Who got it right this year??

[Angusm0628]

Pennsic is over again. So in your estimation, what units did you feel did well, did poorly etc. ??? Aethelmearc to my eye had their game on this year. Good folks in the command structure and the ability to adjust to what was unfolding enabled them to keep the momentum.

[Vitus von Atzinger]

Bloodguard

[Aaron]

Combat of the Thirty definitely had it right this year. The wide-screen shot in high definition on youtube rocked. IF I ever make it to Pennsic the Combat of the Thirty is on my list to fight in (wearing a correct 14th century kit BTW).

-Aaron

[Angusm0628]

Bloodguard

Damn near an annual commentary. Ice always has his guys on the ball.

[AndreasMorgan]

I have to chime in with Northern Cross... but then I guess I am a little biased

Cheers,
Andreas

[Thorstenn]

Aethelmearc!!! Duke Henri has done a wonderful job of restructuring their war units, they fight hard!!!

Bloodguard, They bring it, 24/7

As much as I hate to admit it.... the Tuchux, they did a good job on the bridge battles and listened to commands.

Thor-

[Galvyn Lockhart]

the 404.

A bunch of young fighters from the East being led by Sir Tanaka Raiko & Sir Albrecht von Halstern. Their enthusiasm & chivalry were highly infectious. They turned out in force for the Novice Tourney & stayed right through to the Field Battles. Give this crew a few years to gel, and they will be a menace on the field of battle.

[Ian Mac D]

I admit to being a bit biased but I would say the East Kingdom's Unbelted Champions Team. We worked together, executed our plan well and it showed.

[BdeB]

Lucan and Jana.

[Jonny Deuteronomy]

United Celtic Front (BogTroopers)

[LadySid]

Lucan and Jana.

Can you explain?

[BdeB]

Lucan and Jana.

Can you explain?

They did an amazing job as War King and Queen, fostered good will, courted the right Allies, and just played the role correctly.

[freiman the minstrel]

the 404.

A bunch of young fighters from the East being led by Sir Tanaka Raiko & Sir Albrecht von Halstern. Their enthusiasm & chivalry were highly infectious. They turned out in force for the Novice Tourney & stayed right through to the Field Battles. Give this crew a few years to gel, and they will be a menace on the field of battle.

A serious, SERIOUS, SERIOUS +Tasha to this one. I have never, ever seen a group come out of nowhere and do as well as this crew.

And they have that "hate us or love us, but don't bore us" attitude.

But Tanaka and Brick don't lead them. They are lead by a big ole Brooklyn Mook named John.

f

[Wulf]

The Tuchux. They had a bunch of new dogs this year and from what I could tell their entire unit stayed together well hit hard, hit fast and kept moving. A couple of the new dogs it appeared to not understand some of the rules but they were quickly straitened out by the rest of the tribes.

[maxntropy]

the 404.

A bunch of young fighters from the East being led by Sir Tanaka Raiko & Sir Albrecht von Halstern. Their enthusiasm & chivalry were highly infectious. They turned out in force for the Novice Tourney & stayed right through to the Field Battles. Give this crew a few years to gel, and they will be a menace on the field of battle.

A serious, SERIOUS, SERIOUS +Tasha to this one. I have never, ever seen a group come out of nowhere and do as well as this crew.

And they have that "hate us or love us, but don't bore us" attitude.

But Tanaka and Brick don't lead them. They are lead by a big ole Brooklyn Mook named John.

f

Freiman:

If you'd've actually come out and fight with us (as John said you would), then you would have been more fully briefed on the situation.

Although clearly just my take on the history (and any and all apocryphal, inaccurate, or just plain wrong statements are thus naturally all my own), since I was involved in at least an ancillary/advisory manner, here you go:

The 404 is a fighting unit, not a Household (similar to the Club Seal fighting unit that Duke Timothy of Arindale and I had going in Caid back in the early-to-mid 1990s - and for similar reasons).

Sir Albrecht (my brother and Knight) and I and the rest of my squire brothers left Haus Von Halstern a few years ago to pursue our own route. We started camping and hanging with our long-term friends House Arindale (Duke Timothy's household) along with Sir Gabriel Maccuswell's household -- and Sir Albrecht was the Commanding Officer of the Southern Region Army of the East Kingdom for a couple've years.

