Southern Region War Practice

Just got back from this fine event and wanted to write a few thoughts down.  First and foremost, I don't intend to give away any "secret plans," or call out any particular group as being more effective than another, nor to contradict any of the teachings that went on there.  I really try my best to either stick to what I'm pretty confident I know about, or to address something in a way that is a matter of "thinking out loud," rather than a definitive declaration on a fighting tactic.


The Event

~95 heavy fighters
~25-30 knights, and the rest were mostly well practiced and experienced unbelts.
There were very few easy kills, and those with less experience were always near someone good.

4 field battles
3 bridge battles
a 16 minute Allied Champions Battle


Field Battles - The Toilet Bowl of Death

Both sides had 3-4 units.  I'll call them units 1, 2, 3, and 4 for our team (left to right) and units A, B, C, and D for the opposing team (our left to our right).  I was situated in unit 3 which was 14 fighters with a mix of weapon types (at least 4 spears if not more).

We lost the first three battles, but won the 4th, which tells me that it was likely the tactics that made the difference.  Sometimes a fight is completely won or lost due to the quality of the fighters on each side, but tactics can shift the advantage from one side to the other if the groups are close enough in ability.

As the first battle unfolded, unit A (their right flank) charged pretty quickly across the field while unit 1 (our left flank) waited to receive them in a tight formation.  I didn't know much about unit A's ability, but based on the confidence with which they moved, and the "swagger" that they carried, I believed that they were going to be a very strong unit.

My biggest fear was that our left was going to lose, and that it was going to lose before our right even got engaged.  Even if unit A is at half strength after the engagement, it places us at a big disadvantage because we'd have 8-10 unopposed, probably talented, fighters coming into our backfield.  The only way to combat this is to try to get an advantage of our own on the other side.

After watching the videos, combined with my memory of the engagement, what happened instead was that units 2, 3, and 4 were slow to engage.  Unit 4 did get out faster than the others, but still slower than unit A (the right flankers from the opposing team).

The opposition also seemed to have a pretty spread out left flank, which made it difficult for us to hit them and roll their flank.  In the second or third battle I moved to their unit to try and help them push the flank around, but when we got there, it wasn't clear where we needed to hit.  We were a hammer that couldn't find a nail.

Anyway, the general strategy that both sides employed is an Attack Right, Deny Left, which is what often causes the toilet bowl of death, with the battle rotating counter clockwise on the field.  Being that most fighters are right handed, units tend to be stronger on the right than on the left, which lends itself to this "hard right" strategy.


Seizing the Initiative......Effectively


After losing three battles, it was pointed out to us that the other team was doing a great job of seizing the initiative and we were not.  I agreed that statement, but I think there's some key nuances that need to be addressed. 

Let me explain again what happened.  We went hard right and they went hard right.  They went harder and got their killing units into action more quickly.  When I saw our left under attack, and at risk of folding, I wanted our unit to push harder, but I don't believe we pushed hard enough.  Remembering the time I was on the right, we couldn't find a place to attack.  We should have committed ourselves more, but I'd also like to add that their left did a great job of denying.  In addition, after watching the videos, I noticed that there was a large group of fighters on our center/right who weren't engaged at all. 


After losing a battle, our unit 1 adjusted and ran right into unit A (seizing the initiative).  There's one problem with this;  this is the unit that lost the previous engagement with unit A, so in effect, they may have just been running into battle to die sooner.  Maybe they killed more people this time, and maybe they did it at a point in the fight that put unit A in a less dangerous position after resolving the engagement, but it still wasn't going to win us the fight. 

The way to win that battle is to draw out and drag out the losing fights, and to seize the initiative on the winnable fights.  Die slowly and win quickly.  Die while pulling them out of the fight and kill while moving toward the fight.  Losing units need to stall and draw the fights away from the middle of the field, and winning units need to hit their opponents quickly and turn toward the middle of the field.

And there should never be units standing on the field unengaged.  That doesn't mean you should always be attacking, but that you shouldn't be in a position that has no effect on the battle.  In general a unit needs to be doing one of three things:

1)  Attacking
2)  Stalling/Occupying a more powerful unit
3)  Waiting for a unit to expose a weakness and then attacking that weakness


What you mustn't do is stand in the middle of the field and wait for the fight to come to you when there isn't one coming to you.  If you see a strong unit coming toward you, and you know that standing there and waiting for them to come is what is keeping them from attacking others, then you might be doing a good job.  But if you are simply waiting for units to finish killing off your friends before they come at you, then you are probably not doing a good job.  Your 10 guys standing there means that the opposition has a 50 on 40 advantage and will come at you with 25 guys when they are done.  The exception to this is if you don't think you can take a unit that is near you, you may let them pass by so that you can hit them in a weaker spot, or when they are engaged with another unit.

The two biggest problems I think I see are:
a)  engaging too late
b)  engaging too soon

Profound, eh?  =)


Using the Right Unit for the Right Job

After three losses I remember thinking to myself, "We have a big bubba hard hitting shield wall in the deny position, and a mixed weapon skirmish unit in an attack position.  We need to switch places."  Fortunately someone else had the same idea and we did.

I can only assume that unit 1 was more direct and more decisive than we were once they moved to the right.  We moved to the deny position and actually got out in front pretty fast, but out plan was not to hit the straight on.  We moved out and left, which meant that if they ran through us, they were going to go through us and out the far side of the field, which would give our right more time to clean up.

Once we got there, unit A spread out, as did we, placing us both in a stand off.

At this point I'd like to talk about the rock, paper, scissors approach.  If we come at them with rock, they have the choice to either meet us with a bigger rock, or to play paper.  They spread out, hoping to either envelop us when we charged, or to slow down our effectiveness.  It turns out that we had the same plan, so we both played paper.

I can't be certain who was right in this instance.  They had been winning all day, so we thought we needed to simply slow them down.  They, on the other hand, seemed to believe that they needed to slow us down. 

