I've talked about lots of individual bits over different posts. I may try to run down all the fragmented bits later for a deeper dive, but for now I'm just going to dive into things. Tactics as I'll use it in this particular post refers to one of three things. The first being the position of the people on your team. The second being the equipment of the people on your team. The third being the way that the people on your team move. I'll dig into each one of those a bit later. Doing a good job of tactics is what allows you to "win at math". (Full post
here). The basic idea is that you kill them faster then they kill you. This effect generally dominoes so that areas of local advantage (part of a line, say 5v5 out of a 50v50 person fight) is able to start cascading into largely regional and then global field advantage. Tactics, if used effectively can also blunt the effect of having "lost at math". Tactics help but aren't the solution to every problem. If you don't have the right gear or the right people there may not be much you can do, no matter how well you move or position your fighters and strategic resources.
Strategic Resources
Everyone on the field represents some kind of strategic resource. Some of those resources are much rarer then others and as a result need much better protection. That having been said no resource is something you want to have to do entirely without. Resources on the field generally break down into one of -
commanders,
flankers,
counter-flankers,
shield wall,
polearms,
archers. You might argue that high skill cap vets are their own resource but typically they'll be one of those positions out on the field.
Commander
A commander is someone who uses their voice to help engage in the fight. By keeping their eyes wide open and not directly engaging in combat they are able to protect the resources in front of them from picks by the opposing team, whether that's an archer taking out a support weapon, or a flanker getting into the side. To re-iterate a commander must not engage in combat in order to remain effective. I wrote more on command and some of these ideas in a post called "
making your voice heard." If they are looking all around them then they aren't focused on the person in front of them and will die in a fight. If they are focused on the person in front of them so they aren't getting killed then they aren't looking all around them. Commanders tend to be people who have a fair amount of experience at fighting but don't necessarily need to be a fighter with high individual skill. If they can learn to do tactics well and stand in the right place it's the effectiveness of the fighters on their team that matter rather then what they themselves can accomplish. While it's generally good to limit how many commanders you have so that people aren't shouting out different sets of orders you also need enough command to cover your entire line. If it's small enough one commander will do, but if it stretches out long enough then it's a good idea to add voices along a line until the will of the main commander stretches across the entire group. In my experience with a large army there tends to be a primary commander who is responsible for deciding where the unit moves and who it engages, 3 line commanders (right, left, center) who monitor their fights, trying to get a local advantage while also making sure that they don't break off or spread to thin relative to the rest of the line, and a commander for the rear of the unit, who manages reserve troops, watches for flankers, and generally makes sure that the group as a whole doesn't get pinned, side swiped or otherwise run over.
Flanker
Flankers are anyone whose goal is to fight not with the rest of the group. A person who is flanking is by no means limited to a person who simply runs wide and goes for backs. Flankers seek to use their positioning relative to their team to put the enemy team into a bind. This can be done by creating 45 degree angles ("death triangles" if you've heard Bhak'dar's talks) or finding a weak point in a line to run through. Standing behind the enemy team if you can get there also works, or just looking to pick of high priority targets like archers / polearms if you can find either an angle to get to them or have a javelin or other projectile to hit them. Flankers tend to be high skill cap fighters because of the requisite skill involved in being able to fight outnumbered, move correctly in a hostile field, and generally work either alone or in small groups. You do not NEED to be a high skill cap fighter to be an effective flanker. Simply standing in the right place is often enough even if you never swing. That having been said it's best to have at least one high level veteran in a squad of flankers. Flankers, generally speaking are looking for any weak or vulnerable points in an enemies composition in order to, as quickly as possible, create a massive advantage for their side. As such flankers need to be extremely fleet of foot as an extended engagement is almost always going to get them killed.
Counter Flankers
Counter-flankers
do the reverse of what flankers do as far as positioning they're much closer to commanders then anything else. In some cases people will also refer to counter flankers as reserves. I think that reserves imply something different but I don't want to waste time arguing over terminology. Counter flankers should not engage in combat unless they are forced to do so. The goal of having people stay out of the fight is to get that wide area view of whats going on and then be able to respond intelligently to changing situations. Similar to a commander they need to avoid combat and use their voice to communicate the state of the field around them unlike a commander, when they see that something is wrong they need to quickly act to correct the problem. Generally speaking a counter flanker is going to be a good response to a person flanking and trying to get around the sides but they aren't limited to just watching for flankers. A counter flanker can also step in any time they see that either a the enemy team is about to push to gain a local advantage (move defensively) or that by adding themselves to part of a line they can generate a local advantage (move offensively). In the case where they move defensively this can either be to add people to a weak point so it doesn't get run over, it can be filling a gap in the line that a flanker or group of enemies may be angling for or it can be responding to a veteran or support weapon that threatens to crush part of the line. A counter-flanker can move offensively as well either by urging teammates to exploit a local advantage and overrun a weaker line/opponent or they can stand in as a piece of the shield wall or as a support weapon if it looks like that additional defense or offense in a section of the line is enough to generate a local advantage.
