Communication

Let me preface anything I say about communication with this.  I am terrible at communicating, and should not by any means, be a reference for how to do that thing right.  Having now said that... let's move on.

Communicating your state, at it's surface, is a very obvious thing.  In many ways the basics are built into the rules.  A dead arm is place behind your back, while a stabbed one dangles at your side.  A dead leg is shown with that knee on the ground, whereas the live one is shown by having the other knee off the ground.  Dead, generally, is shown with a weapon over your head or three points of contact (asscheek, and elbows) on the ground.  So why even bother to write a blog on such a thing?  Well, let's get into that.

How to call "light" 

There are lots of shots that look like they connect (and do) but because they don't have enough force on them are simply not good shots.  Because rhino-hiders (people who simply don't take all but the most crushing of blows) are a thing in our sport the call "light" has become not so much an indication of what actually happened as it has become an invitation to simply pound that person harder.  In 12 years of fighting, as a ~6' tall ~220 pound man, I have had countless light calls for the shots that I have thrown.  While plenty of them were correctly called, just as many were from even bigger men who simply decided there wasn't sufficient torque on the shot, even as it landed unblocked, straight on their belly.  In that 12 years of fighting exactly 1 fighter I had an issue with I couldn't resolve, and after repeatedly getting railed in the kidney (and calling light) the fighter became unable to stand, let alone continue to fight.  Generally speaking, hitting harder isn't the right way to deal with a rhino-hider.  It is my opinion that the goal of our sport is to have fun and safe combat.  Combat that leaves it's participants covered in bruises is going to limit how often you can fight, on account of repeated hits to sore spots being unpleasant, and it's more likely to have someone throw a shot that injures another fighter if your hit threshold is that high.  So, right out, if you're reading this, please don't be that guy.  Don't be the guy who throws crushing hits and takes folks off the field due to injury.  Also don't be that guy who simply calls every swing that connects as a "light" hit.

So let's talk about doing that the right way.  There are plenty of ways to let your opponent know that even though they did in fact see their sword connect with the fleshy bits of your body, for whatever reason it's still not a good shot.  If the shot came in off a weapon or a shield, and as a result of impact with that weapon or shield, no longer has any force behind it you can call, "off weapon" or "off shield" instead of calling "light" AKA, "please hit me harder".  If a shot hits a shield or weapon solidly, and then sort of slaps or pets you because the weapon keeps flailing the usual call for this is "butter" to imply that although there was contact there was nothing resembling a swing behind it.  A shot that hits mostly clothing but not a limb or torso we call "garb".  For a swing that just grazes a target area you can call "skimmy".

When in doubt

Let me preface this section by saying, if you don't know what happened, it's best to call dead.  If you're fighting a veteran and you call dead and they know they haven't hit you, they will often tell you so.  "That was clearly not a good hit, get back up" or "Don't take that, there's no way that was good".  Generally speaking, if you can't at any moment tell your opponent what has happened to you or you've become overwhelmed by the number of incoming shots... call dead.  You can work out what happened later and you won't effect the flow of battle by sitting there trying to figure it out.  One of my own personal pet peeves is a person who I've lit up, who stops to think about all the times they've been hit and then decides that they only processed one of the 6 shots so they're alive, then turns around after appearing dead and backs me.  I realize that as a new person they may have issues counting shots, and that's not to be held against them but it's important to stay dead if you start to look dead.

The flip side of being in doubt, is that if you know a shot DIDN'T hit you, but you aren't sure what to call you can simply call "no".  That's to let the other person know that you acknowledge that they threw the shot and you are aware that it connected with SOMETHING but for whatever reason you do not judge it to be a sufficient hit.  Either that stab didn't quite have enough oomf behind it (which should be a very rare circumstance unless you like getting railed in the solar plexus) or that shot which eventually connected came in off something else.  Telling your opponent "no" means that you registered their shot and aren't simply sluffing or ignoring it.  While it's always better to use specific communication (hand on weapon, foot on ground, off X, butter, etc), communicating anything is better then not communicating anything at all.

Dead look dead

Especially in larger battles being able to quickly and cleanly communicate to anyone interested that you are a corpse is of the utmost importance.  No one wants to get beat up after they're already dead, and no living person wants to discover that corpse isn't a corpse by getting backed by them.  This breaks down in two directions.  The first is, if you're dead, look dead.  Three points of contact on the ground and ideally, no weapons in your hands.  While weapon on head is theoretically supposed to designate that you are dead people can be lazy about that and in doing so send an unclear signal.  Many fighters that are alive and active will have a A frame wherein the shield and weapon make an A (hence the name) which means that their weapon is often next to or touching their head.  To be able to tell the difference between a person in an a frame and a person who is lazy but dead is almost impossible.  The person who is a lazy corpse has their weapon touching their head, but rather then hold it at a straight line they've slumped to the point where it only rests on their head while the rest of it forms a line to their body.  A live person in an A frame has the exact same stance but is at least theoretically alive and about to hit you.  The main difference is that a person who is honorable and alive will communicate this to you.  "Alive", "Still Up", etc.  BEFORE they begin swinging at you, so that you aren't killed simply because you couldn't tell their state.