Ultimately I believe it worked to our advantage.  In the first field battle, unit A attacked at the 22 second mark, significantly before our right side engaged.  In the 4th field battle, they attacked at the 36 second mark, well after our right side engaged.  In fact, over half of our unit had already disengaged and moved on to fight others before they called for a charge.

Either way, I thought it was wise to move our unit into the deny position and utilize unit 1 in the attack position.

Dying Slowly

Quick note here, I noticed on at least two occasions that whatever group I was in was about to get munched.  I don't know that I can describe exactly how to do it here, but there are ways to slow this process down and draw it out.  Usually it involves disengaging, re-engaging, circling out, running around, hitting on the edges, etc. etc.  What it is not, however, is just standing there and taking it, hoping that throwing up your shield or swinging your stick is going to save you.

You have to figure out at what point its a lost cause and to just bail and find somewhere else to be.  It might be joining up with another unit, or it might be making them kill you at the far end of the field.


Bridge Battles

Hind sight being 20/20, I feel comfortable saying these were a mess.  I don't think they were a mess because people didn't know what to do, but rather because bridges require a lot of cooperation between the fighters on a side, and that simply can't happen with mixed units. 

In "to the last man" bridge battles, the strategy is always the same.  Both sides come out swinging until one side starts losing, then they pull themselves off the end of the bride into a kill pocket hoping to draw the other side in, and closer to their archers.

The winning side has two choices:  employ the same tactic and make the battle suck for everyone, or gamble that you can beat the other side despite the disadvantage of fighting on their end of the bridge.

When you have mixed units fighting on a narrow bridge (9 feet, which can fit 4-6 fighters across), is that everyone just crams themselves in the front hoping to get "their spot" and fight there until they die.  Spears up can be a good tactic.  Shields and spears mixed evenly can be a good tactic.  Shields up and constantly charging can be a good tactic.  Shields in the middle, spears on the sides can be a good tactic.

Random people hogging the front line is not.

None of this is to say that it wasn't a good experience and that they weren't good fights to learn from.

EDIT:  after watching one of the videos, it appears that the other team was doing a decent job of commanding on the bridge.  I still think that individual units may have done better.

Bridge Battle Suggestions

1) Sir Manfred brought up something at the end of these battles.  I can't remember the specifics, but I'll throw my own twist into it. The battles really should be fought with units, and each unit employing their own strategy.  At AE War Practice, the Tuchux did not mix in with Cloven Shield.  One battle had Cloven Shield go in first, the next battle had the Tuchux go in first.  I really believe this is a more effective method, both for fighting and learning. 

2) Get the spears out of the second rank.  They either need to be in the front rank and fighting ,or out of the way.  One person told me that their strategy is to have a single line of spears down the middle to feed into the front, which I think is a sound tactic, but to have a large cluster of spears waiting to file into the front after people die is just asking to get run over in a charge.

4)  Right handed spears fight around the right sides of shieldmen, left handed spears fight around the left side.  IOW, just because you see a spot on the front line doesn't mean you should take it.  It may not be a good spot for you.

3)  When people die, let the spears fight.  Shields are there to charge and to repel charges.  When dead guys are piling up in the middle, don't run up to the edge of the dead people and form a wall.  NO ONE is going to charge over those dead people. 


Allied Champions Battle

I thought this went pretty well and the more and more of these I do, the better I understand them.  The only thing I'd like to add is that the endurance aspect of this fight was not really addressed.  Aggressive spear fighting and shield charges are tiring and will wear you out.  In my brief experience, attrition has always been a factor in how this battle turns out.  Personally I have worked on my cardio and learning how to fight more conservatively for specifically this battle.




Finally a Note About the Heat

A friend sent this to me and I told him I'd post it:

The Sun, and why it hates us.

Southern region war camp was held this past weekend, and great renown was earned.  One of my chief experiences that day was... Heat Exhaustion.

'Oh, just suck it up boy-o!  It's part of the game!'

Here's the thing; Heat Exhaustion can quickly become Sun Stroke, which can literally kill you if you do not get treatment as quickly as possible.

If you begin to feel faint, dizzy or just can't focus, then you really need to get off the field and out of the sun for a few minutes.  Popping your top can help a great deal, as can a stiff breeze and cool fluids.  The idea is to keep your CORE temperature as low as possible while you are out in the sun and the heat.  Cool fluids do this well, but the best thing is to armor down or at least get out of the sun with plenty to drink. 

The second component of Heat Exhaustion / Sun Stroke is loss of electrolytes.  These lovely chemicals are what allow us humans to sweat and get rid of heat from our bodies through evaporation.  They also have a hand in nearly every process in our bodies, including how our brain works. 

No electrolytes? Brain no work good.

As a tip, if pickle juice tastes amazing... then you really need to drink the pickle juice.  Sports drinks [no caffeine, that hurts water processes] like Powerade, Gatorade, or the Walmart special will do wonders to keep you at the right levels.

End of the day; Heat Exhaustion is THE most common injury we suffer on the field, and we must think of it as a serious concern.  Drink the water, Pop your top and take a five minute break in the shade.  That's all it takes to keep you healthy, and it's a much better deal then paying for a ambulance and a over-night stay at the hospital.

-YIS

William Martinet

(Dan Krause)

Aethelmearc War Practice: Filling the Gap, Adapting to a Fallen Flank

This is my second post about last week's war practice and this one will focus on two tactical scenarios within the field battles.  The layout was essentially one large single death field battle with ~100 on a side.


Filling the Gap

We fought with the Tuchux and the other non-Aethelmearc groups.  Anglesey and Galatia brought with us 5 spears (four with 6-30 years experience), a veteran pole arm, a veteran shield, and two new shieldmen (one with ~18 months experience, the other at her second event).  We also had a newish archer.

Now it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out what our capabilities are.  If we could find a static place in the battle we were deadly, and had just enough back up to keep the bad guys off os us.  However, if a fresh unit wished to dedicate a charge at us, there was nothing we could do to stop it.

As a result I wanted us to form up behind a large unit near a gap.  The larger unit would protect us, but the gap would be a nice place to shoot out and find some good killing opportunities.

