Pennsic - part 5 - Field Battle Videos

Hey, turns out we've got videos of the battles!

In the first field battle, I talked about our flanking of what I think was the Aethelmearc army:

Blog Post:  Pennsic - Part 1 - Field Battle

Fortunately, I found a 1st person video of it (taken by my friend Albert......uh.....ignore the taking during the hold).  I think its clear that we did very well in this battle, despite eventually losing.  Keys to success, IMO, were:

Smart tactical decision moving in on the flank
Being fast and mobile because of our loose skirmish approach
Melee skills (there was a *lot* of melee experience in that group).
Great balance of weapons (constant back and forth between the use of spears and shields)

Anyway, check out the video (note, this is the first field, not the 2nd, despite the title.


video:  FIELD BATTLE 1



And we also have footage of the second field battle, but from a different perspective.  In this one you can see us hit a small group of people on the flank, and then after killing them, moving down the hill to engage the flank of the main unit.

Blog Post:  Pennsic - Part 2 - Advanced Tactic

video:  FIELD BATTLE 2

We come in right at the 1 minute mark.  We're in the foreground in either green and gold, or black and white.

Pennsic - Part 4 - Bridge Battles

The Bog (Anglesey, The Concusare, Galatia) fighting with Atlantia did well in the bridge battles this year.  We historically do well on bridges for a few reasons.  We have a lot of really good spears.  We have a few shields who know how to fight from the front rank.  We have poles and shield who know how to support the spears, and we have a good system of fighting.  We were one of the first "spears to the front" units dating back to the late 80s/early 90s when conventional wisdom had shields in the front with spears trying to shoot from behind them.

Working Together

We found it very frustrating fighting in the MOAB battle when on the attacking side.  Too many SCA people would get mixed in with our group, and they just don't work the way we do, and its very hard to be effective.  Kinsman Karuk pushed for us having our own frontage when we fought the bridges so that we could keep The Bog together without too much mingling with other fighters.  We negotiated with Atlantia to give us a piece of the bridges they were on, with us taking the right side and them taking the left.

Our first battle went well, but we had a few Atlantian shields mixed in our front rank that were difficult to work around.  In the next three battles we did a much better job at clearing them out after the initial charge, but fell off of that on the 5th battle (which was our worst battle).

Starting the Battle

Always begin the battle with a shield wall.  If you begin with spears up front, and they begin with a shield wall, they will run you right over.  Always start with a shield wall, and if the battle is a timed battle for control of the middle, charge that shield wall as fast as you can right across the bridge.

Spears to the Front

Once the line is set, the key to the battle is going to be getting as many of your spears on the front line as possible, BUT with plenty of space between them so that they can work.  Too many spears get in each others way, they plug up lanes for potential pulse or column charges, and they can' t retreat back into their own ranks when receiving a charge (see the top unit in the diagram below).

Oh, and one piece I can't emphasize enough;  get your shields out of the front rank.  If you aren't anchoring a particular spot on the bridge for some reason, or your shields don't effectively know how to get kills from the front line, then get them out of the front rank.  They are just taking up space and preventing your spears from being able to work.  They aren't "protecting" anyone.  They are just in the way.

Exceptions can be made for the rare shieldmen who actually know how to jump into a line of spears and get a few kills.  The vast majority of shieldmen can't do this.

Spears - Shields - Poles

Upon establishing the spear line, the next two ranks need to be organized.  The second rank should be shields, so that a charge can be repelled, or so that they can charge out of the second rank when the opportunity arrises.  Examples would include when the other side has too many spears in the front rank (such that they can't retreat easily), the other side has two ranks of spears (easy kills), or the other side has weakened and territory can be gained with a charge.  The third rank should be poles as they can effectively back up a shield wall.

If the unit receives a charge, the spears melt back into the 3rd rank as the shields and poles push past them.  If the unit wishes to charge, the same exact method applies.