Shield Wall
As a member of the
shield wall there's a number of important tasks for a fighter of this type of strategic resource and contrary to popular belief all of the tasks are important. As part of a shield wall a fighter needs to; absorb ALL incoming projectiles to make sure they don't hit support weapons, counter flankers, or commanders, protect the support weapons that are next to them by intercepting all stabs thrown within ranks, as well as slashes thrown in a
v (opponents to the left or right of a fighter, rather then directly to the opponent in front of them), a shield wall is also responsible for the pacing at which the group moves as a whole and a veteran group of shield wall fighters will know both how to stick together so that they don't spread out and create free opportunities for the enemy but will also know when to retreat slowly or engage aggressively to keep pressure on the opposing team. Veteran members of a shield wall should be able to do all of those tasks, newer members to a shield wall need to do all the bits except for pacing because they can simply mirror the people around them. An added bonus as a skill is learning how to keep a shield from getting pelted by red weapons so that it breaks instantly. This can be accomplished with clever maneuvering, keeping the shield out in front or otherwise blocking/deflecting incoming strikes.
It is dangerous to block red weapons with things that are not a shield. If you are going to do so please exercise extreme caution and learn proper technique. A shield wall is NOT responsible for racking up a kill count. The shield wall gets kills if the people in front of them are in some way injured so that the shield wall rolls over them or they get a snipe in a
v (target left or right, see above).
Polearms
Polearms are any weapon with enough reach to be able to hit an enemy without having to fear retaliation for the purposes of this discussion. That is a distinct and different class of weapons from reds as a read weapon may not be able to reach a target without immediately getting a person murdered. The recent fad of mid red swords, at least in my opinion, are not polearms and as such are better suited to a flanking position or at the end of a line rather then in the thick of it. Polearms, in my eyes, generally include anything 6' and over, whether that's a glaive or a spear.
As a
spear on the line your goal is to rack up as many shots per second as you can, while making sure you don't throw anything dangerous that could injure someone. The ideal target for a spear is an opposing red weapons arms, as once the first arm is crippled they can no longer throw red shots. After that eliminating opposing spears allow them the freedom to stab without fear of retaliation. Once those two primary targets are taken care of it's time to stab with reckless abandon. You only need 3 shots to be effective with a spear. The first shot is to an opponents shin. The target is large enough that you should be able to hit it even though it will skip to the side. This deprives that shield of movement and means that the people they are fighting will run them over. The second shot is to pop a shield open which is taken to a shields outer edge at the middle line of the shield. A shot taken towards the edge on their shield side opens that opponent up to a shot from your teammates on their left, a shot to the edge of the shield towards their outside will open them up to a shot from your teammate directly in front of them or to their right. Generally speaking, avoid crossing too many people when throwing spear shots as the further out you stab and the longer you are exposed the more likely it is that something will go wrong. The final shot is any open gut shot that you see. Typically when (new) people are fighting in a line their opponent will cause them to move their shield away from covering their torso creating an opportunity that someone with reach can exploit.
As a
red on the line your goal is to destroy as many shields as fast as you can. Legging opponents is fine if you can't get to shields, and trying to get body shots is alright if you are fast enough to land them. That having been said, kill all the shields. A person who is on the shield wall without a shield or cover from a person with a shield is going to get chewed up in seconds by other support weapons, other shields or even your own archers. As a red your goal is to kill shields as fast as humanly possible while also making sure that you aren't doing something that will injure your opponents. DO NOT take this comment as a suggestion that you should start throwing 12-6 as fast as you can. That is undeniably reckless and leads to injury.
Archers
An archer will share attributes with many of the other types of resources on the field and may overlap with them some. For instance you can have an archer who is also a commander or an archer that goes with the flanks, or even an archer that sits just behind the lines as a counter-flanker. To that end there are 2 basic kinds of archers that exist which you could generally call mobile vs immobile archers but which I've started to call combat archers vs snipers.
