Welcome to the SCA East Kingdom website for Armored Steel Combat. This is the official site for news and information about armored steel combat in our Kingdom.

What is Armored Steel Combat? We are working on a recreation of formal tournament and duel fighting on foot. We wear armor, usually more than is necessary for rattan fighting. We use steel swords — arming swords and longswords. We fight in singles combat, 1 on 1. Unlike any other SCA fighting style we have judges because it is often difficult to tell if a hit id good by yourself with the extra armor.

The hits are judged by their form and technique not by their force. It doesn’t matter how hard or light you hit. It matters that you used good technique and landed the blow edge on with intent, utilizing at least two body joints. Because of this we have no need for calibration requirements like you have in other SCA fighting forms. In Fencing and Cut & Thrust, you hit lightly because it doesn’t take much to do damage with a sword to an unarmored opponent. In Heavy List you hit hard to simulate doing damage through armor. Here, we are not focused on causing simulated wounds. We are focused on landing hits with good technique as in a friendly tournament. We have no calibration hard limits because we shouldn’t need them. There is no benefit to hitting harder and we retain the upper limit of unsafe actions. In short, you don’t need to hit hard. Hitting hard has no benefit. Lastly: the requirement for more armor and real armor has shown that armor works as intended. You can hit an armored opponent pretty hard safely.