Badly Organized Front Line

We did very well in the bridge battles this year, but the 5th battle we were poorly organized.  We allowed too many shields to plug up the front ranks.  My apologies to the shieldmen in this picture, they were doing what they thought was right and we, the commanders, failed to get the line organized correctly.

I count 5 shields and a pole in the front rank, and only 4 spears, who were crowding each other.  We had not captured the bridge for the point, yet, and there was no way it was going to happen with the way we were disorganized in this line.

As I've been learning in the last couple of years, working together and individual prowess can go a long way, but good command and good organization can account for quite a lot!

Pennsic - Part 3 - Commanding

This was my first Pennsic as a commander.  I've fought in ~10 Pennsics at this point, but never have I had the responsibility for the wellbeing of my unit.  This year, however, Anglesey elected me to be their warlord.

As a fighter, I'm mainly concerned with killing what's in front of me, surviving, and helping out my tribe and my side when needed.  As a commander, on the other hand, I met with the warlord of Atlantia (the army who hired us) every morning before the battle to find out what the plan was and how we fit into it.  Sometimes we did exactly what they asked, while other times we offered alternatives depending on what the scenario was and what we thought we were best suited to do.  Half way through the war I realized it was better to bring advisors with me if only to have a second set of ears to listen to the plan.

Allied Champions Battle

We took the right flank, and fought it well.  Despite losing all of the victory points, our flank generally held the midway point and pushed well past it between horns which released the resurrection corrals.  Our guys (The Bog:  Anglesey, The Concusare, and Galatia) know how to fight this kind of battle, so they needed no instructions from me.  The only thing I told them was to pace their selves because we were short on reserves.

As commander, however, I constantly had to step back and watch the lines.  Our middle and left flanks were pushed behind us, so I couldn't see them from the front line.

Mother of all Battles

This battle required two key command decisions on my part.  The first was when defending the castle.  I elected to stand as a reserve on the left breech (closest to the market).  We knew that this was the most likely place for the enemy to break through.  One commander came over and offered an alternative plan, which myself and our vice warlord talked him out of, as his plan was going to give up all of our advantages (to be discussed in a later blog).

I was focussed on the potential of Blood Guard breaking through at the corner of the castle.  One of my Kinsmen said that we should be worried about the far left, instead.  I thought for certain that Ironlance would hold the left.  It turns out that he was right and I was wrong.

As soon as the Tuchux started pushing though on the far left, I made the call for us to go and reinforce.  Again, as commander, I didn't have the luxury of running up to help.  As they ran to reinforce, I surveyed the field to see if it was enough, or if there were other weaknesses.  I spotted a unit who had just moved in and turned to look down the hill at Blood Guard.  I yelled over to them and pointed to the far left flank and that they needed to help.  They responded in kind.

The other decision to make was when we were attacking the town.  At this point I started to discuss the plans more with some experienced fighters in the group.  We decided that we would move into the town and try to find a weakness to exploit.  We found a unit that appeared less experienced than us in the middle road and decided to hit them.  It was actually one of my men who pointed it out, but it was still my job to make the call and mobilize the unit, which I did.

Bridge Battle 

This battle was one of our better successes.  This time I grabbed three advisors and walked out to the bridges before the battles began and discussed ideas with Atlantia's warlord.  After hashing out several plans, he agreed to give us partial frontage of whatever bridges we were on.

At the beginning of the first battle, I realized that I needed to let our other spears up to the front while giving up my own normal spot on the line.  The biggest challenge here was getting our unit organized, and making sure that Atlantian fighters didn't clash with what we were doing.

The first bridge was a little rough, mainly getting Atlantian shieldmen off of the front rank when it was time for our spears to work. I did a better job of this on the next three bridges, yet failed badly on the 5th bridge.  I also had a moment where I ran to an Atlantian commander insisting that we needed a pulse charge (he was already on it), and a few moments where I cleared out a lane for a column charge (in one case I grabbed the king and threw him out of the way.  I later apologized, to which he said its better than getting plowed in the back by a column).

