Hey Elric, do you guys do full contact competetive battles? I remember when I was in a knightly brotherhood we'd be forced to wear face protection even for fighting on foot (which was very silly), and in most events the side that wins the battle was pre-set, as it had to be the one that really won
Anyway, I spent years getting to know and imagining how people would kill each other in old times, and I have lots of conclusions I'd like to share with people and eventually see them implemented in games.
Competitive full-contact fights are all I do, really.
I might do the occasional mock fight against some of our lasses with frying pans, but other than that... it's the closest you can get to the real thing.
We use a very wide range of weapons, from normal swords to falchions, longswords, maces, warhammers, pollaxes and rondel daggers.
I don't really feel like raining on your parade, but fighting full contact without full face protection is downright stupid. I somehow doubt that is what that knightly order did anyway, pre-decided battles are... not suitable for that.
I know the kind of "battles" you do, like the one in the video - and while it's much better than anything we get to see at that scale over here in Germany, I'm sorry to say - but there are more rules than "get hit, get down", just like there are more rules in the Battle of the Nations than people realise. The actually have hours of tutorial videos on what's allowed and what is restricted.
It's a great video. Everyone is certainly into it, much more than the 08/15 pussy Belli "re-enactor" over here.
But it's not full contact. No one is aiming for the face? No one is doing stabs, at least to the body? It's not full-contact. The head is the main target in almost any situation, and if there are too many rules dictating on how it is allowed to be hit, it just isn't full contact anymore.
Besides, really.
"Actual, real battles"
Nothing we do are real battles, real fights. One can try to get as close as possible, but without people actually killing each other, it will -never- be a real battle.
I apologise in advance if my post irritates or annoys you, it is not my intention. I have just met too many people claiming they do "real battles, full-contact!", while what they were actually doing was... not quite that, to be diplomatic.