Weapon Roles, Part 2

Last time I talked about weapon roles and different ways to get the most out of different fighting styles on their own.  Today's post is all about how those different styles interact and build off of one another. Rather than going through every style combination one by one, I've decided to focus on the basics of what makes individual styles work together, with a few examples in the form of some likely pairs.

Range Control

One of the primary reasons to work together with different styles is range. Every style has a weakness in this category.  Archers and polearms can't do much at close range, shieldmen and two stick fighters lack range to deal with polearms, and min reds have a mix of both problems.  By combining different styles, with different weaknesses in range, a pair can overcome this problem.  Possibly the most common pairing that demonstrates this is a polearm and a shield man.  The polearm is weak at close range, but the shieldman can fight perfectly fine at that range.  Meanwhile, the polearm can help against targets that out-range the shieldman.

This crudely photoshopped image demonstrates the overlapping range presented by a shieldman/polearm team. Note the danger to any target that would stand in the glaive's two handed range. 

The overall effect of this combination of ranges means the an enemy shieldman doesn't have an obvious range to prefer.  Staying at the outer bounds of the shieldman's range means the enemy can't easily attack.  They also can't close on the polearm without being in range of the shieldman's attack.  Better yet, the team also creates a range that is extremely advantageous for them.  In the zone where their ranges overlap, they can both work against the same target.  In the sample above, that means the glaive can be dishing out two-handed strikes while his shieldman is able to swing effectively at the target.

While shieldmen and dual wielders might seem to be the only styles to fit into this close range defense, other styles can also accomplish this task.  Take, for example, a pair of polearms.  Both polearms may suffer at short/close range, but by maneuvering themselves in such a way that their more preferred ranges overlap with each other's weaknesses, they can effectively negate much of this weakness.  One example might be in a formation similar to a phalanx.  The front spear has the longest range and engages targets first.  Behind him, a second spear engages anyone that is able to close on the first spear. Anyone lingering too long in medium range would be fully engaged by both.  This same pair might also exist on a line, spaced out so they can engage against anyone rushing the other while still both engaged against the enemy line.

Risk Management

Combining two shorter ranged fighters poses a different challenge.  Neither of them can reach long range, so the combination doesn't mitigate the weakness.  However, a short ranged pairing can have other benefits.  Lets take a shieldman and dual wielding fighter as an example.  The shieldman has superior defense against missiles and spears, but doesn't have as wide of a shot selection.  This combination allows the shieldman to help reduce the risk of his partner being taken out at long range, while giving the pair exceptional offense once they are able to close to their optimum range.

Risk also comes into play when considering shot selection.  What might be a risky shot in a duel, can now be covered by your partner to make it relatively safe.  One example might be a min red fighter swinging one-handed towards the opponent's sword side, forcing them to block.  This takes the risk away from his partner's attacks, allowing them to choose from a wider variety of shots.  By the same token, the min red might be safe to attack the opponent's shield with a few two-handed swings while his partner cuts off the angle their opponent might have been able to attack from.

Combined Threat

While risk management is about keeping safe on offense, combining the threat of different equipment is all about increasing the opponent's risk.  Choosing the pair equipment that threatens different target areas or angles forces the opponent to make difficult decisions.  Lower their shield to help block off spear stabs or take an arrow to the face, for example.

Spears are often a natural pairing when discussing threat.  Their long range allows them to attack from a variety of angles, even from behind the front line.  Lower angles of attack force shields to come down a bit, while moving more towards sword side to cover the hip.  Other weapons can take great advantage of this shield position, such as flails, glaives, and min reds.  All of these weapons excel at placing shots on the shield side shoulder, which will kill the target or force their guard up and away from the spear.

Threat also has great influence on the enemy's ability to attack.  Archers are a prime example.  Other than shieldmen, no one has great defense against arrows other than perhaps mobility or a helmet.  Even without shooting, the archer can apply threat by holding an arrow at the ready.  Those without shields are forced to either gamble on dodging or to duck for cover behind a shieldman.  Most choose the latter.  Because they are forced to the second rank, they have a harder time applying offense to the front.  Even though spears and glaives can reach targets from the second rank, their own shieldman cuts off a significant angle of their attack, limiting their options for targets. As you might have noticed, this is nearly a case of risk management achieved through the application of threat.

Total Offense

Combined total offense of a pair of styles may give the combination an advantage.  While threat is about opening the target up and increasing their risk, total offense is about overwhelming a target's ability to block. A pair using glaives or other two handers, might be a good example.  Regardless of the threat applied by either glaive, the pair can simply place enough two handed strikes on one target to negate the defense of a shield.  Four solid, shield breaking hits to a shield outright kills anyone, assuming they haven't dropped it before then.  The first two take the shield, the third the arm, and the forth takes the body.  This means that each glaive only needs to successfully land a single hit on the shield for the pair to be able to remove it from the equation.  They may only need two swings each to kill a target, even less if they get a limb or two.

The major drawback of a pairing like this is that it relies on killing targets before they can return strikes to the pair.  A combined charge from multiple targets or a threat that has greater range than the pair greatly reduces their effectiveness. However, while working together with a team on the line, this type of pair may be able to overwhelm a few targets quickly.

