Proactive

As part of being asked to run a group of people at a higher skill level so that folks who want to become better fighters have a place to go the very first thing that occurred to me was the idea of being proactive rather then being reactive.  I think that Bogun's first comment about the group is he wanted the name to evoke an idea that those fighters were the ones that would be able to weather any storm and be the badasses that did not yield no matter what was thrown at them.  And I thought to myself... that's already starting on the wrong foot.  So let me explain.

Proactive vs Reactive

This is just my own particular opinion on the thing (but you're reading my blog so presumably you know that) but it is always better to be proactive rather then being reactive while on a fighting field.  (This certainly doesn't translate to all areas of your life).  Being proactive whether that's in a 1v1 fight or if it's just in actively choosing where to stand is about making sure that YOU are the one making decisions at the moment where you have the most options available to you for making decisions.  At the start of a 1v1 fight neither fighter has started swinging, or is even in range to START swinging and so you've got a space between when you get close enough that you could possibly engage and when you actually start the engagement.  Being proactive starts in this space and then cascades forward to every further moment of your interaction with your opponent.  You can be proactive by choosing, at the very first moment, to either take the engagement by closing the distance between you and your opponent or you can choose to disengage by pulling away so they can't close the distance and force an engage.  Either decision is still one that you've CHOSEN to make rather then one that you're FORCED to make.  Being proactive doesn't mean being wildly aggressive, it just means that you're choosing to act first rather then respond to something else acting on you, whether that's an opponent or the field itself.  Being reactive means that you started to disengage because your opponent aggressed, or you started to move because if you didn't your unit/group/realm/whatever was about to be sandwhiched between multiple armies.  If you find yourself in that state it means you're already on the back foot and your available list of tactical options has already started to shrink.

A Duel, In Slow Motion

Assuming that you take an engagement then as the fight starts you get to decide the range at which the fight will be taken.  Assuming that your opponent doesn't run away immediately this means that you get to fight at whatever range you feel competent.  (For more on ranges you can check out Rock, Paper, Scissors).  Once you've done at least that much it means that your opponent is already at a disadvantage and all the things that they can do from that point on in the fight will be done with a slight handicap.  As the fight progresses, if you choose to be the aggressive fighter and swing (or feint/bait/footwork yourself into an advantageous position) then you force your opponent to now respond to your aggression meaning that in addition to playing at your range they're now also playing at your speed, or at the very least are busy blocking the initial shot you throw rather then throwing their own shot.  If you're throwing feints then it's even better because you get all the defensive posturing and reactions you'd get from actually going on the offensive except that now you aren't actually in any risk from shots not landing.  The thing is that most guards don't cover EVERY target area that you can swing at.  Even big boards have their weaknesses, so if you can manipulate your opponent onto the defensive then usually you'll convince them to make a mistake by leaving one (or more) of the areas that you can swing at unguarded.  In that moment you've now won the fight.  If they attempt to counter-aggress you that's still a response to the pressure that you've applied.  If you've lined yourself up you've also (ideally) taken a fight that you think you can win either because you've stacked skill, gear, or numbers to be at your advantage.  But more on that in a minute.

Small Groups

In small groups the same basic principles apply, by choosing when to engage and at what range you can get the most out of whatever gear you've brought to the fight.  In a group of 4 sword and boards vs 4 sword and boards this doesn't seem like it matters that much.  But that's not true.  Even in a matchup where numbers, gear and skill level are roughly equivalent you still have to factor in positioning.  Where a person stands during a fight dictates both the swing arcs that they enter and can get hit by, and also the cone of threat that they can apply to the people in front of them.  If both teams line up across from each other and simply swing an opportunity has been lost to create useful angles.  (More on that under Flanking).  Even if all else is equal if the guy on the end of one line A has to turn slightly because the person across from them on line B has started to go around them then it opens up shots for the rest of line B on line A.  If the person previously next to the guy flanking on line B also shifts ever so slightly to the left/right (depending on which end of the line) then the person across from the second line B team member must also shift to not have their defenses broken (more on that in box, line, lane) and in so doing expose themselves to more bad angles from line B.  Now you have 2 people working with shitty angles and even though everything else is roughly equivalent line A is in a really rough spot.  But this problem gets to be even more extreme if for instance line A has a polearm.  By having the wings from line B flank and having the remaining fighters deny a target for the polearm from line A then line A is now wasting an entire person plus the people guarding them in order to accomplish absolutely nothing AND in the interim their line is being folded which creates good angles for line B and bad angles for line A.

