User blog:Leolab/Ancient User Tourney, Round 10: Tiberius Proditus (EA) v Sir Bors of Newcastle (Elgb)

Again, no title card. I'd apologize, but I'm not actually sorry.

Tiberius Proditus: The traitorous Roman Legionnaire

versus

Sir Bors of Newcastle: A knight-turned-mercenary

Bio
Tiberius Proditus was born to a Roman soldier and a North African woman, and spent his early childhood on the march across Rome's many colonies, as part of the legion's civilian baggage train. He learned harsh desert survival at a young age. He was fascinated with other cultures, and identified far more strongly with his North African heritage than with his Roman heritage. These sympathies remained undetected by his father. As he traveled from place to place, Tiberius became a petty thief and scoundrel, stealing from merchants before disappearing into the crowds and leaving with the Romans. He was not a spoiled child, but was quite certainly a mischievous boy.

Once he was of age, Tiberius was recognized as a citizen, where he returned to Rome and became a soldier in the legion. He was by no means an exceptional recruit, but he did his job well enough. There he received standard training and drilling and was stationed in Germania, under the command of Publis Quinctilius Varus. Most importantly, he learned to feign loyalty.

His auxiliary officer, Arminius, defected to the Germanic tribesmen in the area and was in the process of preparing an ambush when he was discovered by Tiberius. Having no strong loyalty to the legion, and ever the self-serving opportunist, he quickly pleged his support to Arminius. He participated in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD, which was a resounding success for the soldiers of the Germanic tribes. Arminius, sensing Tiberius' opportunist nature, attempted to assassinate him. Tiberius fled.

Having betrayed his army and now hunted by the locals, Tiberius was forced to rely on trickery and cunning to survive. Not well-conditioned to survival in the forest environment of central Europe, at least not by himself, Tiberius made his way from village to village. No hunter and no gatherer, he relied on barter and thievery to provide for himself, and as the weeks went on he eventually learned of a nearby Roman outpost from the locals. By this time, the Germanic assassins had pursued him to his limit. They knew the terrain and he didn't--it was nothing short of a miracle he had evaded them as long as he had.

Only a day's way out from the outpost, Tiberius once again played his shifty personality to his advantage. Publicly buying off a messenger, he sent for help. A group of Germanic ghost warriors descended upon his camp that night. Approaching the campfire, they killed the figure hunched over for warmth. It was the messenger, dressed in Tiberius' armor. Now with half a day's lead over his pursuers, Tiberius made it to the safety of the outpost. Since the legion at Teutoburg had been annihilated, Tiberius was the first to bring news of the attack to Roman ears--and as the sole survivor, he was well aware that his word was now the truth.

Inital Weaponset (Short Range)


Spatha sword. It was something of a modified gladius that was used heavily in border areas as the gladius was influenced by the native longswords. 90.8 cm overall length (35.7 in), 69.9 cm blade length (27.5 in.), 4.1 cm blade width (1.61 in.), 1.85 lbs. All-wood (walnut oak) hilt with reinforcing guard plate of bronze inleted into the forward end of the guard, and a mushroom-shpaed rivet block. Disc-shaped pommel. Iron blade. Primarily a thrusting weapon.

Used in conjunction with the scutum shield. Curved oval shield (two sheets of laminated birch wood glued together, covered with canvas and leather, with a spindle-shaped boss along the vertical length of the shield). Considerably heavy (~22 lbs or ~10 kg). 1.28 m long (50.39 in.), 63.5 cm wide (25 in.). The shield is the thickest in the center (1.2 cm), and is slightly less than a cm thick at the edges.

Other Weapons and Armor

 * -| Mid Range =



Pilum javelin. Hard pyramidal tip with iron shank--the shank is meant to bend on impact, rendering the weapon useless if an enemy were to throw it back. More importantly, it is designed to embed itself into an enemy's shield, rendering the defense useless due to the cumbersome weight of the bent pilum. The shank was joined to the shaft by a socket. 2 meters (6 ft 7 in.) long overall, hardwood shaft; 60 cm shank (24 in), 7 mm in diameter (0.28 in). Tiberius carried one with him.


 * -| Long Range =



Plumbata darts. Overall length 20 cm (7.87 in.), iron dart heads 15 cm (5.90 in) long, 2 cm (0.78 in.) wide. Lead weight attached to anterior end. Tiberius only carried three with him.


