Hi all,
This post is inspired by a recent question from someone looking for some good resources regarding melee tactics and command. Hoards of people recommended my blog.........or maybe it was only two people. Anyway, lots not quibble over minor details! ;)
So, while I happen to think this blog offers a fair amount of insight about common situations that we see on the field, training philosophy, or maybe a unique perspective or two, I don't really think it's a step by step guide to commanding troops.
And it's still not going to be. But I am hoping with this post I can offer some insights to seeing the big picture, as well as a really good starting point for getting the most important jobs done on the field.
This Post in Three Sections
I just want to prepare you for what you are about to read. I think all of it is important, but the "what should I know about command" won't really come until the third section. Here are the three sections, in order:
1) Fighting anecdote, and a comparison of two fundamentally different tactics to solve the same problem
2) How those tactics can be applied depending on the quality and training of your unit
3) Some basics to learning field command
Enjoy!
1) 3v4 Melee Scenario - EK Southern Army Practice, 2015
A little over 6 years ago I grabbed the armor bag out of my attic and the straps disintegrated in my hands. I pulled the armor out piece by piece, tried to put it on, and nothing fit. It had been 10 years since I'd fought. Fast forward 6 months, I've knocked most of the rust off, and ultimately found myself at a kingdom practice. I was meeting people (and they were meeting me), and I was integrating myself into the practice. Despite a decade of experience, I'd never been involved in a kingdom practice, and even if I had, I'd have been 10 years removed. Methods had certainly changed in that time frame.
Nevertheless, I found myself on a team of 3 about to attack a team of 4. Two of our team attacked the right flank hard, while I went after the left flank. If I remember correctly, I believe we won, and yet I was pulled aside and was told that I was "doing it wrong."
I listened, reflected on the comments, and experimented over the next several years, and have come to a few conclusions.
The Kingdom Approach
What we were taught at this practice was that if a smaller unit faces a larger unit, that the smaller unit should group together and charge at a single flank. The basic idea is that though you have smaller numbers, you can get a numerical advantage by throwing all of your fighters at a smaller number of their fighters. ie a 3v4 can turn into a 3v2 with the remaining 2 enemy fighters being left out of the fight.
My Approach
I should qualify, it's not specifically "my" approach, but rather a method that I have adopted over the years. Though it is certainly not the most common method, it also isn't one I invented. I might, however, be one of the few to have ever written it down (at least in SCA fighting).
Split. Always split if you have a numerical disadvantage. And if you have the advantage, and they split, then you still split. Split, split, split!
There are several reasons to split:
1) The enemy is looking for a single target to attack, and you aren't giving them one.
2) You gain a flanking advantage
3) IF they stick together, much like the kingdom leaders wanted us to, and much like most sca melee fighters are taught, then at least one of your flanks is going to get very easy kills. Which ever way the red team decides to move is going to expose their backs to the fighters they are ignoring, which is very bad.
If red sticks together, this is an easy fight to win for green.
And if red splits...........
This is really the best response for red as they ensure that their flanks are not left exposed. Whether red splits into 1 & 3, or 2 & 2, green & red create the same scenario; they split into two fights, one of which has a small numerical advantage for red, and one which is an even fight.
In this case, green wants to stall on the disadvantage, and press on the even fight. Red wants to do the opposite. If green is successful at stalling, then they have a 2v2 fight, which is better than the 3v4 odds that they'd have otherwise.
But didn't the kingdom tactic give green a 3v2 advantage? Not really. That only happens if the remaining two red fighters are tactically bad enough that they stay disengaged. If that's the case, if they really are that bad, then I don't see that the team is going to split like in the picture above.
If, however, they are tactically savvy, then they will wrap green's left flank if green sticks together.
In my opinion, sticking together is much worse for green than splitting, at least in this very specific scenario.
2) Why Apply One Tactic vs The Other
So it sounds like I made a pretty good case for why my tactic was a superior tactic to what the kingdom teachers where telling me I should do. Well, it's not that simple. Which tactic to employ entirely depends on what your unit is made up of.
If, for example, you follow the tactics of professional team sports, you'll notice that the less experienced the team is (ie like a youth team) the simpler, and more rigid that the tactics are. The more experienced they are, the more complex the tactics are, and the more flexibility is granted to the players on the field to make improvised decisions on the flay.
