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.

Highland River Melees (organization on a bridge and other topics)

We fought at the Northern Atlatian event Highland River Melees last weekend and had a lot of fun despite the hot conditions.  In a nutshell, the northern region of Atlantia of the past couple of decades has developed a really laid back culture at their melee events, while also bringing a reasonably good level of competition.  At the end of the day, there is no prize for winning, and the individuals will be judged subjectively on their merit and their comportment rather than counting kills and deaths.  If a melee is run well, sides will be chosen so that most of the fights are competitive, so why not just keep everything relaxed and fun?  Its a sparring session or a pickup game, not the finals of crown.

I recently noted to someone after observing the great attitude of an East Kingdom Knight, "When you're the best tourney fighter in the land, there's two ways to protect your ego in a melee.  You can blow off everything or you can take everything.  Either way, people won't REALLY know how good you were that day.  One way will make you enemies while the other makes you friends."


Heat

Sir Tash runs a great event and is a shining example of what a knight should be (full disclosure, Tash is a friend of mine BUT resides in a different kingdom, so I get no brownie points for sucking up).  We had given him some constructive feedback about the scenarios and he let us know that his first priority was everyone's safety in the heat, and reminded us that we did have a fighter have to leave the field as a result, so points were well taken.

In general, however, the Bog Celts prefer repeating scenarios a few times before moving on.  It seems like a more efficient way to cram in some fighting with less standing around in the heat.  Again, the heat was a wild card that day.

I'd also like to add that there are ways that you can mitigate the heat.  I've worked on this a lot over the last 5 years, in particular, and here's what has worked for me:

- Cardio;  The better you're cardio, the better you will handle the hot weather fighting.
- Heat acclimation;  Get outside as much as possible and make yourself sweat.
- Hot weather tunic;  My upper arms breathe.  This alone may make the biggest difference.
- Water:  I try to drink 1-2 liters of water before the fighting begins, plus regular hydration during the fighting.

Hot weather vs cold weather tunics
(photos by Korrin Villman & Ursus)

Bridge Battle
We fought two bridge battles.  In the first one we got our butts kicked, while we won the second one fairly decisively.  Each battle had two ballistas pointed at one team (teams changed sides) giving that team a disadvantage.  It was, IMO, only a small disadvantage and drove the expediency of the tactics.  Either team could have lost or won from either side depending on the tactical decisions made by both sides.

So what happened?

First of all, our team was made up of a mix of Bog Celts and Atlantians.  Most of our shields were Atlantians while most of the spears and poles were Celts.  Having a mixed group tends to create a level of disorganization as neither group is used to working with each other.  The other side was 100% Atlantians.  Though they are less experienced working with each other (due to a mix of houses) than the Bog is with itself, they are more experienced than the mix of Bog and Atlantians.  They also had King Christoph as their leader, which gives them a well defined command structure.

So, what did we do wrong?  No commander.  No organization.  We began with a shieldwall on the front line who stood there and never pressed (they were given no command to do so).  We had a plethora or spears sitting in the back not doing anything.  We never had more than one spear on the front line, often not throwing any shots.  What did I do?  I started off on the wrong side of the bridge.  By the time I moved to the other side, I got shot by an archer, possibly the best thing that could have happened to me as I got to watch us die horribly (a good learning experience).

The Atlantians did the right thing.  They treated themselves like gate defenders and put up a shield wall and stalled the fight, allowing the ballistas to whittle us down.

Note:  Only one spear up front (photo by Ursus)

The Fix

So there's really only two ways to win a battle like this when you need to attack a gate and get through it before other elements beat you.  Most scadians would look at this situation and say that we should have charged.  I don't believe that would have been very effective.  The Atlantian team was built better for a close range battle as they had more shields with a handful of high level talent (King Christoph and Sir Felix coming to mind).

The other method is to attack aggressively with spears.  This means, for the width of this bridge, four on the front line.  And if you are on the front line, you are throwing shots fast and aggressively!  We may still have lost the battle, but we would have gone down swinging, and we likely would have taken some of them with us.


