Wood and Leather
Hnefatafl Boards
I learned about this game at the Barony of Cynnabar's winter Wassail event, and developed a fondness for it immediately. Skill at it developed quite a bit more slowly. It is part of a family of Nordic and Celtic strategy games featuring a distinctively unbalanced arrangement of pieces. One player controls the central King piece and a small set of defenders, while the other controls a usually doubled force of attackers. The goal of the Attacker is to capture the King piece by completely surrounding him, and the goal of the Defenders is to safely escape the ambush by moving the King to a corner space. The exact method by which this occurs depends on where and when the game was played, and our modern rules are only an approximation. We have recovered multiple boards and fragments of boards, but no records of complete rules have ever been discovered.
Examples of rules and board arrangements
I was drawn to it because of the narrative element of the ambush and the escape being clearly perceptible during gameplay, and a simple and accessible ruleset that allows for development of complex strategy. It was also very easy to build, and I did so four times. Each of them had somewhat different levels of complexity of construction, and all were given away as rapier tournament prizes at different points along my tenure in the Mid.
At some point I need to make another one so I can keep it for myself!
Here is a build album from my first board, made in March 2016:
Stained poplar with painted lines and glass pieces, ceramic King token.
Given as a prize at Grand Day of Tournaments
Red oak board with painted lines and glass pieces, steel tower-shaped King.
Given as a Cynnabar Monthly Tournament prize
Stained poplar board with engraved lines. Quartz and green goldstone pieces, Iceland Spar King token
Given as a prize at Grand Day of Tournaments
Sealed pine board, inked lines. Glass pieces and ceramic King token not shown
Given as a thank-you to a friend
Cynnabar List Fence
Every fall, Cynnabar hosts their major martial event of the calendar: Grand Day of Tournaments. A spectacular gathering of Rattan and Rapier prowess, with a fun populace-involvement activity of betting on the fights throughout the day with loads of prizes given out at the end. However, it also has the additional requirement of two simultaneous sets of very large lists. For several years, we borrowed a second list fence to use for the rapier side. I decided to change that the second year I was RMIC for the event, and built this set of lightweight, collapsible list rope posts with the help of Master Derian le Breton.
The goal was to make something that was easy to carry, set up / knock down, and store. The primary list fence for the Barony is a gorgeous wood fence that is very impressive, but incredibly bulky and requires a trailer for transport. I wanted something simpler to move and that would serve us at functions like demos as well.
The base of the posts can pivot around the dowel rod to a + shape for stability in use, or line up for a much more stackable T shape when not in use.
Roxbury List Fence
After moving to Roxbury Mill, I saw a slightly different need from that of my previous Barony...but fortunately one that could be filled by the same item.
Our main fighting event was taking off, but we didn't have a list fence and were borrowing one from a neighboring group. I wanted us to be able to more independently put on the event and have another excuse to plaster the Shire colors across the field. So THL Nicolo Santorio and I build a second list of the same lightweight, pack-down design to accommodate the limited storage and transportation space available to our group.
This was a great success, living easily in my shed and packing compactly to events. And it's been a help to other groups in our area who have similar needs, being very easy to loan out to others!
Future upgrades include detachable flags to make the ropes more decorative and visible, potentially decorated with Shire heraldry or that of our Shirelings.
Buckler Decoration
I was given a Get Dressed For Battle buckler for Cut and Thrust, and I wanted to make it a little more distinctive. I cut out a leather blank and secured it to the buckler with a generous application of E6000 adhesive. Next, I drew in and embossed the pattern of the quadrants and the ouroboros. My first attempt to color it was using leather dye, but I couldn't get the color as saturated as I would have liked. After consulting with Master Lucien Featherstone (who is famous for his buckler-making in the Midrealm) I settled on repainting with two coats of acrylic paint and six or seven coats of spray lacquer to give it a durable finish.