The Lenten Tourney, Lancaster Castle Single Foot Combat The Lancaster Bow, Archery Single Mounted Combat,- losers horses as the prizes. The Great Easter Joust for the Golden Cross . Sir Chester de Drawers against Lord Farthingdale.   Lord F, in his Grandfather's armour, is effective.  He invested in extra sustained skills and it tells. Within four rounds Sir Chester is down and received a proper walloping. Sir Desmond vs Sir James Coxpole.  Jim is the man! Desmond mace is good across the board, but the sword sustains well.  A win for Sir James with 3 favour dice.  Sir Desmond plays to the crowd to win one. No tapestry pictures of the Archery I'm afraid!  A win for Sir Chester 36 to 33. Lord F has poor bow skills! The Joust, below the walls of Lancaster Castle. Lord Waldridge Vs Sir Chester. A broken lance Sir Chester wins 4 lances to three. And onto the Mounted combats.  Sir ...

So, once again it seems that  Uriah of Gelderland is off to a flying start; that's what being a man of leisure combined with digital downloads does for you! That said my hard copy rules have arrived so I was keen to crack on and give them a go. I don't have a tiltyard yet but armed with a green cloth, a few sticks and half a dozen knights I was good to go. For this first outing I just used the NPC's straight from the book. I wanted to test the main aspects of the rules so went for a half size tournament with four knights on the bracket, instead of the usual eight. These would compete in one on one melee, archery and jousting. To choose which NPC's to use I diced for knight types as per a Regional Tournament; this gave me three common knights and a veteran. The next step was to flip through the NPC charts until I found NPCs that matched my figures - at least in armament. This gave me: 1) Sir Leonard Weber of the Order of the Sacred Cross, armed with mace and shield....

To the Knights and most Puissant Nobles of this Realm, Gather at York upon the last day of February To celebrate the Frozen Feathers And the most Noble Feast of his Lordship The Archbishop, Geoffrey of York. The snow on the Frozen Feathers Range. The Frozen Feathers Tournament York, February (5 Prestige Points Entrance Fee Per Knight) The Frozen Feathers Tournament  was created to show off a Knights skills with a bow & blade in harsh February conditions.  The Archbishop is keen on arrows, and awards a golden arrow to the winner of the Archery. The Archbishop has waived the usual prestige point entry fee since this is the first "Frozen Feathers."  In response all sorts of riff-raff seem to have entered. Type of Contest Day 1: One on One Combat on Foot Competition Day 2: Archery Competition Day 3: Banquet, and the lute playing of the Minstrel Ronald James Dio. The Champions The Sieur de Quincy, Champion of the Grange Villas Alan of The Dale...

The Frozen Feathers Tournament York, February (5 Prestige Points Entrance Fee Per Knight) The Frozen Feathers Tournament is the first special event of the year.  With the air still crisp and the ground covered in snow this tournament was created to show off ones skills with a bow & blade in harsh conditions. Building the Archery Butts On reading the rules for Steel and Steed one of the strangest types of match, it seemed to me, was the archery.   I'm not sure of the provenance of this at all.  Perhaps it's my own misconception.  The English associate archery with the common folk, Robin Hood, the yeoman archers of the Hundred Years War etc... It occurs to me however that the Bayeux Tapestry depicts an armoured man among the archers, and that the Knightly virtues may well have run to shooting arrows in the hunt.  After all William II was killed by an arrow in a hunting "accident." The Rules represent shooting arrows as a dice game, but reco...

The Earl has presided over the foot Combats with a certain tolerance.  It is after all the Joust that holds the most prestige. Fans of the sport may care to peruse Uriah of Gelderland's Guide to Good Jousting , a page of this blog. In the foot Combats Sir Elliot the Bastard of Alnwick twice over pushed his opponent down, and proceeded to beat them severely.  Lord Farthingdale is still suffering a -1 Str as a result of his injuries. Winning the Joust however is a matter of artistry and accuracy.  Sir Elliot may struggle here, not least against the Champion Sire du Quincy and the veteran Sir Micheal.  Even poor Farthingdale has proven himself to be focussed on his jousting.  This could go to any of them... The Joust Lord Farthingdale of Waldridge Vs The Sire de Quincy, Lord of the Grange Villas. Sir Micheal of Shraner Castle Vs Elliot, the Bastard of Alnwick. In the first round  of Jousting Sir Roger Quilp, Lord of Belmont was unhorsed and seve...