On strategy, decision making and design decisions

 I got into a conversation yesterday that about blew my mind.  I started with a simple premise, which is that the value of a formation depends on the assumptions that you've made about the field that formation is fighting in.  That a formation is only good or bad based on the context it's used in.  Then I spent about 3 hours defending that statement from a person who said "I agree with you" and then talked for 20 minutes about how I was wrong.  So rather than run circles in my own head trying to parse their logic, let me just lay this out instead for everyone else's benefit.  Perhaps you'll benefit from that discussion more than they did.

Strategy

The lead in to the whole conversation was a course on small unit tactics taught by the venerable Sir Kyrian Hawksword.  Everything he said I pretty much agreed with though I often phrase the same concepts differently.  But the main sticking point in the conversation I got into afterwards was a fundamental concept of what is strategy?  From my own perspective, and especially if you've read my post on Doing Math, then you know it's about finding ways to respond appropriately to your situation.  If you have a local advantage because you have better numbers, more experience or advantageous gear then you aggressively push your advantage.  If you have a disadvantage then you find ways to mitigate it by doing things like giving up ground as slowly as possible or trying to take actions that make your situation better.  That might mean legging a fast opponent, it might mean sacrificing a person to take out a polearm, there are all sorts of examples.  There isn't really a "right" strategy because it all hinges on context.  While being inactive and waiting for your opponent to come to you is generally not something I'd advise because it's usually better to be proactive, if your context is that you're defending a point that's walled in then that's exactly what you SHOULD do.  So even thoughts about strategy that apply pretty generally are not absolute.

Decision Making

Over the course of the fight you do have to make some decisions which means that whether or not you're choosing to you're actively exercising SOME strategy.  Even the decision to sit in one place and wait to do something is a strategy that has some benefits and some drawbacks.  In web development we call decisions that you've made design decisions.  It means that knowing that you can't optimize for every conceivable case with one design layout so you choose what audience or what case you've designed your experience for to make it the best possible experience for that audience/case.  Fighting works the same way.  No serious strategy is universally applicable which means you're choosing to optimize for some specific case.  When you're able to cause that case to happen then your strategy (usually) works and when you can't cause that case to happen then you've placed yourself at disadvantage.  

As two sides of one example, say you have 2 shields and a spear working together.  That group can make one of two primary design decisions if they're in the center of the line.  They can either, be aggressive, having the shields and the spear make coordinated attacks against front line targets to try and clear them quickly OR the shields can be largely defensive while the spear attempts to work over the people it out ranges.  Being aggressive is a high risk, high reward strategy.  If you're successful you'll punch through the enemy line quickly because of the aggression.  However if you're unsuccessful then you'll collapse your OWN line because once your shields fall that polearm becomes easy pickings.  The defensive option is good because it is LOW risk.  While you may not clear people very fast, the shields are in little danger from anyone except other polearms, and the fact that they're focused on defense gives the spear they're protecting a high degree of cover to operate as well.  There are other considerations like the skill level of your fighters, high risk high reward scenarios tend to be better executed with more experienced fighters since they tend to have a better chance of pulling it off.  Meanwhile low risk tactics tend to be good for newer fighters because reducing their risk while operating makes it less likely that they get exterminated.

 

Design Decisions

The relevant point here is that you can't take BOTH stances.  You have to EITHER choose to be taking an aggressive stance or a defensive stance.  If you're saying that you're doing both, and especially within the context of training people in a unit, and training for both then you've effectively undone the process of making a choice.  I am of the opinion that one generally useful bit of advice about tactics is to be proactive.  If you make people respond to you rather then having to respond to them you tend to find yourself in a better spot.  So it's my opinion that making a design decisions, ANY design decision, is better than not making a design decision in much the same way that making any strategical move is better than sitting and waiting for someone to act on you instead.  Even if it's the wrong design decision or the wrong strategy I think it favors you to make a conscious choice.

So when I got into this conversation yesterday that was the thing I kept running into. 