When we initially lined up, the Tuchux were to our right, and a large unit (I believe it was a combination of Cloven Shield, the Mid, and maybe another group) formed up on our left.  Before the battle began, our guys were meandering about on the front line between the two groups.  It was a struggle to motivate them off of the front line as I had to make it clear that I didn't want the two main units to think that we were going to plug that gap.  They needed to know that there was a hole there, because we sure as hell were not going to stop a shield wall coming at us.  Had we moved forward with the main units and saw such a unit come at us, we would have had no choice but to pull out, leaving a hole that they weren't expecting, and possibly leading to a bad field position.

As each battle began and the two sides engaged, we pretty much pushed into that gap looking to exploit a flank or a bad position for the enemy. Last year I saw this many times, however they seemed better prepared this year.  We always seemed to be up against some of the best spears that Aethelmearc had to offer and if I remember correctly, the results were fairly close each time.  We never really crushed through that gap, but we never really lost it either.


Adapting to a Fallen Flank

I don't consider myself to be a great field commander.  I'm pretty good if I know what to do ahead of time, but if I'm given a situation that I'm unfamiliar with, I don't come up with ideas quickly.  A fallen flank, however, if a scenario that I've seen plenty of times and one that I think I'm pretty good at adapting to.

Consider the following diagram:

Here you can see that our left flank is collapsing.  This actually happened several times that weekend, and I'm not really sure why.  I'm a strong proponent of controlling the flanks before anything else.  Maybe the scenario was set up intentionally (it was a practice, after all).  Maybe they just couldn't muster up enough strength to hold that position.  Maybe it was bad tactics.  Either way, our flank kept dropping.

Now I'm not in charge of that flank, but I do have influence over my own group.  In this situation, we really only have four options:

1)  Keep fighting as usual - this is the worst of the four as it would lead us to getting surrounded and dying quickly.

2)  Make a hard push through the people we are facing (we did this in a similar scenario at last Pennsic's field battle).  This is generally the best option IF we can overpower our opponent and come out the other side with minimal casualties.  This was not the case.

3)  Pull out and move left - this attempts to reposition our unit to stop or slow the collapsing flank.

4)  Pull out and move right - this is ideally done either when the left flank is a lost cause, or if there is a small unit to the right that can be quickly taken out once we've moved over there.  In this case its a tradeoff;  give up the left flank for a good position on the right.

In each case at the war practice we did not overpower the fighters in our position, and there was no opportunity to our right (we would have been running into the backs of Tuchux), so we pulled out and moved left to slow that flank.

Slowing a Fallen Flank

I once said, "If you are going to die, then die slowly," to which my friend laughed as if what I was saying was ridiculous.  Not at all.  You don't do anyone any good charging into a death trap only to take yourself out of the fight.  If they have you beat, retreat, draw them our of the fight, or stall.

The video below is a good example.  At the 1:00 mark you can see our left flank completely fall, but then slow a bit.  This was the point where we redeployed to cover that flank.  By 2:00 you can see that the enter battle has rotated 180 degrees with our left falling, but the Tuchux pushing through on our right.

I first appear on the left half of the screen at 2:41.  You can see me and a small group of fighters stalling the fight for about 2 minutes.  We almost won the battle by giving the Tuchux some time to finish up their fight.  We actually ended up doing a full lap around the battle field trying to slow this group up, getting a kill here and a kill there along the way.

Aethelmearc War Practice: Ten Man Tourney

Unfortunately I don't have any big picture ideas like I did last year.  We had a lot of new people with us, which is something I'm not used to, and so much of my attention was directed at how to help them and how to come up with tactics that would work with them as well as how to communicate them.

To put it in perspective, last Pennsic we brought 18 fighters with an average experience level of 15 years.  Only 5 fighters had less than 8 years of experience.  This weekend, on the other hand, 5 of our 9 fighters were very new (~1 year of experience or less....two of them were at their second event).


The Ten Man Tourney

In the middle of the tourney the knight running it asked, "Hey, are you the guy that writes that fighting blog?"  I smiled and said, "Yes, but please don't judge anything I wrote by what you see today!"  We did not make a good showing in this tourney, but it was a great experience and I really learned a lot.

Before I get into tactics, I'd like to quote one of our spear maidens who fought with us in this tourney.  "Fighting in a 10 man tourney requires a completely different skill set than fighting in a 150 person battle."  She's a 5'1" spear fighter who probably doesn't weigh much over 100 lbs.  Her skills allow her to use her size to go unnoticed and poke people in the face in larger battles when they don't expect it.  If she gets into trouble, she can turn and run and usually find someone to use as an obstacle for defense.  In larger battles, one can disengage from one position and go and join up with 20 fighters in another position.

None of that applies to a 10 man tourney.  There's no way to go unnoticed.  There's nowhere to hide.  There's no other unit to run to.  In addition, as my fellow kinsman Seamus, who has fought in many of these tourneys put it, "Its much closer to ACL type fighting."  Fighters tend to be big and strong and they take a hard, decisive hit to get killed.  This places spears and smaller fighters at a distinct disadvantage.

Bringing a bad weapons mix, new fighters, and people we'd never fought with before, it was a real challenge, so we had to adjust our tactics in order to try to find something that could work.


At First

Our first approach was to use our standard system, which is to lead out with the spears and leave the shields back to support.  If the opponent is slow to the attack, we might get a kill or two before the first impact.  I also took it upon myself, being fleet of foot, to run into the backfield and hope to pull at least two fighters off the line.

This went poorly.  We lost the first two battles killing only 4-5 fighters on the other team.  I sat out the third battle and discovered what was happening.  We were spreading wide, as we normally do, and our opponent would send a large crew at one section and wipe them out.  This is actually an example of why the shield wall often beats the skirmish formation.  They amass a group of fighters and send it straight at a smaller group.  The problem was that the fighters who were not being engaged did not react.


The Adjustments

In the last three battles I gave my job up to a fast new fighter and moved myself to the middle of our backfield so that I can watch the battle unfold and call out commands (Badger was thinking something similar).  The commands were pretty simple.  We'd split into two, go wide, and I'd yell at which ever group had the advantage to attack.  I'd then run to wherever I thought I could help.

