Title: battle-ideas-msg
Subject: Ideas for SCA armored battles
Author: Edited by Mark Harris
Last saved by: Mark S. Harris
Keywords: SCA, armor, battles, scenerios

battle-ideas-msg - 9/3/17

24 hour battles and other ideas.

NOTE: See also the files: b-battles-art, marshalling-msg, tournaments-art, tournaments-msg, tourn-ideas-msg, Women-Battle-art, melee-tactics-art.

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                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
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From: christer at sue.komunity.se (Christer Romson)
Date: 16 Dec 91 12:03:00 GMT
Organization: The Internet

The fighters in my Barony are planning a twenty four hour long woods
battle. We've neither done this or heard about it before. Do anyone have
experiences with day or more than day long battles? Some obvious questions
are: Is the Swedish summer night light enough for mid night fighting in
early August?  How do the fighters get their food? How do they drink and
eat? (The food transportation may be attacked) The fighters probably have
to take off their helm to eat and drink. Does hungry fighters become
unsafe? Fighters that haven't slept for the last twenty hours? If they
sleep in armor and someone cries the alarm, maybe they are to sleepy to
fight safely? Will it be to cold sleeping outdoors directly on the ground
in armor?

They'd appreciate to hear from someone who's tried this before. (Email your
response to me (christer at Sue.KOMunity.Se))
----------------------------  
 |\  | |   /|   | |\  \ | /   
 | \ | |  * |  /| | >  \|/    SCA: Lindorm Eriksson, Nordmark, Drachenw., East
 |   | |\   | / | |/    |     Mundane: Christer Romson, Stockholm, Sweden.
 |   | | \  |  /| |\    |     Email: christer at Sue.KOMunity.Se
 |   | |    | / | | \   |   
 |   | |    |   | |  \  |   
----------------------------

From: MPFOSTER at mtus5.cts.mtu.EDU (Wulfgar Silberbar)
Date: 17 Dec 91 19:56:10 GMT
Organization: The Internet

Good gods, man! A twenty-four hour long woods battle?!? Great indeed are
the generals who can keep their forces alive for that long. Either that,
or the scouts are lousy!

Assuming that you can keep the encounter going for twenty-four hours...
Food should be brought in under guard (to prevent the enemy from stealing
your food). The guard need only be big enough to allow the porters time
to escape.
Arrangements should be made for fighters to sleep undisturbed, for a fighter
who has been awake overly long is neither safe to himself nor to others.
Fighters should not be attacked while eating or waking, IF they grab for
their helms. If they may be snuck up upon, they may be killed as lights
(if your kingdom has lights). Otherwise, the enemy must be courteous enough
to allow their opponents to protect themselves.
I see no way around using (perhaps several) ressurection points. Otherwise
you will be holding several melees of less than one hour duration, rather
than one melee of over twenty hour duration.
Privys should be safe ground. Most fighters will have to at least partially
unsuit to use the privy, and you don't want the enemy setting up camp around
your privy. Optionally, you may have armed people escort people in need
to the privy, and allow combat (privy users being lights).
If temperatures drop at night, a campfire would probably be wise. No fighting
may be done near the fire, however, for obvious safety reasons.
No alcohol. Most fighters will probably want some form of ale or mead or
somesuch as the nights draws on. Period it may be, but safe it isn't.
Nobody drinking should be allowed to swing a weapon.

These are all the things I can think of. I have never heard of such an event,
but it sounds like fun. The above statements are ONLY MY OPINIONS, and not
fact, nor even necessarily appropriate suggestions. I have not yet run a
fighting event. I suggest you check whatever ideas you want to use with
your local marshall.

