3 Basic Breaches

Last post covered a generic fight set 3v3 with polearms to generally talk about where they should stand and how to prioritize targets so as to stay alive.  This post is about vaguely being on the other side of the line without polearms and figuring out how to get through.  After all, if you have polearms your job should be to support them so they wipe out the line in front of you, not run off yourself to do heroics.  But, every so often it'll be a line of shields vs a line of shields (or other similar melee weapons) where no side has a clear advantage.  But as the general law of the battlefield dictates, if you do not make decisions quickly then your enemy will make those decisions for you (like where, how and when an engagement takes place) and that will always be to your detriment.  So!  Assuming that you're lined up one line across from the other and it seems like a stalemate because no one has poles to win that fight the best thing you can do is try to punch a hole in the enemy line.  Once a line begins to fold the aggressor gains an advantage because a line only works when someone is covering your left and right, and no one is behind you.  As soon as someone gets behind the line and is a credible threat that line is screwed.  This will be another diagram post since working with images certainly seems to make things easier for me.

The Dead Man Breach

The first breach is probably the hardest that's part of why I cheekily call it a dead man breach.  It's ALSO called that because in order to pull it off successfully you need a person who has just recently become a corpse to pull it off.  I've tried to outline the person doing the breach in blue in each case to make it a bit more obvious.  I've tried to mark team aggression with blue lines and enemy aggression with red lines.  The enemy team has a slash through the center of the circle to designate them as such, similar to how I did it the last time.  Right then, onward.  In the first diagram there's a small gap so it's possible to get through to the other side of their line.  However, with 2 combatants actively covering that space going through at this moment is suicide.  In order to get through that gap you need to first apply pressure to your right or left, to help your teammate take out the person they were fighting.  Once that person drops you step into the gap and rotate so that your back is facing the now dead enemy.  In the period of time it takes for them to clear they represent an obstacle for their teammate one more person down the line to swing through.  This allows you to turn into the live teammate (in the diagram the one to your left) with your defenses and immediately aggress on that person.  You mostly want to block, but if you can get a free kill, that's just a bonus.  

(2nd diagram below) Your real goal is to get BEHIND that person QUICKLY so that you can run down the line (on the diagram that's to the left).  That final bit is in the second diagram.  Once you've cleared a person on the right the teammate standing next to you can now apply pressure to the next guy down the line, setting up a 2v1.  If they then win this fight, they too can now run down the line, and for each person they kill the N people vs 1 will increase.  So initially it's a 2v1 then a 3v1 then a 4v1... etc until the entire enemy line is destroyed.  The person who runs to the left, if they are able to get the kill on the first opponent to their left gives the teammate to their left options.  That person can either help you run that gap all the way along the line, or, once that first person drops immediately turn and shoot for the right side of the line, instantly gaining access to their back lines without any interference at all.  If the enemy team has a back line with archers, they can also opt to immediately ditch in that direction for ranged weapons.

The Barrel Roll Breach

The first half of the diagram covers the second chunk of the above paragraph.  I've split them up to clarify.  The second maneuver looks a like like the first maneuver but instead of using a corpse to cover your back you use a teammate.  If you find a gap that's big enough for two people (perhaps after a partially successful 1 man breach?) then you can do the same footwork as a 1 man breach but with two people.  Getting the timing for this right is difficult, so if you're going to try and pull it off it's best to have some practice with whoever you're executing it with.  In the figure above you're person A and your teammate is person B.  When you go, signaling your teammate by giving them a shove on the back you 45 degree angle toward the center of the gap, taking you away from your opponent and then a 45 degree angle back towards them turning your body toward the opponent on your left.  Your teammate does the same thing, but mirrored.  They take a 45 degree step in towards the center of the gap and then take a 45 degree step back toward the opponent on the right, turning to face them.  If this has been executed directly person A and person B are now fighting back to back, so even though this breach would normally get a person hit from the left and right, because 2 people fill the space simultaneously, person A blocks person B's back and person B blocks for person A's back.  In this case you apply a little bit less pressure initially but you've also got 2 opportunities to run the line.  If either person succeeds you can inflict massive damage.  If instead person A or B get legged, then they're still fighting their immediate opponent at an angle, so that if their opponent turns to face them they expose their side to the front of the allied line.  If they DON'T turn to face them then person A and B get to engage a person's side instead of their front where all their defenses are in place.  Timing on this one is pretty difficult, but if you execute it properly it's almost impossible to counter.  While the dead man breach can be done with any set of gear, so long as you can block in melee effectively, I've found that the 2 man breach works best with 2 shields as this allows for slightly slower moving fighters to execute on it effectively.  Specifically parts of the shield wall can execute the maneuver and then simply kill their way down the line, rather then relying on cardio to hit backs.  ...Although, speaking of cardio.

The Hammer Breach

Ah the hammer breach, a little bit of breach 1 and a little bit of breach 2.  There's a modified version of this called a Trojan Horse for the end of the line but I didn't make the diagram for it, so perhaps another post to follow is END of the line maneuvers instead of middle of the line maneuvers.  Anyways.  The hammer breach starts with a third person behind the line looking for a gap.  Once a person finds a gap in the line they recruit a person A and a person B to do the 2 man breach.  Person A rolls into the opponent on the left as they did before and person B rolls into the person on the right as they did before.  This time however neither of them need to survive the engage they just need to block for the person doing the full dive, you.  Once person A and B are in position engaging the people covering the gap you are able to loop out behind them and ignore the people who were watching you breach.  You can either dive the back line and take out archers or simple sweep back into the opposing line to the left or right a person down and start racking up kills.  Once the people in the immediate vicinity have fallen person A and person B will have plenty of cover if they're still alive.  If the line can master the second breach then it makes the third breach very easy.  If your person A and person B are not in sync with you then you'll either dive first, and be instantly executed, or you'll dive AFTER they've already gone, which may mean that your opponents on the left and right have the opportunity to actually swing at you.  In either case it's bad news.  The reason to do a 3 man breach over a 2 man breach is that at least in theory it protects the third person so that when they dive they have all their limbs to inflict damage with, whereas in a one man and a two man breach there's a high likelihood of failure in the case of the 1 man breach and a high likelihood of injury in the second case, making running the line less probable.

That's it for this post.  Trying to keep it shorter and sweeter with more diagrams :-P.  As a final aside, for those who are interested the library of diagrams I've been generating can be found here - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0BySPGwBzcCcdM1dtNnlJRmdtYmM?usp=sharing

Polearm Positioning / Diagrams

Got a new toy in this thing called a rocketbook which let's you draw then upload easily.  So, going to start using it more and generating my diagrams that way rather then trying to use google paint.  Not that there's anything wrong with google paint... I'm just slow with it.  Anyways, onwards.

I wanted to make a quick post about polearm positioning.  We spend a lot of time telling polearms where they OUGHT to be standing but not a whole lot of time explaining to them why that's the case.  So I made some diagrams to show what happens with a polearm sitting in one of 3 positions within a 3 man group.  This covers both how to engage if you're the team with a polearm and how to disengage if you're the team without one.  For this description the team with the polearm is unmarked (we'll call them team pole) and the team without a polearm is marked with 1's.  Diagram is as follows:

First piece of the diagram is just some terminology for the rest of it.  Moments in time are separated by each set of horizontal lines.  In the first diagram the polearm is lined up in the middle of the 3 man team.  This means that they can pretty easily reach the opponent in front of them as well as to that person's left and right without having to significantly inconvenience either of the boards protecting them.  From here the polearm gets free reign to smash shields or take side angle shots when the shields protecting them cause their opponents to open up.  If the enemy team should happen to have someone rush the polearm (second section) the polearm can just step back.  This denies the person rushing them the engage and puts that person between the polearms two shieldman making them effectively dead.  This is the ideal situation for the polearm wherein a direct engagement is unsafe for team 1 but the polearm still gets to reach and swing at all of team 1.

The way that you deal with a polearm is to try to avoid giving it something to swing at (in much the same way that the best way to fight outnumbered is to fight 1v1 very quickly).  If the person across from the polearm takes a step back so that they aren't immediately a good target and the people to the right and the left of center both move to flanking positions the polearm suddenly has no good targets.  To engage the person they are across from they have to run away from their supports.  If they move to engage the flankers on their right or left they now are stuck putting their back to the person behind them.

From where it last left off (flankers coming in) the flankers go behind the polearm and attempt to engage the shieldman supporting them.  If the shieldman turn to fight these flankers then it creates a bad situation as the last guy on team 1 who wasn't flanking now gets to rush an unprotected polearm.  It's sort of a catch 22 though as either shieldman who doesn't engage the flanker immediately gets backed by that flanker and lets the polearm die to boot.  In this situation I've often seen the polearm try to go out and 1v1 the shieldman on team 1.  This is a terrible idea as a sword and board always has advantage against polearms.  That having been said at least it's doing something.  The worst thing the polearm can do is stand there and do nothing.  If team 1 rushes them team 1 gets to kill the two boards supporting the polearm even if they don't immediately get that kill.  After that it's curtains for the polearm.

Instead what the polearm should do is step out to engage one of the flankers, putting their back to their teammate and their side to the flanker.  This allows them to threaten both flankers pretty quickly and let's them take the engagement they want onto the weaker (rather then the stronger) flanker.  If the polearm goes super aggro and can win their 2v1 fight against the weaker flanker, (or even just leg them) then they have advantage again.  They can them immediately turn to the other flanker while the board they just supported now turns to cover their back.  Now their team mate gets a 1v1 and team 1's flanker gets a 2v1 against a polearm which usually ends badly for them, especially now that the polearm has time to work.

