[MR] Mantlings, not Mantles.

[Mike C. Baker]

> > I concur that those mantles would potentially cause more difficulty 
> > than they would bring benefits, and strongly urge the adoption of 
> > torses and mantlings for helms as an alternative.
> >
> > The torse and mantle has the added advantage of being visible at a 
> > greater distance AND provides shade on helms.?
> >
> > Your servant aye
> > Donal
> ---- Ceara ni Neill <ceara at HouseBarra.com> wrote: 
> I am certain that with a little ingenuity folks can figure 
> out a way to keep them laying down & not flapping in faces. 
> hmm, snaps, buttons, ties, or barring all else, a piece of 
> duck tape rolled inside out & stuck between the armor & the 
> mantle. I'm sure our fighters can come up with SOMETHING.
> 
> --ceara, who firmly believes that if it can be imagined, it 
> can be done!!
> -------------
> Though that still doesn't solve the problem of the chain mail 
> aventails and cammails from completely covering/obscuring 
> them on the field.
> 
> Sian

Simply resolved, indeed (using the torse&mantling alternative, the
mantling is attached to the OUTside of the aventail or camail).

I write to you from the confines of Ansteorra at this instance, and will
note that the venerable "Ansteorran War Tabard" is not the only
unit-associated tabard / mantle used by Ansteorrans.  Consider also such
units as the Lion-Dragon Guard from the Province of Moonschadowe...

The primary purpose, as I see them from a bardic and heraldic view, is
to assist in establishing unit identity and foster unit-based tactics.
A mob of heroes may get you somewhere on the field, but it won't get you
as far as a trained unit expecting to work together (and readily able to
identify each other, their unit commander, etc.).  As individual
fighters don the tabards and adjust to their presence -- and, speaking
from direct observational experience, it *is* possible to do so in
fairly short order given a tabard properly sized / constructed for a
given individual -- the entire unit benefits from the enhanced _unit_
identity.

Adieu, Amra / ttfn - Mike / Pax ... Kihe

Mike C. Baker
SCA: (al-Sayyid) Amr ibn Majid al-Bakri al-Amra, F.O.B, OSCA
"Other": Reverend Kihe Blackeagle PULC (the DreamSinger Bard)
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