Bari's Bridge Battles

Bari's Bridge Battles

By Bari of Anglesey

Hey all, bridges.....love 'em or not, we've got to fight 'em.  This will be a bit of a brain dump, so lets get right to it.

Types of Bridge Battles

There are three main types of bridge battles that you will commonly see:

- Attrition
- Timed Control Point with Unlimited Lives (resurrection battles)
- Timed Control Point with Limited Lives

Attrition bridge battles are normally single life, but they can also come in the form of some limited number of resurrections until the fighter has to leave the fight.  These battles are won when every person on one of the two teams has been eliminated.  Taking ground and or controlling locations on bridges is of no value unless it leads to some sort of tactical advantage that results in killing more of their fighters than yours.  The ability to kill, either by hitting, stabbing, shooting, or throwing fighters off the bridge are key.

Timed control point bridge battles with unlimited lives is an entirely different type of battle.  Battles are won when one side "controls" bridges at certain time markers during the fight.  This is often done by either being past a mid point line on the bridge, or by raising a flag.  In these battles, killing other fighters is of no value unless it leads to gaining ground.  The ability to push, shove, or intimidate fighters is the key to these fights.  Sometimes killing can be of value if it removes key fighters from the other team like leaders, big aggressive fighters, or someone who is in the act of pushing your line back.  Killing can also disrupt the morale of the other side, causing them to back away from the fight, but ultimately spearing the enemy only to have fighters in the following ranks step up to replace them is of little value.

Once you add limited lives (usually one) to the timed control point bridge battles, you bring in another potential avenue to victory.  While taking and holding ground is important, a battle can be won if every fighter on one side of a bridge is killed, regardless of where the line of engagement is provided that the time limit has not expired.

Generally speaking, skill level and total numbers of fighters are critical for attrition battles while big, aggressive shieldmen and poles are more important for timed control point battles with unlimited lives provided that there are enough ranks of fighters to allow the big guys to recover between presses.  Also, archery and ballistae are of greater value in attrition battles.

Tactics

Important note:  Not everything listed is necessarily a good tactic, so beware of skimming without reading.  I'm listing common tactics and then commenting on their effectiveness.

Before I get into the details, since everyone loves a good picture, here's a summary of most of the concepts I'll be discussing:



Organization Wins Bridge Battles

There are many battle scenarios that can be won with skill, athleticism, and experience fighting together as a unit.  There are enough variables that can change so quickly that the possible outcomes are infinite.  To me this means that the ability to read a fight and improvise can overcome any sort of plan or organization that the opponent has put together.

Bridge battles seem to be an exception to this rule because the tight parameters tend to eliminate much of the unpredictable nature that is prevalent in the other scenarios.  Coming up with a good plan and getting the fighters to work together will go a long way toward obtaining victory in the bridge battle scenario.  This doesn't mean that you should over plan and completely micromanage the battle, only that you should understand some basic fundamentals and get the right pieces in place to capitalize.  Something as simple as, "Okay, they've got a lot of spears, so we can't stand around and let them pick us apart," might be all that is needed for your side to know what to do.  Newer fighters or mixed units may need more direction.

Capping the Bridge

This is a tactic where you move off the back end of your bridge and form a kill pocket such that if the other side charges, they will be surrounded by your fighters.  This gives you both a numbers advantage on the battle front as well as good killing angles.  This is typically used if the other side is showing that they are stronger than your army and a tactical advantage is needed.  If it's a control point battle, this is typically done as a last resort in order to keep the other side from spilling into your backfield and getting behind your fighters on another bridge.  You give up the point on that bridge only because you have no choice, and hope that the other bridges will fare better.  I personally think it's a bad idea to implement this as a strategy, but rather as a "cut our losses" tactic.

If the battle is an attrition battle, or a control point battle that you think you can win by attrition, it can be effective to lull the other side into fighting in your kill pocket.  Be aware that there is a risk that they can punch through a weakened edge of the pocket, surround your fighters, and move into the backfield of another bridge.