The other key command decision was on the 4th bridge we were slated as a reserve unit.  I moved us into position so that we'd be much closer when we'd need to react.  Early on we saw bridge #2 about to collapse, so we moved in on it.  As the unit moved in, I realized that we were still pretty thin (we had ~20 fighters), so I looked back for reinforcements, and saw Atlantia coming up right behind us.

Wall Battle

Its hard to say how this would have panned out.  We were on the northern most breach, which was about 8 ranks deep.  The only thing that could help this breech would have been column charges, which we are just not built for.  One of my men suggested that we move our entire unit to the south breech, which I agreed was a good idea.  I ran this past a few other fighters, including the warlords of Galatia and The Concusare, and we agreed to move.  Unfortunately, I could only convince half the group to move.  I felt the decision was the right one to make, but failed at mobilize our entire unit.

One of the benefits of having a group of veteran warriors is that they all know how to fight and don't need to be told what to do.  The down side is that they don't always follow orders.  I can only hope that had the battle lasted another hour as it was supposed to, that I could have gotten our unit back together.

Field Battle

Last year we had two field battles that did not workout as we would have liked.  We served as a shield for the Tuchux, but it didn't put us in the best of positions.  We are better when we can move like a pack of wolves.

This year we told Atlantia that we would satellite around them, but would have to make a judgement call as we read the battlefield.  In all three battles we had a lot of talking back and forth within the unit as the battle unfolded.  I made a few calls to reposition a few key people within the unit based on what I thought we would do.  This was actually one of the easier battles to command as we were generally able to make the decision before impact, and then the rest would flow naturally afterward.

Lessons Learned

Being a commander is a much different experience on the field.  Its like moving out of a playing role and more into a coaching role.  I would argue that having a good commander on the field is far more important than having one more good fighter in the unit.  Its tough not being able to just focus on fighting, but I got some positive feedback from our fighters saying that they had the room to work and the necessary support to do what they needed to do to be successful.

A lot of time when someone gets killed, they'll say, "you caught me thinking."  For me, that was the hardest aspect of commanding while fighting.  My kill ratio was probably the worst its been in a while.

Next year I will be the vice warlord.  It will be interesting to see if I can let go control of the unit and go back to fighting.

Pennsic - Part 2 - Advanced Field Tactic

As I wrote in my last blog post, I'll be talking about Pennsic in several parts.  This is my second installment.

I originally wanted to put in a different title that described exactly what we did in this battle, but I thought a "what would you do" approach to each step might be a little more interesting, so I've simply called this "Advanced Field Tactic" to keep you in suspense!  =)

The Scenario

This was the second field battle.  We fought on the Midrealm side and were lined up on our far right flank.  Our unit, known as The Bog Troopers (or simply "The Bog", comprised of 3 celtic clans: Anglesey, The Concusare, and Galatia) consisted of ~10 veteran fighters, about half shields, and the rest were poles and spears, plus one archer (spears and poles are both represented as poles in the diagrams).  To our left was a sizable Atlantia unit.

Note:  we fielded over 20 fighters for most of the war, but the heat, rain, and the Pennsic Plague cut our numbers down drastically for this battle.

When the battle started, Atlantia marched right and so did we.  Across from us were the Tuchux, who held back on the hill in reserve, and a smallish unit (maybe 20 fighters) who charged ahead of their entire army and appeared to be headed directly for us.

At this point, I believe, Atlantia stopped their forward progress to read the field.  We kept moving forward, as did the unit across from us.  It appeared that we might be in for a head on engagement.  At this point blue has a slight up hill advantage, with the hill sloping upward both behind blue and to our right (their left).

What Would You Do?

Pardon me if I sound patronizing, but I think this is a good exercise for anyone.  What would you do if you were The Bog?  What would you do if you were the blue unit?