Bridge 2 Results

I surveyed our group to see who would be the most fit for command and, well, it appeared that I would have been as good as anyone.  I spoke to the warlord of Galatia to get some thoughts from him, and then decided to give the group a little pep talk and get them organized.

Every bridge needs to begin either ready to charge, or ready to repel a charge.  This means shields to the front, so we did that and got our shield wall established.  Then I got the spears to move to the sides to clear out the crowding in the middle.  This allows you to charge and repel charges a little more effectively, and also sets up a natural queue so that spears know who will be up next to fight.

Another issue I've noticed with fights like this is that the shields on the front can't see what's behind them, and most spears don't feel comfortable telling a fighter they don't know to move so that they can take their spot.  This meant that someone would have to do that for them, which fell on me.  As much as I wanted to fight, I thought it best to stay out of the fight and facilitate and let the others do the killing.  Often times the fight will come to me, anyway.

Once we got set up and lay on was called, the Atlantian team immediately charged to avoid the ballista bolts.  A few years ago I preferred to have more spears up in the front, but have since noticed that it really weakens the line against charges.  So I've since gone with more of a mix on the front line.  If this results in us facing more spears than we are willing to put up on the line, then WE need to charge.

We successfully repelled the charge.  The spears sank back into the ranks, shields took their places, and the poles moved into the second rank.  Keeping the rest of the spears to the sides allowed for this to happen very naturally. 

There were a couple of elements that I found interesting.  King Christoph thought that they may have called the charge too soon.  He wanted to avoid attrition due to the ballista fire, but thinks that he may have pushed his army right into a kill pocket off the end of the bridge.  He would have preferred drawing us into the middle of the bridge first.  Duke Vladimir (on our team) thought that the Bog just did what the Bog does, and that we are really good at repelling charges, which I don't disagree with.  Though our mix of weapons makes us ill equipped to initiate charges, we do seem to have the experience and the weapons mix to repel them (and if that sounds crazy, then maybe I'm crazy and we should have charged in the first battle).

I actually felt that the Atlantian team was really close to winning the battle due to a weakness on our left corner.  I wrote a blog once citing this as a potential Achilles heal in gate defenses and was told in the comments section that it would never happen.  Oh, yes it does.  I see it happen all of the time, and it very nearly happened this time.

Essentially, if the defending team does not secure the far left corner, a right handed shieldman can push through it and get into the backfield.  As they pressed, I managed to kill the first fighter to come up by stabbing him in the belly.  The second one made it through and very nearly killed me.  I was saved by a decent spear defense (I blocked the first shot and then pressed my spear tip against his sword) and having Arundoor (a very experienced and highly talented melee fighter) come up and save me.  Had that corner fallen, the Atlantians may have been able to surround us, and considering that we had a lot of spears in the backfield, they may have been able to chop them down.

Left Picture:  4 spears up front.  Shields mixed in.  Spears in columns on the side
Right Picture:  Left most red shield threatens to break through corner.  White spear and shield deny.

Field Skirmish Maneuver

There was one maneuver that stood out in my mind.  I was part of a single death field skirmish that was about 7 on 7.  On my right was Sir Felix, who was probably the best 1v1 fighter on the field.  Across from him was Arundoor, who is an excellent melee fighter and though his 1v1 skills are quite good, he felt that the odds were not in his favor against Felix.  He even called out, "Okay, you guys are going to have to win this one.  I won't be able to help."

As I moved up, my initial thought was that Sir Felix may jump Arundoor, and I'd either stab him in the gut, or would threaten the stab allowing Felix easier attacks.  Arundoor saw this and countered by moving out to his left and getting to the outside of Felix.  This meant that if I moved in, it would pull me completely out of the main fight and I'd have to turn my back to the battle.  So, instead, I turned toward the rest of the fight hoping that Felix could at least keep Arundoor occupied.

