Tryggvy's War XLI/2006
- Date
- 29-30 July XLI/2006
- Branch
- 3M
- Autocrat
- Tryggvy Landstaker
- Site
- Cheadle Lake Park
- Weather
- Very Warm but not too hot
Event Highlights
(Stuff that happened in Court, or who won the contests, or that happened to all or most people on site e.g. a windstorm, or banquet details. Include links to other pages as appropriate.)
Pictures
(Links to event pictures off-site)
Sample: Twelfth Night Pictures By Lord Joe Populace
Personal Memories
(Add your personal event memories here. End them with a blank line, four dashes and another blank line. Don't forget to sign them with dash-dash-tildex3. Reminder: it's considered VERY rude to edit someone else's memories.)
(Posted to the Steps, July 2006.)
The War that would NOT die....HUZZAH!
Greetings all,
If you were at Tryggvy's War this past weekend, you'll know what I'm about to say is true. For those who were not, you missed one GREAT event!
Despite all the troubles with the original site, the place they found for us was still wonderful. You know you have a good site when the ONLY negative I heard the entire weekend about the site was the hardness of the ground. It was level. There was shade to be had. Easy access to local stores. And we still appeared to be a place unto ourselves in the world. Many many thanks to Nemo Marcus for knowing of it, reserving it ASAP when he heard of the problems, and all the other things I'm sure he did that no one ever was told about.
Tryggvy, you and your team did one of the most wonderful jobs of autocratting that I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. There was tons to do, especially for the little ones. Your Pied Piper and her crew made the event for my two daughters. My oldest is still excited from learning how to boffer fight correctly. I wouldn't be surprised if she wanted both a bow AND boffer armor for Christmas. My youngest is still chatting away about the Dragon Egg Hunt and all the wonderful treasures she found. Two baby dragons and one of the special marble eggs especially.
From a merchanting standpoint, it was incredible. I have never felt so wanted, appreciated, cared for, or a part of an event as you and your team made me. It was only the second time my student/assistant has sat in the booth with me and she even noticed the difference. Having the brute squad on Thursday was great...we were up securely in 1/3 of the time! Being able to come on site on Thursday was wonderful, though a little disorientating. We had to keep reminding ourselves that we had just started the event on Friday, not going home the next day. Being able to sit there and watch the event unfold as dragon after dragon went by, and tent after tent went up, was amazing. Even on the events I have arrived somewhat early at before, I was too busy getting my own camp up to watch it unfold. It was truly a sight to behold.
The care taken by the event staff of the merchants was incredible. Tryggvy, Darrak (merchantcrat), and everyone else on staff came by 4-7 times a day, at least, to make sure we were ok and did not want for anything. On Saturday, the Mistress of Games even came around and asked merchants to be the judges for the Siege Cooking Contest. That was so much fun to participate in! (The dishes were very nice, by the way!)
Sunday was slow, and we were taking our time getting things squared away. When lo and behold a new Brute Squad appeared out of nowhere to ask if we wanted them to take our tent down for us! Next thing we knew, the tent was down, the curtain walls for the pavilion were off, everything inside was near our truck or being handed up to my assistant, and more bodies were being located to drop the legs. Once the legs were down, no one left. They started to undo the framework for us! I think our actual tear down time, start to finish, took under an hour! And that included getting the tarp tied down and all 4 of us in the truck!
Placement of the Row was awesome, as well. We had the War in front of us....even the Torchlight Tourney kept us entertained on Saturday night. The A&S pavlion, Constab Point, Heralds, Games, etc were directly across from the merchants. I don't think it was ever more than an hour that I didn't see someone from the autocrat team walk past me. And they weren't far away if no one passed that I could call out to. Any minor problems we had were dealt with quickly and more than efficiently. I never once heard "let me ask someone else who might know"....they all KNEW THE ANSWERS! Or simply got on their radio and told the person who could deal with the issue to head my way.
Thank you very much to all those who helped put it on, keep it going, or even volunteered to help tear down happen. The only bad thing about the entire event was that it's not happening every year, but every two! Darn it, I wanna go next year! And just how soon can I sign up for the next one!?!?!?
