Border March Report
I went to Border March last weekend. Kind of fitting after all I AM a Border Reiver after all and long ago one particular member of the house popped off his mouth about selling his sword to the kingdom that my knight told all us trusty squires that we would be going to defend the homeland. We are a Free Company, not low life mercenary scum, big difference there.
After a 9 hour road trip with my little brother Randal we arrived Friday evening about 5pm. It was chilly and I could tell that it was going to quickly get even colder. Set up the little nylon tent, got the bed made and headed for Odyssey Coffee to thaw a bit. Talk with Dave and Freida most of the night, promoted another young lass to my "Protect at all costs" list and drank much coffee while both listening and telling tales of past events. Went back to the tent and fired up the new propane heater. Well.....it did produce heat but after being able to stay out from under the covers only about 10 minutes I said the hell with it and turned it off and went to sleep. Once I got settled down I was warm enough but I then I radiate heat at night enough that I show up really nicely on a thermal image. Got up int he morning and discovered that it was warmer in my COOLER than it was in my tent! This did not make the prospect of putting on my nice metal back and breastplate attractive let alone my helm or (brrrrrrrr) my cup. Yes I did warm that last piece over a fire first, it helped some.
Got the shell on and stretched a bit to work the kinks out before heading for the field. Wasnt really any inspection going on but talked to our Kingdom Earl Marshal who looked me over and told me I was good to go.
First on the agenda was a few open field battles, For some reason instead of using Shadow Legion as a flanking unit or response team they put us in the middle. Not good. I was fighting spear and they just ran me down, didnt kill me just ran me down and stepped on me a few (dozen) times. Then the second one I got back in the groove and took a few of them down before they once again knocked me down, stepped on me and managed to snap my shield strap. I by now had gotten tired of playing stepping stone. Third time we were used correctly but about 3 seconds after the battle started out King shifted us to the right flank where the Ansterroreans decided to push a small unit into us to test our resolve. All 6 of those guys died quickly and we swept the right flank where I gakked all kinds of folks including their king. Didnt know it at the time, he was just a target and I killed him. He did walk up to me and Kane after that and praised my skills though so that was cool.
Next the Ravine of doom.....
After a 9 hour road trip with my little brother Randal we arrived Friday evening about 5pm. It was chilly and I could tell that it was going to quickly get even colder. Set up the little nylon tent, got the bed made and headed for Odyssey Coffee to thaw a bit. Talk with Dave and Freida most of the night, promoted another young lass to my "Protect at all costs" list and drank much coffee while both listening and telling tales of past events. Went back to the tent and fired up the new propane heater. Well.....it did produce heat but after being able to stay out from under the covers only about 10 minutes I said the hell with it and turned it off and went to sleep. Once I got settled down I was warm enough but I then I radiate heat at night enough that I show up really nicely on a thermal image. Got up int he morning and discovered that it was warmer in my COOLER than it was in my tent! This did not make the prospect of putting on my nice metal back and breastplate attractive let alone my helm or (brrrrrrrr) my cup. Yes I did warm that last piece over a fire first, it helped some.
Got the shell on and stretched a bit to work the kinks out before heading for the field. Wasnt really any inspection going on but talked to our Kingdom Earl Marshal who looked me over and told me I was good to go.
First on the agenda was a few open field battles, For some reason instead of using Shadow Legion as a flanking unit or response team they put us in the middle. Not good. I was fighting spear and they just ran me down, didnt kill me just ran me down and stepped on me a few (dozen) times. Then the second one I got back in the groove and took a few of them down before they once again knocked me down, stepped on me and managed to snap my shield strap. I by now had gotten tired of playing stepping stone. Third time we were used correctly but about 3 seconds after the battle started out King shifted us to the right flank where the Ansterroreans decided to push a small unit into us to test our resolve. All 6 of those guys died quickly and we swept the right flank where I gakked all kinds of folks including their king. Didnt know it at the time, he was just a target and I killed him. He did walk up to me and Kane after that and praised my skills though so that was cool.
Next the Ravine of doom.....