Orcs and Goblins

This is a post that I've been holding onto for quite a while that I somewhat affectionately wanted to call "Simon's Command."  It's based off of a series of small field battles that we had at an EK Southern Army practice last Spring.

I ended up changing the title to "Orcs and Goblins" because I think this often describes the mix of fighters that we have to work with.  This isn't to say that certain fighters are big, beastly orcs and others are puny little goblins, but rather that any group is going to consist of a variety of ability levels and that one of the better tactical approaches is to be able to adjust your strategy to the array of talents that you have.


The Setup

We fought a handful of open field battles with roughly 15-16 people per side.  The other team did exactly what was expected, because its what everyone does.  They lined up with a big shield wall and put their pole arms in the back.  Simon was put in charge of our side and decided to go with a "hammer and anvil" strategy.  By this, I simply mean that we had a strong unit take the shield wall head on, with a second group of people to wrap around on the flank.

As he started picking up people on his team, he began putting them into positions that suited their talents well.  He built up a shield wall of about 6 veteran fighters, put a veteran left handed pole arm on the left side of the wall, a right handed pole arm on the right side of the wall (that was me), three mobile melee savvy knights off to our right, and then filled in the back of the shield wall with a few remaining poles.

The plan was to hit the middle of their wall with our wall while a small group of elite troops swung around the right flank.  The result was pretty successful.  The shield wall stayed in tact and our left pole arm was able to stave off or slow down any attempts to get around our left flank.  I moved into the gap between our shield wall in order to secure our right side, while our knights rolled around the flank and into the back field.  We won our first two battles very decisively.

A point to reiterate throughout this blog:  controlling the flanks is a main key to winning melee battles.

Above is the initial lineup with the "key melee veterans" circled (three knights and two unbelt melee champions).

The red team stayed together and moved to hit green's left flank.

Green protected their left flank while sending 4 skirmishers around the right flank.  Three knights went fast and wide picking apart whatever was in their path while I (the 4th fighter in) filled the gap in order to hold off a potential breakthrough on our right flank.

Our side one decisively with this plan twice in a row.  One of the knights on our side thought it was a bad plan and that a better plan would be for all of us to stick together and move in the same direction rather than to divide our forces.  I disagree (though admittedly, I was not savvy enough to pick up on the strength of Simon's strategy at the time).


Pro's and Con's of a Shield Wall

A shield wall is effective for essentially four purposes:

1)  Taking an objective that is directly in front on them (like capturing a flag, breaking through a gate, etc.)

2)  Defending an objective that is directly behind them.

3)  Quickly killing a loose collection of troops who don't know how fight in an open field without being in a wall.

4)  Giving your troops a simple structure to keep them from becoming a loose collection of troops who don't know how to fight in an open field.

The downsides to shield walls is that they maneuver very slowly making them easy to get out flanked (they are also easy to avoid frontal engagement with), and they limit the effectiveness of high end melee fighters by limiting their ability to out position the opponent.

In the scenario above, Simon took the best of both worlds.  Those who fought better in a wall were put in the wall.  Those who were more effective skirmishing out on the flank were put out on the flank.  In each battle, green's wall hit red's wall.  If this was a game of rock, paper, scissors, both sides through rock, giving neither the advantage.  While red had all of its fighters tied up in the same spot, waiting for the walls to break down, green had five of its most effective fighters freed up to wrap around the flanks.


The Third Battle

Taking the advice of the knight, Simon changed the plan to everyone sticking together and moving left.  We lost with about 8 red fighters still alive.  The comment was that we "did better" because we "stuck together."  Though I agree that for novice fighters, sticking together might be the more important goal, I think that often times SCA groups limit their effectiveness by not recognizing some of the potential that they have within their units to fight outside of the shield wall paradigm.  A shield wall is the best way to fight for some fighters, but I don't think it should be the end goal for most fighters.

Good Melee Drills and Breaking SCA Paradigms

Last night I went to the local University to fight with a handful of relatively new fighters.  In total there were 8 of us ranging in heavy melee experience from 1 practice to 3 full years of experience (myself being the exception, having started in 1993).  We started off with a bear pit, then did a bunch of 8 man melee fights, and ended with some melee drills.

Overall I was really impressed with the melee instincts that this group had.  I mean REALLY impressed.  The least experienced fighters out there picked up on what to do pretty quickly.  The most experienced fighter and myself discussed how rare this was, and I pondered on it since yesterday, and have come to the following conclusion.

These guys had good instincts because they did NOT learn standard SCA tactics.  Instead, they've had to figure it out on their own by doing lots and lots of foam weapon fighting with no instruction, with the final result being that they learned how to fight, rather than how to be told where to stand, how to follow instructions, and how to be part of a wall that protects the veteran fighters.  


The Standard SCA Approach
I'm a huge fan of letting fighters figure out melee fighting mostly on their own.  Much like the best basketball players in the world started on the playground, I think its best for melee fighters to begin with unstructured team play.  I

I've found that the SCA takes a much different approach which is centered more around developing a basic system, and then cramming everyone through that system.  The cultural structure of the SCA reinforces this "do what I say" approach.  In education, we call these the "sage on the stage vs the guide on the side" approaches.  I find the sage on the stage more effective for singles, much like one would prefer to learn to play the piano this way.  For melee, however, I prefer the guide on the side approach.  Let them fight, see what went right and reinforce it, and see what goes wrong and offer suggestions to fix it.

I mean, I understand why the SCA often trains their fighters to work in shield walls.  In many case, they only get a few practices in before a big war and its the best that they can really hope for a bunch of inexperienced melee fighters to be able to accomplish, but I think it has become a flawed paradigm of how to fight.  I want my fighters to become bishops and rooks, not pawns.


Those Rebellious Spearmen

I thought this historical example could offer a little perspective.  My group, Anglesey, along with our sister celtic clan, The Concusare, did a lot of Markland fighting in the late 80s and early 90s.  Unlike the SCA, Markland allowed face thrusts, which greatly improved the effectiveness of spears when approaching shield walls.  While in the SCA a solid shield wall was almost impenetrable, in a Markland battle, it was only a matter of time before the shields got picked apart.  This created an environment for a completely different set of tactics.

