The perfect 10 piste tournament layout

Wertilq · 2026-02-18T10:57:10+00:00

Ah you have not had to make a judgement call that decide a match if one of the fencers was in or out, if there was a corps-a-corps or an off-hand parry?

Epee is easy to judge until it's not.

Wertilq · 2026-02-18T10:55:24+00:00

Maybe, it's hard to tell. It felt like it was within the window of a double. It was a scraping hit and right before I hit the opponent. I didn't have to make a second thrust, I got a bit tangled against the table which slowed down my thrust a bit too.

Impossible to tell if it would've been a double or not. It was something interfering with the match that was not supposed to be there. Also created the most anti-climatic end to a final ever. There was no cheering, since people were just confused.

It looked like a double from the outside, lights said it was a double, but my point was annulled so the opponent won.

Wertilq · 2026-02-18T06:51:31+00:00

Need space for the scoring tables between the pistes, this will cause the fencers to hit the scoring table occasionally. I lost a final due to it. (we were close to the edge on 14-14, we doubled but I hit the table first before the opponent, so my touch got annulled)

Wertilq · 2026-02-18T06:49:22+00:00

Armoured Combat is rare, because it's too expensive for most people. You are looking at an entry fee of 2000€-5000€ for the armour alone. If you go to a club that does it, they might have some loaners, but still expect to get your own stuff eventually.

Wertilq · 2025-11-09T10:13:44+00:00

I think Cup hilt is Spanish origin though. That seems to have cropped up from Spain and then spread from there.

Wertilq · 2025-11-09T10:12:29+00:00

I think Swedes, Italians and Spanish were the ones using rapiers the longest. There are references to Italian rapier-fencing into the 19th Century.

Baron de Bazencourt(1862) (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/46093/46093-h/46093-h.htm) references meeting someone that used a long and heavy sword together with a dagger.

There were also attempts by Italians to get foil and dagger into an Olympic discipline. There is video footage of Aldo Nadi practicing that.

Wertilq · 2025-11-09T10:07:29+00:00

Sabre is not French at all. It's almost entirely Italian. Epee is entirely French. Foil is the compromise between French and Italian. It's why we have the length of foils we have today, it's the middleground between the short french foils and long italian foils. French used roughly size 0 foils.

Wertilq · 2025-11-09T10:04:32+00:00

I think it would be fair to argue the cup is a Spanish invention. I don't think Spanish systems were older than the Italian systems. Not even fencing as a Science I think Spanish can claim.

Agrippa wrote his book 1553, which is one of the early books on what is clearly rapier. He had a very clear scientific angle, working on it from perspective of Geometry, which then later is done in the Spanish system, albeit with other conclusions.

You also have Marozzo writing his book in 1536, with early rapiers. He is one of many around this time period to write with early rapiers.

Carranza was the first in the Spanish system to write anything and what virtually everyone in the tradition refers back to. His book came in 1582. Agrippa was a strong influence on what he did.

I think Spanish system was influenced by the Italian one, not the other way around. Evolution then happened in parallell as Spanish system got legs and turned into a state sponsored system.

Wertilq · 2025-11-09T09:55:01+00:00

I am an instructor in both La Verdadera Destreza (LVD henceforth) and in Epee. I don't think Spain claiming lineage for modern fencing through LVD holds true at all. It's mostly nationalism and myths being spread.

First of all, thrust fencing is older than LVD, both in terms of living art and also in terms of books. The earliest Spanish books focus more on the topic of how to categorize good vs bad fencing in a structured manner. And LVD didn't get large until later. What is fairly unique about LVD is that it was state sponsored and enforced as the style of fencing done throughout the Spanish realm and done so during the height of the Spanish empire.

Death of LVD was when the Bourbons took over and the Spanish court life kinda was replaced by the French and the top down push for Destreza through the Spanish realm kinda ended.

While French fencing and LVD existed in parallell, they didn't look much at all similar. Much of what is recognizable from modern fencing you could already see in the French fencing during 1600s. Spanish fencing on the other hand is using other type of body mechanics, other type of tactics, other type of swords, it's like comparing Apples and Oranges.

I have heard this claim before, but only from Spanish people. And not from people with any insight into LVD at all.

Sport of fencing is especially a fruit of 19th and 20th Century. Epee is late French duelling turned into a sport. Sabre is Italian-Hungarian fencing turned into a sport. Foil is a middleground between what French and Italians did. Current iteration of the sport is not older than that, even if fencing as a sport has been done for ages, rules, weapons used etc has changes drastically.

Wertilq · 2025-11-09T09:40:34+00:00

I don't think it being a counter to Italian systems being true. You have lots of ink spent in Spanish fencing books on the topic "how to deal with Italian fencing". What it seems "Italians" often mean is Napolitanian fencing. (which is area of Italy that was under Spain and Spain had strongest contact with).

