This is just a quick analysis of one of the battles we fought this weekend. I'm really just writing this post for the handful of friends that I have who were there. There aren't really any cool gifs or videos in the one.
The scenario was a 10v11 single death field battle. This was the third time through, and the best showing of the red team. In the first two battles, red did a deny left, attack right, and the green team responded (blue tape, actually) by fanning out and getting cross kills. Truth be told, the red team were at a disadvantage from the start being down a fighter, and having a coordinated unit as well as two very experienced melee knights on the opposing team.
In this third battle, Red opted to deny on their right while attacking left. It appears that they set up a shield wall on their left flank. In all three battles green decided to skirmish with Anglesey being mostly on the left flank, and the rest on the right.
At lay on, Red pressed to their left with their shield wall. Their pole dropped back to support, and they flanked the wall with a spear on each end hoping to support the charging wall (I assume as I wasn't on their team to hear the plans).
Green responded by moving hard right. Two shields moved to the outside planning to go right into the backfield while letting the shield wall come through. One of the knights pressed forward and set himself up as bait for the wall. The middle spears and pole hovered in support, while the left flank curled around the deniers creating a kill pocket.
Before the first swing is landed, Green is in the superior position, IMO. For red to capitalize, they need to find unsupported fighters to run their shiled wall toward. One of the beauties of experienced skirmish fighting is that it has a way of drawing opponents into disadvantageous positions while surrounding them.
At this point the green flankers went around the wall, driving the spear into the backfield. It appears that the shieldwall wasn't certain where to charge. One fighter went straight for the bait, and found himself surrounded by four fighters. He did manage to get a kill before dying while also tying up a few fighters. Unfortunately only one wingman followed, and he ended up being outnumbered and dying in a two on 1. The third member of the wall decided to try to run down a lone spear, which is not a bad idea, but he would need to keep track of the rest of the battle while doing so. The 4th shieldman split off to his left to try to catch a quick kill.
The two Green flankers end up getting two kills in the backfield. One of them pulls the center spear off to chase him. The center Green spear runs away from the charging Red shieldman, who then turns toward a second lone spear and chases him down. Meanwhile the first green spear immediately returns to the fight to assist the spearman being run down.
Several people are killed in this series of fights, with green coming out slightly ahead. The battle began with 11 Green on 10 Red. At this point it is 9 on 6.
The Red spear kills the flanker and the Red shield kills the green spear but immediately dies to the spear following, making the sides 7 to 5.
Ultimately at this point Green has a really good outside position looking in, while Red finds itself with their backs turned to a lot of Green fighters. Red earns two more kills while Green finishes off the remaining Red.
Final Thoughts
As I said in the beginning, the outcome in a lot of these fights comes down to numbers, experience, skill level, familiarity with your teammates, and certainly a bit of luck. Having said all of that, the way Green executed the tactics in this battle is exactly how I prefer to see skirmish units fight. I typically adhere to the FLANKS philosophy:
F - secure the flanks both with positioning and a strong weapons combination
L - Leg 'em and leave 'em (though in this case we did get a quick kill on a legged fighter. Nevertheless, you should never be preoccupied with one for too long.
A - Assess who has the range advantage. Units that are heavier with spears want to draw the enemy into kill pockets, while units that are heavier on shields want to press the attack and run the spears down.
N - Never fight a fair fight. You should always be looking for advantages before pressing an attack.
K - Know who your killers are and who your supporters are in any given situation. Everyone has a job to perform.
S - Spread out your talent. Don't get caught bunching all of your new fighters into one spot. Also don't bunch up similar weapon types together that might create weaknesses in your lines (ie 4 spear in the middle of a line is a great target for the other side to charge).
Hope you enjoyed!
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