Sometime in the mid 90s, the SCA started allowing face thrusts in their battles, and as you can imagine, we were well ahead of the game tactically speaking.  Us, along with Calontir, were among the small minority of groups that would bring their spears out in front of the battle lines to face off against the other side, and were very effective with it.

One day, not long after this shift in rules happened, a friend and I drove 45 minutes to an SCA practice that he had heard about.  I was in my mid 20s at the time, and had a horrible looking set of gear.  We brought our greatswords and our pole arms and our spears, and sat in on the practice.  At one point in the practice, I faced off against one of their commanders with a little spear duel.  After beating him a few times, he proceeded to tell me everything that I was doing wrong, and that I wouldn't be able to do those things standing behind a shield wall.  When I told him that I do them from in front of the shields he told me, once again, that I was wrong and that if I did that, the shields will just run me down and kill me.

Anyway, life moved one, a few years later I dropped out of fighting only to return after a decade off.  In my first event back I joined in on a bridge battle, and what do I hear?  The commanders on both sides yell, "Okay everyone, lets bring our spears to the front."

The point here is that if you constantly restrict your fighters to sticking to paradigms that you are used to, and to only follow commands, they are never going to learn how to fight, and your unit will always be behind the curve on melee fighting tactics.  Here I was, ahead of the curve and being very effective, and yet the commander was trying to break me of what he considered to be bad form, simply because he was not open to a new approach to fighting.


Practice Scenarios

We tried something new, which I thought went over very well.  When doing a 4 on 4, its common to match up the teams by spreading out the teams as evenly as possible.  We tried something different.  We put the 4 most experienced fighters onto one team and the 4 least experienced fighters on the other.  The result was, as you could imagine, the experienced team won rather easily.

The way this scenario works is that the team that wins gives up one fighter to the other side (the least experienced if the more experienced team wins, and the most experienced if the less experienced team wins).  So after the first battle we fought 3 on 5.  The 5 won, but barely.  In the next battle the more experienced team won, but it was a closer fight, and then the 5 won again, but more definitively than before. We went back forth like this for several rounds.

The reason why we did this was to create a completely different dynamic than what we're used to.  When teams are evenly matched, the strategies are often the same.  The better guys end up facing off, and the newer guys face off.  Or, sometimes the better guys on each team roll over the newer guys, hoping to do it faster than their opponents do.

This offered a different dynamic.  As I told two of our newer fighters recently, "I don't need you to be able to beat a good fighter.  I need two of you to be able to beat a good fighter, and I need you to know how to adjust your tactics so that you can make that happen."  Likewise, our better fighters don't need to be able to kill new fighters.  They need to be able to kill multiple new fighters.

Being on the veteran team, it really pushed us to work to figure out how to fight when outnumbered.  The newer guys, on the other hand, eventually learned to merely attempt to survive when in a one on one situation, and how to overwhelm their opponents when they had a numbers advantage.  In the battle that they won by the largest margin, they left one fighter to occupy two of us, while the other 4 attacked our 3rd fighter.


Don't "Bruce Lee" the Single Fighter

I've now seen this happen several times.  The fighters will be in a 3 on 1 situation, and they start charging at the single fighter one at a time.  It literally looks like Enter the Dragon.  One guy runs in, the single fighter side steps and kills him, then the next guy, side step and kill, and then the 3rd guy.  The phrase I started yelling out that seemed to have the best effect when we had a numbers advantage was, "Be smart!"  Be smart means, stop, think, and work together.  When you have a numbers advantage, you are totally set up to win.  Slow down and think about who needs to go where.


2 on 1s

If you get nothing else out of these blogs, remember the following two pieces of advice.  1)  Practice your spears and 2) practice your 2 on 1 drills at every practice you can.

For these I sat out and went into "basketball coach" mode.  It was really simple.  They'd do a 2 on 1 fight and I'd watch.  When they finished, I would point out one thing that someone did poorly, or I praised one person for doing something very well, and then we'd move quickly to the next group to fight.  More often than not, the mistake that they'd make is that one person from the pair would run at the single fighter, cut off his own man, and fight him by himself.

Remember, in a 2 on 1, one person needs to commit to staying to the left half of his opponent, and one needs to commit to staying to the right.

One thing I noticed is that the newer fighters like to charge at their opponents at full speed, and they aim for the center of their opponent.  This is why the single fighter is able to side step like Bruce Lee.  This also sets them up such that their momentum takes them past the fighter, and places them directly in front of their partner.

One thing that helped at practice during this drill is before every fight I would say, "Okay, who's on the left and who's on the right?"


2 on 2 on 2 Free for all Resurrection Battles 

I learned this from a Tuchux a couple of years ago and find it to be an incredible drill.  Normally we do it with 5 fighters, but this time we did it with 6.  You pair up and fight.  First person dead goes to the resurrection point.  The second person dead goes to the resurrection point and you have a brand new team of two fighters come in, immediately!  You keep doing this until people are exhausted.

This drill gives you a constant mix of different 2 on1 and 2 on 2 situations that that you have to think very quickly on.  I've found this to be, hands down, the best drill you can do to teach people how to work together and react quickly within a melee situation.


Final Thought on Spear Fighting

On a side note, I find that the spear is still a very misunderstood weapon.  I just watched a video where an SCA commander was giving a class and pointed out that there are some "spear gods" that will walk out front with their spears and their giant egos and rack up 50 kills.  When someone in the class asked, "why do we let them do that," she replied, "well, no one can stop them.  They don't listen and just do their own thing."

Shouldn't the answer have been, "because they kill 50 people when they do that?"  I mean, is the point of the battle to follow a plan that someone drew up 30 years ago?  Or is it to kill lots of people and win the battle?

100 Minutes War

Hello everyone.  100 Minutes was a blast!  It was my first battle fighting with spear since September, after having gotten some bad tendonitis in the bicep attachment of my thrusting arm.  The good news is a) I fought pretty well despite the limited practice and b) two days later the arm still feels pretty good!

Lots of thoughts on the battle, but first and foremost, here's a video that gives a good aerial view of the fighting.  Really cool stuff!


