May 19, 2024 Melee Practice

On Sunday May 19, 2024 we had the mother of all practices.   Sir Richard of House Gilchrest invited us to invade his property for a truly epic practice.  He has an armoring shop, tons of field space, a wooded area and then a tavern in the basement of his home.  We took advantage of the natural terrain and ran the following scenarios:

1. Single death, open field warm-ups. We ran this 5 times with some rebalancing of sides as fighters got armored up and joined in.

2. Allied Champions-style capture the flag resurrection battle. Teams were divided into either red (pink) or blue. First side to get to 3 flags won. Teams had to resurrect in groups of 3 or more to mimic the timed resurrections during the actual Allied Champs battle at Pennsic. Sides were each at 2 flags at the 10-minute mark so we called no more rezes and fought it out. Each side utilized strategies for capturing the opposing team's flag and defending their own flag.

3.  15-Minute Resurrection Woods Battle. We mimicked the Pennsic woods battle by having to control a center flag at +/- 5-minute intervals (3 time checks). The woods had a natural "high" road and "low" road that sides utilized. Attrition was a factor towards the end of the time period, just like at Pennsic!

4.  Town/Cathedral Resurrection Battle. We mimicked the town/cathedral scenario that will be at Pennsic LI. A flag was placed in an 18x 18 sq. ft. enclosure made of hay bales. There was a "baton" in the middle of the enclosure with red and blue end. The enclosure had 2 doors. Sides had to control the baton by holding it up (time keepers kept track of time of possession for each side). Afterwards, we discussed the main strategies fighting outside the enclosure, breaching the enclosure and then fighting inside the enclosure to protect the baton holder.

5.  Pick-ups and authorizations.

Videos of the scenarios are on Sir Bumi's site here and across.

• End of Field Battles at Minute 3:00; 

• Allied Champs-Style at Minute 5:00; 

• Woods at Minute 11:30; 

• Cathedral at Minute: 22:40