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