Aerial View Video


Spears

If you take a look at the video, you can see that there are spears everywhere.  This kind of battle, a limited front resurrection battle, is always going to come down to the number and effectiveness of spears and archers, yet so few people put much time into practicing their spears.  A well practiced veteran spear in a battle like this can have a 5:1 to 10:1 kill ratio.  Not only that, he can get well over 50, or even a 100 kills.  I say this all the time; if you want to get better as a unit, practice your spears!

A friend of mine said he wanted to watch what I did on the field to get a sense of how I find good places to fight.  As a result, I made sure I took a mental note of the kinds of things I look for.


Find a Safe Spot to Attack Spears on an Angle

So here's an example of a good fighting spot that I found pretty early on:

I'm represented by the white spear in the middle.  To my right were a handful of spears stacked up against each other with a handful of shields straight across from me.  Essentially I had a really good position where I could attack these spears on the oblique while not really being in any danger of having someone attack me.


Find a Bunch of Unprotected Poles and Shields



In this situation you can see that I'm really unopposed.  I can take unlimited shots against the pole and shields without any concern for getting killed.  If they charge, which always takes a bit of organization (which I can usually pick up before it happens), and can just sink back behind my line and let our shields and poles engage them.  Also, something to note, the charges are few and far between in a 100 minute resurrection battle (its too tiring), so there's less threat here than, say, a single death field battle.

Challenge the Spear God

If a "Spear God" goes unchallenged, he or she can really rack up a lot of kills for the other team.  If you see one on the other side, it might be a good idea to put a spear on him in order to slow up his kills.  Lets say, for example, he's a "level 10" spear and you are a "level 5" spear (I'm using made up D&D levels to illustrate a point), if left alone, he might get 10 kills for every 5 kills that you get somewhere else.  However, if you challenge him by standing within range, you might slow him down to 1 or 2 kills within that same time period.

When engaging a "Spear God," however, you really need to come in with your top focus, and top defense.  I'm about as experienced as any spearmen out there, but I have a list of about 10 spears that I remember that when I see them, I absolutely bring my A+ game to the field. 

From the other end, I also noticed that after having a good run of kills, a veteran fighter would step up from the other side and put a spear on me.  Every time it happened, it really slowed down my progress.  One friend of mine who is an excellent fighter, but not an extremely experienced spearman, did just this many times.  He was smart enough to drop out of my range every time I faced him, but would creep up on me every time I turned to target someone on an angle.  I only managed one kill on him for the day, but he kept me from getting many kills because I couldn't ignore him.

Look for a Bulge in the Line

Any time you can see a bend in the line, you can often find good kill opportunities right at the peak of that bend. 

Here would have been a great spot for a spear to stand in order to get some good attack opportunities on the two fighters at the peak of this bulge. 

Learn how to Handle Archers

I learned much of my spear fighting from about 1994 - 2004, before I took a decade off from fighting.  One of the biggest changes when I got back into the game was the increase in archery.  It used to be that if you were a good spearman, you could just get right up in the front line and stay there as long as you knew where all of the spear threats were.  For the most part, those days are gone!

I've really worked on my archer defense over the last 9 months.  I really got lit up at 100 Minutes last year, but still thought that getting hit by an arrow was just something that happened to you.  It wasn't until I got about 20 minutes into the ravine battle at Gulf Wars (which was just swarming with archery) that I decided that I really needed to change my whole approach.  Did I improve?  Well, in the last month I had three different archers tell me that I'm really hard to hit.  I don't think they would have said that a year ago.  And I can say confidently that I probably got killed 1/10th as much by arrows this year than I did at the same event last year.

The biggest thing I learned about archers is that they like high percentage shots.  You don't have to make yourself impossible to hit,  You just need to make yourself harder to hit than some other target on the field.  There's a few ways to do that.

- Always note where they are.  They will watch your eyes and know when you are looking at them.  If they know that you are aware of them, they are less likely to shoot at you,

- Get into a defensive position when they aim at you.  Again, if they take aim, pointing your spear at them and getting ready to dodge will often make them pass on the shot.  It'll also get you ready to block or dodge if they do shoot.

- Don't move in predictable patterns.  This is actually a good thing for fighting against anyone ,let alone archers.  Some spears will move almost like ballroom dancers.  Target, step, shoot, recover.  Target, step, shoot, recover.  1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4.  Target, step......crap, I got shot. 

- When ever you need to step back and take a break, look for the archers.  If you get on a really good run and kill 2-3 guys in quick fashion.  Stop and look for the archers.  If they aren't there, get back to work.  If you see one, try to see if he's paying attention to you.  If he is, wait until he shoots at someone else.  If he won't leave you alone, find a different spot.

Fighting with Sword and Shield

In battles like these, there is one major flaw that at least half of the shieldmen have.  They have a habit of coming up to the line and standing just inside of spear range.  Most shields would die far less often if they'd stand 12" back from where they normally stand.  There are rare exceptions to this, Duke Edward being one of them, as well as a handful of guys in Anglesey, where the shieldman can stand in the front rank and defend himself while preparing for an attack of opportunity.  If you have no plan for that, then you shouldn't be on the line (additional note, Count Thorson is also really good at making himself a target on the front line to occupy other spears, but his defenses are good enough that he can pull this off). 

The exception to this rule for all shields is that if your side runs out of spears, you have no choice but to hold the line and try to weather the assault.

Look at this video.

Just after the 50 second mark you can see 3 shields on the right side standing right inside spear range.  Eventually one gets legged, while the other gets popped in the face.

Now you might wonder, if not standing on the front line defending spears, what should a shieldman be doing?  Well, there are a few things.  One is to back up your spears.  Early on in the war, I got run down by a shieldman and killed.  When I turned to resurrect, I saw that no one was standing behind me.  Had there been some shields and poles back there, that guy never would have charged.  And if he did, he would have paid for it!

Another is too stack up a bunch of shields and then column charge into the other side.  This is very effective at taking ground in most battles.  The problem is, in a resurrection battle such as this where there is no banner to capture, the shields that do this need to ensure that they are creating more kills than they are taking.  Most shields that charge in this manner will charge until they die.  I think it is more effective to charge, get a few swings in, and then recover to a safe place (a pulse charge).  This accomplishes a few things.  It gets a few kills, it opens up a few opportunities for the spears, and it makes the opponents wary of future charges, which hinders their effectiveness.