Now I think from the blue's perspective its pretty clear.  They see what appears to be a loose band of rabble in front of them with no shinny hats and no belts.  Most people in this case would likely charge straight into The Bog.  Of course, we know that and we also know that we wouldn't fair well taking on a shield wall charge from a larger unit head on, so we didn't just stand there.

Most units that I know, if they were in The Bog's position, would have done one of a handful of things.  They would have stood there and gotten rolled.  The would have formed up a shield wall and charged straight into blue (and died).  Or, if they employed slightly advanced techniques, they would have formed a shield wall and charged on a slight oblique, hitting the right half of blue.  

Personally I think all of those options are bad ideas.  There are two other options that some of the smarter units might have tried.  The Bog could also have held back to delay the engagement and draw the fight in with Atlantia (something we may have done if this unit was much larger).  We could have run away and hid behind Atlantia (no need to do that in this case).  We could have also moved in between blue and Atlantia to protect Atlantia's right flank as they moved to attack someone else.

I also don't like that last option because, though it helps Atlantia's mission, it places us in an unwinnable situation.  Of the available options, I tend to favor those that allows us the most kills with the least amount of casualties.  We can still protect Atlantia's right flank, but instead of as a shield, we can do it as a threat that pulls a unit away from them.

Note:  delaying the engagement would actually have given us our best chance of success, but would also have taken longer to complete the fight.  In a field battle, you are looking not only to maximize results, but to do it as quickly as possible so that you can move on to more fighting in the battle.

The Pincer Attack

We opted to shift our entire unit to the right.  Kinsmen Llyr made the suggestion in order to gain the high ground.  I agreed with his decision, though I actually preferred it to get us into an outside position.  Its usually better to fight the enemy while placing their backs to enemy units.

Because we travel in a loose skirmish formation, we can reposition ourselves faster than just about any unit on the field.  The call was made, and we redeployed to the right.  At this point we had no idea what blue would do, nor what Atlantia would do.

From this position, Atlantia could have moved on to fight other fights, and blue could have turned their front to face us.  Had that happened, we probably would have kept swirling to the right in order to limit the number of fighters that they could engage with, and we would have spread out and try to draw out smaller fights.  Blue likely would have charged, and we would have given ground where they charged and try to attack them in their backfield.

Fortunately for us, three things fell into place that gave us a big advantage in this battle.  1)  No other units came to support blue, which meant Atlantia had no one else to fight and there was no threat to our right flank.  2)  Since Atlantia had nothing better to do, they mounted a charge at blue's right flank.  3)  Blue attempted to protect their left flank by pulling spears and poles out of the back field (note:  this is what we are taught to do at our local SCA melee practice and I think this is just simply a bad idea).

Now if you don't know your rock, paper, scissors, remember that spears beat static shields, kill pocket beats a shield wall charge, and shield wall charge beats spears.  When I saw blue move their spears and poles out on the flank, I looked to see where our shields were.  I pointed out the weakness to our most experienced shieldman, and I pulled another shiledman to the front to set up the charge.

As soon as Atlantia was in about the right position, Kinsmen Llyr called the charge.  Kinsmen Arundoor swept the spears, and the rest of The Bog charged through them, and into the back field.  The battle was over in seconds with minimal casualties.

Key Points to Remember

Don't move into the middle of the field with no protection

Don't keep your reserves disengaged for too long

Take the high ground if you can

Take the outside position if you can

Attack the flanks

Protect your flanks....and not with a thin line of spears

Sweep a spear line with a shieldman

Charge spears with shields

Always be cognizant of your unit's position and how it relates to others on the field 

Be sure to check out Pennsic - Part 1

Pennsic - Part 1 - Field Battle

I just got back from Pennsic and took down several notes.  I have a lot to talk about, and I don't tend to write these blogs too quickly, so I thought I'd break them up into several parts.  Some of the lessons learned from Pennsic are based on my unit's successes, while others are based on mistakes that we made.  In either case, I felt that tactical decisions had a huge impact on the results of our battles.