Wulfgar Silberbaer, of Wulcenwyrm

From: mabr at sweden.hp.com (Morgan "the Dreamer" Broman)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: bridge battles
Date: 22 Jul 1994 08:40:13 GMT
Organization: HP/SCA/SKA/FSTS/AMTS/SLRP/ETC Sweden

Paul A. Byers (PAULB at saturn.uark.EDU) wrote:
: Here is a article I wrote for the Bird of Prey, the Calontir fighters
: newsletter. Thought I would post it too, just cause I can. :)
: Pavel
: Calontir

	Thank you Pavel, I found your article most interesting. At the
Magna Carta War (that I run with my Household), we create a more real-
istic impression by actually building an entire area with villages, fords
and bridges. Then the entire war is run over the whole area, not like
a series of disconnected scenarios. We use limited resurrections..5/person.
And the time is variable 3 hours +/- 0.5 hour (only one person knows the
exact time) in 10 minute intervals..;)

	This year at Magna Carta II, we had a bridge located in a villlage
in the centre of the area, then upriver from that we had built a fortified
bridge and finally downriver we had a ford. The fighting in the village was
furious to say the least, but there was also some really good defending and
attacking going on at both the upper bridge and the ford. The combat archers
had fun shooting over the ford...;)

	This makes it possible for a small unit backed by some good archers
to defend the ford vs a larger force. In the village you can fall back into
the houses if your unit is broken up...much easier to defend. We usually
build the villages with a main road and a small town square, were most of
the doors are directed either towards the road or the square. Some buildings,
the larger ones, have more than one entrance...and sometimes more than one
room....;)...really fun to fight in....;) !

My 1 SKr....
Morgan//
--
HP   : Morgan Broman				mabr at sweden.hp.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: w9106602 at student.anu.EDU.AU (H Whitchurch)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Bridge battles
Date: 20 Jul 1994 04:19:22 -0400
Organization: the internet

Pavel, soem great ideas there.  I have seen some vidoes of the bridge
battles of Pennsic, and they certainly don't have the feel that I would be
looking for were I fighting in them or planning tactics.

Here in Lochac, at Rowany (the big war camp at Easter), we have a bridge
battle on a real bridge, with steepish sides into it, and a real creek
under it (mostly dry, sometimes 5' high).  The combat archers normally are
arrayed across the tops of the banks and pick off as many of the sheild
wall as they can (considering heavy to light is about 50-50, each light
having about 40-60 arrows, plus a few javelineers with about 10 each),
before the charges happen.

When each side got to about 40, a ford was instituted, where Knights could
walk across as they would be mounted, everyone else had to do it on their
knees. (Personal aside here, I haven't seen anyone holding their weapon/bow
above their head ot make sure it stayed dry like I have to do with my rifle
when I'm in uniform - perhaps I should mention it to the marshall...)

Last year, a boat turned up.  It was a frame, with room for some inside,
they walked it across, with sheilds along he side and protecting the
"rowers", and next year we are expecting at least two, so mid-creek
boarding might be on.

The actual bridge is only wide enough for a sheild wall of about 5 people,
pole weapons are popular.

it's great fun to watch (now days, only the heavies only is available for
the spectators).  I have memories of a few years ago when His Majesty
Geoffrey was out, and calmly waited for the archers to stop before sending
out his sheild wall.  he didn't realise that here in Lochac, if you have 30
archers on the field, there is probably 1800 arrows too....different
culture on mainland West I suppose.

How do other places run their bridge battle scenarios?

Morag Freyser
Politarchopolis
Lochac
West

From: haraldr at drakkar.mhv.net (David A. Calafrancesco)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: 36 hour war
Date: 27 Sep 1994 05:39:06 GMT
Organization: Druids Grove BBS - (914) 876-2237

My thoughts on a 36 hour war:

First, I am not a war lord, I do not play one on TV, but I used to be one in 
a previous personna <g>.

As a veteran of several Pennsics, I see a big problem with an all night 
battle. Besides the logistics of injuries, lighting, marshalls etc, the 
biggest negative is the lack of interaction at night between the two 'warring 
factions'. In years past the Pennsic War had been criticized in that it had 
gotten a bit too competetive. Many attempts were made to reverse that trend 
and today we see a better war week. The phrase enemies by day and friends by 
night mean a lot to me and I would hope a lot of other people. 