ME: "You've just told me you prefer [a low risk strategy] to better leverage your fighters, what happens in a scenario where they are subjected to aggressive flanking?"  

THEM: "Well when they're subjected to aggressive flanking they instead employ [a high risk strategy] with the same group of people.  I've found that we tend to keep our more experienced fighters on the flank."

This is the same as saying you're attempting to optimize for both a high risk and low risk scenario.  It's saying that you're optimizing for both low skilled and highly skilled fighters.  Now it's worth noting we were talking about a 3 man team composed of 2 shields and a polearm.  It's also worth noting that the aggressive flanking I was talking about tends to happen at the edges of the field.  There's also nothing wrong with having your group of people operate differently based on context, or having different people in different areas of the field.  But if that's the case you have to differentiate how one group is different from the other group and you have to say how your strategy on the outside is different from your strategy in the center of the line.  To say that you operate the same strategy but then have both close ranks and loose ranks, both high and low end fighters, both aggressive independent shields and shields focused on the defense of their polearm is ridiculous. 

I could say, for instance, that in the middle of the line my unit mates are going to stack our slow moving, larger fighters, with our less mobile polearms.  In this configuration it's more likely that the people with the largest shields and polearms with the longest reach will be clustered in one defensible area that doesn't require them to move around too much to be effective.  I could then say that I'd move my fleet of foot fighters, boards, florentines, etc to the outside edges to be aggressive.  This makes two clear design decisions.  In the middle I'm optimizing for safety and I'm trying to cover the weakness of a lack of mobility by leveraging the strengths of high defense and good reach.  On the outside edges I'm making a different design decision to be very aggressive by placing people who are going to move fast and push hard.  My bet in the middle falls apart if the line blows open and those people have to suddenly fight at awkward angles.  My bet on the outside edges falls apart if the enemy team is very dense there and full of support weapons.  But no plan survives a battle so you've got to adapt on the fly.

In my scenario if I find out that the edges are going to be tough I'm going to keep my configuration the same BUT I'm going to have my outside edge change to playing defense instead of offense.  By having highly skilled fighters distract or harass a denser group of enemies and support weapons I'm going to be trading numbers so that they commit a large number of resources to a fighting force that refuses to engage them.  This SHOULD create an advantage somewhere else on the field.  Conversely if the middle of the enemy line is full of soft, fleet of foot targets I'm going to change my teams strategy to absorb a few people from my flanks and then push EXTREMELY aggressively through the center in an effort to take advantage of the numbers disparity set up by one flank babysitting a larger force.

Closing Remarks

A lot of theory crafting around strategy is based on a certain set of assumption (which I feel like Doing Math outlined pretty well...) because you have to start somewhere.  There are a few foundational principles here.  The first is that you have finite resources, that is to say you don't have unlimited veterancy, unlimited gear, or unlimited bodies (if so then the conversation REALLY changes).  Based on having finite resources it means if you spend resources in one area you by necessity take them away from all other parts of the field.  (IE, your one super vet can't simultaneously run the right and left flank).  As a result spending your resources wisely means finding ways to create advantages out of things that look like disadvantages.  Sure, that fight over there is a 2 v 8 but that group of two is a super experienced melee fighter and a very good spear (say myself and shamus the mystical, or peter the quick and batman).  Sure... that group is outnumbered but, they're probably going to murder those 8 randos.  Making these decisions then is more about knowing how to manipulate things in your favor so that even with a starting set of similar resources you get more out of your troops then your opponent does out of their troops.  As an example, even if the numbers for 2 forces are the same if one has reach and the other doesn't that's an advantage you can employ.  If one team has polearms but is slow moving then you can counter by moving quickly, (subject to having the space to move at all). 

So the next time you hear someone say they've got the ultimate/best/universal tactic and they aren't joking, you can rest assured they're full of it.  Strategy is about making contextual decisions and adapting on the fly.  If someone thinks they can win using the same strategy every time then what that tells you is that they aren't actually very good at strategy :-P.

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.

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.

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.

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.