For this first post I'm going to focus on the perspective of Anglesey and the Bog Troopers (includes The Concusare and Galatia) in the first field battle.  Though we only brought a small unit of veteran fighters (~10), we managed to kill someone on the order of 50 opponents in each battle while securing the right flank for the Midrealm.

Field Battle Plan

The overall battle plan for this first battle was for the entire army to sweep left, hoping to avoid the Tuchux and other units that were lined up on our right and up the hill.  We were on our far right flank, supporting a much larger Atlantian army.  We considered a number of options, including running behind Atlantia and hiding in the backfield while waiting for an opportunity to exploit, but decided, instead, that we would move out to the right and give the Tuchux something that they would have to deal with as they moved down the hill.

As the battle began, we noticed two things that impacted our tactics.  1)  The Tuchux never came down the hill, but instead waited up there in reserve and 2) a large unit went straight at Atlantia, leaving their left flank completely exposed as they did so (not sure who it was, but it was a rather large unit, and I noticed Duke Tindal and Duke Byron in the mix, so I'm guessing it might have been the Aethelmearc army).

Realizing that the Tuchux would not be an immediate threat and seeing an opportunity of an exposed flank on our left, we turned and hit the large unit right in the flank.

This position put us at an excellent advantage.  Atlantia's front was matching the front of this large unit while Atlantia's right flank was completely protected.  The large unit, however, had a veteran unit attacking on its left flank.  

With their flank being attacked, they lose the advantage of having a unified front against a single unit.  Forward momentum is slowed, and fighters are being attacked from the side and/or from behind (with proper engagement).  It wasn't long before the entire unit was enveloped and killed.

Knowing that the Tuchux were likely coming up behind us, we continued to push through the unit and out the other side, circled right, and then turned to meet the Tuchux.  It turned out they weren't there as they went behind us, around, and into the back field.  By the time they had engaged, however, their side was down one of its sizable units.

Lessons to be Learned:

1-Protect Your Flanks

In this particular case, the larger unit from the other side left its flank completely unprotected.  Maybe they thought we were moving somewhere else.  Maybe they underestimated what a small unit with a disorganized appearance could do.  Either way, leaving their flank open hurt them in this battle.  

2-Bring as Many Weapons to the Fight as Soon as Possible

There are two aspects to this that are important.  First, I'm not a big fan of having a unit that goes 8+ ranks deep in an open field battle.  That leaves less than 15% of your force actively engaged.  More importantly, reserve units shouldn't wait to get themselves engaged.  Had the Tuchux moved maybe 30 - 60 seconds sooner, or even just moved themselves into a closer position where they'd had been a threat, the left flank of their battle would have played out much differently.

The Echelon and the Approach with Different Levels of Fighters

One of the hardest things I've had to gain an understanding of is that no single approach will work for every group of fighters.  Different abilities call for different tactics.

I used to be a high school boys varsity basketball coach.  In the beginning I brushed up on my knowledge by reading 3-4 books on basketball strategy and was a bit surprised at the varying approaches with regard to different levels of play.    At the high school varsity level, we ran semi complicated plays.  "You stand here.  You go there.  When that guy gets to you, you move to that position.  Now pass him the ball."  etc.  I'd drill them over and over again so that when the game came, everyone knew what to do.  When dealing with 17 year old boys, all of the plays dictated specific coordinated movements by each player, with minimal improvisation allowed by the players.

When you work with 14 year olds, or younger, the plays are much simpler, because they can't handle the complicated plays.  As you get older, however, the plays get less and less rigid to the point when you reach the pro level there are very few actual plays, but rather simple guidelines that the players follow.  Being professionals, the team relies on the players to make judgement calls on the court as they see fit.


What's That Got to do With Fighting?