More recently, our friend and former squire brother and former household-mate, Sir Tanaka (he was with us in Haus Von Halstern way back in the 1980s), also struck out on his own a bit with his household. Since they live close to each other, have very similar attitudes and approaches to things, and since Tanaka was already hanging out with Albrecht in the shop every week... it was just natural that the two households started working together. Since Tanaka was an officer within the Shire of Rusted Woodlands and running their Hawthorne practice, Brick and Tanaka together started focusing the practice on some old-school-type training.

About the same time (not too much over a year or so ago), the aforementioned John (a significant LARP/Laire player aka Royu with a very deep knowledge of Japanese history) started gaining interest in the SCA and found Albrecht and Tanaka. A strong and charismatic young guy, John had developed a pretty strong group of young friends doing the LARP/Laire/Gaming stuff. As Royu started learning more and more from Albrecht and Tanaka, he started bringing his friends around. These strong, aggressive, and fun guys are known as the Alphas (a literary allusion for those in the know, even though unlike SOME of us, they didn't actually go to the University of Chicago as undergraduates) -- if you happened to travel DEEP into the bog back into the old Woods battle, you might've found their camp deep in those woods by the highway (a cool gate with a wolf on it, their name, and some green fire would've given them away). Though the Alphas have their own leadership (e.g., Royu), they are part of the overall 404 which is led on the field (and more loosely guided off the field) by Sirs Albrecht and Tanaka. In fact, Royu just squired to Tanaka at Pennsic (and another, Rich, squired to Albrecht at Pennsic).

So while the large majority of us were real newcomers and the unit naturally has just come together as a whole, we do have at least a few of us who are significant melee veterans and have very significant small and medium unit and army leadership experience -- and we have a [b]very[b] significant emphasis on both training (and not just practicing) and having crap-loads of fun. Especially the crap-loads of fun part. Not to mention the fact that the "newcomers" had been working together in Laire/LARP for some time and some of them have strong backgrounds in the martial arts.

Hope that provides the context. Having just recently helped develop the fighting forces of Ponte Alto and the Northern Army in Atlantia (Ponte Alto went from a couple've fighters at practice to winning Atlantia's melee unit award in just a little over a year), I'd agree with your assessment regarding their attitude (and by "they" I mean the Alphas you referred to within the 404) and the relative speed with which we've come together -- but as you can see, it isn't completely "out of nowhere".

Always interested in getting histories accurate (given the whole historical society thing and all),

Max Von Halstern

[Galvyn Lockhart]

the 404.

A bunch of young fighters from the East being led by Sir Tanaka Raiko & Sir Albrecht von Halstern. Their enthusiasm & chivalry were highly infectious. They turned out in force for the Novice Tourney & stayed right through to the Field Battles. Give this crew a few years to gel, and they will be a menace on the field of battle.

A serious, SERIOUS, SERIOUS +Tasha to this one. I have never, ever seen a group come out of nowhere and do as well as this crew.

And they have that "hate us or love us, but don't bore us" attitude.

But Tanaka and Brick don't lead them. They are lead by a big ole Brooklyn Mook named John.

f

Hi Freiman -

I should probably amend my statement by saying that they are led "on the battlefield" by T & Brick. But, I think Max covered most of it. While the core of the 404 are pretty new (the Alphas led by Ryu), they do have some veteran punch in their ranks to back them up.

Another quick story to provide some insight about how the 404 is getting it right, at the Novice Tourney the Queen of Ealdomere awarded one of their members w/ the award for "best death". But not because she performed any overly dramatic swooning or anything like that, but because she was always laughing when she died. & considering she went 0-8, she was laughing a lot! Got to love an attitude like that.

[Duke Icefalcon]

Good to see new blood on the field. Keep up the good work, 404!

[maxntropy]

Good to see new blood on the field. Keep up the good work, 404!

Thank you, your Grace -- assuming, of course, that you don't mean OUR blood!

:LOL:

Max Von Halstern

[Duke Icefalcon]

A new unit on the field is good for all of the SCA. Hope to see more you all.

[XtankX]

The Tuchux. They had a bunch of new dogs this year and from what I could tell their entire unit stayed together well hit hard, hit fast and kept moving. A couple of the new dogs it appeared to not understand some of the rules but they were quickly straitened out by the rest of the tribe

Tuchux always get it right lol

[Glaukos the Athenian]

Lucan and Jana.

Indeed. HRM Lucan is a class act.

Here he is at the small ceremony of the Known World crowns honoring Duke Paul.
I was privileged to be a fly on the wall on that act of recognition. Truly a touching and humbling experience.

