Bari's Bridge Battles

Bari's Bridge Battles

By Bari of Anglesey

Hey all, bridges.....love 'em or not, we've got to fight 'em.  This will be a bit of a brain dump, so lets get right to it.

Types of Bridge Battles

There are three main types of bridge battles that you will commonly see:

- Attrition
- Timed Control Point with Unlimited Lives (resurrection battles)
- Timed Control Point with Limited Lives

Attrition bridge battles are normally single life, but they can also come in the form of some limited number of resurrections until the fighter has to leave the fight.  These battles are won when every person on one of the two teams has been eliminated.  Taking ground and or controlling locations on bridges is of no value unless it leads to some sort of tactical advantage that results in killing more of their fighters than yours.  The ability to kill, either by hitting, stabbing, shooting, or throwing fighters off the bridge are key.

Timed control point bridge battles with unlimited lives is an entirely different type of battle.  Battles are won when one side "controls" bridges at certain time markers during the fight.  This is often done by either being past a mid point line on the bridge, or by raising a flag.  In these battles, killing other fighters is of no value unless it leads to gaining ground.  The ability to push, shove, or intimidate fighters is the key to these fights.  Sometimes killing can be of value if it removes key fighters from the other team like leaders, big aggressive fighters, or someone who is in the act of pushing your line back.  Killing can also disrupt the morale of the other side, causing them to back away from the fight, but ultimately spearing the enemy only to have fighters in the following ranks step up to replace them is of little value.

Once you add limited lives (usually one) to the timed control point bridge battles, you bring in another potential avenue to victory.  While taking and holding ground is important, a battle can be won if every fighter on one side of a bridge is killed, regardless of where the line of engagement is provided that the time limit has not expired.

Generally speaking, skill level and total numbers of fighters are critical for attrition battles while big, aggressive shieldmen and poles are more important for timed control point battles with unlimited lives provided that there are enough ranks of fighters to allow the big guys to recover between presses.  Also, archery and ballistae are of greater value in attrition battles.

Tactics

Important note:  Not everything listed is necessarily a good tactic, so beware of skimming without reading.  I'm listing common tactics and then commenting on their effectiveness.

Before I get into the details, since everyone loves a good picture, here's a summary of most of the concepts I'll be discussing:



Organization Wins Bridge Battles

There are many battle scenarios that can be won with skill, athleticism, and experience fighting together as a unit.  There are enough variables that can change so quickly that the possible outcomes are infinite.  To me this means that the ability to read a fight and improvise can overcome any sort of plan or organization that the opponent has put together.

Bridge battles seem to be an exception to this rule because the tight parameters tend to eliminate much of the unpredictable nature that is prevalent in the other scenarios.  Coming up with a good plan and getting the fighters to work together will go a long way toward obtaining victory in the bridge battle scenario.  This doesn't mean that you should over plan and completely micromanage the battle, only that you should understand some basic fundamentals and get the right pieces in place to capitalize.  Something as simple as, "Okay, they've got a lot of spears, so we can't stand around and let them pick us apart," might be all that is needed for your side to know what to do.  Newer fighters or mixed units may need more direction.

Capping the Bridge

This is a tactic where you move off the back end of your bridge and form a kill pocket such that if the other side charges, they will be surrounded by your fighters.  This gives you both a numbers advantage on the battle front as well as good killing angles.  This is typically used if the other side is showing that they are stronger than your army and a tactical advantage is needed.  If it's a control point battle, this is typically done as a last resort in order to keep the other side from spilling into your backfield and getting behind your fighters on another bridge.  You give up the point on that bridge only because you have no choice, and hope that the other bridges will fare better.  I personally think it's a bad idea to implement this as a strategy, but rather as a "cut our losses" tactic.

If the battle is an attrition battle, or a control point battle that you think you can win by attrition, it can be effective to lull the other side into fighting in your kill pocket.  Be aware that there is a risk that they can punch through a weakened edge of the pocket, surround your fighters, and move into the backfield of another bridge.

Sometimes armies will intentionally sacrifice a bridge by capping it, hoping that they can pull more resources onto that bridge from the other side than your side is expending to cap it.  This is generally a bad idea in an unlimited life control point battle.  You essentially give up a victory point while gaining nothing.

The Gentleman's Agreement:  I have been in battles where both sides decide to cap the end of the bridge, hoping to lull the other side into fighting in their kill pocket.  Once both sides have shown this hand, the only means of victory is being stubborn enough to bore the other other side long enough to make them throw the fight and come across the bridge to fight you.  This leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouth as they would much rather be fighting than to stand there watching a battle of egos.  If both sides decide to cap the bridge, just do everyone a favor and agree to meet in the middle.

Note:  when forming the cap, you absolutely need to secure the edges of the cap.  This is a tactic that is often lost on many SCA fighters as the most common tactic they are taught is a shield wall, which gains its effectiveness from bunching tightly together.  While this may be an effective tactic, given the circumstances, in a field battle, this can leave very weak edges when capping a bridge.

Below is a picture of a cap (left side) that failed to secure the the right side of the bridge (note the gap between the edge of the bridge and the fighters).  The result was the fighters spilling out through the gap and into the backfield.

All Spears in the Front

This is a tactic that gained popularity in northern Atlantia and the southern region of the East Kingdom in the early 2000s.  The earliest adopters that I am personally aware of date back to the mid 90s when face thrusting with fiber glass spears were first allowed at Pennnic, and they were the Calontir Army as well as the bog celts.



I can't comment on what motivated Calontir to adopt this tactic, but at the time they were a well organized, disciplined army, and they followed the tactics passed down through their command chain.  We celts, on the other hand, had a lot of experience fighting skirmish style in the Markland organization which had been allowing face shots for years.

All spears in the front was very effective at the time as the opening up of the face as a target made spearing in a static battle very effective.  We ultimately got away with it because the standard tactic at the time was to put the spears in the second rank.  If their spears are in the second rank, and our spears are in the first rank, then we can attack their shields at will while staying out of range of their spears.  If we choose to engage their spears, we have more mobility in addition to allowing ourselves to choose which fights we want to fight and when.



I've found this to be a less effective tactic anymore.  The reason why we were able to pull this off in the past is because the enemy was generally slow to adjust.  Because no one was teaching this as a correct way to fight, they had assumed that their tactics of spears behind shields would win the engagement.  Eventually they'd figure out that they'd need to mount a charge, but the charges were slow to organize and were usually telegraphed.

Now days the weakness is much more quickly identified and the charges come much more quickly and less telegraphed.  This tactic should only be used if it is clear that the opponent won't mount a quick counter charge (these opponents still exist).  The photo above is an example as BOTH sides brought only spears to the front line, so neither was concerned with receiving a charge.  This is an example of each side hoping to throw a bigger sheet of paper than the other (see Rock, Paper, Scissors below).

Note:  Don't bunch up too many spears on the front line, they just get in each other's way.  In my opinion, you can effectively fit about one spearman every 2.5 feet.  So if you have, for example, a 9 foot wide bridge, that'll fit three spearmen comfortably, with the potential for a fourth depending on the size of the spearmen, how they match up lefty to righty, how they work together, etc.  It's not uncommon for 5-7 spearmen to try to cram into such a space rendering themselves completely ineffective.


Shield Wall in the Front

This is often done with a front rank of tightly packed shields and a second rank of spears.  This can be a good defensive position if you are trying to hold a position like a bridge beyond the capture point, the space in front of a flag, or maybe a gate.  A well trained unit with big shields can do very well in this situation.  Lesser trained units using tourney shields can easily get picked apart by spearmen (see the diagram above).  These are most effective when they are backed up by archers in the second rank.  I don't think I've ever seen this done with an entire unit, but I have seen sections of shield walls set up with a single tall archer right behind them and it has always been very effective.  This kind of tactic requires a group of shields who understand what their job is, and a tall archer who isn't afraid to fight within a spear's shot (archers like this tend to be rare).



Mix of Shields and Spears

What seems to be the most effective tactic these days, at least in attrition battles, is some sort of mix of shields and spears on the front rank.  For every spear you add (up to the max allowance without crowding) you increase the static line killing power, but you also decrease the ability to quickly charge or to repel a quickly initiated charge.  Spears are also easy targets for archery.  Ultimately you'll have to decide how to balance out your shields and spears based entirely on the circumstances;  how good are your spears?  How good are their spears?  How likely are they to charge?  How quickly do you need to initiate a charge?  How many spears do you have on your front line compared to their front line?  Are there any dead bodies in the way?  Do they have archers, how close are they, and how effective are they?  Etc.

One thing to note, though it will vary from fighter to fighter, good spears don't like shieldmen crowding up on them.  I will often have shieldmen with whom I don't know try to "protect me" from opposing spears.  What they end up doing is sticking their shield right in front of my thrusting hand which prevents me from being able to throw a shot.  Also, any spear that they defend me from is a spear that I can't attack because the shield gets in the way of both of us.



Note:  In general I like to see the shields a little bit behind the spears.  I don't see any value in standing inside the opponent's spear range when the shieldmen can stand just outside of range.  The job of  shielman in this instance is to be ready to charge, or be ready to repel a charge.  They don't need to stand in range in order to do that.  Take a step back, relax, and wait for opportunities.  The exception to this rule is if the other side is pressing and causing your line to retreat during a timed control point battle.

Bullnose

I have never personally used this tactic and have only ever actually seen it employed once, but that one time it was very effective.  What a bullnose is is essentially a shield wall in the middle with spears on either side.  The one time I saw it, the unit was very effective at holding a position on the bridge.  It was actually quite frustrating to fight against.



