For the first time in as long as I can remember, we had a short class in the middle of our event to talk to the new fighters about some basic tactics. Someone suggested this idea to me, I approached Sir Tash, and he offered to run a short class between scenarios and did an awesome job. Much of what I write will actually be based off of what he taught. (Interestingly, much of what he taught was about how we fight. He just seems to know better about how we fight than we do, and knows how to organize those thoughts for a new fighter).
Shield Walls
We don't normally do these.
Most SCA units teach their new guys how to work in shield walls. Its an easy way to get a person with limited melee experience to move and work with a unit. Much of how we fight is designed to counter shield walls or fight in larger scale battles, so it really just doesn't fit our style.
Field Battles: Support the Veterans
Where as the standard shield wall tactic is to turtle up and survive, or find a target and run it over, we take a slightly different approach. We fight more with our longer weapons and use our shields to support them, holding back to either hit someone who intends to run at one of our longer weapons, or to pounce on something as a group when an opportunity presents itself. We also have a few superstar shieldmen who will do much more dynamic and creative fighting, but that's not something that is taught in Melee Fighting 101, but rather something that is learned over the course of 5 to 10 to 30 years of fighting.
Most of what I write about below will be the starting point of a long progression of fighting over one's fighting lifetime. As one gets better, they will gradually pick up more and more advanced tactics.
What to do: if not being given any other direction, the newer fighters should spread out evenly within the unit. Find a group of fighters to follow or pick a side of the unit to work with and stay one full step behind the veteran fighters, keeping yourself out of the spear range of the other side. Move together as a group. The veteran fighters will be moving out ahead, looking for an opportunity to exploit, or a good position to fight from. Your job at this point is only to be near them for when they may need your help. They are going to start off the battle doing most of the fighting and drawing the attention of the enemy. If you aren't near them, one of two things will happen. Either the enemy will see that they have no support and rush them, or the enemy will see that there are no veterans near you and kill you.
"I need a shield on my left!" means that he or she is worried that our left flank is going to get rolled without a shield to stop it. Move to his or her left.
"Shield, step up!" means that he or she either can no longer stop the advance of the other side without help, or there is a dangerous archer and he needs an obstacle to hide behind. Step up in front.
"Shield, pull back!" means that you are too far up and are going to get stabbed in the face soon. Take a few steps back.
"Shield, I have a spear. Let me have your spot," means that the spearman sees a good killing opportunity but needs to be standing exactly where you are in order to get the kill, or support someone else in the fight. Step back and either hang behind them or find somewhere else to fight.
"Let me in here," combined with a spear coming up from behind over your shoulder means that the spear needs you and the person next to you to slide out of the way to let them through. Give them plenty of room to fight when they do that.
If the battle is dynamic, your role will be slightly different. Your job now is either to run up and smash the fighters on the other side who are trying to chase down your spears, or to collectively charge and overwhelm a weakened opponent. If you see a safe and easy opportunity for a kill, take it, but for the most part you are just trying to push the enemy with your shield so that your veterans can move into position to kill them.
Notice in the gif below, the shield and the pole stay out of the fight so long as the spear can fight the red shield at range. Once he charges, the green shield and green pole step into action:
Here's a group of shields (green) repelling red's charge as the green poles back out:
If your side intends to charge, you will hear two kinds of commands.
"Press these fighters! We need to move now! Keep rolling around them! Keep moving!" This generally means that you move at a fast walk with the rest of your unit in order to force them to back up. Again, your veterans will get the kills. Your main job is just to put pressure on the enemy.
"We need to charge! Go! Go! Go! Go!" This is a sprint and a smash. Again, moving at the same speed as your unit, and only attempting to push them with your shield. If you see an easy kill, go for it. Over time you will get better and better at identifying when and how to swing your stick, but the most important thing is to move in and push on them. The veterans will do the killing.
What not to Do
Don't do solo "heroic" (stupid) charges. I know it feels like you are fighting, but you are just running in and getting killed and accomplishing nothing at all. Our best fighters can't survive solo charges, let alone a newer one. When you charge by yourself, multiple defenders converge on you giving you little chance of survival.