When dead don't look dead it puts a veteran fighter in a bind.  They can either hit everyone who they aren't sure is alive or dead and be seen probably as a total jackass by the rest of the field (even if they go around giving courtesy hits) or they can walk past people who appear to be corpses knowing full well they're probably going to get hit in the back.  A few weeks back at an Armored Penguins practice I opted to be the latter case.  I was walking through a pile of corpses when one individual who was standing near/off the edge of the field with his weapons not in a fighting stance, and who hadn't moved in a few minutes suddenly decided to move and back me.  I had seen him in the pile of bodies and certainly could have lit him up, but he hadn't moved in a while, and wasn't threatening me with his weapons.  Additionally, because he was with a bunch of other dead people it wasn't clear to me if he was alive, or simply another dead person.  Unfortunately, all of the dead people around him were in a pretty similar state.  They were holding weapons, they did not have 3 points of contact on the ground and many of them weren't even holding weapons on their heads, and if they were they were often doing so in the style of an A frame rather then in straight vertical line.  In that situation I could either A) Hit everything I walked past, possibly driving away new fighters because of gratuitous violence or B) Simply submit myself to getting backed by people who appeared dead.  Neither option ends well.  While going with option A keeps me alive it will also start to kill a realm and if I go with option B I'm going to get frustrated myself because I can't tell who to hit.  The correct answer of course is fixing this behavior.  Failing that you can always avoid apparently dead people until you've cleaned up a field.

Calling dead

Because it's important to safeguard yourself it's really important to get into the habit of calling "dead" the moment someone lands a good hit.  This is less of a problem in a field with 10 people and significantly more of a problem in a field with 600 or 1500+ people (go check out Battle for the Ring or Ragnorok for those numbers).  In a field with 600+ people most fighters aren't going to take the time to figure out if a person next to them is alive or dead.  They will simply swing at anything that moves or that can resemble a threat, sometimes even killing off their own team mates.  In a situation like this it's REALLY important to have learned how to not only look dead, but how to call dead, so that your opponents will stop swinging at you.  The first piece of this is SHOUT, don't simply say "dead".  Also, don't simply put your weapon over your head, but instead verbalize that you are, in fact, deceased.  If you're part of a wall that's getting attacked, don't die where you got hit and drop to 3 points of contact (as would normally be the right action).  Instead, put your weapon on your head, guard yourself, and walk away from that melee.  Preferably off the edge of the field if it happens to be nearby.  If it's not nearby, simply get away from the immediate melee then drop down.  If there's a grand melee, your safety is important, and you do no one any favors by being trampled underfoot.

In any other case where you are not in danger of being trampled underfoot, call dead, drop to the ground, and once they've stopped swinging at you drop your stuff so you don't look like you could swing at them.  I add in the "wait until they've stopped swinging" because when people are trying to kill you, often their shots have momentum and can't be immediately stopped.  After you call dead you can often expect a few more shots to be thrown or completed before your opponents stop aggressing.  It's not that they didn't hear you, it's just that they can throw shots faster then they can process "dead" and the interim between when they hear you say that and when it processes will allow them to throw a few more swings.  It's not anything personal it's just one of the limitations of being human.  We're all human, don't be upset.  That having been said, also don't leave yourself undefended.

It's important to learn and practice these skills when there's only 10 people around and it's less important so when you hit that 600+ or 1500+ field you're prepared.

Armor

I am of the opinion that for the first year of fighting no new person should be allowed to wear armor.  Armor significantly increases the difficulty of being able to properly take hits by reducing your sensitivity to getting hit which causes you to call light on shots that aren't and it increases the number of hits you can take which makes keeping track of damage more difficult.  Assuming that you DO opt to wear armor communication only becomes more important.  If you get hit more then once and you call armor twice, in many cases folks will assume you're cheating because armor can only absorb one hit per target location.  If you are going to wear armor you'll have to learn to call not only "armor" but also it's location.  So it becomes "armor, left arm armor taken" or "armor, torso armor taken" so that they know not only that they scored a successful hit but also where you're counting the blow.  When you prepare to engage a person and you're wearing armor it's also considered good form to let an opponent know the state of your armor as far as what is, or is not broken.  Keeping track of the state of your armor is additional overhead (which is filed under reason to gain some veterancy before strapping it on) you need to deal with when calculating shots, but is very important to keeping a good reputation.  In my years of fighting I've seen more then a few people who have had magical armor which regenerates after being broken.  These people are cheaters and in my experience, sooner or later, someone simply hits them as hard as they can over and over again until that person calls dead.  ...so for your own sake, try not to be that guy.

There's lots to being a good fighter beyond how well you swing your sticks

See? Look at how much I wrote on that.  Communication, like hit taking is a skill that is developed over time as a fighter.  It's as integral to the sport and to your honor as learning how to swing stick and how to take hits is, but a lot of the time it's not a point of discussion.  Someone who has good honor but bad communication is going to develop a reputation for rhino-hiding when their only sin is not communicating well enough.  But someone who has bad honor and good communication will at least give you consistent feedback so you can learn how to hit them in such a way that they'll take your swings, even if that means you have to really but some force behind those swings.  Alternately, if they repeatedly call "light" in front of a all of their peers when they're clearly being hit everyone will know they're a rhino-hider and any herald worth their salt will either call them dead or simply remove them from the field.

In an ideal world everyone would have good honor and good communication.  Until that time it's up to each of us to be part of the solution rather then part of the problem.  Encourage people you fight with the communicate what happened by ASKING why the swings you threw were no good and develop in yourself a habit of calling the shots that connected for whatever they were, even if the shot was good, and was an arm or a leg, that's still valid to call because they may assume they hit torso.

Be that guy who communicates well and looks obviously dead when they're dead.  Don't be that guy who doesn't communicate and is ambiguously alive at all times.

