Combat Styles in Amtgard Live Action RPG

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name's Austin Harmon, but out here I'm known as Forest Evergreen. And I'm here on Expertvillage.com to teach you about the game of Amtgard. If I was fighting in a normal combat style, I'd usually fight--the main fighting combat's going to be one of three things. Just a single sword. A lot of people like to fight that because it gives them practice. I mean, it's the hardest thing to do out there. You don't have an off weapon to block with, you've just got one weapon to block and attack with, so you get a lot of practice in your motions and your shots. Second-most standard combat style is what we call Florentine, which is two swords. That allows you to have twice the amount of offense or to be able to block with one sword and fight with the other. Then you've got sword and shield which is an extremely defensive. You've got a shield which is usually anywhere a foot and a half to three feet in diameter, in a round circle, and you can block with that shield and cover a large portion of your body, and then you fight around the shield. So it's an extremely defensive stance. Florentine would be more offensive. You want to come in because you've got, you can sort of two shots at once, make it harder for them to block. The style I was fighting, which isn't as common but it's one of my favorite styles, is called Pole Arm. That's a much longer weapon, usually anywhere from at least six foot one inch up to, the biggest one I've ever seen was about sixteen feet long. And that's a style that's designed to fight at reach. The problem is the longer it gets the easier it is to make that initial block and step past the striking surface, because once you pass the striking surface and you get to the core of the weapon or where we have some courtesy padding, shots on that part of the weapon won't count, so if I hit you with that part of the weapon, it doesn't injury you, it doesn't cause any change in the combat. So, if you can step past my first shot and step in on a long weapon, you're going to kill me because there's nothing I can do at that point. So, there's give and take to having a long weapon, in that it does give you reach on your opponents, but at the same time if they can step inside that reach, there's nothing you can do. If you don't have a backup sword, or a dagger or something, they're going to step in on you, and that point you just put your hand up. You're dead. You might as well not take the hit. Just say hey, you got me. I lost that one."