Certain tactics will always beat other tactics provided that the fighters can handle the level of the tactic that is being asked to employ.  The best fighters on the field know how to quickly read a situation, figure out when to engage and when to stall, can handle themselves out on their own, or know when they need to run and support a friend.  The worst fighters on the field only know how to respond to a person directly attacking them, can handle simple commands like "charge," can't be relied on to perform specific jobs (like hold the left flank), and will die quickly if they are caught on the field with no support.

In a nutshell, lower level melee fighters need to stick together, usually in a shield wall formation, and charge in whatever direction they are told to charge.  Higher level fighters can handle a more nuanced approach.  Below I will talk about these approaches and how they theoretically play out with more advanced and less advanced fighters.


Echelon

This is a form of a diagonal attack.  To be honest, this term was used by a friend I was fighting with today, and I have since looked it up and determined I didn't want to get bogged down with the technical definition of the word.  For this purpose I'm using it to describe a sort of attack directed toward one side, often in a diagonal fashion.

Today we discussed two approaches for this attack.  The first is what I would describe as something that can be utilized by more advanced fighters.  The leading flank of the attack goes fast and aggressive while the trailing flank of the attack merely has to deny the other side from attacking. They do this by attempting to stall the engagement, wheel away from the fighting, going on full defense, or using the feet to draw a bunch of fighters out.  This is what it may look like:

Notice that while green's right flank is attacking aggressively, the left flank is actually refusing to engage.  Why?  The right flank has a significant numbers and positional advantage.  The left flank, on the other hand, is in a very weak position.  If they also press, they are putting themselves in a very vulnerable position.   See below:

Notice how green completely gave up their advantage by having their left flank plow straight into the center of red's shield wall.  Here's another way to visualize the attack:

Every shield wall has a well defended front, with weakly defended flanks.  The goal is to attack the enemy's flanks while defending your own.

When the trailing flank focusses on stalling the engagement in a "deny" role, green is able to attack red's weak flank while keeping its own flanks protected.

If green presses with its entire front, then neither side ends up with a positional advantage.  Green has employed, at best, neutral tactics and hopes to win on skill and initiative alone.


Echelon With Newer Fighters

More advanced fighters should understand the nuances of an echelon charge with one flank on the attack and the other on a deny.  They also should have no problems with controlled aggression.  By controlled aggression, I mean being able to quickly decide when one needs to apply 100% pressure, and when one needs to pause to allow a friend to enter the fight, or to deny a position, etc.

These concepts are too complicated for newer fighters and can cause newer fighters to freeze up.  Getting aggression levels up and committing to the attack are often more important goals for these fighters.  Because of this, we often tell these fighters to "charge right" or "charge left" rather than to bother with the concept of a deny.  As a result, the diagram above represents the lesser of two evils when compared to a group that denies left without ever full committing to the right:

Here you can see red putting itself in a better position to win because of green's lack of commitment to either side.

Think of it this way.  Imagine red and green both as boxers.  Red's commitment is to attack with the right hand and defend with the left hand.  Green, on the other hand, commits only to defending with the left hand, but never commits to an attack with the right.  Its only a matter of time before red wears green down.  With newer fighters, you are basically teaching to just throw punches with both hands.  I don't think that this should be the ultimate goal, but it is likely the best approach if dealing with a group of fighters that all have less than three years of moderate experience.

Besides, if this group runs into an evenly matched situation (ie they encounter another unit with less than three years of experience), they stand a better chance of winning.


A Slightly More Advanced Approach to the Full Charge

Since I began writing this blog post, I had another conversation with a veteran fighter and experienced tactician.  He actually prefers the full charge rather than a press to one side and deny the other approach.  The reasoning is that you still get an advantage by seizing the initiative, and that the fight ends in a quicker fashion and allows you to move on to other parts of the battle.

The problem left, however, is how to deal with an exposed flank on the trailing side.  The answer is to bring fighters out of the back field to support (something that my unit did in last year's unbelted champions battle at Pennsic).