Conclusion

Working together with different styles and gear boils down to playing off of your team's strengths and covering each other's weaknesses.  Even though I have written this from the perspective of a pair fighting some target, pairs are a natural building block towards full line fighting.  Take a moment next time you are on the sidelines to watch how the line includes many of these pairings of equipment.  Even in larger groups that seem to be all working together, much of their teamwork will be done within pairs of fighters occasionally supporting other pairs.  This is especially true when looking at how support weapons are deployed.

When combining equipment and styles, the four categories I've mentioned above are all worth considering.  However, regardless of what combination, they all benefit greatly from teamwork and communication. Find a friend, work together, kill lots of people with foam covered sticks.

Weapon Roles

This is the first in a series of recent requests.  I'm a little rusty, so this on isn't quite up to the typical standard.  I'll try to do better next time, which will be soon-ish*. Part 2 of this topic is now posted.

In previous posts, I've discussed the various roles a fighter could take on the field and a little bit about how different roles can interact. Today I'd like to take a look at how different weapons and fighting styles fit in to the mix and the roles they serve on the battlefield. In a future post, I'll be looking at how these different weapons and fighting styles can be used in conjunction to maximum effect.

Arrows and Javelins

Missile weapons can rack up a large kill tally, but their primary role in a fight is to take down key targets.  This often means targeting enemy support weapons, skilled archers, or even great shieldmen that are making an impact on the fight.  A few well placed shots can have a dramatic effect on the line.  All of a sudden, one side might have a significant advantage in polearms on one flank and be able to gain a major breakthrough.  Even taking an arm or leg of a support weapon will generally sway the fight against them.

When missiles don't have a good line on hitting a target, they can still offer a significant threat from a distance to limit that fighter's options for position and strikes.  By having an arrow nocked or a javelin pointed, it will usually cause the other team to cover up and slow their offense for a little bit. As with other support weapons, the goal is to have an impact on the fight, either through kills, wounds, or threat.

Min Red

"Min Reds" are roughly the smallest possible size to be considered a red weapon (minimum 24 oz, 48" long in Belegarth).  In an intense, packed line fight, we often see them sort of trumped by 8'+ polearms.  However, they do still fit into a very useful niche as a very fast, anti-armor weapon.  While they can break shields, their low weight and short range make it much harder to land a solid, shield-breaking hit.  They are best used on a thick line as an arm sniping weapon.  See an arm, hit the arm.  This lets the user stay relatively safe near a shieldman, while still out ranging enemy shieldmen as they swing.  When the lines are thinner, they are good when working in pairs with any other style. This reduced the danger of a rush and allows the user to utilize that bit of extra range to help their teammate.

Rather than fighting in a more fixed position on the front of the line, min red users are better suited to in/out, hit/run tactics.  By only advancing into range when they have a solid opportunity to take a limb or get a kill, they can mitigate much of the risk against polearms and missile weapons. Important to note here, however, is that extremely dense lines make getting in and getting out of the fight much more difficult--there just isn't enough room to get between teammates.

Another useful way to deploy weapons of similar length and weight is as a one-handed weapon with a shield.  Too slow and awkward for most one-on-one fights, the combination gives the user a great deal of reach over the typical shieldman.  When the line is dense, this advantage is further improved by reducing the enemy's ability to advance into their range.  This creates the ideal scenario in the range game, where you can strike at an opponent that can't reach you back (with the exception of support weapons).

Flails

All sorts of hate is always directed at flails, but they are an extremely effective tool--especially when combined with various support weapons. Many fighters haven't learned how to effectively defend against flails one-on-one, let alone when faced with other threats. On a heavily packed line, they excel at either exploiting or causing shields to be out of position.  As fighters lower their guards against spears, the flail makes quick kills targeting the shield side shoulder.  As people raise their guards to counter the flail, spears can more easily target the sword-side hip.

The other sort of key area for flails is in situations like flanks or gaps where the enemy isn't already prepared for fighting against them.  The typical fighter, when flanked or rushed, will default to the normal guards and blocks.  Flails require a slightly different approach to blocking and can catch fighters off guard, all while having their natural advantages. That's part of why we often see them used by flankers and shock troops. However, flails are shorter ranged than support weapons and max length one handed swords.

Two stick

Florentine, flo, two stick, dual wielding, whatever you would like to call it, often gets left out of line fighting. The advantage in defense of a shield or range in a polearm makes two sword a less obvious choice of weapon. Two swords can deal out a lot of damage in a short span of time with proper practice, position, and timing.  The key to using them in a line battle is to pick your moment to go in.  Vision gaps, staggered gaps, breakthroughs, or anywhere light on support weapons are great places to go.  The extra weapon allows you to apply significant pressure to a single target as well as a fair range of blocking (like a very tiny punch shield).

As a skirmisher, two stick can be very effective at winning a series of one-on-one fights.  Generally, they are good at taking down stray enemy fighters that can be singled out.  This includes shock troopers and flankers that have successfully broken through to the backfield.

Two stick really shines, though, when it can flank the enemy.  The ability to strike many targets quickly and efficiently can wreck a line that is facing the other way.  Even though they will have little defense against archers hanging out in the backfield, the two stick fighter can have a huge impact before they are shot.

Polearm

Polearms are really the main offensive tool of the line (at the initial phases of battle) and the primary defense against enemy polearms. While ranged weapons get some kills, polearms have a much higher attack rate and often a better angle of attack.  Add in the occasional glaive to break shields, and it is easy to see the damage they can inflict.  Besides directly killing targets, they are one of the best tools for pushing an enemy line back.  Most groups of fighters will back up to stay just outside of the range of a polearm, or advance to that point if the polearms back off.