Doing Math

I wrote a longer version of this elsewhere... in this thing that's been dubbed "the book of rift" which you can read here if you're so inclined.  As a warning though it's something like 50-60 pages of dense text because I was trying to use words to describe things pictures would have been better for.  That having been said, lots of useful information there.  Anyways... onward, to math.

Basic Assumptions

In most fights the teams start out with even numbers and the goal is to reduce your opponents numbers to 0 while keeping at least one of your own guys alive.  From that basic premise comes this idea of doing math.  Doing math just means counting the number of people in front of you and the number of people you have next to you and coming to a decision based on that information.  If you outnumber your enemy you really ought to be pressing them.  If they outnumber you, your goal is to bait them in and buy time without getting squished.  There it is, math.

Basic math - there's more of us

Chances are good that if things started out with even numbers and you're presented with the chance to fight 2 on 1 or 6 on 4 or some other set of favorable numbers, some poor shmuck on the other side of the field is staring down the barrel of being outnumbered by at least as bad, if not worse odds then the guys you're looking at.  That is to say that if you have a 2v1 it is also likely that somewhere on the field one of your vets is also getting 2v1'd.  In some cases you've got a 6v4 in your favor and somewhere out in the rest of the field you've got one guy trying to hold out in a 4 or 10 v 1.  Your guy will lose that fight and it's only a matter of time.  That also means that should you drag your feet in that 6v4 you have it's going to very quickly shift to an 6v8 or a 6v14 and that my friends, is a battle you will most certainly lose.

Basic math - there's a lot of them

While most fighters probably wish they could be the badass who walks through 50 people all by themselves, most of the time this just isn't a realistic fantasy.  Though you can view my other post on how to fight against bad odds the short version of that is don't do it.  If you find yourself fighting at bad odds or if you find yourself fighting more veteran fighters it's perfectly fine to just stall.  In all likelihood someone somewhere else has a good matchup.  All you need to do is keep the people in front of you from going to help their teammate who is currently in as bad or worse a situation then what you're facing.  Your goal is not to win.  It is not to try and chew through your opponents one body part at a time until they're all gone.  The reason for this is that you're in a team fight so it's not about your personal glory you just need to win at math.  If you stall the people in front of you long enough, eventually your teammates will win other parts of the field and come to help you.

Winning with math

The secret to winning at math is to simply play numbers well and very very quickly.  In the same way that a good vet fights multiple people by fighting them one at a time fast, your best bet for winning a team fight is by outnumbering someone somewhere on the line, gaining momentum as people are pulled away from the person you just murdered, and then snowballing down the line.  Most of the time in line fights you sit there and pick away at each other until one team eventually has enough momentum to crush through.  In those cases there's not much you can do to win at math.  However, on any field where you don't have people lined end to end there's 2 things that you can do.

The first thing you can do to win at math is simply leg people.  A legged person doesn't count towards a teams numbers in the same way that mobile fighters do.  Because a mobile person chooses who they engage and when (assuming that they're willing to move...) they can always either stall to buy time or fight people one a time while trying to take limbs.  Since a mobile person chooses who they want to engage and a legged person can't, when you count numbers a legged person doesn't count in matchups because they always are stuck fighting whatever they're given.  It means that if they're outnumbered then they have to fight that losing fight, and even in a situation where they have advantage, in order to keep the numbers advantage they effectively make their teammates immobile.

The second thing you can do to win math is to work gaps.  If you can hit a group sideways it's going to cause that group to have to fight in two directions which is pretty much always lethal and once you've cleared that group, you now have more of your team to drive sideways into another group.  As you begin to run over piles of enemies you'll build steam from all the people not having to fight anymore.  You can either continue to work angles or you can try to come around your opponents like a set of jaws closing around their flanks, (think pac man eating things or a door closing).  Assuming that you can find gaps, you can also just use a single person and have them stand behind an enemy line.  Even if that person never swings, making noise behind the enemy line will often cause them to turn around and be distracted, making them more likely to die to the teammates you have in front of them.

Angles

If for some reason your team was bad and lost at math you can always work angles to try and make up the difference.  Bhakdar phrased the idea as "death triangles" but the short version is, you hit opponents from multiple angles in an attempt to get them to have to block at two extremes, making them vulnerable to attack should they choose to engage either fighter.  To visualize, your target is the tip of an equilateral triangle, you and your team mate are the other 2 points of the triangle.  In this formation your opponent must essentially block shots coming in at two separate 45 degree angles.  Should they turn to face on opponent then their blocks for the other opponent must now be thrown at 90 degrees, or basically directly to their side in order to engage the other fighter head on.

Stalling

If you find yourself with an enemy team barreling down on you and it's clear you won't win the fight... it's time to stall.  Stalling does not mean simply running away as fast as your legs can carry you.  Stalling also doesn't mean diving into the oncoming enemy horde.  Stalling means keeping your opponents close to your engage range while staying just outside of theirs.  So long as you can keep them from being able to swing at you, you're doing your job.  The only caveat is that you need to be close enough to chase them, should they swing into your team or start running for backs.  Stalling is a very important skill, both for vets and for new fighters.