Again, in order to effectively utilize the bullnose, the unit must be well trained to work together and, ideally, have big shields that don't expose a lot of gaps.  (Note:  The unit in the picture above does not have great shields for forming a shield wall.  I can easily see three very exposed legs in the front rank, though it is possible that they are are fast enough to move their shields before getting hit).

My only real thought on the bullnose is that the sides leave themselves open for charges.  I'm assuming that if a unit was to charge into one of the gaps, they'd easily get shoved off of the bridge.  I'd be careful, however, using this near your own end of the bridge.




Rock, Paper, Scissors

There are two ways to beat rock.  You can throw paper, or you can throw a bigger rock.  When referring to rock, paper, scissors in this context, what it means is that whatever tactic the other side uses should dictate whether you use the same tactic, but better, or a counter tactic.  In this case the tactics usually come down to dueling with spears, or charging with shields.

Since I fight in a spear heavy unit, my general approach is to always have more spears than the other side on the front line, until they answer with "too many spears," at which point we pull all of our spears off the front line and charge.  A similar tactic might be used if, for example, you don't even have enough spears to fill a front line and they do.  Or maybe all of their spears are better than all of yours.  Whatever the case may be, at any given moment you have to decide, "Can we beat their spears with our spears, or should we charge?"  Or put another way, if we charge, how much ground will we gain (if that leads to a victory condition), will we kill more of them than we lose, or will our loses be worth the ground we gain?  Also, charges are tiring.  Standing ground and spearing may be the better option.


The Flow of a Bridge Battle

There will almost always be spearing on the front line of a bridge battle, with at least some shield charges.  Even if one unit decided that they will only use shields, and always charge, there are two major factors that limit the effectiveness of that strategy:

1 - Chargers get tired
2 - Dead people stop charges

The typical flow is that the two armies will charge toward the middle of the bridge at lay on (unless one side decides to cap their end of the bridge and wait for the other to commit).  At engagement, the units will either decide to both charge into each other, one will charge and the other will repel, or they will both set up a static front and use some degree of spearing on the front line.  Normally at some point in the battle, one of the sides will mount a charge forcing the other to clear out their spears and counter.

Regardless of who is more effective in the scrum of the charge, dead people lying on the ground combined with fatigued fighters will always stop the charges.  At this point, the spears work their way back up to the front rank.

One of the keys in this situation is to recognize when the opposing shields are no longer a threat, and your shields are no longer effective (like if there is a pile of dead people between the two ides) and to bring the spears back up into the front rank.  If there is a dead body in front of you, there is no reason for a shieldman to stand behind him.  Let a spear or a pole have that spot so that they can kill from across the dead bodies.





Organization - Spear Channels

One of the problems I see with a lot of units is crowding the middle of the 2nd and 3rd ranks with a bunch of spears.  A lot of times spears will bunch up in the middle of a bridge because they don't want to miss their chance to fight on the front line.  This leaves the unit very poorly prepared against charges.



Spears are mostly ineffective unless they are on the front ranks, so it makes sense to keep them out of the way until needed, and then feed them into the front.  When a charge happens, spears have some effectiveness in the 3rd rank.  One might say, "I get kills all the time in the 2nd rank."  Maybe, but probably not as many as a well rested pole fighter would.

One technique that works well is to have a channel of spears on either side of the bridge to feed into the front line as necessary.  This keeps them from bunching up in the middle and gives them a queue so they don't end up cramming up to the front hoping to get their chance to fight.




Note:  If the other side has archers that can shoot over the sides of the bridge, the spear columns will need to be moved inward.  I've heard of one unit using a single column down the middle instead of the sides.


Picket Fence

I borrowed this phrase from an old North Shield fighting manual.  Basically it describes the concept of bringing the spears out in front of the shields by letting them slide between when needed, and vice versa when the shields need to come to the front rank.




This is not something that needs any command structure or fancy timed maneuvers.  It simply means that if the spears need to be up front, let them up front.  If they need to bail, don't push them into the enemy, but rather let them slide back into the 2nd and 3rd ranks.


Holding the Victory Condition

Often times people forget that they need to have at least one person on a bridge to earn the point.  They'll kill everyone on the bridge, and then run over to the next bridge to start killing them, which is the right thing to do, but they'll forget to leave someone on the empty bridge to capture the point.

Always know what the conditions are, and make sure that someone is on top of earning the point.


Initiating Charges

There's no one correct way to initiate a charge, but the success or failure of a charge largely depends on how well the charge is executed.  "Okay everyone, we are going to charge on the count of three!" is often met with a prepared counter, sometimes even initiated when you say "Two!"

Keep in mind, if you call a charge, and only half of your guys go, they will be fighting at a 2:1 numbers disadvantage, so its usually important that the entire front commits to the charge (exceptions listed later on).  Some units will have a system where they are ready to respond whenever they see a fighter initiate a charge on his own.  Sometimes it will be as simple as a look and a nod to each other.  Code words can often be used so that you can communicate to your side that you are charging, but the other side doesn't necessarily know.  All of these methods require that a unit who trains together is present on front line on the bridge.

But what if that's not the case?  What if its a mix of fighters who don't train together?  I've found the following techniques to work pretty well:

-Announce, "We are going to charge.  Ready?  Charge!"  Say this phrase without any breaks in between.  It takes about 4 seconds to say, which gives your side enough time to to understand what's going on, while the other side doesn't have enough time to coordinate an effective counter.  If you are on the front line and will charge with the unit, you must wait a beat after you say the word "charge" so that you end up charging with the group.  A common mistake is for the announcer to charge when they say "charge," which actually places them two steps ahead of their unit.

-What also works is to say to just a few people in front of you, "Okay guys, we need to jump them.  Get ready.  Okay, go now!"  This will normally get a critical mass of people moving which inspired the rest of your unit to respond.

-Light pressure with a pole arm or spear on the backs of the front line helps encourage the charge.  Don't shove them, as that is dangerous.  You never know when someone has decided for personal safety reasons that they will be avoiding charges all day.  If they don't want to charge, its not your job to push them into harms way.

-Whatever method you use, yelling, "Go!  Go!  Go!  Go!  Go!" after the charge is initiated is instrumental in making sure your side follows through on the charge.

Caveats:  Charges don't always have to be performed by the entire front rank.  Sometimes there are opportunities that one or two fighters can see were they jump a line by themselves to exploit an opportunity.  Maybe they see a gap that they can shoot through to get into the back field, or they spot an archer that they can get an easy kill on, or maybe they will sacrifice themselves to push a commander off of the bridge.

Also, keep in mind what you are trying to accomplish with your charges.  If it is an attrition battle, you have the better spears, and they have the better shields, it is probably not in your best interest to initiate any charges.

Column Charge

A column charge is when you form two columns of fighters and rush them in, typically on a diagonal, typically to the right so that your shields can protect you, and typically into a weak point on the other side.  These can be an effective way to break through an opening, or to go after an objective.  Stacking the column with lots of fighters (maybe 3-4 ranks deep) makes it difficult to repel.  Keeping the number of columns to two allows the columns to move quickly.  Any wider than that tends to cause the columns to get in the way of each other and can be disrupted by knocking people around or by killing a couple of fighters in the columns.

Clearing the Beachhead

Once a fighter breaks through a gap on the end of the bridge, it is critical that as many fighters as possible push through that gap and attempt to surround the enemy for a quick victory.  Usually this happens because you've already whittled the enemy down, so the point would be to break out of the kill pocket and create a pocket of your own to finish the job.  This would be useful if the other side has archers, a bunch of spears in the backfield, there is a time limit, or there are more bridges that you can assist with.

I caution doing this if breaking through places you in a bad position in their backfield by possibly getting surrounded by reserve units.




Pulse Charge

Normally a charge will have an entire unit press forward, hard and fast, until either they can't anymore, or until they've reached some kind of objective, or perhaps a commander has called for the charge to end.  A pulse charge, on the other hand, is a brief charge lasting on the order 2-4 seconds.

I've found pulse charges to be more difficult to pull off for a couple of reasons.  The phrase "fire and forget" is often used to describe a fighter who charges forward and then completely loses track of the rest of his fighters.  He'll either push until he dies, or until there's a break in the action that allows him to regroup.  This requires less skill than being able to charge while keeping in mind what the rest of the unit is doing.  Since pulse charges are less common, the default reaction for a fighter is to do a full charge.  So if they hear a command, "Lets do a pulse charge," they may not understand the "pulse" part of that phrase.  The last issue is that a pulse charge requires the fighters to press forward and then back off.  If the ranks behind them don't back off as well, then the front rank gets squished into a situation that they can't back out of.

Unfortunately pulse charges are something that really need to be done within units that have practiced the tactic.  One of the local knights explained to me that his system is to form up shields on the front rank with poles on the second.  The poles call the charge, and the charge lasts long enough for the shields to get in three swings while the poles on swing twice before stepping out.  In order to execute this, everyone involved needs to understand the system, so I would be very hesitant to call a pulse charge with a mixed group of fighters who haven't practice it together.


Know Your Job - Don't Take Up Valuable Space on the Front Line

Very few shieldmen are actually effective fighters in the first rank during a static battle.  Every now and then I've seen a shieldman that is impossible to kill on the front line who does a great job of drawing the attention of other fighters.  Or I've seen shieldmen who are effective at leaping forward and getting sniper kills with their sword.

The number of shieldmen that I've seen who are effective in this manner I can count on one hand.  I've seen far more who *think* that's what they are doing, but in reality they are just plugging up a useful spot on the front line that a spear could be using.

