Pacing
The first set of commands is for moving a group to basically set the speed that you move at. The commands are forward, easy forward, double time and crush. Forward is for moving a line at a steady pace in any particular direction. This is usually equivalent to a groups walk. Easy forward is a very slow roll in which the group is moving very cautiously in some direction. Double time is a pace at usually a jog. Crush is a call designed to get your team to move as fast as possible in one particular direction which usually means into another team. I've used through as another word to mean the same thing but in a different context.
Using the call to move slow is useful because sometimes you want to just get the people around you to react without actually moving yourself. In this case by threatening to move somewhere very slowly you can see how the rest of the field will react. If they don't react at all, it may give you the opportunity to position your group to either be an anvil (catch a team that's being routed) or give you the opportunity to move your archers into position.
Forward is the default movement, which you need, it doesn't really have any special application. Double time is used when you need to get somewhere in a hurry, but don't want to let the cohesiveness of your group disintegrate. By having everyone go at a jog you'll get away from any group not at some kind of a run, sometimes catching overzealous enemies out, but are less likely to have the group suffer from leaving people behind by going too fast.
Crush / Through are used to move as fast as is humanly possible. Since that differs from person to person using those commands means allowing your groups cohesion to fall away. When used offensively (crush) you're trying to hit a unit that's in a compromising position (like having their backs turned to you, or being routed). When used defensively (through) the assumption is that you can't continue to hold the ground you're standing on and your options are to either be cut down slowly or to try to kill your way into open space.
Big Group, Small Maneuvers
Not every command necessarily involves cause the entire group to traverse in some direction. Often success or failure is predicated on a bunch of smaller movements.
My favorite command for this situation is "step". Step is called out as part of the line. Ideally it's performed by everyone on the team in unison. The idea is that everyone on the line takes a step forward and swings. The 'and swings' part is important, because if everyone just steps up they're likely to get picked off if they aren't applying pressure as they move. Generally speaking, in a line, people are standing where they are relative to the range of the weapons around them. Moving up alone gets you killed from angles, but moving up as a group often gives you access to shots that you did't have before. When done in unison against a disorganized team it's hard to react to. Recently Juggernaught did a version of this where he called "step" and then a number to cause a faster rolling advance. In that one instance I've seen it work well. It's more dangerous, because it relies on more teamwork then a single step but the effects are also more devastating. So, as an example "STEP 3!" meant, take 3 steps and swing 3 times. Your mileage may vary.
Of course calling step only works if you're going on offense. In some cases what you'll need to do is go on defense instead, or give up ground without completely crumpling. That's when I use "back" as a command. It's different from trying to tell your people to run though, for that I use the command "out". Anytime that you, or your force buying time on a section of the field is valuable, use the word back. This means stay away from where the opposing force can hit you, but stay JUST out of reach. This way they aren't going to just run forward as most teams lack the coordination to do this as a cohesive group, and running in one person at a time just gets them killed unless they have a significant enough numbers or skill advantage. If you can buy time on your side of the field by denying the enemy team any kills and denying them an engage then its likely that somewhere else on the field you're winning and, assuming you can hold out, help is on it's way. Sometimes you're just screwed but it's a good idea to try and do good math when the situation allows. If you happen to know in advance that you're in trouble then using "out" is a good way to let your team know that standing in front of the opposing force is going to get them killed.
Regaining Cohesion
During the course of a fight your forces will inevitably scatter to wherever each individual wants to be standing. As a person leading the group it's your job try and keep your forces organized. The easiest way is to have calls that reconstitute the group. The standard ones that I'm used to using are "form up" and "close ranks". Form up is used to try and get people who have separated from the group to return to it. By being the person yelling the calls you give a disorganized group of people a thing to rally around so that they can form a cohesive shape again. Close ranks is a call that's usually used on a line in response to seeing some gaps you think an enemy can get through. Close ranks can also be used if you find that your line is becoming more of a squiggle. This is especially helpful if you're about to push your group into another group as having a solid line as your shield wall stops people from getting picked off by polearms with angles.
Sneaky shit
If the basics don't get you where you're going, you can always try the fancy stuff. When done correctly these maneuvers can have a devastating effect. But when done poorly they mostly just get your team murdered, so! use with care. The first one is "reverse". Basically, you convince your entire team to pull a 180 and turn around on whoever happened to be pursuing you. Ideally this is done in one footstep, ideally this is also done while someone is chasing you. Best case scenario you do this as a way to flip a fake retreat if someone else has called "crush" because suddenly the enemy team is no longer in a cohesive shape and is spread out. This means that they can be picked off rather easily.
"Scatter" is possibly one of my favorite calls. Back when I ran the blades we called it "leeroy jenkins". As it turns out, most of your enemies aren't coordinated enough and don't know your team well enough to know everyone who is apart of it. Often when someone goes on the offense against you they aren't so much targeting individuals as they are the largest formed up group in the area. The call scatter is the call to disperse the group so that an organized enemy line no longer has anything to fight, and must instead spend their time trying to run down whoever they can remember isn't on their team. In the best case scenario for you, everyone makes it out and goes in a different direction. While at first this may look like a retreat the idea is that you then turn on the enemy forces who are now confused by not having something to attack. If you can catch them out while they are confused by suddenly not having a target it's often easy to rack up some kills by getting behind the main force, or picking off some of the fighters on the ends of the line.
A kill pocket is a shape that you can make with a line of fighters whenever you have a constrained space to fight in. I've also heard the smaller version of this shape called a "death triangle" by Bhakdar. The idea is that instead of fighting line to line, you let the opponents advance while lining people up to their left and right behind some kind of barricade. As the enemy comes forward they get hit from the sides, but because of the constrained space they can't get around the edges to deal with getting hit from the sides. It's been my experience that shouting "kill pocket" to your teammates doesn't do much unless you've taken the time to explain what it is beforehand. That having been said, if you pull it off in most cases you can win against overwhelming odds. The main problem with any line is that a person who has enough weight and momentum can break through even if they're just a corpse by the time they hit the line. The problem for them is that if you've designed your shape to let them in, crashing further into a trap doesn't really help that person or their team much.
Do what works for you
In the end field commanding is more about getting a group of people to move well together. There are no hard and fast rules to make that happen. Hopefully though between this post and the last one you've at least got some tools in your arsenal to try and get started on that path. As always, do what works for you and your group. Use the commands that you all instinctively understand and keep your maneuvers simple and straightforward. Unless you're training diligently most groups of people won't be able to pull off complicated maneuvers in the midst of a fight because of all the extra thinking involved. Additionally you don't know who you'll be fighting with so even if you've got some advanced maneuvers you may not be able to use them based on whoever you've got around. The more you practice, the more prepared you'll be, and unfortunately there's no substitute for experience. So get out there and start making mistakes, the sooner you do, the sooner you can learn from them.
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