However, not to be a complete naysayer, I have these suggested alternatives. 
Instead of having a central camp with scheduled battles on distant fields, I 
envision a different layot. Picture a central battle field, and camping on 
all sides. For arbitrariness sake, place the 'enemy' factions one on the East 
side, and the other the West. North and South are 'independant' territory as 
necessary for those who just wish to enjoy the atmosphere and not be a party 
to the fun nighttime stuff (more later), like merchants. 

By day, at any time, the two sides must be prepared to do battle, they must 
plan their defences, and man their guard posts. Each side would be 
responsible for providing their own marshalls and medics to be able to engage 
their opponents. 

However, at night, the armor comes off and they would play night games. 
Anywhere from infiltrate the enemy camp and make off with a piece or two of 
royalty, to leave signs that you were there. For instance, sneak into the 
camp undetected and 'tag' a guard with duct tape to signify a 'kill'. With 
the idea being that instead of draining the resources of a few thousand 
people, a small number play night games and the rest of the camp has the 
opportunity to interact and party. Perhaps foam wrapped PVC boffers with 
goggles could be safely worked out for night use. 

For safety sake I can't see any way of making anything heavier safe enough to 
play. I even have reservations about boffers. The part about being prepared 
for any kind of massed attack and or formation etc is very interesting.

Haraldr Bassi, Frosted Hills, East Kingdom
Dave Calafrancesco, Team OS/2 - Fido: 1:2624/306
Druids Grove BBS, now with Anonymous FTP: drakkar.mhv.net

.. They got the library at Alexandria, they're not getting mine!

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: v081lu33 at ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu (TRISTAN CLAIR DE LUNE/KEN MONDSCHEIN)
Subject: Re: 36-hour war
Organization: University at Buffalo
Date: Mon, 26 Sep 1994 23:06:55 GMT

	I got it! I got it!

	Sleep inside the Ressurection points!

	The Res points can be churches. You can't fight in them, but you can 
fight around them. Thus, you can capture someone else's Res. point. Plus, you
can have outlying castles, "villages" (with dummies for "civilians"), as 
strong points, etc.

	As for sleeping in armor, well, who says ya gotta fight heavy? While 
such units as pikes and halberds *have* to be heavy, sleeping in list-legal
stuff for shinai or light-weapons archery is no big problem... and, lights ca
kill lights, and, of course, heavies can kill lights by coming within ten 
feet or so.

		--Tristan

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: rsmiley at netcom.com (Richard Smiley)
Subject: a war idea
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Sat, 24 Sep 1994 01:27:20 GMT

I had an idea for a war that I would like some candid feedback on.  
Something that I have felt is lacking in wars in my area (West) is 
wondering where the enemy is and when are they going to attack.  That 
anticipation could be a real rush.  Lining armies up accross the field 
from each other and charging may be fun but I like suspense.

My idea is this.  What if we ran a 36 hour resurection war.  Deaths would 
be counted to determine a victor.  After sunset all combatants would be 
likited to short weapons (2 1/2') and attack could take place at any 
time.  I think that this makes it important to take and hold a good 
strategic position so that you can get your troops fed and rested.  Also 
you would need to post senturies and send out scouts.  This sounds a lot 
more intrigueing to me than our current armored "football games".

I think that most safety concerns could be dealt with but what do you 
think about the concept?

Malcolm MacPHerson

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: ig932147 at lemon.canberra.edu.au
Subject: Re: a war idea
Organization: The University of Canberra
Date: Sun, 25 Sep 94 06:48:17 GMT

     Richard Smiley wrote in article <rsmileyCwM1DL.7pn at netcom.com> :
>
>I had an idea for a war that I would like some candid feedback on.  
>Something that I have felt is lacking in wars in my area (West) is 
>wondering where the enemy is and when are they going to attack.  That 
>anticipation could be a real rush.  Lining armies up accross the field 
>from each other and charging may be fun but I like suspense.
>
>My idea is this.  What if we ran a 36 hour resurection war.  Deaths would 
>be counted to determine a victor.  After sunset all combatants would be 
>likited to short weapons (2 1/2') and attack could take place at any 
>time.  I think that this makes it important to take and hold a good 
>strategic position so that you can get your troops fed and rested.  Also 
>you would need to post senturies and send out scouts.  This sounds a lot 
>more intrigueing to me than our current armored "football games".
>
>I think that most safety concerns could be dealt with but what do you 
>think about the concept?
>
>Malcolm MacPHerson
>
well here in Lochac we're preparing for Total War 6 which is basically what
your describing, the battle is contested by two forces of about 20-30
heavies and archers, accross a large sight with wooded and open areas.
the action starts on Saturday morning, pauses for Saturday Night then
continues till some time Sunday afternoon.

