Belegarth

I was watching some SCA videos.

Then I tried looking for their combat rules, but couldn't find them.

How does their combat work?
They looked like they were beating the **** out of each other and then one fell over. I swear each one had like 10 clean hits, including a few head shots ( I know they're legal, but they don't kill?)

Headshots kill. Could be a number of those shots were considered "light".

General combat rules are found here, though some minor differences existed from kingdom to kingdom.

True,hard to tell from watching with the sca .You pretty much have to be the one being hit to tell.


To save you a bit of reading(above link is great BTW).

1"above the knee and up(as in no lower legs) is a legal target,1" above the wrist(as in not the hand)is legal,every thing else is fair game.

Body and head shots = kill.
Limbs=lose of use of the limb.
Sca doesn't have a 2 limb kill ,you can loose a leg and an arm and still fight.
Force needed to kill varys a bit and tends to change from lighter to harder back to lighter with time(very wave like).The good range is almost always good enough but if you are on the weak side of good,a hard hitting group might not take your shots.So far,kinda the same as bel.
It doesn't take very much contact(shield,sword...) to take the force out of a shot,so you can block shots, but still be hit by them.Again you have to be there just because it hit you're shield doesn't mean it's not good.

Then comes blade edge.A flat shot doesn't count.Tipp shots and glancing don't count either.
Thrusting/stabbing gamewise are the same as a slash.
Face thrust only need to touch.(almost no force is needed,forcefull face thrust is not legal).

No grapppling.
No shield bashing to body parts.(But you can push on a shield or weapon).

Local areas may have other rules.
Be very sure you know "when you are engaged" for the place you fight.Almost no death from behind.

everything said above is true. The most common reasons for someone to think an SCA guy is sluffing are 1: he really is sluffing 2: he called light 3: he called glancing. Just like in reality/history the technology in the SCA has advanced through the years. Many folks wear helms and armor designed to cause glancing shots. bascinet style helms for example. And the rule pretty much SCA wide is "sufficient force", you have to hit with the rattan sword hard enough, that if that sword were steel, it would have penetrated armor and caused a killing/dehabilitating wound.

one thing that really catches you off guard in sca is that a hit has to be a clean hit. If it touches anything on the way in sword, shield, glances off another limb, you ignore the shot. So in dag and bele where youll through a shot really hard they will block it but it will move the shield and youll get a hit. That same shot is ignored in the SCA

They looked like they were beating the **** out of each other and then one fell over. I swear each one had like 10 clean hits, including a few head shots...

I don’t know what video you watched but it is not uncommon for two knights to fight to a counted number of blows. There are also certain tournaments and feats of arms when the rules decree this for everyone participating.

Varadin wrote:one thing that really catches you off guard in sca is that a hit has to be a clean hit. If it touches anything on the way in sword, shield, glances off another limb, you ignore the shot. So in dag and bele where youll through a shot really hard they will block it but it will move the shield and youll get a hit. That same shot is ignored in the SCA

This is not really true.Very close though.It is possable to still have a telling blow even after hitting shield edge/sword /or what have you.It is just that most of the time enough of the force of the shot is taken away with the contact.I've had shots blow through my sword block,or skip off my buckler and still hit with enough for me to take it.

On the same note I've stepped into a great sword swing early enough to remove the shot force without blocking at all.(Don't try this as it doesn't work very often.)


Counted blows are fun,kinda easy to lose count though.

My only experience with heavy combat was counted blows, but it was only to three. It seemed fairly simple to keep up on, especially since you yelled out each hit. Of course.... maybe it just seemed simple after years of our style w/armor.

-bort

Bortas wrote:My only experience with heavy combat was counted blows, but it was only to three. It seemed fairly simple to keep up on, especially since you yelled out each hit. Of course.... maybe it just seemed simple after years of our style w/armor.

-bort

Yeap, but do a few back to back,and have them last a few minutes each.Soon you want to repeat the #2 as your head is still ringing from the 3rd shot last bout.


Where is the sarcasm button for I have failed!

Thanks guys!

I'm guessing counted blows on the main one I was referrencing. The shot that dropped him seemed to hit with less force than some of the others.

go here
http://www.sca.org/officers/marshal/doc ... ndbook.pdf