YIS, Kate the Candlemaker mka Kate Collins Cinphire Custom Candles
(Posted to the Steps, July 2006.)
First, the site was beautifully laid out. Heck, we watched part of the war from our camp! And, my, everywhere there were smiles, and happy people, and the gentle pop of paintball pellets underfoot (guess who used the site last). There was friendliness, helpfulness, people were appreciating that this event happened out of sheer perseverance and we all were just happy to be there! But more than that--it went above and beyond.
Sure, if you have a situation like this you might expect that there would be problems--biffs arrive late, grass not mowed, function spaces not prepared...but there was none of that. We got there Friday around 1pm. The eric was marked, the roads were marked, the baronial pavilions were up, the pavilions for the Youth Activities and information were up, the gate was open, the biffs were in place, the parking was prepared...they might have had some hiccups, but Tryggvy and his staff just rocked the event.
Tryggvy said in his opening comments that the winners of this war would be measured by who had the most fun...speaking for myself--I think my group definitely placed in the money on this one ;-)
My group, the Roses in the Rough, spent Saturday having the most fun--we participated in our very first Siege Cooking Contest. All five of us there got involved, we planned, we plotted, we cooked...we had so much fun :-)
Sunday was also fun, 'cause that's when we found out we won (and my it is so much easier to pack up when your feet don't touch the ground!). But honestly, we had so much fun, even if one of our talented and most worthy competitors had won, we still would have been happy. 'cause we came together as a team, we participated and we just had fun with it. And yes, we are now bit by the bug ;-)
Other items of note: Great merchants, conveniently located everything (parking, war field, lists, information point, merchants...Wal-Mart <grin>), storytelling on the eric Sunday night, singing coming from one area, drumming from two others, great flaming marshmallows, and hearing that something I posted on the Steps was being quoted by Peers (okay, that one both tickled and astonished me--people actually read what I write??? <blush>). Oh, and I wasn't the only one to bring a War Mimmoth
- -)
All in all--so, so glad I went! Would do it again in a heartbeat...but I suppose I can wait...two years? <sigh> Okay...
Faoiltierna
Tired, but still happy, home from Tryggvy's War!
(About the Seige Cooking Contest. A "keeper" posting from the Steps, posted July 2006.)
Everyone got a protein, a veggie, a grain/legume, two spices and a mystery item.
Some got barley, one had split peas, a couple got eggs...it was a fun mix of items :-) The others dishes ranged from breaded chicken with split peas stuffed in bell peppers to cheese tubes and barley soup, to German Apple pancake, and finally stuffed apples and an apple/honey porridge. Roughly. I tried not to poke about too much so I wouldn't get all depressed by how good they all were! And they were!
We drew from the unmarked brown bags: 1/2 chicken, leeks, rice, cinnamon and ginger, and a pear.
We could add three items, plus whatever we could harvest on-site: We added salt, golden raisins and rum (spiced alcoholic beverage), and we harvested mint and blackberries :-)
We made five items inspired by Sieges During the Crusades: A soup--leeks and chicken, with salt, cinnamon and ginger. We even threw in a couple of bones in case the judges wanted the marrow! A salat--leeks, mint leaves and a raisin syrup A beverage--pear cider, made from the pear skin and core, crushed raisins and the two spices Our main dish was chicken, seasoned with salt and our two spices, roasted in a dutch oven, served over rice (cooked with some of the spices, salt and chicken added and raisins sprinkled on the top), with a side of sliced leeks And our dessert was pears and blackberries, dusted with the spices and a dash of the rum. (We were trying for a flambé, but it didn't work. My mom last night told me we should have been soaking the pears in the rum, rather than in water!)
The salat was a surprise, btw. We were sitting in camp brainstorming and trying a few flavor combinations--it is remarkably tasty!
Of course, some of the dishes could have used more seasoning, and the cider was a bit watery, and I am a bit disappointed I couldn't light the pears up, but it was a Siege ;-) Over all, I am so proud of my team! We really pulled together and everyone helped out :-)
Faoiltierna