Last week in Mississippi, during Scott Wilson’s birthday party weekend of fighting and camaraderie, several friends and I worked on developing a game that can be played with multiple combatants on each side and yet retains to a great extent the “armor as worn” conventions from the deed of arms fighting we usually do. Using lighter/softer weapons such as synthetic blades, we fought in teams ranging from guys in full plate harness to others wearing little more than a padded coat and fencing mask. Aside from being a ton of fun, the two-fold purpose of this game/experiment was to gain a better understanding of fighting as a lance consisting of various levels of armor and weapons while at the same time opening the field to more participation from those without enough harness to participate in the regular deeds (gateway drug?).

After a few messy and short-lived skirmishes, most of us soon realized that individual heroics rarely benefited the team, and we developed a mostly conservative/defensive style of fighting as a unit. Even in full plate harness, I started to feel very vulnerable when I found myself with no team member beside me to guard against attacks from unwatched angles. Likewise, the lighter-armored guys were surprisingly threatening when working with heavily armored guys, but became easy targets if they strayed from the line or if their armored friends were taken.

On the second day, I lent my harness to a friend and tried my hand playing in light armor, wearing only a mail shirt and greaves. I spent most of the time behind the men at arms, occasionally threatening an opponent who became too aggressive toward the person I was working with. If ever I found myself unwatched by the enemy team, I quickly ran out and made attempts (some successful) to place a cut on the unprotected hamstring of one of the opposing men at arms who was entangled with a teammate. Then I quickly ran back and hid behind a friendly knight again.

I hope the reader can begin imagine how dynamic and fun this game can be, and really we have only scratched the surface. The biggest thing we learned is that it can be done, and done safely, so long as lightly armored participants have supplemental modern gear and as long as everyone respects the wellbeing of their friends. If this catches on (and it should!), it probably won’t be long before we start to see more sophisticated tactics and maneuvers. And, as mentioned above, the relatively low cost of entry compared to the full kit required for deeds of arms should help the fun to spread quickly.