Summary

I've offered some different approaches to handling a small unit charge, though there are many more.  My unit, Anglesey, is a very experienced unit that is very spear heavy.  We tend to take a more fluid approach that involves spreading out and trying to break the fight down into smaller 2 on 1s and 3 on 2s, with the spears cleaning up.

Nevertheless, given the above approaches, I really prefer the first one that I laid out.  Not everyone will be able to master it on the day of the fight, but I really do think its a goal to work toward.  In our afternoon of fighting, it was the one approach that lead to our greatest degrees of success (75% of the unit still alive at the end of the battle).

Approach to Learning at Practice

I actually wanted to open this blog post with some thoughts about how we learn and how it applies to fighter practice.  I have two degrees, the first being in education.  I worked as a high school teacher for a few years, coached some seasons of track and field and basketball, and before this blog I actually used to blog on a triathlon website about how to train for distance running.

When I was early in my teaching career at the turn of the century, one of the things that my mentor's really focussed on was reducing the amount of time that I'd spend lecturing and increase the amount of time that the students are actively engaged in learning.  The old way of teaching was 80% lecture, 20% activity.  The new goal was 20%/80% (numbers reversed).  I carried this with me into my coaching of a high school varsity basketball team, with great success, and a decade later I took a professional class that focussed on training adults and many of the same concepts still applied.

Over the last 20 years I've been to many SCA practices, and the number one critique I've always had was that there was always far too much talking and not enough fighting.  As a fighter with an education background, this is something that I tend to notice.  I can pick up at exactly what point that enough "lecture" has occurred such that nothing more was being gained by the student........and anyone who knows me will tell you, I'M A TALKER!  Yeah.....I have to work to shut myself up as well when at practice.

Having said that, that was a real focus leading into yesterday's practice and we did our best to try and stay on top of keeping the time in helmet instruction to a minimum and focus more on getting repetitions in.  Its especially difficult when you have a lot of experienced fighters on the sidelines who really want to get involved and help.  Each thing said is helpful, but all of it combined while we have our helmets on is cutting into valuable practice time.


The Most Effective Method

If I might be so bold, I honestly believe that the best method of teaching in practice is to simply let them fight and get that experience.  Whatever happens happens, and the first couple of fights are going to be ugly.  While everyone is catching their breaths, you take those moments to make corrections and give guidance.  The goal simply cannot be perfection, but rather picking the largest fundamental errors that can be corrected with the least amount of effort (ie the low hanging fruit).

Now this doesn't mean that drills should be left out, or structure, or even lecture (which is why its 20/80 and not 0/100).

Interestingly, one of the sides at yesterday's practice was very open to suggestions while the other was not as interested in them.  That was largely the result of one team having a handle on what they were doing and wanting to make their own adjustments, while the other team really needed some extra sets of eyes to help them along.


The Set Up

As we had a number of people trying out for the unbelted team, it was requested that they work together on the same team, which seemed like a good idea.  One team consisted mostly of unbelted champion candidates, while the other team consisted of two knights, myself (I was an unbelted champion last year), and then a handful of less experienced fighters (including two that have done only a handful of melees).

The sides turned out to be relatively balanced, with the unbelted candidates having a significant, but not excessive advantage.

We ran 6 field battles before breaking, which gave us the chance to try out tactics, succeed or fail, and then make adjustments.  The unbelted side had the challenge of figuring out how to target key veteran fighters on our side, while also taking out the newer fighters.  Do they go straight for the knights?  Do they avoid them and go after the new guys?  Do they maintain unit cohesion and go after a side, or do they skirmish?  Go on the attack, or wait for mistakes to be made?

Our side offered a challenge simply because of the mix of experience.  Normally we'd fill in the newer fighters with the main unit, but the 3 veteran fighters typically act more in rogue fashion.  Speaking for myself, I tend to look for opportunities and don't do a great job of sticking with the unit.  IOW, I'm difficult for newer fighters to work with.