[Thorvald Weretiger]

The Tuchux. They had a bunch of new dogs this year and from what I could tell their entire unit stayed together well hit hard, hit fast and kept moving. A couple of the new dogs it appeared to not understand some of the rules but they were quickly straitened out by the rest of the tribe

Tuchux always get it right lol

Im just going to add that whomever had the 3 big boxes of popcicles waiting for us on the way out of the woods battle really had it right.

[UrsusofAnglesey]

The Tuchux. They had a bunch of new dogs this year and from what I could tell their entire unit stayed together well hit hard, hit fast and kept moving. A couple of the new dogs it appeared to not understand some of the rules but they were quickly straitened out by the rest of the tribe

Tuchux always get it right lol

Im just going to add that whomever had the 3 big boxes of popcicles waiting for us on the way out of the woods battle really had it right.

On the sidelines, the Tuchux were also the overwhelming favorite among the millions of kids (okay, dozens, but they moved around a lot) watching the battle. The most common cries heard were "Where's my Dad?" and "Go, Tuchux!"

Ursus

[Syrfinn]

The Tuchux. They had a bunch of new dogs this year and from what I could tell their entire unit stayed together well hit hard, hit fast and kept moving. A couple of the new dogs it appeared to not understand some of the rules but they were quickly straitened out by the rest of the tribe

Tuchux always get it right lol

Im just going to add that whomever had the 3 big boxes of popcicles waiting for us on the way out of the woods battle really had it right.

My guys and I were just ahead of you guys walking out of the Woods. So we are hearing your guys normal marching sound, and then all of a sudden from the middle of you guys, we here one of ya say in a not so manly voice, "Ooh Freezy Pops!".

We laughed the rest of the way to camp, and I think it made a couple of my guys war hearing that. :p

[Thorvald Weretiger]

The Tuchux. They had a bunch of new dogs this year and from what I could tell their entire unit stayed together well hit hard, hit fast and kept moving. A couple of the new dogs it appeared to not understand some of the rules but they were quickly straitened out by the rest of the tribe

Tuchux always get it right lol

Im just going to add that whomever had the 3 big boxes of popcicles waiting for us on the way out of the woods battle really had it right.

My guys and I were just ahead of you guys walking out of the Woods. So we are hearing your guys normal marching sound, and then all of a sudden from the middle of you guys, we here one of ya say in a not so manly voice, "Ooh Freezy Pops!".

We laughed the rest of the way to camp, and I think it made a couple of my guys war hearing that. :p

If you think hearing it was fun, you should have tried eating a few of them. They had cherry, "citrus" and stripper nipple flavored freezy pops. went great with the free beer.

[Syrfinn]

Lol

My favorite moment of the war, was giving up my Champion Spot to Duke Marcus, since this war season I have been doing shoulder rehab, so had barely been fighting other than pell work, and he had been fighting a lot this season. Then having the Tuchux's offer me one of their spots, since they had two guys that couldn't fight in it, due to I think injury.

Specially after the battle, when a couple didnt realize the helmet I was wearing for the battle, and were wondering who this knight was that was protecting their spearman the whole battle.

[Jonny Deuteronomy]

Those Freezy Pops were definitely a high point of my war.

[LiamStLiam]

Snowberg: An Eastern unit made up of the baronies of Bergental and Concordia of the Snows.

The unit received the Blue Tyger Legion for its valor.

And, yes, the Eastern Unbelts, three or four of whom were either knighted or put on vigil after the battle.

Those guys proved that working together and caring about each other really produces positive results.

[rhys]

I would say it was 3rd division of the northern army East kingdom...you ask why? thats easy because I started fighting with them...therefore they were the coolest..... LOl

seriously I saw a lot of good things out there...

[Wulf]

Hell I was happy I did not completely shame myself on the field this year. I have not been going to practice at all. My old leather armor I thought that I put away nice and dry in an air tight box had a forest of green with black and white dots all over it. Well I have been wanting a kit change for a few years now, so as soon as Knotwolf is done with my helm it is time to get armor to match it.

[Oscad]

Im just going to add that whomever had the 3 big boxes of popcicles waiting for us on the way out of the woods battle really had it right.

I am pretty sure that was Atlantia providing *many* boxes of freezie-pops.

[maxntropy]

Im just going to add that whomever had the 3 big boxes of popcicles waiting for us on the way out of the woods battle really had it right.

I am pretty sure that was Atlantia providing *many* boxes of freezie-pops.

Her Majesty Seonaid is rather famous for her freezie-pops (and having attended a number of their backyard practices, will be forever grateful for and happily reminiscent of, the large boxes of frozen joy thusly provided).

Max Von Halstern