We started having a lot more success at this point, getting 6-7 kills on our opponents, and even winning our last battle (yay us!).  Adding our two experienced late arrivals helped as well.

These changes accomplished a few things.  It got our stronger side engaged when needed, it allowed someone on the field to watch the battle unfold, and it made better use of my fast footed skills.  I was able to run into a fight unopposed, often getting kills on fighters who were tied up.  In my earlier role, I'd often find myself in a one on one situation, which just took me out of the fight.  This was bad on my part being one of the most experienced fighters on our team.  

Making the Most of What You've Got

I'm guessing that many will read this and think that the tactic shown above is just stupid.  Hmmm....it might be.  Why not just block together into a shield wall and hit the opponent on an oblique?  With spears, new fighters, lightweight fighters, and the fact that we don't ever fight that way, I saw that as playing rock, paper, scissors, and attempting to win by throwing a much smaller rock than what the other team was going to throw.  Why not switch out the spears?  That wasn't really an option, either.  Two of us already did, but the rest had one reason or another why they just couldn't grab a different weapon (like one fighter had a bad back.  Another was only authorized in spear, archery, and siege.  etc.)

So we did the best that we thought we could with what we had.  Ultimately any unit is going to have to make the same kind of decision.  What do you have, and what's your highest percentage play?  I'm a big advocate of utilizing spears in large melees, but if your unit is full of 280 lb sword and board fighters, different tactics would be in your best interest.

If anyone reading has any suggestions for other tactics we could have tried, I'd love to read them!

Southern Army Practice: Rock, Paper, Bigger Rock

I'm winding down before bed and wanted to jot a few of these thoughts down.  First and foremost I'd like to state that I learn a lot from a whole lot of people all the time.  This blog really is about sharing information about melee fighting, getting the conversation going, and getting people thinking more and more about melee.  Some of its about helping me express my own thoughts in a way that helps me get a better grasp of these ideas.  Some of its about challenging standard conventions that I think can be improved upon.  Its certainly not, I hope, about me telling anyone who may be out there what the "right" way is and that everyone else is doing it "wrong."


Today's Scenarios

Due to weather and coming off of a big event (crown was yesterday), we were a little light today.  30 fighters in total, which included four knights, six former unbelted champions, three former alternates, two archers, my own incognito "ringer"(an Anglesey Kinsman down from NY), and a bunch of well practiced fighters of various levels.

Off the top of my head, we fought five open field battles, a bunch of fort battles, a few bridge battles, and a scaled down version of the Allied Champions battle.


General Observations

I just wanted to added this quick note.  Fighters at this practice, even the best, have had the bad habit of fighting legged fighters.  I was happy to see that there was very little of this this time.  The next thing we need to work on is the habit of just running and attacking anything we see.  Once the battles break up, they are not won with 1on1s and 2on2s. They are won with 2on1s and 3on2s.


Big Rock vs Big Paper

Duke Brennan and the unbelt captains were offering a lot of guidance, most of which I thought was pretty good.  They are very big on being aggressive, sticking together, and taking the initiative to win the battle.  The title above is rock, paper, bigger rock because, at least in the southern region, it seems that the strategy is usually to win with a bigger rock.  There's nothing wrong with this approach, as the Anglesey and Bog approach is often to try to win with a bigger sheet of paper, and we found out today that sometimes our big paper was too much for them, and sometimes their big rock would just punch right through our paper.

In a nut shell, sticking with this metaphor, a big rock is a bunch of powerful shieldmen backed up with some hard hitting pole arms that just plows over people.  The approach is to roll over weaker opponents, punch through gaps, and break through doorways.  If you have a unit with a lot of shields and a lot of big guys, this is probably your best approach.  To pull this approach off, the unit needs to be aggressive, take the initiative, and work together.  Like anything, there's a skill to it that one learns over time.

Paper, on the other hand, brings a lot of well practiced spears, mobility, and flexibility to the unit.  Battles are won by picking apart the opponent with spears, breaking up their main units into chaos, and then winning a bunch of smaller 2 on 1 fights.  If rock charges, bigger rock will counter charge.  Paper, on the other hand, will absorb the charge and draw them into a kill pocket.  Again, the victor largely depends on who is better equipped to pull of their unit's best tactic.

Below you can see an example of how the team on the right used the bigger rock tactic to beat our side (this was after Duke Brennan told them to adapt their strategy):

The two spears on the left team (my friend and I ) used a tactic that normally works will with Anglesey and The Bog, which is to get out in front of the unit, attack early, and then retreat when the opposition advances.  It actually initially worked.  He got a quick kill before the lines engaged, we forced them to charge way out in front of our main unit, and got them to break up as they  approached our unit.  The charge actually began about 25 feet out when they would normally be called closer to 10 - 15 feet away.  You can actually see some of the faster guys get out ahead of their unit.

What ended up going wrong for us and well for the other side is that you can see our main unit moving backward as our spears retreated.  That allowed the other side to get us on our heals and overwhelm us with their initiative.  What is supposed to happen is that as the spears retreat, the rest of the unit is supposed to step up and counter.  I believe our retreat sent them the wrong message and they reacted to us.  One of the things that Sir Thorson has been teaching me down here is that certain tactics are hard to pull off when you are working with a mixed group with mixed levels of experience.  Its a lot easier to get a group to work together and move in the same direction than it is to understand the when/where/what/how's of how to move in different directions to achieve a common goal.

Though the above is an example of the success of the big rock approach and might lead one to believe that spears are ineffective in small field battles (I've found this to be a fairly common belief), the side with two spears actually won the other four battles, and the two spears accounted for (at least in the three battles that were videoed) over half of its team's kills (~6 per battle).


Spear in the Gap

In the field battles, we had a main unit on the left with a smaller flanking unit on the right.  All of the shields were up front in a wall formation.  The poles and spears (3 poles, 2 spears) started off in the back and left to support and improvise.  This was decided by our team captain.  I asked one pole to follow me (I had spear) and protect me if anyone tried to jump me.

