Hi all,
Just returned from a fantastic weekend of fighting with a good prep for 100 Minutes War next week. I'd heard many great things about this practice and am glad that a small crew of us was able to make the 6 hour drive to get there.
If you're new to reading this blog, this post marks my 109th post over a 6 year period, and is more or less my reflections over what went well, or what could have been improved in a particular practice or event.
So let's get to it.
Scenario #1: 7v7 Two Rez (three lives) Broken Field Battles
I believe we had 28 fighters which were broken up into four teams of 7. Two teams fought each other while the other two teams watched. After the battle was over, a new pairing would take the field and fight.
Decide Which Weapons to Bring
For our team, the very first tactical decision we had to make involved a collective assessment of the talents and weapon types on our teams versus our opponents. We then had to consider how such a battle would pan out. In a nutshell, the longer it takes to complete a battle, the more and more advantage goes toward having more spears on your team. The shorter the battle, the advantage tends to lean toward more shields.
The reason behind this is that in order for a shield fighter to kill a spear fighter, they must charge. Charging is very exhausting, and longer battles require more charging, which makes the shield fighters more tired, which makes them have to take more breaks, and taking breaks between the charges gives all the advantages to the ones with the spears (I can poke at you without fear of being run down).
Having said that, there is a balance point. A team made up of 7 spears and no shields would have a tough time killing any of the shields as they would likely get mopped up in each wave of charges.
We ultimately decided to bring out three spears, and I believe every other team brought out either two or three spears (in a single death battle, you might see zero spears).
Field Area Responsibilities
The next decision, aside from picking a commander and a reform call ("two" was our call......despite the fact that we were team #4), was to decide who would go where. I am a very big fan of controlling areas rather than some sort of buddy system where people decide to always fight together in pairs or triads. "Buddies" is good for very new fighters in an overwhelming situation, like Pennsic. But for fighters with experience, I'd rather them understand that their job is to "work the left side of the field" rather than, "Go find Larry."
This doesn't mean that you shouldn't conceptualize the idea of a shield working with a spear (or two shields and a spear), but that a shield on the right side of the field should work with a spear on the right side of the field, and it might be a different spear than it was a minute ago. Also, just because your role was to work the right side of the field, that doesn't mean that you can't shift your attention to the middle or the left if there's an immediate tactical need to do so. For example, if you have a 3v1 advantage on the right, and the 1 is really good at retreating, and you see an easy oblique kill that can be made in the center, it may be a good idea to leave your area to go get the easy kill, provided that you understand that you need to keep an eye on the right side and return to it when needed.
We decided on a balanced approach with a left spear, center spear, and right spear, and then spread the shields out the same way. I'm a big fan of having your best shields control the flanks with a notable exception that I'll talk about later. We spread out the shields the same way; left, center, right, and then allowed our pole to float to where ever he felt he needed to be.
Smart Kills, Don't Die
The tactics in this kind of battle are basically to die as little as possible while getting as many kills as possible. This happens by finding good matchups and exploiting your advantages. Better spears should attack weaker spears. Weaker spears should be defensive. Attack on the 2v1s, stall on the 1v2s. Look for oblique attacks. Pull back toward your rez point if you're outnumbered. Use the terrain features to lure them into kill pockets.
In our fights, we let the spears do most of the killing. If the other side charged, the spears would run to safety while the shields and pole would run in to protect them. Shield charges should generally occur only when the shields are confident that the net result will be more kills for their team. Charging at a spear only to get clubbed by a pole is not a good decision.
Note: When a spear runs for safety, they need to immediately get back into the fight. Don't run away and wait for things to clear out, but rather find a way to get yourself back into the fight.
The reason why this gives you an advantage is that every kill that your team gets is a long walk for your opponent, and every kill they get is a short walk for your teammate. This means that you will replenish your ranks much faster than they will.
Having said that, if you are counting kills, it may be to your advantage to finish off your opponent near their rez point, but then you must immediately retreat back to the center of the field.
Very similar fights to above, except now we have twice as many fighters on a similarly sized field, and the objective is to control the center of the field instead of attrition. The battles were 5 minutes long, and a handful of points were scored at intervals within those 5 minutes based on which team had the center controlled.
One piece I particularly liked was that we combined the teams from the previous scenarios, and then switched them for the second half of these battles. So at one point is was Teams 1&4 vs 2&3, and then later 1&3 vs 2&4 (or something like that). That offered a little bit of variety in the fighting so that you didn't end up fighting across from the same people all day. 
Tactical Differences
Many of the same tactics as the previous scenario apply: choosing weapons and where they go, picking a commander and a team name, getting kills while trying to survive, trying not to fight near their rez point while walking back toward your own rez point for safety, etc.
There were some key differences, however. Since the objective of the battle is to control the center of the field, killing is no longer important except that it helps you move the line of engagement past the center of the field so that you can take control of it. Also, because the numbers were so much greater, echoing commands becomes more and more important as someone yelling from the left side of the field likely won't be heard nor recognized from the right side of the field.
I had mentioned before that I prefer the best shield fighters to be on the flanks, as controlling flanks is critical in a melee. In this scenario, however, one or more good shield fighters also need to be in the center in order to take and defend the objective.