The reason I highlight going for the weaker of the two flanking opponents is that if the polearm and board take too long to engage the first flanker it means that the last person from team 1 will likely rush in on one or both of the pole teams boards.  If this happens and the polearm hasn't managed to do any damage to team 1 then it's likely one or both teammates supporting them die instantly as they get pinched in a 2v1.  As team 1 in this scenario the flanker who gets the polearm wants to disengage, staying just out of range while their last teammate rushes in.  Their last teammate wants to target the pole team's board that is engaging the OTHER flanker (right side of the diagram) so that it's a 2v1 and hopefully just a back.  The third person from team 1 then goes for a back on the other board from team pole while their teammate goes for the polearm.  If either the second board or the polearm turn around then the flanker on the left can now go for their backs instead.

But all of these scenarios are assuming that things have been handled sanely.  In many cases folks will line up the polearm on the left or right side of the 3 man with disastrous consequences.

The top section of this diagram just finishes describing what's in the last few paragraphs.  Moving on from there we have what happens with bad positioning, or more accurately why it's bad positioning.  By putting the polearm on the outside you make it so that in order to hit the 3rd person from team 1 they have to block off movement and swing targets for their adjacent teammate.  Also, once a person from team 1 flanks to the outside they have to turn to fight them or get taken out immediately.  Assuming they do turn to fight team 1's flanker they're still likely to lose as they no longer have support from anyone on their team.  Once they've lost the rest of the team dominoes a second later, as their adjacent teammate now fights a 2v1 at 90 degree angles and once they fall their next teammate fights a 3v1 with a person engaging from their front, rear and side angles.  So don't do that.

There is exactly 1 exception to this rule of not putting the polearm on the outside and that's when you have a hard edge on the side where the polearm is.  If the polearm cannot be flanked and is still adjacent to a board then that's an acceptable setup.

More of these are likely to follow now that I can do diagrams.  If you've got any particular requests drop them in the comments below or put it on Facebook / PM me.

Tactical Analysis 2

This video https://www.facebook.com/alexys.oosterhouse/posts/10154832353712668 starting at -6:08

After the last round both team have spread WAY out wide with Wardens taking a horseshoe shape (pushing on the far right and left at an angle relative to the rest of the line).  Their polearms are all also stacked on the left potentially giving them the ability to add more pressure to that side.  Norcalia as far as I can tell is set up the same as last time, except with Kord positioned one person in instead of on the far outside.  Theoretically a horseshoe formation has advantage if they are able to keep applying pressure.  A horseshoe is countered by pulling the ends of the line too far out so that they can be killed quickly (ganked henceforth) without suffering a loss or injury.  Otherwise the angles provided by flanking grant advantage to the team pushing with angles.

-6:05 to -6:02 8Nv8W

I lied.  Kord is still out on the end of the line and gets rushed by Brian.  This time however Brian does NOT make the rush as Kord retreats back into Shato.  This creates a local 2v1 advantage on Rob/Stark who, moments later Ascher also moves in to create a 3v1 hoping for a gank.  If they can get that gank without any further complications this is a HUGE swing for Norcalia as they can then take that +3 person advantage and slam it down the rest of the Wardens flank.

-6:01 8Nv7W

Nope.  Ascher has momentum and swings past Stark while neither of the other two aggress meaning that a theoretical advantage is completely discarded.  Moments later Force trades a leg with Nos further nullifying any potential advantage as Ascher swings back around looking for backs.  Leaving the left side of the Norcalian line in a good position... but not providing the domino they could otherwise have had.  Having lost no other members of the group this fight is still going Norcalia's way so far though.

-5:58 to -5:51 7N v 5W

It's hard to tell EXACTLY what happens here but basically both lines collapse in on each other after Stark rushes for the center of the Norcalian line which has pushed past his present location.  He runs in to back someone and Ascher follows him behind.  The trade doesn't pan out.  Norcalia takes a leg and loses Shato.  Wardens lose Nos, Karps and a leg on their polearm who also came with the rush.  With their polearm legged and now surrounded by gimps and an enemy support weapon, and with his line on the other side of the field it seems unlikely he'll live, let alone score any additional damage meaning that at this point it's essentially a 7v4 which is HUGELY in Norcalia's favor.

-5:48 4N v 3W

Artificer falls to being backed and the Norcalian group reforms now fighting as one conglomerate of 4 against the remaining 3 Wardens.  On the other side of the field apparently Marrow and Tarkus traded for Fenrir which means that Wardens trade up on that side.  Forming a 4v3 is partially in Wardens favor.  Although they are outnumbered all of them have legs while only 2 of the Norcalians can say the same.

-5:34 4N v 3W

In a crucial moment Kord repositions in order to avoid being backed by Stark, however, he does so without communicating to Ascher who is now standing, ALONE in a 2v1 with Stark behind him.  This does not bode well for the Norcalians.  Steel, seeing the opportunity that he has had handed to him immediately moves to capitalize.

-5:33 4N v 3W

Steel moves faster then Ana carrying the polearm, Ascher dodges away from the fight and Stark pursues but doesn't aggress, setting up a 2v1 that's slow while turning his back to the gimps and Kord.

-5:31 4N v 2W

Steel gets tagged in the back by Kord effectively nullifying the Wardens ability to further pinch and apply pressure, at least until Ana switches out her weapon set.

-5:31 to -5:30 3N v 2W

It seems like for a second there's some confusion and so even though Kord has landed his shot he doesn't regroup with Ascher, nor does Ascher take the moment he is out of the 2v1 to aggress on either the isolated board or support weapon.  Moments later Kord goes down, lacking any further support from his allies while standing in between two enemies.

-5:20 3N v 2W

Ascher regroups and Ana swaps to sword and board so she and Stark can work 2v1 angles on the legged Norcalia group.  At this point it's anyone's game.

-5:11 3N v 2W

Ascher attempts to feint out the Wardens to hard engage.  They aren't biting (which is good because that'd be a terrible idea).

-5:00 3N v 2W

Ascher decides to engage them by stepping too far away from his gimped companions.  His fight decides the outcome of the battle if this rolls forward as is.

-4:43 3N v 2W

Ana can't find a good opening so she rotates back to a spear, presumably to try to stab Ascher who is willing to fight outside of the cover of his teammates.

-4:32 3N v 2W

In response Ascher switches to sword and board which is stronger against a spear then florentine and prepares to hard engage as soon as the 2 Wardens begin to aggress.

-4:23 2N v 2W

Ascher gets stabbed after a shot ramps off his shield while he's low.  Now the victors are LIKELY the Norcalians as they can simply siege until the spear finds its mark.

-3:59 1N v 1W

Stark goes for Gibbs back and finds it, but is taken out by Force at this moment as well.  This theoretically takes an uneven fight and makes it even again as a single spear is unlikely to do much against a sword and board fighter even if they're given a long time to poke at them.

-3:52 1N v 1W

Sword and board vs Sword and board as Ana and Force get to decide the outcome.  Ana has advantage in this scenario as Force prefers to be an offensive fighter but now doesn't have the legs to aggress with, whereas Ana is quite comfortable being patient and picking shots so this fight favors her.

-3:43 0N v 1W

Ana trades her leg for Forces leg taking the win for Wardens.

Found a random bit, cross-posting 'cause I think it's useful

Here, go check this out - http://schiltslac.com/2016/09/22/identity-failure-humility-and-growth/

My own version of this breaks down into; seek death since that's when you're learning and fight often without reprimanding yourself for failure so that you can learn.  In any case, especially as fighters start improving, this advice becomes more and more relevant.  One of my old mantra's was "ego is the enemy" because it's what takes you down a dark path from the article.  I've fallen into it once or twice and I did not much care for the fighter I was at those moments.

Tactical decision making in action; a cascade of consequences

No plan survives a battle but to go into battle without a plan is just as foolish as trying to stick to the original plan.  To do well as a tactician you've got to adapt to the state of the field.  So, for this entry I'm going to dissect exactly ONE fight from the Norcalia vs effectively Wardens fight that happened at War of Wrath.  You SHOULD be able to see the video here - https://www.facebook.com/alexys.oosterhouse/posts/10154832353712668.  I'll be referencing moments by time stamps on the video.  The obvious caveats apply, this is only my opinion and I can't see the whole field from the view of the camera, so I may miss things in my analysis.

-8:05 - 8W vs 8N
At the outset the Wardens line up with their fastest flankers on the right side, clearly preparing to try and run that side.  Steel sits in back, prepared to strike through any gaps that appear in the middle of the line, run down enemy flankers and generally organize the group.  The fighters on the far left tend towards a more defensive alignment, using artificer as a red to buy time and give the rest of the group time to work.  As an interesting sidenote Nos (sp?) who normally runs florentine on an edge is in the middle of the line.  Assessing the situation from the outside I'm expecting that their main tactic is to use the right side to try and pull the Norcalian line thin to provide opportunities to flank the center of the line.

Norcalia meanwhile runs mostly a counter position to this.  The enemy flanker (Brian) fighting florentine is set up against a fleet of foot spear in Kord.  He's supported by Shato to prevent him from being rushed, while also allowing for a roughly equivalent opponent to Rob/Stark who is there to support Brian.  Zayl takes up the far right to counter artificer, his greater reach with his polearm should allow him to do work.  If there's a rush Marrow who is good at fighting in close is prepared to counter engage with a vengeance.  Gibs sits in the center of the line next to force who could quite easily punch a hole in a line.  Asher floats out back prepared to engage Steel or anyone else who might get around.