Having said that, as noted above, shields DO normally belong on the front line, but they are there to initiate or repel charges when needed.  They need to be cognizant that they aren't taking up useful space.

Another problem I see are spearmen resting on the front line.  If they are on the front line, then they either need to be killing, actively working for a kill, or helping another spearman get a kill.  Neutralizing a better spearman across from them can also be effective.  What is not effective is standing on the front line, taking up space, and not doing anything while they have well rested spearmen in the ranks behind them.  They should be fighting until tired, or until dead, and then giving up their spots for a well rested spearmen behind them.

Cleaning Up

At some point during most attrition bridge battles, one side will have lost so many fighters that the other side has a clear advantage such that they should be able to win the battle in short order by "cleaning up" the remaining fighters.  In order to do this, the side with the advantage must be able to identify, first, that the advantage exists and second, what kind of advantage it is.  If you wish to clean up with a charge, it isn't simply enough to have more fighters than the other side.  As a rule of thumb you need to make sure that you actually have more shieldmen than the other side does.  Charging 8 remaining shields with 4 shieldmen and 8 spears is likely to end in failure (believe me, I've called this charge before).  In this scenario, there is still an opportunity to clean up, but it must be done by bringing all of your spears to the front and fighting aggressively until the other side has been whittled down enough that you have a clear shield advantage.  At that point, you call the charge and finish the job.

A good habit to get into is to take a beat or two to do a quick count of shields on both sides.

Knowing the Organizational Needs of your Fighters

One of the frustrations I've historically had with the SCA is the command structure.  It might just be a few bad apples, but there are some people who get into places of power who then assume that every person within earshot needs to be micromanaged.  A mercenary unit or peerless household is not likely to want to take orders from a random person they've never met, especially if it conflicts with a plan that they had already worked out with the commanders.

Having said that, there are many fighters who do need to be micromanaged because they are new, don't practice very often, and probably never had any experience on a sports team, marching band, etc. so fighting on a bridge may be a little overwhelming for them.  I've actually received personal criticism by some of our less experienced fighters that they weren't given enough guidance.

As a free company, one of the things that has helped me in recent years is developing a good rapport and level of communication with the local kingdom commanders so that we can best understand how each other works.  They tell us what their needs are and what they'd like us to do, we tell them how we think that we can accommodate, and a level of trust and confidence is developed among all parties.

Again, there's a difference between the needs of a well trained shield heavy unit, or an improvisational skirmish unit, or an untrained kingdom unit that is a collection of fighters from a handful of baronies, or more importantly, a section of a bridge that is a collection of all of the above.


Always Have Leaders and a Plan

This doesn't mean that a command structure needs to run deep or that it needs to be formalized.  Sometimes its as simple as, "Well, Joe usually has some good ideas and we just kind of listen to him."  But as you can see if you've read this far, there are plenty of ways to run a bridge battle, and at least some level of communication should occur before the battle begins to figure out what everyone is going to try to accomplish.  Some groups have enough experience fighting together that they may not need to communicate, though I find it best to at least have a short, simple conversation to make sure that everyone is on the same page.

Example:  At the Highland River Melees bridge battle this year we had an interesting scenario where we had an attrition battle with two ballistae aimed at one of the armies.  Because of the ballistae, it was critical that the army opposite the ballistae pressed the attack.  We were on that side for the first battle.  We had two options:  charge, or bring a lot of spear power to the front.  What we ended up doing, instead, was we had a defensive shield wall plugging up most of the bridge with a single spearman fighting on one end.  The result was a high amount of attrition due to the ballista fire until we were whittled down far enough that our opponent "cleaned up" by charging our weakened unit.  The communication breakdown was essentially the result of two groups of fighters not feeling confident telling the other what to do.






Stepped Marches
This is a simple tactic that can get an entire unit to slowly gain ground.  One person takes command, lets everyone know what is about to happen, and yells "step."  When the unit hears "step," everyone takes one step forward, together.  This is done until the unit has traveled as far as the commander wants them to.

This is a great way to try to capture an objective.  It has little value in an attrition battle.


Unlimited Resurrection Battles

These are great battles if all you are interested in is fighting.  If you want to actually win the scenario, on the other hand, they can be frustrating.  The key thing to remember in these scenarios is that killing people is almost completely worthless if it does not result in moving your line forward toward the objective.

One thing that makes these fights particularly tricky is that people are less likely to cooperate because the lives are unlimited.  In a single death battle, fighters realize that its only a matter time before they get their one shot to fight on the front line.  In an unlimited resurrection fight, the amount of fighting is unlimited and those who butt past everyone to continuously get to the front get to do the most fighting.

In these fights, ground is typically taken in two fashions.  The less common fashion is for spears to pick apart the other side causing the remaining ranks to retreat due to a lack of morale.  Its not very common for this to happen, but its a good idea to capitalize on it when it does.  The more common method is to coordinate your charges and send big, heavy shieldmen into the fray and attempt to shove the other team back.

Keep in mind that the dynamic of these battles can change depending on the width of the bridges, the number of fighters, the quality of units, the length of the battle, and the heat.  Long, hot battles, for example, will result in less over all aggression.

So What Should YOU do in a Bridge Battle?

Well, obviously it depends on so many factors listed above, but equally as important, it depends on exactly what type of fighter you are.

Veterans of any Weapons Form
Its your primary job to figure out who is going to be in charge, who's plan you're going to follow, and that everyone else understands what is going on.  You can't expect a bunch of newer fighters to take that kind of initiative, so it falls on your shoulders.  If you've read this far into this post, you are probably interested enough in bridge battle tactics to make yourself a bit of an expert if you aren't already.  Take it upon yourself to figure out what is going on and then communicate that to everyone else.  If it is decided that you should be in charge, then come up with a plan and make sure everyone knows what it is.  Even if the plan is, "Lets wait and see what they do," you should still follow some basic fundamentals in getting your guys organized (ie get those spears out of the center/middle ranks).

New/Average Shieldmen

Your job will almost always be to charge and repel charges.  Occasionally it will be to defensively hold the front line in a shield wall.  When you are on the front, stay out of the way of the spears.  Stay a step out of spear range if you can.  Keep that sword in front of your face, but also beware of leg and body shots.  If the spears are working, step back and take a breath, but be ready to repel a charge when it comes, and be ready to charge when a commander calls one.  If the spears are working, take a step back and rest.  Most importantly, if you don't know what is going on, ask someone.

New/Average Polearm Fighters

Your job is to be in the rank behind the front most shield rank.  Your job is to back up the shields during charges and when repelling charges.  You should never be in the first rank while you still have spears alive on your side.  Occasionally you might see a really effective pole arm fighter fighting up there, but it is a rare occurrence.

New/Average Spears

Try not to plug up the middle of the bridge unless you are in the front rank.  When they call for spears to come up, make sure you get close enough to the front to fight.  Standing behind your shields out of range isn't going to do your side any good, and you are taking up a good spot on the front line that an effective spearman could be using.  If you aren't good enough to do that, well this is how you get good.  Listen to the commanders and move up or pull back when they call for it.  If you get tired, step out and ask someone to take your spot.

If you get good enough and confident enough to start recognizing good positions to fight on the front line, be aware that when you ask for shields to let you up, they can't see you or know which spot you want.  Stick your spear between two shieldmen and lightly tap them with your spear shaft and say, "spear coming up.  Can I you give me room?"  95% of the time, they will allow you through.

Final Thoughts

I certainly don't presume to be an expert on everything.  I've learned a lot about tactics through writing this blog as it has helped me focus on exactly what is going on tactically during the fight.  Three years ago I wrote a post on fighting bridge battles, and I think it included only one or two concepts listed above.

Always, if you think I'm wrong on something, please feel free to point it out.  Some of the most fundamental changes in the way I look at fighting have been the result of exactly that.  Other times it was a matter of poor explaining or my part.  And sometimes I will just see something differently than the reader.

Also, feel free to share this with your friends.

Shield Wall Practice - a Different Approach

What if I told you there was a fun way to get in 30-40 shield charges at a practice where the fighters are able to figure out on their own the best tactics?

This post is a window into my approach to drilling.  I hope you enjoy.


The Usual Routine

Most shield wall practices I've been part of follow the same formula:

1 - Give a detailed explanation of how a shield wall works
2 - Put two shield walls across from each other and have them fight
3 - Correct every little mistake they make

When all is said and done, they get the following results:

1 - They know how to use a shield wall, but not when to use it
2 - They can only use them when a commander plans it all out for them
3 - They get 5-6 engagements of experience against a unit built exactly like themselves

Look, I don't want to throw the people who run practices this way under the chariots.  There's a good reason why practices are run this way, but I think they can be much more effective, and I will give my example below.


But First, a Little Background

This post marks my 92nd tactics blog post over the course of 2 1/2 years, so clearly I have an interest not only in melee tactics, but in teaching as well.  My first career was as a high school math teacher, and in that time I was also a high school track and field coach and basketball coach.  One of the things that we learn as teachers, especially in a skill building subject like math, and double especially in a skill sport like basketball, is that lecturing has minimal effectiveness.  You might find it ironic that I'm saying that was I type out this blog post, but there are two things that make the written word a little more effective than the lecture.  The first is that your brain is actively engaged as you read it, and the second is that this is done outside of practice time (think of it as home work).

During practice I've found it to be much more effective to minimize the lecturing, get the athletes/fighters engaged as much as physically possible, and take very brief moments to make small corrections.