Sometimes armies will intentionally sacrifice a bridge by capping it, hoping that they can pull more resources onto that bridge from the other side than your side is expending to cap it.  This is generally a bad idea in an unlimited life control point battle.  You essentially give up a victory point while gaining nothing.

The Gentleman's Agreement:  I have been in battles where both sides decide to cap the end of the bridge, hoping to lull the other side into fighting in their kill pocket.  Once both sides have shown this hand, the only means of victory is being stubborn enough to bore the other other side long enough to make them throw the fight and come across the bridge to fight you.  This leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouth as they would much rather be fighting than to stand there watching a battle of egos.  If both sides decide to cap the bridge, just do everyone a favor and agree to meet in the middle.

Note:  when forming the cap, you absolutely need to secure the edges of the cap.  This is a tactic that is often lost on many SCA fighters as the most common tactic they are taught is a shield wall, which gains its effectiveness from bunching tightly together.  While this may be an effective tactic, given the circumstances, in a field battle, this can leave very weak edges when capping a bridge.

Below is a picture of a cap (left side) that failed to secure the the right side of the bridge (note the gap between the edge of the bridge and the fighters).  The result was the fighters spilling out through the gap and into the backfield.

All Spears in the Front

This is a tactic that gained popularity in northern Atlantia and the southern region of the East Kingdom in the early 2000s.  The earliest adopters that I am personally aware of date back to the mid 90s when face thrusting with fiber glass spears were first allowed at Pennnic, and they were the Calontir Army as well as the bog celts.



I can't comment on what motivated Calontir to adopt this tactic, but at the time they were a well organized, disciplined army, and they followed the tactics passed down through their command chain.  We celts, on the other hand, had a lot of experience fighting skirmish style in the Markland organization which had been allowing face shots for years.

All spears in the front was very effective at the time as the opening up of the face as a target made spearing in a static battle very effective.  We ultimately got away with it because the standard tactic at the time was to put the spears in the second rank.  If their spears are in the second rank, and our spears are in the first rank, then we can attack their shields at will while staying out of range of their spears.  If we choose to engage their spears, we have more mobility in addition to allowing ourselves to choose which fights we want to fight and when.



I've found this to be a less effective tactic anymore.  The reason why we were able to pull this off in the past is because the enemy was generally slow to adjust.  Because no one was teaching this as a correct way to fight, they had assumed that their tactics of spears behind shields would win the engagement.  Eventually they'd figure out that they'd need to mount a charge, but the charges were slow to organize and were usually telegraphed.

Now days the weakness is much more quickly identified and the charges come much more quickly and less telegraphed.  This tactic should only be used if it is clear that the opponent won't mount a quick counter charge (these opponents still exist).  The photo above is an example as BOTH sides brought only spears to the front line, so neither was concerned with receiving a charge.  This is an example of each side hoping to throw a bigger sheet of paper than the other (see Rock, Paper, Scissors below).

Note:  Don't bunch up too many spears on the front line, they just get in each other's way.  In my opinion, you can effectively fit about one spearman every 2.5 feet.  So if you have, for example, a 9 foot wide bridge, that'll fit three spearmen comfortably, with the potential for a fourth depending on the size of the spearmen, how they match up lefty to righty, how they work together, etc.  It's not uncommon for 5-7 spearmen to try to cram into such a space rendering themselves completely ineffective.


Shield Wall in the Front

This is often done with a front rank of tightly packed shields and a second rank of spears.  This can be a good defensive position if you are trying to hold a position like a bridge beyond the capture point, the space in front of a flag, or maybe a gate.  A well trained unit with big shields can do very well in this situation.  Lesser trained units using tourney shields can easily get picked apart by spearmen (see the diagram above).  These are most effective when they are backed up by archers in the second rank.  I don't think I've ever seen this done with an entire unit, but I have seen sections of shield walls set up with a single tall archer right behind them and it has always been very effective.  This kind of tactic requires a group of shields who understand what their job is, and a tall archer who isn't afraid to fight within a spear's shot (archers like this tend to be rare).



