As many of you know, my new Pittsburgh group is undergowing a great many growing pains as we nail down what we wish to accomplish. "Magnus Kompanie" its' official name now, is taking off splendidly. With fifteen members on the rolls and a few more e-mailing me with interest, I hope to contribute a great deal to this community.

The following is a link to the "Combat" section of the Magnus Kompanie's website. A link is at the top of the page to our manual on Drills. Please visit both sections and let me know your opinions.

While the Drills page is evolving off of a set I was given for WWII re-enacting, I have stripped it to its bones and built up medieval approximations based on referrence provided by such illustrious community members and aides as Brent, Robert and Holger. Two are from Germany, while we all know Brent and the detail he wishes to divuldge.

Please visit: http://banditt.uber-geek.us/history/combat.html

Thank you,

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~ Jason Banditt Adams
Illustrator for the gaming industry
www.Rogue-Artist.com

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~ Jason Banditt Adams
Illustrator for the gaming industry
www.Rogue-Artist.com

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You actually have to fight sometime and get some dings in that pretty armor.

lol

Would you be up to letting me see the orders you use? I am always looking to be more authentic.

Thank you,

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~ Jason Banditt Adams
Illustrator for the gaming industry
www.Rogue-Artist.com

I'm not sure about the ranting about the evils of Americans trying to be noticed on the battlefield vs. nobody ever doing that because they'd be stupid in real life.

It's a bit condescending, and believe me I've ranted about American recreationist viewpoints before; mainly it bugged me because there are quite a few times in history that people wanted to stand out on the battlefield.

'Living Big and Dying Big' was what the Greeks were all about. For the celts and gauls, it was the POINT of warfare; personal style and glory. The nobility in the middle ages tended to wear the best armor they could and stand out with heraldry so that they could be instantly recognized by their own friends and not killed if captured, but rather taken for ransom as an important person.

Perhaps it might be better to tone that section down a bit and explain that your group feels that people in the specific time and place that you are portraying would not behave that way as a reflection of the portrayed culture and battle practices, therefore those are the rules for your events.

Whether or not it is accurate for the culture(s) you are portraying is really not for me to investigate, I'm sure your group is comfortable enough with its own research and viewpoint on that. We all have to make an opinion and put it to practice to make living history happen; otherwise we'd be lost in the books and scrolls eternally, worried about being 'wrong' rather than being on the field.

Also, I think I get what you mean about not using thees and thous (simply not being your reinactment preference), and the note about Elizabethan English not being invented yet, but it sort of looks like you're saying that people didn't use thees and thous pre-Elizabethan. It's probably not what you mean but maybe being a little clearer about your language choices might help there.

---Diana---

[ 08-02-2005: Message edited by: Diana Peterson ]

Pertaining to Thees and thous, I dont think those were used in 15 century Germany

As for "living big and dieing big", having been in charge of re-enactment battle units before, I know how one loud-mouth can distract from the commands being given to the group and how being fluent in colorful modern cuss-words can give the entire group a bad look from other groups and the public at large (not to mention is just plain uncalled for).

The point of that topic is to keep to a military estoicity and keep everyone's heads about them so that stupid and potentially harmful mistakes do not occur. "Officers" are there for a reason, to keep everyone as safe as possible in a combat-oriented environment and to keep the military unit functioning as a whole, "unified" one would say.

I hope this bring to light a the thought process behind the stingent rules in effect in our group.

Best regards,

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~ Jason Banditt Adams
Illustrator for the gaming industry
www.Rogue-Artist.com

quote:

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Pertaining to Thees and thous, I dont think those were used in 15 century Germany

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Probably not! The explanation on your webpage was just a little muddy in that it seemed as if you were saying thee and thou didn't exist in the (pre-Elizabethan) time period at all. I was pretty sure that wasn't what you meant, hence bringing it to your attention. You could probably just state clearly that it doesn't fit with 15th century German speech patterns.

quote:

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As for "living big and dieing big", having been in charge of re-enactment battle units before, I know how one loud-mouth can distract from the commands being given to the group and how being fluent in colorful modern cuss-words can give the entire group a bad look from other groups and the public at large (not to mention is just plain uncalled for).

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No argument with that at all. I think you also explain that pretty well in your document. The sticky point I was trying to point out was the assertion that only idiots would ever stand out on the battlefield in history; many historical cultures would disagree on the idiocy of their customs, and if I was watching a reinactment of a Greek or Celtic battle, I'd hope the people could pull off some convincing 'bigness.' Modern cursing is not equivalent to Celtic Attitude, however, and should not be lumped together.

Simply toning down the part about "only idiots would want to stand out in any battlefield" or at least making it focused to your time and place such as "You were an idiot to stand out in battle in 15th century Germany" would make it clearer, I think.

Hope that helps, I may not have been very clear in my comments previously.

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~ Jason Banditt Adams
Illustrator for the gaming industry
www.Rogue-Artist.com

Good work overall though, and best wishes on your reinactment efforts! It's very hard being the coordinator.