After the first few series of fights we lost both of our knights, leaving our side at a bigger disadvantage.  As a result, the unbelted candidates took it as an opportunity to work on different tactics.


Lessons Learned

We pretty much agreed that if we had done it all over again, we would have reshuffled the teams sooner.  Though it was nice for the unbelted candidates to get used to working together, they felt they would have found more value in fighting a relatively evenly built team.

The practice was, however, great for the newer fighters.  They each got in about 25 field battles, over which they got to make 25 small corrections along the way.  Sometimes they had to stick next to someone, sometimes they had to keep the shields tight, sometimes they had to charge, sometimes they got left out on their own, etc.

More importantly, what people forget that we get out of practice is training the "lizard brain."  I've had the opportunity over the last 2 years of trying a bunch of new weapon styles, and even got back into melee after a 10 year break.  Those first few times of doing anything are just a blur.  Everything moves so fast that your brain simply can't process it.  If a brand new fighter got nothing more out of this practice than simply getting used to seeing a bunch of fighters swarm around them over and over again, I would consider that a success!

The lizard brain is the part that acts quickly and instinctually.  Its controls the fight or flight mechanism.  When we fight these battles, we are trying to move from a mode where the brain is consciously trying to process everything, which it is too slow to do, to the point where everything is just instantly understood.


Taking the Initiative

Throughout the day the team I was on got better and better at moving and working together.   Our biggest successes came when our team took the initiative before the opponents could.  Our opponents were generally more successful, mainly because they had the experience and the confidence to seize the initiative before we did.

The main reason why this works is because both teams were normally looking to attack on some sort of oblique, which gives a quick numbers advantage to the attacking team.  The side which jumps on this first gets the first advantage.


Failing the Charge up the Middle - Being where They are Not

This is the only real tactic that I can remember that I thought was worth blogging about.  As a general rule, unless there is some obvious strategic advantage in doing so, I don't like to charge up the middle.  Some of our most successful fights were when the other team charged into the middle of our shield wall.

EDIT:  I neglected to mention that the green team did this as an experiment to see how our team would react, which I think was a great idea.  As you follow through the diagrams, you can see why none of us prefer this method.  Its nice, every now and then, to test out tactics which we believe to be less than perfect in order to verify the outcomes.

To be honest, as a pole arm fighter, I fight a lot on instinct.  One of the things I do, and what I do in a battle like this, is I read where the charge is going to hit.  If there's no threat coming at our right flank, I like to come out of the back field and look for opportunities to hit the enemy as they attempt to pass through.

What I'm also doing is an old Anglesey tactic of "not being where they want you to be."  If I had confidence that the shield wall would have held them up, I would have stayed in the back field.  However, I could see that they were going to punch though, so I moved into a better position.

I spoke with one of the opposing shields about that and he said he normally expects to get into the back field and then mop up the poles.  However, when he got there, I was gone.  At this point, two shields had punched through, and seeing no opportunities to their right, they turned left.  As they pivoted toward me, I dropped shots on their helmets.

Anyway, that was one thing that I accomplished on the day that I thought was interesting.  Even without that maneuver, you can see that the rest of the red shields have, more or less, created a funnel of death that green has to pass through.  Green did a great job of punching through, but in a game of attrition, what did this accomplish?

As I'd said, pretty much every other tactic that green employed on the day worked.  This was just a matter of experimenting with different approaches, and I thought this one worked out the worst for them and the best for us.


Last Interesting Note Regarding Pole/Spear Position

I used to do this years ago and had rediscovered it yesterday.  The position that the red pole (me) is in in the diagrams above is a great position to be in provided that the opposing side doesn't have a lefty shield on their left flank.  From here you get a lot of shots across the front of the unit, or at the back of their heads as they pass through with little threat to yourself.  Right handed shield men don't want to turn their open side to the front line to move over onto the flank to attack you, so the pole remains relatively safe.