"Canberra News, Views and Opinion"
| 18 August, 2012 | ||
| 11:00 am | to | 3:30 pm |
Ever since seeing the Riot Act’s article on Game of Foams: Kingslayer, tens of you have no doubt be keen to find out how it went.
We had 40+ attendees/fighters and even interested members of the public who came to check it all out. We’d played quite a few different games thru the day, including ‘Highlander’, ‘The Crown’, ‘The Kings Road’ and some good old team ‘death matches’. Photos all from the event, and picture credits to Andrew Gould, our resident photo-ninja, and Ruth Ellison.
So what’s next?
We give you: Madness? This is Canberaaaaaaa!
Structured and safe ‘battle gaming’ with foam swords and arrows. Some of the above game types plus our version of Leonidas and Xerxes at ‘The Hot Gates’. You can see the rules and equipment restrictions and construction on the FB event link above. Please note that some form of eye protection is compulsory at all of our events. We also don’t tolerate dickheadery in any form. If you resemble this remark, stay at home.
Melee rules & Construction:
Melee weapons are for tags only – excessive force is not required.
Shields are for blocking only. They are not be used as a weapon.
Melee weapons must be foam, latex or soft rubber ONLY.
No PVC or other hard surfaces.
No wooden or hard cores for homemade ‘boffers’.
Fibreglass cored , latex covered LARP style swords – such as you would get from GameTraders – are fine.
Shields can be constructed of foam, latex, cardboard or soft wood. No sharp edges!
Load out/categories:
Bows – foam arrow firing bows OR dart firing bows (must look like bows).
Knight: Shield and melee weapon
Skirmisher: Melee weapon OR melee weapon and bow OR shield and bow
General:
Bows: Bows – foam arrow firing bows OR dart firing bows (must look like bows).
Helmets/Armour: Confer NO benefit/protection.
Shields: block ALL tags
Gameplay/Tagging:
Tags either by a melee weapon or dart/foam arrow only count on a players ‘trunk’. Head shots and anything below the knee or elbow DO NOT count as a tag.
About us:
We run Canberra & Southern NSW Dart Tag. Besides our melee events we run Nerf Wars and Humans vs Zombies games regularly in Canberra. Some of us are also involved in trying to make a Canberra Zombie Walk a reality.
FB link: Canberra & Southern NSW Dart Tag
FB link: Canberra Zombie Walk
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The lads eyewear is priceless.
Have they been outside before? I commend their efforts.
The peasants are revolting…
Melee weapons must be foam, latex or soft rubber ONLY..
Seriously WTF. You need to bleed to know you have been hit..!!
Some poor decision making on display there…
I mean, grey t-shirt guy has gone for an overhand slash at purple-satin-pants guy, leaving himself totally exposed to an eviscerating belly thrust from black shirt guy who was on his right flank. Seriously, what was he thinking? I wonder if he would’ve done the same thing if the blades were real and everybody didn’t get to stand up for the photo at the end of it all.
Still, it looks like fun.
I’ve just finished reading “The Face of Battle” by John Keegan, which has a fascinating and detailed analysis of what the combat would’ve been like at the battle of Agincourt. I’d recommend it to anybody with an interest in this stuff.
BTW, is that the Gimp from Pulp Fiction i can see…
I’ve seen some of these (or similar) and it made me realise that ‘old fashioned’ battles would be lucky to last more than about 2 minutes before everyone was dead (or, at least, stabbed and laying in agony). Its totally impossible to defend yourself in a crowd (as that first pic shows).
Suddenly our Olympians seem just that little bit fitter…
Hmmm… If only my nerf gun arsenal didn’t so heavily outweigh my melee arsenal. Lemme know when you’re doing one that allows pistols as well as swords and I’ll come for some fun.
I went to Game of Foams and had a blast. Can’t make this one though
Also a slight whinge about the comments: I don’t see anything constructive, thoughtful or positive about most of them (Pitchka I’m looking at you – an SCA member with no friends I’m guessing).
There is are people doing this every sunday in Glebe park near the stage at around 3pm.
That would be the Juggers League. Similar but different.
VeryMildSuperPowers said :
Everyone gets a tickle on RiotAct. Surely if you can take the foam, you can take the feather?
pink little birdie said :
Perhaps they should become vigilantes and do at 2230 hours..
And you guys run Humans Vs Zombies? Like the ANU used to? How does that work?
I went to the last one and it was great fun, the only thing you need to take seriously is the safety rules the rest is pure wackiness. There is also a lot of good exercise involved.
thy_dungeonman said :
Agreed, this is the best workout I have had since my massage at a Turkish spa last year.
Spykler said :
Seriously – do you folk ever see sunlight?
DrKoresh said :
Come anyway – we’ve got plenty of spare gear!
VeryMildSuperPowers said :
We’ve been running HvZ games since January 2011. Average attendance is about 35. The ANU club has officially disbanded now.
Our next HvZ game is: https://www.facebook.com/events/158038294332224/
You can see more pics of what we’ve been up to here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/arthwollipot/sets/72157629901863950/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/arthwollipot/sets/72157630786964970/
With thanks to Andrew Gould.
G-Fresh said :
I did once…But it hurt.
dtc said :
That’s not how it worked. Old time military units were as cohesive and disciplined as anything you’d find today, if not more so. So (usually) it wouldn’t have been a matter of being isolated and defending yourself in a random mob with everybody flailing wildly at everybody else. Everybody in your unit would be maintaining formation and looking out for each other, just like today.
At Agincourt, which I mentioned earlier, the fighting occurred in a series of waves, and went for about 4 hours which was actually a fairly short fight. And as an extreme example, the Greeks at Thermopylae held off a vastly superior force of Persians for nearly a week, including several days of actual battle. The Spartans sure earned their pay on the last day of that fight.
Details for Game of Foams 2 to be released shortly!