Heavy fighting
Heavy Fighting, Heavy Weapons, Heavy List, Hardsuit and Armoured Combat are all terms used in the SCA to refer to armoured foot combat. Participants are assumed to be armoured in a mail hauberk, with boiled leather armor covering the legs and arms, and a Norman style helm with a nasal. The weapons used are made of rattan covered in duct tape and sometimes with a foam thrusting tip.
Armoured Combat comes in three varieties:
- Tournaments, which are one-on-one in a small defined area (called a list field)
- Melees, being many-on-many fights
- Wars, usually a series of melees which take place on open fields, in woods or over/around structures such as walls, forts and bridges. War combat also allows archery, siege weapons and thrown weapons (mixed combat).
All participants must be authorised by a senior marshal. Authorisation involves a test on the Rules of Combat followed by a supervised bout against an experienced opponent. Generally, most people have to train regularly for 3-6 months before they are ready to authorise.
Armoured Combat is the method used in the SCA to choose Kings/Queens and Princes/Princesses (of Principalities.) It can also be used to select the rulers of Palatine Baronies or of the unofficial groups known as Crown Principalities.