In general I looked for parts of the units that had the least mobile fighters in them so that I could start off the battle taking free shots on them without too much risk.  After each battle, the other side made a small adjustment, and I'd move to another part of the field.  My buddy with the pole was doing a pretty good job and smashing into anyone that tried to jump me.

For the most part they were doing a pretty effective job of neutralizing me in the first impact.  The fact that I was surviving through to the next stage of the battle without a fast guy chasing me around the field was a big improvement over the last practice for me (shakes fist at Dietrich).

My "ringer" came down from New York and is a very dynamic, athletic, and accurate spearman.  He noticed early on the he could sit in the gap between the two units and fire his spear with no real counter.  After several battles, the other side never picked up on it.  He mentioned it during our debriefing, and those observing didn't seem to quite understand what he was explaining.  The below diagram explains it a little better:

 Below is an example of how this looks.  Notice the green spearman in between the gap.  He takes a shot at the pole arm in the left unit, and then follows up with a shot a pole arm in the right unit.

Why Spears are Effective

I put a lot of thought in this and watched a lot of video and have come to one main conclusion.  Spears can attack from a range where the opponent does not think they are engaged.  A 7 1/2 foot pole is still close enough that a shieldman or pole is going to keep their defenses up against it.  The extra 18 inches that a spear has seems to put it just far enough away from the opponent that he doesn't realize that you are there, not if he's occupied with someone else, anyway.

Look at the two spears coming out of nowhere below and getting two quick kills.

Never Fight a Fair Fight

This is a huge issue that fighters at most levels have.  They see a 1on1 situation and assume that they should go and hit that person.  The only time you should engage someone 1on1 is when you significantly outclass that fighter.

In the gif below, a shieldman on my team had started attacking a knight by himself (bad) before I came over and stabbed the knight (2on1.....good).  I then ran to my left and joined up with a pole to double up on a shield (good).  Meanwhile, you can see the shieldman in the background run into the middle of a pack of four enemies and get quickly taken out (very bad).  He's actually a very good college aged fighter, but sometimes gets overzealous with his enthusiasm to go and hit people.  This was an observation that Sir Tash had at a recent event concerning newer fighters, that they like to "Leroy Jenkins" their way into hoards of enemies.

Notes about Timed Battles

Duke Brennan had made the comment that if you have a timed battle with resurrections, that you can't waste your time playing around with spears.  I mostly agree with him, but not completely.  I only say this because I've commanded charges in the past with exactly this thought in mind, and they failed.  The most recently actually being just two weekends ago.  If your side is spear heavy, you may not have the brawn to successfully mount a charge that will deliver even a single kill.  You may need to whittle the other side down a bit in order to weaken them enough such that a charge is successful.  Exactly what that point is is not easy to figure out (not for me, anyway).  That's where it helps to have an experienced commander.


Sad News

We lost one of our family shortly after this practice.  If you hadn't already heard, Lord Gunnar Alfson was killed in a car accident just two nights later.  Sunday was his last day in armor.  This was is home practice and the community is absolutely devastated.  He was loved by most who had the pleasure of knowing him.  Though we all strive to become better fighters, train to beat other people, and gain recognition for our accomplishments, its not nearly as important as enjoying life, and bringing joy into the lives of those around you.  Gunnar epitomized that and has reminded me that its the time you share fighting with your friends that is most important, not whether or not you win those fights.

Melee Fighting 101 for Novices

We had a great event this weekend with double the attendance as usual.  This was largely due to a whole lot of new fighters, which was fantastic, but it did change the dynamics of how we fight, and we realized that there's a lot of information that we need to give the newer fighters.  Normally, when fighting with a new person, we just have them fall in with all the veterans and eventually, with a little guidance, they'll figure it out.

For the first time in as long as I can remember, we had a short class in the middle of our event to talk to the new fighters about some basic tactics.  Someone suggested this idea to me, I approached Sir Tash, and he offered to run a short class between scenarios and did an awesome job.  Much of what I write will actually be based off of what he taught.  (Interestingly, much of what he taught was about how we fight.  He just seems to know better about how we fight than we do, and knows how to organize those thoughts for a new fighter).


Shield Walls

We don't normally do these.

Most SCA units teach their new guys how to work in shield walls.  Its an easy way to get a person with limited melee experience to move and work with a unit.  Much of how we fight is designed to counter shield walls or fight in larger scale battles, so it really just doesn't fit our style.


Field Battles:  Support the Veterans

Where as the standard shield wall tactic is to turtle up and survive, or find a target and run it over, we take a slightly different approach.  We fight more with our longer weapons and use our shields to support them, holding back to either hit someone who intends to run at one of our longer weapons, or to pounce on something as a group when an opportunity presents itself.  We also have a few superstar shieldmen who will do much more dynamic and creative fighting, but that's not something that is taught in Melee Fighting 101, but rather something that is learned over the course of 5 to 10 to 30 years of fighting.

Most of what I write about below will be the starting point of a long progression of fighting over one's fighting lifetime.  As one gets better, they will gradually pick up more and more advanced tactics.

What to do:  if not being given any other direction, the newer fighters should spread out evenly within the unit.  Find a group of fighters to follow or pick a side of the unit to work with and stay one full step behind the veteran fighters, keeping yourself out of the spear range of the other side.  Move together as a group.  The veteran fighters will be moving out ahead, looking for an opportunity to exploit, or a good position to fight from.  Your job at this point is only to be near them for when they may need your help.  They are going to start off the battle doing most of the fighting and drawing the attention of the enemy.  If you aren't near them, one of two things will happen.  Either the enemy will see that they have no support and rush them, or the enemy will see that there are no veterans near you and kill you.

One you get within fighting range of the enemy, one of two scenarios will happen.  The battle will either be static (both sides stand there without much movement) or one side will charge into the other.  If the battle is static, try to stand outside of the spear range of the other side.  This means you will likely be a step behind your spears.  Listen for the veterans calling out commands.