At this moment and time I feel like the Norcalian team has the advantage.

-8:00 - 8W vs 7N

Mistakes are made.  Zayl, who is prepare to fight artificer suddenly finds himself ALSO fighting Anastasia, wielding a spear behind her board.  This means that even though he may have the advantage against Artificer at the outset, for every swing he takes he now has to worry about getting stabbed by two, rather then by one pole.  This also cuts of his advantage from a having a support, as Ana's defense is high enough that rushing her is unlikely to get a quick kill.  Additionally this means rolling directly into Fenrir who is standing right next to her.  Since the main board on that side is Marrow he's going to have a rough time of it, choosing to either try to cover his pole fighting two on one, or engaging and then having to fight 2v1 himself when Ana drops the spear.

Seeing this advantage, Nos moves to the outside to back up his flankers.  Meanwhile on the Norcalian left side Kord takes a few BIG steps away from Shato, meaning that suddenly he is without any kind of real support.  Meanwhile Asher, seeing the trouble that his right side is on moves in that direction to assist, further cutting off any hope of support for the Norcalian left.

At this moment I expect that the Norcalian left side is going to waffle.  After Brian runs the spear he can turn on Shato, along with Nos and Rob.  Since it becomes a 3v1 with angles I'm expecting Shato to lose, and quickly (I would too).  With the Norcalian left side broken the they'll have to retreat into the right side, which is already briefly outmatched.  Unless the Norcalian line can rotate to switch angles they're going to have the door closed on them.

- 7:56 - 8W vs 7N

Mistakes are made, but this time by the Wardens.  Brian runs the spear without taking injury and then turns to fight Shato.  Nos and Rob turn to fight Force who is now at the end of the Norcalian left flank.  If it were my call I'd leave Nos to stall against Force while Rob and Brian 2v1'd Shato in order to try and get a quick advantage.  Then they could fight Force 3v1 instead of 2v1.  Meanwhile Artificer is legged, effectively taking him out of combat as the rest of the Wardens move forward.  Zayl, having taken no injury now has advantage again on that side of the field, having to only outrange Ana's spear while still maintaining cover from his shieldman.  Karps moves up on Ana's right side, prepared to engage but is going to run directly into gibs.  If he goes too hard on offense he'll leave Ana undefended for Twig to engage who can in turn then rotate onto the Norcalian left flank which is right now in a bad place.  Additionally if Gibbs can win his fight then the right side goes from a 2v3 to a 4v3 or a 3v3 if either Force or Shato survive.  Steel meanwhile does the right thing and goes hard into the Norcalian right side hoping to take advantage of the chaos.  Unfortunately Asher is moving to intercept so that decision is likely to cost him some limbs.  If he gets legged in the near future then the Wardens left flank is utterly lost, and it will become a fight between the mobile Norcalian right flank against the Wardens mobile right flank with a bunch of Warden gimps not actually participating in the fight.  That fight eventually goes to Norcalia if Zayl can stay alive and uninjured.  At this point the fight is even and it's up to each of about 3 individual engagements to determine the winner.  If Shato beats Brian, he can back the 2v1 on Force.  If Force can stay alive long enough then he'll have help, but if he dies quickly then the Norcalian force will be getting smashed from 3 sides and that's as good as done.  If Brian wins his fight but Force survives then that side of the field is a draw.  If anyone can get Steel's leg then the pressure to the front and right side of the Norcalian line disappears, which makes the fight a much better place for the Norcalians.

-7:52 - 7W vs 7N

A lot can happen in 4 seconds lol.  Brian loses the fight to Shato and is taken off the board.  A rush is attempted against Force but fails.  Twig loses his leg to Ana, preventing any further aggression on his part.  Meanwhile Steel and Asher square off.  At this moment the fight is pretty even.  Whoever gets a kill on the Norcalian's left flank or the Warden's right flank will have a numbers advantage and can then wrap.  If Steel can get through Asher then his team will have advantage again because he'll be able to apply pressure from a new angle.  However, if he loses outright and Asher has all of his limbs then he'll be able to turn the battle around by apply his OWN pressure to a relatively immobile pole arm.  If someone goes to cover Artificer then the cente rof the line breaks, giving Gibbs a chance to still run the line.  But, even if Asher doesn't get a hard engage, even a harass will turn artificer, leaving him vulnerable to attacks by Zayl.

-7:50 - 7W vs 7N

Zayl, seeing that his side is stable switches to the Norcalian left flank, to help deal with the encroaching enemy flank.  This leaves a speed bumps on the Norcalian right flank in the form of relatively immobile shields.  The fight between Asher and Steel becomes more important while some of the pressure is relieved for the Norcalian left flank, as they now have the ability to hit opponents without worry about losses.  This gives them the advantage on this section of the field, and theoretically the advantage overall as the Warden's group has opted to leave their polearm behind in order to press the Norcalians who are starting to back themselves into a corner.  Karps has also taken injury at this point (I missed how) meaning that a legged twig is a very sufficient guard.  Gibbs in the meantime see's a hole forming and prepares to shoot the gap.  Artificer meanwhile tries to limp himself closer to the fight.

-7:47 - 7W vs 7N

The Norcalians, seeing opportunity, seize it.  Marrow and Gibbs hard engage into the enemy team.  Gibbs shoots passed Karp who is holding only a shield while Twig swings at him.  Marrow hard engages into the polearm, while Fenrir moves over to cover.  Depending on Marrow's reflexes he may be able to turn that into a 2v1 fight.  Meanwhile on the Norcalian left flank there's a relatively even 3v3, but with both lines now broken the next few seconds are crucial to find out which team receives more damage from breaking ranks.

- 7:44 - 6W vs 7N

The Norcalian gambit mostly pays dividends.  Fenrir, in an attempt to save Artificer gets knocked over by Gibbs and executed.  Meanwhile Marrow doesn't do as well, even though he's able to set up the kill on Fenrir he fails to kill Artificer who in turn takes his leg.  Twig, unfortunately is now shafted, fighting 2v1 without cover against both Ana and Nos.  Steel, now seeing his back line getting run over turns to break from his fight with Asher to try and score some backs.  Zayl becomes quickly irrelevant to the fight for the moment as Rob disengages leaving Shato and Zayl not engaging anyone while their teammates fight in other areas of the field.  Still too close to figure out who has advantage as Twig may be about to die, as well as Marrow, which negate their brief one person advantage.

-7:43 - 6W vs 6N

Marrow gets run over as he gets trapped by multiple opponents.  An injured Force moves to assist Twig, taking the pressure off of him even as Nos moves over to deal with the still flanking Gibbs.  Steel crashes in from behind, completing a 3 way trainwreck for Marrow but also positioning himself to be chased by Asher who he turned his back to and by Gibbs who is still alive and off to the side.

-7:41 - 5W vs 6N

The battle is mostly over at this moment.  Steel gets himself sandwhiched between Gibbs and Asher and because he's blocking shots from Asher gets taken out by Gibbs (I think? It's a bit fuzzy).  Meanwhile Force wins a hard engage against Ana who is unable to spear him leaving Nos potentially in a 3 way pinch between Force, Asher and Gibbs in a second.  The Norcalian left flank can now reform with Shato, Twig and Zayl alive to tank up against Rob who no longer has any support from his team.

- 7:40 - 5W vs 6N

Gibbs piles into an unarmed Karp while Nos moves to back Gibbs and Asher moves to back Nos.   Artificer engages a legged Twig but leaves his back to Force.  We can't see what's happening on with Shato, Rob and Zayl.

- 7:39 - 3W vs 4N

Asher makes a clutch "watch your back" call which causes Gibbs to block behind him.  In the meantime Shato shows up for the fight pilling directly into Artificer who is now as good as dead.  Gibbs falls to Nos and Artificer falls to Shato.  On the other side of the field, Zayl who no longer has cover gets run over by Rob.

- 7:35 - 3W vs 4N

The initial rush from both teams over the groups reform into lines.  Up on Norcalia, an injured Twig and Force with an uninjured Shato and Asher.  On Wardens an injured and swordless Karp, and an uninjured Rob and Nos.  At this moment there's a slight edge for Norcalia at this moment but it's by no means insurmountable.  At this moment the battle is effectively a 3v2 as Twig can't move to engage and Karp can't swing to kill anyone.  If the Norcalians fight together rather then go aggro then they can take effectively a 4v2 fight instead, using angles to their advantage.

- 7:30 - 3W vs 4N

Good on you Norcalia.  Norcalia groups up forcing an engage into an effective 4v2 for the Wardens.

- 7:23 - 3W vs 4N

Karps arms himself, removing his shield from the wall, and Asher grabs a spear, giving them a sudden extra surge of advantage with gear.  Now, assuming he doesn't move to the outside they can poke at the opposing team without having to worry about injury.  However... if Asher moves off on his own he runs the risk of being run over, potentially taking their advantage and making it an even fight again.

-7:18 -  3W vs 4N

Asher, as a polearm, steps to the outside and away from his support becoming a bit zealous and costing him his legs.  Pro tip.  If you're a polearm, don't be on the edge of the line, always have cover.  Also, avoid overextending, be patient.  If you have the numbers advantage get them to rush you INTO YOUR TEAMMATES, rather then into your defenseless self.  Asher calls for help which possibly negates more damage.  At this point though he's less effectively a part of the battle and now Norcalia can no longer maneuver because their mobile fighters no longer match or outnumber the enemy team.