Overall the concept is alot of fun, I would sugest that you set aside
camp sites that out of bounds for fighting, first and formost for safety
reasons - but also because under your senario the troops are obliged to
carry their gear with them, this is fine when playing Dn'D but the reality
of combat is that you drop your non essential gear when engaging the
enemy - this can result in gear being left behind or lost. Also give
night fighting a miss - this allows the combatants to rest up and get more
enjoyment from the following days combat.

Given my above coments about camping sites, something you might like to provide would
be "encampments"/forts that can be raided/defended/fought over. this
should satisfy your disire for Strategic and Tactical Goals as opposed to
hosting a straight up game of hide and seek(this is also a lot of fun)

   anyhow re the concept, in the words of a great (ad) campaigner - 

       just do it

   duncan mac alpin. Polit,Lochac,West.

From: 00mjstum at bsuvc.bsu.edu (Matthew J. Stum)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: a war idea
Date: 26 Sep 94 10:05:24 -0500
Organization: Widget Enterprises

rsmiley at netcom.com (Malcolm MacPHerson (MKA Richard Smiley)) writes:
>I had an idea for a war that I would like some candid feedback on.  
>Something that I have felt is lacking in wars in my area (West) is 
>wondering where the enemy is and when are they going to attack.  That 
>anticipation could be a real rush.  Lining armies up accross the field 
>from each other and charging may be fun but I like suspense.
>
>My idea is this.  What if we ran a 36 hour resurection war.  Deaths would 
>be counted to determine a victor.  After sunset all combatants would be 
>likited to short weapons (2 1/2') and attack could take place at any 
>time.  [...]

As many people have stated, I don't know how many fighters are willing to
wear their armor for 36 hrs straight.  And if they _do_ take their armor
off then they need to be taken out of play... which sorta defeats the whole
purpose.  (i.e. you can foil a major attack by an enemy by suddenly deciding
that your entire side needs a water/dinner/potty break)

Here are a couple of smaller suggestions:

1) Woods battle.  Okay, so you know your opponent is in the woods... but
where exactly?  Woods with small hills/valleys is good.

2) Town battle.  Yeah, kinda like the one at pennsic, but drive posts at
each corner of the huts and string fabric walls between them.  This makes a
more realistic hut that you can't see through.  At pennsic you have instant
intelligence as to where the enemy is in the town.  Put up sheet walls and
it becomes _much_ more interesting.  ("Look around the corner.."  "No, YOU
look around the corner!")

3) Combine the above two options if you just happen to have a nice fighting
field adjacent to suitable woods.  Throw in a fake river across the field
with a small foot bridge at one end and a shallow ford (i.e. cross on
knees) at the other and you have for some interesting tactics.  (Depending
on your geography and population, you'll probably want to have some sort of
goal in mind (i.e. capture the flag, maintain control of certain regions,
etc.)) Include "home bases" where fighters can go and rest, receive water,
etc.

None of the above really addresses the "when" part of your question, but
weren't most period battles fought just as Pennsic?  i.e. the opposing
commanders have breakfast together, chat, and then say "Okay, you ready to
fight?"  I realize that not all societies followed this (the Vikings and
the Northern Welsh come to mind off-hand) but I seem to remember the
English and the French going in for this type of "civilized warfare".

Gwydion
--
Matt Stum                 Gwydion ap Myrddin Arglwydd     Ball State University
00mjstum at bsuvc.bsu.edu    Shire of Afonlyn, MK            Muncie, IN  USA
           Per bend sable and Or, a sun and decrescent counterchanged.