Lots of us plus few of you means... (putting it all together)

To win at a team battle you need to win at math.  Each person on your team needs to either choose to pick a partner and closeline an enemy from 45's, leaving their teammates at bad odds which they'll soon reverse, OR they must choose to have bad odds and hold enemies at bay while their teammates clean up.  If they choose to engage then they have to do so as quickly as possible.  If it becomes clear that they can't, then they need to return to support their teammates.  If possible a fighter can leg the person in front of them in order to spin off and help a teammate clean up another fight without screwing the guys standing next to them.  A person who opts to stall needs to avoid engages and being either hit in the leg or overwhelmed.  They back up as slowly as they can, but as fast as they need to (usually matching their opponents pace) to avoid being run over.  A person in this position may also do work by sniping legs in order to re-balance the odds if it's close, but generally speaking their best option is to stall without engaging.

If these things are done right you'll win at math, and having won at math in a series of smaller engagements you'll see the cumulative effect of outnumbering your opponents by greater and greater margins as the fight goes on.  Doing math seems like an easy idea... but for whatever reason people have trouble coordinating pushes when they outnumber their enemy.  It remains important for you to use numbers to your advantage and not fight fair.  The longer you can do so the greater success you'll have.  If you want honorable fights, go spar people.

A final word of caution; Beware of stragglers

Just because you outnumber your enemy doesn't necessarily mean you've won (though at that point, good job on having done math well).  There are some people who defy odds (myself included) and will win when it seems like they shouldn't.  If you ignore these people because you assume the fight is over, half of your remaining team can disappear in an instant.  This can happen because your team mistook a corpse for a person who was legged, or because they simply didn't notice the last guy standing who happens to be behind them.  If, for whatever reason, you've got that last guy up and you aren't mindful you may soon find yourself at a disadvantage instead of an advantage.  Especially if that last person is a vet of some skill (which is often the case, since they're the last one living) simply outnumbering them won't be enough.  This becomes increasingly true if you have legged individuals as you're now stuck choosing between fighting without your legged team mates, or trying to move with them while they're less mobile.  If you choose to ignore them then it becomes easy for the last guy standing to fight at better odds, especially if they can continue to leg and separate their opponents.  If you choose to stand together you severely limit your mobility and may find yourself outmaneuvered because of your legged teammates.  But the most important thing to remember is do not go at that person like movie ninja's (one at a time).  Continue to use numbers in order to win.  More on that in a separate post here.

Micromoments

In a big field battle there's not usually one moment that determines victory or defeat (except obviously for when the last guy dies) it's usually a series of small decisions or gambles that have paid off in order for a team to eventually win (the last paragraph aside).  When you choose to outnumber an enemy you have to do so fast.  If you can do this then you add numbers to every fight you get into after the first one.  The problem is you're also making your team vulnerable when you do.  The question is not who has the most numbers at the start, or who has the better fighters, it's a question of who utilizes those fighters and their numbers not only the best, but the fastest.  Speed is of the essence.  You have to make decisions in the thick of battle and go with your gut.  Sometimes you'll be wrong and it'll get you killed but every once in a while you'll change the tide of battle around you when some gamble paid off.  In the end it's better to have made a "bad" decision with a gamble that didn't work out then it is to simply have sat there and done nothing.  Sitting around and doing nothing while hoping your teammates will do all the work for you is the best way to lose.  Whether you're going on offense by outnumbering or going on defense by being outnumbered it is important that you actively choose to do one of these roles because if you don't choose, your opponents will make that decision for you and that will almost certainly end poorly.

Dirty Old Man Tricks

When you're new...

When you're new to the sport, no one knows wtf they're doing.  They throw sloppy swings, they leave tons of openings, and the winner is usually decided by random chance.  As people develop, they become better, their swings get faster and as they throw they use a little bit less gratuitous movement (see one inch for more on that).  So each fighter leans to become more precise, so that you can throw shots that previously you couldn't, hitting people in places that they still haven't learned to guard because only a person who has the accuracy of surgeon can sink those shots (sword side hip shot for example).  Eventually, you ascend to the rank of a veteran and pretty much all of the standard shots don't work on you.  You've developed enough of a guard that just by passively standing there you can absorb most swings without having to move.  Your footwork has developed to the point where you stand where you want to, choosing your range for the engagement or choosing when and at what angle you're going to fight.  Eventually you learn how to absorb wrap shots with minimal movement which shuts down the only shots that could actually get around your guard, and at this point in your career, you may feel like a proper badass.

...What you don't know.

What you don't know is that there are plenty of people who have reached that point of basic competency.  That's right I said basic competency.  Knowing how to throw a standard selection of shots plus being able to block most incoming shots doesn't make you good, it means you've reached the middle of the road for fighting, and it means that NOW you can start to master it.  The difference between a 5 year vet and a 10 year vet is NOT that the 10 year vet has better body mechanics, basic stance, or basic throws then the 5 year vet.  What the 10 year vet has on the 5 year vet is experience.  They've seen not only every shot you can throw, but every shot series you can throw when you start to chain them together.  The problem is that for that 10 year vet, there are 15, 20 and 30 year vets out there who have shit they've never seen before.

It's a trap!

Better fighters are often good at disguising themselves so that they appear worse then they are (guilty).  They do this by leaving pretty obvious shots that a fighter of their caliber shouldn't leave open.  ...don't swing at those, they are a trap.  If you've fought me, I do this all the time with sword and board by leaving my board side shoulder open by having my shield too low.  When they swing at it, my shield comes up to block and my arm takes their sword arm.  Since I usually do this board vs board, it becomes sword and board vs single blue or vs board only.  Game over man, game over.  There are lots and lots of spare openings that a fighter can leave available to you that aren't real, because they aren't actually there.  Every once in a while you're going to land that shot and get the thing that was bait, but the majority, 80 or 90 percent of the time... it's just going to get you executed.