-7:14 - 3W vs 4N

Asher manages to be away from his support while legged.

-7:11 - 3W vs 4N

Now that Norcalia is effectively immobilized the Wardens move in for a 3 way pinch.  In an ideal situation Asher rotates with Shato so that Shato can move, or Shato hard engages Karps while Force turns around to support Asher.  In any case Shato needs to be able to move as he is presently their most mobile and least injured combatant.  If he gets stuck in the pinch then Norcalia will lose as he gets hit from 3 directions in spite of his potential advantage over at least Karps.

-7:07 - 3W vs 4N

Asher drops his support weapon and becomes a melee combatant, relieving the pressure on the right side.  Force gets engaged as Twig rotates to cover Shato's back.  Edge probably Norcalia, as Force's chance of survival against an armored, florentine Nos with one arm already gone seems unlikely.  There's enough pressure everywhere else to give him time for that engage.  Miraculously however Force wins his fight, taking an arm off Nos while no one else takes injury.

-7:04/6:59 - 3W vs 3N

Nos hard engages onto Asher but not without first drawing the attention of both Force and Shato who aren't fast enough to save Asher.  Things are now looking very bad for Norcalia as Shato has to win fight against Rob outright, or take out the other two gimps in order to make the fight advantaged again.  Even though it's technically even, because Twig is legged Wardens actually have the advantage.

- 6:51 - 3W vs 3N

Lines reform.

- 6:41 -

Rob looks for an engage on Force because of his limb advantage, while Shato rotates into a similar position against Karps/Nos.

- 6:40 - 2W vs 3N

Rob doesn't hard engage, but Shato does, taking out Karps and regaining Norcalian advantage.

- 6:36 - 2W vs 2N

Wardens seek a 2v1 engage on Shato and Force jumps into the fray to try and make it a 2v2, lining up for Nos's back.  The 2v1 quickly turns on Force who gets a leg off Rob before dying.  This turns out to be crucial as it's now the Wardens who are largely immobile since Nos doesn't want to fight Shato 1v1 as Shato is still uninjured.  This allows Twig to move in for a pinch, since even though he's legged he's still going to be harder to kill then the injured Nos.

- 6:26 - 2W vs 2N

As Rob engages with Twig, Shato creeps into the fight, eventually lining up a hard engage by pressuring Nos away from the gimp fight.  Neither side gets any hits though there are a few close calls and they reset to pick at each other.  At this moment Norcalia has the advantage because they have higher defense overall.

-6:20 - 1W vs 2N

Eventually as shots go back and forth Shato wins the fight against Nos, leaving Rob in a dire situation.  Though, had Nos won the fight would have turned the other way, or if Rob had taken out twig it would have become largely an even fight still.  At this moment though you have a flat footed, injured boardsman fighting in a 2v1 so that's likely the match.

-6:14 - 1W vs 2N

Rob manages to take a leg, preventing the Norcalian team from using positioning against him the way they would otherwise have (one behind him, one in front).  It still remains a 2v1.

-6:10- 0W vs 2N

With nowhere to go and two people closing on him Rob eventually falls.

--

All in all a good fight for both teams.  Both Norcalia and Wardens made some mistakes but were also good at trying to cover one another as well as punish their opponents for mistakes.  In the end there's quite a few moments where things could have turned very badly for one or the other team.  While field awareness and team tactics are very important in many cases the battle is decided one fight at a time.  Crucial things, like Force getting a leg shot on his way out dramatically change the dynamics of the team fight.

Unit leadership

This one is more going to be in the format of story time.  I'm not sure I actually have all the answers when it comes to unit leadership as my attempt to run one eventually smashed on the rocks.  So some of what I can tell you are things NOT to do.  In the end a unit is whatever the people who are a part of it make of it, and at least from my perspective there are no hard answers for what is right or wrong for a unit, just answers for what is right or wrong for a particular unit.

For those who had missed it, I used to run a group called The Blades for something like 8 years.  At it's inception there were 4 of us who gathered around a table at In-and-Out who met to decide that we wanted to organize and become more then just a group of people who trained together.  We sat around and come up with ideas for what the unit should be, how we'd deal with tabards, what our symbol was going to be, etc etc.  After a while it matured somewhat, had a proper symbol, a set of colors, a semi-coordinated set of garb and about 12 people.  I would say that was when it was at it's best and that symbol began to have and carry weight.  Anyone with the blades symbol on their chest was welcome in most camps and treated well by most fighters.  Eventually the unit hit another burst of people and reached up to something around 18 fighters, which is where it started to come apart.  By the time it hit 22 people it was on the rocks, and shortly thereafter that number started to plummet.  Eventually, I made the decision to step away from the unit, leaving it to the fate of anyone who wanted to stick around.  To my knowledge it has officially died out.

In spite of the rocks at the end of it, I loved the experience of the 6-12 man unit that we had created.  There was a clear ethos attached to the unit that was embodied by 4 oaths that each and every member of the unit took.  These were - 1) I will take my hits, 2) I will fight my hardest, 3) I will follow the blademaster's (me/other leaders) instructions 4) I will hold all blades to these oaths.  This caused the group to preach for honor first, and effort second.  It was then, and is now, my belief that anyone can become a good fighter if they're willing to put the time and effort into improving.  That remains true regardless of the shape of the fighter, whether they're naturally advantaged because they're tall and lanky or somewhat disadvantaged because they're either tiny/weak or  out of shape.  The physics of a person's body certainly push them towards certain shots that become easier because of where they start from (short people generally don't throw that many high wraps successfully) but in the end they are no less effective at taking out targets then any other fighter if they've chosen to work at it.  The third point was about having respect for the person teaching them because at the time I had no patience for a person who wanted to learn but then second guessed everything I had to say.  Questions are fine, but telling a person who has years of experience on you that they don't know what they're talking about is counterproductive if you're trying to learn.  At that time I chose to train every member of the unit personally, and instill both a set of basic footwork and basic blade work into each new member of the unit to get them to a point of basic competency.  From there we'd do battles where the person learning was at a disadvantage, so that more often then not they'd fail, or they'd die, only to be pushed by the rest of the group to get back up and try again.  When a person did finally succeed when the odds were against them, there was a sense of euphoria and triumph but that only came from a person who was honorable, as cheating to win would have been meaningless.  The last bit of the oath was about holding everyone up as a peer instead of having a bunch of hierarchy and machinery in order to get things done.  Part of that broke down into having enough respect for each person in the unit that you were willing to talk to them about any issues you had with them, including myself as the leader because being the leader didn't make me any less human and fallible.  That being said in any group you need to have leadership because if that's not something present in your unit they'll mill about on the field and get crushed.  Having numbers only matters if they work together.  If you go in like movie ninja's it doesn't matter how many people you have.  The takeaway from this section is that if you want a unit to be successful then it's my opinion that the first thing that you do is come up with a set of core ideals that define what it means to be a part of that unit.  From my perspective this is giving the unit a heart, something that beats, feels and keeps the unit alive when the inevitable friction occurs from trying to wrangle a bunch of different people.

As a group on the field we mostly used skirmish tactics.  Since most of the people in the unit were accustomed to fighting at REALLY shitty odds the idea of skirmishing suited us well.  Each individual could fight really outnumbered without falling over, either kiting away from enemies or turning them so that another member of the unit could back that group of opponents.  Our motto could have just as easily been "leg 'em and leave 'em" instead of "goblins have no honor, blades have no mercy".  This set of hit and run tactics worked great when the unit was small and consistently outnumbered.  Without having a main group to target opposing teams were stuck trying to pick off relatively strong fighters knowing that if they ever tried to run one of us down they'd very likely wind up getting backed by another member of the unit.  This worked for us for a time when the caliber of each fighter was high enough that they could confidently engage multiple enemies alone, but started to come apart when our formation began to more closely resemble a line, complete with polearms and archers that required protection.  When you outnumber and outgear your enemy flanking quickly becomes irrelevant and all of that stuff begins to fall apart.  The takeaway I think from this is that 1) you need to figure out how the unit is going to fight from the start and 2) your group needs to be comfortable fighting in multiple styles.  Figuring out how the unit is going to fight means that you learn a particular style of combat and focus in on that.  It means that each person you accept into the unit has to train at that particular style of fighting until they're good at it in order for you to succeed.  In the end if your unit has any weak points, that's as strong as you are collectively, because it only takes one person breaking through a line to run an entire units backs.  Now, not every person in your unit is going to be an all star and there's nothing wrong with a team composed of mediocre to average fighters, it just means that you have to learn to fight together, as a team, instead of learning to fight as a set of fast moving individuals.  If you set out with that in mind in the first place, then you can value team fighting over individual skill or flanking, it just means that anyone you absorb into the unit needs to be of the mindset that the goal is to fight together and not for that person to go fight for themselves.  Either composition is valid, you just need to decide on which it is beforehand so you don't wind up in a situation where half your team scatters and the rest of it tries to fight as a line that's outnumbered.  The second bit is that regardless of whether or not you focus on an individuals skill or the skill of a group your team needs to be able to fight in multiple styles/formations.  If your team has an excellent line but has no idea what to do about people flanking your group then that's something that you need to have people work on.  If your team flanks like a boss but has no idea of how a line works then that's also something you need to teach them.

