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- Dall’Agocchie’s Essential Actions
- My Blog’s Year-in-Review
- Separation of Church and State in Australia
- Swordplay: Context is Everything
- City in the Dust: A Story Setting?
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![<p>In his Art of Combat (1570), Joachim Meyer unifies feints, parries and strikes and thrusts into a schema inherited from his version of Leichtenauer’s longsword practice. He calls these actions either provokers (feints), takers (parries) and hitters (cuts and thrusts). This schema provides a very useful mental framework for thinking about how and why you act in a bout, regardless of the weapon being used.</p>
<p>As we’ve all discovered, attacking someone standing in a solid guard position is a sure way to get hit. The best you can hope for is that you both hit each other. To the problem […]</p>](http://sleech.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/category-fencing1-115x115.jpg "Meyer’s Rapier: Provoker, Taker, Hitter")
Meyer’s Rapier: Provoker, Taker, Hitter
Posted on 23 September, 2011 | No CommentsIn his Art of Combat (1570), Joachim Meyer unifies feints, parries and strikes and thrusts into a schema inherited from his version of Leichtenauer’s longsword practice. He calls these actions either provokers (feints), takers (parries) and hitters (cuts and thrusts). This schema provides a very useful mental framework for thinking about how and why you act in a bout, regardless of the weapon being used.
As we’ve all discovered, attacking someone standing in a solid guard position is a sure way to get hit. The best you can hope for is that you both hit each other. To the problem […]
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I Survived Swordplay 11
Posted on 16 September, 2011 | 1 CommentSwordplay is a three day gathering of schools of historical swordsmanship held each September in Brisbane, Australia and run by the Australian College of Arms (ACA). The idea behind the event is to bring together fencers from all corners of this wide brown land to meet, exchange ideas and cross blades is a friendly atmosphere. This year, we kidnapped Puck Curtis and refused to release him until he presented a workshop on one of his passions, La Verdadera Destreza, the Spanish rapier technique of the sixteenth and seventeen centuries.
The format seems to have roughly fallen out as a day […]
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![<p>Title: A Model Victory: Waterloo and the Battle for History<br />
Author: Malcolm Balen<br />
Paperback: 304 pages<br />
Publisher: HarperPerennial (2006)<br />
Language: English</p>
<p>I was looking for a small and accessible history of the Napoleonic Wars or of Waterloo (most books on the subject are neither) when I found this gem. It’s not so much a history of Waterloo, as I originally thought, but a description of how of the Battle for the Battle of Waterloo in which various force vie to be the one who writes the history of that fateful day — a much more interesting subject as it turns […]</p>](http://sleech.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/modelvictory-115x115.jpg "Review: A Model Victory")
Review: A Model Victory
Posted on 9 September, 2011 | No CommentsTitle: A Model Victory: Waterloo and the Battle for History
Author: Malcolm Balen
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: HarperPerennial (2006)
Language: EnglishI was looking for a small and accessible history of the Napoleonic Wars or of Waterloo (most books on the subject are neither) when I found this gem. It’s not so much a history of Waterloo, as I originally thought, but a description of how of the Battle for the Battle of Waterloo in which various force vie to be the one who writes the history of that fateful day — a much more interesting subject as it turns […]
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Swordplay 11 Is On!
Posted on 2 September, 2011 | No CommentsIt’s September and that means Swordplay 11 is just around the corner. In fact, it’s on in less than a week. Yay!
Obviously, all historical fencers in Australia know about Swordplay but there’s bound to be a poor benighted few who haven’t heard of it. Swordplay is an annual event run by the Australian College of Arms which brings together schools of swordplay and historical fencing from all over the country in order to chat, compare notes and, of course, cross blades. It’s been going for a few years now and leaping from strength to strength. You won’t find three […]
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![<p><strong>Title</strong>: Inquisition<br />
<strong>Author</strong>: Edward Peters<br />
<strong>Paperback</strong>: 362 pages<br />
<strong>Publisher</strong>: University of California Press, 1989<br />
<strong>Language</strong>: English</p>
<p>This brilliant study is immensely valuable to the amateur historian on three levels. The least of these is how it shows the Inquisition as the outcome of the legal system of Ancient Rome. It also examines in detail the organization, procedures, process and results of the various inquisition throughout an 800+ year history based on the notoriously meticulous records recently released from the Vatican Archive. More importantly, it compares the process of the inquisition to that of secular courts […]</p>](http://sleech.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/inquisition-115x115.jpg "Review: Inquisition")
Review: Inquisition
Posted on 26 August, 2011 | No CommentsTitle: Inquisition
Author: Edward Peters
Paperback: 362 pages
Publisher: University of California Press, 1989
Language: EnglishThis brilliant study is immensely valuable to the amateur historian on three levels. The least of these is how it shows the Inquisition as the outcome of the legal system of Ancient Rome. It also examines in detail the organization, procedures, process and results of the various inquisition throughout an 800+ year history based on the notoriously meticulous records recently released from the Vatican Archive. More importantly, it compares the process of the inquisition to that of secular courts […]
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![<p>As previously threatened, I’m writing a roleplaying convention game again. I’ll be running a <strong>Space 1889</strong> scenario called <strong>The Deathless Hordes of Mars</strong> at AusCon II in Brisbane, Australia, in October. This post has the advertising blurb for the adventure and a little about the Space 1889 game.</p>
<p>Space 1889 is the original steampunk roleplaying game. It sets itself in an alternative history in which Thomas Edison (who else?) has invented a device which can be used to propel ships through the luminiferous ether between the planets. This has opened up the way for colonisation of Mars and Venus and […]</p>](http://sleech.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/category-gaming-115x115.jpg "Space 1889: The Deathless Hordes of Mars")
Space 1889: The Deathless Hordes of Mars
Posted on 19 August, 2011 | No CommentsAs previously threatened, I’m writing a roleplaying convention game again. I’ll be running a Space 1889 scenario called The Deathless Hordes of Mars at AusCon II in Brisbane, Australia, in October. This post has the advertising blurb for the adventure and a little about the Space 1889 game.
