There is a very important nuance that is hard to grasp. Most fighters go through two stages of fighting, with the first being a matter of standing around, being too tentative and unengaged. These are the fighters who will stand there and let spears poke at them until they die. We do our best to teach these fighters how to be aggressive, which gets them to stage two: they charge into any fray without consideration for how they integrate with their team, or whether or not where they are charging is tactically the best decision.
So having said that, even without mastering the nuance of swift, but smart and controlled aggression, at the very least I think I can safely say that one should always be actively involved in the fight. ie You have a purpose and you are serving your purpose, not just waiting for someone to come to you.
The Battle
Here's an example of the way one of the battles played out. I'd like to say up front that the losing side had a mix of knights and newer fighters while the winning side had all experienced unbelt fighters. The losing side learned from this battle and made adjustments such that they won the last few battles they fought.
The fight was 17 on 18, both sides starting out in a single line before they started to split off into units.
Green's plan was to have a group covering each flank with a core unit in the middle, see what red presents, and react. Red had their core group on their right with a plan to do a right hook, with a bunch of fighters dropping off the back to account for the green flankers. Its hard to say if they had more to their plan than that as I was not within hearing distance before the fight.
Red moved out really hard to the right with a mass of 8 guys. The other side of red had a small unit move to stop the flankers, with a second small unit that reacted once they saw the flankers expose their side.
At this point I thought for certain that red was going to win the battle. I thought their core unit of 8 fighters were going to roll right over the small green flanking unit and then on into the flank of green's core unit who were standing their unengaged.
Next comes a two part lesson.
Green Fighters Move to Engage while Red Fighters Disengage
At this point the core green unit realizes that red is splitting in two. They pick one side and move in to fight while a couple of their fighters peal off to defend their potentially exposed back door. This was a great decision and they acted on it quickly.
Red, on the other hand, had half of their core unit drop out of the fight. They mobilized for a right hook, but the lagging half of the unit seemed unable to find people to attack.
Battle Results
Green overwhelmingly won this battle. Was it because of this one particular field decision? No. But it was one of the many small differences that added to the overall result of the battle. Green reacted just a little quicker than red did, which has the same effect in melee as it does in singles.
Ultimately, green just out fought red on their left flank. The 3 green fighters in the middle of the field made a good move against a disorganized red unit by enveloping them and picking them apart quickly. On the right side of the field, green's right flankers were moving into a disorganized unit of red that had an unfavorable weapons balance (only one shield) and the middle right green unit had a more aggressive position on the red fighters than red did on green's far flank.
Having said that, throughout the day I noticed several times certain fighters that were always actively engaged versus other fighters that took a while to find someone to hit. This is important not just an a unit level, but on an individual level as well.
The ultimate lesson is to figure out a way to get involved in the fight (assuming that there is not a limited front that prevents everyone from getting involved. Or, in other words, DON'T crowd the spears! =) )
Follow Up on the 4on2 Discussion
My last blog post addressed a 4on2 scenario involving poles and shields. Sir Thorson and I had an interesting conversation about that today where he pointed out that some areas feel its the shields' job to lead, and the poles to follow what they do, and that in other areas its reversed.
My thought regarding that is that clearly there is no single method that is best. It largely depends on the quality of fighters you have, their specific skills (size, height, mobility, technical skill, etc.), and what they are used to. I do think, however, that when the fighters get together, there needs to be communication as the engagement is happening, and all fighters need to behave in ways that allow the other fighters to read what they are going to do.
As an example, I like to fight in front of the shields with my pole to get attacks in before their shields are in range. In order to ensure that my shields understand that that is what I am doing, I make a very aggressive move forward before the engagement. If two shields want to form a small wall and charge in first, they need to jog a few steps ahead of me to let me know that that is what they are going to do.
Anyway, those were my fighting thoughts today. Hope you enjoyed.
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