It's my belief that a unit is composed of a group of people who fight together (at least at the outset) which means that if a person is going to belong to a unit they need to be able to gather and fight with the other members of the unit.  A group of people who have decided to make a unit together and don't actually fight, or don't fight with each other, from my perspective is a house and not a unit.  Ideally the group fights together when everyone is in in the same place but this can also happen on smaller scales if people start getting separated by distance.  I am of the belief that if the unit wants to be any kind of real fighting force then they have to actually spend time training together.  As good as any individual of the unit may be in order to be good as a group you have to actually fight together.  This means practicing moving around on a field, having a set of calls that's known to each member of the group, and generally spending time together on and off the field.  Incidentally if you hate the people in your unit and don't want to spend time with them off the field then you probably need to switch units.  Every unit has it's own ideals which creates a sort of odd family from the people who are a part of it.  If you find that those ideals don't sync with your own then that's not a unit you should be a part of.  One thing that the blades did that I thought worked out well was that we each challenged each other towards excellence.  No mercy was ever granted to any member of the unit; when we fought, we fought hard but that didn't mean we were out to hurt each other.  The end goal was to push someone to become more then they were when they first joined the unit, by pushing a person to their limits.  Whenever someone did something awesome the whole group would cheer them on and if a person ever fell short we'd push them to try again.  We kept a watch on each other's backs though and made sure that if a person pushed themselves too hard we pulled them off so that they'd have another chance later.  One of the ways we did this was to encourage constant sparring between unit members.  One of the things that this promotes is an understanding for how your team mates move.  If you fight someone often enough you can sync with them instinctively when they join your team because you know without having to talk to them exactly how they'll move.  So the takeaways being fight together and practice whenever you can.  When you can't do that then fight AGAINST each other so that each member of the unit is familiar with how the other members fight.

As much as fighting and culture are integral to a unit, one of the things that can easily lead to a units downfall is figuring out basic logistics.  The basic logistics of a unit cover things like, who is in charge at any given time (on or off the field), how do people acquire their tabards/membership, how does a new person join the unit, under what circumstances would a person get kicked out of the unit, what happens when a person leaves the unit (voluntarily or otherwise).  Having these things figured out in advance will save you a ton of headache.  Having to figure them out on the fly winds up leading to all sorts of problems.  If you don't know who is running things, whether it's on or off the field then things tend to lead towards chaos.  On the field this means that the group is disorganized and gets run over.  If that's an issue of running the unit and people are confused about what the rules are then they'll get really angry over what should be slight misunderstandings.  This bit me in the ass one year particularly hard because, while the requirements to officially join the group and get a tabard had been printed and on the groups page since something like July, we'd reached January of the next year without a person actually getting a clear understanding of what those requirements were.  Since those requirements included hitting a certain number of events/remote practices in a 3 month period and the individual in question hadn't done that then, from my perspective, they hadn't met the requirements (they'd hit the number of events/remote practices but it had taken them like 6 months).  Unfortunately the person in question hadn't gotten the bit about hitting events in a 3 month period and had just heard the number they had to clear.  When I told them they hadn't met the requirement they basically broke down in tears because they were so frustrated over trying to meet these requirements without actually knowing what they were.  From their perspective the rules had just kept shifting to deny them their tabard when they hadn't actually changed at all.  In the end the group as a whole voted them in and it was put to rest, but had that person had a clear understanding of what those requirements were at the outset then perhaps all of that unpleasantness could have been avoided.  Figuring out the other bits can be just as consequential and lead to similar feelings of frustration, anger, despair or distrust.  So get it figured out ahead of time, and communicate whatever your decisions are the the rest of the group.  Make sure everyone is on the same page all of the time.

To that end, have meetings, and a place to organize.  Now that Facebook is becoming more and more a de facto method of communication it makes a lot of sense to leverage it's tools in order to help everyone stay on the same page.  Having a Facebook page/group I found quite useful.  It gave me a place to put up all the files that covered the answers to the section above; the bylaws for how the unit operated, the oaths for anyone who had forgotten one, as well as things like battle calls and images of the units symbol.  I recommend also starting a group chat in case people have things to discuss but also just to foster hanging out as a group and socializing, (Dunedain do this and it seems to work out well).  Also towards this end I recommend generally getting organized and making people (other then yourself) in charge of various facets of the unit.  Trying to run a unit all by oneself (once it gets to any kind of scale) is exhausting and extremely time consuming.  From the point of inception of your unit try and get help from everyone who joins so that you can offload some of that work onto other people.  In that respect, I failed colossally when it came to running the blades.  The unit was effectively an extension of myself, so when I was doing well the unit flourished, but when I did poorly then the unit decayed because I wasn't able to give it the same amount of energy as when I was doing well.  When I broke my leg 3 years ago that definitely contributed to the unit going down in flames because for 4 months I was effectively a non-entity in the running of the group but I hadn't set up someone else to run the unit while I was down.  When I did finally return to fighting I was almost back to square one and had to re-learn everything, from taking my shots to actually being able to throw wrap shots again.

Hopefully all of this was helpful and you can avoid some of my mistakes and follow some of my examples when things went well.  In the end though each unit is it's own snowflake and it will be up to you to decide what your unit will look like.  Good luck.

Taking it down a notch

I'm doing a way with one the once a week updates.  I haven't been sufficiently on top of things for a while now so I'm officially letting myself off the hook.  It does me no good to stress about not having posts up when life gets in the way and it does you no good to expect something that doesn't arrive.  That being said I will still TRY to update once a week, just at no particularly set schedule.  This blog will continue to exist and be updated for whatever random stuff comes to mind.  Also if people want to keep making requests for posts I'll honor those and make sure that I cover those topics, hopefully sooner rather then later.  If you've got any questions or burning topics you want me to cover feel free to leave a comment below.  Otherwise I'll get stuff up when I can.

Realm leadership

The fundamentals of realm leadership definitely fall into a low complexity high effort scenario.  That is to say that while the basics are simple they are also require tons of time and energy to execute on properly.  Anyone COULD do these things, but most people don't because this is our hobby after all and not our lives.  But let's get into it.

Consistency

The MOST important thing when running a realm is making sure that you pick a practice time that you can show up to consistently.  That means that regardless of how many people are going to show up, you are out there.  Exceptions can be made if 1) the weather is bad enough to permit fighting or 2) there's an event that lines up with your practice time that you encourage your fighters to go to.  That's it.  Otherwise you show up ON TIME to the SAME LOCATION at every instance that you run the practice.  Showing up on time (or a bit early) means that you're always going to be one of the first people there.  This prevents someone from showing up, not seeing anyone around, and then promptly heading home.  When you're first starting a realm it's going to be super common that you have almost no fighters and the ones that you do have may be lax about being on top of things.  As the leader of a realm it's up to you to be the person who is on top of everything.  Showing up to the same location is important because you want to make sure that if someone has seen you in the past they are able to find you again.  It also means that if you've drawn someone in who isn't able to contact or communicate with the rest of the group they aren't left behind because this week you've moved to a different park.  If you want to host multiple practices a week and would like to do so with more then one location that's perfectly fine, so long as for each practice you go to that practice happens in the same place it did the week/month prior.  In California we do practices a week, in many other places they do a practice a month.

Location

The place that you choose to plant yourself is HUGELY important.  The first piece is finding a good bit of ground.  An ideal space to fight on will be soft enough to fall onto which usually means some good grass.  It will also be solid enough that a person isn't likely to injure themselves while moving around, either as a result of potholes, mud, or other hazards.  Finally you need to make sure you have enough room to actually fight so you aren't hemmed in by people who aren't participating in the combat (a problem at a public park) or by obstacles where a person is likely to take a spill on concrete or get injured by running into a flagpole/bench/etc.  An ideal location also has the proper amenities like a source of water to make sure people can hydrate and a bathroom.  As far as starting up a new realm you'll also want to pick a location that has high visibility so that there's a lot of foot traffic in that area.  This promotes people coming up to you and asking about what you're doing.  A sort of final note is trying to find a place that's easy to get to, which includes both having it be a short drive from most locations and making sure that there's also parking once someone gets there.

Gear

First things first, if you're starting a new realm or taking over leading an old one, make sure that you have enough gear to support a bunch of new fighters so that when someone new shows up they can participate.  At the very least this means having a stack of blue weapons that are all relatively similar to pass out to people for them to use.  In an ideal situation you also have a few company shields and a few polearms.  A few spare pairs of gloves is also recommended though by no means required.  People who get to beat up or injured because they don't have the right safety gear to participate will sometimes not come back.  Encourage early on into any new fighters career in the sport that they pick up (minimally) a pair of knee pads and a pair of gloves.  For men recommend a cup.

Ideally if you're starting or leading a realm you should be proficient in all weapon types; single blue, sword and board, florentine, red, spear and archery so that you can teach a person to use any of those safely.  If you can't use one of those weapon sets safely or can't teach someone else to use one of those weapon sets safely then don't let those weapons on your field.  A person who is reckless or inept with almost any weapon set is likely to injure fellow combatants.  While this is true with almost any weapon set the results are particularly nasty when its a board, a spear, a red, or archery.  With a board people will commonly slam that directly into a person's face.  If they catch a person with the edge or the shield is cored this can be super bad.  Spears when used poorly generate really nasty shots to the solar plexus or the face when ramped off a shield.  A read weapon just imparts more force because of the way you can use 2 hands so reckless headshots can become concussions and shots with too much force can lead to general injury in almost any other location.  Archery gear when mistreated is the only thing on a field I really worry about killing a person because they contain pointy bits that can piece skin.