From: BFLYNN at email.unc.edu (Brian Flynn)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: a war idea
Date: Mon, 26 Sep 1994 15:28:56
Organization: UNC-CH School of Nursing

I like a lot of the idea so far - one thing that I've noticed in some of the 
wars is that the area is generally to small to do anything strategic.  You 
basically wind up with two lines that just want to kill each other, so why try 
any flanking, feinting, ect.  Just close the distance and fight, right?

In period, I cannot think of any fighting that occurred much past dusk.  I 
imagine this is for the same reason we don't do it today - you just can't see. 
 At dusk, you'd make camp and in the morning, you'd form up and fight.

I've always wanted to see a site with two entrances on opposite sides, 
depending on which side you wanted to fight for.  Possibly you could be given 
directions to one of two (wow - or even 3,4,5...) camps - kinda of a pot-luck 
war.  In the morning, everybody gets up and sees what happens.

I'm thinking of the camps being a mile or so apart with some interesting 
terrain between them.  Objectives - who knows.  Perhaps a booty train where 
everyone has to bring something as a treasure - at the end of the war, the 
victors split up the "lootings."

Somewhere on the east coast - count me in.

Uther

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: a war idea
From: voloudak at fas.harvard.edu (John_Voloudakis)
Date: Tue, 27 Sep 1994 11:07:13
Organization: Harvard University Instructional Media Services

In article <rsmileyCwM1DL.7pn at netcom.com> rsmiley at netcom.com (Richard Smiley) writes:
>Subject: a war idea
>From: rsmiley at netcom.com (Richard Smiley)
>Date: Sat, 24 Sep 1994 01:27:20 GMT

>I had an idea for a war that I would like some candid feedback on.  
>Something that I have felt is lacking in wars in my area (West) is 
>wondering where the enemy is and when are they going to attack.  That 
>anticipation could be a real rush.  Lining armies up accross the field 
>from each other and charging may be fun but I like suspense.
>My idea is this.  What if we ran a 36 hour resurection war.  Deaths would 
>be counted to determine a victor.  After sunset all combatants would be 
>likited to short weapons (2 1/2') and attack could take place at any 
>time.  I think that this makes it important to take and hold a good 
>strategic position so that you can get your troops fed and rested.  Also 
>you would need to post senturies and send out scouts.  This sounds a lot 
>more intrigueing to me than our current armored "football games".
>I think that most safety concerns could be dealt with but what do you 
>think about the concept?

>Malcolm MacPHerson

One problem I can forsee with this idea is that unless everyone at the site is 
a combatant, some poor spectator is going to get their head bashed in by some 
overzealous fighters.

A few of us had been discussing a similar idea at Pennsic though.  Pick a 24 
hour period.  At any time during that period during daylight hours, the cannon 
could sound.  When it does, units would head for the battlefield and fight.  
While you would still be dealing with a battle at a pre-arranged site, there 
would be several new twists thrown in.

1)  Uncertainty of timing.  Fighters would not know when the battle was going 
to be.  This would  lead to new types of strategy, with some units staying 
ready to fight for an hour or two at a time, and many fighters staying 
partially armored in order to get ready quickly.  In addition, runners would 
be needed to inform all the units that the battle had begun, since not 
everyone can hear the cannon around the site.  

2)  Since not all the fighters would be arriving at the same time, nor from 
the same directions, you would not be dealing with two large armies facing off 
against each other across the field, but rather many smaller units working 
individually, at least at first.  

3)  Units arriving late, or which are held back as reserves, would also add a 
new twist, since it would not be easy for battlefield commanders to judge just 
how the battle was going, where the enemy was, etc.  

There are several safety concerns which would need to be addressed in this 
scenario.  First, fighters might rush to put on their armor and not pay as 
much attention as they should to safety.  Responsibility for armor safety 
would need to be addressed by unit commanders or individual fighters.  Second, 
fighters who decide to wear their armor throughout the day in order to be 
prepared might get dehydrated or suffer from some other heat-related problem.  
This would probably be a harder, though not impossible problem to solve.

