[MR] Siege Weapons

[MR W]

I come from a family of Engineers. My Dad, Brothers, Aunts and Uncles are all Engineers of one type or another. I have observed that they have a tendancy to over complicate things to a point that it makes sence to them and no one else. In my dealings with other kingdoms Seige Rules, I have noticed that trend.

The "If it is Red you are Dead." came out of many conversations with Heavy Fighters that I hang out with. At Gulf Wars last year, there was a general discusion over the confusion generated by differant things that fly through the air and try to kill us. Golf tube arrow, Javilins, Balista Bolts all with differant markings. There was a case were a team found a Marshalls staff made out of plastic, thought it was a bolt, and almost fired it from their engine. Yellow, I think, should be researved for the Marshals as that is something our Fighters are already used to.

In  mundane Engineering, yellow strips are universal for "Danger". However mundane Engineers are not our "Consumer", The Fighters on the field are. They have to ID the object hitting them correctly in order to figure out if they are "Dead" if it just hit their shield. We have to remember KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid.) for our "Consumers" to use our "Product" (Amo) correctly and safely.

"If it is Red you are Dead." is easy to remember that both the new fighter and ancient Duke will remember, it is KISS, and would be differant from most objects on the field. The only thing to watch for would be the thrown weapons on the field as they come in all kinds of colors. I suggest that size makes a differance also, as there is a minimum length Bolts can be. (About 3 ft I think.)  

Hope this adds to the discussion.

----- Original Message -----
From: Siegfried Sebastian Faust
Sent: Wednesday, November 07, 2001 4:58 PM
To: atlantia at atlantia.sca.org
Subject: Re: [MR] Siege Weapons


>Amo-no greater then 1 pound, has to be red. Fighters have to have a easy
>way to distinguish seige ammo that kills through a shield. "If it is red,
>you are dead."

Just a quick note, and not to go into the different classes of ammunition
and weapons but ...

This topic of ammo coloring was brought up a little while back on the
SCA-Siege mailing list.  By the SCA rules, any 'javelin' type ammo (ie,
ballista bolt), is required by SCA rules to be marked with a yellow spiral
down the length of the shaft.

It was mentioned that this was to do, as is suggested above, easily tell
the difference between a 'killing through shield long pointy thing', and an
arrow.

The other types of ammo (4-tennis ball clusters & 1-lb foam rocks) are easy
to distinguish by sight.

However, it was suggested, and implemented in other kingdoms, to 'go with'
the yellow rule, and require yellow taping on these as well (whether
completely covered in yellow, or 'spiraled' could be up to local rules, or
the maker).

In any case, just thought I would bring that up.  We can go with red if we
wish, but the red ballista bolts must be spiral wrapped in yellow if
so.  Or we can leave the yellow spiral ruling and require it on clusters
and rocks as well!

In Service,
Siegfried



_________________________________________________________________________
Lord Siegfried Sebastian Faust    Baronial Web Minister & Archery Marshal
Barony of Highland Foorde        http://highland-foorde.atlantia.sca.org/

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