A
combat archer is a person who is extremely fleet of foot and uses their positioning and mobility to line up and take shots that would normally be impossible to get. Generally speaking they don't have any kind of guard but rely on staying near teammates to avoid getting pinched or backed by the enemy. If they choose to move with a flank this gives the flank the ability to hit remote targets without a hard engage. If they stick to the line then they should be able to eliminate enemy polearms pretty quickly. It's generally recommended that a person opting to fight in this way keeps a spare set of weapons on them and has a more limited number of arrows on hand. Since they'll be moving around a lot they can easily scavenge arrows from the ground. The caveat is that as this kind of archer you're more likely to get rushed, you have to shoot under pressure, no one is protecting you and you may get hit by stray projectiles like rocks and javelins. Also cardio... all the damn cardio.
As a
sniper an archer is going to stand far back relative to the line meaning that they can mostly ignore projectiles and keep a wide view of combat. As a sniper the goal is to have as large a quiver as possible and a small escort so that you can fire without being under pressure. This should allow a person to make difficult or long range shots, allow them to head hunt commanders, flankers, and other archers. If they have targets they can pick on the line (SAFELY) then of course they should hunt for those as well, but in the middle of a pitched melee they won't have much to shoot at on the line. It is my opinion that an archer's primary job is to kill enemy leadership, to basically snipe anyone giving instructions so that the opposing team falls into disarray. After that enemy archers are the priority so that they can shoot without being under pressure. Then you get high priority targets like veterans (these can include polearms on the line) or flankers and finally you get to polearms on the line. As a general rule of thumb archers shouldn't be aiming at sword and board fighters simply because arrow for arrow they're likely to do more damage firing at literally any other target. It's not to say they can't, shouldn't, or never ought to, it's just to say they should really consider what targets they aren't shooting at to try and head shot that one fighter.
Whew. moving on.
The Line / One Concrete Example
I touched on this briefly in a post on
battle calls but positioning boils down to the speed at which you move and the formation that you take both for yourself (internal cohesion) and vs your enemy (posturing).
Internal cohesion is the process of creating or maintaining a shape relative to your yourself.
Posturing is about how you are positioned in response to your enemies formation. Internal cohesion can take many forms, though the the most common of these is a line with a flank on one side, the archers in the back, and counter flankers/commanders staggered along but behind the line. This is so common that most people don't even think about internal cohesion but simply adopt this by default. There are many different shapes a group can take while maintaining internal cohesion but let's talk about a line first before moving on to other things.
In a line the main point of failure for internal cohesion is a failure of the shield wall as the rest of the group isn't in any particular formation. Internal cohesion is lost when members of the shield wall do not keep pace with one another and instead of forming a line form something more like a squiggle. This positioning causes members of the line to vulnerable to attack from the sides (the main thing the line is supposed to prevent). A line is great anytime there are enclosed spaces that prevent a person from flanking. A line is vulnerable to being manipulated over large spaces (stretched out, rotated, getting the people to have bad pacing/movement) as well as getting hit from multiple directions (as in a free for all) of getting attacked on it's sides. A wall that stretches out loses the strength of it's formation as people next to each other can no longer cover each other and prevent projectiles from passing through. A line that's facing not directly towards it's enemies is also in trouble because it has no strength anywhere other then the front of the line. A line's position relative to the opposing force is the result of posturing regardless of how well (or poorly) that line maintains it's internal cohesion.
A line that has good internal cohesion will not have gaps between the shields that are part of the shield wall which will prevent projectiles from passing behind it. Having a tightly knit front end of the wall will also provide adequate cover for the associated polearms while keeping projectiles out will provide cover to commanders/counter flankers. Counter flankers in this scenario will read the relative strength and weakness of the line[defined/discussed as 'weight' later on] along it's length and posture offensively or defensively as is needed to gain a local advantage or negate the opposing team from gaining one. In cases where the line stretches for most of the boundary of the field but not all of it, counter flankers will head out to the side where they do not have a flank and protect it from incoming fighters. The side that has a flank will fan out and try to cause an opposing line to either fight at two angles, (directly in front and to their side) or will cause the enemy line to spread thin thereby creating local advantage for the part of the line facing the weakened enemy section. Archers will add to the chaos by picking of VIP's further tilting areas for
local (the people fighting in front of, next to and across from you),
regional (left, center, right, some other subsection), or
field (everyone)
advantage. Taking out a polearm in a fight between 4v4 might create a local advantage. Taking out a commander or an enemy archer might create a regional advantage and taking out the enemy's primary commander can create a field level advantage. As the battle commences the side with better team mechanics will start to gain local advantages that then spill over into a large group advantage as regional part of the field collapses to either superior numbers, skill, gear or in some cases just bad luck (like getting backed by a flanker). The first team to establish a regional advantage USUALLY wins though in some cases (like the right side of both teams winning utterly) the remaining bits of a team that won a regional advantage will now re-orient and fight for a final victory. Teams then reset and the battle usually then continues without any real adjustments. That's where posturing comes in.