I think that if these safety concerns are well-addressed, a battle of this 
sort could be fun for fighters and spectators alike.

    =-Valerian-=
voloudak at fas.harvard.edu

From: Suze.Hammond at f56.n105.z1.fidonet.org (Suze Hammond)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: a war idea
Date: Thu, 29 Sep 1994 20:41:00 -0800

You might consider making the night fighting by scouts and raiders. for
safety sake, no actual fighting inside camps (as someone previously
mentioned) but the denizens of the camp would have to post a watch, just
as in real warfare. If the guard was captured, the people in the camp are
listed "killed" and must start the day at resurrection.

This would force fighters to camp in numbers (or try to hide their camp)
and those who didn't want to fight at night wouldn't have to, but would
have a certain risk, as would those who did. It might be good to have the
night fighting declared "Light" no matter who was up, ie "You're dead" at
ten feet would be a kill. Or perhaps it could be killed at a touch,
instead of hard blows. After all, in the dark, the whole idea was not to
be seen, while achieving your objectives. Few pitched battles are done in
the dark, even nowadays. 

Camps could have sentries captured, or flags left to demonstrate
penetration of defenses.

From: jkrissw at aol.com (JkrissW)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Battles, Question on duration of ~
Date: 18 Sep 1995 12:24:10 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)

In article <eherring.436.0093F9F1 at mindspring.com>, eherring at mindspring.com
(Evan L. Herring) writes:

>SCA battles tend to go on until all of one side are killed and "victory by 
>death" declared. Few Medieval battles went to this extreme. At some point in 
>many battles, a Medieval army seemed to think that the benefits of staying in
>the fight are outweighed by the benefits of survival. 

Some of the SCAdians I used to do "ancients" (wargame miniatures from
antiquity) with  observed that everybody in SCA combat has "A" morale. :-)
 
Maybe a way to simulate the historical sort of consideration for life and
limb would be to have a war (with a series of scheduled battles) where a
fighter only had one (or maybe two) "lives" for the entire weekend (kept
track of by some kind of list or special token that a fighter needed to
give to somebody before entering the battle area).  This would make the
early battles, at least, more "realistic" in that a side that seemed to be
losing would be more likely to go for a fighting withdrawal rather than
fighting on to the end.  Has this approach ever been tried?

I realize that fighters might object to being out of the battle so
"permanently", but perhaps alternative tracks could be run (a "casualties
tournament") in addition to the scheduled battles.

Daveed

From: "Niewoehner, Hugh" <Hugh.Niewoehner at flightsafety.com>
Date: June 27, 2008 1:15:06 PM CDT
Cc: <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com>
Subject: Lilies Monday - A target rich environment...

This years Lilies theme was Guild Wars. You had to decide which guild you were fighting for:  Fire Workers, Cooks, Brewers & Vintners, Fiber Guild, Bards, or Silk Road travelers'.
 
Monday's second battle was a 45 min. resurrection field battle with the six guilds starting widely spread out.  There were hay bales and the Lilies fort was arranged into 2 towers with a 10' wide lane between.  Fortunately (or not) no one had provided any sashes or other means of visibly marking which team you were on.   So, for those who don't know a lot of Calon's, it meant you fought with your chosen guild until your first death.  From then on it was open season...everyone was a target.    Occasionally, you'd hear some group who'd moved into one half of the fort start yelling their guild affiliation but for the most part it was a case of eyeballing the field and deciding where the most fun appeared to be happening.    If someone approached you could a) announce your guild hoping they were friendlies, b) move away, c) attack like a crazed weasel.   It was great!
 
At one point in time the fire workers holed up in one of the fort halves and it beacame an everyone vs. them battle until fire workers returning from res. point tried to lift the seige and it once again became a reasonable facsimile of a free for all. 
 
On the order of 100 + fighters, all of whom are fair game including 4 archers.   Choices, choices...
 
 Damon Hroarsson, HE Borrendöhl
    Northkeep Ansteorra

From: "Niewoehner, Hugh" <Hugh.Niewoehner at flightsafety.com>
Date: June 27, 2008 1:15:08 PM CDT
Cc: <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com>
Subject: Lilies Friday - Odd but fun.

