Harvest Fecht 4
On September 1st 2022, Pete May and I car pooled over to Oregonia Ohio for Queen City Sword Guild’s (QCSG) annual event: Harvest Fecht. Every year, Ben Houck (QCSG’s founder) opens his home to the HEMA community for 3 days of sparring, workshops, food, and fun. The annual highlights include …
Learning! Instructors throughout the HEMA community are invited to teach classes and lead workshops on a myriad of topics.
War in the Woods! Participants are broken up into two teams and equipped with full HEMA kit and plastic weapons. Each is given a base and a flag they must defend from their opponents. The battle takes place all across Ben’s farm and into the wooded area surrounding his home. Each time you are hit, you must return to your base and your “death” counts as a point to the other team. If you manage to acquire the other team’s flag, your team gains 20 points. After an hour, which ever team has the most points wins!
The Pirate Ship! A section of the wooden area by Ben’s house is roped off to resemble the deck of a pirate ship. Fighters are encouraged to challenge others individually or in teams to simulate the confrontation of two groups battling for control of the ship. Environmental obstacles (such as rubber band pistols, rondel daggers, and random pieces of wooden furniture) are placed on deck in order to give fighters with keen eyes an advantage which makes the challenge fun and exciting in a way not usually found in typical fencing matches.
Order of the Broken Blade! Each year, participants are encouraged to fight as many other participants as possible. Fights won during the war in woods, the pirate ship, and just hanging around between other events count towards your total victories for the event. Whoever, wins the most matches gets indoctrinated into the Order of the Broken Blade. During the first Harvest Fecht, the challenge was supposed to be named “Order of the Black Blade” on account that that the sword is in fact black. All winners of the challenge would have their name engraved into the blade so that all future winners would see the long lineage of fighters that came before them. The blade accidentally broke when Ben was doing a test cut … and thus the Order of the Broken Blade was born. During the ceremony, Ben jumps into his pond (sword in hand) then emerges from the icy waters to bestow the blade on the winner (ala King Arthur and the Lady of the Lake). It just so happens that my mentor won it the first year, and I won it the second. That’s where this wonderful picture was taken!
Me getting indoctrinated into the Order of the Broken Blade at Harvest Fecht 2
As you could logically imagine for an event hosting about 40 people, the activities would be held outdoors. Cue the collective gasp of horror when the weather forecast indicated there would be severe thunderstorms that weekend.
Thankfully, Ben is not a man in a plan. He’s a man with several! With his barn and his Dad’s barn, the classes were relocated to large indoor spaces. Ben even ferried us over on his cart pulled tractor which was an immensely fun and unexpected part of the weekend.
I was able to reprise my “Swish” Rapier and Cape class during one of the brief moments when it wasn’t raining with much better success and turnout that my first go of it at Flowerpoint. There were two big takeaways I got from my first class. Firstly: set their expectations low. This was the first time any of them had ever picked up a cape in a martial setting. Letting them know it was perfectly ok and even expected that they have a hard time of it allowed the students who didn’t immediately get it to not feel bad and the ones who picked things up quickly to feel like rock stars. Secondly: give them greater historical context on when and why they would be using this fighting system. Unlike most other weapons we practice which were either used in a battlefield setting under dire circumstances or in an unarmored duel, capes were typically used when the fighter was unarmed. The tactics explore how to best use your cape and whatever other hard weapon-like-object you could get your hands on to defend yourself against an opponent with a rapier. You could arguably fight someone with a literal cloak and dagger, cloak and beer stein, or even cloak and especially hard wheel of cheese! The fighting style also works best when you and your opponent have a rapier, but instead of casting your cloak aside you use it to gain a tactical advantage against your less stylish opponent. With those lessons learned, my students had a wonderful time; although I can’t say the same for my capes. All of the rain had turned the ground into a muddy mess. With all of the cape throwing happening when they attempted the “Dark Wing Duck” technique, they all needed a good and thorough cleaning after the class.
And I would be remiss if I neglected to mention how outrageously fun the war in the woods was this year! Even with the rain, we decided to have the annual tradition. This year they added javelins (tennis balls stuck to the end of dowel rods) and pole arms to the mix. They were hidden in weapons caches around the property to give any team who found them a long range advantage. Although our team managed to secure them fairly early on, I decided against their usage. Firstly, this year I’d brought double katanas and was hell bent on Naruto running around the battle field spouting catch phrases from my favorite anime and manga. Secondly, at one point in the battle I’d picked up a javelin and attempted to throw it. Not only did I miss the target, but I threw my glove into a stream! But by far my favorite moment was my dual with JW Pugnetti. During the battle he challenged me to a one-on—one duel, which I promptly accepted. Taking a play out of Michael Hunt’s book on fencing I shouted “Hey! I thought this was a single duel! Tell your friend to back off!” When he turned his back to see who I was talking about I leapt forward and struck him from behind! Highlight … of … the whole … weekend!
Last but not least I wanted to mention the role playing session Ben hosted he calls “Dies in the Fire”. Basically the game is set in our current world after a cataclysmic event that irreparably altered the laws of physics which prevented any electrical voltage from reaching over a few volts, air pressure within containers from exceeding a few psi, and certain types of combustion from occurring at all. Because of this, guns, cars, explosives, and many other technological necessities no longer functioned, causing society’s worst elements to claw and fight to come out on top of the new world order. We all played ourselves in a roleplaying game centered on survival and martial prowess. It was very fun but felt …. real …. like …. really real. For those who don’t know, I play Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition pretty regularly so I’m used to thinking of my characters as these larger than life fictional beings from my favorite TV shows, video games, and anime. But when YOU are the fictional being and YOU get hit in the shoulder with a cross bow bolt, you don’t think “What would my character do?” in this situation, you think “What would I do?”. Would I rush forward, sword drawn, and try to take on as many bad guys as I could to save my friends or would I surrender and cry like a ‘lil bitch? In that moment instead of staying true to my character as the pragmatic cryin’ bitch, I got to reimagine myself as the larger than life action hero in my favorite TV shows. There’s not many game masters who can pull that kind of thing off and I have to really applaud Ben for giving me an experience I won’t soon forget.
All in all it was a wonderful event and I’m glad I got to attend for a 3rd year in a row. As for who won the most fights and was indoctrinated into the order of the broken blade, I’m honestly not sure. We were all having so much fun I don’t think anyone was really counting their wins. If anything I feel that may have been for the best. Events like Harvest Fecht are a nice reprieve from tournaments because there isn’t a focus on winning and competition. The focus is on fun, and maintaining a nice low pressure atmosphere without the need to prove anything.
Thanks again to Ben Houck for hosting such a wonderful event, and I look forward to attending next year.