Finally it's a good idea to have at least one person out in garb on the field.  This will provoke a discussion about garb so you can talk to a new person about what it is and why they'll need it.  It is my opinion that the best way to promote garb is to have good garb (rather the minimal garb) out on the field and make it easy for a new fighter to acquire garb.  I am of the opinion that mandating garb at a practice is an extremely stupid practice that only serves to drive would be fighters away.  If you're running the practice it will be up to you how you handle the garb issue but generally speaking encouragement > enforcement.

Culture

Fighting is not just about swinging stick at each other.  Fighting is also about the social aspects of spending time with people you actually enjoy being around.  You can see this by watching what happens when a field has a toxic fighter that no one likes.  Pretty soon either the toxic person leaves because they aren't well liked or the rest of the field leaves because they no longer wish to deal with that individual anymore.  Putting that aside for the moment however, part of making a good realm is making sure that you promote a positive social experience for the people who show up.  This includes encouraging them to fight and applauding their triumphs.  It should go without saying that this involves making sure everyone on the field has good honor as that's one way to quickly have people get angry.  Nothing I can think of is more discouraging as a new person then finally managing to kill someone who is more experienced then you are only to have them then sluff the hit.  The two easiest ways I know of to promote socializing are 1) to call long water breaks (like 15 minutes) so people have some time to hang out without having the break last so long that fighting completely loses momentum and 2) when fighting is done have everyone gather in the same place for food, drinks and conversation as in most cases after fighting folks are either hungry or thirsty and want to talk about their battles.  If you can find a way to bind people together once they're OFF the field that tends to make a realm much more stable.  By having people see fighting as a place to socialize this means that your fighters may show up because they hope to see their friends there as opposed to just because they want to swing stick.  Let me couch that statement though by saying that, at least from my perspective (as views of this differ), it's important to make sure that socializing doesn't take over fighting so that people who came to fight don't stop showing up because they can no longer do that.    Another easy way to bind people together is to help them get organized with a facebook page.  This provides a place for people to socialize outside of fighting and provides an easy thing to refer people to if they have questions.  If you do wind up having to cancel practice for some reason this also makes it easier to communicate that to the people who would be interested.

Handling problems

All of the above stuff is pretty much setting up an idealized environment from which I would expect a realm to thrive while under some individuals leadership but along the way there are plenty of problems you can run into.  So let's touch on those and how to handle each of them.

Consistency - If you know that you are not a person who is good at showing up on time or just bad at making it to practice from week to week (I am one such person) then find someone else who is more dependable then you are to show up on time with your practice's company weapons.  You can always have a co-leader or multiple co-leaders if that's what's required to make sure that practice runs on time, every week/month, and is supplied with weapons.  If you are consistent but find that one week you can't make it because you are going to an event but the rest of the group will not be going to that event see if you can get someone to show up and lead the practice for just that week.

Location - In some cases you won't be able to get all of these things so you'll have to make due with what's available.  If you wind up not having very soft ground to work with encourage people to learn to fight without grappling or really aggressive shieldwork in order to reduce the likelihood of injuries.  If you wind up fighting in a constrained space it's often a good idea to set boundaries using rope with hard edges (when you step outside of them you die instantly) to prevent people from getting themselves in trouble.  If you wind up with hazards directly on the field you're using it's a good idea to have cones available so you can mark these hazards and to announce at the start of combat why the cone is there.  If you find yourself in a place with minimal/no real foot traffic then spend some time outside of practices to promote what you do to get people to come try out your practice.

Gear - If you find that you don't have enough gear to supply the people who have shown up either because you don't have gear, it's been run down, or you simply don't have the things people want to fight with then try to host build sessions often and provide the materials and instruction to new people to show them how to build their own gear.  A quick side note on this which is that new people are notorious for 3 things at build sessions.  The first is the desire to build bad/unfeasible weapons like tonfas (illegal), punch daggers (illegal) or scythes (impractical).  You need to make sure to let a person know ahead of time that those are bad weapon choices.  If they still want to build them anyways by all means let them just as long as you've pointed that out ahead of time.  The second thing that most new people will do is build the longest blue they're able to because they think that having more reach then their opponents will automatically win them the battle.  While this is true initially about a month in it will no longer be the case and instead of winning they'll be losing almost every battle because they've built a weapon that is heavy, poorly balanced, and that they have little to no control over.  Encourage new fighters to build a weapon that makes sense for them by figuring out things like weight and length ahead of time.  Finally new people are notorious for either missing steps or doing steps wrong, so the first time you build a weapon with them watch over them very carefully and have them construct the weapon a SINGLE step at a time.  If you find that you don't have the time to build weapons, either for yourself, the company or for your fighters but you/they have money you can always buy gear online.  My personal recommendation being warlord sports for gear or forged foam.  In many cases there are also people locally who can smith weapons/garb.

Culture - In some cases you'll have bad actors in your group.  This can range anywhere from a person who is fine off the field but a menace on the field to a person who is fine on the field but is a bad actor off the field.  Regardless of the issue if you notice a person is a problem then pull them aside and talk to them about it.  Sometimes people can be doing bad things without even realizing it and all they need is direction.  Other times they won't care that they're doing something bad, and you may need to tell them to leave because 1 fighter isn't worth more then any other fighter.  It's better to have 10 new people who are having fun then 5 people with 1 cheating vet who is making other people not have fun.  If a person isn't taking hits on the field then pull them aside to spar.  Try to get them to calibrate to what a good hit is and be more communicative when you think a good shot has landed but they haven't taken anything.  If you don't mind using communal shame you can also do bear pits where everyone watches combat and calls a person out when they get hit.  If the person is reckless or overly aggressive while on the fighting field talk to the them about toning it down.  If the issue is that they aren't ready to be fighting with a weapon that they're using then take that weapon away until they can demonstrate that they can use it safely.

If a person is being a problem off the field either because they have a bad attitude or because they are creeping on the ladies then have a conversation with them.  If they have no intention of reforming they behavior make it clear you don't want them to show up anymore.  Everyone who participates in fighting needs to feel safe doing so both on and off the field.  As a realm leader it is up to YOU to provide this for anyone who shows up and that may mean removing some people from the community if it's clear that they are going to be bad actors.

Building drills

A post about building drills seemed particularly apt as folks in the area go about taking the time to learn the skills they do not yet posses especially when it comes to working with a group of people.  The reason being that unless you're focused on what you want to accomplish time spent training is often wasted.  In order to get to where you're going you need to focus and put the time in.  Drills are an excellent tool for isolating new skills but only when you make sure that the drill that you are doing is actually training you to develop the skill you want.  I know that's vague... we'll get into it.

Tell Me What You Want

The first part of making any kind of drill is being able to come up with an idealized end result of a drill.  Once a person has participated in your drill what specific thing, or mechanic do you want that person to have learned?  Try to get it down to as concrete an idea as you can.  As one example when teaching footwork, one of the goals in pursuit of mastery, is to teach a person to keep their legs the right width apart.  This is to avoid letting that person get flat footed or off balance.  As a sort of counterbalance I have a separate goal of making sure that the person I'm teaching doesn't cross their feet, by either having their feet be parallel (flat footed) or by putting their back foot directly behind their front foot (a common fencing technique which is bad for bel).  I start by knowing exactly what the outcome I'm trying for is when I start thinking about what the drill I'm working on needs to teach.

Keep It Simple Stupid

One of the mistakes that's common when trying to teach a person something new is information overload.  When a new fighter is trying to pick up the basics there is SO much to learn.  While it may be tempting to give a new person everything at once that likely means that they won't retain much of it.  The bits that they do manage to hold onto may have also been learned incorrectly because they were distracted by trying to hold onto too much information.  So, when teaching someone anything, it's important to make sure that in addition to isolating what you want an end outcome of your training to be, that you also make sure you have small, attainable goals.  If your end goal is to be the best florentine fighter you can be that's not something that can easily be cut down into a series of discrete drills.  If however your goal is to stop giving up the chicken wing, that's a much easier task to break down and is easier to build a drill for.  When I teach people I tend to do it in sections so for one day I do JUST footwork.  Another day is JUST upper body stuff (blocks, strikes, etc).  At each stage I check to make sure they retained the information from before and either move forward, or go back to bits that haven't stuck yet.

Just The Shiny Bits

Another common mistake when teaching/building drills is to build a drill in such a way that you don't actually have to learn the skill you are trying to impart to a person.  People will tend to do the things that they know how to do, or whatever comes naturally to them, so when you're trying to get a person to do something new you have to set up a scenario where it's the ONLY way to be successful.  If you set up a scenario where it's possible to do things the "wrong" way or to avoid learning the relevant skill you're trying to teach then you've reduced the effectiveness of your drill down to sparring.  Sure, a person may eventually learn the thing that you're trying to teach them but as far as building a drill you've pretty much failed.  As one example of this there's a closing drill that I built wherein one person gets a short blue weapon and the other person gets a long red weapon.  It's to first blood.  This means that if the person with the short weapon doesn't engage they'll eventually get hit by the red weapon.  If the person engages but fails to block then they'll get hit first and still lose.  The only way for them to win is to close the gap first, block their opponents attack second, and then when they are in range of their opponent swing.  While they can certainly experiment with other approaches they'll keep being punished by their opponent until they learn to do that particular thing.  As a person having been on the short sword side of this, it is a hard drill, but totally doable and totally valuable once mastered.

