Le Poulet Poignardé (Stabby Chicken)

Apologies to Sean Franklin and his Finnish Chicken game.

Rules: Both fencers start out of measure and approach each other along the line of direction. When either figures that one or other of them can make the touch, they can pick one of the two actions below. After the exchange, the fencers reset.

• A direct or straight thrust in tierce or quarte,
• A simple parry against this thrust in either tierce or quarte.

Success is defined for the attacking fencer by making a touch and for the parrying fencer as avoiding the touch. If both fencers attack, the fencer who was moving forward to touch succeeds as the stationary fencer is deemed to be only reacting rather than initiating an attack (cf. Besnard's distinction between “counter time” and merely “at the same time.”

Observations: Note that this is not sparring. It is not combat. It's a game with rules that relfect a teachable.

If too much hand sniping occurs, change the rules to only note success if the attack hits a deep target (head or torso).

Skills Tested: Distance/measure, simple attacks, simple defences. Extensions test the recovery after making an attack.

These rule changes mix things up to keep it interesting and increase the complexity of the game problem. These rule changes may be added individually or in sets.

Changing player roles:

• No Retreat: Designate one fencer as the attacker and one as the defender. The defender cannot step backwards, whether by a pass or a withdrawing step. Lateral movement is allowed.
• Refused: Like No Retreat, designate one player as the defender and the other as the attacker. The defender must stand in a “withdrawn guard,” that is, with their sword point directed elsewhere other than towards the attacker. This may be the equivalent of the Bolognese guardia alta or coda lunga or similar.

Adding complexity:

• Remise: If the attacker's thrust is parried, they may attempt an immediate second attack.
• Riposte: On a successful parry – and only on a successful parry – the defending fencer may strike a riposte. This may be a cutting strike to the attacker's arm (if playing with beginners and/or low gear) or a thrust to any opening (better for the more experienced and the geared up). Success here is defined for the defender as landing the riposte and for the attacker as parrying the riposte in turn.
• All In: This variant combines the Remise and Riposte variants in that a riposte may be made if and only if an attack is parried, and a second attack may be made if the first attack is parried. At speed, this will be chaos.

Adding off-hand weapons:

• Since the method studied for off-hand weapons emphasises the off-hand weapon's use as a control tool, this variant modified the riposte version above in this way. On a successful parry of the opponent's attack with the sword, if the defender controls it – and only if the defender controls it – with the off-hand weapons, are they permitted to riposte.

In the basic game and in all variations, these questions can help focus the minds of the players:

• Which fencer has the advantage: attacker or defender?
• How can this fencer's advantage be reduced or nullified?

At LongEdge Fencing, we've found that the more formally we play the game, the better the learning piints organically emerge. We play it like this:

• The basic game
• The basic game plus the Riposte extension.

For the Basic game, the scoring table looks like this:

For the Basic+Riposte game, the acoring table looks like this.