On Thursday morning there are 4 fort battles, each 1/2 hour long.  They do not involve siege devices, so there are no missile weapons or boarding devices.  But even with only hand weapons, the fighting gets pretty fierce.  If there is no clear-cut victory, then the winning army is the one with the most people in the fort when the time runs out. Diagram of the real Gulf War fort.

        It's very difficult to get through the embrasures in the wall without scaling ladders, so naturally most of the action takes place at the gate and the breach.  That's not to say that people at the embrasures don't see any fighting.  Some of the loops are so close to the passageways that attackers with spears can reach through and take out people facing the passageways.  And defenders with polearms can do the same to people at the edges of an attack.  The action at those embrasures can get hot and heavy.  It's perfectly legal to take shots over the wall even if you can't see your target.  But it's not legal to try to stab through the chinks between the logs.
        And, any attacker with sense will eventually take advantage of an unguarded embrasure.  If the defenders are all pulled over to defend the passageways, sooner or later the attackers will try using their hands and shields to put people through the unwatched areas.  Someone has to guard the wall, even if it's not as glorious as ramming through the breach.

GRABBING THINGS

It's legal and very common for people at the embrasures to grab the shields, spears, etc. that present themselves.  But be careful--it can be risky.

• DON'T pull straight down on things you have seized.  Several fiberglass spears have been broken because somebody levered them down against the bottom of the embrasure.  Nobody wants that trick repeated with an arm.  So if you try to yank something away, or if you try to pull it back, pull it out, not down.
• If you try to steal somebody's shield or spear, don't pull his arm out of the socket.  And if somebody grabs your gear and gives it a healthy tug, let them have it.  You can always find a replacement dropped by a casualty, and keeping your shoulder tendons is more important than keeping your property.

  What it come down to is, use some caution.  Don't get into a serious contest over holding onto something--there's too much chance of injury or broken weapons.

TACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS

• Defenders have a slight height advantage at the front wall of the fort.  Terrain irregularities make the defenders' ground level about 24 inches higher than the attackers'.  That makes the front wall less likely to be scaled by attackers boosting each other over.
• It is legal to use the towers in the Thursday battles, but people usually don't bother because without siege engines in play you can't drop rocks, and the tops of the towers are too high for spears.  But it is legal to climb the ladders on the backs of the towers, and use spears over the top of the wall.  Anyone doing this would need someone to guard his back so he doesn't get speared from behind by an attacker reaching around the other side of the tower.
• When using spears to prevent people from climbing through an embrasure, remember it is illegal to couch a spear or ground the butt.  And any time you hit someone coming through an embrasure, rememember there's a 4 or 5 foot drop.  If you hit someone hard enough to knock him off the wall, he could be seriously hurt.
• The worst problem on both sides is the crowding in the areas where combat usually takes place.  When a push through one of the passageways is tried, it is very common for the people on both sides to wind up so tightly bunched together their shoulders overlap.   Two-handed edged weapons, and the Florentine style, are almost useless in the passageways; they can be used to good effect at the embrasures.  For fighting with sword or mace, techniques that involve little shoulder movement, such as attacks against the opponent's face from the high guard position, are the most used.
• Defenders making sallies out of the fort have the advantage of momentum.   Attackers trying to get in are squeezed together as they approach, where outgoing sallies can spread out, so they can make more efficient use of their weapons and sustain the speed of a charge. More than once the armies have pinwheeled around each other, with one side breaking in at one passage just as the other army breaks out at the other passage.