Mix of Shields and Spears

What seems to be the most effective tactic these days, at least in attrition battles, is some sort of mix of shields and spears on the front rank.  For every spear you add (up to the max allowance without crowding) you increase the static line killing power, but you also decrease the ability to quickly charge or to repel a quickly initiated charge.  Spears are also easy targets for archery.  Ultimately you'll have to decide how to balance out your shields and spears based entirely on the circumstances;  how good are your spears?  How good are their spears?  How likely are they to charge?  How quickly do you need to initiate a charge?  How many spears do you have on your front line compared to their front line?  Are there any dead bodies in the way?  Do they have archers, how close are they, and how effective are they?  Etc.

One thing to note, though it will vary from fighter to fighter, good spears don't like shieldmen crowding up on them.  I will often have shieldmen with whom I don't know try to "protect me" from opposing spears.  What they end up doing is sticking their shield right in front of my thrusting hand which prevents me from being able to throw a shot.  Also, any spear that they defend me from is a spear that I can't attack because the shield gets in the way of both of us.



Note:  In general I like to see the shields a little bit behind the spears.  I don't see any value in standing inside the opponent's spear range when the shieldmen can stand just outside of range.  The job of  shielman in this instance is to be ready to charge, or be ready to repel a charge.  They don't need to stand in range in order to do that.  Take a step back, relax, and wait for opportunities.  The exception to this rule is if the other side is pressing and causing your line to retreat during a timed control point battle.

Bullnose

I have never personally used this tactic and have only ever actually seen it employed once, but that one time it was very effective.  What a bullnose is is essentially a shield wall in the middle with spears on either side.  The one time I saw it, the unit was very effective at holding a position on the bridge.  It was actually quite frustrating to fight against.



Again, in order to effectively utilize the bullnose, the unit must be well trained to work together and, ideally, have big shields that don't expose a lot of gaps.  (Note:  The unit in the picture above does not have great shields for forming a shield wall.  I can easily see three very exposed legs in the front rank, though it is possible that they are are fast enough to move their shields before getting hit).

My only real thought on the bullnose is that the sides leave themselves open for charges.  I'm assuming that if a unit was to charge into one of the gaps, they'd easily get shoved off of the bridge.  I'd be careful, however, using this near your own end of the bridge.




Rock, Paper, Scissors

There are two ways to beat rock.  You can throw paper, or you can throw a bigger rock.  When referring to rock, paper, scissors in this context, what it means is that whatever tactic the other side uses should dictate whether you use the same tactic, but better, or a counter tactic.  In this case the tactics usually come down to dueling with spears, or charging with shields.

Since I fight in a spear heavy unit, my general approach is to always have more spears than the other side on the front line, until they answer with "too many spears," at which point we pull all of our spears off the front line and charge.  A similar tactic might be used if, for example, you don't even have enough spears to fill a front line and they do.  Or maybe all of their spears are better than all of yours.  Whatever the case may be, at any given moment you have to decide, "Can we beat their spears with our spears, or should we charge?"  Or put another way, if we charge, how much ground will we gain (if that leads to a victory condition), will we kill more of them than we lose, or will our loses be worth the ground we gain?  Also, charges are tiring.  Standing ground and spearing may be the better option.


The Flow of a Bridge Battle

There will almost always be spearing on the front line of a bridge battle, with at least some shield charges.  Even if one unit decided that they will only use shields, and always charge, there are two major factors that limit the effectiveness of that strategy:

1 - Chargers get tired
2 - Dead people stop charges

The typical flow is that the two armies will charge toward the middle of the bridge at lay on (unless one side decides to cap their end of the bridge and wait for the other to commit).  At engagement, the units will either decide to both charge into each other, one will charge and the other will repel, or they will both set up a static front and use some degree of spearing on the front line.  Normally at some point in the battle, one of the sides will mount a charge forcing the other to clear out their spears and counter.

