Southern Army Practice: Rock, Paper, Bigger Rock

I'm winding down before bed and wanted to jot a few of these thoughts down.  First and foremost I'd like to state that I learn a lot from a whole lot of people all the time.  This blog really is about sharing information about melee fighting, getting the conversation going, and getting people thinking more and more about melee.  Some of its about helping me express my own thoughts in a way that helps me get a better grasp of these ideas.  Some of its about challenging standard conventions that I think can be improved upon.  Its certainly not, I hope, about me telling anyone who may be out there what the "right" way is and that everyone else is doing it "wrong."


Today's Scenarios

Due to weather and coming off of a big event (crown was yesterday), we were a little light today.  30 fighters in total, which included four knights, six former unbelted champions, three former alternates, two archers, my own incognito "ringer"(an Anglesey Kinsman down from NY), and a bunch of well practiced fighters of various levels.

Off the top of my head, we fought five open field battles, a bunch of fort battles, a few bridge battles, and a scaled down version of the Allied Champions battle.


General Observations

I just wanted to added this quick note.  Fighters at this practice, even the best, have had the bad habit of fighting legged fighters.  I was happy to see that there was very little of this this time.  The next thing we need to work on is the habit of just running and attacking anything we see.  Once the battles break up, they are not won with 1on1s and 2on2s. They are won with 2on1s and 3on2s.


Big Rock vs Big Paper

Duke Brennan and the unbelt captains were offering a lot of guidance, most of which I thought was pretty good.  They are very big on being aggressive, sticking together, and taking the initiative to win the battle.  The title above is rock, paper, bigger rock because, at least in the southern region, it seems that the strategy is usually to win with a bigger rock.  There's nothing wrong with this approach, as the Anglesey and Bog approach is often to try to win with a bigger sheet of paper, and we found out today that sometimes our big paper was too much for them, and sometimes their big rock would just punch right through our paper.

In a nut shell, sticking with this metaphor, a big rock is a bunch of powerful shieldmen backed up with some hard hitting pole arms that just plows over people.  The approach is to roll over weaker opponents, punch through gaps, and break through doorways.  If you have a unit with a lot of shields and a lot of big guys, this is probably your best approach.  To pull this approach off, the unit needs to be aggressive, take the initiative, and work together.  Like anything, there's a skill to it that one learns over time.

Paper, on the other hand, brings a lot of well practiced spears, mobility, and flexibility to the unit.  Battles are won by picking apart the opponent with spears, breaking up their main units into chaos, and then winning a bunch of smaller 2 on 1 fights.  If rock charges, bigger rock will counter charge.  Paper, on the other hand, will absorb the charge and draw them into a kill pocket.  Again, the victor largely depends on who is better equipped to pull of their unit's best tactic.

Below you can see an example of how the team on the right used the bigger rock tactic to beat our side (this was after Duke Brennan told them to adapt their strategy):

The two spears on the left team (my friend and I ) used a tactic that normally works will with Anglesey and The Bog, which is to get out in front of the unit, attack early, and then retreat when the opposition advances.  It actually initially worked.  He got a quick kill before the lines engaged, we forced them to charge way out in front of our main unit, and got them to break up as they  approached our unit.  The charge actually began about 25 feet out when they would normally be called closer to 10 - 15 feet away.  You can actually see some of the faster guys get out ahead of their unit.

What ended up going wrong for us and well for the other side is that you can see our main unit moving backward as our spears retreated.  That allowed the other side to get us on our heals and overwhelm us with their initiative.  What is supposed to happen is that as the spears retreat, the rest of the unit is supposed to step up and counter.  I believe our retreat sent them the wrong message and they reacted to us.  One of the things that Sir Thorson has been teaching me down here is that certain tactics are hard to pull off when you are working with a mixed group with mixed levels of experience.  Its a lot easier to get a group to work together and move in the same direction than it is to understand the when/where/what/how's of how to move in different directions to achieve a common goal.