When this is done, however, the shields must clear out after the pulse is over.  Too often I've seen shields pulse, and then clog up the front rank after they've finished. 

The best thing a shield can do, however, is to do a solo pulse and run down the line.  Duke Edward was doing this a lot, and I'd often see him get upwards of 7 kills in the process.

Look at this video.

At about 2:30, you see the shieldman on the left in the foreground step right up to the front line within spear range. I would normally say that this is not a good position, but he started putting pressure on the flank and eventually moved in to attack.  I'm not sure if he got the kill, but he did die in the process.  The result may not have been the best, but he had the right idea.  Maybe he'll be more effective next time, or maybe after some more experience he'll be effective *most* of the time.

Right after the 3:10 mark, the other side stacks up their shields and charges.  I can't tell from the video, but I didn't see a lot of dead people coming out of the back.  Again, the key here is not just to charge into a kill pocket.  You need to get kills and stay alive! 

In the previous video (here), right at 21 seconds you can see a solo charge coming from the middle of the uphill team.  Notice how he finds his opportunity, dives right into it, and then runs down the line.

The Learning Process and Having Fun

Its not all about winning.  We didn't have a lot of veterans come up to this event.  I had a handful of new guys who each had 0-5 events under their belts.  Anglesey is a strong, cohesive unit, but we also pride ourselves in having a lot of autonomy and individual abilities in melee.  Rather than have the whole group stick together, I really think it was more fruitful for them to go out and play, find different areas to fight in, try different things, etc.  The last thing I want is for a shieldman to come to his first event and be forced to follow me around to all of the spots that are best for me.

As for myself, I saw that Sir Moe was at the event at about the half way mark.  He's an amazing spearman, and I really wanted to challenge myself, so I went and fought across from him for the second half of the battle, taking a small break to go and get a sniper kill on a friend of mine over on the left side.  =)

All in all, it was a great day.  Thanks to everyone who made it happen!

Broken Field Rez Battle as a Teaching Tool

I just got back from a small friends and family fighting event that consisted mostly of the Bog.  As per usual, most battles were on the order of 10 on 10.  As you might have figured out by now, we don't block up into shield wall units as we've found that they lack flexibility and are, in my opinion, easy to beat.  Instead we adopt a much more fluid skirmish approach.

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, 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.

Spears vs Shields - Battle on the Bay

Its been a while since I've posted anything.  I'm getting killed at work and with home improvement projects, even though I've been sitting on a handful of thoughts I've been wanting to blog about.  So here goes.


Battle on the Bay

Battle on the bay had ~50 fighters or so fighting three different scenarios.  Our side consisted mostly of The Bog (Anglesey, Galatia, The Concusare, as well as some Head Clan, Prechain, and sometimes the Order of the Lost Boys) while the other side contained standard Atlantian heavy fighters with two knights (Sir Tash and Sir Jocelyn).  The Bog won all but one scenario.

Why did I call this Spears vs Shields?  Take a look:

Ultimately our side had 14 fighters who are primarily spear fighters, while Atlantia had 3, none of whom seemed to have the experience that our spears had.


Scenario 1:  Resurrection Bridge - get to the other side
The first battle was about taking ground.  Being very spear heavy makes this kind of scenario a real challenge, so the first thing we did was to have a handful of our fighters switch to secondary weapons.  The bridge was narrow enough that it could only really contain ~ 5 spears in the front rank, so 14 spears would really have been over kill.  In addition, the biggest concern we had was being able to repel a charge, which is done with poles and shields, not spears.  So 5-6 of our spear fighters switched to poles or shields.

The tactic for Atlantia was actually pretty simple.  Charge!

The challenge was really for our side.  We did our best to repel charges, but ultimately every charge resulted in Atlantia gaining ground.  To counter that, we had to rely on killing them when they charged, pushing them off of the bridge, killing them with our spears in between charges, and then slowly pressing forward and recovering ground while they regroup.

This is something that I notice that the Tuchux are very good at; taking ground with a steady press.  We needed to make a concerted effort to make sure we weren't just killing and holding ground, but killing and moving forward, one step at a time.

Scenario 2:  Resurrection Field Battle - capture the relics

This was a standard open field resurrection battle with a twist.  We needed to capture two of their relics while preventing them from capturing ours.

Battles like these tend to favor the side with spear superiority.  The only real note I'll make about this battle is that positioning on the flanks is a real key to winning these.  Most local SCA heavy fighters are taught to "stick together," which makes it very easy to corral them into a kill pocket.  I find its better to spread out and hit them on their flanks than it is to stay bunched up.




In the photo above you can see that we have Atlantia corralled into a kill pocket.  The two fighters facing the camera in the middle of the picture are on the extreme left, while the fighter in the plaid pants in the foreground is on the right.  All fighters from The Bog can see the entire battle, while each Atlantian has to fight without knowing what is going on on at least one of these flanks.


Scenario 3:  Resurrection Bridge - Get more kills than the enemy to win

This is a variant of the first scenario where instead of taking ground, you must get kills.  These bridges were wider, so we actually went with more spears.

The Bog really went in with no clear plan, other than to adapt to what the other side was doing.  Our tactics are pretty simple; kill them with spears if they stand there, or absorb them into a kill pocket if they charge.

If there are any two lessons I can give to most SCA fighters in these scenarios, it would be these:

1)  Learn to fight with a spear, and practice it often.

2)  Learn how to charge with purpose.

The first tip is pretty straightforward.  As for the second, I've noticed that most heavy fighters don't really know how to charge effectively.  Most will simply put their heads down and push forward until they die.  We have a lot of experience with this and we have simply learned how to draw them into a kill pocket and then kill them when they are surrounded.