Regardless of who is more effective in the scrum of the charge, dead people lying on the ground combined with fatigued fighters will always stop the charges.  At this point, the spears work their way back up to the front rank.

One of the keys in this situation is to recognize when the opposing shields are no longer a threat, and your shields are no longer effective (like if there is a pile of dead people between the two ides) and to bring the spears back up into the front rank.  If there is a dead body in front of you, there is no reason for a shieldman to stand behind him.  Let a spear or a pole have that spot so that they can kill from across the dead bodies.





Organization - Spear Channels

One of the problems I see with a lot of units is crowding the middle of the 2nd and 3rd ranks with a bunch of spears.  A lot of times spears will bunch up in the middle of a bridge because they don't want to miss their chance to fight on the front line.  This leaves the unit very poorly prepared against charges.



Spears are mostly ineffective unless they are on the front ranks, so it makes sense to keep them out of the way until needed, and then feed them into the front.  When a charge happens, spears have some effectiveness in the 3rd rank.  One might say, "I get kills all the time in the 2nd rank."  Maybe, but probably not as many as a well rested pole fighter would.

One technique that works well is to have a channel of spears on either side of the bridge to feed into the front line as necessary.  This keeps them from bunching up in the middle and gives them a queue so they don't end up cramming up to the front hoping to get their chance to fight.




Note:  If the other side has archers that can shoot over the sides of the bridge, the spear columns will need to be moved inward.  I've heard of one unit using a single column down the middle instead of the sides.


Picket Fence

I borrowed this phrase from an old North Shield fighting manual.  Basically it describes the concept of bringing the spears out in front of the shields by letting them slide between when needed, and vice versa when the shields need to come to the front rank.




This is not something that needs any command structure or fancy timed maneuvers.  It simply means that if the spears need to be up front, let them up front.  If they need to bail, don't push them into the enemy, but rather let them slide back into the 2nd and 3rd ranks.


Holding the Victory Condition

Often times people forget that they need to have at least one person on a bridge to earn the point.  They'll kill everyone on the bridge, and then run over to the next bridge to start killing them, which is the right thing to do, but they'll forget to leave someone on the empty bridge to capture the point.

Always know what the conditions are, and make sure that someone is on top of earning the point.


Initiating Charges

There's no one correct way to initiate a charge, but the success or failure of a charge largely depends on how well the charge is executed.  "Okay everyone, we are going to charge on the count of three!" is often met with a prepared counter, sometimes even initiated when you say "Two!"

Keep in mind, if you call a charge, and only half of your guys go, they will be fighting at a 2:1 numbers disadvantage, so its usually important that the entire front commits to the charge (exceptions listed later on).  Some units will have a system where they are ready to respond whenever they see a fighter initiate a charge on his own.  Sometimes it will be as simple as a look and a nod to each other.  Code words can often be used so that you can communicate to your side that you are charging, but the other side doesn't necessarily know.  All of these methods require that a unit who trains together is present on front line on the bridge.

But what if that's not the case?  What if its a mix of fighters who don't train together?  I've found the following techniques to work pretty well:

-Announce, "We are going to charge.  Ready?  Charge!"  Say this phrase without any breaks in between.  It takes about 4 seconds to say, which gives your side enough time to to understand what's going on, while the other side doesn't have enough time to coordinate an effective counter.  If you are on the front line and will charge with the unit, you must wait a beat after you say the word "charge" so that you end up charging with the group.  A common mistake is for the announcer to charge when they say "charge," which actually places them two steps ahead of their unit.

-What also works is to say to just a few people in front of you, "Okay guys, we need to jump them.  Get ready.  Okay, go now!"  This will normally get a critical mass of people moving which inspired the rest of your unit to respond.