Training your opponent

Often a better fighter will throw a shot they know won't hit, just to see how you react.  If they can get you to flinch a certain way and make an opening then that gives them the chance to hit you wherever you created an opening when you flinched.  If you don't flinch (and because we're human, most of us do) then they can still read your response.  Chances are you moved in some way to respond to their swing, hell, maybe you even threw a counter blow.  It's all just information for the vet at that point.  Once the vet has established your patterns, they can start to mess with your mind.  (Here's an excellent video on training your opponent).  By getting an opponent used to your throws and by getting them to respond consistently to your attacks (whether it's their attacks or defense that doesn't shift) you can now confidently switch up your offense and throw to a place you know they won't defend because you've gotten them used to putting their guard in the wrong place.

Four way

I could write a whole post about the three split but I'm not sure it'd have enough meat to stand alone.  The three split is this idea that basically any shot that's thrown becomes 3 other shots about 50% of the way through the swing.  As an example, if I start to throw a high cross I can convert that into one of 3 other swings (assuming I don't just follow through).  I can flip my wrist left/down and it will become a sword side hip swing.  I can flip my wrist right/up and it becomes a cross side shoulder pick.  I can also pull my swing up short, turning it into a stab.  So the basic premise is, you've got a straight shot, 2 wrist flips, and a stab that come out of every conceivable shot you can throw.  Now, depending on what you were throwing in the first place, you may never have a reason to throw any of the rest of the available shots, but it's important to keep them in mind.  You can always recover from what you were expecting to have be a kill shot by flipping your wrist and getting an arm and a leg.  Even though it's not what you were aiming for it's a far sight better then coming away with nothing at all.

Mindfuck

The problem with experience is that you never really know what shots your opponent will throw because many shots look the same and because we can throw swings at a certain level of speed it's almost impossible to perceive the difference between one shot and the next in time.  You can fight the same opponent repeatedly and that will give you some idea of their shot selection, or at least the shots that they favor.  The problem is that if they get inside your head they can play with those expectations for days and convince you to block where their shots aren't going to be.  Eventually the game comes down to experience and it's why old fighters should be both feared and respected.  Sure, they may not be able to sprint like they could when they were 20 but they'll hit you 6 times before you can blink because hand speed, (assuming you have proper body mechanics), has nothing to do with how fast you can move.

As a random aside, since the speed (and therefore the force) for most shots is generated mostly from your body and only very minimally from your arms (unless you're a red fighter) it means that having extremely built arms won't actually make you better at the sport, in fact if you're swinging from your arm then you're likely slowing yourself down.

The only advice I can give you about fighting better/older fighters is this... be the first one to swing.  If you can set the pace of the fight by going in at them it's possible you'll get a lucky shot to land.  After all, everyone makes mistakes, even people who have been fighting for forever and if they think you're terrible they may get sloppy.  If you passively stand back and let them swing, they get to choose the pace of the battle and they'll eventually land a shot when you make a mistake at choosing what spot to guard.  With the weapons we have, you simply can't protect all of your body at all times which means there's always going to be plenty of things to swing for.  So go out swinging, die having at least tried.  Figure out how they hit you and try again, in the end I feel like most of the game is just learning new blocks, adding new shots, and new combos to a person's repertoire so that they aren't relying on throwing the same set of swings every time.

He's just one guy

(On the heels of my last post...)  Every so often I'll hear someone say a thing which is incredibly stupid.  Some person who doesn't know who I am will look at another new guy, point at me and say "you go deal with him".  This never ends well.  Even when they sometimes double or triple up, 3 on 1 is a place where I feel pretty comfortable thanks to having to fight those odds a lot.  I tend to die when one for three conditions is met.  1) The person who comes out to fight me is at or above my skill level so they can beat me 1 on 1.  2) Two very good people who are just below my skill level attack me at the same time while working angles, typically 45 degrees (think of me as one point in a triangle).  3) 3 or more new people engage me, all at the same time, all swinging in unison while working angles.

It's been my experience that the first condition has about a 50% success rate as any good fighter sometimes makes mistakes.  In my experience the second condition is better with something like a 65-75% success rate, depending on the fighters who are close-lining me.  The final condition of many people working together has a 80-90% success rate, depending on who they are and how well they work together.  Another optimal solution is sending someone at my skill level with people to support them.

What this means is that numbers working together will almost always chump skill.  You can see the last post for ways that doesn't happen, but generally speaking a vet that is outnumbered is going to have a hard time of it.  Taking out a vet's legs is usually a death sentence for them because you take away their ability to maneuver.  This makes it much much easier to surround them and it also means that it's easier to engage them at the same time as your teammates, since they can't move as quickly.  If you have a support weapon it means they can no longer run away from that support weapon.  If you have a red and someone to cover that red, it usually means you've won.  Having the right gear is more important then having high numbers.  You can throw people with single blue against a legged sword and board fighter for a long time before they'll actually have any success.  But have them fight a red who can break that board and they've lost after 2 swings, assuming they haven't killed the redsman by then.

Generally speaking teamwork is better then having individually high skill because it allows people to work angles and set up catch 22 scenarios for the opponent, and having more fighters is better then having individually highly skilled fighters because with teamwork every high skill cap fighter that dies is a much more crushing loss to that team then an individual in a team with good teamwork.

