Unfortunately I showed up late to the last Southern Army regional melee practice, but I got a little feedback regarding the small teams work that some of the fighters were doing and wanted to outline here the decisions that the fighters should be, in my opinion, making on the field.
Executive Summary (TLDR)
Below I include a lot of details and diagrams building up from a 1v1 to 3v4. Each case has some nuances, but I think there are some general themes that carry through each one and it would be helpful to read through each example.
Having said that, I think I can summarize some general principles up front.
Best Decisions (each one is a unique tactic):
-Surrounding the enemy with all fighters engaged
-Sticking together and amassing the unit around one flank
-Spreading out and finding opportunities for mismatch kills (shield charges spear, 2v1, etc.)
-Denying one flank while attacking the other
Which tactical decision you make depends entirely on making an educated guess at what mistakes your opponents may make. For example, running at a flank may be a bad decision if the opponent counters with an envelopment plan and can prevent the flanking maneuver. On the other hand, spreading out and finding mismatches won't work if the opponent is better at finding mismatches than you are.
Worst Decisions
-Turtling up and taking it
-Fighters not staying engaged
-Spreading out with no ability to stay engaged (a disorganized mess)
No Single Tactic is Best
There is more than one right way to do something, but there are even more wrong ways. What this means is to not get bogged down with the idea that there is a single right way to do something, yet each tactic is going to depend on both the capabilities of your team, and a good estimation of what the opposing team will do. Understanding this will help you pick a good tactic.
Part of the motivation of this post dates back to a regional melee practice in 2015. We were being taught "the way for smaller teams to engage larger teams." The method was for the smaller team to stick together and charge at a flank in order to get a numbers advantage on the flank of the larger team.
This worked very well, but only because the larger team was taught to "stick together."
To be clear, this is a very effective tactic IF the opposing team sticks together and isn't very mobile. It's actually even more effective if the opposing team doesn't stick together, yet still isn't very mobile, both scenarios being very common.
So on that day two tactics were taught. The first was for the larger team to avoid the disorganized mess shown above, which is an important lesson to learn as a lot of fighters at these practices mostly fight singles and are prone to wander the field waiting for a single fighter to approach them.
The second was, as I said above, for a group of fighters to charge at a flank.
What I was initially doing that day was a little more dynamic than what they were working on, and something that I had been doing with a fair amount of success for about a decade. When ever a team sticks together, there is a strictly defined finite space that an opponent will be. Knowing that, I can position myself anywhere on the field that is not in their kill zone. So the tactic I was using could be loosely described as an envelopment. (note, I was fighting with a spear, so a spear is pictured below)
Risk vs Reward
The risk of teaching any of these alternative tactics is that a team of low level fighters won't know what to do. The simplest tactic to learn is "always do this." The more complicated tactics are when decisions have to be made on the fly.
The reward is facilitating learning, creating more advanced fighters, increasing the overall average experience of the fighters on your team, and at a minimum, understanding what your opponent is doing if they are applying these different tactics even if you've opted not to.
In my opinion, the fighters who show up to practice are motivated fighters. These are your future leaders. My suggestion is to help them learn as much as they can.
Best Way to Learn
Fight a lot. Give them the opportunity to make decisions on their own. Certainly teach them tactics, but I much prefer that this happens after they've been given ample opportunity to figure them out on their own.
This is certainly nothing I'd ever done as a basketball coach, but in those days I had the same 12 team members practicing 2 hours a day. I really believe that the circumstances of our sport lends itself to different methods of learning how people fight and what they are capable of. You never know who's going to be on the field on a given day, so a certain degree of flexibility and improvisation is going to be needed.
The Worst Tactic
Or at least one of the worst. I see this a lot. Please, please, please stop doing this:
Read through the scenarios below to figure out what better options are, but turning your backs to each other really puts you into a bad position, yet it is so common (often pictured in movies, in fact).
Specific Nuances of Each Scenario
Below I'll be covering in a little more detail the following scenarios:
1v1
2v1
1v2
2v2
3v2
2v3
3v3
4v3
3v4
This progression is intended to show you how we can take basic concepts from any small team matchup and build on them toward the next team matchup.
1v1 - Best to Avoid
More often than not, you should avoid a 1v1 fight in a melee. All things being equal, you have a 50% chance of winning this fight, and I truly believe that everyone who's cares enough to show up to melee practices and/or read this blog has more potential than looking for 50/50 odds.
There are exceptions to this rule when:
- You are MUCH better than the person you are fighting and can kill them quickly with little risk
- You have a weapons mismatch:
You have a shield and they have a spear or bow and you can easily run them down
You have a spear or bow and they have a shield or pole and you can take low risk shots
- Your options are getting much worse as the battle progresses (ie 50/50 might be the best odds you'll see in the scenario)
2v1 - Forty Fives
The general tactic for a 2v1 is for one fighter to break slightly left of the opponent, and the other to break slightly right. The biggest mistakes I've seen in a 2v1 is either one of the fighters stepping in front of his teammate, or one of the fighters not engaging, but rather just watching the fight.