After that, Treason, a newer fighter, yet a very fit, young, former marine, saw an opportunity to jump me and my wingman.  He came in so fast that my only chance to survive was to let him pass by, and then circle around him and turn back toward the battle front from the other side.  I'm usually very successful with this maneuver, but Arundoor was able to see it quickly and respond.  He made a move at Felix, threw a "safe shot," and then carried his momentum toward me and killed me before I could reestablish myself in the fight.  Maneuvers like this, as well as my maneuver, are mostly instinctual built from years and years of relatively unstructured melee practice.

See the pictures below for a play by play (all photos by Ursus):

Drexel Fight Practice: 3v5 restricted

Last night we had another great fight practice on the Drexel University campus in Philly.  We did two main battle types, both were 3v5 with the three most experienced fighters on the same team.  The team of 5 had four well trained melee fighters with 1-3 years of experienced each (consisting of 20-30 melee practices or events per year) and a fighter in his 3rd practice (with a bit of hema and fencing background). 


Fighting System

There are many different organizations that do some form of reenactment fighting.  Our main system is the SCA (rattan weapons & armor) but we've also done some Markland (rattan and foam weapons & some armor) as well as Daggorhir (foam weapons, no armor required).  When we created this practice last year, we ultimately chose to go with the Markland system because the lower armoring requirements made it easier to get new fighters suited up on the spot.  I currently have 5 spare helmets and enough hockey gloves, pads, etc. to get people into gear pretty fast (I even just finished making the Dick Flap of Shame for those who don't bring a cup).  Our original intention was to also have a foam only group, but we found that the skills did not transfer to the armored fighting very well, and that very few foam fighters were interested in armored fighting.

This year we made some significant changes.  Though we still use the Markland armoring and weapons system, we've changed to using SCA rules as we found that the Markland rules were creating some bad habits (different rules for engagement and hands are legal targets in Markland). 


Training Philosophy
We use a very different philosophy than most of what I have seen in the SCA.  We focus a lot of effort on making practices fun and give people the freedom and flexibility to try different things.  We do almost no drilling, but rather just run scenarios over and over again and let people experiment with different tactics, and then we discuss what worked, what didn't work, and why. 


Challenges of the 3v5

Again, we put all of the veterans on one team, and the least experienced fighters on the other team.  Normally when we do this, we'll shift fighters back and forth as needed.  Because of the low numbers in this scenario, we left ourselves the option to sit a fighter out if need be.  So if the 5 are overwhelming the 3, one of the 5 could sit out a fight to make it a 3v4.  Also of note, the field size was restricted (due mainly to out lighting situation) which prevents the three from being able to out maneuver the 5.  We may open the field a bit in future variations.

The red team figured out that they would be in bad shape if one of the veteran shields got into the backfield, so they did a good job of securing the flanks.  Spears on both teams tried to control the middle of the field.  The red spear's main job was not trying to get kills, but rather to neutralize the green spear (me).  Occasionally I'd try to make an attack against one of his teammates, and he was really good at countering getting quick kills on me on multiple occasions.  The red team also knew that if their spear died, they had no choice but to charge as they would be facing a veteran spear with no one to neutralize him.  Charging against 3 veterans may feel risky, but at least they'd have a chance.  If they did't charge, they had no chance.

In order for green to win, it is critical to get an early kill.  Usually the early kill would come from the spear, but occasionally one of the shields would find a weakness in the line to exploit. 

Red definitely won most of the battles (more than 2/3 if I remember correctly).  Whenever green won, it was generally because they were able to react more quickly than red once the fight broke down.  In those fights, often red would mount a charge and the green fighters would find a way to rotate out of the fight and to drag red into 1v1 fights. 

Hypothetical:  Green right flanker pivots to outside.  Green left flanker shoots
straight for the spear.  Green spear gets past red spear tip and
only has to defend against pole before reposting in the backfield.

In one case, green was down to a 1v3 and managed to pull out a win by pivoting off of a legged red fighter.

One thing I would have liked to have seen would be for red to charge immediately to overwhelm green.


3v5 Broken Field Battle

The other scenario we ran was a 3v5 broken field resurrection battle.  Those battles tend to play out similarly to the single death field battles, except that the pace slows down a bit, and instead of a straight up 3v5, it often gets broken down into a 1v2 and a 2v3.  Fighters on both teams of to constantly make small adjustments and implement small team tactics on the fly. 