In The Mess Of A Grand Melee

On a larger field all of these other principles are still at play but whoever is leading the group on a larger field isn't so worried about their direct engagement but is probably worrying about not getting sandwhiched between larger units.  Being proactive in this sense is all about choosing who to engage or disengage from at a point where you've got space to move, because once a larger team has your people boxed in you're all mostly gonna die.  Even if you're fighting one group and just weren't aware of a different group falling onto your backs it's still game over man, game over.  So the point of maneuvering on a large field is to determine what space you want to control and then use whatever forces you have at your disposal to push other groups around.  Now, if you're a very small group you can move pretty quickly and escape from bigger groups with very little space.  You probably won't be engaging too many groups head on, but you can punish the mistakes of other larger groups that don't maneuver as well.  If you're a mid sized group then your goal is basically to annoy larger groups into running into each other by positioning yourself adjacent to other similarly sized groups so that a larger group going in to crush you is likely going to be hit from the side or back as they do so.  Your group will be relatively mobile but will also not be able to escape from a pinch easily and is probably better of choosing to find a corner to fortify in if you feel like I can't outmaneuver your aggressors.  Still, even choosing to find ground to occupy and hold is preferable to simply standing your ground when a larger group starts barreling into you.  If you're a larger group you absolutely do not fit into small gaps or escape and probably have to worry about being hit from multiple sides.  This makes it EXTREMELY important that the group is proactive and throws their weight around so that when they DO get engaged they've thinned the rest of the field down some to make their own lives easier.  As a larger group you can concentrate on driving medium sized groups either into one another, causing them to wipe each other out, or by driving smaller then you sized groups into other larger groups causing the larger group to get smaller.  In either case this involves moving proactively and screening out space so that a smaller group has no where to run to thereby forcing them to fight.

The Cost Of Failure

As ANY sized group, on a large battlefield, holding still almost always gets you killed unless no one at all is moving.  In that case, you can be proactive so go out and seize that advantage.  As a small group, standing still as teams move means that eventually you get stuck between much larger groups with no out to run to, which in turn means you get wiped out.  As a mid-sized group it means getting hit by a larger group and getting wiped out because you haven't given yourself either backup in the form of creating good angles for other opportunistic groups against the people engaging you, or you've failed to find good ground to fight on and get hit from more then one direction.  As a larger group being passive is the most catastrophic thing you can do as, having those kinds of numbers tends to make you target numero uno on the field which means that not only will you get hit by a group when you don't have a good field position but you're likely to get hit from multiple sides by multiple groups.

This is why some people are cut out to be field commanders and some just aren't.  If you can't decide what you need to do at any given moment because you can't think fast enough, or you're too scared to make decisions because it may get everyone killed then it means you'll be largely reactive to whatever is happening to you, and more likely then not that WILL get everyone killed.  From my own experience learning what to do in a battle will take a little while, and like all skills the more experience you have at it the better you'll become in time.  Also, sometimes, even when you make good tactical decisions you can be unlucky where a fighter you were relying on died because someone hit them with a lucky shot or a stray projectile.  No plan survives a battle, but to go into a battle without a plan is also foolish.

So, while I like the idea of a fighting core that can weather any storm, with utmost respect to Bogun for all he's done, I think that any elite combat group should BRING the storm and not simply survive it :-P.

Flanking

And here you'd probably thought I was done writing.  Nope! Life just got hectic for a while.  Anyhow. On with it.

I thought I'd write a post on what flanking means since it's near and dear to my heart.  What I found was though that writing the diagrams and descriptions together was actually much easier for keeping myself focused and together then the previous method of simply drawing diagrams and explaining them.  As a result I'm just going to post the pages that I've written verbatim.  If you'd like to skip scrolling, or want a copy of those images for yourself they should be available for you here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0BySPGwBzcCcdYmpQYnF4clNIOFk?usp=sharing

Otherwise, you can find them organized in order below:

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.

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.

These Are Not The Blocks You're Looking For...

General note: It's preferable to learn to not block with your fists (punch blocking) because some swings can actually hurt you quite badly even when you're wearing gloves

Unbeknownst to the general fighting population there are actually a multitude of ways to execute a block. I’m not talking about just blocking to the left or right; I’m talking about what I want each block to accomplish, and the mechanics that will do that.In order to do that however...