 * -| Special =



Pugio dagger. Large, leaf-shaped iron blade 28 cm (11 in.) in length, 5 cm (2 in.) in width. Grip is riveted through a wide, flat tang.


 * -| Armor =



Lorica hamata. 1/8"-diameter iron rings comprise the mail shirt. Reaches to mid-thigh, 5-inch sleeves, shoulder doublings. Leather-and-thick-cloth subarmalis worn underneath, over tunic, for padding to help absorb blows. Montefortino helmet. Conical, with raised central knob, cheek plates, and protruding neck guard. "Pinecone" patterning on the crest knob. Wool and felt helmet padding glued inside to help absorb blows. Caligae heavy-soled, hobnailed leather boots. Overall armor weight approx 16 kg (33 lbs.)

Bio
Sir Bors was a knight under the English monarchy. From an early age, he was trained in warfare, combat and in the ways of the knight. As a squire he's fought under famous names such as Edward the Black Prince and Bertrand de Guesclin. By the time he was a knight, he fought battles in France, Italy, Germany Britain and the Turks. By the time he was thirty, he gave up his feudal title and became a dreaded mercenary under the legendary Sir John Harkwood; fighting in conflicts around the world. Although Sir Bors used to be a knight, he is a cunning tactican who can play his enemies to his hands. He was infamous for using asymetrical warafre against his opponents as well as dirty and unsportmanlike tricks.

Initial Weaponset (Short Range)


Longsword and Customized Targe - an ordinary sword of the Middle Ages with a straight blade and a pommel. Sir Bors discovered this awesome weapon while fighting in Scotland. The tage shield is the typical plywood with cowhide shield with a nasty steel spike in the center for piercing people. Sir Bors made some improvements on the targe by combining its brutal offensive capabilities and excellent defensive ones of European heater shields. Bors covered his shield with steel, for added protection and also to use it as a bludgeoning tool.

Other Weapons & Armor

 * -| Mid Range =



Halberd - the same one Vlad the Impaler used in Deadliest Warrior. Made out of steel, the classic 1.8 meter halberd has an axe, spike and spear point. Bors' halberd has a custom made butt spike that gives the weapon more balance and an extra spear tip just in case.


 * -| Long Range =



Composite crossbow - Sir Bors was trained by the native Newcastle falconers in the use of this weapon and is an excellent marksman. His crossbow bolts will have a variety of arrows from the simple armor piercing to poison tipped ones (poison used are large doses nightshade, which while the time it kills depend on the person, will still paralyze a person)


 * -| Special =



Mantraps - steel mad bear traps for people. A popular weapons for hired killers, soldiers and lawmen for hire. The weapon works like a bear trap, once set up and a fool inadvertedly steps in, his foot will be chomped down. As a maiming weapon, it has steel teeth to mangle flesh and is strong enough to break bone. It also has poison in it like nightshade to cause more damage. This however, needs to be set up as a trap to work, and Sir Bors only uses them to trap people or escape.


 * -| Armor =



Plate armor - Sir Bors will be wearing a standard but well-crafted plate armor. The plate armor protects Sir Bors from head to toe, from his basinet to the faulds and cuisse of his legs. As was standard of his time, he will also have a thin-layer of gambeson underneath for furhter protection.

Battle Notes

 * Arena is a 20m diameter circle, grassy soil footing, no cover
 * All warriors will start out with their Initial Weaponset equipped, along with their armor.
 * Their other weapons are placed sheathed/unloaded/unset/etc. next to their point of entry into the arena.
 * The match is to the death.
 * Brackets and other tourney information may be found here.
 * Note that vote scores are doubled, since Challnonge doesn't accept half-points.
 * Note that the pictures are  not  meant to be exact representations of the equipment. They're just generic images I found on the wiki.

Voting Notes

 * Votes with good edges or at least 10 relevant sentences count as a full vote
 * Votes with meh edges or at least 5 relevant sentences count as a half vote
 * All others count as no vote
 * Well-reasoned rebuttals can lower the count of a vote by half.
 * Well-reasoned counter-rebuttals can restore the half-point.
 * The users whose characters are fighting may not vote for or against themselves, but may defend their warriors by giving rebuttals and counter-rebuttals
 * I have the final say in how much a vote counts for. If I feel a vote merits counting differently than these guidelines, I will do so.
 * Due to voter concerns regarding his rebuttal spree on a previous match, El Alamein is only allowed to defend his own vote.
 * Voting ends at some point on 07/28/2016