Mistakes will be made.  Everyone will do something that is imperfect.  Most will miss the big picture most of the time.  As I write that I am reminded of an epiphany I had while coaching a bunch of teenage basketball players;  it was unreasonable to expect a 17 year old kid to see the game in a way that took me until I was almost 30 to figure out, and no amount of lecture was going to change that.  Pick your battles, make baby steps, and drill the small successes to death.

Shield Wall Drill Scenario

Create some sort of boundary, like a bridge or path.  Experiment with the width of the path, but essentially you want to eliminate flanking as the purpose of the drill is to work on a shield wall charge.  Place a resurrection point at either end of the path and objectives to pickup along the path.  One team has all (or mostly) shields and no spears.  The other team has poles and spears, and minimal shields (if any).  The battle is an unlimited resurrection battle with the goal of the shield team to capture all of the objectives.  You can use a time limit, but we just go until either fighters drop out, or all of the objectives have been captured.

The shield team starts at their rez point, while the spears and poles team starts at the objective closest to the shield team.  We added an additional rule for safety;  if a shieldman touches an objective with his foot, he yells "brick!" (they look like bricks) and is now officially dead and can walk the objective safely back to his rez point.  This avoids people getting hit when they bend over, or getting hit from behind, or the annoying "throw the objective forward" when you die.

Note:  the numbers of fighters on each side should be chosen to make it a roughly even fight.  That will depend entirely on ability levels of the different fighters.  We did a 7-8 on 5.

Here's what our last layout looked like:





So Why This Scenario?

I really like rez battles when drilling as they are very forgiving.  The continuous resurrecting tends to slow the pace of the fighting to allow people to think about how to apply their tactics.  They will make mistakes, but can immediately come back into the fight with that mistake fresh in their mind and try to correct it.  There's also a balancing effect where the fight tends to even out closer to the weaker side's rez point.  Decisions also have to be made relatively quickly and on the fly, rather than after a committee meeting to discuss strategy.  And on top of all of that, you simply get more fighting in.

As for this scenario, the capturing of the objectives is meant to teach the shield team to focus on penetration rather than killing (like you would if you needed to break through a gate) and the spear/pole team has to focus on giving up as little ground as possible.

The first objectives are for early, easy success for the shield team.  As they move down the line, the objectives get harder and harder to capture as the walk to and from rez point gets longer and longer for the shield team and shorter for the spear/pole team.  Ideally, at some point the fight should become fairly challenging for both sides.


What Makes This a Good Scenario?

We got in 30-40 engagements (out of two run throughs)
People really broke a sweat
Mistakes were made, they were owned, they were fixed, and they were internalized
Chaos forced good on the fly communication and coordination


To a Hammer Everything Looks Like a Nail
There was actually something that inspired this scenario.  There are moments on the field when you must make a quick, coordinated charge.  There are also moments when the other side must be stabbed to death quickly.  Often times the former is because you have the shields and they have the spears, and the latter is because you have the spears and they have the shields.  When you set up similar teams and have them slam into each other, they aren't really learning to apply a charge in the right situations.  You should charge when it is in your best interest to do so, not simply because that's all you know how to do.


Lessons Learned

One of our fighters came into this practice with a heightened enthusiasm for running the shield wall properly after his experience running through the drill two weeks earlier.  When we first ran this drill two weeks ago (3 shields vs 2 spears and 2 poles), the shields really struggled to get past the first couple of objectives.  Their charges were uncoordinated, they often went in undermanned, they didn't manage their energy well, and they gave the spears too many opportunities to kill them before they committed to the charge.

This week they looked great!  They always came at us when they had a clear strength advantage.  No one did any solo charges.  Energy levels were managed by pulling back toward the rez point for full recoveries and not wasting efforts on charges that were doomed to fail.  They did a much better job of staying out of spear range until they were ready to commit to the charge.

They also just got a lot of good experience going through 30-40 reps.  One thing I noticed was, due to a couple of people dropping out, one of our more experienced fighters went to the shield side with a pole and made a huge difference.  He was just very good at timing the charges.  He could pretty much tell when the spears were about to attack and would use that moment to initiate the charge, and getting the rest of his team to commit.

As for the spears and poles, we learned how to get quick sniper shots before the charges began, how far in front of an objective we needed to be in order to protect it, how to disrupt the shields as they charge, how quickly or slowly to back away from the approaching wall, and how and when to shove fighters off of the path.  And after 30-40 reps, a whole lot of experience was gained and timing and aggression got better.

I should add that it is common for units in general to place their spears behind their shields in formation.  I've always enjoyed fighting out in front, but you have to know what you are doing to pull it off.  This drill forces the spears to figure it out as there are no shields to hide behind.

Critical Mistake: Capping the Bridge

Critical Mistake Capping the Bridge

A couple of years ago I blogged about exploiting a gap on the corner of a gate and someone responded that no one would ever leave a gap there.  Well, they do, and they did.

During the first bridge battle of last Pennsic we were outnumbered and pretty much figured that we'd certainly lose.  The thing is, you can actually win these battles provided that you can control the bridge and then stall the clock.  With a limited front bridge battle, you may only be fighting with 5-10% of your army at any given time.

Now, you still have to outfight the other side.

Though I expected us to lose, what surprised me the most was how quickly and how definitively we lost the south bridge.  Anglesey and the rest of the bog celts were reserves and moved in to help the south bridge as it appeared that Atlantia had outmatched the unit tasked with holding that bridge.  What I didn't expect was that when they charged they would punch through the kill pocket formed at the end of the bridge.

Generally speaking, if you get pushed back to the end of the bridge, a kill pocket should automatically form, giving you a big advantage over the unit trying to push through.

Essentially what happens is that as the enemy (red) tries to push through, your unit can put greater numbers on the front than they can, surround them, and get really good angles of attack.

Now the most critical piece of the cap.  If a gap is left in either side, a channel of enemy and slip through and get into your backfield, which is exactly what happened in this first bridge battle (notice the gap in the middle of the picture between the straw bale and the fighters on the left).



Now a picture certainly doesn't tell us everything.  I seem to remember a thick fighter or two plowing through and pulling a lot of our resources with him.  They also had a lot of archers, so maybe they killed the fighters guarding that spot and then charged before we could recover.  Maybe I'm to blame because, like everyone else, I looked for a spot convenient to where I was standing, instead of making sure that that position was secure.

Nevertheless, the hole was there, and Atlantia capitalized on our mistake by rushing through it.

Two lessons to learn:  1)  don't leave a hole there and 2) if the other side leaves a hole there, rush through it and get as many people from your side through it as well (something I have personally failed to capitalize on in the past).

Note:  clearing the bridge and getting into the backfield is very valuable if on either extreme edge (ie one of the outside bridges).  From the middle it can be problematic as you can get yourselves surrounded by their reserves, so in this case you'd have to read the battle field and make a judgement call on whether or not you should push through, or merely hold the objective.

Additional note:  DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE OBJECTIVE!  If you need to hold the bridge, make sure you leave someone on the bridge to get the points.

Pennsic 48 Heavy Combat - My Perspective

Hey all, just got back from war yesterday and wanted to jot down my thoughts while fresh.  I've now been to 21 Pennsics since 1994 and have fought in 16 of them.  The highlights:

- I was in shape, but wished I had done more walking up hills for exercise instead of cycling
- I'm 46, which means I'm slower than I've ever been
- I was also more wise and a better commander than I've ever been
- Anglesey brought over 20 fighters with another 10+ from our allies in the bog
     - Our old guys got older
     - Our young guys got better
     - We were missing a lot of our veterans
     - This year we were very spear heavy
     - Our ballista teams have gotten better
- I spent the last year talking to East kingdom commanders to make sure they understood how our unit worked, and it seemed to have paid off.  Communication and cooperation was very good this year (thank you Vachir, Sir Ryu, Master Dimitri, and Duke Tindal!  Also thanks to Dagar of the Tuchux)

I think the overarching point here is that every year is going to present slightly different challenges that you will have to work with.  Tactics are not a one size fits all concept.  Looking at a group picture from two Pennsics ago, we were missing 7-8 of our most reliable veteran fighters.  In their place were fighters with less than 3 years of experience, and a whole lot less aggression, situational awareness, and brawn.  Two years ago I was 11th in seniority in our group.  This year I was 5th until Tuesday, and then bumped up to 3rd due to injuries.

Times are a changin'!


Saturday - Kamikaze Battle

We use this battle every year as a warmup.  If you aren't familiar with it, it is a broken field endless resurrection battle with no objective.  You just fight.  People come and go as they please, and will sometimes switch sides.  Back in the way back Anglesey used to have a kinsman versus swordbrother battle (think knights versus squires), but war has gotten so busy that its been hard to fit it into our schedule.  It was easier when kinsmen were in their early 30s.  Now we are in out 40s and don't want to risk injury.  Also, they used to only run a single bridge battle and single field.  Now its 4-5 of each, sop we are more worn down from the fighting.

This year we used the Kamikaze Battle to accomplish the same goal and put our kinsmen and swordbrothers across from each other to see how the swordbrothers do.  For the most part, they were doing fine.  There's really not much more to say than that.  Our approach is to exploit their mistakes and hope that they learn from them.  If they don't, then we teach them.

Note:  One of our newer fighters commented that there was a lack of leadership and direction.  In this battle that was true, and it was by design.  The newer fighters have to learn how to lead themselves.


Sunday - Allied Champions Battle

We got our butts kicked.

I think this battle came down to four key issues:

1) Not enough fighters

We had 15 subs instead of 25.  That means each fighter had to, on average, fight 15 minutes before taking a 3 minute break, while the other side only had to fight 9 minutes before their 3 minute break.

