Youth Armoured Combat Draft:Rules of All Combat

{{DISPLAYTITLE:Rules of Combat} }

General

1. The game rules can be changed for a tournament, as long as the marshal explains the changes to everyone in the tournament before it starts. Safety rules can't be changed. Which of these are game rules?
2. As a minimum, you need to wear the armour required for your division. You can wear more armour if you want to. Your weapons need to follow the rules for your division too.
3. A marshal must check your weapons and armour to make sure that they follow the rules, and tell you that you can use them before you can start fighting at every SCA youth armoured combat event or fighting practice that you want to take part in.
4. The marshal can stop you from using a weapon or piece of armour if they think it isn't safe.
5. You must be courteous and chivalrous whenever you are taking part in combat.
6. No one can make you take part in combat, if you don't want to.
7. You aren't allowed to throw weapons at your opponent in a tournament, but you might be allowed to use throwing weapons in war games that allow them.
8. You must follow the instructions of the marshals on the field.
9. If there is something happening that is not safe, or is against the rules, the marshal will say "HOLD!" and you must stop everything until the marshal says that it is safe to continue.
10. You must not lose your temper. You can feel grumpy, but you must not be mean or rude to people because you are grumpy. If you are having trouble with your feelings, tell an adult.
11. Don't take take unfair advantage of your opponent, especially if they are doing something to be chivalrous or extra safe. If you are not sure what would be an unfair advantage, ask an adult. This would usually be something that if it happened to you, you'd say "That's not fair, I was being nice!"
12. Do not hit anyone who is helpless. A helpless person is someone who has fallen down or dropped their weapon, or can't defend themselves for any reason.
13. If you become helpless on purpose to keep people from hitting you, the marshal can say that if you do it again, you lose. And then, if you do again when you have been told not to, you lose.
14. Don't hit anyone too hard. The rules say how hard you are allowed to hit your opponent.
15. You aren't allowed to grapple, trip, throw, punch, kick, or wrestle with your opponent.
16. You aren't allowed to hit your opponent with your shield on purpose or make them hit themselves with their own shield.
17. You aren't allowed to grab your opponent or their shield or their weapon.

Target areas

1. You are allowed to hit people in the following areas:
   1. Face: The front part of your head between your ears, and between your chin and the top of your forehead. You aren't allowed to thrust at the face in Division 1.
   2. Head: The rest of your head and neck that isn't your face.
   3. Arms: From the shoulder to 25mm (1 inch) above your wrist. You aren't allowed to hit your opponent's hands on purpose.
   4. Legs: From the bony bits of your pelvis (where you'd put your hands if someone told you to put your hand on your hips), down to 25mm (1 inch) above the top of your knee cap. You aren't allowed to hit people in the knees, lower legs or feet.
   5. Body: The rest of you that isn't your head, arms or legs, or hands or feet.
2. Try not to hit people in the groin or the throat, but if you get hit there, it counts.

Taking hits

Figure 6.1: Kill and Wound Zones

Kill: Wound: Illegal Target:

Table 5 Calibration

Division	Calibration	Description
Division 1	Intentional touch	A clean blow that didn't hit anything else to reduce its impact that is easily felt through a single layer of medium weight cloth, but is not hard enough to leave a bruise on bare skin. Face thrusts are not allowed.
Division 2	Positive contact	A clean blow that didn't hit anything else to reduce its impact that is easily felt through 6 mm of open cell padding, but is not hard enough to leave a bruise in an area covered by medium weight cloth. Face thrusts have touch calibration.
Division 3	Light force	A clean blow that didn't hit anything else to reduce its impact that is easily felt through 12 mm of open cell padding, but is not hard enough to leave a bruise through 6 mm of open cell foam padding. Thrusts to your face only need to touch you to count.

1. The different divisions have different calibration as shown in Table 5. We recommended that marshals use material of the appropriate thickness to demonstrate levels of calibration.
2. Excessively hard blows are not permitted in any division.
3. Any combatant who persists in hitting too hard after appropriate warning will be removed from the field and can be subject to additional sanctions such as having their authorization suspended.
4. Youth combatants are encouraged to honorably judge the effectiveness of blows they receive. The opposing combatant does not judge the effectiveness of their own blow. Information not available to the combatant being struck can be supplied by the opposing combatant or the marshal, including blade orientation upon impact, apparent force transmitted, or apparent location and angle of the blow's impact based upon the observer's angle of observation. When necessary, the marshal on the field will intervene and call blows.
5. Special tournaments or combat rules can redefine what areas of the body are armoured, and to what extent, so long as all the participants are made aware of the special conditions prior to the start of combat. These rules don't talk about presumed armour, so this rule could be irrelevant.
6. An effective blow is one that was properly oriented, and struck with sufficient force.
7. A blow that strikes with sufficient force and proper orientation is considered effective, regardless of what it hits before striking the combatant.
8. A blow that includes the dropping of the striking weapon at the moment of impact will not be counted.
9. The minimum effective thrusting blow to the face is a touch. A correctly calibrated face thrust touches the face grill of the helm but does not move the head.
10. The hands from 25.4mm (1 inch) above the wrist and below, and the legs from 25.4mm (1 inch) above the knees and below are considered safe from all attack.
11. An effective blow to the head, neck, or torso is judged fatal or completely disabling, rendering the fighter incapable of further combat.
12. An effective blow to the arm above the wrist will disable the arm. The arm is then considered useless to the fighter and must not be used for either offense or defense. A second blow to a disabled arm is considered to have struck the torso.
13. An effective blow to the leg above the knee will disable the leg. The fighter must then fight kneeling, sitting, or standing on the foot of the uninjured leg.
14. The minimum effective blow from any thrown weapon is touch.
15. Javelins, when used as one-handed thrusting weapons, require the same force as any other thrusting weapon appropriate for that division.
16. When judging the outcome of a delivered blow, all fighters are expected to take into account the nature of the weapon being used by their opponent and the location of the point of impact of that weapon. These rules don't differentiate between weapon type and targe like the adult rules do...