Space 1889 is the original steampunk roleplaying game. It sets itself in an alternative history in which Thomas Edison (who else?) has invented a device which can be used to propel ships through the luminiferous ether between the planets. This has opened up the way for colonisation of Mars and Venus and […]
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Meyer’s Rapier and Dagger (and Cloak)
Posted on 12 August, 2011 | 2 CommentsJoachim Meyer does not devote much space at all to companion weapons in his Art of Combat (1570) but what he does say in among the clearest instruction he gives in the use of the rapier. He also touches on the use of a cloak as an off-hand tool but only to state that it’s basically a dagger you can’t injure with. Let’s start with his own summary of the techniques and tease it apart. I’ve underlined the important portions of the quote. These are the sections to concentrate on.
“As regards the dagger in conjunction with the rapier, I advise the
[…]
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![<p>Ever since I achieved my DELF B1 certificate more than a year ago, I’ve allowed my French to slip. I just haven’t used it. I’m trying to correct this sorry state of affairs. Here’s how.</p>
<p>First, as always for me, is listening practice. If you can’t understand what’s being said, there’s not much point. Living languages are all about conversing, gossipping and chatting. Only dead languages, such as Latin and Anglo-Saxon (which I also understand) centre on reading. I used to listen to a wide range of podcasts but I find, this time around, that I’ve limited myself to the few […]</p>](http://sleech.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/category-french-115x115.jpg "Recovering My French")
Recovering My French
Posted on 5 August, 2011 | No CommentsEver since I achieved my DELF B1 certificate more than a year ago, I’ve allowed my French to slip. I just haven’t used it. I’m trying to correct this sorry state of affairs. Here’s how.
First, as always for me, is listening practice. If you can’t understand what’s being said, there’s not much point. Living languages are all about conversing, gossipping and chatting. Only dead languages, such as Latin and Anglo-Saxon (which I also understand) centre on reading. I used to listen to a wide range of podcasts but I find, this time around, that I’ve limited myself to the few […]
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Meyer’s Rapier Parries
Posted on 29 July, 2011 | No CommentsThe chapter on the rapier in Joachim Meyer’s The Art of Combat lists parrying technique after parrying technique without ever clearly articulating the basic principles which underlie them. At best (or worse) he says “we’ve already covered this in the section on the longsword so I won’t explain it here.” This post reduces the multitude of parrying techniques he describes to their basic principles in order to discover the secrets of his art.
Combat, he says, is based on two elements: the cuts used to overcome an opponent and the parries used to bear off the opponent’s attacks. (1.15v). All cut […]
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![<p><strong>Title:</strong> D-Day 6 June 1944<br />
<strong>Author:</strong> Stephen E Ambrose<br />
<strong>Paperback:</strong> 656 pages<br />
<strong>Publisher:</strong> Simon & Schuster<br />
<strong>Language:</strong> English</p>
<p>D-Day is one of the few truly momentous events of the twentieth century. Ambrose book captures the experience from the recollections and memories of the poor bastards who lived through it. In this, he has created a wonderful record of the build up, execution and aftermath of the event which should be read by everyone. The book’s only fault is that it’s written by an American.</p>
<p>The strategy of the book is to start at the widest possible scale then narrow in […]</p>](http://sleech.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Ambrose_DDay-115x115.jpg "D-Day 6 June 1944 by Stephen E Ambrose")
D-Day 6 June 1944 by Stephen E Ambrose
Posted on 22 July, 2011 | 1 CommentTitle: D-Day 6 June 1944
Author: Stephen E Ambrose
Paperback: 656 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Language: EnglishD-Day is one of the few truly momentous events of the twentieth century. Ambrose book captures the experience from the recollections and memories of the poor bastards who lived through it. In this, he has created a wonderful record of the build up, execution and aftermath of the event which should be read by everyone. The book’s only fault is that it’s written by an American.
The strategy of the book is to start at the widest possible scale then narrow in […]