Hey all,
It's been a while. I've been working out and doing my pell work, but no practices nor melees during the pandemic, so not much to blog about. However, I recently read a few melee documents from various sources and one thing jumped out at me that I wanted to comment on.
I recently read a suggestion that said if you lose your sword arm to attempt to block shots for other fighters.
Okay.......where to begin? This is kind of a complicated topic because it isn't so much about what the correct strategy is, but rather about a larger philosophy about what it means to be a melee fighter.
If you view fighters, in general.......no, strike that. If you view fighters, even the ones who have taken the time to read large text documents and watch videos on how to fight in a melee as nothing more than fodder for commanders to push in a given direction while keeping them motivated enough to pass their morale check, then sure, tell them that they can still be useful fighters once they've lost an arm by blocking shots targeted at other fighters. That will keep them in the front line a little bit longer, and then once they die they'll feel like they were useful in some manner.
It's my opinion, however, that if a fighter is taking the time to read a document about melee fighting, then they are actually looking for information that will help them graduate past the fodder stage (at least that's always been the intention of my blog posts).
With that said, if I have people in the back ranks with swords, the last thing I want is a weaponless fighter hogging a spot on the front line (exceptions, of course, given to fighters that are so good that they are more useful without a weapon than your typical non-wounded fighter is with a weapon).
So what should you do if you lose an arm?
- Get out of the way of someone who is more useful than you. If you are in a spot where a killer can kill, then let the killer have your spot.
- You can stay in the back and stay alive. Large units are intimidating. The enemy doesn't need to know that you can't kill them. Be another body on the field. Who knows, you might be the last person alive at the end of the fight. Or maybe you were just one person too many for the other team to decide to charge at the flag.
- Be a distraction. If there is some space in an open field, make yourself bait. Make people think about coming after you to attack instead of killing your archers or spears.
- Be an extra pair of eyes and a voice on the flanks or in the back. Watch and make sure the enemy isn't getting into your backfield. If they are, announce it to your troops and your commanders. Worst case scenario, you get some useful experience learning how troops move and what constitutes a weakness.
- Be an obstacle or a body shield provided you aren't getting into an ally's way. Don't try to "block a shot" aimed at your friend. Slam into the person who is throwing the shot and knock them off balance.
- Lead a charge. Most charges result in lots of chargers dying. Volunteer to be in the front of this charge. You may not be able to swing a weapon, but you can throw your body at the enemy, and if the enemy is going to respond by hacking apart all of the people deep in their ranks, better they attack you than an un-wounded friend.
- Sacrifice yourself by throwing your body at another fighter, making both of you fly over a straw bale and off the side of a bridge.
One of my most useful moments after losing an arm was in a fight in a corn maze. We were getting picked apart by archers and spears. I lost an arm as did my buddy. We looked at each other and said, "are you ready? Lets do this." We both yelled, "Charge!!!" and the two of us were the first people into the fray. He threw his body into two shieldmen and pushed them into the corn. I cut off two spears and held one in the corn. We both died, but our un-wounded fighters wiped out the rest of the enemy.
All of those options are better than "blocking shots aimed at a friend." More often than not, you are just getting in their way. Yes, there are times when this works, but those tend to be rare.
Hey, I get it, sometimes the best strategy is to just send a large mass of untrained troops at the enemy, and everyone needs to do their job. But lets be honest and tell the adults that have signed up to fight with you that that is what they are doing to help our side win, while also giving them the tools to graduate toward more effective roles in the army.
Bari of Anglesey is a tool who only craves attention, but he doesn't take himself too seriously and sometimes has something useful to say, so he's not so bad.