So remember... the next time you see that vet out there, he/she's just one person.  Grab some friends, hack of their legs and then casually murder them.  As long as you don't throw yourselves at them like movie ninja's most of the time you'll be alright.

How to Beat the Odds

When new people are fighting a vet, it must seem like magic when the vet kills them all, even though they were badly outnumbered (3:1, 5:1, 10+:1).  The short version is, it's not.  I've made a fighting career out of pretty much opting to only fight at really bad odds with the expectation that about half the time I'm just going to be horribly murdered because some particular sleight of hand went awry.  However, fighting against bad odds isn't by any means impossible, and the secrets to success are more sleight of hand then any kind of real magic tricks.  This post is going to be about how to win or have advantage on those moments when it's all gone wrong.

Step 1: Fight me like movie ninja's

The short version of how to win while fighting outnumbered is... don't do it.  Don't ever fight more then one person AT A TIME.  The usual mistake people make is they assume that if they all charge at the same time they'll win.  The problem with this is that everyone runs at a different speed, so what this lets me actually do is fight a series of 1 on 1 battles very quickly.  Against most noobs I can throw one swing and win.  I can throw a shot every half a second with a blue in one hand, I can throw a shot every tenth of a second if I'm florentine and pumped, with a red weapon I can throw a shot every half second to every three quarters of a second, but from much further away.  A person charging me one a time is going to have to absorb quite a few blows in a short period of time unless they can force me to block.  Chances are, if you're new and charging alone, you'll be dead before you can contribute to the fight.  Having new people fight me one at a time is my favorite thing.  If I get especially lucky a person who is injured will throw themselves at me first, giving me a much easier time as far as getting the kill in.  Once a person is injured I can hit them anywhere, I'm not required to land a torso swing or a double tap.

Step 2: Pacing

Everyone moves at their own pace.  My idea of a steady walk is going to get me to a place at a different speed the the next guys idea of a steady walk.  This comes down mostly to how our bodies are shaped and how fast we move by default.  A person with short legs doesn't move the same speed as a guy who is 6' tall with long legs.  Even if they are going at the same relative pace there will still be disparity.  For those two to learn how to move at the same speed is going to be very difficult unless they've drilled at it extensively.  Chances are, if you're a vet fighting a bunch of new people, they don't have this experience.  If you can make them move AT ALL, they will often separate themselves so that you can fighting them one at a time again (back to step 1).  You can either make them split up by running backwards, at which point the fastest people will keep up with you and the slowest will fall behind.  Or you can do this by moving to one or the other side as they advance, causing them to have to pivot to line back up against you.  Once a person has been drawn out, you can get some free shots.

Regardless of the pacing of your opponents you can also manipulate your OWN pacing and tempo.  Start by moving slowly and getting your opponents to follow you.  Feint one direction with your body, then go twice that speed the other direction.  Or just keep circling your opponents, changing the speed at which you move, so that people start standing in the wrong place.  This will give you those 1 on 1's that you've been looking for or it will open up angles that you wouldn't normally have (see step 5).

Step 3: No support

Assuming the team is working together and hasn't spread out to give you 1v1's and they haven't made the mistake of chasing you then it means you'll have to do the work of slowly picking them off instead.  In this situation the first thing to take care of is anyone who has more reach then the rest of the people still standing.  A good team is going to protect their polearm and not actually fight you.  They're just going to stand their while their support weapons try and end you because that's the right call.  The trick then is trying to isolate the support weapon, whether that's a spear, glaive or an archer so that you can fight them alone.  In my experience red users are often more aggressive then the rest of the team, so if you can convince them to engage you by staying just outside of their range often they will step out of line with their teammates.  When they do, you can close with them and kill them without having to worry about the rest of their teammates taking free shots at you.  Another trick that sometimes works is trying to rotate the remaining enemy so that the polearm eventually is on the end of the line as the rest of their teammates are trying to sort themselves around your new angles (see step 2).

Step 4: Gain Mobility

The easiest way to fight a series of 1v1 fights is to simply snipe everyone's legs.  A person without legs can no longer maneuver, which means you get to choose when and how you want to fight them.  This doesn't mean they're dead or useless by any means however, so keep an eye on them.  I see vets get killed by legged people they've forgotten about ALL THE TIME.  So watch your backs out there.  It's important to note with leg snipes that you want to do this from a position of relative safety.  You can either leg snipe a person at the edge of a line, or you can snipe a leg while you are dodging to safety.  Never, EVER, step into the center of a line to try and pick off a leg.  Opening up angles to your sides is what gets you dead.  Leg sniping can also be used to pick off opponent that are legged.  Often when a gimp is gimping along the ground they will allow both of their knees to hit the ground.  When this happens if you get a leg snipe it's a kill instead of just a leg.  The important note for this is that you have to get them moving towards you first (back to step 2).

Step 5: Angles

A great way to not have to fight more then one person at a time is to force your opponents to have to fight through one another.  This is subtly different from pacing and where they're standing.  It means tracing the lines where people can swing and making sure that those lines intersect with teammates.  If two people are lined up so that one is facing you and the other is directly behind them, you are pretty much fighting 1 on 1 unless that second person is a support weapon.  This situation often occurs while you rotate around a group of enemies.

The reverse of this is opening up yourself for good angles, this works especially well if there are 2 vets against an arbitrary number of new people.  As you rotate the person who is nearest to engage you will shift.  Often the people who are not in a position to engage you stop paying attention and leave themselves vulnerable to strikes.  Most of these shots aren't immediately obvious and require you to step into them, but if you can get a leg snipe on someone who is focused on moving that's a relatively easy kill.  It's also relatively safe if that person is on the outside because you don't have to worry about backup coming.