Shepherds vs. Angry Villagers
 
The field was laid out into 4 "pastures" which went all the way across the battle field.    The guilds were divided into 2 roughly equal groups.  The "Villagers" and the herd.
 
Villagers were able to use any weapon up to 6'.   They started at the edge of the first village.  When they died they had to fall back to the second village and could not re-engage until the herd entered that pasture.  Die again got to third, etc.  After fourth death you're out.
 
The herd...Started as a large group halfway up the west side of the first pasture.  The goal was to determine which side could move at least 3 sheep (with a shepherd) to a hay bale on the far side of the 4th pasture fastest.
 
Shepherds were allowed any weapon up to 6'.  Dog's were allowed any great weapon up to 6'. Sheep were single sword.
 
The requirement was at least 5 sheep and 3 dogs per shepherd.   Sheep could only walk and even then only if a dog or shepherd was in close proximity "herding" them.   Given any good hit the sheep were to go to their knees with their sword over their head until a dog or shepherd touched them.  Dog's and Shepherds had to return to a res. point where the flock started. 
 
No kidding, you'd put a couple of sheep down and be concentrating on the next target when somebody to the side would resurrect the 2 at your feet and before you know it they're in your face.  Woof!
 
One guy put 8 sheep in an arc in front of him and started walking.  He was resurrecting sheep as fast as they got hit.  They never had time to fall to their knees.  It became a slowly moving  wall of single swords with dogs positioned to intercept anyone who tried to come around the ends.  They eventually attracted enough attention to tear their formation apart but it took a while and a lot of dead villagers.  Bloody damn zombie sheep!
 
In tale form it went something like this:
 
NSTWW, minding our own business, tending the fields and vineyards.  Then, along come those bloody shepherds with their wolves and sheep. 
 
So, like last year, we gathered our weapons and went to drive them away from our village.  Unlike last year though they'd taught their sheep to bite. 
 
Just when you'd drive off or injure one of the shepherds or wolves a couple of the sheep would take a chunk out of you.   So we started slaughtering sheep too.
 
What's this?  When the dogs or shepherds touch the sheep they come back to life...Aaaagh!   Zombie sheep!  
 
They're over-running the village!   Fall back to the next village and try to help them stem this onslaught.
 
Hopefully they won't stop and we can rebuild once they've moved on.  After undead sheep what's next?
 
Later that same day...
 
Well, we've grazed about as much as we can from the winter pasture.  Right on schedule, here come the wolves and shepherds to take us to the summer pastures.
 
We have to pass through several villages to get there.  Sometimes they try to stop us.  Looks like this year will be one of those times.
 
But this time things are going to be different. 

        Sumus grex agni. - "We are a flock of sheep"
 
        Agni dentati. - "Sheep with teeth".
 
As we move forward we chew up ankles, knees, and arms.  If we wound them they can't fall back and assist the other villages along the way.
 
Suddenly a guy wearing a yellow and black falcon yells my direction saying "I know that sheep.  Stop him or he'll tear out all of our crops and plant grapes."  At this point I remember I shouldn't be calling "Baa, baa" but "Beeeer, Beeeer".   His companion starts laughing so I bite him.
 
Finally struck down, I lay, a corpse in the field.  Then my guard dog touches me and I arise once more to continue the migration.  Stuck again I fall to the ground on my knees.  A dog touches me "Up sheep", a villager stabs me before I can move "Down sheep", dog, villager, dog, villager, sigh... they finally move off leaving me rotting.
 
Hmm, a villager approaches along with the sound of battle.   Seeing my dead body, he ignores me and steps close to try and cull another from our flock.  I feel a touch, "sheep up", I bite the face of the careless villager in the few seconds granted me before I am once again struck by another. This cycle repeats a few times before a powerful sheepdog revives me and leads me to the upper meadows along with enough of my companions to deem the migration complete.
 
Damon Hroarsson, HE Borrendöhl
    Northkeep Ansteorra

<the end>

Edited by Mark S. Harris	battle-ideas-msg	Page  of