"I need a shield on my left!"  means that he or she is worried that our left flank is going to get rolled without a shield to stop it.  Move to his or her left.

"Shield, step up!" means that he or she either can no longer stop the advance of the other side without help, or there is a dangerous archer and he needs an obstacle to hide behind.  Step up in front.

"Shield, pull back!" means that you are too far up and are going to get stabbed in the face soon.  Take a few steps back.

"Shield, I have a spear.  Let me have your spot," means that the spearman sees a good killing opportunity but needs to be standing exactly where you are in order to get the kill, or support someone else in the fight.  Step back and either hang behind them or find somewhere else to fight.

"Let me in here," combined with a spear coming up from behind over your shoulder means that the spear needs you and the person next to you to slide out of the way to let them through.  Give them plenty of room to fight when they do that.

If the battle is dynamic, your role will be slightly different.  Your job now is either to run up and smash the fighters on the other side who are trying to chase down your spears, or to collectively charge and overwhelm a weakened opponent.  If you see a safe and easy opportunity for a kill, take it, but for the most part you are just trying to push the enemy with your shield so that your veterans can move into position to kill them.

Notice in the gif below, the shield and the pole stay out of the fight so long as the spear can fight the red shield at range.  Once he charges, the green shield and green pole step into action:

Here's a group of shields (green) repelling red's charge as the green poles back out:

If your side intends to charge, you will hear two kinds of commands.

"Press these fighters!  We need to move now!  Keep rolling around them!  Keep moving!"  This generally means that you move at a fast walk with the rest of your unit in order to force them to back up.  Again, your veterans will get the kills.  Your main job is just to put pressure on the enemy.

"We need to charge!  Go!  Go!  Go! Go!"  This is a sprint and a smash.  Again, moving at the same speed as your unit, and only attempting to push them with your shield.  If you see an easy kill, go for it.  Over time you will get better and better at identifying when and how to swing your stick, but the most important thing is to move in and push on them.  The veterans will do the killing.


What not to Do

Don't do solo "heroic" (stupid) charges.  I know it feels like you are fighting, but you are just running in and getting killed and accomplishing nothing at all.  Our best fighters can't survive solo charges, let alone a newer one.  When you charge by yourself, multiple defenders converge on you giving you little chance of survival.

Don't stand in the front line trying to parry spears.  Again, it feels like fighting, but Mr. Miagi said in The Karate Kid 2, "Best defense, don't be there."  Only stand in spear range if you absolutely have to (see commands and reason for commands above).  More often than not, just stand out of their range.

Don't stay out of the fight.  So after all of this, I've pretty much told you not to swing your stick, but you have no idea just how valuable you are.  The veterans NEED you to be near them at all times.  You are what keeps them alive just by being there.


Polearms

To summarize from above, a lot of what a shieldman does is to stay near the fight, but not actively in the fight, until he or she is needed.  Once engaged in the fight, the primary responsibility of a newer shieldman is to be an obstacle to keep the enemy from being able to hit our veteran fighters.  Sword attacks are only taken if they can be done safely without risk of death, or more importantly, if the enemy is completely exposed because they have turned to fight someone else.

Pole fighters are slightly different.  Though they can be used as obstacles, more often they need to stand at the end of their range and swing as hard and as often as they can at the enemy.  This happens usually when either side presses.  Too often I see pole fighters standing there and looking for an opening.  Don't wait for an opening.  Swing at their head.  They will either have to block it with their sword, which means they won't be able to swing, or they will block it with their shield, which means that they won't be able to see.

The pole fighter needs to be even more patient than the shieldman.  Where as the newer shieldman will stay out of the fight except for presses, to stop an advancing line, or to block against arrows, the newer pole fighter will mostly only fight during the presses.  I realize this sounds contradicting.  95% of the time, the pole fighter is waiting and staying just outside the fight.  5% of the time, however, the pole fighter needs to swing at anything and everything within range whether a shot is available or not.


Bridge Battles

There are a few tactics that apply to bridges that I'd like to cover, specifically bridge battles where the objective is to move past the middle of the bridge.  The battles will start with our shields up front in the first rank in order to charge quickly to the middle (or past) once lay on is called.  After sprinting across the shield, at the same speed as the rest of the unit, both sides will engage.  Again, focus on staying alive.  Let the veterans and the poles and spears do the killing.

Once this first engagement has occurred, usually a little gap will form between the two units, often with dead bodies lying between.  Stand there defensively until someone from behind either asks you to give them their spot, let them slide in between, or asks you to step back.  At this point we usually like to have our spears move to the front with the shields waiting in the second rank, and the poles in the third rank.  A small number of veteran shields may stay in the front rank, but this is only a position for veterans.  Newer shields are just in the way at this point (unless no one has called them out, possibly because there is no suitable replacement).

Your job at this point is either to repel any charges that may come from the other side, or to join in any charges initiated from your side.  If the other side charges, the spears will usually begin to slide back into the 3rd rank.  You need to slip past them and hit the enemy wall that is trying to kill them.  If a charge is initiated by our side, you may or may not be given any warning.  As soon as you hear, "Go!  Go!  Go!  Now!" as a shieldman, you need to push past your spears and smash into the other side, again, mostly focusing on staying alive.

The job of the pole fighters in these scenarios is pretty simple;  stay behind the shields (usually 2nd or 3rd rank) and hit any enemy that you can swing at during the presses.  Again, don't wait for an opening.  Just swing at their heads.

The last important piece of the bridge battle is something that our entire unit needs to work on.  We need to take ground in these kinds of battles.  Whenever a gap forms between the two units, we need to be aggressive and slowly push forward to close the gap, not stand there and wait for the battle to come to us, and certainly not backing up.  This doesn't mean doing a solo charge at the enemy.  It means if a bunch of people have just died, and there is now a 12 foot gap, we need to walk down 3 feet of it to get our spears back in range.  Again, you should hear people yelling, "Move forward!  Take ground!"  That means, as defensively as possible, step forward until someone tells you to stop or to give up your spot.