-Light pressure with a pole arm or spear on the backs of the front line helps encourage the charge.  Don't shove them, as that is dangerous.  You never know when someone has decided for personal safety reasons that they will be avoiding charges all day.  If they don't want to charge, its not your job to push them into harms way.

-Whatever method you use, yelling, "Go!  Go!  Go!  Go!  Go!" after the charge is initiated is instrumental in making sure your side follows through on the charge.

Caveats:  Charges don't always have to be performed by the entire front rank.  Sometimes there are opportunities that one or two fighters can see were they jump a line by themselves to exploit an opportunity.  Maybe they see a gap that they can shoot through to get into the back field, or they spot an archer that they can get an easy kill on, or maybe they will sacrifice themselves to push a commander off of the bridge.

Also, keep in mind what you are trying to accomplish with your charges.  If it is an attrition battle, you have the better spears, and they have the better shields, it is probably not in your best interest to initiate any charges.

Column Charge

A column charge is when you form two columns of fighters and rush them in, typically on a diagonal, typically to the right so that your shields can protect you, and typically into a weak point on the other side.  These can be an effective way to break through an opening, or to go after an objective.  Stacking the column with lots of fighters (maybe 3-4 ranks deep) makes it difficult to repel.  Keeping the number of columns to two allows the columns to move quickly.  Any wider than that tends to cause the columns to get in the way of each other and can be disrupted by knocking people around or by killing a couple of fighters in the columns.

Clearing the Beachhead

Once a fighter breaks through a gap on the end of the bridge, it is critical that as many fighters as possible push through that gap and attempt to surround the enemy for a quick victory.  Usually this happens because you've already whittled the enemy down, so the point would be to break out of the kill pocket and create a pocket of your own to finish the job.  This would be useful if the other side has archers, a bunch of spears in the backfield, there is a time limit, or there are more bridges that you can assist with.

I caution doing this if breaking through places you in a bad position in their backfield by possibly getting surrounded by reserve units.




Pulse Charge

Normally a charge will have an entire unit press forward, hard and fast, until either they can't anymore, or until they've reached some kind of objective, or perhaps a commander has called for the charge to end.  A pulse charge, on the other hand, is a brief charge lasting on the order 2-4 seconds.

I've found pulse charges to be more difficult to pull off for a couple of reasons.  The phrase "fire and forget" is often used to describe a fighter who charges forward and then completely loses track of the rest of his fighters.  He'll either push until he dies, or until there's a break in the action that allows him to regroup.  This requires less skill than being able to charge while keeping in mind what the rest of the unit is doing.  Since pulse charges are less common, the default reaction for a fighter is to do a full charge.  So if they hear a command, "Lets do a pulse charge," they may not understand the "pulse" part of that phrase.  The last issue is that a pulse charge requires the fighters to press forward and then back off.  If the ranks behind them don't back off as well, then the front rank gets squished into a situation that they can't back out of.

Unfortunately pulse charges are something that really need to be done within units that have practiced the tactic.  One of the local knights explained to me that his system is to form up shields on the front rank with poles on the second.  The poles call the charge, and the charge lasts long enough for the shields to get in three swings while the poles on swing twice before stepping out.  In order to execute this, everyone involved needs to understand the system, so I would be very hesitant to call a pulse charge with a mixed group of fighters who haven't practice it together.


Know Your Job - Don't Take Up Valuable Space on the Front Line

Very few shieldmen are actually effective fighters in the first rank during a static battle.  Every now and then I've seen a shieldman that is impossible to kill on the front line who does a great job of drawing the attention of other fighters.  Or I've seen shieldmen who are effective at leaping forward and getting sniper kills with their sword.

The number of shieldmen that I've seen who are effective in this manner I can count on one hand.  I've seen far more who *think* that's what they are doing, but in reality they are just plugging up a useful spot on the front line that a spear could be using.

Having said that, as noted above, shields DO normally belong on the front line, but they are there to initiate or repel charges when needed.  They need to be cognizant that they aren't taking up useful space.

