Remy, Brother of Red.

Let me start of by saying that I have never met Remy personally, but I do enjoy his comments and basic demenor on the Brotherhood of Red pagehttp://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/groups/178433162242769/
 on facebook. 

This is a quote from him on the specs of his sword

 " 55", 15"Hilt, cross guard, 33oz, stab-legal, lo-pro and PD'd like a motherfucker. Pretty much what I have right now. Last practice I killed two people after getting double-teamed vs 2 S&B one-handed. Not because I got armed but because I could with that blade. Brutal, brutal fight."

I saw a video of him in a trial that really showed what Red weapon skill should be in any sort of full contact foam fighting arena.  Remy has a great high guard stance that allows him to basically do everything right in the first 30 seconds of this video.  The man at 26 seconds does a common mistake by armed opponents and attempts to punch block someone using a high guard with a red weapon. Remy strikes at the perfect time when the man brings up his weapon and disarms him.

Now, his next opponent at 42 his a bit of a chessy combonation of weapons, but his guard in the first two fights leaves him completely open for a red strike from 11 o'clock to 5 o'clock.  If Remy were to strike first and connect, he could go into hanging guard against the slower flail strike.

Remy does lower his arms a bit here, I think in effort to throw a longer arm shot.

Notice how his spins, which are a retreating action, end up smacking dat ass. Good shot!

After about 2 mins of red fighting....which is a lot, Remy is battling fatigue more than his opponent.

I think a few times against the man with the bandana, there was some opportunity for some grappling. If the guy swings faster than you, take his weapon away from him. Its hard to swing fast when some burly red user grabs your weapon hand.

I think is final opponent while he is using red is Elwrath from the EBF. Who is no sloutch.  It is incredibly difficult to beat an very experinced fighter in any case, but a lefty, and you have a red. Remy has the correct response and tried something different .

The rest of the video you guys can pick apart. I wanted to cover some good red work.

James and Tom


Alright, now I am gonna critique this guy with the Red. I wanna say that I am glad that he seems to WANT to fight with red. But, he is making some mistakes that are common for newer red fighters that I want to address. Keep it up Tom, you will be great someday.

First, his guard is not what I would use.  First he starts with a stance that is on the shields side of his opponent. Well, don't guard that side, he cant injure you from that side. The guy is gonna Cast his flail hard for your left side. If I were Tom, I would use a hold my sword in front of me, sword tip up arms slightly bent, right foot forward. I would then use the following to block the FLAIL HEAD.
http://www.bellatrix.org/school/appendix_i/videos/15a-GS.htm

If nothing else swing down at an angle on his weapon side. Flails for some reason are easy for me to disarm.  I think its the extra weight on the flail head or something, but James does a great deal of side swings.  I would answer that side swing with well timed strait down swing that specifically targets his weapon. If you can manage it, hit his arm or hand as well.



Alright, round 2 Tom, sorry. Against a opponent that is using a weapon to block their sword side.
There are a couple things that need addressing. First, stop swinging at an opponents shield, when they are rushing you. Unless you regularly work on backward sprints, you are not going to outpace them.  You did a better job in this video using your red as a blue. Your second round was really good.
For an alternative, consider this. Belegarth and Dagorhir allow for grappling. Now, grappling is something that most of the time will not work on really high tier fighters. Sometimes, it will catch them off guard, but I would not suggest trying grappling Sir Galin in a one on one situation.
Liz charges and strikes basically the same spot in every round. You could uses these two moves to rock her world.
http://www.bellatrix.org/school/appendix_i/videos/09a-GS.htm
followed by one of my favorites:
http://www.bellatrix.org/school/appendix_i/videos/14a1-GS.htm

She would get wise if you did this too her a few times, but, it may change her outlook on rushing in on you.  Like I said Tom, if you get wind of this don't be offended. You have shown improvement in your fighting from the vids on youtube. Keep it up. James and Liz, keep beating his ass proper.

Thanks for reading everyone.

The guys using red in this video have some solid skill, but they forget one thing when fighitng each other....There sword is still blue. Put your right hand toward the pommel and us the Tech Grip. Give you a chance to shoot for the leg and still have your strong arm on the weapon for pull back and reset. Good job attacking sword side.