Closing Thoughts

As I watch the newer fighters on the field, and as I get feedback from others who are also watching, I'm coming to realize that newer fighters are focusing on just running out there and trying to hit someone.  Instead, as a newer shieldman, focus on staying alive, supporting your unit, and fighting with your feet and your shield more than with your sword.  Over time, more and more "high percentage" opportunities will present themselves.  By that I mean that you will see shots that you know you can take without risk of getting killed.  It is unlikely, however, that you will ever be able to charge into two shields and a duke who's wielding a polearm, swing at someone's head, and survive, let alone get a kill.  Newer pole fighters just need to learn to be patient, but also to be aggressive once in the fight.

Caer Adamant Melee Practice

I've had dreams of helping to build a melee practice in the area ever since getting back into this game 3 years ago.

A little background, if you will.  I started fighting in 1993.  The people I met were melee fighters.  What does that mean?  That means if we had four people in armor, we were NOT doing singles.  Ever.  We never went to tourneys, and fought maybe 5-7 melee events a year plus Pennsic.  One of the highlights of my formative years as a fighter is from a time period between ~1996 and 1998.  Every Thursday a friend of ours would clean up his warehouse in Washington D.C. and we'd cram into it 8-20 fighters and do melees until we couldn't do them anymore.  We called it "The Dog Pound," and it was here that I went from being a guy in armor to an effective melee fighter.

There are many fighters in this are who have similar goals, and some have implemented them quite well.  The monthly Southern Army Practice is one example of a well run, consistent, high attendance melee practice.

I approached the Caer Adamant Knight's marshall and with the help of a few other fighters, we have started a monthly melee practice in Newark, De.  Yay us!


The Focus of Practice

After about a year of discussing tactics with Sir Thorson, and topped off with a good conversation with Joseph from Serpentius, I've been convinced that the Dog Pound style of practice may not be what's suitable for the fighters in this area.  Some of it is the age of the fighters, some of it is the value that can be gotten from some variety and structure, and some of it is the varying levels of fighters and the enthusiasm that they may or may not bring to a melee practice.  In short, we aren't dealing with a group of 25-35 year olds, all with similar fighting experiences.

With that said, we agreed that we wanted to keep the stick time high, but focus a little more on drills.  With that said, Sir Thorson brought out some really good drills that he learned from his Northern Army days, and we brought in a bridge scenario that has worked in the past.


The Drills

3on3 "Bridge" Drill

The first one we did was on a narrow "bridge" that was outlined with a rope and had a line across the center that neither side could cross.  The bridge was just wide enough for three people to fit in one rank.   Three people on each side fought across from each other with a line of people waiting to replace someone if they died so that we always had a 3on3.  Fighters were encouraged to change teams after they died.  We kept the weapons mix to at least one shield per team of three, and no more than one spear per team of three.  Shields were also encouraged to fight all the way up on the line (in other words, if one team had a spear and the other didn't, you couldn't just stand out of range and let the spear do all the killing).

The focus was to work on communicating, shifting positions on the line, and fighting in close.  This was not really intended to be a tactical drill.

Resurrection Bridge Battle

With a 9 foot wide bridge, we divided up the sides evenly (by skill and weapon mix) and fought an unlimited resurrection battle.  Every minute a stop was called and whomever controlled the middle got a point.  We did a best of 5.

3on3 Loser Stays and Gains a Fighter Battles

Joe had told me about this and Thorson suggested it today.  I really wasn't sure how it would play out, but it turned out to be a very good scenario.  I don't normally like even sides for small team battles because they tend to break off into a bunch of 1on1s, but only the first battle was a 3on3.  The rest were 4on3, 5on3, and a couple of 6on3s.

You begin with a 3on3.  After the battle is resolved, the losing team stays on the field and picks up a fighter from the winning team.  A new team of three comes on the field and fights the team of four.  Whomever loses stays on the field and picks up a person from the winning team.  Sometimes the team of three would win which would create a team of five and as much as six in a couple of instances.

3on1 Five Second Fights

I've always liked 2on1 drills, but the 3on1 added an extra layer toward learning to work together as a team.  Each battle lasted five seconds (being counted down out loud by someone not fighting).  The goal was for the three person team to move together and cut off the single fighter.  The single fighter, on the other hand, would try to pivot off of one of the flankers to avoid being hit by the other two fighters.


Lessons Learned

Bridge Scenarios

The first two battle scenarios went pretty well.  There were mainly just some individual tips given to fighters here and there.  During the bridge battle, some shields were starting to do solo charges, and it got sloppy.  They'd initially gain some ground, but ultimately get killed or pushed off the bridge, and the hole left behind them would allow for the opponent to push the line back.

Small Team Scenarios

I had a disagreement on tactics with another fighter, and with what has been standard teaching in the East Kingdom in general.  The general tactic is to "stick together" and either move left or right.  The idea is that whatever direction you move in, you will have all of your fighters facing a smaller number of their fighters.

I'll contend that while this is generally an acceptable strategy with units of 5 or more fighters, it starts to break down with fewer fighters.  In fact, most of the success that has been demonstrated, in my opinion, is because the opposing unit is confined to the same strategy.  Now that's not to say that this isn't a good teaching mechanism to get fighters used to fighting on a larger scale, but I do think that seasoned melee fighters can benefit from different tactics.

Below is an example of how sticking together failed in a 3on2 encounter (this is from last season).  Red split apart and green decided to run after one fighter while they stuck together.  The fighter they went after ran away while the fighter that was left alone took an easy shot at a green fighter who was running in another direction.

Having put a ton of thought and practice into the 3on2, more often than not I believe the two need to split, which means the three need to split as well.  This leaves a 1on1 and a 2on1.  All else being equal, the two need to kill the one quickly while their third fighter needs to play defensively.  The opposite is true for the other team.  The one that is being double teamed needs to play defensively while his partner tries to win the single matchup.

The 3on4 is a little trickier, and it depends entirely on ability levels and weapons mixes, but again, the smaller team generally wants to split the fight up to see if they can either tie up fighters or draw them out, and try to win the matchups that have the best odds on the field.