Posturing / Weight Class / Pressure
For the sake of trying to avoid giving myself a headache I'm going to mostly talk about 2 team scenario's rather then something like a unit or realm battle with multiple teams. The same general theories will apply it'll just be at multiple angles. Multi team battles are their own separate logistical nightmare although the rules of strategic resources and how to manage them still matter. At the start of a battle when folks line up line to line you want to take into account the relative weight of forces in any particular area of the line. The
weight of the forces in an area is roughly speaking the fighting acumen of the fighters in that section (vets vs noobs) and the number of people in that area. An area densely packed with nothing but noobs is going to be relatively light, an area packed with a bunch of average fighters is going to be of medium weight and an area with a few vets, densely packed vets, or vets and competent/average fighters will be relatively heavy. The amount of weight in a given area is effectively the amount of force that a person can apply. The amount of force a person can apply is effectively the same as the amount of
pressure that a force can apply. When talking about a group a heavy force applies a lot of pressure and causes a more realistic threat that people will respond to. When talking about a single individual depending on their relative skill/ability will apply more or less pressure their pressure is also usually pretty proportionate to their 1 step range as unless a person is far away that is the threat of force that they can realistically apply so long as they are being watched. Archers and flankers, even though they are individuals apply a disproportionate amount of pressure. For an archer they can hit everyone so they are effectively threatening everyone they can see when they knock an arrow. A flanker is someone that requires watching regardless of their 1 step threat range because should they happen to make it past the angle of the main line they can wipe out a large section, if not the entirety of the team. Also, even if they are being watched if a flanker engage the person babysitting them and wins, even with one arm they can still do a spectacular amount of damage.
If you realize that one side of the field (usually a flank, though it can be part of the line) is stacked to be super heavy then if you are commanding it's something you'll need to respond to. If the enemy line builds a super heavy flank and you leave a normal or light piece of line in front of them you're going to get wrecked. You have to see that it's heavy and move people over to match that equivalent weight or at least get to a similar weight on that section of line. Particularly skilled fighters can position in response to an overwhelming force by giving ground slowly rather then getting simply run over right away. This is the result of
defensive posturing in which your move relative to an enemy you will lose against is to give ground with a guarded rather then a fleeing retreat. So long as your posturing is with the express purpose of staying alive or stalling while waiting for an advantage elsewhere on the field you are doing defensive posturing. Sometimes an archer can do this on their own by simply not firing an arrow but keeping it knocked and pointed at an enemy line. Many reds, if they aren't well protected or in confined quarters will respond to this pressure from an archer by cowering behind a shield or running away instead of actually swinging their weapon. If you, as an archer, can stop a group of reds from attacking with a knocked arrow that may actually be better then trying to pick them off one at a time if your group is on defense rather then on offense.
Another option should you find yourself in a group where the odds are stacked against you is to try and manipulate your enemy to moving into a bad spot. This is
offensive posturing wherein you try to convince them to stand in some way that your defending force can hit them from multiple angles. Probably the easiest example to visualize is a V defending a choke point. As someone gets in far enough to hit the point of the V they've already had to run past a bunch of people on either side of them. The people inside the choke point can't hit anything until the team attacking steps inside the choke point, but the second they do that attacker now has to defend themselves from two sides at extreme angles. As far as using this tactic out on the field try to either stretch the enemy out to make the line that is attacking thin or try to pull them together and away from the edges of the field so that there are gaps to get around. If the line is long and thin then it may expose their support weapons, opening them up to being rushed by a teammate or shot by an archer which may give the remaining defenders more time to hold. Alternately if you can get them to bunch up so someone can get around their side then the attackers now have to fight at multiple angles which tends to be to their disadvantage. Sometimes they will opt to run down the person who has gotten the flank or angle on them. That isn't necessarily bad as the person who has the flank or angle can simple run away from the place the attackers are applying pressure. If the attackers follow then they give up pressure on the defenders which is helpful even if your teammate dies. If the attackers don't run down the newly created flanker then they must slow their advance in order to prevent themselves from getting hit from the side or behind because of the nearly overwhelming pressure having a flanker creates.