2)  Less talent

The Allied Champions Battle includes 200 fighters out of 1,000 at Pennsic.  Remove the East and the Mid, who are ineligible to fight, and you are left with maybe 600-700?  So theoretically a champion would be in the upper 3rd of talent and experience.  If my observations and the rumors I heard were correct, we had to dip well below that 67th percentile mark to field 100 fighters, and we still came up 10 fighters short.  the East Allies just didn't have the depth.

3)  Not enough shields

This was a rare year where it was the shields that won this battle and not the spears.  I normally tell people that this is a spear fight, but you can certainly have too many spears.  It was also not a particularly hot Pennsic and we had unlimited substitutions, which pushes the battle at a faster pace.  Generally speaking, the faster the pace of the battle, the more valuable shields become (they have the energy to charge).  The slower the pace, the more valuable spears become.

4)  Tactics

I can't tell you what happened on the left flank as I was never over there.  On the far right flank, we had 5 ranks of Tuchux and Cloven Shield stacked up.  I didn't think this was a bad idea, and it actually paid off early in the fight.  They rolled over the Mid/Aethlelmearc spears in the first handful of engagements and scored a point or two.  As the fight wore on, however, the charges became less and less effective as fatigue set in, and we were covering the far right flank with ~20 fighters 5 ranks deep which meant we were fighting a 55 on 65 battle across the rest of the field.

I'm not sure what changes would have helped, especially considering the top three factors.  Again, its not that it was a bad plan, but rather that the plan stopped working as the battle wore on.  I think it might have been interesting to try the following:  use that group as our hammer in every other series and have them sub out in between.  That would give us a very well rested set of shock troops every other series.  In the alternating series we could do our best to play defense with a 75 v 75 matchup.

Final thought on this, my general approach to fighting these battles is to load up with good spears and whittle down the other side with them until there is a distinct advantage and then make a hard push for the banner.  I don't think the Tuchux or Cloven Shield are built that way, so the options are to either replace them with low end fighters who are accustomed to the plan I just mentioned (low end because we've already got all the high end guys.  I don't think this is a good plan), or to utilize them in a manner that they are best suited for, which is what we did.  As I said, I think since they were doing the heavy lifting early on, we may have needed a substitution plan to get them recharged so that they could perform at their best.

Truth be told, I'm doing a lot of guess work here. 


Monday - Field Battles

We lost these pretty decisively as we were greatly outnumbered. 

I don't have much to say on a strategic level other than that the smaller side needs to figure out a way to find fair or even advantageous fights, and get into those fights quickly while stalling everywhere else on the battlefield.

Every unit is going to be different.  Here's what we had to work with:

14 spears (48%)
11 shields (38%)
3   poles (10%)

1   archer (3%)

To me, this is a pretty solid spear skirmish unit that needs to find a static battle, one that it can win, with a lot of inexperienced fighters.  An exposed flank is something that this unit can quickly chew through.  Hitting a unit head on is risky, especially if it is poised to charge and is heavy with shields.

FB 1

In our first battle we keyed off of an East Kingdom division and the Tuchux, waited until they drew some attention, and then pounced on an exposed flank of a large unit.  What we saw was what I would describe as "fresh meat."  While the front on their unit was engaged, we hit the back end of their right flank and started chewing through inexperienced fighters who were back on their heals.

The initial idea was that our far right flank was getting rolled due to a lack of numbers.  We had hit the inside of that flank and were hoping to push through it and follow the back side of red's far left flank.  I got killed before we could accomplish that and am not sure how it played out.

I was criticized for getting us into a bad fight, that we would have been better off staying mobile, and that we needed to lead with our shields.  While I don't disagree that it would have been ideal to stick and move, I didn't see any good options available and had to react quickly because a couple of units looked like they were quickly getting behind us with no resistance.  The theme for the day was "bad positions, or worse positions."  When numbers are even, there's more time to find a really good position to exploit.  When you are outnumbered, I believe you need to capitalize on any good opportunity that you can find before getting surrounded.  I'd also thought that our current configuration was better built for a more static spear fight than to lead in with our shields.  We had a lot of spears, have a bevy of smaller sized fighters (Half were under 190 lbs.  Half were under 5' 10".  Your typical fighter is 6' and well over 200 lbs), and the experience was largely in the spears, not the shields. 

As I said, we saw an exposed flank full of fresh meat and jumped on it.  The post fight feedback leads me to believe that we ended up with a really high kill ratio,  so I was satisfied with the decision.

One critique I heard from the sideline was that our less experienced fighters seemed a little lost and unengaged.  I'm not sure how to train for that, other than to get them more Pennsic experience.  Our best commanders were our best killers, and we were short on experienced killers, so the hope was that we could lead from the front and that our newer guys would jump in with us.

FB 2

We were in a similar position as before with the Tuchux, Cloven Shield, and a couple of other units to our right, this time fighting from the north side of the field and facing south (a new set up this year).  As the battle began, it was clear that our right flank wanted to stay on top of the hill and force the Midrealm to come up and fight us.  This isn't a bad plan except that the Mid never came up and was happy to wait while our left flank got demolished by Atlantia. 

My thoughts on this as a strategy:  Either you roll the dice and hope that the other side is dumb enough to walk up the hill and fight you, you place all of your units at the top and play a game of chicken (please God, no.......too many standoffs in the 90s that took hours to resolve), or you have to reduce the numbers on the top of the hill and deploy them elsewhere hoping to improve your chances elsewhere in the fight.  If the opponent still doesn't climb the hill, then at least your other guys are fighting with better numbers while you stall with fewer.  If they do come up to fight, hopefully it takes a bit of time and energy to get there, and that the uphill advantage helps even out the fight.

Anyway, as our left collapsed, we eventually went down the hill, a little too late.  As a skirmish unit of 30, we had no choice but to wait for the bigger units to initiate the push.  We found ourselves in an unmaneuverable position (ie no gaps between the units), so we fought a straight up fight.  At some point I was called over because "we need spears."  I ran over to find 8 spears against my lonesome.  I pulled back, surveyed the situation, and saw that they were one thin line.  I yelled out that we needed to charge.  Someone responded and lead a charge to take out the spears.

Again, that was a bad option but better than the worse option.  Instead of getting picked apart by spears, we (an Eastern unit) took them out, but then we ended up getting surrounded on three sides.  Our only chance was to punch through those spears, out the other other side, and then try to maneuver to an exposed flank.  It never happened. 

I eventually yielded once the battle was beyond hopeless.

Side note:  I fought 6 days this Pennsic and didn't get whacked in the head once.  If you are worried about concussions,  get better at learning how to avoid unwinnable situations. 

FB 3

This went a little better.  The East decided to run most of its forces to the left leaving a smaller force to defend the right.  We were in the gap between, which I think was a good position for us, and had the option to go left or right depending on how things developed.  Ultimately our job was to cover the flank of the Eastern unit that was to our left. 

I can only assume that the Midrealm decided to push most of its forces in the same direction as we ended up in a big empty gap.  Ultimately we decided to push to our left and clean up the exposed left flank of a unit that the East engaged with.  After that, we found ourselves with no one to fight.  This is always a bad position to be in.  You always either want to be engaged with an opponent, or stalling an opponent.  If you are in an empty field, that means that somewhere else out there, your allies are fighting against bad odds.  We rallied and turned up the hill to find more red, eventually dying (well, everyone on our side eventually died).

FB 4

Same plan as FB 3, except this time we found ourselves across from two big shield wall units in Dark Yard and a roman unit (please correct me on the name.  They have the rectangular shields with the 6 castles).  We stalled them a bit and kept them from targeting the flank of the Eastern unit.  They eventually came right at us.  Our veterans are used to this kind of fight, but our newer fighters were not.  Normally these units can be strung out and picked apart if you know how to pull them into a kill pocket, but you have to know what you are doing and have good timing.  If you don't, then a unit built like ours will just get run over. 

Ultimately I was happy with how we did.  I think we lost the engagement, but took a lot of them with us and forced a long fight.  If anyone has numbers on those two units, please send them my way.  I believe they had maybe 30-50% more fighters than us.

EDIT:  I just saw the video and did a head count.  We were outnumbered 2:1. 



Side note:  before the engagement, a bunch of archers started firing arrows from a distance.  I warned everyone that we were within range.  One of our kinsmen got shot.  I'll say this much; 4 years ago I was a pin cushion against archery.  I have gotten a LOT better.  It is a skill that can be improved, but you have to actively focus on it.  As an example, I let the East Kingdom archers shoot at me instead of targets when they gear up for Pennsic.  I've learned how to better dodge arrows, how close I can get to an archer before it becomes too dangerous, and to see the archers on the field as you fight.  I only got hit once this war, and that was because I had stopped to let my opponent help a guy up off the ground.

Photo by Andrea Nichols

Additional note:  I believe we fought well in this battle.  One thing I'll never understand is why units like to block up and go straight at the enemy.  If one of these units had split in half (let alone both of them) and flanked us, we would have quickly perished.  Our only chance of surviving was for them to stay directly in front of us, which is exactly what they did.

Having said that, I don't know anything about their training logistics, so maybe they just went with a conservative plan that kept their units cohesive. 

This harkens back to a previous thought that I had, which is that Anglesey, Galatia, and the Concusare are built a certain way and have certain kinds of experiences year in and year out, so when we get to Pennsic, we fight the way that we are best suited.  I would assume that that is what most units on the field are doing.

