As we have closed out the melee fighting season (which in the East is April - November) I've seen a lot of growth in our local group. We had roughly 15 practices with attendance ranging from 5 to 12 fighters. This was in addition to roughly 8 melee events. To quote our newest fighter who attended his first event this past November, "I felt prepared for every scenario except the bridge battle."
What our newer fighters lacked that your typical SCA fighter would have had was solid one on one skill. What they had, on the other hand, was great field awareness, an understanding of how to work together, how to solve problems on their own, take initiative, finish fights quickly and move through the enemy, and maintain the integrity of the line. Our spears were especially strong this year.
Three Practice Scenarios
I'm sure I've written on each of these in the past, but I'm pretty confident that these were my favorites. Each one focused on a critical aspect of melee aspect of melee fighting, and just as important, they were all very fun. One of the main differences between the way I run practices and most of what I have seen in the SCA is that I don't spend much time drilling. Instead, every scenario is a game.
1 - Broken Field Rez Battle
I try to size the field to the number of fighters that we have, but essentially I take a few lengths of rope and create "Llama Pits" (pits full of flesh eating Llamas that cannot be crossed). We put a resurrection point on either side and we would either fight unlimited resurrections or allot a set number of lives. Objectives can be used as well (I now use small colored blocks of wood. Each side is assigned a color and has to try to collect all of their wood before the other team gets theirs. Blocks are placed about 2/3 of the way across the field).
What I like the most about these battles is that it clearly defines a simple tactical decision that a fighter must make. When they come back from rez point, they have to decide, "Do I go to the left of the pit, or do I go to the right of the pit?" Instead of just seeing a mob of guys and returning back to the same spot they were in when they died (as is very common among fighters), they look and see what the situation is on the left, and what it is on the right. Even if they don't make good decisions, at least they are thinking tactically.
2 - Orcs and Goblins Battle
We normally do these as single death field battles. The goal is to put all of the best fighters on one team, and all of the worst fighters on the other team. The KEY to this battle (which I heard was a piece missing from a recent event up here) is that the numbers must be set such that the less experienced team has more fighters. What typically works for us is 3 on 5, but as our newer fighters got better, we had to make the teams 4 on 4, with the 3 best fighters teaming up with a brand new fighter, while the other team had four newer, yet experienced fighters.
What makes this scenario great for training is that it forces the new fighters to take ownership over the results of the battle. The key to winning any unbalanced scenario for the larger team is to create small numbers advantages, and seizing those opportunities quickly. Meanwhile the fighters who end up in one on one situations have to learn how to identify that they are at a disadvantage and simply try to stall the fight and survive. Often times newer fighters will either stand around and wait for someone else to do the killing for them, or they will do heroic solo charges at one or more fighters and die horrible deaths. These battles force them to make smart decisions.
I'd also like to note that these fights were also very fun and valuable for the experienced fighters who had to learn how to win fights while being on the smaller team. I've also thought about doing this scenario as a broken field battle in order to make the advantages and disadvantages more pronounced.
One way where I saw this pan out well was at our Norse War in several single death field battles. A couple of times a knight on the other team would fan out wide on their left flank. Two of our newer fighters would match him on our right flank. As soon as they recognized the advantage, which usually didn't take long, they'd jump him, get the kill, and then immediately turn into the back field, which normally lead to a quick victory. Keep in mind, these battles had even numbered sides, so they had graduated to the point where they could take ownership of the fight even though there were better fighters on their team.
3 - 2v2 Unlimited Rez Battles with a Fighter Waiting at Rez
This is a very simple battle. Two versus two, with one person waiting at the resurrection point. As soon as the first person dies, he goes to rez and forms a new team with the person waiting. They immediately join the fight. At this point it might be 2 on 2 on 1, or maybe another person died and it can be 2 on 2 or perhaps 2 on 1 on 1. The key to this fight is to move quickly and keep the pace fast. The entire purpose of the fight is to make quick decisions.
The real value of this scenario is that it trains you to see things and make decisions quickly. Often times newer fighters are trained to wait for commands, or to follow the more experienced fighters. This scenario forces them to make quick decisions on their own, which is what you'd want from any fighter when, say, a knight breaks through your ranks and gets into the backfield.
All in all I was very happy with how well everyone progressed, but at least as important, everyone had a fun year and were motivated to keep returning week after week!
Thanks for reading. - Bari of Anglesey