Don't Fight at Their Rez Point
I pointed out above about the disadvantage of being far from your own rez point. This is even more pronounced in this scenario because a kill is literally worthless if it doesn't lead toward moving the line of engagement forward. If you are already at their rez point, there's nowhere left to go. Every kill is immediately replenished with a short walk.
Here's an example of the team from the right side of the camera pushing the line up to the rez point, and then calling a charge while already controlling the center point.
Watch @0:45
Notice that a charge is initiated by the team on the right which pushes the left team all the way back to their rez point. Once the charge is resolved, the left team is at full strength, while the right team only has one fighter left alive. The left team then easily walked the line forward and took control of the field.
Given the set up of the field, there was never a reason to push beyond the choke point, which is a terrain feature that offers the best defense.
Edit to add: Upon further review, I noticed that the charge was against a line of 4 spears, which put the right team in a bit of a predicament. Normally you'd want to charge that, but the left team had backup to their left since they were beyond the obstacle, and even if they didn't, they were close to their rez point. I still think a charge here is the wrong call (as evidenced by the result) but can certainly understand why that call was made.
Echo Commands
I remember one scenario where our left had pushed too far toward toward the rez point, and I kept yelling "Left flank, pull back!" At one point I yelled, "what's our team name?!"
So a few problems here. One was my fault. I didn't know what our team name was. One was probably the fault of everyone which was that I don't think many of us knew what our team name was. One was the left flank pushing too far. And finally one was that even though the left flank couldn't hear me, some people on our team could but didn't echo the commands.
Rolling a Flank When You Have the Advantage
In the same video, you hear the left team say, "roll that flank!" What this means is that you aren't necessarily focussed on killing the enemy, but rather continuing to press forward while walking them backward, and curling the flank around in the process.
Watch @0:55
PAL Video 3
Notice he says the command at least 4 times. Some of the fighters turn to kill the fighters holding the control point, while the rest walk past and take control of the flank. Not only does this move the line of engagement beyond the control point, but it also creates a kill pocket which gives a big advantage to the left team. Also notice that even though they had a huge numbers advantage, they stopped pressing at the choke point.
Some Techniques to Rolling a Flank
There were several instances in the smaller battles where we'd have a 2v2 competitive spear battle on one side of the field. Whenever one of their spears would get killed, I'd immediately tell my partner to start rolling the flank. To do this, I would go on full defense against the spear, trying to pin his shaft so that he can't shoot at either one of us, and then start walking forward, ideally past his tip, to continue to get him to either a) die from a spear shot from my partner or b) keep walking backward so that we can take the flank.
In a control point scenario, this helps us move the line past the point. In an attrition battle, it forms a kill pocket to allow the other spear either an easy kill on the one I'm tying up, or an easy kill on someone in the pocket.
There's an example of this in the foreground of the following video. The lefty shield initiates a charge and gets his shield into a position where he protects himself from the two spears on the flank. For what it's worth, I'm always a big fan of having your shield either take the extreme flank position (as he is) or at a minimum be the second to last fighter on the flank.
Watch @0:28
I should probably say that it was Sir Sterling who initiated the charge, but the lefty was the key component to the success of that charge as he was in the perfect position for it. Unfortunately, I think the backup shield got in a step too late as she was returning from rez point and took the first available spot as the spears ended up crowding on the flank. Either way, the right team had a clear tactical advantage in this push.
I should also note that in a 4v4, the team with one spear should normally charge the team with three spears, so good call on their part. Also good on the three spear team to retreat and stay alive rather than to die trying to hold a position that they can't hold.
There were some instances where commands were called to take the point. Now, it's not a bad idea to yell, "c'mon, move forward and take the control point." But understand the only thing this accomplishes is hoping that someone else will call out the command.
The problem with "everyone move forward," is that no one is going to move forward until they believe that everyone else is going to move forward with them. A better command is, "Blue team, get ready to move two steps forward to take the objective. That's two steps together. Ready? Step! Step!"
I gave a similar command to Gui on the far right flank. I saw three spears with no shields and knew that if he was on the far right position (the opposite of the lefty pictured above) that he could move the whole line back. I said in a tone that only he could hear, "They have no shields. Get ready to charge. You got that?" "Yes." "Okay....ready......go! go! go! go!." And when he did that, I was sure to parry any spears that would turn toward him for side and leg shots.
Having said that, my yelling, "left flank," over and over again didn't accomplish anything. Who's left flank? And what are they supposed to do?
Final Thoughts
I can't stress how much I enjoyed this practice and how well run I thought it was. I've always been a critic of the "commanders lead, troops follow," approach. By contrast, this practice encourages everyone to take as much ownership in the on field decisions as they are willing to take on, which has always been a philosophy of mine. If you train someone to know what to do, then you won't have to tell them what to do.
I'd also like to apologize for sounding like I'm calling anyone out for any mistakes. Every single fighter of every level makes mistakes at some point in the battle, including myself (didn't even know our own team name.). We're rusty, we're constantly changing teams, we're tired, and not everyone can know every perfect decision to make in every moment of a battle.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed this write up. Talk to you soon!
Video Links
-Bari of Anglesey
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