My point above is that a unit full of tourney fighters with limited melee experience is not going to be able to pull off the splitting method in the 3v4. But in a single practice they can be taught the "stick together and charge right" method, which is largely why a lot of sca kingdoms teach this. It isn't the "better" method, but possibly the "right" method for the level of fighters in the unit.
To quote a friend from a recent conversation: "Your typical sca fighter is going to fight whatever individual fighter that they see in front of them, and they are going to fight that person until the fight is finished, and they'll have no idea what is going on on the rest of the field until that fight is over."
To be able to split, hold your position until a flank is exposed, and disengage from the fight if two fighters come at you, are not beginner skills.
Key Takeaways
The point of the previous anecdote is to understand that there isn't "the way to fight." There are many ways to fight, and you need to do your best to try to understand the different variants, and how and when they should be applied.
Some bullets:
- Before coming up with a plan, understand what your unit is capable of, both as a group, but also as individuals. Maybe there are people who can perform special tasks, or can be given more flexibility to improvise on their own.
- There is no single right way to do something, but there's even more wrong ways. Figure out what your unit can accomplish effectively.
- Even if you fervently believe that a certain method is inferior, at least understand it so that you can address it when you see it. Understand not only how to beat your enemy, but why some of your teammates may be doing something that doesn't fit your plan.
3) Basics for a Beginning Commander
So, moving forward, here's a short list of basics. This is only a starting point, but after several years of dedicated practice, field command will make more and more sense.
- As stated above, get an idea for what kind of people you have in your unit and what level of organization they will require and can handle.
- Keep It Simple, Sir! Complicated plans never work. For the most part your decisions will be on the order of "attack those people" or "don't attack those people." You're the central decision maker in the unit, so tell everyone what the plan is in simple terms. "Go get those guys." "Go get those other fighters." "Stay here until we see things develop." "Charge on my command!" "Spears to the front!"
- Learn how to give loud, easy to understand directions. Learn the timing of them.
- Talk to the other commanders on the field, before, during, and after the battle.
- Learn from your mistakes.
- Take it upon yourself to communicate safety issues to the right people. Also tell the marshals when your unit is not happy with how the scenarios are going. Bad scenarios can be turned into good ones, but only if someone speaks up.
- Get used to surveying the field. My last Pennsic woods battle, every time I came back from the rez point, I walked up and down our line, probably 50 yards worth of frontage, just to get an idea of what was going on. Even if the first time you do this you have no idea what to do with that information, you'll be gaining command experience.
- Watch other commanders and learn. Here's the key, though. Some are good. Some are terrible. Some are good, but have a completely different style than you are capable of. Don't just copy someone else's style, but rather absorb all of it and then figure out what will work for you.
- Learn basic tactics. There's not enough room in this post to cover all of them, but you can feel free to read through my other blog posts (bridge battle tactical summary linked at the end). I will give one example, however. In one of my last Pennsic field battles someone called me in a desperate tone and said, "we need spears." My unit had a lot of spears. I ran over and did a quick survey of the situation. The other side did have spears. Lots of spears. A whole lot of spears, and way more than we could possibly spare. And they were poised to chew through our line. I then quickly assessed the rest of their unit. They had only spears. What do you do when they have lots of spears and you have lots of shields? Well, provided that there's nothing else stopping you, you charge. I looked to their commander and yelled, "They have no shields. We need to charge this gap right now!" He did a quick look, agreed, and made the call, and we took their spears out.
This is what I mean by a basic tactic. I knew that shields charge spears, and when I communicated it to their commander, he knew that as well. It was a simple tactic. The hard part was assessing it quickly, communicating it to the right people, and making the call to implement the tactic.
Final Thoughts
I don't consider myself a great commander, and I don't think the bards are signing songs about my command abilities. I'm much more an analyst, or a tactician, or a coach. Some people like being in charge and telling people what to do. That's not really me. Also, it feels like work, and I'm there to have fun, which often involves stabbing people and cracking jokes. I will, however, step up and yell the obvious command when I see that no one else is stepping up, or find someone else to do it.
I think my point here is I don't want to pass off this blog post as the words of a successful commander. These are just the thoughts of a fighters who's been around the town square and has managed to avoid the gallows more than once.
Example of a tactical blog post:
https://thetacticalfighter.blogspot.com/2019/10/baris-bridge-battles.html
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