One of the difficulties of the skirmish approach is that your fighters really have to know how to work with each other. Compare that with, say, a shield wall unit where you can tell a bunch of new people to "stick together" and they simply have to follow the group and hit something if it gets in front of them.
Broken Field Rez Battles
Our first 14 battles were single death open field battles. I really like these, and think they are a great way to get a group used to working with each other, but they can be a bit of a challenge for newer fighters. So much happens so fast, and its difficult to for them to process what's going on. Its also difficult for veteran fighters to call out commands. It all just happens so fast!
Once we came back from break I had set up three "ponds" on the field with resurrection points at either end. The battles were three lives a person with the objective simply being to kill each person on the other team three times.
What worked out really well with these battles was that there were constant tactical maneuvers that happened at a pace that was manageable and easy to process.
"Okay, don't let them punch through the middle."
"There's a guy flanking, you need to hold him off."
"They've got four to our two. We need to back up and wait for reinforcements."
"Okay, don't let them punch through the middle."
"There's a guy flanking, you need to hold him off."
"They've got four to our two. We need to back up and wait for reinforcements."
"Okay, lets jump that guy before reinforcements come."
etc.
I highly recommend this style of battle for any group of fighters looking to improve their melee skills!
Some Lessons Learned
- Press when you have the advantage, especially when you are out gunned by missile weapons.
There was once battle we fought when two of our veterans moved off on the right side and were headed off by four fighters. With two archers in the backfield, that meant we had a six on two advantage on the left. The six never seized the advantage and we ultimately lost the battle.
- Practice two on ones.
There were several scenarios where I saw two on one advantages, and the newer fighters were hesitant to attack. A two on one needs to be taken advantage of quickly. I've written about the two on one fight here extensively, but in a nutshell, the two fighters need to attack on either side of their opponent. They need to move at similar speeds so that they get there at the same time, and it generally works out best if the fighter on the left attacks low while the one on the right attacks high.
If facing a pole or a spear, one person should tie up his weapon while the other goes for the kill.
One success that I had with our newer fighter was a charge on a spear. I called the charge, and as he ran at the spearman, I attacked his spear and held it down. One failure was a charge against a two handed sword. My partner sprinted at him faster than I could react, and cut me off so that I couldn't engage in the fight. Regular practice of the two on one can minimize mistakes like this.
- Don't fight someone who's better than you one on one.
This is a hard one to digest. In singles practice we do so much to build up a person's confidence. You simply have to go into a fight thinking that you can beat your opponent if you are smart about it. And never, ever back down from a fight.
In a melee, however, you want the exact opposite. You rarely want to fight a person better than you. What are your realistic chances of winning? 30%? 10%? Even if you were slightly better than that fighter, I still don't think those are very good odds. There's simply no point in going out and getting yourself killed. Even if you need to hold a flank, there are ways to do it that don't involve you leaving yourself open for an easy death.
etc.
I highly recommend this style of battle for any group of fighters looking to improve their melee skills!
Some Lessons Learned
- Press when you have the advantage, especially when you are out gunned by missile weapons.
There was once battle we fought when two of our veterans moved off on the right side and were headed off by four fighters. With two archers in the backfield, that meant we had a six on two advantage on the left. The six never seized the advantage and we ultimately lost the battle.
- Practice two on ones.
There were several scenarios where I saw two on one advantages, and the newer fighters were hesitant to attack. A two on one needs to be taken advantage of quickly. I've written about the two on one fight here extensively, but in a nutshell, the two fighters need to attack on either side of their opponent. They need to move at similar speeds so that they get there at the same time, and it generally works out best if the fighter on the left attacks low while the one on the right attacks high.
If facing a pole or a spear, one person should tie up his weapon while the other goes for the kill.
One success that I had with our newer fighter was a charge on a spear. I called the charge, and as he ran at the spearman, I attacked his spear and held it down. One failure was a charge against a two handed sword. My partner sprinted at him faster than I could react, and cut me off so that I couldn't engage in the fight. Regular practice of the two on one can minimize mistakes like this.
- Don't fight someone who's better than you one on one.
This is a hard one to digest. In singles practice we do so much to build up a person's confidence. You simply have to go into a fight thinking that you can beat your opponent if you are smart about it. And never, ever back down from a fight.
In a melee, however, you want the exact opposite. You rarely want to fight a person better than you. What are your realistic chances of winning? 30%? 10%? Even if you were slightly better than that fighter, I still don't think those are very good odds. There's simply no point in going out and getting yourself killed. Even if you need to hold a flank, there are ways to do it that don't involve you leaving yourself open for an easy death.
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