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.
No comments:
Post a Comment