The day’s fighting was divided up into the 3 man melee in the morning, and Classic Tournament of Chivalry style pickups in the afternoon.

The 3 man melee showed to me the power of simple plans.  Our goal was pretty simple.  My squire brother Phillip was on the left, I was in the middle, and Sir Corby on the right.  Phillip and I had shields, Corby a polearm.  By running to the right hard and fast, we were generally able to deliver Sir Corby to the right flank of our opponents.  This would allow him a free shot or two on our opponent’s left flank, while Phillip and I hold up all three of our opponents.  When our opponents pulled the classic 2 and 1 split, we simply ignored the singleton for a second and killed one or two members of the pair.  Our team went 4 and 1, and lost that one because we didn’t execute the plan correctly and quickly.

As we moved on to the single pickups, it was explained that this was *classic* style ToC.  That meant, that we’d have a bear pit (or two), with Knights from one line and Unbelts from another.  The classic part was, if the unbelt kills the knight, the unbelt stays.  If you can run through a couple Knights, then good on ya.

I’ve found that ToC style bear pits are really good for learning and testing.  I can try to formulate a plan against a given knight while I’m standing in the line, then try it out when I get to fight.  Often, other fighters will “read my mind” and try what I was going to do, and will get killed, and thus I have to start over.  While it looks like an endurance test for the knights, it’s a mental test for me.

Vs. Sir Corby – I managed to get stick on my knight, while he tried to stab me with his polearm.  I wanted to make sure that I didn’t give him a face thrust or head chop opportunity while closing.  I figured that if he went for the leading leg and I lost it, I’d just have to die forward (no easy feat on a concrete floor wearing my better knee armor) and shoot for his legs.  I closed quickly and managed to get inside the reach of his weapon, then started striping up his thigh until he said “good”.  We fought again, this time with Sir Corby and I both equipped for sword and board.  He basically took me apart.  I’m still trying to figure out what to do to penetrate his shield defense, considering he’s the one telling me how to do it to other people.

Vs. (His Majesty) Sir Jason – while I managed not to get beaten like a seal, I didn’t actually get much on him by way of stick.  The shield side pass didn’t work out, and my sword side pass isn’t good enough to consider using against knights yet.  In talking with Corby about it, he pointed out that there seems to be an opportunity when you back out of range – so teasing the range game might net results.  Just as I’ve done with Duke Cuan (His Majesty’s Knight), I accidentally stepped on his toe.  In this case, it caused him to be distracted mid leg wrap, and thus landed it with insufficient force.  So yes, I stepped on the King’s toe to block.

Vs. (His Excellency) Sir Bryce – Sir Bryce surprised me.  He seems able to dodge a lot more than I thought he would.  I only saw him fight a couple of newer fighters before I fought him, so I didn’t get the opportunity to plan like I would have otherwise liked.  His offside body shot can be devastating, and should be watched for.  Don’t let his blog posts about his weight and athletic ability fool you, he’s being very modest.

Vs. Count Sinclair – I managed to surprise His Excellency from my knees with an over the head offside shot, and took him in the arm.  He yielded the fight rather than re-armor.  To pull this off, I had to hop up and forward, from my knees, while twisting my upper body and really flick my wrist to target and get power on the shot.  It’s a little wild, but so long as you don’t land on your opponent’s toes, and you keep your target in sight so you don’t whack someone’s hand, it seems like it can be done safely.

Vs. Sir Bryan – going in I knew the two primary shots that I should expect from that boat-oar thick sword.  One was a wrap to my shield side shoulder, and the other was a hanging offside that runs up and down my body.  I’ve taken both of them before, and they can be rather painful in the bruise department the next day.  Pain has always been a good motivation to block, in my book.  Unfortunately, I think I was a bit too concentrated on defense and thus missed opportunities to go on the offense.  I also tried my back step sword leg wrap on him, and ended up hitting him just a bit low.  I think I may be rusty on this shot, so it’s time to get back to practice with it.

Over all, I felt like I had a really good day.  Part of that was from borrowing a light sword from Sir Corby.  I think it’s time to bite the bullet and get some lighter (and more expensive) basket hilts.  The crappy bar stock $25 special isn’t cutting it anymore.  However, part of my success was in working out plans and evaluating them on the side of the field.  I had a plan to get to the range I wanted, and I had a plan for what I wanted to try once I got there.  More often than not, it didn’t work out the way I wanted.  However, more often than not, I lived through the pass and didn’t get one-shoted on the way there.  I’ll have to polish a couple of shots (the good old flat snap, and that leg wrap), and I need to figure out an effective sword side pass.