(TFT) notes+ The Mysterious Geometry of Swordsmanship, Gorgeously Illustrated

[EA Press <ototeman@pacbell.net>]

25 September 2014

TFTrippers:

Hey y'all! 
This is my first post to the list, yet I've been receiving such for just about a year now.
A reminiscent niche of comfort for me, yes. Thank you all.

Today I came across a Slate article which made me sit up and go En Garde!
Article referring Girard Thibault’s *Académie de l’Espée* (1628) which I had never heard of before.
Check it out.

"The Mysterious Geometry of Swordsmanship, Gorgeously Illustrated" 
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2014/09/25/history_of_fencing_geometrical_images_of_sword_fighting_by_gerard_thibault.html

The notion of swordplay proxemics proportionate to a combatant's personal geometry is fascinating and brought immediately to mind GDW's *En Garde!* rules chapbook from 1975. I have a sharp specimen of this in my archives yet I have not played it. Still *En Garde!* came to mind like a bolt from a crossbow at 15-feet, from a different rulebook.
[*En Garde!* game design: Frank Chadwick, Daryl Hany, John Harshman, Loren Wiseman]

"Retrospective: En Garde!"
http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2009/11/retrospective-en-garde.html

However, what rose top to mind looking at these Thibault images from 1628, was the lace of intersecting geometry, the line-cut ink delineations of his visual thesis.

Ha! Reminded me of the 7-hex dragon from the *Wizard* micro-game cut-sheet and my experience cutting those counters off the card.
It all circled-up. Thus my first post here. 

Yeah, 1978 13-years old in suburban-edge Baltimore and our two pair of house scissors both had blades too thick for the task. A different time: no Fiskars at the Rite-Aid; no scrapbookers' supplies from Michaels stored in some fidget room. Yes I had x-acto knives from doing airplane and car models. No I didn't think to use them, having not yet gained the insight of tool cross-purposes. Idiot. However I was resourceful on my "scissors needed to cut paper or card" stuckness. Counters needed to be cut. 

What about my mom's nail scissors? Fine edge, yes. Very sharp, yes. Curved tip at point... urgh, yes. 
Let's make lemonade! 
A thousand little cuts to free the 7-hex dragon. Yup.
What a long strange fantasy trip it's been...

Thanks TFT list-members for for all your sharing to enable mine.
Best Regards... 
En Garde!
Enjoy.
-EAP


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