[MR] On KASF and War Practices

[David Ritterskamp]

[snipped to save space]
>From: MaddNancy at aol.com
>event and that of scheduling somewhat impromptu fighter practices seem to
>resurface fairly regularly.
>
>
>
> >From Maddalena:
>
>Although there may be A&S displays at various events, KASF is the event  
>that
>our kingdom's artisans work for all year round.  To a certain extent,  it 
>is
>our Pas - our chance to challenge ourselves and to show our best  efforts.
>Unfortunately, my first response to this post is that the  thought that 
>someone
>would schedule a fighter practice on the protected date of  KASF shows a 
>lack
>of respect for the efforts of the artisans of the  kingdom.

[Your Excellency:  Say, rather, that it is the product of the system (or 
lack thereof) currently in place and I will agree with you wholeheartedly.  
I've seen fighter practices (either serious ones, or disguised as 
"unofficial get-togethers") scheduled against Coronation, so I don't think 
it's a lack of respect for the artisans, specifically.  I think it's just an 
artifact of scheduling, i.e., "I know I'm not going to be attending X, so 
what else is there to do?  Aah, look, a local fighter practice."

Unfortunately you and Geoffrey stepped down before you were able to see the 
email I sent to the respective baronies asking for help in scheduling more 
war practices.  As I said then, I checked the event schedule to make sure we 
weren't conflicting with any nearby events, but the only baronial meeting I 
checked against was Sacred Stone's.  Once it became apparent that that 
wasn't enough I started looking for alternatives.

Basically what it boils down to [as His Excellency mentions below] is that 
there's never been a serious push to treat a war practice just like any 
other business meeting, or event, or etc, i.e., scheduling a war practice 
just like anything else.  Probably because everybody looks around and says 
"well, we have this practice, and that practice, and the other practice, 
what do we need a war practice for?"

I submit that anybody who still asks that question hasn't talked to anybody 
who fought at the last Kingdom Crusades.  It wasn't pretty.  We drove 10 
hours and we were slaughtered the entire day.  Nobody wants to see that 
again.  ...well, nobody on this side of the East/Atlantia border. ;>

The fix is simple:  schedule war practices just like anything else.  That is 
being worked on.  Until it gets set up and running, please accept my 
apologies.  We're a tourney-centric kingdom, and as was pointed out, that's 
been enough for years to win wars.  But the rest of the Known World has 
caught up and we're having to learn, on the fly, how to solve that.

Regards,

Jonathan Blackbow
>When planning "regional" war practices, the person  planning really should
>coordinate with the appropriate people before  posting the practice.  While 
>I
>fully support practices designed to get the  whole kingdom working from the 
>same
>page, it often seems that practices are  spontaneously announced with no
>regard to what is going on elsewhere.  For  the last two years a "regional"
>practice has been called in February  in North Carolina without consulting 
>with the
>local Baronage, Seneschals,  Group Marshals and Group Warlords.  Both times
>these practices were called  on the date of Windmasters' scheduled monthly
>meeting and practice.  With  prior coordination we could have moved the 
>meeting to
>another date  (with enough advance notice to ensure that it is a legal
>meeting) and  moved the baronial practice to the regional practice.  Not 
>coordinating
>is  both bad planning and just plain rude.
>
>Regional practices are a good thing.  Plan them in advance.   Coordinate 
>them
>with the leadership of the groups you want to attend the  practice.  Prior
>Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.  The recent  "regional" practice
>confused our folks so badly that three went to Elkin, three  went to the 
>local
>practice and the rest stayed home.  Windmasters' has only  one Baronial 
>practice a
>month.  That is our only chance to work together as  a unit.  Please,
>coordinate with all parties prior to announcing a  practice.
>
>As Baron, I felt that if my Barony or a canton had something already
>scheduled, then even if the King moved King's Assessment on top of it, I  
>supported
>the local group's already scheduled activity.  Even though I am  now 
>landless,
>odds are high that I will still support a scheduled local
>event/meeting/practice over a regional or kingdom happening that was moved 
>or  announced at the
>last minute.  Plan and schedule well in advance  and coordinate with the
>responsible leadership.  That way we work  together and succeed rather than 
>divide
>our efforts and fail.
>
>Baron Geoffrey (the Landless)

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