clashing with other activities

In most years each of the activity streams has had an activity which is its premier activity which no other activities are scheduled against. In addition there are some other site activities that cannot be clashed with. These include:

Fighter Auction Tournament for Armoured Combat.
Baroness’s Rapier Tournament for Fencing Combat.
Thorfords Arrow for Archery.
The Market.
Court.

Other than preventing these clashes the other thing that needs to be considered is that the war field is also part of the archery field. This means that war sessions cannot clash with archery.

Calendar Event Descriptions

It is important that it is clear in the calendar whether a war session is going to be for armoured combat or fencing combat.

It is also important that if there are any themes that may affect what weapons or equipment people bring, that this is explained.

The description must be submitted to the Timetable Coordinator, and to the Event Webwrite so that it can be correctly advertised.

Make the descriptions simple but detailed enough that a new person can understand what is going on.

A common complaint is that people don’t know what an activity is because they only have a title to go on.

Marshals, Heralds, and List Keepers

Pre-event planning

For each session it is important to have a list of scenarios that will be fought.

It is important to know if there are any extra marshals or equipment needed for a scenario.

Volunteers

When people book on the booking form they can select that they are interested in marshalling, heralding, or list keeping. This gives us a list of names of people who can be contacted to fill those roles in advance of the event.

When people sign in at gate they will sign up for some of these roles.

List Keepers

A List Keeper is not necessary for a war session, but is recommended if you need a time keeper or a score keeper (especially if you are doing a running score across multiple sessions).

If the List Keeper needs a stopwatch then this should be communicated in advance.

This must be made clear to the Event List Keeper before the event.

Marshalling

War scenarios require more marshals than most tournaments.

For fencing combat the requirement is 1 marshal per 8 combatants.
For armoured combat the recommendation is 3 for the first 20 combatants and 1 additional marshal per 15 additional combatants.

If ranged weapons are being used (and most of the time they are) then the field marshals should be wearing appropriate armour.

For fencing combat with rubber band guns the marshals must be wearing at least a fencing mask.
For armoured combat with missile weapons the requirements are outlined https://sca.org.nz/wiki/index.php?title=Armoured_Combat:Armour_Requirements#Non-combatant_armour_requirements

It is recommended that a marshal is stationed on the spectator side of the field, and a separate marshal for controlling this boundary should be considered.

Heralds

A separate herald is not a requirement for war scenarios, however the spectators appreciate knowing what is going on in the scenario they are watching or who has won.

War Scenarios

General Scenario Details

For each scenario it is important to cover the following details:

What are the boundaries of the field?
Are there any firing angles or exclusion zones where ranged weapons cannot be fired due to spectators?
Is killing from behind allowed?
If resurrections are allowed then how many (it is helpful to phrase it as “you have X lives, which means you may resurrect X-1 times”) and where do the resurrections occur?
What is the scenario objective and how will it be scored?
Are there any additional restrictions to the scenario?

Collecting and inspecting ammunition

At the end of each scenario the ammunition fired must be collected and re-inspected.

For armoured combat the inspection must be performed under the supervision of a marshal (5.1.3.5)
For fencing combat the ammunition must be inspected by a marshall before the start of the war, and may then be inspected by combatants between scenarios.

Common Scenarios

ADD SCENARIOS