Below is an example of a 3on4 that I was part of today.  The other side had two solid, fast shieldmen and two poles that were a little bigger and a little slower.  We had a fast moving veteran shieldman, a fast moving veteran pole fighter (me), and a newer, yet very fast pole fighter.

We knew that if we stuck together, one of their fast shields would get around a flank and kill us quickly.  We knew that neither of their shieldmen would let our shieldman get near the poles or around the flanks.  We also knew that their biggest threats would be the two shieldmen.

Our plan was to split wide. I'd take on one of their shieldmen and hope to get a kill, our shieldman would try to take on their other shieldman and get the kill, and our pole in the middle would run around and try to draw out both of their poles and stall until we could get to him.

Sometimes the team of four will try to double up on one of the flanks which can often give the pole in the middle a quick kill shot on one side or the other since he's only worried about a single threat in front of him.

3on1 Scenarios

As usual, the single fighters generally did pretty well in these.  Most of the better fighters looked at the flanks and figured out which fighter was the easier one to pivot off of.  They'd back pedal a bit to draw out the fight, and then move hard at one of the flanks and hope to turn the corner, using that flanker as a shield to cut off the other two guys on his team.

There were two things that I personally felt that the teams of three were not doing well in some of the fights.  They either out sprinted their slowest team member, often over running their opponent as he'd side step to get out of the way, or they'd cross in front of their teammates and cut them off from the fight.

In these scenarios, the left fighter needs to stay to the left and focus on attacking the left half of his opponent (or fouling his weapon).  The right fighter needs to stay to the right and focus on attacking the right half of the fighter.

Interestingly, I have noticed a common pattern with 2on1s, 3on1s, and 4on1s.  So many fighters have this instinct to both outrun run their teammates (maybe to get the glory of the kill???), and to attack the side opposite of where they are starting from.  Its been so long since I've fought like this that I really can't pinpoint exactly why that is.  Are they subconsciously trying to cut off their own guys to so that they can force it into a 1on1?  Is their momentum carrying them to the opposite side of their opponent when they run at them?  Is there a subconscious draw toward the middle of their opponent rather than their side or back?  I really don't have an answer to this question, but it is something I have observed in a large number of fighters.

 

Melee Recap: Lessons Learned

I just came off of a discussion with a lot of seasoned melee veterans and wanted to capture some of the ideas here.  Overall we had about 15-20 on a side with a mix of veteran melee fighters, newbies, and a mid class of well practiced fighters with 3-5 years of experience.  The sides were picked so houses were broken up, which meant that we had a fairly even matchup but both teams were mixed and had to learn how to work together in a short amount of time.


Team Attributes

The biggest differences between the two teams is that (I'll just call us green since that's a color I use in my diagrams) green had the faster, more mobile veteran fighters on the field and a fast, mobile veteran spearman.  Red had the larger, heftier veteran fighters and no spears.


Spears Win Static Battles but Don't Forget to Guard Your Flanks

In the first battle, both sides were slow to get moving, probably wanting to watch and see how the battle would flow before committing.  I like to personally engage first with my spear if the other side will let me, figuring I can take some free shots and distract them while they try to read the fight.  In this instance it seemed to be effective.  I got one, maybe two kills while keeping other veteran fighters occupied on their side.  This seemed to stall their unit a bit as we moved around the outside to engage.

I was actually fairly certain that we would win this fight pretty decisively until I saw their team coming at us through our backfield.  They managed to either push through our left flank, or just ran around it.

Red mistakes:  they were too passive with an effective spear sitting right in front of them

Green mistakes:  We didn't do a good enough job shoring up our left flank.  We probably should have also committed harder and faster on the right once the unit had been weakened.  This would win the right side of the battle more quickly allowing us to move to the left if they are in need of help.


Don't get Outmaneuvered

 I covered this in my last blog post.  In one of the battles, the red team took their stronger unit and moved quickly and aggressively at our left flank.  Instead of moving out to deny the flank, our left unit rolled back and let them get an advantageous attacking position.  You almost always want to be forcing them to roll back on themselves, not letting them to roll you back on yourself.


Don't Let a Dangerous Fighter into your Backfield

In one of the engagements, one of our best and fastest fighters broke away from the unit, , flew around their right flank, and into their backfield uncontested.  Red team should have had at least one person pick him up and, at a minimum, put a body on him if not tie him up and kill him altogether.

One of the difficulties that you'd have in that situation is that all of the best fighters on their side were occupied with the front of the unit and moving forward.  Here's where the newer fighters need to learn either how to double up on a veteran fighter, safely tie him up or keep him occupied, or to know when and how to sacrifice himself for the benefit of his team.


What if You are Outmatched?  

Both sides seemed to have built an "A team" and a "B team" with the A team having the better and more experienced fighters.  The general goal for each side is to use their A team and run over whatever they can.  We had a problem, however, when both A teams met up without an advantageous flanking position.  The other side had a stronger A team with bigger fighters in the front of their shield wall.  This was a bad matchup for us, however, our A team did what they needed to.  They stalled the engagement.

What needed to happen in this instance was for the poles that we had waiting in the middle of the field to move aggressively on their A team's flank.  I made the call to do this, but they were disorganized.  This was my fault.  I was put in charge of this unit and dropped the ball on getting them organized and mobilized.

Rather I should say is was partly my fault, and partly the fault of the experience of the fighters.  Its still my job to asses their experience and command accordingly.  Yet, we also need to train them to start to read these situations themselves and attack appropriately.


Leg 'Em....

...and leave 'em.  I still saw a lot of fighters, some seasoned veterans, wasting their time with legged fighters.  If I could pull something from my basketball coaching days I would.  If a fighter is caught fighting someone on their knees, then the whole team has to do 10 pushups.  This can actually fix the problem with fighting legged fighters and it'll take no more than 30 pushups.

The Pushups isn't really a "punishment."  Its a reinforcer.  The next time you see a guy on their knees, you will have a strong memory associated with how you are not supposed to fight that guy.

Try it sometime if you wish and let me know how it goes.  =)