Are you Ready to AMP Things Up?

Greetings to the Populace of Ansteorra from your Kingdom Webminister, Hersirkona kolfinna inn kyrra Ottarsdottir. I write to you today to share important announcements about the upcoming deployment of AMP. Please take a few minutes to read the information below, and please share this with your local groups and fellow Ansteorrans.

What is AMP?

The replacement and Upgrade for our Marshal Database
The new, centralized place to submit award recommendations

The Ansteorra Management Portal (AMP) will be Ansteorra’s brand new tool for managing Marshal Authorizations, Award Recommendations, and more. This project was announced at the July 2024 State of the Kingdom Address, and has been under development with the invaluable efforts of Their Majesties, Their Highnesses, and my ER Deputy, Master Martin Malone.

AMP will replace and improve upon our marshal/participant portal, it will replace and enhance our award recommendation process for both the Crown and the Populace, and it will be expanded with additional modules in the near future.

AMP is going to make it easier for you to submit award recommendations. It will make it possible for you to let the Crown know your court availability and notification preferences from your AMP User Account. And it will bring a number of much-needed fixes and improvements to our marshal system without hurting the user experience.

What happens on October 1st?

Several things will happen on October 1, 2024 that I want YOU to be aware of.

AMP will go live! The portal will be accessible starting on October 1st 2024, and you will be able to visit it by navigating to https://amp.ansteorra.org in a web browser on any device. Until then, you can visit https://ansteorra.org/amp to learn about AMP via User Guides and Tutorial Videos.
All links to the old marshal/participant system will be configured to redirect you to AMP. All active accounts for marshals and fighters from the previous system have successfully been migrated to AMP to make the transition as smooth as possible. Fighters and marshals without an account will be able to request one from the home page of AMP.
All links to the Award Recommendation Google Form will be configured to redirect you to AMP. Starting on October 1st, the Google Form that Ansteorra has been using to submit award recommendations to the Crown will no longer accept responses.

What can you do right now?

These resources should help you learn more about AMP, familiarize yourself with the features that will be available, and help address any questions you may have right now.

Get excited! AMP is going to make it way easier for you to submit award recommendations (and for the Crown to keep track of them), and it’s going to significantly improve our marshal system for fighters and marshals.
Watch the AMP Tutorial Playlist on the Ansteorra YouTube Channel to see some of the upcoming features and get step-by-step walkthroughs.
Read the AMP User Guide. This guide is designed to show you all of the main features of AMP that a typical user will encounter. It includes step-by-step walkthroughs as well as Frequently Asked Questions.
Update your bookmarks. Award recommendations and marshal authorization will now be hosted in a central place. check your bookmarks and replace them with https://amp.ansteorra.org

If you still have questions after reviewing the above resources, you can reach me via email at kingdom@webminister.ansteorra.org.

In service, and excited for the 1st,
Hersirkona kolfinna inn kyrra Ottarsdottir
Kingdom Webminister of Ansteorra

Ansteorra Management Portal (AMP) will Go Live on October 1st!

What is AMP?

The Ansteorra Management Portal (AMP) will be Ansteorra’s brand new, centralized tool for managing Marshal Authorizations, Award Recommendations, and more. This project was announced at the July 2024 State of the Kingdom Address, and has been under development with the invaluable efforts of Their Majesties, Their Highnesses, and my ER Deputy, Master Martin Malone.

AMP will replace and improve upon our marshal/participant portal, it will replace and enhance our award recommendation process for both the Crown and the Populace, and it will be expanded with additional modules in the near future. AMP is going to make it easier for you to submit award recommendations. It will make it possible for you to let the Crown know your court availability and notification preferences from your AMP User Account. And it will bring a number of much-needed fixes and improvements to our marshal system without hurting the user experience.

What happens on October 1st?

Several things will happen on October 1, 2024 that I want the Populace of Ansteorra to be aware of.

AMP will go live! The portal will be accessible starting on October 1st 2024, and you will be able to visit it by navigating to https://amp.ansteorra.org in a web browser on any device. Until then, you can visit https://ansteorra.org/amp to learn about AMP via User Guides and Tutorial Videos.
All links to the old marshal/participant system will be configured to redirect you to AMP. Starting on October 1, 2024, AMP will be the place where fighters and marshals will request marshal authorizations, view/print their authorization card, and review/approve authorization requests. All active accounts for marshals and fighters from the previous system have successfully been migrated to AMP to make the transition as smooth as possible. Fighters and marshals without an account will be able to request one from the home page of AMP.
All links to the Award Recommendation Google Form will be configured to redirect you to AMP. Starting on October 1st, the Google Form that Ansteorra has been using to submit award recommendations to the Crown will no longer accept responses. The populace of Ansteorra will use AMP to submit new recommendations going forward. You will be able to submit award recommendations to the Crown without having to create a user account.

What can I do right now?

I understand that this will be a big, new change for our Kingdom, so I have multiple resources that I am making available to you today. These should help you learn more about AMP, familiarize yourself with the features that will be available, and help address any questions you may have right now.

Get excited! AMP is going to make it way easier for you to submit award recommendations (and for the Crown to keep track of them), and it’s going to significantly improve our marshal system for users.
Watch the AMP Tutorial Playlist on the Ansteorra YouTube Channel to see some of the upcoming features.
Visit AMP Info Page at https://ansteorra.org/amp. This is a landing page that has overall information about AMP, links to the AMP User Guides, and links to the AMP tutorial videos.
Read the AMP User Guide. This guide is designed to show you all of the main features of AMP that a typical user will encounter. It includes step-by-step walkthroughs as well as Frequently Asked Questions.