The initial target of most polearms is other polearms.  However, weakening the shieldman around those polearms is an equally important job.  Taking a shieldman's leg reduces his ability to block missile weapons or to cut off the line of attack against polearms.  This makes it easier to take out the enemy polearm.  Event threatening those shieldmen will leave openings for friendly fighters to exploit, just like flails and missile weapons.

On defense, polearms play the role of disrupting the enemy.  Pushing spears off target, blocking off lines of attack, or threatening legs to slow an advance.  Their job here is to suppress the area and make their presence felt, even if they aren't getting kills or wounds.  This is similar to missile weapons being a threat, but requires the polearm to attack very quickly against many targets, while trying to fend off enemy polearms.

Armor

As I've mentioned in a previous post, armor shouldn't be exclusively used as a "whoops, I didn't block that" crutch, but as a tool.  You will get surprised, get back hacked, or miss a block, and the armor will sometimes catch it, cool.  When armor really comes into play is when a fighter can intentionally go into a high-risk situation (like rushing a spear through a couple of shieldmen) and come out intact and swinging.  While it is possible to do so without armor, those extra hits give a few extra options to someone like a shock trooper or flanker to exploit and gives them a much higher chance of success.

The other role of armor is helping manage range against polearms.  Because armor mitigates single-handed stabs, polearms have to approach a bit closer to land a solid two-handed strike accurately. The advantage gained for your team is that your own support weapons can now more easily target the enemy polearms.  This extra protection against one-handed stabs also can prove crucial when defending a friendly polearm because the enemy will be stabbing at or near your frequently.

Sword and board

I saved this for last because it is the most common style on the line.  Shieldmen serve many roles. Their sort of primary role is forming a strong line for support weapons to support.  This means maneuvering to cut off gaps, to block missile sight lines, and to keep a solid formation.  A number of shieldmen must be dedicated to direct defense of support weapons.

While those defensive roles are paramount to a successful line, shields also allow offense that is more unique than other styles.  The ability to rush and survive (just like armor) can have a huge impact on a fight. The shield cuts off many angles that a line fighter would use to counter a rusher, especially when in the hands of a skilled fighter.  In essence, it allows the fighter to almost ignore counters from one side while using their sword to tie up fighters on the other. While a great fighter with two swords could accomplish this, it isn't particularly easy with a shield, let alone without one.

This passive defense is ideally suited for shock troopers and flankers as they maneuver through gaps or in close proximity to the enemy line without support. The typical flanker uses a decently sized, lightweight punch shield that allows them to block off a variety of angles as they engage the line and are surrounded by threats.  In contrast, shock troopers tend to prefer a strap shield better geared for bashing and punching. This is because they will more often be pushing through a line, rather than being between the enemy line and their archers/reserves.

Replay: Sotahuuto 14

Ok, this is something new to me and the blog, so hopefully you find it useful.  If it seems helpful, I'll look into doing other posts in this type of fashion in the future.

A reader from Europe sent me a link to video from one of the large foam fighting events they've attended over there.  While it isn't Belegarth rules (tap fighting, head legal, and a few others), the video does illustrate a few concepts that are universal to the large scale fighting we see at events.  Please note, those are indeed 15' spears you see everywhere.

Here's the video, it's nearly 40 minutes of quadcopter footage of the event.  The noise from the copter might be a little annoying, fair warning. Those later castle battle are pretty insane and worth a watch, especially with destructible haybale walls. However, I really only want to look at the first battle for this post.  I chose this first fight to look at because it illustrates how important maneuvering can be.  If someone wants me to look at other fights or videos, I'd be more than happy to later.

 

For starters, our friend from Europe and his group are among the black/purple clad group at the center, we'll call their team the good guys.  The green group to their left appears to leave an intentional gap, I suppose as a trap or some variant of a kill pocket (the blue area marked below).  The right flank has pushed forward aggressively, just out of frame in this first picture.  We can see a gap, marked with yellow start to appear even this early in the fight.

 

Maneuver Phase of the battle.  Blue=intentional? gap.  Yellow=Gap to watch later

 

 





Other keys to this part in the battle are how the enemy forces are arrayed. Directly ahead of their middle, the good guys are up against a high (insanely high compared to Belegarth) concentration of spears.  They've already grouped up and have no signs of changing course.  The enemy line is already curving away, bowing out towards our friends.  This makes the entire field a scaled up version of a kill pocket.

 

Stalemate Phase of battle.  Even the spears are mostly at max range. 
The enemy has cut off the flanking group, but haven't fixed that gap yet.

 

Once the lines are close enough to engage, we reach the stalemate phase.  At this point one would expect that our little yellow gap here would have been closed up, but groups maneuvered away from it to engage our friendly flanking groups.  The enemy black/yellow group pushed out to engage, leaving only a few skirmishers to cover the area.  We can also see that the friendly lines haven't engaged the outside corner at all, leaving a large chunk of forces to the right flank of the black/purple group essentially in reserve.




The moment when decisive action could be taking place. 
Easily could have happened sooner than it did in the video.
Black lines are what I would have my line do at this point.

A closer look at the gap.  The group friendlies directly across from
it eventually push through.

