February 9, 2025 Melee Practice - Indoor/Stierbach

We were back in Fredericksburg on February 9, 2025 which was also Super Bowl Sunday.  I leaned into the gridiron theme with my promotional efforts.  Unlike last year, we had great weather this year so we were able to conduct scenarios both inside and outside.

• Warm-ups

• Knights v. Unbelts single death bouts run 5x (indoors). The unbelts had a numbers advantage but the knights had an experience and shield advantage. Even though the knights outperformed the unbelts, the unbelts wanted the opportunity to work on their strategy and adjust appropriately for each bout.

• 5-minute unlimited resurrection bridge battle with 3 time checks at +/- 90 seconds (indoors). Like last year, this was the most intense fighting of the day with opportunities to practice charges and breakthroughs and staying (not holding) a line.

• 3 v. 3 drill (outside). This is a drill I wanted to run for a long time but needed the right composition of fighters to do it. The unbelts organized into groups of 3. Two triads would fight single death. The losing team then got to stay on the field and fight again and fight a new triad but gained a +1 fighter who was a knight. This now created a 4 v. 3. If they lost again, they would get another knight to make it a 5 v. 3 (fighting a new team). If they won, then the other team, now the losing team, would get a +1 knight for a new 4 v. 3 (fighting a new triad) and so on. This went through several rounds and there was lots of opportunity for tutelage and collaboration.

• 2 Control Points unlimited resurrection ran 2x (outside). This was a last minute experimental scenario I noodled with my buddy Sir Bari of the East Kingdom. The bout was a 5-minute unlimited resurrection where the victory condition was time of control if 2 control points. Teams had to control both control points that were placed askew (control defined as being within a 6 ft-ish circle around the point), to count towards their time of control. The team with the most time of control for BOTH control points won. This forced teams to break into 2 units but then have people float between the 2 control points. It made for some solid fighting and thinking about positioning on the field.

• Pick-ups and individualized instruction.

The Altlantian rapier northern regional army took advantage of the indoor space and that seemed to work out for them.

But the best part was Lord Leon D'Amore's music video idea for the beginning of the fighting footage taken by Sir Bumi here!