SR Review Year 01

Note that "Northern Invasion" was the old name for Westmarch's current Southern Rebellion event. For history's sake, the following review leaves that older terminology intact.

Northern Invasion AKA "The War of Northern Aggression".

The South need not rise again. We kicked their ass the first time.

Details

On August 16th, 2008 Westmarch invaded itself. The core lands stuffed upwards of thirty people into whatever vans, cars, and unicycles they could lay hands on. They headed south, with blood on their minds. There was some talk of fighting for voting rights for the non-core lands, but it was never clear who would be fighting on which side of the issue.

Every Westmarch land was represented except for the Crimson Wood. According to the sign-in sheets, there were about 70 fighters on the field representing the collective northern lands and the combined forces of the Crimson Sanctum and Siar Geata. There was a slight numerical advantage to the south thanks to a massive showing on the part of Siar Geata, which represented just under one third of all the fighters on the field (31.8 percent).

It was a cloudless day... quite hot, and a bit dusty.

Day's Events

The day started off with the usual ditching one can expect from such gatherings. Swinging foam with & at people you don't get to fight every week is always a pleasure. Till they stomp your guts out.

After a goodly amount of ditch time, a short court was held. Tremere was elevated to Baronet for his service in Siar Geata, and Deimos of Seven Sleeping Dragons was promoted from MaA to Squire by Sir Keluric of Wavehaven.

Castle Battle

Then we got on to the business at hand, showin' them yankee sons a bitches what for.

Crimson Sanctum and Siar Geata defended their castle against the combined Westmarch Core Lands. Quite a bit of armor was in evidence on both sides. The defenders were heavy on magic and archery, while the attackers fielded three siege engines, and a stronger mix of melee classes.

In the initial castle layout, there was a single opening. This confined space allowed the few southern melee classes to effectively hold a line while the projectiles and magic did their job. The northern siege engines were quickly destroyed, having almost zero impact on the battle.

In the second round, the reeves evened things out a bit by adding two small openings in the castle wall. Didn't help.

The game was called after the northerners were killed almost to a man, for a second time.

Insurrection Battle

Peasants vs Nobles.

The insurrection battle, while numerically similar, was badly lopsided towards the nobles who had the advantage of having most of the armor and many of the high level casters on the field. The commoners were repeatedly wiped out with minimal losses to the gentry. As reeves began to award shortened death counts and extra lives to peasants who died "extra flurby deaths," the skies were filled with cries of "avenge my father!" and various other dramatic death wails. Things evened out considerably after the reeves encouraged a number of people to defect to the commoners' side.

Events of note:

• An early attempt at a mass charge on the part of the peasants which was quickly squelched by a hail of arrow fire and a highly effective counter-charge led by the experienced members of the nobility. Less experienced members of the nobility, such as the particularly squeemish chancellor of the Crimson Sanctum, were taken by surprise by the peasant charge and would have been horribly killed were it not for the fighting prowess of those around them.
• After Prince Euric changed alligences and sided with the commoners, the nobility took to chanting "anarchy" and continued to fight the peasants, despite being met with arrows fired by their monarch.

Goodbyes

Fond fare-wells and all that. The kind of day you don't want to end.

Around 40 people went to dinner at Rocky Cola, while a smaller group went to Round Table Pizza.

Finances

The event cost a total of $444.82. This broke down as follows:

site, $348.00 (78.2%)

battlegame supplies, $96.82 (21.8%).

The event was paid for by a mixture of:

gate fees, $310.00 (69.7%)

a grant by Westmarch, $100.00 (22.5%)

a private donation, $34.82 (7.8%).

Note that all meals were donated by various groups.