One Thing That Would Make Our Kingdom Better at Fighting Battles

I had a recent conversation with a local knight with regard to an up coming discussion about fighting tactics within the kingdom.  He and I have had several discussions at this point on the topic, and are both pretty passionate on the subject.  After this brief conversation I thought to myself, "If I could make a single recommendation, what would it be?"  I actually thought long and hard on the topic over several days and am pretty confident that I have arrived at my answer.

Spears.

More spears.

Better spears.

Spears, spears, spears, spears, spears!!!!

Okay, that's four things, but if I had to pick one, it would be spears.

The number and quality of good spears in the East is really lacking.  Don't get me wrong, there are some good ones out there.  I always have a good fight with Master Ruslan, and there's a knight that I fought recently who spoke French (Canadian?) who was an excellent spearman.  There are also a handful of local squires that I know who are also very good with their spears.

But only a handful.

Out of what must be 300-400 fighters that I've encountered in the kingdom, I've probably seen less than 10 that I would consider to be expert spearman, and maybe another 10 that I would consider proficient.  That's less than 5% of the fighters in what is, in my opinion, the most important melee weapon on the field.

Lets consider that last point, because I'm guessing that you might be thinking, "but what about the shields?  Shield wall, charge, run them down, etc. etc."  Okay, lets talk about Pennsic 44.

Century Champions Battle:  Static fighting.
Castle Battle:  Static fighting.
Bridge Battle:  Static fighting.
Woods Battle:  Static fighting.
Field Battle:  Moving units, a couple of charges, followed by.........static fighting.

Out of 7 war points, 5 of them are won or lost with spears (and I'd argue that the spear would be effective in the Unbelted Champions Battle if one of the two sides knew how to utilize them).

So how do we solve this problem?  Well, my solution is to blog about it and hope that people read it and some wheels start to turn.  =)  Beyond that, however, we can begin with actually encouraging people to practice with their spears.  Hell, maybe we can compromise and just leave the spear fighters alone.  I've actually been teased for bringing spears to practice.  I've been told that practicing spear duels is a waste of time.  Etc. etc.  The simple fact is, the kingdom has not embraced the spear as a legitimate weapon.

But just think, what if it did?  What if that 5% could become 20%?  What would that do for the level of fighting at Pennsic?

Now grab a spear and go practice!


Check out Fifty Spear Tips here