Don't stand in the front line trying to parry spears. Again, it feels like fighting, but Mr. Miagi said in The Karate Kid 2, "Best defense, don't be there." Only stand in spear range if you absolutely have to (see commands and reason for commands above). More often than not, just stand out of their range.
Polearms
To summarize from above, a lot of what a shieldman does is to stay near the fight, but not actively in the fight, until he or she is needed. Once engaged in the fight, the primary responsibility of a newer shieldman is to be an obstacle to keep the enemy from being able to hit our veteran fighters. Sword attacks are only taken if they can be done safely without risk of death, or more importantly, if the enemy is completely exposed because they have turned to fight someone else.
Pole fighters are slightly different. Though they can be used as obstacles, more often they need to stand at the end of their range and swing as hard and as often as they can at the enemy. This happens usually when either side presses. Too often I see pole fighters standing there and looking for an opening. Don't wait for an opening. Swing at their head. They will either have to block it with their sword, which means they won't be able to swing, or they will block it with their shield, which means that they won't be able to see.
The pole fighter needs to be even more patient than the shieldman. Where as the newer shieldman will stay out of the fight except for presses, to stop an advancing line, or to block against arrows, the newer pole fighter will mostly only fight during the presses. I realize this sounds contradicting. 95% of the time, the pole fighter is waiting and staying just outside the fight. 5% of the time, however, the pole fighter needs to swing at anything and everything within range whether a shot is available or not.
Bridge Battles
There are a few tactics that apply to bridges that I'd like to cover, specifically bridge battles where the objective is to move past the middle of the bridge. The battles will start with our shields up front in the first rank in order to charge quickly to the middle (or past) once lay on is called. After sprinting across the shield, at the same speed as the rest of the unit, both sides will engage. Again, focus on staying alive. Let the veterans and the poles and spears do the killing.
Once this first engagement has occurred, usually a little gap will form between the two units, often with dead bodies lying between. Stand there defensively until someone from behind either asks you to give them their spot, let them slide in between, or asks you to step back. At this point we usually like to have our spears move to the front with the shields waiting in the second rank, and the poles in the third rank. A small number of veteran shields may stay in the front rank, but this is only a position for veterans. Newer shields are just in the way at this point (unless no one has called them out, possibly because there is no suitable replacement).
Your job at this point is either to repel any charges that may come from the other side, or to join in any charges initiated from your side. If the other side charges, the spears will usually begin to slide back into the 3rd rank. You need to slip past them and hit the enemy wall that is trying to kill them. If a charge is initiated by our side, you may or may not be given any warning. As soon as you hear, "Go! Go! Go! Now!" as a shieldman, you need to push past your spears and smash into the other side, again, mostly focusing on staying alive.
The job of the pole fighters in these scenarios is pretty simple; stay behind the shields (usually 2nd or 3rd rank) and hit any enemy that you can swing at during the presses. Again, don't wait for an opening. Just swing at their heads.
The last important piece of the bridge battle is something that our entire unit needs to work on. We need to take ground in these kinds of battles. Whenever a gap forms between the two units, we need to be aggressive and slowly push forward to close the gap, not stand there and wait for the battle to come to us, and certainly not backing up. This doesn't mean doing a solo charge at the enemy. It means if a bunch of people have just died, and there is now a 12 foot gap, we need to walk down 3 feet of it to get our spears back in range. Again, you should hear people yelling, "Move forward! Take ground!" That means, as defensively as possible, step forward until someone tells you to stop or to give up your spot.
Closing Thoughts
As I watch the newer fighters on the field, and as I get feedback from others who are also watching, I'm coming to realize that newer fighters are focusing on just running out there and trying to hit someone. Instead, as a newer shieldman, focus on staying alive, supporting your unit, and fighting with your feet and your shield more than with your sword. Over time, more and more "high percentage" opportunities will present themselves. By that I mean that you will see shots that you know you can take without risk of getting killed. It is unlikely, however, that you will ever be able to charge into two shields and a duke who's wielding a polearm, swing at someone's head, and survive, let alone get a kill. Newer pole fighters just need to learn to be patient, but also to be aggressive once in the fight.
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