This all sounds like a huge advantage for the friendlies, and it is.  However, there are few things that could have helped our purple/black friends survive the encounter a little better.  At the point pictured above, we see that gap still lingering around unopposed.  We also see our purple/black friends keep a solid line in the face of that giant mess of spears (highlighted in red).  The problem here is that holding their ground actually costs them a lot of casualties as we'll see when the copter makes another pass later.  The black lines here are what might have helped them get through this mess with a few more fighters intact.  Rather than standing strong against the concentrated spears, the line should have spread out (towards the right flank) while forming a kill pocket (the curve back marked here). 

By shifting forces to the right of the main enemy strength, it reinforces the group that should have already been pushing that gap.  By spreading out and backing away, it forces the enemy formation to spread their offense in different directions, preventing a whole group of fighters from being lost quickly.  Those directly opposed to the spears need to fight purely defensive and let the enemy advance.  Their whole goal is to buy time for flankers flooding through the gap to win the day.

When we see the camera come back to this section, we see that the group along the right flank that was engaged with the enemy black/yellow group joined with a few of the friendly corner group to push the gap (finally), but by time this happens our black/purple friends have been cut to shreds.  This makes the clean up much more difficult later.

The moral of the story: engaging a spear formation head on is rarely the best course of action. Making use of defensive maneuvering can both save lives and set up your enemy for being flanked.  Keeping an eye out for gaps early in the fight can give you some idea of where they will be later.  This particular case shows that they often form between two groups of fighters that are good at maintaining their own coherency. Because groups/units don't usually share leadership, you'll find groups can often lose track of their support unless their own anchors are doing a great job of keeping the whole line together. Creating/attacking/exploiting these gaps can be crucial to killing enemy formations and skilled groups.

In my next post, I'll take a look at some strategies for taking down spear formations.  It's a lot to cover, so I didn't want to include it all here. 

Small Unit Tactics

Not all groups enjoy the thick fighting at the center of a solid line.  Others lack the experience, numbers, or equipment to do so successfully. These groups often suffer at larger events, where the lines are densely packed.  Skirmish tactics work a little differently when facing such lines, as opposed to the more open fields of their home practices. A skirmishing group needs to capitalize on their best asset: maneuverability.

A skirmish line will quickly be picked apart should they face a group of experienced line fighters directly, especially if numbers aren't in their favor. However, this doesn't mean skirmish lines are incapable of winning the fight.  It takes a different approach for them to succeed.  Rather than attempting to rush into a line fight, the skirmishers need to fight the front of the line on the defensive. Their main goal has to be survival, only taking advantage of a few kills as opportunity presents them. By keeping mobile, they might be able to get the enemy to spread out or lose track of a few of the skirmishers. By drawing the enemy directly ahead, a few people on the wings might be able to flank around the enemy.

While most people "flank" by merely running past the ends of the lines until they are far enough to get around unopposed, a little more teamwork and tactics can make flanking a much stronger, faster tactic.  It is best to work in groups. Pairs work fine, but larger groups have more options.  Each group must set for itself a goal of delivering one fighter (or small group of fighters) the enemy's back.  This mindset allows flankers to function much closer to the core of the fight and still get someone behind the lines unopposed.  As an added bonus, some of these tactics also apply to heavy line fighting for shock troops, which could help a group transition to that style of fighting later. 

Let's look at a few specific strategies. 

 

Pin and split

Pin and split is my generic term for a great move that you can accomplish when, as a flanker, you outnumber the enemy that is in your way.  At its most basic, a 2v1 situation, one person engages the enemy, allowing the other to slip by unopposed.  Regardless of how well the pin survives, they buy their teammate plenty of time to cause havoc.  This strategy also works well for exploiting the edges of a gap in the enemy line. 

 

 

 

A larger group of fighters can enact this strategy well, even doing so multiple times as new threats approach.  Each time an enemy turns to counter them, the minimum number of flankers peel off to pin them as the rest continue flanking.  Remember, the goal is always to get at least one fighter to the rear of the enemy's main line.

Another extremely effective way to use this strategy is to counter flankers.  If your own team's flankers have become bogged down on the flank, fighting a line battle, the two fighters nearest them could try to pin/split against the enemy anchor.  The second closest to the end engages the enemy anchor heavily, probably fighting a 2v1 on the enemy flank.  The friendly anchor is then free to backstab the enemy flankers, freeing up a large force.  This is an exploit of the gap between the enemy line and their flankers, but could be used against almost any gap.

 

Wolfpacking 

When outnumbered, but not outmaneuvered, a team can attempt to split up.  By being more mobile than the larger force, their goal is to survive and pick apart any stragglers they can until the smaller force has a decisive advantage.  The skirmishing team still needs a few people to take the enemy head on.  When the enemy advances, the line spreads thin, leaving just a few fighters to keep the attention of the enemy core.  The rest flank around, using strategies like the pin and split. 

 

However, because the skirmishers are outnumbered, getting into the enemy backfield alive is going to be difficult, if not impossible, until several enemies are dispatched.  If the skirmishers can manage to  get their flankers to meet up behind the enemy (turning the line into a circle), they are now free to run in opposite directions.  At this point, the skirmishers must work off of each other.  By running in opposite directions, vision gaps will eventually be created that allow one of them to pick off an unsuspecting enemy.