The two most valuable lessons that come from these fights are:

1)  If you are down a fighter or two, you can always back up toward your rez point to reinforce more quickly.

2)  If they are down a fighter or two, you'd better jump on the opportunity, because it won't be long before they reinforce.


The Long View

The biggest benefit we get from these battles is simply a constant reinforcement of sound tactics.  Every time we do one of these scenarios, the team of new people start off losing, and then they get to the point where they are unbeatable.  This is a good thing, because it means that they are figuring out tactics on their own, and that they will take that knowledge to the battle field with them.  If they are constantly told what to do, where to stand, when to charge, etc. they only learn to do what they are told and nothing more.

As I said earlier, the biggest difference between the veterans and the newer fighters, is that the veterans can think more quickly on their feet.  That comes from years and years of experience of doing these kinds of battles.  If we can keep these battles fun, and keep fighters coming out, then the new fighters will gain that kind of experience as well.

Pell, Singles, and Melee Training - Finding the Right Balance

Before I started my blog on melee tactics I had a fairly popular "blog" (actually a location on a web forum with links) on run training for triathletes (I was a D1 collegiate distance runner and competed as a triathlete as an adult some time later in the early 00's).  While everyone understood that there needed to be a balance between swim, bike, and run training, they had the hardest time wrapping their head around the fact that there also needed to be a balance between different types of training, specifically fast and slow training.

The best analogy I had heard utilized a recipe for tomato sauce.

You begin with tomatoes and notice that it tastes a little bland, so you add some garlic and notice that garlic improves the taste.  Most athletes then assume that garlic is the best ingredient, get rid of the tomatoes, and dump a pile of garlic on their pasta.  When it doesn't taste very good, they simply add more garlic.

Likewise, if training specifically for the purposes of melee fighting, one must balance pell work to work on fundamental shot mechanics, singles fighting to learn how to put an opponent down quickly and effectively while also developing a solid defense, and melee fighting to learn how to work with other fighters.

I've heard more than a few people say that one needs only to work on singles (and/or pell work) and that it will all transfer into melee.  To those that firmly believe this, I have to ask what percentage of soccer, lacrosse, basketball, and hockey practices are spent working on singles skills?

Part of the inspiration for this post was noticing how quickly some of the fighters I've been working with have developed a great understanding of team work and the ability to think and react quickly, but then realizing that a couple of our fighters have done very little singles work and almost no pell work.  I found ourselves in situations where I couldn't leave a wingman for fear that he couldn't survive if a 1v1 engagement was thrust upon him against a good fighter, or that even in a 2v1 there were certain shots that were not available making it difficult to take down a high level fighter.

These are all in relative terms.  All of the fighters are doing great and have improved quite a bit, but I like to think about what the shortest pole in the tent is, currently.  As I once told a varsity basketball team I coached, "Today we will work on rebounding, not because you are bad at it, but because you have improved everywhere else such that this is now the weakest skill." 

The difficult part comes with figuring out how to get in the right balance.  If 10 people show up to the next practice, there is no way in hell I'm going to want to spend the day working on singles.  ;)



EDIT:  for those who may be curious, google The BarryP Plan and you will find a number of links to my running plans for triathletes.  Or you can probably just go to this one I found:

http://www.jasonmcgee.me/barryp/running.html

Resurrection Battles - Rez in Groups vs. Rez Individually

Rez in Groups or Individually

So this question has come up a few times recently and the answer is, it depends entirely on the level of the fighter, specifically regarding field awareness and understanding of their job on the field.

During an text exchange last night with Anglesey's most experienced melee fighter, we were discussing the tactics of 2v2 fighting, and this is what I had to say (paraphrased):

There are three approaches to this scenario:

Beginner - don't fight a 2v2.  Instead, reform with your unit.  This is, by and large, what the SCA does with the bulk of their fighters who mainly practice singles and have fewer than 4 years experience.

Intermediate - charge if you have the advantage.  This is ideally where you would want your unbelt champions team to be on a tactical level. 

