MacArmoured Longsword

General Rules

• These rules are derived from breaking historical maille and details from Fiore
• Fought with sword, and dagger in passes, until one of the competitors makes three (3) “Well Struck Blows” (WSB)
• Doubles or when both combatants fall is reset, nothing done
• By definition, when in armor, we are armed. Disarms are non-scoring.
• The sword may be used in conventional grip, in a halfsword grip, or with one hand on the sword. If both of your hands are on the part of the sword between pommel and crossguard, the pommel must touch your body unless you are actively putting in a thrust. A fighter who extends the sword not in the act of a thrust will be given one verbal warning, before a Well-Struck Blow is awarded to their opponent.
• Injuring an opponent is grounds for immediate disqualification, for safety reasons.

WSB by Thrust

Against maille, arming clothes, or glove

• A WSB is made by thrust, with the point of the sword or dagger
• Cuts are completely not-scoring, as are thrusts to the visor/helmet area
• Strikes with the crossguard and pommel are explicitly disallowed, due to equipment constraints
• Against a target that would be covered by maille, the thrust must initiate or be received from at least an arm’s length distance from the opponent measured at the body, land unimpeded by the opponent’s arms or weapon, and stay stuck for a tempo. See chart below for valid targets. NOTE: there is no requirement for this thrust to land forcefully, or to displace the opponent, due to the lack of actual maille in these areas.
• Against a target which would be covered only by arming clothes or leather (the palm of the hand, the interior of the elbow, or the back of the knee), the arm’s length rule is negated.
• Dagger blows must travel at least a foot and land unimpeded with good elbow attachment (ie elbow near our body), but score within the wrestling distance.

WSB by Throw

• A Throw is when any part of the opponent besides the soles of the feet touch the ground.
• To count as a WSB, the thrower must remain standing, ie nothing besides the soles of their feet touch the ground (though posting on the fallen combatant is allowed).
• Banned forms of throws: any throw in which the opponent is lifted from the ground, throws which pose a risk of removing the fencing helmet in their execution such as a headlock hip toss, and single or double leg takedowns.

Equipment

We will provide Mac Armour visors, plastic breastplates, Mac Armour gauntlets, armored fighting swords, and Cold Steel rondel daggers. Required Protection is the same as the regular longsword tournament, with one addition: mask, back-of-head protector, gorget, jacket, hard gloves, hard elbows, hard knees, hard forearms, hard shins, anatomy appropriate protection, and a belt. No actual armor components will be used in this event and are therefore not needed to participate.

• Mask: a standard style of fencing mask is preferable. Some masks do not interface with the Mac Armour visors at all, such as the Wukusi Cobra mask. We will have a small selection of loaner masks if you are unable to bring your own.
• Back-of-head protector: mask overlay style back-of-head does not interface well with the Mac Armour visor, and should be removed before the competition. Plate style back-of-head protection works well with the visor, and should be retained. We will have loaner plate style back-of-head protection for competitors.
• Hard gloves: gloves for competing in this event must have a single, solid thumb plate which extends across the first two proximal joints of the thumb. The Gabriel longsword glove and similar products are adequate, but unfortunately, the SPES Heavy is not. This is a safety consideration for halfswording actions. We will have loaner Mac Armour armored fighting gauntlets available.

The Ring

We will conduct this event in the same ring as the regular longsword fencing. We will have a wrestling mat for the floor of standard thickness. Full longsword kit with joint and extremity protection, as well as back of head protection, should mitigate injury, but some additional risk is incurred by participants.

Event Organization

This event will begin with a 30-min tone setting class explaining the background on the ruleset, points from material testing around armored combat, and appropriate levels of force.

This event will be conducted as a single elimination tournament, paired initially based on similar size and weight. Each subsequent round will reorder and pair based on size and weight of next closest combatants. The pairings will fight to 3 WSBs or until 3 min elapses, whichever occurs first.