Another problem I see are spearmen resting on the front line.  If they are on the front line, then they either need to be killing, actively working for a kill, or helping another spearman get a kill.  Neutralizing a better spearman across from them can also be effective.  What is not effective is standing on the front line, taking up space, and not doing anything while they have well rested spearmen in the ranks behind them.  They should be fighting until tired, or until dead, and then giving up their spots for a well rested spearmen behind them.

Cleaning Up

At some point during most attrition bridge battles, one side will have lost so many fighters that the other side has a clear advantage such that they should be able to win the battle in short order by "cleaning up" the remaining fighters.  In order to do this, the side with the advantage must be able to identify, first, that the advantage exists and second, what kind of advantage it is.  If you wish to clean up with a charge, it isn't simply enough to have more fighters than the other side.  As a rule of thumb you need to make sure that you actually have more shieldmen than the other side does.  Charging 8 remaining shields with 4 shieldmen and 8 spears is likely to end in failure (believe me, I've called this charge before).  In this scenario, there is still an opportunity to clean up, but it must be done by bringing all of your spears to the front and fighting aggressively until the other side has been whittled down enough that you have a clear shield advantage.  At that point, you call the charge and finish the job.

A good habit to get into is to take a beat or two to do a quick count of shields on both sides.

Knowing the Organizational Needs of your Fighters

One of the frustrations I've historically had with the SCA is the command structure.  It might just be a few bad apples, but there are some people who get into places of power who then assume that every person within earshot needs to be micromanaged.  A mercenary unit or peerless household is not likely to want to take orders from a random person they've never met, especially if it conflicts with a plan that they had already worked out with the commanders.

Having said that, there are many fighters who do need to be micromanaged because they are new, don't practice very often, and probably never had any experience on a sports team, marching band, etc. so fighting on a bridge may be a little overwhelming for them.  I've actually received personal criticism by some of our less experienced fighters that they weren't given enough guidance.

As a free company, one of the things that has helped me in recent years is developing a good rapport and level of communication with the local kingdom commanders so that we can best understand how each other works.  They tell us what their needs are and what they'd like us to do, we tell them how we think that we can accommodate, and a level of trust and confidence is developed among all parties.

Again, there's a difference between the needs of a well trained shield heavy unit, or an improvisational skirmish unit, or an untrained kingdom unit that is a collection of fighters from a handful of baronies, or more importantly, a section of a bridge that is a collection of all of the above.


Always Have Leaders and a Plan

This doesn't mean that a command structure needs to run deep or that it needs to be formalized.  Sometimes its as simple as, "Well, Joe usually has some good ideas and we just kind of listen to him."  But as you can see if you've read this far, there are plenty of ways to run a bridge battle, and at least some level of communication should occur before the battle begins to figure out what everyone is going to try to accomplish.  Some groups have enough experience fighting together that they may not need to communicate, though I find it best to at least have a short, simple conversation to make sure that everyone is on the same page.

Example:  At the Highland River Melees bridge battle this year we had an interesting scenario where we had an attrition battle with two ballistae aimed at one of the armies.  Because of the ballistae, it was critical that the army opposite the ballistae pressed the attack.  We were on that side for the first battle.  We had two options:  charge, or bring a lot of spear power to the front.  What we ended up doing, instead, was we had a defensive shield wall plugging up most of the bridge with a single spearman fighting on one end.  The result was a high amount of attrition due to the ballista fire until we were whittled down far enough that our opponent "cleaned up" by charging our weakened unit.  The communication breakdown was essentially the result of two groups of fighters not feeling confident telling the other what to do.






Stepped Marches
This is a simple tactic that can get an entire unit to slowly gain ground.  One person takes command, lets everyone know what is about to happen, and yells "step."  When the unit hears "step," everyone takes one step forward, together.  This is done until the unit has traveled as far as the commander wants them to.

This is a great way to try to capture an objective.  It has little value in an attrition battle.


