SECONDESBOUT 1 — MASQUERADE
YOU0
0CHALLENGER
FIRST TO3
BOUT0:00
En garde.
MEASURE SIXIEME Closing
YOUR REACH 81 cm
LINE FOURTH LINE
THEIR REACH 87 cm
TEMPO ×1.00
OUT OF MEASURE
WIND
No touches yet
EN GARDE
A bout of measure and timing
Secondes
Fencing is the argument about distance. You win it by choosing where to stand, not by moving fast. The gauge reads the gap between the two points. Inside your reach is a touch. On their point is a beat. Further out, your blade is decoration.
WS advance & retreat
AD sixth & second line
J attack · C counter
K parry · F enforte
Esc hold · M sound
No bout won yet.
THE CALL
A first bout. Slow hands, wide measure, everything forgiven.
- MEASURE
- Quarte to sixte blanche — the distance between two fencers, named and read off the gauge.
- TOUCH
- Your point arrives inside their body. The measure it was scored in is called out loud.
- BEAT
- Your point reaches their point and stops. Their blade comes off line; nothing is scored.
- COUNTER
- Lands only against an attack in flight, and only from a measure your blade covers.
The piste is still
Piste held
The blades are down. Nothing moves until you say so.
The rules of the piste
Where you stand decides everything
- MEASURE
- The gauge reads the gap between the two points. Quarte is the closest, sixte blanche the furthest, and the call names the band you scored in.
- REACH
- Your line sets how far your point travels and how much of you it presents. Second line reaches furthest and is easiest to hit. Sixth line is the opposite, and the best line to parry from.
- TOUCH
- Your point must arrive inside their body. Watch the gold line on the piste: cross it and the point is in.
- BEAT
- Your point reaches their point and stops there. Their blade comes off line and the attack that follows can be answered. Nothing is scored.
- AIR
- Beyond their point your blade has hit nothing. Take a measure your line covers before you commit.
- COUNTER
- Only lands against an attack already in flight, and only from a measure your blade covers.
- ENFORTE
- Wind behind the blade for two fifths of a second: a faster action, at the cost of your wind.
- WIND
- Every action costs wind. Run dry and your tempo falls away by nearly a third.
BOUT WON