Step 6: Feints / Tricks

When all else fails... it's time for dirty old man tricks and mind games.  Most of the feints that I use are to get my opponents to go one direction while I then head the other direction.  Feinting that you're about to engage with your enemy is often useful in it's own right as it can cause them to freeze.  If your opponent knows you're better then they are and you pretend to aggress, often they will fall back.
One of my favorites is the side to side feint.  You take a light step in one direction and then take a heavy step in the exact opposite direction.  Generally if you step left first then you pile onto whoever is on your right immediately following this.  Typically I feint towards the middle of the cluster of enemies to see if I can get them to freeze and then pile into a person on the outside of the line in an attempt to execute them quickly.  I do sometimes go the opposite direction where I feint to the outside and then try and get a leg snipe on someone in the middle of the line as they step forward to protect the person I initially appeared to aggress towards.  For example if you have fighters 1, 2 and 3 in a line where 1 is on my left, 2 is in the center and 3 is on my right I feint towards 1 or 3, which causes 2 to step forward, and then I leg snipe 2 while dodging away from 1 or 3.

You can also go backwards and then forwards as a body feint.  I'll use this to try and convince a polearm to overextend, where I pretend to doge backwards to get them to swing at me, and then as soon as they do, I instead advance into them.  This can also be used for a leg snipe, especially if your opponents have one mobile person and several gimps.  The mobile person will often try to get the engage if you pretend to dodge backwards because it looks like they have advantage.  As they step forward, take the leg snipe and then spin off.  Now you can work your way back through the gimps.

Another easy trick is to try line up against one opponent and then swing at a different one.  In the previous example with fighters 1, 2 and 3 you set up to engage 2, and then swing at 1 or 3 when they aren't paying attention / are moving to catch up.  Remember that whenever you swing at someone you need to move so that worst case scenario you're fighting 2 of those people as you swing, rather then all 3.

Step 7: If it's stupid but it works...

(It's not stupid).  Here are some things I've seen work that I feel really shouldn't have.  Shouting "behind you" at your opponent when you're the only one left.  Looking over their shoulder as though someone is approaching them.  Making a verbal grunt like "HUH" as though you are about to swing, sometimes your opponents will swing or guard and cringe for a shot that you haven't even begun to throw.

That head shot? Totally on you

Headshots are a thing that happen in our sport.  In a perfect world that wouldn't be the case, every fighter would exercise sufficient control over their shots so that no one would ever get hit there.  But in reality there are just too many people, moving too fast for us to completely avoid that problem.  In most cases a headshot is the result of a reckless swing; a red that went 12 to 6, or a person with another melee weapon flailing around, sometimes it's a shield that another fighter decides to do aggressive work with that winds up clocking a person right in the jaw.  Most of those things are avoidable.  Reds should never swing 12 to 6, people with melee weapons should control their swings and not ever throw with 100% of their force so they can't put the brakes on their throw, and people who do offensive shield manipulation can learn to keep it all below a person's face.  But every so often the headshot is the result of something the person blocking does and not something the person aggressing does... so that's what I wanted to talk about.

Stop Hitting Yourself

One of the ways that a headshot can happen is a person with a flimsy guard.  When their weapons get struck, instead of deflecting the incoming blow their guard waffles and they wind up smacking themselves right in the face.  To add insult to injury a head shot which is received in this situation is likely going to be from the flats of that person's blades (if they aren't using omni's).  Additionally, if that individually hasn't learned to block well, this is the kind of failure that can wind up damaging their wrists.  This can be a similar problem with a shield that's manipulated.  If your shield gets rocked from the side by a red hit and you wind up clocking yourself in the jaw, that's not the redsman using their weapon unsafely, that's you not knowing how to hold your shield.  Speaking of which...

Sometimes Having A Shield Can Go To Your Head

One of the best ways to get hit in the head when most of the field is swinging safely, is, ironically, by picking up a shield.  A shield allows you a flat plane with which to deflect shots that would normally be very safe.  A shield can take a stab to the gut and turn it into a stab to the eye if you've got the planes set up correctly.  It's also been my experience that a round shield (or just a shield with a rounded top) will make any sideways swing ricochet up into a head shot.  Specifically this tends to turn anything aimed at a shoulder, and anything aimed at about the bicep or higher into a head shot even when it wasn't mean to to be one.

That Was A Low Blow...

Another common way to get blasted in the face in a way that may be your own fault is to suddenly change the location of your head.  Newer fighters especially have this problem.  When they go for a leg shot, the only way they know how to get that shot is to bend at their waist, causing their head to match the same plane as their waist.  This means that a perfectly safe shot to the guy suddenly become a shot to the side of their head.  Most new people eventually figure out that you can get those low blows just by bending a knee slightly, or by extending ones' arm.  You should really be able to take any target location without having to bend at the waist.  This can also happen in the midst of combat when you need to take a knee, if you do so while both you and your opponent are swinging.  Both people are doing what they're supposed to be doing, so a head shot from a person taking a leg is is just unfortunate.

Your OTHER Left

Another one I've seen, which tends to be more of an issue with veteran fighters is moving the head into the way during an exchange of shots.  This can be from swinging in such a way that you tilt your head sideways, turning arm and torso shots into head shots, or it can be from moving into a shot as it's thrown.  Moving into a shot as it's thrown tends to happen when one fighter attempts to shoulder pick their opponent and their opponent, seeing that the other fighter is swinging steps in the same direction as the incoming swing in order to engage the arm that's started to move.  This again is mostly just unfortunate, but I'd argue that stepping into a swing face first is more the fault of the person stepping in then the person who initially threw a safe shot.