Creating Pressure
Pressure is generated in a number of different ways. Pressure can be applied by as the attacker having higher weight then the defender (this accounts for a number, or veterancy advantage), pressure can be applied with angles, pressure can also be applied by having the right gear in the right situation. Having a higher weight then your opponent is pretty self explanatory (or just re-read the part where I define it) and attempts to mitigate this advantage are listed above. To make use of having this advantage it's important to make sure that you just advance as quickly as you can without losing internal coherency. This will eventually either allow you to make use of your advantage by turning advantage into kills or it will cause the enemy team to deform thereby forcing them to lose their internal coherency at which point your local advantage becomes a regional advantage. In the best case scenario you get the enemy team fighting back to back with itself. As it turns out a team that can't maneuver anymore usually dies.
Pressure applied from angles is about forcing people to defend themselves from multiple extreme angles I talk about this a little bit from the perspective of a single fighter in my bit on
combos the same sort of idea applies here but instead of using extreme angles from one person you instead apply extreme angles with a 2v1 scenario or many vs many +1 scenario. In this way you can force a person to leave themselves open to attack in at least one direction. Once you've accomplished this a n vs n+1 scenario you've created a local advantage where you can do a 3v1 because you now have a n vs n + 2 fight. The more effectively or more quickly you can get to that critical up on person number the more quickly you can then create a local and then a regional advantage. When you get to even a 2 person advantage, if they're stacked on the same side of the regional group that can quickly turn into a steamroll or domino effect in which they run down that side of the region, becoming a proportionately larger force with each enemy they kill. Fighting 2v1 is hard, fighting 3v1 when two people rush you from one side is a shit show. To deny a team that is trying to work angles on you it's important to drive the fight to the edges of the field so they can no longer outmaneuver you. You can also do something called denying the flank, where instead of retreating straight backwards you either skate out to the side or you move back and also sideways thereby creating a state where for the fighter directly across from you moving in to take advantage of the 2v1 they have on you involves stepping adjacent to your teammate conveniently also putting them into a 2v1.
Having the right gear, even when numbers match can also generate pressure. As one example if you're on a bridge and both teams have a ton of shields, if one team has a live red fighter and the other does not then the team with the red fighter has the advantage and can create pressure using the red. To do so they need only allow it to do work. In that particular case it means standing next to the red fighter and moving up every time it stops having something to swing at. Depending on the weapons configuration that generates the advantage you may wish to employ another strategy. If your team has an archer and the enemy team does not (or at the local or regional level this is true) then your best bet is to prevent the enemy from engaging you while allowing your archer to score free kills as in that scenario that's how you win at math. There is not a real good counter to this advantage as you're mostly just screwed. In some cases you can still posture defensively, trying to keep the enemy from getting kills on you with their advantage while you wait for another section of your team to get advantage on your opponents but there won't be much you can do at a local level to turn a gear advantage in your favor. Having the right veterans is also something that potentially might get you out of that particular bind but having the right strategic resources on your team is something that happens before the battle begins not after it's started. In a large enough battle a field commander may also be able to send you the strategic resources you need to flip that disadvantage. Also, if you have counter flankers who are doing their jobs you may also receive support that way. There is not however, a clear tactical way to approach being generally outgunned however.
Alternate Formations
The are nearly infinite other possible ways that you can put a team together other then simply relying on a line formation. They all still apply the basics outlined above of strategic resources, internal coherency, posturing and pressure however with the end goal of trying to win at math as swiftly as possible. I am personally a fan of the V formation when trying to hold a point, or the wedge (reverse v) formation when trying to break through a point especially in the case of scenario or objective battles. For field battles I tend to favor a line that's split into 3, a middle a left and a right flank, plus a small reserve group behind as the rearguard. This alignment tends to be a bit more mobile then the a standard line, flank and backline configuration. The slight gap between the sections of the line do allow flankers through more easily but with no exposed backline and a horde of defenders watching for flankers that tends to less often be a problem. Also, with a flank effectively on the right AND the left side you rarely go down because your flank wasn't heavy enough to engage the enemies flank. Also with the left and right side flanks if the enemy doesn't posture defensively relative to your engagement they're more likely to get sideswiped. In this particular setup archers are attached to sections of the line (though they still stand behind each section) rather then all clustered together. In addition to making your archers less vulnerable to all getting wiped out at the same time this gives you more diverse firing angles then if they're all clumped together. Plus, since they're attached to each section of line they can spot flankers and potentially eliminate them prior to that entire section getting wiped out. Historical setups of a non-line organization also include the phalanx (though in actual deployment they had cavalry), the horns (line + 2 flanks out in front), and the pincer movement (so that the front of the line in the center is a bit back from the left and right sides of the line with the intention of enveloping the enemy force from the sides when you get close).
This blog post is long...
But fortunately that's all I have to say on the matter of trying to weld all the things related to tactics together. I do not have a witty end for this one, I simply hope that these terms and examples are helpful to you. Rift out.