A large part of the strategy requires that each skirmisher acts as a distraction first, staying alive as best they can.  Then, only take shots that are nearly guaranteed hits.  Kills are preferable, but legs will help reduce the enemy's ability to maneuver against you and arms will help soften them up for future attacks.

 

Pairs

Small groups should learn to work in pairs when possible. The goal is to develop tactics that work well when targets are isolated, while maintaining some safety in numbers. While you won't always be able to make a 2v1 situation happen, you want to be able to win the fight without losing much of your capability. 

You may find 2v1 drills particularly useful.  It helps build teamwork for the pair and helps the solo fighter practice for being outnumbered.  The pair has a goal of killing the solo without either of them being hit, while the solo tries to land a single hit on the pair.  Alternatively, you could have the solo fighter try to stay alive for a set amount of time or number of swings. This can help them prepare to be a pin or to keep the core of the line busy for a wolf pack strategy. 

One strategy for a pair is to plan, in advance, where to swing.  For example, one will swing high to the sword arm, while the other swings low to the shield side hip.  This forces the enemy on the defensive, because their shield will usually not be able to cover both angles, forcing them to block with their sword or die quickly.  Following up with a couple of swings will likely kill the target, as long as both keep the pressure on them. 

When the pair is on the defensive, it becomes important to not only block for your partner, but lure enemy targets out for them.  You can fake swings to try to get the opponent to counter, leaving their arm open to your partner.  Placing swings to one side of their shield or guard might draw their defenses over, letting your partner attack the other side. 

Against a solo opponent, the pair needs to move such that both can swing at the target or so that neither can be hit easily. The most favorable positions for the pair are either with the solo fighter facing the gap between the them, or with the pair slightly offset towards the solo's sword side.  This allows both to swing, and the latter gives a great angle against their weapon arm. 

 

"Good" in this case, relative to the pair. 

 

On the flip side, the solo fighters will need to use solid footwork and sword blocks/parries to stay alive. Most of their footwork will have them backing up, often to an angle.  Against a pair, their goal is to isolate one of them by stepping away from the other.  His preferred positions are either lined up against his sword side opponent (so his shield blocks off the other well), or with one enemy blocking off the other's angle of attack.  The second one is harder to pull off, but is the safest.

 

Communication 

I can never seem to stress this enough, but communication is vital to success as a small force.  Even without a command structure or leader, the group needs to all be aware of the overall plan.  Without communication, strategies like wolfpacking can quickly fall apart into chaos. 

Experienced vets may be less verbal, relying on their combined experience and reacting to the situation as best they can.  However, even vets will make sure to communicate openings they see or dangers around them. Starting out, simple communications like when to move or change spacing are necessary (vets usually adapt to the space well, without needing specific commands for it). One thing all groups need is a direction or target, and communicating that goal, or changes to it, should be a priority. 

Call out dangers to your line.  Call out targets, gaps, and weak points in the enemy line.  Equally important, relay calls from others.  For example, if you line needs to shift right, and you hear someone call it out, then you should repeat it down the line. Warn your allies of arrows about to be loosed, javelins at the ready, or support weapons taking notice of their flank. It is a lot to keep your mind on, but the more of these things you can keep your team informed about, the more successful they will be.

 

Leadership ("Driving the bus") 

Smaller groups sometimes lack any sort of command structure.  Even large realms have many people that could take charge, but no clear, default leader. That doesn't mean they lack leadership. In these groups, individuals usually take charge of the area around them as needed. Groups of veterans often have a very decentralized form of command, especially during a protracted line battle where individuals manage their own area. Those with the best line of sight, or that notice problems sooner, often begin taking charge of the few people around them. 

If someone else is issuing orders, do your best to support them.  Note, I didn't say "blindly follow a terrible plan".  Support the plan by maneuvering yourself and others in a way to help the plan succeed.  This might mean moving to cover a gap that no one else saw or being aggressive to draw the enemy's attention. Sometimes it means doing something that is opposed to the orders, such as taking a run through a gap rather than standing your ground.  The overall idea is to make the group more successful at its current mission. 

If no one is taking charge or communicating, take command and do your best to help the team.  Even a bad plan is usually going to be better than no plan. When it comes to actually taking charge of the group, do your best to navigate the group into favorable fights.  Try to issue orders that make sense for who you are ordering around, ie. don't have the 300 lb guy in full armor and a tower shield flank.  Play to your group's strengths.  More armored up fighters will need to form up against the bulk of the enemy, while faster fighters need to maneuver around. Try to engage targets such that your backfield is relatively safe (not facing the majority of the enemy groups). 

Most of the fight relies on your individuals finding success, but issuing commands to regroup or shift the line can give those individuals a better chance to survive.  Your goal, as leader, is to maintain the line during a fight.  Watch for gaps and weak points in both lines and move your forces to exploit or counter them.  Learn to spot vision gaps, especially along the enemy flank.  If their anchors aren't paying attention or are drawn into a fight, deploy a few flankers around them.  If your flankers need a better angle, shift the line to present the enemy's back to them. 

"Driving" isn't easy, even in a small, skilled group. Don't be discouraged by a bad fight or if you think you may have made a bad call.  Learn from the strategic failures and try to fix any issues with communication within the group. You'll get a chance to redeem yourself next fight. 