Be Smart About It

You've only got one brain for this lifetime so regardless of who is at fault at each set of exchanges... protect your head.  If you think you can't learn to fight in such a way that is going to get your repeatedly beat in the face, then invest in a helmet.  There are plenty of people out there who make some really awesome leather, armor legal helms.  Failing that a helmet is considered safety equipment so you can pick one up meant for any other sport (it just won't be classified as armor even though it will protect your face just fine).  That having been said once you do get a helmet, still try to avoid obviously blocking with your face.  The whole point of that not being a valid shot is an attempt to keep the game safe.  If you get a helmet just so you can throw your face into the shots then you're cheesing the rules, and no one likes that.  As I've said about other things before... don't be that guy.

How about it folks, did I miss any obvious "if you do this thing you'll get smashed in the face" shots?  Comment below.

Ego, Thy Enemy

Having an ego is a good and useful thing to be a functional adult.  Too little ego and you won't stand up for yourself as other people run you over or treat you poorly.  Too much ego though and you'll think you're invincible which leads you to either make bad decisions, or treat other people like trash.  Neither extreme is too useful and both sides of that equation can be crushing to a fighter's success.

Empty Glass

Too little ego out on the field of battle manifests as an unwillingness to swing at your opponent because you believe that their level of skill is too much higher then yours to be able to land a hit.  While it may often be the case that against a better fighter you aren't likely to land a hit with the shots you know, that doesn't mean you should stand there just waiting for them to hit you.  Even if the shot you throw won't necessarily connect, so long as you have teammates around, you may be helping them by locking down part of your opponents guard.  If you're a newer fighter and you're up against a veteran fighter in a situation where you and the other fighter know they have veterancy on you, they may underestimate you.  Lots of fighters I know have walked up to a veteran who should smoke them, and simply because they took the initiative of throwing shots, they were able to smoke that veteran.  Now, the next time they walk up to them, it's unlikely that will work again but, how many times on the field have you walked up to someone, scarred, and not thrown a shot?  Suppose for each of those times you killed your enemy instead.  Makes the world a much different place.

No one is unkillable, regardless of the amount of experience they have.  Everyone makes mistakes, everyone fucks up once in a while.  If the person you're fighting is a vet and you're a noob it's much more likely that they'll make mistakes while underestimating you.  So swing, even if it kills you.  If they really are that much better then you, you're going to die standing still just the same.

The Cup That Overflows

Too much ego is it's own problem, and in my mind tends to be the bigger one.  Too much ego leads to a host of different problems each dependent on the person with an overinflated sense of self.

1) Ego Armor.  (IE, that couldn't possibly have hit me).
Ego armor is what happens when you believe that you are better then you actually are.  Plenty of fighters all over the place have had an issue where they think they shouldn't lose to someone... and as a result they opt to sluff one or more shots.  Either calling them light when they weren't, sometimes with a condescending "well, that was a good shot, but it had nothing on it, so I'm not taking it, please hit harder".  While it may be the case that the person who is swinging at you didn't put enough force behind their shot, especially if they're new, if you know a person hit you and it was clean you should probably take that hit despite the fact that it didn't have enough force.  After all, better to learn to block a clean hit that didn't have quite enough force then shrug it off.  The next time it comes in it may just be good, and now you've squandered this opportunity to learn.

2) That guy is sluffing! (IE, there's no way I'm not hitting them)
Sometimes one person gets used to having all of their shots connect.  They either have been fighting the same group of noobs for long enough that they simply land every shot they throw or they've gotten used to fighting one particular fighter and normally land the shots they throw.  Suddenly that new(er) fighter learns how to block the shots that the old(er) fighter has been throwing or the old(er) fighter goes to a new field where people can block their signature shots, and suddenly they stop working.  Whatever the case may be it often happens that the vet, because they can't understand how their opponent is blocking their shots, starts to call the opposing fighter(s) cheaters.  This behavior is toxic because 1) you're causing a problem where there wasn't one and 2) you're trying to trash another person's reputation.  Honestly, it's hard enough to build a good reputation for taking your shots, when every new person who flails at you blindly from behind their shield simply assumes that you're sluffing.

3) Going ham on the new guy (IE, if that guy doesn't take my hits I'm going to murder him)
Sometimes a new person is new.  They aren't trying to be awful for whatever reason you think they might be.  They are not telling you with their incompetence that you don't hit hard enough, or that your shots aren't good.  They are simply confused because they are new.  A person with an inflated sense of ego may see their mistakes as an insult and respond by beating that new person down just as hard as they can.  ...don't be that guy.  Talk to the new person, teach them how to play.  Help them fix their mistakes.  Chances are if they're so new that they can't process your hits, you can hit them easily.  So just... spread your shots out, and make them slow and deliberate.  Clarify as you hit them if they make mistakes calling and try to work with them.

Tranquil Water

So remember.  Ego is your enemy.  Too much and you start behaving like a jackass.  Too little and you cower timidly in the corner.  It's important to find your own balance as a person who can be fine one day can be an ass the next.  Ego surges or wanes over time, so before you step out onto the field try to check yours.  Accept things as they are and if they don't turn out your way just try and learn from it, don't let that bad experience go to your head.