Gulf Wars 2008 ravine battle 1

[HappyHeathen77]

I love how you can see through the ABD on back of the arrow right as each shot is being fired. I've been wanting to take a helmet cam into a fencing melee, but thus far have been unable to afford one.

[AnTirKP]

Good news people, I have replaced my (broken) video recorder. I will have new footage up by Mar 24 from this year.

My rate of fire may be slightly reduced this year, as they have limited archers to 15 arrows per reload. I'm getting old, and might be a little slower getting back to res point to resupply. I will also only have about 200 arrows with me, so I may wind up picking up some tubes and watching their slow, lazy "flight" through the air.

Stay tuned, thanks for all the comments.

[broodwarcd]

how many kills did you get? it looks like you were picking people off without any notice.

[AnTirKP]

I really don't know. I used to count, when I was new. Now I just want to make a difference.

I know that some xbow users will have a higher kill ratio (kills / shots) but you can see that my rate of fire can be pretty quick.

Even if my arrow is blocked, if I can stop that enemy from doing what he was doing, I'm being useful.

[broodwarcd]

Im looking into combat archery, but its slow going. (School, Hobbies, life) I'm trying to piece together useful tid bits of info and I was wondering how often do your arrows break? I made a dozen from a kit which took quite a bit longer than I had time for. I dont want to repeat the process more than i have to.

[AnTirKP]

In this age of fiberglass shafted arrows, they "do not break". I have seen one that the shaft had started to fail (it was a bit mushy, and had a deifinite softer flex in one direction". It takes a deliberate attempt to break a shaft.

I am using taped-on Siloflex APD's which do require maintenance. Occasionally they're catch a shield on their way past, and the take gets damaged.

When I was using electrical tape over the nylon strapping tape for head construction, I was having maintenance

[AnTirKP]

issues. It would get split, or cut, or start to peel off. I am now using Plastidip _over_ the strapping tape as an additional cosmetic layer. This protects the constructive layers of tape from UV damage.

Check with your Kingdom CA Marshal first. I know the East has banned Tool Dip completely (for unstated reasons, but I'll not express that opinion here)

[DCWren247]

The problem with using archers for close infantry support--

in the video, the archer has to choose between getting the enemy out and hitting his own men in the back. I the archers had been positioned so as to volley against the advancing enemy, that wouldn't have been a problem.

[AnTirKP]

So the age-old discussion abotu direct vs volley fire.

My second war ever, we used volley fire. We had about 25 archers, and maybe about 200 fighters in total on the field. The number of archers was high enough that we could make a difference.

[AnTirKP]

With all the rule changes in the past 6 years, numbers have fallen off (but are on the rebound). At a local war, you might get 10-15 archers in total. Volley fire requires a larger number of projectles to be effective.

At Gulf Wars, we typically do have enough to do a small area denial tactic. Not in he travine.There are branches on them trees.1.5" heads and apd's do not go through bush very well at all.

[pwnmaster77]

oh and a quick qeustion ive been to a LARP (my sisters boyfriend gave me some arms to use as his gaurd) but at this do you get the arms and armour from wherever the main place is? (obviously for cash per battle your in)

[mtvreject006]

no, you will need to provide your own gear, and it CAN get expensive. you need to be a member of the SCA and be a certified fighter (memorize the rules, get evaluated etc.) if you look up your local SCA chapter they can get you hooked up. they will also have "loaner armor" you can use so it dosen't cost you any money. these battles are at the big wars like gulf, estrella, and pennsic. it is tons of fun though.

[Kingonads]

Slight correction on this... you dont HAVE to be a member of the SCA. But you DO have to be a autherized combatant, in what ever form you want... from Archery to fencing....

[cptkonrad]

That varies by Kingdom, in the Middle and some other Kingdoms you have to be a member to fight or fence, in others you do not.

[Greenacres88]

Man it's like an SCA first person shooter.

[ieatskotchtape]

i know its totally awesome!

[raymackey]

I really miss Gulf Wars.

The video quality looks good. What model of camera were you using?

[DestroyerofToast]

We kill the Spearmen so our Spearmen can kill the guys with swords and boards. We also kill other archers. I think if you ask any of the Trimarans or their allies, you'll find we were very effective!

[dgthall]

wonderful, absolutely fabulous!

Now I *know* I am going to GW next year...

I just have one question... with all the other archers there, why is it you just keep shooting on your own? Wouldn't it make sense to at least work in teams of 2 or 3? You could double-triple team those guys with big warboards, and so on...

[Groghard]

Lol at about 3 mins in you see tearloc (probably wrong spelling i apologize) do a suicide charge. man that was a fun battle

[pwnmaster77]

that is a good thing (if allowed) take 2 boards and run through with 2 or 3 others following with a sword and board and then you can lead a great charge like that

[jeanpauldesens]

This.

is.

awesome.

[AnTirKP]

Yes, in other lands they frown on marshals wearing stuff that makes them look even remotely like a fighter. Society regs require safety glasses for all marshals when archery is in play. I know of one marshal who was shot 17 times during one war. Like a linesman in hockey, if you're in the way, you risk getting hit.

[KrennVonSalzburg]

Am I seeing things, or is there a marshal/spectator standing not 10 feet from the battle at about 1:15, with no helmet at all, even though there's archery!??!?