Setting Up The Right Scenario

As important as it is to make sure you don't teach the wrong things it's important to make sure you've set up a scenario that teaches the right things.  This tends to be more clear when talking about drills related to field work rather then when talking about drills where it's one on one.  If you fail to do a good job of setting up a scenario where a person will need to use the skills you're trying to impart on a 1v1 you basically get a spar.  In a field scenario if you don't manage to isolate the relevant skills then you wind up getting some version of a field battle.  Both of these scenarios have their place in order to hone an individuals or a groups skill, however if you're trying to teach something specific you need to be very careful in how you set it up.  Recently at a moot Norcalia was attempting to set up training for "kill squads".  The idea was to give us practice at beating groups that had effective groups of flankers with lower numbers.  The scenario that was set up had uneven teams (a good start) where the more veteran fighters were on one side (also an important component) and the newer fighters were on the other side.  Then the field was set up so that an objective was placed behind the newer but more numerous group (henceforth team noob) with the idea being that the smaller more veteran force (henceforth team vets) was supposed to make it back there in order to score.  If they were able to do the idea was (presumably) that someone from team vets (from the perspective of a field battle) would have been able to do significant damage to team noob.  As the field was set though an important piece of this battle wasn't implemented, which is to say that team vets didn't have an room to move.  Team noob was wide enough that they took up the entire width of the field, so rather then having to practice working together and avoiding giving up their flanks the drill wound up being about line tactics and teamwork for killing more veteran fighters.

While this is a valid skill to learn, from what I understood, it's not what the drill was designed to teach because part of the scenario that was needed was missing.  In order for this to work the field would have to be rotated so that even though team noob greatly outmassed team vets team noob would feel the press of being engaged from multiple angles and would have to try to find a way to be both cohesive, so they didn't get split up and then backed repeatedly but also in large enough numbers that they could win against superior opponents.  To do this effectively team noob would need to find a formation that's looser then a line but still packed close enough together to avoid losing their numbers advantage to angles.  Theoretically they'd eventually come up with small independent groups that moved near each other without actually being one single formation.  Additionally if they made the gaps between groups too big they'd get punished by having a cone in back which anyone from team vet could easily get to.  This is the difference between teaching a thing that's useful and the thing you actually wanted to teach.  Usually when designing drills it comes down to the minutiae about how and why a person can exploit the idea you've initially set up to help teach something new.

Have Fun With It

Assuming that you've - 1) identified the concrete skill you want to teach, 2) have limited the scope of what you're trying to teach to either a single concrete idea (like closing) or simple skill (like basic footwork) set 3) have set up the drill in such a way that a person can't complete the drill by doing something other then learning the skill set you're trying to teach and 4) you've managed to replicate that appropriate scenario in which that particular skill set is relevant - the last thing remaining is to try to make it fun.  One of the old fallbacks for learning any kind of new skill is simply working on a pel to try and perfect the body mechanics behind a set of strikes or footwork.  As you scale for number of people this becomes problematic but for most people it's also pretty boring.  If you can turn the drill into some form of game so that it's something that a person actually wants to do even when they aren't trying to learn the particular skill your drill will impart.  I've got a host of these if anyone is ever curious but for now I'll just do a few examples of silly drills and what they teach as some concrete examples of these theories in action.

No Soren Left Behind

Probably my favorite battle modifier of all time is the no Soren left behind drill.  In this scenario you play with small teams, once any member of your team dies, the entire team wipes.  Typically this is done with small numbers (because the more people you add the more confusing it can be).  The idea behind this drill is to teach teamwork, so that no member of the team runs off by themselves and gets killed (taking the team with them).  It encourages people on a team to block for each other and try to fight when they have advantage so that they can get kills without taking injury as anyone who takes 2 injuries then wipes their team.  It encourages people not to go for suicide kills in which they take out an enemy by throwing themselves at that individual because even if they get the kill their team still loses.  The drill came about when during training a guy named soren refused to work with his team.  He would run headfirst into the enemy and either win on his own or lose instantly after which point his team then also usually lost because they were now down a person.  This drill forced him to work with his team because if he ran into the enemy headfirst and died then his team wiped.  If he ran away from his team and one of his enemies was able to kill one of his teammates then he also died even if he was the better fighter.  Eventually he had to learn to fight with his teammates, trying to use them to avoid getting killed himself, while also protecting them from other fighters.  As I close it out going through those 4 tenants again.  1) At the end of the day the skill to impart is covering one's teammates and learning to work together 2) the scope of drill is limited only to teamwork without respect to positioning, skill, or gear 3) if a person doesn't work with their team and either dies or lets a teammate die then they immediately lose 4) the scenario is one in which you have a team fighting multiple other teams so that you can only win or lose together.  As for it being fun, you'll just have to try and it see if you like it as much as I do :-P.

Circle of Fire

The circle of fire is fun but also on the more brutal side of things.  It starts with between 1 and 3 people in the middle of a ring of fighters depending on how many people you have left over once you form the ring.    All of the participants are armed with whatever weapons they desire although projectiles are probably not a good idea.  The people in the circle get to weapons length from the people in the center of the ring.  Then they take two BIG steps back.  Lay on is then called by the people in the center of the circle.  At that point all of the people in the circle can start walking towards the combatants in the center.  The combatants in the center's goal is to get outside of the ring, or, kill a person who is closing in on them before they are eliminated.  If they simul with another fighter when the battle resets they go back into the middle.  If the combatants in the center don't immediately go for an engage after lay on is called they'll quickly be surrounded on all sides and killed because they'll have no way out.  What most people do is try to shoot the gaps between individuals in an effort to get out of the circle.  95% of the time this leads to them getting killed repeatedly as it means 2 people are swinging for their back.  The way to be successful is to hard engage DIRECTLY AT one of the people on the outside of the circle, either killing them outright or going through them.  If a fighter does manage to make it to the outside of the circle they then get to choose which person adjacent to where they exited takes their place in the center.  If they managed to kill someone outright before dying then that person takes their place.  1) The skill to impart is being able to win a hard engage 2) the scope of the drill is limited to breaking through a line 3) if a person fails to hard engage or fails to break through then they have to keep trying until they are successful 4) the scenario is one in which the only way they can move is by breaking through a line.  I happen to have a blast at this one, but it may well be because I'm just a masochist.  That having been said when you start on the inside and make it out there's a huge adrenaline rush for it.

FAD / Samurai

Ah... the Fucking/Fairly (depending on if there are kids nearby) Awful Drill which also became a tournament one year at Phoenix Rising.  Really made my event :D.  For those of you who weren't there here's how it works.  Everyone participating fights with a single blue sword or bat (no flails!).  The weapon may only be wielded with one hand on the handle.  The weapon is then held at a person's waist with their other hand as though being held in a sheathe.  When the weapon leaves their hip the individual is allowed to swing ONLY ONCE although they may block as normal.  Before the individual can swing again they must first return their weapon to their hip.  This simple modifier can be applied to any battle and we've been generically calling it "samurai style".  The point of this bit of the drill is to teach accuracy and the value of feints over throwing many shots or relying on shot combos.  To get all the way to the fucking awful drill two additional components are usually added.  The first being that instead of doing the fights with your dominant hand you fight with your off hand in order to increase it's dexterity without having to worry about putting as much strain on it from repeated swings and blocks.  Finally the fights are done to first blood (/first injury) so that if a person doesn't land their first swing their chances of dying are much higher.  Regardless of whether or not you use your off hand this drill requires you to be accurate because you can't use shot volume in order to win.  It also requires that you block or dodge successfully since you can't trade limbs, as any loss of limb is an instant loss.  Since this is simply a set of modifiers you can apply it whenever you want to to add some spice to whatever you're doing.  At phoenix rising we did it as a tournament in which people had to fight 1v1 but when it officially got its title we were doing it with ditch king battles (which we started calling shogunate battles instead :-P).  1) the concrete skills are; shot placement, shot speed, and effective blocking 2) the scope of the drill is limited to fighting with single blues so that everyone has approximately the same reach 3) if a person fails to block they die, if a person fails to land shots quickly they'll trade and simul, if a person fails to throw shots accurately they'll miss and then likely die due to retaliation 4) the scenario for this one is more nebulous as all that's really required is people to fight using the same rule set as you are.  I find that this set of modifiers tends to instantly up the intensity of fighting because it makes each swing so much more precious.

The Possibilities Are Infinite

In the end so long as your rule set for any particular drill revolves around the basic book of war rules for combat your only real limitation is your imagination.  There are more drills I have dreamt up then I can probably ever write down but if you're ever curious come talk to me about it and I'm sure I'll be able to either pull something out of my archives or come up with something new custom tailored to fit the situation at hand.  But until then feel free to try any of the above drills mentioned and let me know if you had fun with them.

Absolutely exhausted

I'm going to kick the post for today into tomorrow.  I'll have the update in the afternoon.

How Not to Get Injured

I got asked for a post on how to avoid injury so that's what you all get this evening.  Much of this will be re-hashing bits and pieces of previous posts but now it's just putting everything in the same place.  Also if you didn't know you can ask me to write about things that interest you.  I have to come up with something to pull out of my brain once a week so I'm happy to take prompts.  In an effort to be straightforward I'm skipping any sort of cleverness to let you know that this is serious stuff.  While serious injuries in Belegarth tend to be relatively rare when compared with other full contact sports they certainly happen from time to time.  If you intend to participate in Bel for the long haul knowing what you can do to avoid any kind of serious injury becomes increasingly important, especially if you are less tall, or less muscular as that makes you more prone to injury off the bat.