FB 5

This was a very fun battle and I hope they do this scenario again.  It was a "kill the king" scenario.  Whomever loses their king first, loses the battle.  Our strategy was to have our king run to the top of the hill and we'd defend him while other units went after the Midrealm king.  At least that's what I thought the strategy was.  At some point I saw our unit wandering down the hill and I followed, having no idea what we were trying to accomplish.  At some point we found some fighters and, lacking better options, fought them to try and take them out.  Again, this is something you do if you have a clear advantage, and something to avoid if you don't.  We then turned back up the hill, chewing through small units of stragglers (we had some fun trash talk along the way with Duke Timothy, Wally of the Gaggle, and Sir Beatrix Aethelmearc).  At this point I was focussed on getting back to our king as I thought I had seen a bunch of enemy troops moving in on him. 

To be honest, I think I screwed up and saw the Midrealm banner run right past us, hardly protected, and it just didn't register.  Live and learn, I guess.

Field Battle Summary
Our newer fighters need to learn to be more aggressive when the enemy is on its heels.  Most of the year we do a lot of what I would call "chess match fighting," which is where you try to slowly out position your opponent and wait for good shots.  Pennsic is mostly about avoiding bad situations and aggressively capitalizing on good situations. 

The best advice I'd heard from a fellow kinsman years ago is that you need to be able to recognize a bad situation and quickly get out of it.  If Pennsic can be dumbed down into one simple statement, that might be it.

Tuesday - Woods Battle

The Midrealm has a reputation for having a light turnout in the woods.  I assume that this year was no different as we won the woods pretty decisively, though we did have to work for it. 

The 2019 version of Anglesey and the rest of the bog celts is built pretty good for a woods battle.  We have a lot of younger, lighter fighters who fight with spears and skirmish.  While this isn't great for defending a gate, it's fantastic for a 90 minute battle on a hill in the woods in August.

I want to preface this with the fact that my tactical awareness in the woods has dramatically improved over the last two years.  Truth be told, I've now fought in 15 Pennsic woods battles.  In the first 12 I didn't even know what a flag was.  I just aimlessly wandered through the woods looking for people to hit.  Two years ago I actually focussed on the left flank of the center banner with the goal of trying to capture it.  Last year, I sat back and watched the fighting for periods of time, talking to the commanders, while occasionally moving in to try to take out a knight who was causing us problems.  At one point I even assessed the the fighting on the line and made my first command decision to roll a flank using random SCA fighters.

This year I assessed the battle lines every time I came up to the front before engaging, and stayed in constant contact with the other commanders on our side.

The job handed to us was to create a distraction on the left side of the woods so that the Midrealm would keep sending troops in our direction rather than toward another flag.  Our side conceded the left flag and focussed its fighting on the other three.

I told our liaison up front that we would likely pull people away and send them to more important spots if needed, and he understood.  What I found were two things;  The Tuchux like to resurrect as a group, which means when they get to the front line, they generally can punch a hole in it, but once they are all dead, there is a clear weakness in the line.  The other was that there was a gap between the Tuchux to the right of the road that they were controlling.

Many of us often found ourselves either filling that gap, or holding the road until the Tuchux returned, while most of our younger fighters stayed on the far left (it was better fighting if you are only interested in racking up kills).

I found myself constantly surveying the landscape and moving to where the problems were while calling them out to our side.  On onc occasion one of the commanders had his back to the line and was sending everyone down the hill and to our left, as I'm guessing there was a unit initially coming up from there.  When I got to him I told him that I was going to survey the situation first.  When I did, I noticed that a large unit at formed up the hill from us and was threatening to hit our flank and create a big weakness in our line making the center flag vulnerable.  I pointed this out and he adjusted the commands.

My favorite moment of the war was when I found ourselves surrounded and managed to not only pull out of the bad spot, but to also turn our flank on them.



As you can see above, Red's right flank had pushed us far enough back the we got surrounded in the middle.  This is a horrible position to be in as they will generally have more numbers than us in that location when the line is contoured this way, but also they will have some really good angles of attack on us.  If we don't fix it, it goes from being bad to very bad. 

One of the Galatians, Titus, pointed it out to me and I followed him as he bailed, calling out for others to do the same.

What I was most concerned with, however, was that once that pocket collapsed, red would make a push for the flag with numerical superiority as all of the fighters surrounding the pocket would cram into it doubling the typical amount of troops in that amount of space.

My instincts told me that if that many people were crammed into that small space, then there must be another spot in the woods where they were thin. I pulled out and started walking to the left until I found the end of their flank. Once I got there I did a quick count and noticed that we had a clear numbers advantage.  I started pressing on the flank and called out, "If we don't push this flank right now, we are going to lose the center flag.  This is where the battle will be won," or some other overly dramatic phrase that scadians seem to like.  I might have even yelled, "mi'lords and ladies!."

Anyway, not only did I notice that the line was thin, but so was the talent.  All of the better fighters were fighting up the hill for the banner.  We started walking that flank back but then got stuck behind a big defendable log.  I had almost given up until I heard Ying of Anglesey shouting, "Hey!  Hey!" to my right.  Not only did it draw my attention, but it caused the pocket that he was fighting around to start walking back on its heels.  This is when I knew that we had them.  I called a charge and we cleaned up the flank.  The impact worked its way up the line and we managed to secure the flag.

I'm certain that there were similar moves being made further up the hill that helped us defend the flag and that this was only one piece of it, but I was rather satisfied with the moves that we made and that I wasn't simply trying to kill random people in front of me without purpose.

Note:  Last year in the woods I prided myself with only dying once.  This year I died somewhere between 5 and 20 times, yet one of my friends didn't much at all this year.  I also remember my 3rd or 4th Pennsic being almost impossible to kill.  Truth be told, the number of deaths (or kills) often has more to do with circumstances than anything else.  I wasn't an amazing fighter in my 3rd or 4th Pennsic.  Last year I remembered never seeing two knights next to each other.  This year, I rarely saw one by himself.  Two knights are a lot harder to kill than one.

Summary note:  The takeaway from all of this is that you have time to think in the woods, so do it.  Stop before you get to the line, look around, and think about your situation.  If this a good spot to get kills?  Kills are good, but are they the best kills?  Will this help capture or protect a banner?


Wednesday - Bridge Battles
We were assigned to be reserve units.  I'll be blunt, the first two battles sucked.  The other side just had too many fighters. 

BB 1 & 2

In the first battle we moved down to support a unit protecting the southern bridge.  Our ballista was doing some damage firing right at the knights and royals of Atlantia, but they were firing back with archers and whittling down the unit that was capping the bridge.  They then made one big push after our side had thinned out and broke through the end of the bridge. 

I would much rather have attempted to stuff them on the bridge than to give them a chance to break through, but that wasn't our call.  We would have lost anyway, but it wouldn't have been so disastrous.  One thing I found really annoying was just how much impact 2-3 cheaters can have. Most of Atlantia fought very honorably, but 2-3 guys pushed through and blew off countless shots.  Unfortunately, each one manages to create a hole and pulls off 4-6 fighters with him.  We just didn't have the numbers to afford that.  Additionally, as I said, we have small guys.  The only way we can stop chargers is by killing them.  If they don't take their shots, then we're screwed.

 BB 3

After losing two battles, a contingent of about 50 fighters opted to switch sides.  As a result, we managed to (I think) win the next two battles, but barely.  Obviously the reason we won was the shifting of the numbers, but we still had to work for the win. 

This time our task was to lead out in front of the Tuchux with our spears.  Across from us was a unit of romans (the guys with 6 castles on their shields) and Dark Yard, both shield heavy units.  We knew they would charge right into us and that we wouldn't be able to stop them.

After several conversations with Dagar, the Tuchux commander (I assumed), we agreed that we'd only send one rank out and that the rest of us would be filed on the sides to allow for a Tuchux column to repel a charge.  The idea was that our front rank would just filter back into the ranks of the Tuchux.

One of the things we are working on with our group is to not simply meander as a disorganized mob wherever we go.  Had we had our unit bunched up in the front of the Tuchux, I fear we would have been wiped out pretty quickly.  Every individual needs to know what they are capable of and where they best fit.  We had a 210 lb 25 year old former marine right up front with his shield the whole fight knocking people over left and right.  I'm a 46 year old 190 lb spearman with skinny runner legs.  You won't find me up there because I'm simply not built for it.  Unfortunately most of our unit is not built for receiving a shield wall charge in the middle of a bridge.

Anyway, there's not much more to talk about here tactically.  The Tuchux are hard to work with, not because they are difficult people, but because they have a very aggressive system that works best when its Tuchux working with Tuchux.  Every now and then one of our guys would find a good spot on the edge and rack up some kills.  Two Galatians in particular were doing some good spear work on either side.  Basically, when the Tuchux are up front and working, its best just to get out of their way and let them do what they do.

As I watched our side getting whittled down and pushed toward the end of the bridge, I noticed that we had a numbers advantage on the next bridge down.  I thought about moving down there and calling a charge as it looked like maybe 30 on 15.  BUT, I've made that mistake before.  Our side had a lot of spears, while their side had very few.  To me this means aggressive spear work.  REALLY aggressive.  I moved down there, found a spot up front and fired as many shots as I could while encouraging others to do the same.  I feel I did well, but eventually died.  Soon after that, our side walked them across the bridge and finished them off, and then came around the back side of the north bridge and finished that fight just as our last remaining fighters on that bridge died. 

If I had to throw out a rough number guess, our unit of 25 fighters probably netted 25-50 kills (maybe more, maybe less).  Had we been bunched up and caught between the Tuchux and Darkyard, I think we would have lost a lot of key fighters and gotten far fewer kills.  When a battle is that close, little decisions like that count for something.