The diagram above shows the results of most charges that we face.  A bunch of people plow into us, we give ground, or push them into the middle, and then kill them once they are surrounded.  Too many people treat heavy fighting like a sumo wresting contest.  Sure, that'll work if your opponent does the same thing, and you are better at pushing than they are.  But ultimately one should learn how to charge, take ground, kill people, hold the ground, etc. rather than to simply put the head down and push.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately I wouldn't say that our side won due to tactics.  Our side simply had a lot more experience and had been fighting together for decades.  The other side was a collection of everyone else.  I don't think there was a single unit on the other side that practiced together.

They did, however, have the advantage of having our friend, Sir Tash, who's been fighting with us for decades and knew exactly how we fight and where our strengths and weaknesses were.  He put forward two key strategies on the day that allowed them to get a win in one battle, and really narrow the margin of victory in another battle.  Both involved coordinated charges that were targeted at specific points in our lines to try to gain achieve the victory condition.

And, as always, thanks to Ursus for taking photos (seen above).  Check out www.bogpages.com

Pennsic - part 5 - Field Battle Videos

Hey, turns out we've got videos of the battles!

In the first field battle, I talked about our flanking of what I think was the Aethelmearc army:

Blog Post:  Pennsic - Part 1 - Field Battle

Fortunately, I found a 1st person video of it (taken by my friend Albert......uh.....ignore the taking during the hold).  I think its clear that we did very well in this battle, despite eventually losing.  Keys to success, IMO, were:

Smart tactical decision moving in on the flank
Being fast and mobile because of our loose skirmish approach
Melee skills (there was a *lot* of melee experience in that group).
Great balance of weapons (constant back and forth between the use of spears and shields)

Anyway, check out the video (note, this is the first field, not the 2nd, despite the title.


video:  FIELD BATTLE 1



And we also have footage of the second field battle, but from a different perspective.  In this one you can see us hit a small group of people on the flank, and then after killing them, moving down the hill to engage the flank of the main unit.

Blog Post:  Pennsic - Part 2 - Advanced Tactic

video:  FIELD BATTLE 2

We come in right at the 1 minute mark.  We're in the foreground in either green and gold, or black and white.

Pennsic - Part 4 - Bridge Battles

The Bog (Anglesey, The Concusare, Galatia) fighting with Atlantia did well in the bridge battles this year.  We historically do well on bridges for a few reasons.  We have a lot of really good spears.  We have a few shields who know how to fight from the front rank.  We have poles and shield who know how to support the spears, and we have a good system of fighting.  We were one of the first "spears to the front" units dating back to the late 80s/early 90s when conventional wisdom had shields in the front with spears trying to shoot from behind them.

Working Together

We found it very frustrating fighting in the MOAB battle when on the attacking side.  Too many SCA people would get mixed in with our group, and they just don't work the way we do, and its very hard to be effective.  Kinsman Karuk pushed for us having our own frontage when we fought the bridges so that we could keep The Bog together without too much mingling with other fighters.  We negotiated with Atlantia to give us a piece of the bridges they were on, with us taking the right side and them taking the left.

Our first battle went well, but we had a few Atlantian shields mixed in our front rank that were difficult to work around.  In the next three battles we did a much better job at clearing them out after the initial charge, but fell off of that on the 5th battle (which was our worst battle).

Starting the Battle

Always begin the battle with a shield wall.  If you begin with spears up front, and they begin with a shield wall, they will run you right over.  Always start with a shield wall, and if the battle is a timed battle for control of the middle, charge that shield wall as fast as you can right across the bridge.

Spears to the Front

Once the line is set, the key to the battle is going to be getting as many of your spears on the front line as possible, BUT with plenty of space between them so that they can work.  Too many spears get in each others way, they plug up lanes for potential pulse or column charges, and they can' t retreat back into their own ranks when receiving a charge (see the top unit in the diagram below).

Oh, and one piece I can't emphasize enough;  get your shields out of the front rank.  If you aren't anchoring a particular spot on the bridge for some reason, or your shields don't effectively know how to get kills from the front line, then get them out of the front rank.  They are just taking up space and preventing your spears from being able to work.  They aren't "protecting" anyone.  They are just in the way.

Exceptions can be made for the rare shieldmen who actually know how to jump into a line of spears and get a few kills.  The vast majority of shieldmen can't do this.

Spears - Shields - Poles

Upon establishing the spear line, the next two ranks need to be organized.  The second rank should be shields, so that a charge can be repelled, or so that they can charge out of the second rank when the opportunity arrises.  Examples would include when the other side has too many spears in the front rank (such that they can't retreat easily), the other side has two ranks of spears (easy kills), or the other side has weakened and territory can be gained with a charge.  The third rank should be poles as they can effectively back up a shield wall.

If the unit receives a charge, the spears melt back into the 3rd rank as the shields and poles push past them.  If the unit wishes to charge, the same exact method applies.

Badly Organized Front Line

We did very well in the bridge battles this year, but the 5th battle we were poorly organized.  We allowed too many shields to plug up the front ranks.  My apologies to the shieldmen in this picture, they were doing what they thought was right and we, the commanders, failed to get the line organized correctly.

I count 5 shields and a pole in the front rank, and only 4 spears, who were crowding each other.  We had not captured the bridge for the point, yet, and there was no way it was going to happen with the way we were disorganized in this line.

As I've been learning in the last couple of years, working together and individual prowess can go a long way, but good command and good organization can account for quite a lot!

Pennsic - Part 3 - Commanding

This was my first Pennsic as a commander.  I've fought in ~10 Pennsics at this point, but never have I had the responsibility for the wellbeing of my unit.  This year, however, Anglesey elected me to be their warlord.

As a fighter, I'm mainly concerned with killing what's in front of me, surviving, and helping out my tribe and my side when needed.  As a commander, on the other hand, I met with the warlord of Atlantia (the army who hired us) every morning before the battle to find out what the plan was and how we fit into it.  Sometimes we did exactly what they asked, while other times we offered alternatives depending on what the scenario was and what we thought we were best suited to do.  Half way through the war I realized it was better to bring advisors with me if only to have a second set of ears to listen to the plan.

Allied Champions Battle

We took the right flank, and fought it well.  Despite losing all of the victory points, our flank generally held the midway point and pushed well past it between horns which released the resurrection corrals.  Our guys (The Bog:  Anglesey, The Concusare, and Galatia) know how to fight this kind of battle, so they needed no instructions from me.  The only thing I told them was to pace their selves because we were short on reserves.