One side note, when a small group is part of a large team, they should do their best to integrate with the group.  Issue commands not only to your group, but those around you that lack leadership.  This is a great opportunity for smaller groups to get a better feel for line fighting, and working with support weapons.  Also, don't hesitate following orders from outsiders in this scenario, especially ones that seem to know what they are doing.

 

This section probably could be its own post.  I might try to put together a more detailed version, perhaps as a post-mortem next time I drive the BOF bus.

Glaive

Okfest was a great event. Had a great time. I also had several people ask me for a few tips and tricks to using a glaive. I have a guide floating around the net, though it is a bit out of date. If you want to see a sampling of glaive fighting, check out this video. (I may be a little biased to recommend watching it...)
I decided it might be a good idea to jot down the basics from scratch, because I haven't thought about it for a while. This is geared mostly towards learning to break shields in an safe and efficient way. This isn't always the best place to start for someone completely new to red weapons, so I'd recommend some practice off the field to gauge your ability to do so safely.

One of the first things I hear from people (except those using a ultralight glaive) is about how heavy the weapon is. Most people attempt to wield it more like a spear, and try generating power for shield breaking hits from a low stance. That is rarely going to work and will be very tiring.

The weight in the head of a glaive is a great tool to use to help you get good, solid hits. Starting with a high stance, gravity will do most of the work. You really only have to push/pull for the first half of the swing to get a medium power shield break. Much more than that is mostly wasted effort and adds a bit of danger. Applying too much power for the strike usually means you will spend that much extra to recover from it.

Shield Breaking

The main shield breaking hit I use starts in a high stance, with the tip of the glaive being nearly pointed strait up, then coming down at around a 45 degree angle. The angle changes for safety and space available to swing.  Tightly packed lines make this more dangerous and push the swing to more of a 60-70 degree angle. The target is the shoulder, not the shield. If they block, great, it is probably a solid, shield breaking hit. If they don't, they are dead, even better. Obviously, there is inherent danger to the target's head here, so please get some practice before going onto the field and trying this.

Of course, without a proper base, all that weight swinging around will take you off balance. Take a nice, wide stance, with your front leg and top hand on the same side as you are striking at, ie. right foot/hand forward for breaking shields. Grip the glaive so that your back/bottom hand is against the pommel and your front/top hand is close to the incidental padding. While swinging, this gives you a good mix of control and range.  Moving your front hand back reduces control, but adds reach and vise versa.

As you swing, you will shift your weight forward, bending the front knee slightly. With the swing, push out with your front hand as you pull your back hand towards your hip. As you recover, you shift your weight back, extending the front leg and pulling your lead hand back. This not only helps generate power, but also modifies your range in the most advantageous way. You gain several inches of reach for striking, and then take away that much from the enemy's counter.  By pulling your center of gravity and hand back, you also block off one of the most probable returns, that which targets your arm closest to the enemy.

If your hits aren't landing sufficient to break a shield, add a little bit of twist in your hip and push/pull through a wider part of your swing. If you feel too slow on recovery, back off some of your power for the swing. Ideally, you want to ride the fine line between speed and power until you can safely throw a large number of shots quickly that will still be hard enough to break shields.  All of that being secondary to safety.  Only add power when absolutely necessary, because more power means more risk to the opponent.

High to Low Sweep

Without doubt, there are many other targets than shields. The reason to learn/master the above is so you develop body mechanics that help you with other strikes, and to get into a flow that will reduce the chances of headshots. Your next primary target is then the opponent's lead leg. If you start from the high stance, you can switch to targeting a leg mid-swing by lifting your back hand. The effect should be a smooth curve, pulling around the shield to hit mid-calf or higher.

High to Low sweep at close range, at about the point of impact.
Photo by: Ellie Apland

Most people learning this shot at first put more effort into it than needed, resulting in a lot of wasted effort.  That "smooth" feeling is from letting the glaive do the work.  The proper leg hit here is actually less effort than a heavy shield hit.  You are still doing the push/pull mechanic with your arms, but are now doing so more to change the direction than to add power.  If you find your back/abs/arms are getting sore or feeling overworked doing this shot, change when you start the curve (when you raise your back hand).  Also, remember, the front/top hand ends up going through a curved motion and should act as a fulcrum for the glaive's rotation, but you are letting gravity do the work of adding most of the power to the shot.

The first few times you try this, you'll see a good bit of success, especially at events.  However, veteran fighters will look to cut the angle of the attack off, either by advancing into the incidental padding or pushing their shield down to cut off the curve before it gets to their leg.  You really need to make this more of a "as needed" shot, rather than your main tool.  Make them raise their shield by throwing a few good shoulder shots, then switch to one of these.  With an ultralight glaive, you can also fake this shot, then go for their shoulder.

High to Low to Backhand

Should you miss the leg sweep (or do so intentionally), you now have the glaive on the opponent's sword side, under their guard. This is the perfect opportunity to hit them with a backhand strike. Targeting their arm or armpit mirrors the body mechanics of the normal recovery from a swing. To hit lower (under their guard towards the hip), you'll need to roll your right shoulder back. Rocking back here causes the blade to rotate so you don't flat them and changes the angle of recovery to hit them hip level. It should feel like you are leaning back, into the swing.  This also adds to the overall power of the shot.

