The Armour Archive

Howdy (this is Aaron),

So a "weird leftie" who is physically fit, 4'6" and 80 pounds.

Frankly you sound like a fighting terror in the making!

People are nervous fighting lefties. because they're rare.

Shorter than 5 feet is rare in the fighting SCA.

Weighing less than 200 pounds is rare in the fighting SCA, let alone less than a 100 pounds. At one time my armour itself weighed 104 pounds!

You are a lady fighter, and that is also rare (at least as rare as lefties).

So in a way you are an exotic fighter in the extreme (at least four ways, if not five). You will be unexpected to say the least, and shock is a viable tactic. Use that to your advantage!

What is your current armour "style", what do you have that works WELL, what do need, and how can we suggest inexpensive solutions to get these items for you.

I would suggest a super-light aluminum shield from Mandrake Armoury, strapped like a heater preferably. But two sword might work well too. Chabi fights two sword. Maybe a buckler for the "shield snatch" that Duke Paul has talked about.

Leather vambraces from House of Wolf would be good, as would leather shoulders and possibly body armour.

A quick rush to a Sword and Board's shield side would be an effective tactic. You're out of their vision, they lower their shield to find out where you went...then SMACK!

The other would be to get UNDER than shield and pop up between your opponent's shield and their body. That was a shock for a local fighter or two here against Chabi. A stout thrusting tip is a must!

With a buckler or second sword you could "grab" the bottom of their shield and open it like a gararge door, and waltz inside their guard and go to town. Very few fighters are experienced at throwing good shots at something INSIDE their shield.

Might give them the hebie-jebbies...and they would be very carefull when they fight you a second time.

And as a lady, your voice alone can sometimes be a combat-multiplier. I remember a legend that was posted here on the Archive about a Grand Melee. The fellow who told the story was quite good, but suddenly heard a giggle and then a lovely, cultured, alto, female voice behind him say, "Turn and fight, Sir Knight." He turned around, shield and sword dropping down to a relaxed position and started to say, "Pardon?" and she smacked him (and giggled). He said he was on the ground laughing next. He was outfoxed by his predisposition that all fighters on the field were male.

I have some stainless steel elbows, knees and shoulders I can mail to a military base out there if you'd like to work with them and some leather. They've sat here for nearly a year without any local fighters to pick them up. I just haven't been able to get people to armour up, and I've got ten sets. I love encouraging new fighters, but I can't find them!

-Aaron

Youre a native German? Thats quite a good grasp of english
Frieman quit hogging all the cool ladies! Hey she could always come to meridies, she's probably be at or above our calibration level without special body mechanics training anyways.

I kid, I kid.

Frieman,

Want me to talk to Cian of Red Hand ? Hes a really good instructor and would probably enjoy helping your young lady.

hiyas and hello!

whoa, I spend a nice time of fighting and especially learning yesterday! Met sir michael and lord barobrand, who both fight very different styles of florentine... both very interesting. I look like a giraffe with all my bruises. That rocks!!!

Thanks Midori. Yes, maestro aethstan teaches me to fight spear as well as fighting spearmen. My "homework" lord barobrand gave me was doing at least a little training in every weapon form that´s out there to get a feeling what they might do to me... I´m gonna do that, but the problem is that they always do very different things to me than to anyone else *sigh*. Like reaching over me and hit me in the back or something... I´m also doing war archery, but not in the SCA. I understand why there are that rules for sca combat fighters, but I still don´t like shooting with a helmet on. What´s the difference a japanese bow has to a normal bow?

Well my armour style by now is "everything that fits well and works good". I´d love to have suitable stuff for my persona (a 100-years-war kind of knight´s page or squire (I am not an official sca squire!!), but I guess I have to play with whatever works. I would need shoulders, my breastplate works very fine, I made it myself with the help of maestro Aethstan... I think I want to have whole suits of arms, where the elbow is attached to the vambrace. But finding half-gauntlets seems to be impossible. I´m looking for a nice, good-worrking pattern to make some leather ones myself.