Also, if you get armed, NEVER EVER HOLD THE HANDLE NEAR THE BLADE. You are just making your weapon into a smackable teater totter. After being armed, I put my hand near the pommel for max range. Your basically screwed a this point anyway.

Back sheilds are okay, but I would consider this one a bit cheesy. Totally legal and tactical for red use, but still in my opinon, cheesy.

Kudos to the reds realm mates for actually dueling the reds. Sometimes it can be a lonely road if you wanna get better at red. No one really wants to get hit with anything two handed.  Remember that if you practice red normally, you run a greater risk of injuring your realm mates. Be a good sport and thank them for dueling you, or at least putting up with your habit of screaming RED at them.

Belegarth: LARP or SPORT

Belegarth: LARP or SPORT

Many people have been debating as of late as to if Belegarth Medieval Combat Society is a LARP or a Sport. I have been playing Belegarth for a decade now and I have heard both sides of the argument. I think that it should be written down as to how we can look at this question and perhaps come to an answer as a community.

The one thing that really stands out in Belegarth on both sides of this aisle is that the fighting is intense and highly skilled. I would say that the average fighter in Belegarth is better than the average in some other foam fighting games. We value skill and experience as a community over min-maxing gear.  The style of fighting changes depending on geographical location. Shots are faster or slower. Line fighting or skirmishing type fighting differs from realm to realm.  You can find fighters from both the RP side and sport side that enjoy both types of fighting.

The Sport side of Belegarth see’s different teams competing with regulated and checked equipment against each other in differing uniforms.  They are absolutely correct. Belegarth is a combat sport, if you suck at combat; you do not get a magic armored cod piece that can absorb the first 15 blue strikes.  LARPing tends to have skills that augment your character with abilities that you as a person may lack…..like magic.  Belegarth as an official sport is a bit of a stretch. Most sports have a regulated field size, dedicated referees, specific equipment regulations, and team size brackets.  Belegarth could be played inside a church basketball court or a state park meadow. If it were a sport, there would also be limited members on a field during a unit battle. Instead you have 10 man units on the field with 50 man units in a free for all.  They don’t have 10 teams in the Superball all smashing into each other……which would be cool actually. But, that is what Belegarth units do. Also, we have weapons check, for safety, but if Belegarth were a sport, all weapons would have to be exactly the same.  Not that everyone had to use Sword and Board, but if two opposing fighters both wanted to Sword and Board, they should be identical equipment. I could see that if team size could be controlled by hosting tournaments with different number limit. 2v2, 4v4, 25v25.  I am not sure if I would continue to play if all Belegarth was tournaments and that was all.

From the LARP side of Belegarth, people see opportunity to act out something that they cannot be in their mundane life.  If you want to paint yourself green, and talk with a  funny accent, there is nothing to stop you from doing that AND hitting people with padded sticks.  The great thing about Belegarth is that it gives a set of rules that you can change for any situation that you want to play.  Some realms have RED rocks that can break shields. They write down rules for adding it to the system. RED rocks are house rules for the realm. If a smaller team is supposed to be a group of hardened veterans, but they do not have the skill to play that out, you can simply give the less skilled fighters extra armored hits to a location.  You don’t have to call it anything but that. BUT, you could say that the veterans picked up some villagers along the way, and that they gained a moral bonus from seeing the veteran’s last stand.  Role Players within Belegarth have an understanding that they should not force it on others to be in character.  The simplest way to RP within Belegarth is to have a great costume, refer to their weapons as swords, or spears, not blues or green. 

The great thing about Belegarth is that it can be both. Sport and LARP.  The flexibility of the system is what makes it so perfect for both outlooks. If it were a Sport, Knights would not take on Squires. It would be the Varsity mentoring the Junior-Varsity.  If it were a LARP the Knights and Squires would have extra hits and shield breaking blues to award their service to the game.  The healthy blend of Sport and Larp is what makes Belegarth a great battlegame and community.

WELCOME

Hey folks, welcome to my blog, I will be posting my thoughts and experiances in all the different battle games that I have played over the years. Tell your freinds and send them here for all the advice for fighting they could need.