If you still have questions after reviewing the above resources, you can reach me via email at kingdom@webminister.ansteorra.org.

In service, and excited for the 1st,
Hersirkona kolfinna inn kyrra Ottarsdottir
Kingdom Webminister of Ansteorra

Royal Blade – Correction and Addendum!

Greetings to all of Ansteorra from your Kingdom Webminsiter, Baroness kolfinna inn kyrra!

I humbly bring to you this morning a correction and addendum to Sunday’s Announcement of the Royal Blade Tournament Format information.

First, a correction:

The “prize commissioned by us from Darkwood Armory specifically for this tournament” mentioned in the announcement has been prepared for the Queen’s Champion tournament. The winner of the Royal Blade tournament will receive a custom scroll.

Second, an addition:

The Royal Blade Tournament will be held with the enthusiastic assent of Their Excellencies Bryn Gwlad at their annual Fall Baronial – this year is “The War of the Bucket!” and will be held the weekend of Nov. 15-17th at Nolte Island.

I offer my apologies for any confusion this has caused and will commit to increased vigilance against the whims of copy/paste.

In service,

Hersirkona kolfinna inn kyrra Ottarsdottir
Ansteorra Kingdom Webminister

Royal Blade Tournament Format Announcement

As announced in court at Kingdom A&S, the format for the Royal Blade will be Bedford Points.

https://cunnan.lochac.sca.org/index.php/Bedford_Points_Tournament

This tournament will last for 1-2 hours and will not have a set number of rounds.

Letters of Intent will not be required.

We invite and encourage any and all Cut and Thrust combatants to enter Royal Blade tournament and showcase their fighting skills, endurance, and panache. The winner of the tournament will receive a custom scroll.
(Edit: the original publication of this announcement mentioned a prize commissioned from Darkwood Armory. That prize is planned for the upcoming Queen’s Champion tournament.)

Our personal expectations of a Royal Blade are to increase and encourage participation of cut and thrust activities across the kingdom. We will set a goal for the Royal Blade to personally ensure at least 5 new persons become authorized in cut and thrust program through our reign. If they are present at events where the crown is present, they are welcome to join our champions in court.

We welcome every authorized fighter to participate in the Royal Blade Tournament to the utmost of their health and abilities.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Prince Jean Paul and I via email at trh@crown.ansteorra.org.

Prince Jean Paul III and Princess Gilyan III

Please read below the detail from His Highness Jean Paul about King’s Champion.

King’s Champion Format

Kings champion will be a 30 minute Bear Pit immediately following Namron Protectorate with at a minimum the following two weapon styles: 6 ft spear, and Fighter’s Choice. There will probably be more. The Crown will announce weapon format changes during the tournament and there will be no breaks during those weapon changes. Whoever can re-arm and get back on the field will gain an advantage. The Crown will attempt to not pick any weapon style so weird that fighters will not have weapons. The Crown will also make sure there are sufficient 6 ft spears to keep the lyst moving in an expeditious fashion. The crown will choose his champion from the contestants.

Expectations

My personal expectations of a champion include attending most of the events with me (including foreign wars, especially Gulf Wars), fighting as my champion upon the armored field as needed, and coordinating the assistance of stand-ins if they are not able to discharge the duties at a specific event. I expect my champion to be well-groomed, laugh at my jokes, and listen to either the first book of He Who Fights with Monsters or Dungeon Crawler Carl. There is also the more common expectation of a champion which is to become a confidant to the King. A champion will be respectful, courteous, courageous, and chivalric in their demeanor.

Royal Hunter Format

Please read below the detail from Their Royal Highnesses about Royal Hunter!

Overview

Royal Hunter will be spread across three events, Vindheim Missile Academy, Shadowlands “A Toast to Absent Friends: A Día de los Muertos Event”, and Bordermarch War of the Rams. VMA and Shadowlands will be used as qualifying rounds, with a smaller qualifying round at War of the Rams. Six qualifiers each will come from VMA and Shadowlands, and a final four qualifiers from WotR.

The qualifying 16 persons will then participate in a double elimination direct shoot competition.

The final round will be a balloon shoot for the two participants with the lowest scores. Two colors of balloons will be attached to a target. Each finalist will be assigned a color. Whichever color has been shot from the target first will be the winner of the Royal Hunter Tournament.

Qualifying Rounds

The qualifying rounds will run during the entire weekend, event staffing permitted. Entrants must shoot 100 arrows, 5 arrows at a time at a 5 target board. The 5 targets will have two scoring rings, with the outer ring worth one point, and the inner circle worth two points. Each target can only have one scoring missile, so if more than one missile hits a target, the lowest scoring missile will be used. If there is a tie, a single “closest to center” shoot-off will be used.

Varying Weapons Styles

All typical bows and crossbows will be allowed in the Hunter Tournament. Crossbows may only score on the inner circle of the qualifying target.

Expectations of a Royal Hunter

Our personal expectations of a champion include attending most of the events with us (including foreign wars, especially Gulf Wars), shooting as our champion upon the archery field as needed, and coordinating the assistance of stand-ins if they are not able to discharge the duties at a specific event. We expect our champion to be well-groomed and maintain the respect, courtesy, and chivalry expected of those around the Crown.