TRIAL OF STEEL
TOURNAMENT RULES

The rules for the actual battles fought in the arena are listed elsewhere, you can find them by clicking on this Link. The rules listed on this page describe how the Tournament progresses and rules for point gathering and elimination.


Firstly, here are the rules of entry into the Trial of Steel Tournament:

A maximum of 32 spaces are open for people to enter their Squires. A player may enter a maximum of two (2) Squires into the Trial of Steel Tournament. All entries must be in before midnight on the 20th of September. Entrants are taken on a first-come first-served basis and once all 32 spaces have been filled no further Squires can be accepted. If less than 32 Squires are entered, the only Tournament rule that will change will be the number of Squires that are eliminated per round.

To be valid for this Tournament, a Squire entrant must have the following:


Mock Heraldry is a simple coat-of-arms that is placed on each Squire's Shield. It consists of two different colours that can be in one of a number of different patterns. The possible mock Heraldry patterns are:


Do not send me a picture of the mock Heraldry, merely a text description of it, I shall then add it to a standard shield picture.

If you do not feel like including either mock Heraldry or a short piece of background text that is okay. I will use a simple black and white shield for those who do not include a Heraldry description and do a short, generic Squire description for those who do not include background information.

If you wish to enter, send your Squire(s) to Sir Gindle (That's me!) with the needed information in the email.


The Trial of Steel Tournament works on a point system. Meaning that for each time a Squire fights a battle against another Squire, he will earn points depending on how well he did in the fight.

The amount of points given out at the end of a battle will always total 10, the exact way the 10 points are given out between the two Squires competing in the battle depends on how much the winning Squire won by. The rules for Hits are listed in the Trial of Steel Game Rules section.

In the event of a Draw, both Squires are awarded 5 points.

If a Squire wins the fight by 1 or 2 Hits then 6 points awarded to the winning Squire and 4 points are awarded to the defeated Squire. Such a minor victory shows that neither Squire had too much of an upper hand over the other and that both Squires deserve a good portion of the points.

If a Squire wins the fight by 3 to 6 Hits then 7 points are awarded to the winning Squire and 3 points are awarded to the defeated Squire. This is the most common sort of victory and gives the winner a good share of the points whilst still allowing the defeated to come away with a worthwhile amount of points.

If a Squire wins the fight by 7 or 8 Hits then 8 points are awarded to the winning Squire and 2 points are awarded to the defeated Squire. This huge victory shows that the winning Squire was the clear victor and thus he receives a massive portion of the points and the defeated Squire is not given many points at all.

If a Squire wins the fight by 9 or more Hits, 9 points are awarded to the winning Squire and only 1 point is awarded to the defeated Squire. The size of this defeat shows that the winning Squire was extremely skillful and therefore he gets almost every single point. The single point that the defeated receives is better than nothing, however.

If a Squire defeats his opponent by reducing him to 0 or less Wounds, all 10 points are awarded to the winning Squire an no points are awarded to the defeated Squire. In the real field of war, anybody who loses their footing or is knocked out is likely to die. Because of this the Heralds are harsh upon anybody who is knocked out or loses their footing.

Any Wounds caused during the course of a battle are recovered in between fights, so at the beginning of a battle both Squires will be in perfect health.
Once all of the points have been given out, the Squires are placed on the Leaderboard with all of their current information supplied. The Squires are listed from top to bottom with the highest ranking Squire listed first, followed by the next highest ranking Squire, followed in turn by the next highest ranking Squire, ect, until the lowest ranking Squire is listed down at the very bottom.

NAME lists the name of the respective Squire.
POINTS lists how many points the Squire has collected during the course of the Tournament.
WINS lists how many times the Squire has won a fight.
DRAWS lists how many times the Squire's fight has ended in a draw. This will usually be 0 across the board because draws are uncommon.
LOSSES lists how many times the Squire has lost a fight.
HITS lists how many times the Squire has Hit an enemy Squire over the course of the Tournament.
WOUNDS lists how many times the Squire has wounded an enemy Squire over the course of the Tournament.

Ranking is determined by points, the Squire with the highest amount of points is often the highest ranking Squire. However, sometimes two or more Squires have the same amount of points. In this case, whoever has won the most fights is placed in the higher ranking.

If both Squires have the same amount of Wins and points, then the Squire with the least Losses is placed higher.

If both Squires have the same amount of Wins, Losses and points, then the Squire who has caused the most Hits is placed in the higher ranking.

If both Squires have the same amount of Wins, Losses, points and Hits (very unlikely), then whoever has caused the most Wounds is placed higher.

If both Squires are still tied, I will roll a dice for each Squire, re-rolling ties and placing them in the rankings in order of who got the highest dice roll.

Here is an example of a Leaderboard:

NAME POINTS WINS DRAWS LOSSES HITS WOUNDS
Squire 1: 14 2 0 0 14 3
Squire 2: 10 1 0 1 11 5
Squire 3: 6 0 0 2 7 1
Squire 4: 6 0 0 2 6 2


As you can see, "Squire 1" is at the top with a healthy points score of 14. "Squire 2" has less points than "Squire 1" but more points than "Squire 3" and "Squire 4" so he is placed second on the list. Both "Squire 3" and "Squire 4" have equal points, Wins and Losses but "Squire 3" has hit his opponents more times than "Squire 4" and is therefore placed third on the list. "Squire 4" is placed last because he at a lower rank (due to points and Wins, Losses, Hits and Wounds) than everybody else.


The main part of the Tournament takes place over the course of seven Rounds. In each Round every single remaining Squire fights a single fight against a randomly determined opponent. Every Squire has exactly one fight per round, after every Squire has finished his match, the points, Hits, Wins, Losses, Draws and Wounds are updated on the Leaderboard.

Starting from Round Two, at the end of each Round an Elimination takes place. This Elimination is simple, the lowest 4 Squires on the Leaderboard are eliminated from the competition and are wiped from the Leaderboard. This leaves 8 Squires at the end of Round Seven's Elimination. These final 8 continue on to the final leg of the Trial of Steel Tournament.

The final 8 Squires are then randomly paired against each other in a Round called the Trial of Strength. The Leaderboard does not matter anymore from this point on as if a Squire is defeated in this round he is eliminated from the competition.

After the Trial of Strength is played out only 4 Squires remain, these remaining Squires are again randomly paired against each other in a round named the Trial of Honour. Like in the Trial of Strength, defeat in this round equals removal from the tournament.

Once the Trial of Honour is finished, only 2 Squires are left. These last two Squires will then battle one last time in the final round, this round is named the Trial of Steel. The defeated Squire is eliminated from the tournament and the victor is proclaimed the winner of the entire Trial of Steel Tournament.

Return to Trial of Steel Introduction
Forward To The Taking of Oaths
Go To The Leaderboard
Go To Squire Roster
Forward To Round One
Forward To Round Two
Forward To The First Eliminations
Forward To Round Three
Forward To The Second Eliminations
Forward To Round Four
Forward To The Third Eliminations
Forward To Round Five
Forward To The Fourth Eliminations
Forward To Round Six
Forward To The Fifth Eliminations
Forward To Round Seven
Forward To The Final Eliminations
Forward To The Trial of Strength
Forward To The Trial of Honour
Forward To The Trial of Steel
Forward To The Ceremony of Knighthood
Go To Game Rules
Go To The Prize
Return to Bretonnia
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