Attendance
There were 5 of us in attendance of varying levels. Myself (pole), Colin (pole), Badhands (center grip shield), Josh (lefty shield), and Neph (shield).
2 on 1s - set 1
We did a series of 2 on 1 fights. Neph had not arrived yet, so we had 3 fighting and one sitting out of each round. The one sitting out would often give feedback to the other fighters.
The addition of a lefty made the fighting interesting as I was either fighting against a lefty, or with one. In either case, I found the key to success was keeping them at range the entire time. We often talk about attacking on 45s (in a V formation), but I think another key, for myself anyway, is to make sure that the team of two rotates in a fashion that keeps this V attack on the single fighter.
In the case of the single fighter, he really only has one choice, and that is to commit early, and normally its going to be to commit to his sword arm side. The goal is to move quickly toward, and around one of his two opponents in an attempt to turn it into a 1 on 1 fight.
Badhands is actually a fairly mobile fighter and experienced enough with these drills that he was actually able to commit to his shield side, and was fairly successful with it. Normally it would begin with a fake move to his sword side, and then quickly moving in toward the opponent on his left and rotating around him quickly.
The mistakes were the same ones that are commonly made. For the single fighter, it was standing in place and waiting too long to commit to one side or the other. For the pair, it was moving as an individual in a 1 on 1 rather than moving in a manner that incorporates the teammate.
Even if we ignore the movement aspect of the two man team, I think the biggest mistakes made were simply taking on the red fighter in a 1 on 1 fight. That has ~ 50% chance of success, when we want to win 90+% of these engagements.
2 on 1s - set 2
Set 2 offered us a new challenge as Neph joined the fighting. Neph is our least experienced fighter and was also the least mobile in the group (the other 4 of us are actually pretty fast on our feet). So this brought a new challenge of how to work with a fighter on your team whose skills don't match your own.
Overall we were pretty successful. The more experienced fighter had to be more aware of what she was doing and couldn't just go off and attack on their own hoping that she would be right there with them. In addition, she had to be very defensive when the single fighter committed toward her as she had a low percentage chance of winning a 1 on 1 engagement.
As it turned out, the pair still won most of the engagements with Neph getting most of the kills. So I'll call that a huge success on our part.
2 on 2 resurrection
This is a favorite drill of ours whenever we get 5 fighters. It begins as a 2 on 2 fight with the 5th person waiting at the resurrection point. As soon as one person dies, they go to the rez point and form a new team with the person waiting. We keep rotating new teams in without stopping.
This does a really good job of training the lizard brain. You are constantly working with a new pair of weapons and against a new pair of weapons. When it breaks down into a 2 on 1, both teams have to be aware of the new team coming in, so positioning on the field becomes very important.
2 on 2s often break down into two 1 on 1s. The biggest success I got out of this was being able to make a pass or two against my opponent, and then hit the other opponent in the back of the head as they had positioned themselves poorly in their 1 on 1 engagement.
We didn't really have a chance to work on that, but its something I hope to focus on in the next practice.
The rest of the night
In addition to the melees that we worked on, we did a reasonable amount of singles practice, and Colin and I finished off the night with a lot of spear dueling.
Check out Highlights from the Caer Adamant Schola here.
This is awesome. You are really seeing the 'more numbers at the point of contact' in these situations, and how important mobility is. Mobility is the best defense as well as you point out in the 2 on 1 that moving to the side is more successful as he is denying the numbers advantage. The same can be done in unit combat, stringing out a line to remove their cohesion and take them down a small bit at a time. This is where light/harrier units thrive. The better heavy units will deny this but they are pretty rare. The 2 on 2 turning into 1 on 1 is a tough thing to overcome... I look forward to seeing your evolution on this theme.
ReplyDeleteI think we need a heavy unit for you guys to play with... Regionals, perhaps?
I'd love for your input on the 2 on 2 at some point (again, maybe Regionals?). We never really attempted to press to one side or the other. The best "rule of thumb" I can come up with for now is to avoid committing to the middle. Or, to put it another, your back should always be pointing away from the center of fighting, not toward.
ReplyDeleteArundoor from Anglesey is a master of these small tactics as a shieldman. Whenever I fight with him, I can usually manage to get my opponent to present his side or back to Arundoor, and Arundoor gets the kill with one shot while protecting himself from his opponent.
It would be nice if we could dissect this and figure out how to learn/teach it.