As commander, however, I constantly had to step back and watch the lines.  Our middle and left flanks were pushed behind us, so I couldn't see them from the front line.

Mother of all Battles

This battle required two key command decisions on my part.  The first was when defending the castle.  I elected to stand as a reserve on the left breech (closest to the market).  We knew that this was the most likely place for the enemy to break through.  One commander came over and offered an alternative plan, which myself and our vice warlord talked him out of, as his plan was going to give up all of our advantages (to be discussed in a later blog).

I was focussed on the potential of Blood Guard breaking through at the corner of the castle.  One of my Kinsmen said that we should be worried about the far left, instead.  I thought for certain that Ironlance would hold the left.  It turns out that he was right and I was wrong.

As soon as the Tuchux started pushing though on the far left, I made the call for us to go and reinforce.  Again, as commander, I didn't have the luxury of running up to help.  As they ran to reinforce, I surveyed the field to see if it was enough, or if there were other weaknesses.  I spotted a unit who had just moved in and turned to look down the hill at Blood Guard.  I yelled over to them and pointed to the far left flank and that they needed to help.  They responded in kind.

The other decision to make was when we were attacking the town.  At this point I started to discuss the plans more with some experienced fighters in the group.  We decided that we would move into the town and try to find a weakness to exploit.  We found a unit that appeared less experienced than us in the middle road and decided to hit them.  It was actually one of my men who pointed it out, but it was still my job to make the call and mobilize the unit, which I did.

Bridge Battle 

This battle was one of our better successes.  This time I grabbed three advisors and walked out to the bridges before the battles began and discussed ideas with Atlantia's warlord.  After hashing out several plans, he agreed to give us partial frontage of whatever bridges we were on.

At the beginning of the first battle, I realized that I needed to let our other spears up to the front while giving up my own normal spot on the line.  The biggest challenge here was getting our unit organized, and making sure that Atlantian fighters didn't clash with what we were doing.

The first bridge was a little rough, mainly getting Atlantian shieldmen off of the front rank when it was time for our spears to work. I did a better job of this on the next three bridges, yet failed badly on the 5th bridge.  I also had a moment where I ran to an Atlantian commander insisting that we needed a pulse charge (he was already on it), and a few moments where I cleared out a lane for a column charge (in one case I grabbed the king and threw him out of the way.  I later apologized, to which he said its better than getting plowed in the back by a column).

The other key command decision was on the 4th bridge we were slated as a reserve unit.  I moved us into position so that we'd be much closer when we'd need to react.  Early on we saw bridge #2 about to collapse, so we moved in on it.  As the unit moved in, I realized that we were still pretty thin (we had ~20 fighters), so I looked back for reinforcements, and saw Atlantia coming up right behind us.

Wall Battle

Its hard to say how this would have panned out.  We were on the northern most breach, which was about 8 ranks deep.  The only thing that could help this breech would have been column charges, which we are just not built for.  One of my men suggested that we move our entire unit to the south breech, which I agreed was a good idea.  I ran this past a few other fighters, including the warlords of Galatia and The Concusare, and we agreed to move.  Unfortunately, I could only convince half the group to move.  I felt the decision was the right one to make, but failed at mobilize our entire unit.

One of the benefits of having a group of veteran warriors is that they all know how to fight and don't need to be told what to do.  The down side is that they don't always follow orders.  I can only hope that had the battle lasted another hour as it was supposed to, that I could have gotten our unit back together.

Field Battle

Last year we had two field battles that did not workout as we would have liked.  We served as a shield for the Tuchux, but it didn't put us in the best of positions.  We are better when we can move like a pack of wolves.

This year we told Atlantia that we would satellite around them, but would have to make a judgement call as we read the battlefield.  In all three battles we had a lot of talking back and forth within the unit as the battle unfolded.  I made a few calls to reposition a few key people within the unit based on what I thought we would do.  This was actually one of the easier battles to command as we were generally able to make the decision before impact, and then the rest would flow naturally afterward.

Lessons Learned

Being a commander is a much different experience on the field.  Its like moving out of a playing role and more into a coaching role.  I would argue that having a good commander on the field is far more important than having one more good fighter in the unit.  Its tough not being able to just focus on fighting, but I got some positive feedback from our fighters saying that they had the room to work and the necessary support to do what they needed to do to be successful.

A lot of time when someone gets killed, they'll say, "you caught me thinking."  For me, that was the hardest aspect of commanding while fighting.  My kill ratio was probably the worst its been in a while.

Next year I will be the vice warlord.  It will be interesting to see if I can let go control of the unit and go back to fighting.

Pennsic - Part 2 - Advanced Field Tactic

As I wrote in my last blog post, I'll be talking about Pennsic in several parts.  This is my second installment.

I originally wanted to put in a different title that described exactly what we did in this battle, but I thought a "what would you do" approach to each step might be a little more interesting, so I've simply called this "Advanced Field Tactic" to keep you in suspense!  =)

The Scenario

This was the second field battle.  We fought on the Midrealm side and were lined up on our far right flank.  Our unit, known as The Bog Troopers (or simply "The Bog", comprised of 3 celtic clans: Anglesey, The Concusare, and Galatia) consisted of ~10 veteran fighters, about half shields, and the rest were poles and spears, plus one archer (spears and poles are both represented as poles in the diagrams).  To our left was a sizable Atlantia unit.

Note:  we fielded over 20 fighters for most of the war, but the heat, rain, and the Pennsic Plague cut our numbers down drastically for this battle.

When the battle started, Atlantia marched right and so did we.  Across from us were the Tuchux, who held back on the hill in reserve, and a smallish unit (maybe 20 fighters) who charged ahead of their entire army and appeared to be headed directly for us.

At this point, I believe, Atlantia stopped their forward progress to read the field.  We kept moving forward, as did the unit across from us.  It appeared that we might be in for a head on engagement.  At this point blue has a slight up hill advantage, with the hill sloping upward both behind blue and to our right (their left).

What Would You Do?