Note:  I counted the kills in the video during the charge.  We did much better than I had thought, but still not in an ideal position to maximize our potential.

BB 4

This was a fun battle that didn't allow range weapons or anything over 6 feet long.  It was fun spearing with a 6 footer, and occasionally back handing someone charging past me. 

The only tactical comments I can make was when we cleaned up the top two bridges, everyone stopped fighting and cheered.  I yelled that the fight wasn't over and that we needed to go and finish off the other bridges.  More importantly, I checked each bridge to make sure we had at least one person occupying it.

........I think that was the victory condition.  If I was really savy, I would have read what the victory conditions were ahead of time.  ;)

Friday - Mountain Pass Battle

This was a fun MOAB style battle.  In a nutshell, there were four passes; the goat path, the hot gate, the mines, and the catacombs.  Two were narrow (2 fighters wide) and two were wide.  Two allowed the use of spears, two did not.  There was something for everyone.  The way the battle works is that the attackers get unlimited resurrections while the defenders get three lives.  There's a time limit, and then you switch sides.

Tactically speaking, the wide paths are shoving matches.  The attackers need to send their heaviest guys in and keep charging and shoving people off the sides.  If they can get some killing in, go for it.  The defenders, OTOH, gain very little by killing people, except if its to stop a big aggressive charger.  Every kill is just replaced by the guy behind him. 

We were on the goat path.  I'm not sure what the best tactic is here, but my gut says that it largely depends on how each unit on the path is built.  If you are big shieldmen, then you probably want to charge and push people off the path.  If you are small spearmen, then you may want to just fire away.

The path we were on had a lot of archers and we struggled dealing with them.  I actually managed to avoid getting shot (the exception being the time I stopped to let a dead guy get out safely) and I think that was due to a lot of focused training against archery over the last several years.

In my opinion, here's the key to avoid getting killed by arrows.

Step 1)  Stay out of range, or at least far enough out that you can more easily doge incoming arrows.
Step 2)  Watch the archers, not the shields.  If you are more than 5 feet away from the shields, you don't need to look at them.  They aren't going anywhere and they aren't going to do anything.  The archers will.
Step 3)  When its your turn to fight, run up to the front and keep throwing shots until you die.




Toward the end of this battle, one of our fighters (Boagrius of Galatia) grabbed three shields and convinced them to charge ahead of us to shield us from arrows.  When they got to the front, they charged right into the mass of fighters (why not, there's unlimited resurrections) and quickly died.  However, they pushed us past the end of the path and allowed a mass of our unit to break through and get to the banner that they were protecting.  Score!

Note:  A few years ago a local Duke (Duke Brennan) told us at a practice that when you have unlimited resurrections and a time limit, that you need to be aggressive and continually charge.  I think his advice was good enough in that it applies to 90+% of the situations, but technically it isn't correct.  I only know this because I have called charges in the past that didn't lead to a single kill, and have since gotten better at quickly analyzing our troop makeup before calling the charge.

In a nutshell, if your unit is 100% spears and archers, calling a charge isn't going to do diddly.  Here's my rule of thumb; if you have more fighters than them, and at least as many shields, then you are probably ready for a charge.  This assumes that they don't get bonuses for being better fighters, in a defensible position, or they calibrate higher than your guys (maybe they cheat?  Maybe your guys don't throw hard shots).  Otherwise, you may need to use your spears and arrows to weaken your opponent before charging.


Hope you enjoyed reading!

How to Skirmish Effectively (Analysis of a Small Team Skirmish)

Some of our Anglesey members drove down to meet with some Galatians south of Baltimore last weekend for a nice little tune up before Pennsic.  We didn't really work on anything specific, but rather just enjoyed the afternoon getting some experience in, getting used to the heat, and as usual, constantly making little minor improvements.  Where as the local kingdom army practice often focusses on ramping up aggression, we do the opposite.  Most of our shots are thrown at probably half to three quarter power, the philosophy being that the less we hurt each other, the more we'll be able to fight.  The reality is when fighting skirmish style, more often than not you get a kill because you beat someone tactically, so there's no need to drive the point home with a concussive blow.

I should say up front that there wasn't anything particularly interesting about this fight.  It's just 9 people of various ability levels fighting in a back yard, but the more and more I watched the video, the more and more little things jump out at me.

The Scenario

I'm focussing on a single battle that was a single resurrection (two lives each) 4v5 fight in a relatively contained area.  We placed three of the four most experienced fighters on the team of 4, with the goal being to have relatively balanced sides, but with uneven numbers.  Had we had 10 fighters, we would have tried fighting 4v6, or 4v6 with the 4 getting extra lives, or possibly 4v6 with the team of 6 being required to hold at least one fighter at the rez point at all times.  Essentially, we modify the battle so that both sides have a reasonable chance to win.


The Conditions

This was a very hot and humid day, and this fight was, I believe, the last fight we fought on the day, so everyone was very worn down.  So the answer to a lot of questions like, "Why didn't you throw more shots?  We didn't she charge?  Why were you just standing there," is, "Because we were tired!"


The Fighters

Its important to note that while tactics will often beat skill, skill can also beat tactics.  There's not much 5 brand new fighters are going to be able to do against 4 dukes, regardless of their tactics.  So who is fighting with what is a very important factor when looking at the layout of a battle.  "Why didn't the shield run down the spear?"  Maybe the spear is really fast and the shieldman really slow.  Maybe it wasn't a winnable matchup.  Etc. 

For the purposes of relative anonymity, I'll simply label them as part of the Red Team (right side of the field) or Green Team (left side of the field).

Red Team:

R1 - Axe and Shield, 3 years of experience, but relatively new to using a shield
R2 - (Me)  Spear with 15+ years of experience
R3 - Spear with 15+ years of experience
R4 - Sword and Shield, 15+ years of experience, but only a few years using a shield

Green Team:

G1 - Sword and Shield, just graduated high school.  Some heavy experience, and a few years of youth
G2 - Spear, 1 year, but very well practiced
G3 - Sword and Sheild, took 18 years off to raise kids.  Knocking the rust off.
G4 - Spear, 15+ years fighting Darkon spear.  Been transitioning to SCA for about a year
G5 - Sword and Shield, two years experience.  Very little experience with Sword and Shield.

Weapon Choices

At the end of the day, we generally fight with what weapons we feel like working on.  Getting better is more important than winning the fight.  People need to remember that, in both practice and at events, if we're doing everything correctly, you should win about half of the battles regardless of what you do.  If you are winning more than that, then someone needs to adjust the scenarios or rebalance the sides.

Having said that, we will often make small adjustments to make the battles worth fighting.  Had we had three spears on our team, for example, then a I likely would have swapped mine out for a pole arm or even a shield.

In general, however, the Bog Celts tend to fight with ~50% shields.  This tends to give us a disadvantage in single death battles, especially in small quarters, or attacking a gate or flag with a time limit.  It does, however, seem to give us the advantage in resurrection scenarios or in larger battles where we can play off of other units.


Lining Up

So there are a couple of fundamentals I like to follow in what I consider to be a skirmish position;  secure the flanks, and balance your talent.  What this means is that I generally like to see my strongest shields on the flanks, and then have the rest of the weapon types balanced throughout the middle.  Notice how the green team have their spears separated by a shield in between them.

As always, there are times when you can deviate from this system, but when you do, you need to realize that you are leaving weaknesses in your line and should have a plan to account for them.

Also of note, in all the years I've been fighting with this group, the battles almost always split up into two extreme flanks with a gap in the middle.  This is because neither side ever wants to give up the flanking position.



Now in a battle like this, there is a bit of a chess match that occurs before everything turns into chaos.  In this case, with the red team having the more experienced fighters, but fewer of them, they are either looking for a glaring tactical weakness to exploit, trying to find an easily winnable one on one matchup, or trying to snipe at an opening on an unsuspecting fighter.  In this case, R2 was hoping to either beat G2 straight up, or to land a face shot on G1 or G3.  R4 approached G5 hoping to win a one on one engagement.  R3 floated between G3 and G4 hoping to snipe at one of them.

The green team, OTOH, is looking to neutralize the one on one matchups and find a two on one to exploit.  They did this well by doubling up on R4 and eventually winning that engagement for the first kill, giving them a 3 to 5 advantage.


Green Cleans Up the Right.  Fighters Adjust.

As the fight begins, R4 Shield walks down the far left flank hoping to engage G5 Shield in a one on one engagement.  This draws the G4 Spear onto him, placing him at a 2v1 disadvantage.  At this point he withdraws hoping to stall the engagement and give the rest of his team a chance to get an early kill.  As he backs out of the fight, he stays relatively close to the boundary forcing the G4 Spear expose his side to the R3 spear who begins to float toward him.

Seeing the advantage that they have, G4 and G5 press hard to get the kill, hopefully before they lose the stalemate on the other side of the field.

G3 Shield moves to join her right flank, causing R3 Spear to commit to his left, leaving a 2v2 on Red's right flank.






Green Turns Corner.  Chain Reaction.

After G4 and G5 take out R4, they turn immediately onto R3 with G3 joining them.  This effectively creates a 3v1 on Green's right flank with a 2v2 continuing on the other side of the field.

Once it becomes clear that G5 is going to get the kill on R3, G3 Shield and G4 Spear turn to try to take out R2 Spear.  If they can manage this, the battle will be effectively won by getting the first 3 kills before the Red team can get their first kill.