You will rarely be breaking shields here, but you can easily generate the power needed to punch through body armor.  Even if you only manage a light shield shot, you've now forced the opponent to worry about you.  Very few will rush against the backhand, because they will often have to open themselves up (or punch block a glaive...) in order to get to you without taking a hip shot. 

This is where working with another reach weapon can really make a difference. By pressuring the lower sword side, the opponent is usually going to expose their upper shield side.  If you have a buddy glaive to your right, the normal shield breaking swing will often be a shoulder shot now.  Even someone with a longsword might benefit from the opening you make here.

Suppression

The other nice thing about the backhand is that you don't have to target the person that you "missed" with the leg sweep.  Once the sweep is completed, you can pull your hands in a bit and sweep past your initial target, then extend your arms to hit a different target altogether. By switching targets in this way, it forces a larger group of people to worry about you. It also keeps that new target from rushing you, which he was probably thinking about when you swung. This is what I generally refer to as "suppression", pushing your weight around to force people to deal with you.

The ones pointed out are prime targets to be dispatched by either you, or your buddy with a polearm.  The corner's of a kill pocket offer you targets if a friendly polearm is stuck in the middle of one. 

 

Regardless of the actual damage you deal, suppressing a group of enemies, at the very least, buys your team time to deal with them. One sweep can get 5-6 people to back up or shift their stance to dodge.  Several sweeps and stabs can cause a large kill pocket to form around you, but not advance. This is dangerous for you, but does open a few people up.  The enemy to either side of the kill pocket (the ones that didn't curve away from you) are now exposed on their flank facing the kill pocket. This is a GREAT time to switch positions to the edge of the pocket, and destroy one of those guys. 

If you see another glaive suppressing a kill pocket, those edges are also a great spot to line up in support.  The corners of the pocket (the first guy turned in a bit) are weak to just outside of the pocket. You can line up roughly across from the first guy that didn't turn into the pocket and stab along the side of the pocket.  You won't get too many stabs in before they end up shifting to counter it, but if you hurry, you might break the pocket open.

Supply Lines

Many of the notable works about military strategy (Art of War, The Prince, etc) talk at length about supply lines. Sword fighters often disregard those chapters because it rarely comes into play. While much of the more large scale, strategic applications will rarely be simulated by Belegarth, it did occur to me that sometimes we see a smaller scale of supply lines: respawns.

At WAR this weekend, it became paramount to control the flow of respawns, much as one might cut off supplies before a siege, etc. Those paths that connected the respawn point to an objective could be compared to a main supply route. By raiding or blockading such areas, a team could reduce the enemy's ability to reinforce or control objectives.




I may have swapped my colors around.  This is what it looked like during the first round (actual headband colors are opposite).  Not to scale, of course, but the path for the red respawn is more direct to the action, and is very difficult to cut off from its own castle.

Red team used this idea to come back from a large deficit in the second half. Rather than simply attack and hold the objectives, the team pushed past them to control the supply lines, leaving only a small reserve to secure the objective. Of course, this strategy was much stronger from the higher, more open ground which red team started with in the second round.

From the forest side, this strategy is much harder, largely because the open field allows the hill side free access to two objectives from their respawn point. That makes it only really possible for a strong forest team to choke off three points from the enemy supply route. The hill side can, with less people, choke off all five objectives from the supply route. Previous years saw some of this, but the forest side castle and respawn point were in slightly better positions to counteract blockades.  Due to the location this year, the blue respawn point doesn't force the enemy to fight on two fronts to siege the castle.



Correct team coloring this time.  Red team had all five points controlled early by blocking off the two main supply routes out of the blue team respawn.  Thanks to a sneaky group (and Liz, all her fault), they were able to deploy a small force behind red lines.

You can see in the above picture, that a small force of red team was able to tie up a much larger force, using the natural choke points and limiting the blue team's ability to attack anywhere other than a prepared front.  Because blue team needs to get out of this choke point in order to gain any ground, they have to be very aggressive in attacking.  This makes kill pockets and solid defense with support weapons extremely effective for the red team.

Valkyries (mobile respawn points) could act as forward bases, opening new supply lines for their team.  While often they end up being more of a tool for getting troops to the front faster, this role as a sort of supply base also allowed a team to break blockades with a small number of troops.  By taking a longer, more difficult path around the enemy, the Valkyrie and a small group could end up behind enemy lines.

It was thanks to this raid on the backfield that allows blue team some room to breathe and finally push out of the choke points.  Even though the group in the backfield was small, the additional casualties weakens the front line and runs through Valkyrie respawns quickly.  It also forces red team to take a wider front to try to block off the advance.

The backfield raiding, though, wasn't quite enough to stifle the damage already done by red team holding all five objectives for an extended period, but it did prevent them from gaining a decisive lead.  The final score was only separated by a single point (equivalent to 1 minute of holding your own castle).

TL;DR: The path to the respawn point acts as a supply route in traditional military strategy.  Take the supply route and you can control the area much more effectively.

Theory Thursday: City Fighting

I mentioned city fighting a little bit when I talked about choke points. I feel like it is a good time to take a closer look, especially with Okfest in the not too distant future. I'll highlight a few specific obstacles I've seen over the years.

Of course, city is a pretty loose term here. Most cities we see at events are more like a series of fences or a maze. However, these obstacles still serve to breakup the fighting field into corridors that at least give some sense of that style of combat.

