The difficulty with being a crossover fighter

Some Brendokeners @ AWP 2014

 I am slowly starting to learn the difficulties in being a crossover fighter. I honestly have no idea how people do it. As a newer heavy fighter I always want to be on the heavy list But I am part of a rapier unit called the Brendoken Blades and I have an obligation to be there when they need me. In this process I usually miss some sort of fun somewhere. This past weekend at AWP was the biggest descison on where I need to go and where I want to be. It was not easy to pick and choose either.




This past weekend I was able to attend Aethaelmarec War Practice. Since i will not be going to Pennsic this year (Pennsic is a really big war that lasts 2 weeks.) I wanted to make sure i hit this one. I had a lot of fun with it last year on the rapier side with my friends and met some really cool people In the process. Last year was also my first woods battle in rapier as well and I had a ton of fun with that. The difference between this year and last year was that this year I'm a new heavy fighter.

you can see my purple cowboy boots behind the red and white shield

The day started out with me looking at the schedule. 10AM Rapier woods battle and noon was when the heavy stuff started. Ok I can do this I thought. SO I went up and did my thing with the rapier unit then they broke for lunch around 1 ish. So I went back to camp to get my heavy stuff together. In the time it took me to get all my armor on, get to the field and signed in and inspected I had missed the field battles which is what I have enjoyed thus far on the heavy side. At first I didnt see any midrealmers so i started to inwardly panic. Newer fighter fighting with people I don't know thats in a different kingdom did not please my mind at all. Sure it's a good way to get to know people but I dont think I would have fought the bridge battles if I was the only midrealmer. Then I saw the colors in my barony Green and Black with a yellow star. Needless to say that was a sigh of relief.

For most Bridge battles arent confusing. they just go in and do their thing and when they die they know how to do the certain thing to die and they are done. Being a crossover makes things a bit more confusing for me. The rapier bridge battle works the same as heavy but its different at the same time. when you die you try to step over the bales (smae as heavy) but when we have res battles shields immediately take Precedence and get to the front as fast as they can. In the heavy as a shield person you are told to give the spears room to work and as a new fighter I have no idea where im supposed to go so before too long I am shuffled to the back and really only there to support the people when there is a charge. For me it's far more complicated then it should be. That and I think I am a bit of an over analyzer. Also another thing that hinders me that I am going to have to fix soon is I dont have contacts or sports goggles so when I take my glasses off my vision is limited. I can see clearly for maybe 2 feet or so until everything becomes blurry so then I start relying on what people are yelling/saying etc.

This is all a great big learning curve for me and I am finding you cant really do bridge battle scenarios unless you have a large group of people So i am just going to have learn as I go and talk things over with the people who are teaching me. Overall it is fun being a crossover fighter but There are decisions that must be made and some of those decisions will be hard.