Thanks for all your tactic-suggestions! I´m gonna have a try on all of them, you bet! I´d love If I could do that going-behind-shields action, I guess that could be quite a surprise. And it´s gonna take me some training! I dropped my shield for a while, since I´m very fed up with sword and board. I´ve been stuck not improving for the longest time now, and it just wasn´t fun anymore.
But it´s nice to be confirmed in my decicion of fighting 2sword by the fact that milady chabi and milady midori also chose that fightig style! And I also had the idea of thrusting tips (let´s better say I desperately want some!!!). Uuuuh, this all is exciting!

Whatever, I´m arming up for st. matheu´s tourney. Perhaps I meet some of you guys there? I´m easy as well as hard to oversee... OH- another funny size-story: as I went to the troll at boot camp the lady asked me "ooooh, and how old are you, little darling?" ....
In this sense: thanks for everything! I came from live steel, where I had to fight with them about every bit I wanted to do. They at first even didn´t want to let me fight. Not because I´m small but because I´m FEMALE! Then I came to the SCA, and I have this whole lot of nice support here. I´m still speechless about that!

Thanks for letting me play and playing with me!

Yours in service
Robyn of Rye

In case anybody was wondering, after I started this thead, I sat Robyn down and showed her what I had written about her, while she was at my home before the trip to a fighting oriented event.

She wanted to respond.

I think she likes the archive.

f

good job on the new AA recruit Freiman...

btw, i never got an answer if she was the one who was at double wars last year?

Three not perfect pictures of my wife fighting at the Bloodguard Practice. Average height is slightly less than two meters...

-Aaron

Hey Robyn, I could always trace out the pattern that my leather demis are made from and then you could scale those down. Dont despair, my girlfriend is learning how to fight and she is about 5'3.75" (yes the .75 is very important when you are shorter than anyone else) and a lefty as well. The nice part is we are in South Downs with a lot of vertically challenged people (Mad Celt and Duke Max are both under the 6' mark) and a fair amount of leftys (such as Sir Thomas and HRM Boru comes by occasionally). Keep at it and remember, if you leg a 6'5" guy like me, then we are pretty much the same height (but I cant really move).

Roybn,
I shall be home in Drachenwald very soon. If you would like some help with gear, I have a bunch of good stuff for you. As far as tactics go I am 5' 4" and have pretty much the same problems as you. Fighting big people is easy, I do it all the time. It's us lil @#$!% that give me fits!. We must train together I think the first thing we need to do is find you a new helm, and I may have just the thing...

Frieman,
You must bring this delightful young lady to an event I will be attending! We will hook her up! Looking forward to crossing swords with you again.
Cheers Leo

PS here are a few pics of my shortness

hiyyas!

There´s one thing I need to tell you... I won st mathieus tourney! A weird thing, since I lost every single fight I fought... lol. They started calling me lionheart, which pretty much refers to this discussion we have here... I don´t know if I should be proud or ashamed- I guess it´s mainly my height that people thought I would make a cool winner or so. Oh, I really want to start winning things because I´m a good fighter, but I gueass this will need ten more years of practice.
Brother Logan, I would be happy if you cold send me your contact data per private message, I´m gonna send you mine. It would be nice if we could meet somewhen!
No, I haven´t been at double war yet; but I plan on attending as much events as I can this year, since I don´t know when I will work at one single theater again- they always keep you employed at weekends.
I like the pictures of midori! They qoite look like pic of me fighting- despite the armor colors... lol. Where are you located? Is there any chance for me to meet midori? Or chabi? I´d love to have a nice long chat with them! And I want to see them fight. That would be wonderful!!!

So far so good (so short so good...). I nned to clean up my messed flat (I hate those mundane duties)

Thank U guys!
Robyn

P.S: could one of you tell me the 9 things a knight reqiures (you know the ones like honour, chivalry etc. ...)

robyn wrote:hiyyas!

There´s one thing I need to tell you... I won st mathieus tourney! A weird thing, since I lost every single fight I fought... lol. They started calling me lionheart, which pretty much refers to this discussion we have here... I don´t know if I should be proud or ashamed- I guess it´s mainly my height that people thought I would make a cool winner or so. Oh, I really want to start winning things because I´m a good fighter, but I gueass this will need ten more years of practice.
Brother Logan, I would be happy if you cold send me your contact data per private message, I´m gonna send you mine. It would be nice if we could meet somewhen!
No, I haven´t been at double war yet; but I plan on attending as much events as I can this year, since I don´t know when I will work at one single theater again- they always keep you employed at weekends.
I like the pictures of midori! They qoite look like pic of me fighting- despite the armor colors... lol. Where are you located? Is there any chance for me to meet midori? Or chabi? I´d love to have a nice long chat with them! And I want to see them fight. That would be wonderful!!!