Start With The Right Gear

The right gear starts with sufficient safety equipment for whatever you do.  That varies from person to person based on how they fight and what they expect to be doing.  A person who uses a shield in one hand isn't going to require as much padding on that hand as someone who fights florentine or with a red.  If you're an archer you need a different set of equipment to protect your fingers and your arm from the bowstring.  If you expect to be a very mobile fighter, or are heavy set a nice pair of kneepads is going to be crucial.  As a florentine fighter I prefer lacrosse gloves to that end as they don't inhibit the motion of my wrists (after some modification) but still provide me with a lot of protection over the entirety of my hand.  A sword and board fighter might prefer lighter gloves because presumably they'll get railed in the hand less often then a florentine or red fighter and may instead opt for some heavy bag gloves.  As far kneepads if you plan on falling hard onto the ground a set of kneepads that includes a hard shell is a must, this is what I'd recommend for more mobile fighters.  If you are heavy set and planning to drop to your knees in a line it's going to be more important to have kneepads that have a fair amount of cushion so that you can be comfortable pivoting on them for an extended period of time.

The right gear also includes the weapons that you fight with.  Step one is to make sure that the weight of the weapon suites you.  Fighting with a weapon that's too heavy for you to manipulate correctly will likely cause you to strain some of your own muscles (usually your wrist), especially when you have to deal with other people blocking and manipulating your weapon.  Having a weapon that's too heavy to handle is also going to make it more likely that you injure someone else with that weapon.  A weapon can also be unwieldy (and thus likely to cause injury) if the balance for it is off in a way that you're not used to.  A red weapon that's excessively tip heavy is one example where even if you are strong enough to lift and swing the weapon you may still not be able to control it well.  Shorter melee weapons like bats, clubs, swords and the like with a different point of rotation then you're accustomed to may also cause you to injure yourself because they screw up how you throw wrap shots.

If you find that you are a sword and board fighter then the kind of board that you use will also be very important.  It's important to make sure that the board you pick isn't too heavy and is strapped in such a way that you can hold it easily.  This will reduce fatigue and also make sure you aren't going to mess up your wrist, elbow or shoulder.  I highly recommend that shorter fighters avoid using round shields.  There is nothing inherently wrong with round shields, but by their shape, shots that are aimed to the left or right of the shield have a higher tendency of riding the edge of the shield up into a face shot.  So if your head is already at an opponents waist height and your shield deflects shots up you run the risk of getting hit in the head A LOT even if the other person isn't throwing any inherently dangerous shots.  To counteract this you can keep the shield in front of you if you're going to use a round rather then having it rest near your chin.  Better yet, flare it out to the side so that shots that ride up the edges aren't angled directly into your face.  Ideally though get a square or kite shield.  The square edges at the top of the shield make it so that there's no chance that a shot to the shields left or right will wind up riding the edge into your face.

There's some extra gear that you can get that will increase your safety to certain locations.  As a man getting a cup comes highly recommended.  If you're going to be on a field that has a lot of arrows a helmet or face mask is recommended in order to keep arrows out of your eyes.  If you feel like taking a hit from a normal swing is unpleasant you may want to consider armor just for the additional protection it adds.  In particular chest armor that covers the solar plexus can save you from some particularly nasty polearm stabs.

Prep For Combat

One really easy way to get injured is to show up on the field at less then 100%.  This can just be that you haven't had nearly enough sleep to be out fighting.  It can be that you're not sufficiently hydrated or protected from the sun so you're more likely to overheat.  This can also be because you haven't had enough food or water to have the right fuel to be out fighting.  Some days it's just that you're too distracted to be able to focus.

This can also be an injury.  No matter how safe you are, if you fight on an injury you wind up risking RE-injury, at which point the damage is gong to be much worse then it was the first time.  I am not a good example of doing this particular thing, so do as I say not as I do.  Realize that there are fighters who are perpetually injured now because they keep pushing themselves to fight before they've healed completely so they never quite get themselves patched up.  Don't become one of the perpetually broken.  To that end taking the time to warm up with some light sparring and then stretching to stay limber.  Some light sparring will make you focused and awake which you'll want to be before jumping into a larger fight.

Take Safe Shots

Most of the basic shots that you can throw are going to have a low chance for self injury.  It tends to be the more complex shots that if interrupted can really screw up your joints.  It's important for a person to learn to throw shots smoothly before they advance to throwing shots quickly and in combat when another person will be interrupting your swings.  If you attempt a shot that you don't really know how to throw properly you are can injure yourself.  If you attempt that same shot and someone interrupts your shot mechanics then you can really mess yourself up by having your joints be in a bad place to absorb the impact from your opponents manipulation.  Wrap shots in particular, if thrown wrong can apply some bad torque to joints.  Throwing shots safely also includes not swinging at an archers arrows, as if those get broken they represent an immediate hazard to everyone in the immediate vicinity.

As a part of shot mechanics your footwork will also be important.  Having good footwork and balance as you fight is really important to avoid injury in a game like Bel where there is grappling and shield bashing.  If you're standing then having crossed legs makes you more likely to fall when rushed leading to a potential concussion from when you hit the ground.  If you are on a leg and you cross your legs then they run the risk of getting mangled if someone decides to do aggressive shieldwork on you in the wrong way.  Similarly being off balance may make shield bashing more dangerous when it's used against you, especially if the person doing the shield manipulation isn't very experienced.

How you position the rest of your body as you swing is also important.  In particular when you swing, (especially if you're swinging low) make sure that you don't put your head forward but rather keep it back and in line with your body.  Any time you wind up changing the vertical position of your head from high to low you run the risk of intercepting a shot that was aimed for your torso.  If you know that you're about to execute a maneuver that puts your head in harms way, be ready to block that area as soon as humanly possible.  Bel prohibits hopping on one leg for exactly this reason, but if your particular foam sword sports allows hopping on one leg, I'd recommend against it.

Learn How To Block (Properly)

There are a million ways to block a weapon wrong and nearly as many ways to block a weapon correctly.  If you don't feel confident blocking a full red swing with one hand then it might be worth seeking out a vet to teach you how to really block well.  Even if you aren't particularly muscular by leveraging proper body mechanics you can absorb the force of a swing with your body rather then with your wrist or arms which will allow you to block most swings from most people without any kind of significant discomfort.  If you find that there's someone who is swinging wildly so that you are afraid to engage them, then don't.  Go to another part of the field, find someone else to fight.  You may want to additionally alert a herald that a particular fighter makes you feel unsafe.  At a time when a fight isn't going on you may also want to approach that particular individual and let them know that the way they handle their weapon scares you.  Even as an old vet I occasionally have a talk with someone about the amount of force they are delivering with their weapon seems to me to be a bit excessive and ask them to tone it down.

Know Where You're Standing

Certain areas of a field are way more dangerous then others.  Being part of the back line in a fight is usually the safest place to be as it's got the fewest bodies in it and as a result the lowest likelihood for there to be a problem.  The flanks tend to be the next safest spot because while there are more people on the edges then in the back there's enough room to move around so if someone gets themselves into a bad situation they can usually then get out of the way.  The flanks have their own danger in that with everyone moving around quickly it's important to communicate death and get out of the way in a hurry once you've dropped.  Usually though there's enough space to evade the fight that's still going on, or you're close enough to the edge of a field to clear.

The most dangerous place to be in any given battle is the line.  This is even more dangerous if the field is constrained (like in a bridge battle).  A line has the most moving bodies and tends to roll forwards and backwards quickly.  If you are killed while being part of a line walk AWAY from the enemy team while dying, or if you're on the edge of the map then immediately off the map as you die.  DO NOT drop down in between lines.  That is an excellent way to get trampled.  Line fights tend to have red weapons that throw shots from high to low aiming for either shields or shoulders.  If you are fighting on a line be aware of these weapons and make sure that you are either behind the line and therefore covered, or that if you have a shield your guard is a bit higher then usual.  If you know in advance that you're going to spend most of your time on a line I'd recommend a helmet.  Not only will this absorb some of the impact should you get hit in the head but it will also keep arrows out of your eyes, which will not usually a source of injury are certainly unpleasant.

Communicate

We have the hold call for a reason.  If you are injured immediately shout hold.  If you see someone else go down, immediately shout hold.  If you are fighting an opponent and they are about to back into a hazard, let them know.  If you see an arrow or weapon break out on the field, call hold, as even if this isn't your own gear it creates a hazardous situation for everyone, ESPECIALLY if that weapon is an arrow.  If for whatever reason the wind is knocked out of you, get away from the fighting if you can and throw a hand up, usually someone will notice that something is wrong and help ensure your safety while you recover.  Having received some nasty shots to the solar plexus I've definitely been there.  Communication is also relevant in a group situation to let your teammates know exactly where you're standing.  This can prevent your team from running into you or, as a support weapon having someone sprint backwards right into you.  This applies even if you're dead.  If you notice a person is sprinting backwards right into you, say something, or, if you can, get out of the way.

When All Else Fails

Use common sense.  Most of us have self preservation instincts so if your body tells you that something is probably not a good idea, listen.  If your best judgement tells you that you shouldn't be standing where you are because you're likely to get injured, listen.  In the end while there are lots of things the fighters around you can do to try and keep you safe the final custodian of your safety is you.