Rock solid

The basic block that most people will learn I'll vaguely define as a "strong block". The proper mechanics for this block involve:

• Trying to catch the incoming weapon just above your pommel/hilt in order to get the best leverage from your hand. 
• Turning your body into the strike so that the force of the blow is transmitted through your arms and into your core rather than from your weapon directly into your wrist.
• Having some bend or give in your knees which allows you to transfer that force from your weapon into the ground after it's passed through your core rather than eventually having whatever force is left over run directly into your hip or knee joints. 

When executed properly this allows you to absorb relatively heavy swings with little to no discomfort. Poor mechanics will result in either a failed block or part of the force hitting your body rather than getting transferred into the ground.

Flow like water

This block does not attempt to stop a swing in progress, but rather focuses on making sure that it just doesn't land where it's intended to. This method is what I'll call a deflection block.

Let's start this scenario by thinking of two right-handed fighters engaging in single blue combat. Fighter A will be on offense and Fighter B, starting on defense, prepares to execute the deflection block. There are 3 basic strikes that fighter A can throw relative to the height of fighter B:

1. high on the person's body, aiming either for their shoulder or arm.
2. low on the person's body, aiming either for their hips or legs
3. dead center of mass. 

It is very rare for someone to throw a shot to an opponents dead center of mass because for most people that's also exactly where their arm is resting in guard. In all cases that I will discuss it's important to make sure you catch the initial block out in FRONT of your body rather than close to your body. The farther out you block it, the lower the angle of deflection necessary so that the deflected shot doesn’t hit you. In other words, this let’s geometry be your friend.

In the following scenarios, pretend you are fighter B.

From the top

If fighter A throws a shot to the arm or shoulder section of fighter B, fighter B can then do a deflection block that redirects the weapon up and over them. In a standard strong block their goal would be to make the weapons meet at a perpendicular angles. With this block, you’ll tilt it slightly in the direction that the weapon is going. If fighter A swings into fighter B's left side then fighter B will tilt the tip of their weapon just slightly to their right, thereby causing fighter A's weapon to keep going so that it ramps up and over fighter B. Executing this properly means that fighter A will over swing as their weapon also clears from the right side of their body to the left, leaving them immediately vulnerable to a slash from fighter B.

Down under

If fighter A attempts to throw a shot for the hips or legs to fighter B's left side then they can execute a similar maneuver. In order to deflect downward, they tilt their weapon to your left instead. Catch the weapon out in front of your body with the sword at 10 or 11 o’clock. This will cause the strike to skate down your sword and pass by harmlessly. Ideally, this will mean their weapon ends up hitting the air in front of your thighs or kneecaps.

For those who were curious the reason why this actually works is because relative to the arm of the person in a neutral stance in the threat range that is generated by the your opponents reach the more distance they have to move their shot up or down relative to their intended target the more reach they lose.  So a strike that had enough distance to land at a person's torso doesn't necessarily also have the enough distance to successfully strike at a person's hip or shoulder.

Why you should care

You will not always be in match ups that are favorable to you. Another fighter can have more muscle mass or more reach than you do and you'll need to find a way to make those attributes work to their disadvantage. If you are fighting a person who has more reach on you, either as a result of their physical characteristics (tall, lanky people) or because of the gear in hand (red weapon that's being swung) the geometry of these deflections will have a much more dramatic effect on the fight. A red weapon swing that is countered with a deflection rather than a strong block may often cause the red to drive their swing into the ground, making it very difficult for them to recover in a reasonable amount of time. A red weapon swing that's deflected up tends to be less problematic for that fighter as they can than just bring it down. I generally recommend against doing an upwards deflection unless you're fighting 1v1 and immediately closing on that red fighter. Against a tall, lanky fighter getting their arm to over extend will give you lots of arm to swing at, even if they're still far away for you to kill them outright with a shot to the torso. The reason why you'd care about being able to use a deflection swing against an opponent who is stronger than you is because it means you don't have to try to do a strong block. Often attempting to do a strong block against an opponent who out masses you leads to either an insufficient block where the weapon still inflicts a wound, or going for that block is successful but causes you to harm your hand/wrist because you did not do a good enough job of transferring the force of the swing through your body. In some cases, both happen.

Move along

If you manage to master the above come find me or prod me until I talk about these other alternate blocks not discussed here:

• Over blocking: knocking your opponent’s weapon around (adding momentum) 
• Catching block: maintaining contact with your opponent’s and manipulating it (reducing momentum)