Middle Earth Ranger Forum

wulfgar wrote:Just to add, I was actually going to try to put and event like this together in Arkansas, but there are insurance issues with the place I wanted to ues.

Where abouts in Arkansas? I'm in North Texas at the moment and I'd be down for a moot. Been thinking about hiking Eagle Rock Loop in what little kit I have.

Cimrandir wrote:

wulfgar wrote:Just to add, I was actually going to try to put and event like this together in Arkansas, but there are insurance issues with the place I wanted to ues.

Where abouts in Arkansas? I'm in North Texas at the moment and I'd be down for a moot. Been thinking about hiking Eagle Rock Loop in what little kit I have.

This would have been up near Paragould which is in Northeast Arkansas. I live the the River Valley area which is sort of central.
I haven't done it, but I have heard that Eagle Rock Loop trail is a pretty tough one!

This weekend we spent the night out to celebrate the winter solstice and I thought about this discussion a few times during the night and have a couple of insights to add.

It doesn't get as cold here as it does in Middle Earth but still temperatures dropped to around 2°C which is around 35°F and I couldn't help but wonder how hard it would be to keep warm on watch with a small/no fire in temperatures even lower. Would your foes not be huddled in blankets or around fires of their own unless they caught a glimpse of yours?

This led us back to the concealed camp so we did a few rounds of 'hide and go seek' which for me at least confirmed that a concealed camp would be all you would need in peaceful times. A weary soul wrapped in a blanket in a hollow is almost invisible to the eye even if you know they are there and actively looking for them.

Of course there would still be times and places when a watch was prudent as we see in the books but by and large I think I'll prioritize warm blankets and a full nights rest

Ah, the fond(ish) memories of sleeping one hour on, one hour off in a two man fighting position. You run into a lot of issues pulling guard duty overnight, though as has been stated, the more people you have the easier it gets. The biggest issue is time keeping, followed closely by noise and light discipline. If you have a fire, then noise and light discipline aren't nearly as much of a concern, but that still leaves you with time. Most of the time I'm doing Ranger stuff in the woods, I'm alone, so I can't really set a watch. What I can, and so, is set up early warning devices in the most likely avenues of approach, set high enough off the ground that the smaller woodland creatures won't trigger them. That and sleeping really lightly gives me a pretty safe sleeping experience. The fact that I live in the south means that I don't really have to be near my fire for warmth, so I tend to be back from the circle of the light, which is where most curious parties would be investigating anyway (and thereby silhouetting themselves nicely in the firelight).

"Some Thoughts on Scouts and Spies" by Gerry Barker had a section on keeping guard. I'll have to dig my copy out and reference it. I believe it talked about having everyone sleeping in a circle with their heads by a tree in the center, and their feet facing out, which would facilitate a very quick and quiet change over of the guard in the night.

Brian

BrianGrubbs wrote:"Some Thoughts on Scouts and Spies" by Gerry Barker had a section on keeping guard. I'll have to dig my copy out and reference it. I believe it talked about having everyone sleeping in a circle with their heads by a tree in the center, and their feet facing out, which would facilitate a very quick and quiet change over of the guard in the night.

I had my copy close to hand and took a quick look. Barker suggests keeping setting more than one sentry at a time, with as much as half the scouting party on watch at a time. As you said, having everyone leaned against a tree was recommended, or for larger parties, under bushes or low trees in a starburst sort-of pattern with feet out and heads in the middle, again to facilitate changing guards with minimal noise and movement (and also so snorers can be quickly roused and quieted). He also recommends a cold-camp with no shelters, waiting till sundown to stop and leaving at dawn.

All good things to keep in mind when thinking about a Rangers-moving-through-enemy-territory mindset (although not how I think I'd prefer to go about this hobby, personally!), but nothing to the big question of timekeeping that I saw. I certainly could have missed something, though!

That was the passage I was thinking of, thanks for looking it up!

So, for time keeping...candle clocks and hourglasses seem to be out, but what about some sort of water clock? I'd be curious to see how large a container it would take to measure one hours worth of time, or even if it's something that you could work out a modification for a cooking pot to perform. I wouldn't want to use a water bottle that I drink out of, because drinking water it precious, and the idea of starting the day with an empty waterskin just hurts me, lol.

Brian

This little section from “A Knife in the Dark” caught my eye:

Must be nice to be blessed with Numenorean heritage!

Nice Brian, I couldn't find more than a handful of references off the top of my head and missed this one completely.

If I go a night without sleep I tend to have the temperament of a cave troll.

Eofor wrote: If I go a night without sleep I tend to have the temperament of a cave troll.

me too LOL

WOW this got a ton of great replies! I haven’t been able to sit down and read through them all just yet, but I wanted to make sure I didn’t just abandon the thread entirely, because it seems like there’s some great info here! I will get back to it and reply in-depth just as soon as I’m able!

I think it's worth noting as a corrolary of a smaller party having a harder time setting a watch that a smaller party has less need of a watch - it's camp takes up a smaller footprint, they can hide the camp in denser areas (and a smaller camp can simply fit in more places than a larger one, expanding the search area). They will have fewer and smaller fires (and are more capable of doing without fire at all if needed), generate less noise, and so on.

After dark and away from light pollution - and especially in a forest - it is damn hard to find a small campsite in the dark, even if you knew such a camp was in the area. I would guess that the nazgûl are not particularly impaired by seeing in the dark, given they are themselves in the 'unseen' world - so setting watch at night while being hunted by them as they do in the books makes sense - but against more common foes it may be less necessary

Regarding timekeeping, If a group of rangers was regularly keeping watch, would they have trained their internal clocks to wake at the correct times? I know that people can train themselves to wake at a specific time each day, or to sleep for a certain amount of time. Also, for timekeeping for someone awake, perhaps they might choose a task that they know will take a certain amount of time? Whittling was mentioned earlier, as was sewing.

Sort of, I guess. My suspicion is that - as is common in the military and other professions sleep may be hard to come by - they gain the ability to sleep whenever the chance presents itself. I do not think it was common for people to set watches with the same watch schedule every night, but rather to rotate, because some watches are better than others (first and last, for example, don't require you to wake up and go back to sleep after). At least, this is not the case in a modern setting when keeping a fire-watch either

I’ve pulled security plenty of times while out on patrols. It’s especially fun when there was zero threat(training scenarios). Often wondering what hell am I doing awake looking into empty darkness.
Fun times. But training mirrors actual missions.
I think it’s just another aspect of being out on a Ranger patrol or movement. Something worth trying for a few nights, just to check the block. It definitely factors in to your daytime tasks.
But as Greg said, it’s more about enjoying your time out, which for most of us is limited.
We always simplified it to a percentage, i.e., 30%, 50% security. The threat, terrain, and your numbers all factor into how much security is needed.
Typically, you’re out of your sleeping gear, boots on, weapons at hand. There’s always an established plan on what to do if a threat presents itself.
One difference for Rangers as opposed to modern patrols is an enemy that can track by scent(orcs). I’ve thought about how I would alter the security to take that into consideration.