Pardon me if I sound patronizing, but I think this is a good exercise for anyone.  What would you do if you were The Bog?  What would you do if you were the blue unit?

Now I think from the blue's perspective its pretty clear.  They see what appears to be a loose band of rabble in front of them with no shinny hats and no belts.  Most people in this case would likely charge straight into The Bog.  Of course, we know that and we also know that we wouldn't fair well taking on a shield wall charge from a larger unit head on, so we didn't just stand there.

Most units that I know, if they were in The Bog's position, would have done one of a handful of things.  They would have stood there and gotten rolled.  The would have formed up a shield wall and charged straight into blue (and died).  Or, if they employed slightly advanced techniques, they would have formed a shield wall and charged on a slight oblique, hitting the right half of blue.  

Personally I think all of those options are bad ideas.  There are two other options that some of the smarter units might have tried.  The Bog could also have held back to delay the engagement and draw the fight in with Atlantia (something we may have done if this unit was much larger).  We could have run away and hid behind Atlantia (no need to do that in this case).  We could have also moved in between blue and Atlantia to protect Atlantia's right flank as they moved to attack someone else.

I also don't like that last option because, though it helps Atlantia's mission, it places us in an unwinnable situation.  Of the available options, I tend to favor those that allows us the most kills with the least amount of casualties.  We can still protect Atlantia's right flank, but instead of as a shield, we can do it as a threat that pulls a unit away from them.

Note:  delaying the engagement would actually have given us our best chance of success, but would also have taken longer to complete the fight.  In a field battle, you are looking not only to maximize results, but to do it as quickly as possible so that you can move on to more fighting in the battle.

The Pincer Attack

We opted to shift our entire unit to the right.  Kinsmen Llyr made the suggestion in order to gain the high ground.  I agreed with his decision, though I actually preferred it to get us into an outside position.  Its usually better to fight the enemy while placing their backs to enemy units.

Because we travel in a loose skirmish formation, we can reposition ourselves faster than just about any unit on the field.  The call was made, and we redeployed to the right.  At this point we had no idea what blue would do, nor what Atlantia would do.

From this position, Atlantia could have moved on to fight other fights, and blue could have turned their front to face us.  Had that happened, we probably would have kept swirling to the right in order to limit the number of fighters that they could engage with, and we would have spread out and try to draw out smaller fights.  Blue likely would have charged, and we would have given ground where they charged and try to attack them in their backfield.

Fortunately for us, three things fell into place that gave us a big advantage in this battle.  1)  No other units came to support blue, which meant Atlantia had no one else to fight and there was no threat to our right flank.  2)  Since Atlantia had nothing better to do, they mounted a charge at blue's right flank.  3)  Blue attempted to protect their left flank by pulling spears and poles out of the back field (note:  this is what we are taught to do at our local SCA melee practice and I think this is just simply a bad idea).

Now if you don't know your rock, paper, scissors, remember that spears beat static shields, kill pocket beats a shield wall charge, and shield wall charge beats spears.  When I saw blue move their spears and poles out on the flank, I looked to see where our shields were.  I pointed out the weakness to our most experienced shieldman, and I pulled another shiledman to the front to set up the charge.

As soon as Atlantia was in about the right position, Kinsmen Llyr called the charge.  Kinsmen Arundoor swept the spears, and the rest of The Bog charged through them, and into the back field.  The battle was over in seconds with minimal casualties.

Key Points to Remember

Don't move into the middle of the field with no protection

Don't keep your reserves disengaged for too long

Take the high ground if you can

Take the outside position if you can

Attack the flanks

Protect your flanks....and not with a thin line of spears

Sweep a spear line with a shieldman

Charge spears with shields

Always be cognizant of your unit's position and how it relates to others on the field 

Be sure to check out Pennsic - Part 1

Pennsic - Part 1 - Field Battle

I just got back from Pennsic and took down several notes.  I have a lot to talk about, and I don't tend to write these blogs too quickly, so I thought I'd break them up into several parts.  Some of the lessons learned from Pennsic are based on my unit's successes, while others are based on mistakes that we made.  In either case, I felt that tactical decisions had a huge impact on the results of our battles.

For this first post I'm going to focus on the perspective of Anglesey and the Bog Troopers (includes The Concusare and Galatia) in the first field battle.  Though we only brought a small unit of veteran fighters (~10), we managed to kill someone on the order of 50 opponents in each battle while securing the right flank for the Midrealm.

Field Battle Plan

The overall battle plan for this first battle was for the entire army to sweep left, hoping to avoid the Tuchux and other units that were lined up on our right and up the hill.  We were on our far right flank, supporting a much larger Atlantian army.  We considered a number of options, including running behind Atlantia and hiding in the backfield while waiting for an opportunity to exploit, but decided, instead, that we would move out to the right and give the Tuchux something that they would have to deal with as they moved down the hill.

As the battle began, we noticed two things that impacted our tactics.  1)  The Tuchux never came down the hill, but instead waited up there in reserve and 2) a large unit went straight at Atlantia, leaving their left flank completely exposed as they did so (not sure who it was, but it was a rather large unit, and I noticed Duke Tindal and Duke Byron in the mix, so I'm guessing it might have been the Aethelmearc army).

Realizing that the Tuchux would not be an immediate threat and seeing an opportunity of an exposed flank on our left, we turned and hit the large unit right in the flank.

This position put us at an excellent advantage.  Atlantia's front was matching the front of this large unit while Atlantia's right flank was completely protected.  The large unit, however, had a veteran unit attacking on its left flank.  

With their flank being attacked, they lose the advantage of having a unified front against a single unit.  Forward momentum is slowed, and fighters are being attacked from the side and/or from behind (with proper engagement).  It wasn't long before the entire unit was enveloped and killed.

Knowing that the Tuchux were likely coming up behind us, we continued to push through the unit and out the other side, circled right, and then turned to meet the Tuchux.  It turned out they weren't there as they went behind us, around, and into the back field.  By the time they had engaged, however, their side was down one of its sizable units.

Lessons to be Learned:

1-Protect Your Flanks

In this particular case, the larger unit from the other side left its flank completely unprotected.  Maybe they thought we were moving somewhere else.  Maybe they underestimated what a small unit with a disorganized appearance could do.  Either way, leaving their flank open hurt them in this battle.  