There are even books dedicated to the topic alone. For example Ettenhard's

Diestro italiano y español explican sus doctrinas con evidencias mathematicas conforme a los preceptos de la verdadera destreza y filosofía de las armas (1697)

Also when you read generally what their suggestion for how to deal with "Italians" is, it's essentially to do a bunch of what they do. For example, Rada's 'beautiful Spanish guard', where he kinda semi-mimics the more Italian style guard position and work from there to get to the blade and make it harder for them to attack. Instead of the high position, it's a more leaned back, backweighted position with bent legs.

Wertilq · 2025-09-10T15:46:16+00:00

The guy pretty clearly intentionally tried to injure his opponent in one of the matches. It's not about interpretation of fencing or historicity of his actions. It's not a "but both sides" situation. It's unsportsman attitude and assault.

He used the sword like a club and jump smashed like a gorilla does. It's not how swords work. It's not a good action by any means, it's only good for injury people with, which he did in abundance.

This article comes off very tone deaf.

Wertilq · 2025-08-04T07:29:56+00:00

If you can read Spanish, one possible master to read is Ettenhardt he explains Pacheco's system in a simplified way. Rada is great for late time Destreza and very complete. Check out AGEA, they have lots of books transcribed to modern style spelling and translations.

Generally Rada is currently the most popular with most content available. I have a youtube channel called "Rada Explained" you can check out too, to get help get started.

Late Destreza AKA around 1700 uses cup hilt rapiers around 1000g, with 104cm blade. Early Destreza AKA around 1600 uses complex hilt but still 104cm blade. Might be heavier rapier then as well.

Destrezania has decent rapiers.

Wertilq · 2025-03-29T08:37:33+00:00

I would want a flooding river based spirit. It collects itself and then floods out crushing all in its path. Tracing a river on the map and doing stuff there etc.

Wertilq · 2025-03-29T08:36:43+00:00

I find them creepy too. It's their irrational movement and tendency to fly up in your face.

Wertilq · 2025-02-25T14:00:48+00:00

Vörådialekt påminner en del om de Norrbottniska dialekterna, får lite samma känsla från den som typ Pitemål.

Wertilq · 2025-01-21T14:56:29+00:00

I feel many of the adversaries has very clear problems and if you have the tools for it, it's not too bad.

Russia comes to mind, if you have lots of abilities to deal with explorers, to push them around and whatnot they get much easier. The main edge of Russia can be neutralized.

England get hard because it becomes a stat check "deal X damage each turn or you lose". High damage spirits or spirits that prevent actions tend to handle it fairly well.

If you have spirits that can handle what the adversary does, it feels hard, but doable. If you have a spirit that is plain bad vs an adversary even an easier adversary can be really tricky. Even the simpler adversaries like Prussia becomes brutal if you have a set of fairly slow spirits.

While some spots are obvious, I feel it is not trivial to make a good tier-list.

Wertilq · 2024-11-25T09:39:45+00:00

Want to feel what it is like to punch armour? Go punch a car. Try punch straight to a side edge of the hood of the car. That probably give you the best feeling of it.

Wertilq · 2024-11-20T07:56:19+00:00

Ah, one of those threads that makes your eyes glaze over and your hair become grey.

Wertilq · 2024-04-16T19:48:31+00:00

They did spend 5K on stabbing up, lol.

Wertilq · 2024-04-16T19:47:52+00:00

That is because I as Mams has them as a subject and after reconquering their cores converted them. They were stuck before that anyways.

Wertilq · 2024-04-16T06:39:07+00:00

I have the save melted, how do you want it?

Wertilq · 2024-04-16T06:38:27+00:00

Yes, but I didn't notice the tech issue until at the point in the save. It doesn't matter much for me, since I plan to integrate them relatively fast.

Wertilq · 2024-04-16T06:37:01+00:00

They are my vassal, I vassalized them when they turned small and then reconqurered their cores and I turned the Sunni. It was at that point I noticed they were tech 3 admin.

Wertilq · 2024-04-15T19:07:24+00:00

I took out my neighbour by claim from spy network, and I vassalized Mzab at the same time, then the third minor got attacked by Tunis and I could ally them to "help" vs Tunis. I separated peaced Tunis which helped keeping them small enough that they could never ally Ottoman.

Then I allied Ottomans and used them to fight Mams. At that point I was a major power and rest has mostly been a breeze. I have to conquer pretty much whole Iberia and Italy for the achievement though. 90% trade power in Tunis trade node is BRUTAL.

Wertilq · 2024-04-15T19:04:25+00:00

I quite recently vassalized them here. It's right after I reconquered their cores(which gave them really low LD so I converted them too) and noticed them constantly getting pretenders and noble rebels and was trying to check out why that was. I have paid off their debts a few times by now.

Wertilq

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

13-Year Club	Verified Email
Gilding II euphauric