Heavy Fighting is a unique art and sport within the SCA. Lords and Ladies of our Society engage in full speed, full force, un-choreographed combat, more similar to a martial art than most re-enactment fighting. Due to the nature of the armour and weapons, combatants come out of these brutal "deeds of arms" unscathed and ready to do it again. Nowhere else will you be able to enter into contests of medieval weapons skill with the raw intensity that you can in the SCA.

After safety, Chivalry is the most important aspect of heavy list fighting. Our combat system is one based upon recognition of blows received. Victory is never taken, but rather it is given by the man-at-arms in recognising the worthiness and skill of their opponent. This culture of combat is one of great justice and trust, for it places weight upon the honour and integrity of all involved.

Armour in the SCA is fashioned after historical examples and made of a variety of materials - metals, leather, and plastic -with modern equipment hidden as much as possible. Whether one chooses to portray a Norman Knight, a Saxon thegn, a Norse huscarl, a Byzantine cataphractos, a Scotish esquire, or any other variety of man-at-arms is immaterial -in the SCA all of these co-exist on the same battlefields and list fields together.

Rattan -similar to a solid bamboo -is used to construct the wide array of weapons (sword, axe, spear, mace, pole-arm, the sword of war or great sword, dagger, and others) that are used by armoured fighters during combat. Instead of snapping and splintering, rattan fibres separate along the length, which greatly reducing the risk of injury: a worn out piece of rattan looks a lot like a broom. Most new fighters choose to begin with sword and shield, but many branch out quickly into the use of one or more of these chivalric weapons, finding different pleasures and challenges.

Within Harpelstane there are regular fight practices.