Advanced - understand the advantages and disadvantages of splitting your unit, dragging fighters out, turning the corner, drawing a charge and turning your opponent into your teammate, etc. and being able to to accomplish all of this quickly and without thinking about it.

Any tactically fluid sport (basketball, hockey, lacrosse, soccer, etc.) is going to have fundamentals that are applied differently at different levels of play.  The lower levels typically must have simpler, more structured fundamentals that can be executed without making mistakes.  At the high levels, more flexibility is given to the individual to improvise knowing that they will improvise well, and that their teammates will also know how to react to the improvisation accordingly.


Applying this to Resurrections

Fundamentally I am opposed to resurrecting in groups.  Rather, you should resurrect immediately and then go and find a group to join.  Many fighters fail horribly at the second part, which is why they are told to resurrect in groups.

Singles fighting teaches you to fight every fight with the intention of trying to win regardless of the insurmountable odds.  It also doesn't prepare you for thinking tactically, so a person resurrecting by themselves may walk into a field, come up upon a knight, and engage in a fight that he will ultimately lose.  If that person had waited to walk in with a group of three people, they can defeat the knight. 

The problem with waiting is that there are people in the battle who need support, and the longer a person waits at the rez point, the longer they are without support.  Ideally a fighter would resurrect immediately, walk out into the field, come up upon a knight, and simply avoid fighting him until they either find a group of fighters to join or until a group finds him.

So in a nutshell, beginning fighters probably should be resurrecting in groups.  I am of the belief, however, that one should attempt to learn how to be effective without doing this, but if you rez by yourself, make certain that you know what you are going to do.

Green gains a +2 number's advantage because their fighters did not
wait for a triad to forum before returning to the battle.

Range Tactics for 2v2 Combinations Explained

Last night we had our first melee practice on the college campus with 6 fighters showing up.  After working on some singles fundamentals that were needed from the fighters who don't normally attend SCA practices, we did a 2v2 Endless Resurrection Melee.

Again, if you've forgotten, we begin with teams of 2.  If you die, you go to the rez point and wait for another person to die.  As soon as two people are at rez, the two of you form up a new team, enter the ring, and immediately start fighting anyone else in the melee field.  I prefer to rope off a medium sized area to keep people from running away as a way to survive a fight (though not a terrible tactic, but we are here to learn to fight).

The best aspect of this scenario is that it teaches the fighters to develop small team tactics very quickly.  You have to assess your weapon, your partner's weapon, each others general talent and experience, the side that you are fighting on (left or right) and then all of those same components regarding your opponents.  All of this has to be assessed very quickly before an attack is initiated.

In this kind of fast paced chaos, it is the simplest tactics to employ that become the most important, and in this case that tactic is simply identifying who has the range advantage, whether or not you should be charging, and then coordinating the charge.

So your options are as follows:

You have longer weapons - immediately begin stabbing

They have longer weapons - immediately charge, together

Weapon types are similar - neutral fight


Now you might be thinking, "Why don't the shields just always charge?"  There are a few reasons.  They might be tired.  They might not be tired but don't know if their partner is tired.  They may both be ready to charge, but each is waiting for the other person to call a charge.  They may not realize that they both have shields.  etc. etc.  This is why we practice this.


The Weapons Combinations and Range Tactics
Last night we had six fighters;  two spears, two shields, and two poles.  The following combinations of 2v2 melees can take place.  If you want, read through each one and take a second to decide what course of action would you take in each situation.  Charge immediately?  Thrust from a distance?  Or would it be a neutral fight?


spear, spear vs pole, pole
spear, spear vs pole, shield
spear, spear vs shield, shield
pole, pole vs shield, shield
pole, pole vs spear, shield
shield, shield vs pole, spear
spear, pole vs spear, pole
spear, pole vs spear, shield
spear, pole vs pole, shield
spear, shield vs spear, shield
spear, shield vs shield, pole
pole, shield, vs pole, shield



ANSWERS:

Though the answers may be overly simple and obvious, quick decision making is often the key to winning these engagements and improves through regular practice.