Advanced Jobs for Melee Fighters within the Unit

This post is partially inspired by a Southern Army practice we had recently.  I want to begin by stating up front that I think it was a good practice, and that it was very productive for all parties.  I also agree with most of the general concepts about how the units should work together.

I do, however, think that there was a major piece missing.  Maybe there wasn't time to cover it, or maybe it wasn't the proper venue to work on it.  The piece is, what the roles are of certain key positions within the unit.


Classic Shield Wall

Below is a basic set up of what I like to call the classic shield wall.  The shields are pressed tightly together and to the front of the unit.  The design of such a formation is to keep the unit together, press forward, charge, and run over anything that is weak and/or disorganized.

From here, the most basic tactics are simply to charge left, or to charge right.  This places more points of attack at the contact of engagement.  If you, for example, charge right, you can attack the right half of their unit with your entire unit.

The very simplest instruction to give to each member of the unit is to move in the direction that is called out, stick together, and react to the situation as it presents itself.......without leaving your unit.

While I think this is a great approach for 50% of the fighters (these are the fighters that *never* practice melee, and have very little experience fighting in general) I feel that it limits the effectiveness of more advanced fighters, and consequently the overall effectiveness of the unit.


Key Positions

In a classic shield wall, I've identified five key positions.  These are where you want to place your most experienced fighters, and each position has advanced duties to perform above and beyond simply moving with the unit.  These duties are best performed, in my opinion, if the fighters are allowed the ability to improvise and adapt to the battles as they unfold.

The five key positions are the left most fighter in the front rank, the right most fighter in the front rank (usually shields), the left most fighter in the second rank, the right most fighter in the second rank (shields or poles), and then free floating fighters in the second or third ranks.

I've neglected to include 4 and 5 in the diagram since their jobs are identical to 1 and 2.

Jobs for #1)  If the unit is charging left, the left most fighter in the front rank is tasked with being mobile and beating the opponent around the flank.  He has do identify at what point to impact the enemy.  If the enemy has some loose stragglers on their flank, he has to decide if he needs to peal off to deal with them, or if a fighter in the second rank will take on that task.  Most importantly, he normally does not have a fighter to protect the side he is leading with, so he has to be careful not to get killed as he leads the charge.

If the unit is charging right, his job now changes.  He is now in an even more dangerous position where he may end up with multiple fighters attacking him.  he needs to coordinate with the fighter in position #2 to determine which one of them is going to attempt to fend off the enemies chasing their flank, or if they will attempt to leave their enemies behind altogether.

Whatever the decisions are, it is something that must be thought about for fighters in this position.

Jobs for #2)  In my opinion, this is the more difficult position from a decision making standpoint.  If in the left most position of the second rank and charging left, this fighter may want to swing out wide and double team on the outside most fighter of the first rank they are attacking.  He may want to swing into the second rank in an attempt to quickly fold the flank, or he may want to swing even wider and into the backfield with no intent to engage, but rather to herd the opponent into a corral.

However, if the unit is charging right, the fighter in the #2 position has to decide either to attempt to hold off the flank that they are moving away from, or to move with the unit and leave fighter #1 to fend for himself.  If holding off, he can do so from the extreme left position of the unit, or he can even separate from the unit and move into the opponent's backfield slowing up their advance.

Jobs for #3)  I like to call this position the "free safety."  Some people call it a "reserve" but I've found that for most SCA fighters they interpret that to mean, "don't engage until its too late."  This fighter needs to read the battle as it unfolds and either move to the side that the unit is charging to in an attempt to lead out around the flank, move away from that direction in an attempt to shore up the weak side, or plug up in holes in the middle that may present themselves.

Below is an example of some of the options of some of these fighters.

In the above example, the unit is charging right.  The lead front shield, in this case, decides to cut in around the flank, which is the obvious choice since red has lost the battle for the flank.  The right most pole in the second rank now decides if he will attack in the gap between the two right most shields, come around the right flank, or go wide and into the backfield to put extra pressure on the right.

The left most pole in the second rank, however, is on "deny" duty.  The plan is set up to hit hard on the right, while not letting the left collapse (a "right hook").  The pole can either go right, in order to avoid a charging red, go left and try to hold the now weak left flank (this can be done by shaking the pole and looking menacing, attacking from a safe distance while moving away, or hitting them hard and standing them up), or go wide left and into the backfield to disrupt the unit.

The "free safety" in the back has to decide to either wait and see if the middle needs help, move right to assist on the attack, or move left to assist on the deny.  In this case since the right has already turned the flank, it would likely make more sense to either wait, or assist on the left.

The following result could look like this:

This puts aggressive pressure on the right, supports the left, while also herding red into a corral.  I personally think, provided that these key fighters can handle themselves on a battlefield, that this is a better position than the following:

Keep in mind, that though the unit looks cohesive in this scenario, look at what happens if red counters with a method similar to what I've been describing:

Summary

One point I want to emphasize is that what I am describing is no different than the standard tactics that most units teach.  I'm simply adding to it a few champion level fighters and putting them in key positions that allows them to maximize their effectiveness on the field, and this isn't anything new.  I've been using these very same tactics for decades, as have many of the people who I've fought with in that time.