Though the above is an example of the success of the big rock approach and might lead one to believe that spears are ineffective in small field battles (I've found this to be a fairly common belief), the side with two spears actually won the other four battles, and the two spears accounted for (at least in the three battles that were videoed) over half of its team's kills (~6 per battle).


Spear in the Gap

In the field battles, we had a main unit on the left with a smaller flanking unit on the right.  All of the shields were up front in a wall formation.  The poles and spears (3 poles, 2 spears) started off in the back and left to support and improvise.  This was decided by our team captain.  I asked one pole to follow me (I had spear) and protect me if anyone tried to jump me.

In general I looked for parts of the units that had the least mobile fighters in them so that I could start off the battle taking free shots on them without too much risk.  After each battle, the other side made a small adjustment, and I'd move to another part of the field.  My buddy with the pole was doing a pretty good job and smashing into anyone that tried to jump me.

For the most part they were doing a pretty effective job of neutralizing me in the first impact.  The fact that I was surviving through to the next stage of the battle without a fast guy chasing me around the field was a big improvement over the last practice for me (shakes fist at Dietrich).

My "ringer" came down from New York and is a very dynamic, athletic, and accurate spearman.  He noticed early on the he could sit in the gap between the two units and fire his spear with no real counter.  After several battles, the other side never picked up on it.  He mentioned it during our debriefing, and those observing didn't seem to quite understand what he was explaining.  The below diagram explains it a little better:

 Below is an example of how this looks.  Notice the green spearman in between the gap.  He takes a shot at the pole arm in the left unit, and then follows up with a shot a pole arm in the right unit.

Why Spears are Effective

I put a lot of thought in this and watched a lot of video and have come to one main conclusion.  Spears can attack from a range where the opponent does not think they are engaged.  A 7 1/2 foot pole is still close enough that a shieldman or pole is going to keep their defenses up against it.  The extra 18 inches that a spear has seems to put it just far enough away from the opponent that he doesn't realize that you are there, not if he's occupied with someone else, anyway.

Look at the two spears coming out of nowhere below and getting two quick kills.

Never Fight a Fair Fight

This is a huge issue that fighters at most levels have.  They see a 1on1 situation and assume that they should go and hit that person.  The only time you should engage someone 1on1 is when you significantly outclass that fighter.

In the gif below, a shieldman on my team had started attacking a knight by himself (bad) before I came over and stabbed the knight (2on1.....good).  I then ran to my left and joined up with a pole to double up on a shield (good).  Meanwhile, you can see the shieldman in the background run into the middle of a pack of four enemies and get quickly taken out (very bad).  He's actually a very good college aged fighter, but sometimes gets overzealous with his enthusiasm to go and hit people.  This was an observation that Sir Tash had at a recent event concerning newer fighters, that they like to "Leroy Jenkins" their way into hoards of enemies.

Notes about Timed Battles

Duke Brennan had made the comment that if you have a timed battle with resurrections, that you can't waste your time playing around with spears.  I mostly agree with him, but not completely.  I only say this because I've commanded charges in the past with exactly this thought in mind, and they failed.  The most recently actually being just two weekends ago.  If your side is spear heavy, you may not have the brawn to successfully mount a charge that will deliver even a single kill.  You may need to whittle the other side down a bit in order to weaken them enough such that a charge is successful.  Exactly what that point is is not easy to figure out (not for me, anyway).  That's where it helps to have an experienced commander.


Sad News

We lost one of our family shortly after this practice.  If you hadn't already heard, Lord Gunnar Alfson was killed in a car accident just two nights later.  Sunday was his last day in armor.  This was is home practice and the community is absolutely devastated.  He was loved by most who had the pleasure of knowing him.  Though we all strive to become better fighters, train to beat other people, and gain recognition for our accomplishments, its not nearly as important as enjoying life, and bringing joy into the lives of those around you.  Gunnar epitomized that and has reminded me that its the time you share fighting with your friends that is most important, not whether or not you win those fights.