Generally I'd only remove any tough stems

Journey is indeed great coffee, can confirm.

We are intentionally avoiding doing pike (and other polearms) in our initial playtests. Pike just faces challenges in terms of being able to have enough people as well as safety concerns. We're starting with a focus on groups of around 5 people each and will grow it from there as needed.

Yes some of this is done in LARP and the SCA and even Bohurt. But we see an underserved area for HEMA people to enjoy. Our focus is on the historical training, but not necessarily the material culture side of things. Nor do you need a "character". Think something like Airsoft, but with swords

To keep things balance we are gamifying things a bit. Standard armor/weapons loadouts and roles. A certain hierarchy of effectiveness. Armor beats Shields. Shields beat Gunners. Gunners beat Armor.

In addition to the solo and group practice of military weapons like the pike and halberd, we are also working on war games for small units and tactics. How do you combine armored soldiers with early firearms?