What happens is that R3 dies, but effectively pulls G2 Spear and G5 Shield out of the fight.  Seeing the action forming in the backfield, R1 Shield floats back and gets a kill on G3 Shield.  Had R1 been just a little quicker, he could have spun out of the fight and defended himself from the counter attack from G1 Shield.  Either way, he got a kill, and drew three fighters on him the process, allowing R2 Spear to escape.

Green Tries to Cleanup.  R4 Rejoins Fight.

After taking out R1 Shield, G1 Shield and G4 Spear both turn on R2 Spear.  R2 bails to get out of a bad situation, while R4 Shield returns from rez point and immediately fouls up G4 Spear and attempts getting a kill.

This draws the remaining two fighters, G2 Spear and G5 Shield onto him.  After R2 Spear successfully avoids G1 Shield, he (me) rejoins the fight and gets a kill on G5 Shield's open side while he was occupied with R1 Shield.

Shields Take Out Spears

At this point there are two shields and three spears left on the field, with another shield joining quickly.  Knowing that at this point in the fight spears have a big advantage, especially at range, all three shields expediently close.

One of the compliments given to the spears earlier that day by another fighter is that they are all very wily and more difficult to kill when charging than one would normally expect. 

Having said that, I made the same mistake in the upper corner that I pointed out on R1 earlier.  I had forgotten that there was an enemy shielman right behind me when I went for my kill, and he was able to take advantage of that and take me out.

Also of note, yes, G4 made an illegal grapple.  Probably a hold over from Darkon rules.

Red Team Adds a Few More Kills

The longer a fight goes on, typically the advantage starts leaning toward the team with more skirmish experience. 

The three shields took out the three spears in the above clip, and then R3 Spear returned to the field and took out Green's remaining fighter.  Two more Green fighters (both shields) returned to the field one at a time and got caught in a kill pocket right around the rez point.

The Scouring of the Red Team

After having pressed Green back to their rez point, there was some confusion about who was still alive.  It turned out that Green had three people left with one life each, as did Red.  So we reset in the middle of the field.

What happened next was pretty simple.  Green outfought us. 

R1 Shield made the initial move, which I think was good.  The Green spears reacted well with G4 Spear getting a kill on R1 Shield's open side while G2 Spear backed away defensively.  The maneuvering of both spears was good.  G4 pulled back while keeping a lot of pressure on the face.  G2 turned and took the shot while stepping just outside of my range, causing me to miss the counter.  I then got sucked into a 2 on 1 and got sniped by G2 as I was trying to take out G4.

Their two shots landed.  Ours missed.  Game over.






Some Thoughts on Skirmishing

Whether you are impressed with the skills displayed or not, what sticks out to me in these clips compared a lot of practices that I've been to is the team work.  People are either running in and trying to gain 2 on 1 advantages, or shields are trying to close on spears to give them a close range advantage.

What I often see by groups who don't train for skirmishing is either a lot of 1v1 fighting, or blind charges into groups of people that they can't beat.  Additionally, spears tend to get run over by shieldman easily, and their teammates don't normally come to bail them out.  Also, you'll see a lot of fighters simply unengaged in the fight, waiting for the fight to come to them.


What I Liked

Spears were wily and hard to run down.
Shields were quick and aggressive when they saw spears with no support.
People were helping their teammates.
Bothe sides were good about controlling their flanks.
Both sides were good about moving to the next fight after getting a kill.


What Could Improve

A couple of us got lazy right after scoring a kill. 
Some fighters walked out of rez point and right into bad situations.


Resurrecting Together vs Individually

Had the Red Team waited at rez and come in together, we wouldn't have stood a chance.  The fighters needed to get back into the fight ASAP to bail out their undermanned teammates.

Having said that, the Green Team lost two fighters because they came out of rez by themselves and walked right into a bad situation. They also saved the remaining three fighters by waiting until the rez point was clear and then coming in as a team.

In a nutshell, my advice is to come in from rez with a clear understanding of what you are about to get yourself into.  If you see your friends in a 5v3 advantage, then run right up there immediately and make it a 6v3.  But don't come out of rez and just walk into an immediate death.  If you know what to do, then do it.  If you don't, then it is probably best to wait for someone who does, and follow that person, or at least wait for a small number of fighters and then return safely.


No Reforms?

Skirmishers don't reform. 

Every now and then, you'll see your friends getting themselves into a bad situation, and you call them over to join you in a better situation, but overall, a well trained skirmisher should be able to fluidly adapt to whatever situation is in front of them.  Where as a traditional unit of 20 fighters sees the fight as a cohesive team of 20 versus the enemy, skirmishers see it as a whole lot of smaller fights of 2-5 people. 

And think about it this way.  If we're trained to thrive in the skirmish, and you're not, why would we want to call a reform and give you a chance to call your own?


Why Not a Shield Wall?

This is something that has probably evolved over the last 30 years.  In short, we found ourselves to be more effective skirmishing.  I think it also lends itself more to our personality types, and our ability to train.

Ultimately we got really good at beating shield walls with a skirmish approach (at least during peak years with our better trained fighters).  That's not to say that we've beaten every shield wall ever thrown at us.  As I said above, we are better suited for some circumstances than others, but we'd gotten really good and stringing out shield walls and enveloping them, and then poking them apart on the reform. 

That being said, some units are better built to operate as a cohesive shield wall.  I'm not suggesting that you don't use them.  I'm just telling you how the other side fights. 

What Happens When They Have the Shields AND the Spears

I fight with a spear about 90% of the time.  Of that, my team often will have the range advantage.  As I've said many times in this blog, one of the most fundamental tactical decisions you need to make is to determine which team has the range advantage.  If its the other team, then you need to press them hard or charge.  Recently I had some experience where the other team had both the range advantage as well as the shield advantage, and it challenged us on a tactical level.

In a couple of series of 4v4 battles in a small field, one team would have three shields and one spear, while the other team had no spears and either all poles, or a mix of poles and spears.  Normally you wouldn't want to charge a line (all else being equal) that had more shields than you, but in a situation where the other team has a good spear and you have none, you really have little choice but to neutralize and/or take out that spear. 

In one of our sessions, we kept sending our best shieldman straight at the spear, and he was never successful.

What was happening was that the pole to the left of the spear had the surprising situational awareness (he was a very new fighter) to take a passing shot at the sheildman's back as he'd run by.  The spear was also able to withdraw just a bit and put up a defense as the charge was coming directly in.

We were never able to figure out how to win this scenario during the practice. 

At this point I'd like to step in and point out two big errors that I often see at SCA practices.  One is that they often would rebalance the teams to make sure that each side has the same ability levels and weapon types in order to make the fight "fair."  The other that I see (less common) is that they will leave two sides unbalanced and just let one team slaughter the other over and over again throughout the day.  There is, of course, a happy medium.

In this case, we were struggling, but not getting slaughtered in an un-winnable fight, and just needed to figure out how to beat this scenario.

A few more weeks passed and we found the opportunity to run the scenario again.  This time it was 3 shields and a spear versus 4 poles, and the pole team actually managed to win about half of the scenarios.  Now, winning a scenario often comes down to ability level, and we did have the more experienced fighter, but we were still able to figure out some tactics to improve our chances. 

This time the poles were coming in from the flanks and using the other team members as "picks," or rather, using them to block each other.

From the right flank, I was using a very inexperienced shieldman on the inside to pick a more experienced flanker.  On the left, our left pole used a large flanker to hide behind.  Positioning and timing in each case is essential.  Also, making a move at the fighter that you intend to use as a pick is helpful as it will often discourage them from making a passing shot.

It also appeared that the kills on the spear were a little easier as we were coming in from steep angles rather than from directly in front of him.

One thing to note, when making a charge into a group of fighters like this, you need to make sure you go all the way through, out the back side, and reestablish your front to the fight (and your back away from your enemies).

FWIW, this is one reason why I like to fight with the spear out in front.  One might think that it just makes it easier to get to the spear, but what ends up happening is the spear will take one or two steps back to safely avoid the charge while the rest of the line collapses on whomever is going after the spear.  I've been doing this for decades, but every now and then we'll experiment with it and verify that it is still a very effective tactic.


Other Related Thoughts

Triangulate the Spears

In a few of our fights each side had two spears.  I almost always prefer to have the spears split so that you can effectively triangulate the attacks.  I definitely noticed the benefits in this series of battles. 




In the above picture, red spears had really good angles on the green spears.  Each red spear only has to worry about guarding one side of their body, while the green spears have to worry about shots coming from both sides.

Caveat:  I don't usually like having spears protecting the flanks,  I was a bit surprised the the green shield was not able to exploit the weakened flank, but I was not on that side to see what was happening.


Don't Turtle Up

In one of our series of fights, our flanking shieldman was employing a very common tactic, one that is actually taught in a lot of SCA groups and its one that I don't think is very effective.  In fact, one of our friendly knights was teaching this at an Atlantian practice, and the Anglesey fighters told him that they disagreed with the approach.

"Turtling Up," is when the flanking shieldman stays tight against the group, allows the opponent to out flank him, and then turns his back toward his own line.

In this specific example, the shields were able to approach our line without exposing their open side, and it was preventing our spear (me) from even throwing shots in their direction because I'd have to turn my side to the opposing spears.



If that sheildman can extend the flank, it opens up angles on the open sides of those shields, and pushes their line back a bit so that I don't have to expose myself as much to the opposing spears.




Know When You are Out Gunned

The final thought here is that we had a fight last week where each side had two spears.  I'm about as experienced as any spearman out there, but the other team had TWO spearman who had been fighting since the 80s.   My team often relies on me to take the lead in the attacks, but I just could not hold these two off.  We had to adjust our tactics and start pressing them.