Proactive vs Reactive
This is just my own particular opinion on the thing (but you're reading my blog so presumably you know that) but it is always better to be proactive rather then being reactive while on a fighting field. (This certainly doesn't translate to all areas of your life). Being proactive whether that's in a 1v1 fight or if it's just in actively choosing where to stand is about making sure that YOU are the one making decisions at the moment where you have the most options available to you for making decisions. At the start of a 1v1 fight neither fighter has started swinging, or is even in range to START swinging and so you've got a space between when you get close enough that you could possibly engage and when you actually start the engagement. Being proactive starts in this space and then cascades forward to every further moment of your interaction with your opponent. You can be proactive by choosing, at the very first moment, to either take the engagement by closing the distance between you and your opponent or you can choose to disengage by pulling away so they can't close the distance and force an engage. Either decision is still one that you've CHOSEN to make rather then one that you're FORCED to make. Being proactive doesn't mean being wildly aggressive, it just means that you're choosing to act first rather then respond to something else acting on you, whether that's an opponent or the field itself. Being reactive means that you started to disengage because your opponent aggressed, or you started to move because if you didn't your unit/group/realm/whatever was about to be sandwhiched between multiple armies. If you find yourself in that state it means you're already on the back foot and your available list of tactical options has already started to shrink.
A Duel, In Slow Motion
Assuming that you take an engagement then as the fight starts you get to decide the range at which the fight will be taken. Assuming that your opponent doesn't run away immediately this means that you get to fight at whatever range you feel competent. (For more on ranges you can check out Rock, Paper, Scissors). Once you've done at least that much it means that your opponent is already at a disadvantage and all the things that they can do from that point on in the fight will be done with a slight handicap. As the fight progresses, if you choose to be the aggressive fighter and swing (or feint/bait/footwork yourself into an advantageous position) then you force your opponent to now respond to your aggression meaning that in addition to playing at your range they're now also playing at your speed, or at the very least are busy blocking the initial shot you throw rather then throwing their own shot. If you're throwing feints then it's even better because you get all the defensive posturing and reactions you'd get from actually going on the offensive except that now you aren't actually in any risk from shots not landing. The thing is that most guards don't cover EVERY target area that you can swing at. Even big boards have their weaknesses, so if you can manipulate your opponent onto the defensive then usually you'll convince them to make a mistake by leaving one (or more) of the areas that you can swing at unguarded. In that moment you've now won the fight. If they attempt to counter-aggress you that's still a response to the pressure that you've applied. If you've lined yourself up you've also (ideally) taken a fight that you think you can win either because you've stacked skill, gear, or numbers to be at your advantage. But more on that in a minute.
Small Groups
In small groups the same basic principles apply, by choosing when to engage and at what range you can get the most out of whatever gear you've brought to the fight. In a group of 4 sword and boards vs 4 sword and boards this doesn't seem like it matters that much. But that's not true. Even in a matchup where numbers, gear and skill level are roughly equivalent you still have to factor in positioning. Where a person stands during a fight dictates both the swing arcs that they enter and can get hit by, and also the cone of threat that they can apply to the people in front of them. If both teams line up across from each other and simply swing an opportunity has been lost to create useful angles. (More on that under Flanking). Even if all else is equal if the guy on the end of one line A has to turn slightly because the person across from them on line B has started to go around them then it opens up shots for the rest of line B on line A. If the person previously next to the guy flanking on line B also shifts ever so slightly to the left/right (depending on which end of the line) then the person across from the second line B team member must also shift to not have their defenses broken (more on that in box, line, lane) and in so doing expose themselves to more bad angles from line B. Now you have 2 people working with shitty angles and even though everything else is roughly equivalent line A is in a really rough spot. But this problem gets to be even more extreme if for instance line A has a polearm. By having the wings from line B flank and having the remaining fighters deny a target for the polearm from line A then line A is now wasting an entire person plus the people guarding them in order to accomplish absolutely nothing AND in the interim their line is being folded which creates good angles for line B and bad angles for line A.
In The Mess Of A Grand Melee
On a larger field all of these other principles are still at play but whoever is leading the group on a larger field isn't so worried about their direct engagement but is probably worrying about not getting sandwhiched between larger units. Being proactive in this sense is all about choosing who to engage or disengage from at a point where you've got space to move, because once a larger team has your people boxed in you're all mostly gonna die. Even if you're fighting one group and just weren't aware of a different group falling onto your backs it's still game over man, game over. So the point of maneuvering on a large field is to determine what space you want to control and then use whatever forces you have at your disposal to push other groups around. Now, if you're a very small group you can move pretty quickly and escape from bigger groups with very little space. You probably won't be engaging too many groups head on, but you can punish the mistakes of other larger groups that don't maneuver as well. If you're a mid sized group then your goal is basically to annoy larger groups into running into each other by positioning yourself adjacent to other similarly sized groups so that a larger group going in to crush you is likely going to be hit from the side or back as they do so. Your group will be relatively mobile but will also not be able to escape from a pinch easily and is probably better of choosing to find a corner to fortify in if you feel like I can't outmaneuver your aggressors. Still, even choosing to find ground to occupy and hold is preferable to simply standing your ground when a larger group starts barreling into you. If you're a larger group you absolutely do not fit into small gaps or escape and probably have to worry about being hit from multiple sides. This makes it EXTREMELY important that the group is proactive and throws their weight around so that when they DO get engaged they've thinned the rest of the field down some to make their own lives easier. As a larger group you can concentrate on driving medium sized groups either into one another, causing them to wipe each other out, or by driving smaller then you sized groups into other larger groups causing the larger group to get smaller. In either case this involves moving proactively and screening out space so that a smaller group has no where to run to thereby forcing them to fight.
The Cost Of Failure
As ANY sized group, on a large battlefield, holding still almost always gets you killed unless no one at all is moving. In that case, you can be proactive so go out and seize that advantage. As a small group, standing still as teams move means that eventually you get stuck between much larger groups with no out to run to, which in turn means you get wiped out. As a mid-sized group it means getting hit by a larger group and getting wiped out because you haven't given yourself either backup in the form of creating good angles for other opportunistic groups against the people engaging you, or you've failed to find good ground to fight on and get hit from more then one direction. As a larger group being passive is the most catastrophic thing you can do as, having those kinds of numbers tends to make you target numero uno on the field which means that not only will you get hit by a group when you don't have a good field position but you're likely to get hit from multiple sides by multiple groups.
This is why some people are cut out to be field commanders and some just aren't. If you can't decide what you need to do at any given moment because you can't think fast enough, or you're too scared to make decisions because it may get everyone killed then it means you'll be largely reactive to whatever is happening to you, and more likely then not that WILL get everyone killed. From my own experience learning what to do in a battle will take a little while, and like all skills the more experience you have at it the better you'll become in time. Also, sometimes, even when you make good tactical decisions you can be unlucky where a fighter you were relying on died because someone hit them with a lucky shot or a stray projectile. No plan survives a battle, but to go into a battle without a plan is also foolish.
So, while I like the idea of a fighting core that can weather any storm, with utmost respect to Bogun for all he's done, I think that any elite combat group should BRING the storm and not simply survive it :-P.
So, while I like the idea of a fighting core that can weather any storm, with utmost respect to Bogun for all he's done, I think that any elite combat group should BRING the storm and not simply survive it :-P.
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