Just damn busy - and the Castle battle continues..

Whew! Busy week! This whole school thing is killer!

So, the Castle Battle... We lined up outside near one of the bridges on the approach to the castle. We were facing Calontir on our bridge, so we went over and said a merry hello before the battle. There was joking and fun, and then the marshalls called hats and bats, and we were off. We lined up, all ready for a charge or advance or something. But no, nothing. They decided to pick us off with artillary and archers first, Grrr.... I'm definitely becoming an Orkney. I had a fantastic shieldwoman who blocked tons of arrows for me, and we all screamed "Ballista!" when one came flying our way. We shared a chuckle as we started the battle and I noticed something rather novel. For once, I could see over the shield wall! I mentioned this, we laughed. But that was the last one for a bit. We valiantly tried to hang on for as long as possible, but the archers and artillery just whittled us down. I took an arrow to the grill and trudged inside to res.

On the inside of the castle, we all regrouped after we resurrected. The unit reformed near the front gates. We had Caid and the West with us, as well as the Tuchucks. Ragnesfolke had their ballista inside as well. Nothing like a ballista in your castle! Eventually the attackers got up to the doors, and the doors were knocked open in the "we're breaking your gate down" ritual created for when you actually have a real, honest to god gate. The attackers started attempting to break through the doorway area. So they charged and they speared and they pushed our lines again and again. But no purchase, we kept them at the doorway. Unfortunately their archers and ballistas could still fire over the castle walls at us (we're talking 6' castle walls in some areas, not a huge feat). Many of us lost the day to an archer or artillary yet again, which stunk. I lost an arm to an arrow, but I truly didn't want to leave the field. So I attempted the one arm spearing thingie. I've done it a few times before, but never with a line in front of me. With apologies to the shieldwomen for resting the spear basically on their shields, I attempted what I could. Finally HRM Kolfinna suggests I try spearing down on the attackers from the walkway over the door. So I ambled over to the walkway, checked with the marshall that it was cool, and gave it a try.

I felt like I was poking fish in a barrel! Wheee! Now, we're not talking huge amounts of control here, but if I can distract them from above, then it's one less spear firing at our line. I'll take that. I have no clue if I actually killed anyone - half the time they didn't see my spear coming. But I know I tied a few folks up who tried to tie my spear up. One guy had a smiley face on his spear tip. Never saw the guy, just his spear tip. But I had him tied up blocking my spear.

Eventually the ballistas got into the act. The attackers started wreaking havoc on us by firing through the door. But then Wolfstan from Ragnesfolke (yes, they're the folks I used to camp with) brought his ballista closer in and started firing back at the attackers. Amusing, but I was glad when eventually this ended. We went back to repelling their charges. Our side door got a bit heated, so 1/2 the Tuchucks went to reinforce the door forces.

But then, I heard the Marshalls talking. They were wondering why we weren't sallying forth against the attackers? So I peeked through the crack in the wall and took stock of who was left. Hey, we were winning! There weren't that many left over there! I hollared this info down to our forces, and after a minute, they charged through and cleaned off our front lawn. It was a happy day for us, and nice to win an entertaining battle. While I'm not fond of the one arm spear thing, it worked well enough to keep me in the battle. And the poking from above thing was brilliance because it was probably annoying the hell out of the shieldmen to have my drunken one arm spear technique all over their shields...

So yeah, definitely one of the more entertaining battles for me. I was pretty much comic relief the whole time, but then, what's new?