Unlimited Resurrection Battles

These are great battles if all you are interested in is fighting.  If you want to actually win the scenario, on the other hand, they can be frustrating.  The key thing to remember in these scenarios is that killing people is almost completely worthless if it does not result in moving your line forward toward the objective.

One thing that makes these fights particularly tricky is that people are less likely to cooperate because the lives are unlimited.  In a single death battle, fighters realize that its only a matter time before they get their one shot to fight on the front line.  In an unlimited resurrection fight, the amount of fighting is unlimited and those who butt past everyone to continuously get to the front get to do the most fighting.

In these fights, ground is typically taken in two fashions.  The less common fashion is for spears to pick apart the other side causing the remaining ranks to retreat due to a lack of morale.  Its not very common for this to happen, but its a good idea to capitalize on it when it does.  The more common method is to coordinate your charges and send big, heavy shieldmen into the fray and attempt to shove the other team back.

Keep in mind that the dynamic of these battles can change depending on the width of the bridges, the number of fighters, the quality of units, the length of the battle, and the heat.  Long, hot battles, for example, will result in less over all aggression.

So What Should YOU do in a Bridge Battle?

Well, obviously it depends on so many factors listed above, but equally as important, it depends on exactly what type of fighter you are.

Veterans of any Weapons Form
Its your primary job to figure out who is going to be in charge, who's plan you're going to follow, and that everyone else understands what is going on.  You can't expect a bunch of newer fighters to take that kind of initiative, so it falls on your shoulders.  If you've read this far into this post, you are probably interested enough in bridge battle tactics to make yourself a bit of an expert if you aren't already.  Take it upon yourself to figure out what is going on and then communicate that to everyone else.  If it is decided that you should be in charge, then come up with a plan and make sure everyone knows what it is.  Even if the plan is, "Lets wait and see what they do," you should still follow some basic fundamentals in getting your guys organized (ie get those spears out of the center/middle ranks).

New/Average Shieldmen

Your job will almost always be to charge and repel charges.  Occasionally it will be to defensively hold the front line in a shield wall.  When you are on the front, stay out of the way of the spears.  Stay a step out of spear range if you can.  Keep that sword in front of your face, but also beware of leg and body shots.  If the spears are working, step back and take a breath, but be ready to repel a charge when it comes, and be ready to charge when a commander calls one.  If the spears are working, take a step back and rest.  Most importantly, if you don't know what is going on, ask someone.

New/Average Polearm Fighters

Your job is to be in the rank behind the front most shield rank.  Your job is to back up the shields during charges and when repelling charges.  You should never be in the first rank while you still have spears alive on your side.  Occasionally you might see a really effective pole arm fighter fighting up there, but it is a rare occurrence.

New/Average Spears

Try not to plug up the middle of the bridge unless you are in the front rank.  When they call for spears to come up, make sure you get close enough to the front to fight.  Standing behind your shields out of range isn't going to do your side any good, and you are taking up a good spot on the front line that an effective spearman could be using.  If you aren't good enough to do that, well this is how you get good.  Listen to the commanders and move up or pull back when they call for it.  If you get tired, step out and ask someone to take your spot.

If you get good enough and confident enough to start recognizing good positions to fight on the front line, be aware that when you ask for shields to let you up, they can't see you or know which spot you want.  Stick your spear between two shieldmen and lightly tap them with your spear shaft and say, "spear coming up.  Can I you give me room?"  95% of the time, they will allow you through.

Final Thoughts

I certainly don't presume to be an expert on everything.  I've learned a lot about tactics through writing this blog as it has helped me focus on exactly what is going on tactically during the fight.  Three years ago I wrote a post on fighting bridge battles, and I think it included only one or two concepts listed above.

Always, if you think I'm wrong on something, please feel free to point it out.  Some of the most fundamental changes in the way I look at fighting have been the result of exactly that.  Other times it was a matter of poor explaining or my part.  And sometimes I will just see something differently than the reader.

Also, feel free to share this with your friends.