So far so good (so short so good...). I nned to clean up my messed flat (I hate those mundane duties)

Thank U guys!
Robyn

P.S: could one of you tell me the 9 things a knight reqiures (you know the ones like honour, chivalry etc. ...)

Hi Robyn,

The eblows, shoulders, knees and a little bit of leather is enroute to Friedman's address. It should be there on the 27th of February.

Midori is my lady wife, and we're in Japan...but those pictures are from the Bloodguard practice in New Jersey.

What is your phone number in Germany? My German is quite rusty, but I can do my best.

Chabi is also in Japan.

I sent a DVD, but not the one you needed due to a bit ofa mixup and rush. I'll rectify that error tommorrow morning if possibe.

-Aaron

I like the pictures of midori! They qoite look like pic of me fighting- despite the armor colors... lol. Where are you located? Is there any chance for me to meet midori? Or chabi? I´d love to have a nice long chat with them! And I want to see them fight.

Midori speaking:
My husband has it right. We are in Japan. I would also like to get toether.
My new armor is a work in progress, and a slow one at that since I'm lacing it. The Japanese are slightly particular about lacing patterns as well.
I'll also need to hunt up a few necessary "decorations" before I can even wear my armor, otherwise I won't have shoulders ( or pauldrons, as the europeans cal them).

We've been trying to get to Germany for at least 9 years now and the military is not cooperating. But, we will see what we can do to fly MAC. Or, maybe you can fly here. One way or the other we can make it work.

You can reach me through Aaron's e-mail.

Hey Freiman, Any luck with getting in touch with Mad Celt?

Aaron wrote:This is William's (Aaron) wife.

There's nothing wrong with being slightly short. Although you'll find that you are in a rut if the only fighter's you fight are the one's that are waaaay taller than yourself. There will always be room for improvement. I'm learning that right now as I build (lace) my armor. I'm playing Samuraii. I'm 5'4" with red hair(my choice) and blue eyes.
--Midori (Maureen)

You are probably taller, or at leas the same heighth, as Calontir's current Crown Prince.

Short People UNITE!!

I am 150 pounds, 5"5' 1/4 and yes I do round up and tell people I am 5'6". I am mainly scottish decent which people think all scots are tall. I always have issues with people larger than me. Actualy people taller has never been my problem since I have found many ways to get around it. To me it is the heavier fighters who can press and knock me around with thier 200+ weight. Only thing I have learned when someone presses and charges just simply not be there. Mobility is my main focus when I am fighting. I also concentrate on neither offense and defense but try to do both at the same time. Also since my arm reach is smaller I use the get in and get out of range and not linger where my tall opponet can hit me and I cannot. I have a sword tip for thrusts and to me that also gives me more options when I close on a tall fighter and since I am a Roman persona is fits very well for me.

Hey Freiman and Robyn!

I have been thinking about the armor problem here. What about making a water hardened leather harness? With a little tooling and stain, some really nice looking stuff that actually fits could be made. Oh, and probably with less than half a square meter of material as well (hm, I think I have a few months of butt-wraps to look forward to on that one ). The thing I am thinking is that Robyn needs armor that fits, and fits well as the bruises are attesting to. Also, leather is fairly light, very strong when water hardened and with a little work, will look nice.

A. Flavius (yes, I am still in Germany but without a car ) Britannicus

I was in training for the USAF with two females who were 4'8". One was a team leader, and had serious attitude (She was generally referred to as "Napoleon" for obvious reasons, though she, when offduty, is definitely cuter than Bonaparte), the other was just as determined to suceed (they both did). A girl i work with is 4' 9". All three are barely taller than an M16, and aside from having problems finding body armor that small, and the occasional jokes about being able to shoot under a Humvee without being in the prone position, they are just as tough as our 6'4" guys.. they just can't run quite as fast. Motivation only goes so far, small legs still don't quite make up.

I've not seen a SCA fighter THAT small yet, but I've seen a couple around the 5' mark.

I met a lady at Estralla in 01 that was like 4'5" or so and not 80 pounds out of armour. Cool lady. Tough as nails.