2-Bring as Many Weapons to the Fight as Soon as Possible

There are two aspects to this that are important.  First, I'm not a big fan of having a unit that goes 8+ ranks deep in an open field battle.  That leaves less than 15% of your force actively engaged.  More importantly, reserve units shouldn't wait to get themselves engaged.  Had the Tuchux moved maybe 30 - 60 seconds sooner, or even just moved themselves into a closer position where they'd had been a threat, the left flank of their battle would have played out much differently.

The Echelon and the Approach with Different Levels of Fighters

One of the hardest things I've had to gain an understanding of is that no single approach will work for every group of fighters.  Different abilities call for different tactics.

I used to be a high school boys varsity basketball coach.  In the beginning I brushed up on my knowledge by reading 3-4 books on basketball strategy and was a bit surprised at the varying approaches with regard to different levels of play.    At the high school varsity level, we ran semi complicated plays.  "You stand here.  You go there.  When that guy gets to you, you move to that position.  Now pass him the ball."  etc.  I'd drill them over and over again so that when the game came, everyone knew what to do.  When dealing with 17 year old boys, all of the plays dictated specific coordinated movements by each player, with minimal improvisation allowed by the players.

When you work with 14 year olds, or younger, the plays are much simpler, because they can't handle the complicated plays.  As you get older, however, the plays get less and less rigid to the point when you reach the pro level there are very few actual plays, but rather simple guidelines that the players follow.  Being professionals, the team relies on the players to make judgement calls on the court as they see fit.


What's That Got to do With Fighting?

Certain tactics will always beat other tactics provided that the fighters can handle the level of the tactic that is being asked to employ.  The best fighters on the field know how to quickly read a situation, figure out when to engage and when to stall, can handle themselves out on their own, or know when they need to run and support a friend.  The worst fighters on the field only know how to respond to a person directly attacking them, can handle simple commands like "charge," can't be relied on to perform specific jobs (like hold the left flank), and will die quickly if they are caught on the field with no support.

In a nutshell, lower level melee fighters need to stick together, usually in a shield wall formation, and charge in whatever direction they are told to charge.  Higher level fighters can handle a more nuanced approach.  Below I will talk about these approaches and how they theoretically play out with more advanced and less advanced fighters.


Echelon

This is a form of a diagonal attack.  To be honest, this term was used by a friend I was fighting with today, and I have since looked it up and determined I didn't want to get bogged down with the technical definition of the word.  For this purpose I'm using it to describe a sort of attack directed toward one side, often in a diagonal fashion.

Today we discussed two approaches for this attack.  The first is what I would describe as something that can be utilized by more advanced fighters.  The leading flank of the attack goes fast and aggressive while the trailing flank of the attack merely has to deny the other side from attacking. They do this by attempting to stall the engagement, wheel away from the fighting, going on full defense, or using the feet to draw a bunch of fighters out.  This is what it may look like:

Notice that while green's right flank is attacking aggressively, the left flank is actually refusing to engage.  Why?  The right flank has a significant numbers and positional advantage.  The left flank, on the other hand, is in a very weak position.  If they also press, they are putting themselves in a very vulnerable position.   See below:

Notice how green completely gave up their advantage by having their left flank plow straight into the center of red's shield wall.  Here's another way to visualize the attack:

Every shield wall has a well defended front, with weakly defended flanks.  The goal is to attack the enemy's flanks while defending your own.

When the trailing flank focusses on stalling the engagement in a "deny" role, green is able to attack red's weak flank while keeping its own flanks protected.

If green presses with its entire front, then neither side ends up with a positional advantage.  Green has employed, at best, neutral tactics and hopes to win on skill and initiative alone.


Echelon With Newer Fighters

More advanced fighters should understand the nuances of an echelon charge with one flank on the attack and the other on a deny.  They also should have no problems with controlled aggression.  By controlled aggression, I mean being able to quickly decide when one needs to apply 100% pressure, and when one needs to pause to allow a friend to enter the fight, or to deny a position, etc.

These concepts are too complicated for newer fighters and can cause newer fighters to freeze up.  Getting aggression levels up and committing to the attack are often more important goals for these fighters.  Because of this, we often tell these fighters to "charge right" or "charge left" rather than to bother with the concept of a deny.  As a result, the diagram above represents the lesser of two evils when compared to a group that denies left without ever full committing to the right:

Here you can see red putting itself in a better position to win because of green's lack of commitment to either side.

Think of it this way.  Imagine red and green both as boxers.  Red's commitment is to attack with the right hand and defend with the left hand.  Green, on the other hand, commits only to defending with the left hand, but never commits to an attack with the right.  Its only a matter of time before red wears green down.  With newer fighters, you are basically teaching to just throw punches with both hands.  I don't think that this should be the ultimate goal, but it is likely the best approach if dealing with a group of fighters that all have less than three years of moderate experience.

Besides, if this group runs into an evenly matched situation (ie they encounter another unit with less than three years of experience), they stand a better chance of winning.


A Slightly More Advanced Approach to the Full Charge

Since I began writing this blog post, I had another conversation with a veteran fighter and experienced tactician.  He actually prefers the full charge rather than a press to one side and deny the other approach.  The reasoning is that you still get an advantage by seizing the initiative, and that the fight ends in a quicker fashion and allows you to move on to other parts of the battle.

The problem left, however, is how to deal with an exposed flank on the trailing side.  The answer is to bring fighters out of the back field to support (something that my unit did in last year's unbelted champions battle at Pennsic).

Summary

I've offered some different approaches to handling a small unit charge, though there are many more.  My unit, Anglesey, is a very experienced unit that is very spear heavy.  We tend to take a more fluid approach that involves spreading out and trying to break the fight down into smaller 2 on 1s and 3 on 2s, with the spears cleaning up.

Nevertheless, given the above approaches, I really prefer the first one that I laid out.  Not everyone will be able to master it on the day of the fight, but I really do think its a goal to work toward.  In our afternoon of fighting, it was the one approach that lead to our greatest degrees of success (75% of the unit still alive at the end of the battle).