Armored combat

From MiddleWiki

The practice of donning recreations of medieval or renaissance armor and doing combat with rattan weapons. Also known as Heavy weapons fighting. Battle may be joined singly, as in a formal tournament or en masse in large melees.

Armored combat has always been one of the central activities of the Society for Creative Anachronism. The King and Queen of each kingdom and Prince and Princess of each Principality are chosen in a Crown Tournament or Coronet Tournament, using armored combat. The activity has always had a glamorous and central place in the SCA. The Peerage associated with armored combat, The Order of the Chivalry, is popularly conceived to have just a little more prestige than the other peerages, for example. The vast majority of events include an armored combat tournament of some kind.

Until the adoption of Rapier combat in the mid 1990s, armored combat was almost universally referred to as "fighting", and the participants as "fighters". Now it may more often be called heavy weapons combat.

Armored combat may be even more important in the Middle Kingdom than many, as the Middle is one of the main antagonists in the annual Pennsic War, the largest SCA event.

Participants in armored combat must obtain an authorization to fight from the marshals who supervise such activities. An authorization must be obtained for each group of weapon types, beginning with weapon and shield.