1v2 - Line Them Up
Only fight a 1v2 as a last resort. You should normally be looking for numbers advantages, not fighting when you are at a disadvantage.
If you find yourself in a 2v1, try to get one of your opponents in the way of his teammate. It's normally better to move to your right, especially if you have a shield, as you're moving away from right handed attacks, and in a direction that your shield can protect you. However, the better maneuver is to figure out which opponent has the worse field awareness, and try to either get him in the way of his teammate, or move away from him hoping that he'll disengage from the fight.
2v2 - Forty Fives
Hopefully by now you're recognizing a pattern. Surrounding your enemy is good. Getting surrounded is bad. This is especially important with a 2v2 as both opponents become a target once they're surrounded.
This is also the most common problem I see with a 2v2. So many lower level melee fighters are taught to "stick together" that they immediately put themselves into a very bad position when fighting a 2v2. While sticking together is great to avoid the "Drag Out a 1v1" shown above, it's not always the most effective tactic. Breaking off into two 1v1s is better than getting surrounded.
3v2 - Keep Them Surrounded
Same as above. When you have more people, you normally want to surround your enemy if you can. Once the units start to get bigger, the keys are to make sure that you avoid 1v1 fights and take advantage of 2v1 opportunities. Don't let your opponent get around either flank, and make sure that all of your fighters are engaged.
2v3 - Hit a Flank, or Spread Out & Find the Mismatches
In the 1v2 fight, you had two choices; move to attack one flank and hope that you can get one of the opponents in the way of the other opponent, or that the other opponent would be slow to stay engaged. The other choice was to try to draw out one one of the opponents into a 1v1 fight while, again, the other would be slow to stay engaged.
In many of these smaller team versus larger team fights, you have the choice between sticking together and moving at one flank, or spreading out and trying to find mismatches and fights with better odds. The better tactic is often going to depend on what you think your opponent is going to do.
To visualize this, look at the diagram above and imagine yourself fighting on the red team. Here your goal is to try to get the green team to use a bad tactics. Can you surround them because they are focussing on sticking together without moving? Can you get around one of their flanks? Can you draw out a 1v1 while stalling for time in your 1v2? Or on your 1v2 side, can you employ the 1v2 tactics shown higher in this post? (line them up, or drag out a 1v1).
3v3 - Hit a Flank, Spread Out & Find the Mismatches, Envelop
As the numbers get bigger and bigger on each side, weapons styles, unit type, etc. become more and more important when determining what tactics to use. Who has the spears? Where's the archers? Are you big and strong, or small and fast? Do you have a mix of uber veterans and newbs, or all mid level fighters?
Nevertheless, better tactics tend to be to either move quickly as a unit to one flank, spread out and see if you can find some mismatches to take advantage of (your shield versus their spear? Your veteran versus their newb? Two of you versus one of them?), or to envelop the other side if they turtle up and take it.
The worst thing you can do is to turtle up and take it, which unfortunately one of the most common tactics used.
Here's an example of an actual 3v3 that I fought once. Both teams had two shields and a spear. The opposing team did exactly what you'd see in a movie, and what is often used in the SCA. They formed a tight little shield wall in the front and put their spear behind it. Our team surrounded them and picked them off fairly easily (this ALWAYS happens). Eventually in the following battles, their team spread out to match our team, and both teams began using the "spread out and find the mismatches" tactic.
4v3 - Keep them Surrounded
Tactically this isn't much different than a 3v2. Again, keep in mind that the larger these fights get, the more other factors come into play. One of the big things I've been addressing lately is the idea that most small engagements come down to quick decision making regarding which side has the range advantage. I've not really been addressing that in these examples, other than to point out clear mismatches.
Look at the 3v2 diagrams and employ all of the same principles. Try to keep them surrounded. Don't let anyone get around your flank. Make sure all fighters stay engaged in the fight. If things get spread out, look for the mismatches (shield vs spear. 2v1. Veteran vs newb. etc.).
3v4 - Denying a Flank as an Option
Once you've reached this size I believe the smaller team now has the numbers to deal with both flanks. The same options as before are still available:
- Surround the enemy if it looks like they are going to stand in a tight group without moving
- Spread out and find mismatches if you see opportunities
- Go hard at one flank if it looks like they'll let you get around it without staying engaged on the opposite flank
Additionally you can peal off smaller numbers of fighters (in this case, a single fighter) to attempt to deny to opposite flank from enveloping your fighters.
Note, in this case the loan denier's job is to prevent the flank from enveloping. He or she does not need to fight a 2v1, but rather keep them from wanting to turn the corner and exposing their flanks to this loan fighter. If they do, then go ahead and kill them (it happens way more often than you'd expect).
Final Thoughts
This covers most of what I wanted to cover. One last thought to keep in mind is that it is generally better to form an arc than a bulge. Be the team that is surrounding the fight, not the one that is being surrounded. If you decided to spread out and find the mismatches, make sure you can see all of the other fighters on the field, and place their backs to the fighting.
Hope you enjoyed! Have fun. Fight safe.
No comments:
Post a Comment