I just came off of a discussion with a lot of seasoned melee veterans and wanted to capture some of the ideas here. Overall we had about 15-20 on a side with a mix of veteran melee fighters, newbies, and a mid class of well practiced fighters with 3-5 years of experience. The sides were picked so houses were broken up, which meant that we had a fairly even matchup but both teams were mixed and had to learn how to work together in a short amount of time.
Team Attributes
The biggest differences between the two teams is that (I'll just call us green since that's a color I use in my diagrams) green had the faster, more mobile veteran fighters on the field and a fast, mobile veteran spearman. Red had the larger, heftier veteran fighters and no spears.
Spears Win Static Battles but Don't Forget to Guard Your Flanks
In the first battle, both sides were slow to get moving, probably wanting to watch and see how the battle would flow before committing. I like to personally engage first with my spear if the other side will let me, figuring I can take some free shots and distract them while they try to read the fight. In this instance it seemed to be effective. I got one, maybe two kills while keeping other veteran fighters occupied on their side. This seemed to stall their unit a bit as we moved around the outside to engage.
I was actually fairly certain that we would win this fight pretty decisively until I saw their team coming at us through our backfield. They managed to either push through our left flank, or just ran around it.
Red mistakes: they were too passive with an effective spear sitting right in front of them
Green mistakes: We didn't do a good enough job shoring up our left flank. We probably should have also committed harder and faster on the right once the unit had been weakened. This would win the right side of the battle more quickly allowing us to move to the left if they are in need of help.
Don't get Outmaneuvered
I covered this in my last blog post. In one of the battles, the red team took their stronger unit and moved quickly and aggressively at our left flank. Instead of moving out to deny the flank, our left unit rolled back and let them get an advantageous attacking position. You almost always want to be forcing them to roll back on themselves, not letting them to roll you back on yourself.
Don't Let a Dangerous Fighter into your Backfield
In one of the engagements, one of our best and fastest fighters broke away from the unit, , flew around their right flank, and into their backfield uncontested. Red team should have had at least one person pick him up and, at a minimum, put a body on him if not tie him up and kill him altogether.
One of the difficulties that you'd have in that situation is that all of the best fighters on their side were occupied with the front of the unit and moving forward. Here's where the newer fighters need to learn either how to double up on a veteran fighter, safely tie him up or keep him occupied, or to know when and how to sacrifice himself for the benefit of his team.
What if You are Outmatched?
Both sides seemed to have built an "A team" and a "B team" with the A team having the better and more experienced fighters. The general goal for each side is to use their A team and run over whatever they can. We had a problem, however, when both A teams met up without an advantageous flanking position. The other side had a stronger A team with bigger fighters in the front of their shield wall. This was a bad matchup for us, however, our A team did what they needed to. They stalled the engagement.
What needed to happen in this instance was for the poles that we had waiting in the middle of the field to move aggressively on their A team's flank. I made the call to do this, but they were disorganized. This was my fault. I was put in charge of this unit and dropped the ball on getting them organized and mobilized.
Rather I should say is was partly my fault, and partly the fault of the experience of the fighters. Its still my job to asses their experience and command accordingly. Yet, we also need to train them to start to read these situations themselves and attack appropriately.
Leg 'Em....
...and leave 'em. I still saw a lot of fighters, some seasoned veterans, wasting their time with legged fighters. If I could pull something from my basketball coaching days I would. If a fighter is caught fighting someone on their knees, then the whole team has to do 10 pushups. This can actually fix the problem with fighting legged fighters and it'll take no more than 30 pushups.
The Pushups isn't really a "punishment." Its a reinforcer. The next time you see a guy on their knees, you will have a strong memory associated with how you are not supposed to fight that guy.
Try it sometime if you wish and let me know how it goes. =)
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