While each section of the line engages in small scale fights over each choke point, the strategic plan must involve maintaining control over area. To do this, sections need enough coordination to block of access to the "safe zone" in their backfield via control of individual corridors. Even the smallest approach being left undefended could end in disaster for the team, especially if sections no longer have a view of their allies.

The maneuver phase of battle takes on a slightly different role. Rather than simply approaching the enemy and redressing the ranks, it becomes far more of a race to capture territory quickly. Even without any knowledge of the layout, having more territory gives you space to fall back on and better chances of controlling advantageous areas. With prior experience, pushing in quickly might give your team a chance to take key sections or corridors that lead directly to the enemy's backfield.

As the layout becomes more maze-like, or entrances more spaced apart, it is easier for a team to lose coherency of command and communication. This is where reserves can prove vital to success. By staying off the frontlines, they not only provide some security against enemies making it through, they also can gain a better view of the big picture. Reserves may find an area that allows them to maintain visual contact with more than one section, letting them balance out reinforcements against spikes of attrition or faltering lines.

Strong points often reside around junctions and along uneven corridors. These can often allow a team to control how many fighters can be on the front, increasing your own frontage on attack or reducing the enemy's on defense. For example, a corridor that narrows at one end forces the front to shrink in order to fight on that end. This funnel shape allows a smaller force to control the corridor.

Junctions of several corridors (T-junctions, etc) will often force one side to fight through what is essentially a kill pocket in order to get through. Even if the enemy doesn't fall into the trap, it will deter them from pushing that area. In this case, the stalemate might allow a few to sneak off to bolster other sections. However, having a large force controlling the area left in a stalemate might be a disadvantage, allowing the enemy to hold up a lot of fighters with a small force.

Hairpins offer a few unique opportunities.  The first and most obvious is to fight on the defensive, slowly falling back while trying to pick off a few enemies, keeping a large force engaged in a protracted fight.  These are often used as outer defenses for towns or castle layouts for that very purpose.  One very successful strategy is to station archers and spears just around the bend, catching the first batch of enemies off guard with the extra range and extra strong line as they round the corner.  Fair warning, those close to the inside of the bend are very likely to be within swinging distance quickly.  Even though blind swings around corners are usually forbidden for safety reasons, that won't stop a few "nearly blind" swings from peeking around the corner.

Complex junctions might even span a large portion of the town, connected by the main corridors through it.  In the case above, red team's position is pretty rough.  To engage with the full force up top, they'll have to fight on a very wide front in two directions.  Depending on the scale, vision gaps might make it very easy for blue team to take advantage.  Meanwhile, blue team just needs to fend off the small side corridor to maintain a fairly strong defensive position across the whole city section.  Even though they don't control the large area in the middle, they are preventing the red team from establishing a foothold on their side of the gap.

Double tapers aren't something seen at most events, but I like the idea.  I may just have to get one set up at Okfest this year.  Holding the middle isn't any different than a single taper, but for either side to take it and then push out is more difficult.  It ends up being easier to teams to hold ground as they move towards the middle.  This also means that it may be more difficult for them to maintain a fighting withdrawal.

Tactics Spotlight: Shock Troop Defense

Holiday weekend + being under the weather a bit = me being slow to get posts out.  I should be back on the normal routine this week, though I seem to have forgotten to make graphics.

Previously, we looked at a few of the ways shock troops can attack the enemy line. Today I want to take a look at how to stop them. Most shock troopers are experienced fighters and usually bring a good bit of armor to the field. That's going to make it hard to prevent them from reaching their goal.

The easiest way to reduce their impact is to keep your head on a swivel. Noticing gaps and keeping you eyes on different angles of approach gives you a chance to spot the danger early and try to prevent it. By closing up gaps and calling out strafing runs, you greatly limit their access to easy targets.

Outside of not seeing a strafing run coming, most often their success seems to be because very few people swing at them.  Those that do often swing at the wrong target zones.  Throwing a high cross shot while they are on the move is usually going to end up hitting their shield, or hitting very light as they move away.  The best shot to land is a good hit to their leg, especially if you can get it in to an unarmored area.  Once they've lost mobility that close to your line, there isn't too much they can do without support.

One rare case to prevent strafing runs requires that you be a bit bigger than the person strafing, or at least be better at bashing.  Simply stepping up into their path and delivering a strong shield bash can knock them down, especially with the correct timing.  Even if they aren't knocked down, they are very likely to be slowed down enough for others to get a free swing or two.

Those on the line have a few options to stop shock troopers, but often times it comes down to reserves or other shock troopers to counter them.  Reserves should pay close attention to how the line in moving in the maneuver phase and look for gaps forming in the line.  Once noticed, moving there quickly is essential.  Quite often, the enemy has already spotted that same gap and will be moving there at the same time.  The mere presence of someone standing there to block it out is usually enough of a deterrent to send them elsewhere.

If you do find yourself holding a wide gap against a couple of shock troopers, try to keep to the middle of the gap and call for help.  As they approach, you need to try to get both of them to engage you in a fight, rather than one simply bypassing you.  This is difficult, because they will tend to split of once you have engaged one of them.  You'll have to try moving back and forth and putting swings on each of them.  If you can manage to leg one of them quickly, you might be able to turn the tide.  Even if they do get away, you have managed to slow them down a little to block and deal with you, potentially giving your team time to react.

There have been occasions where an enemy strafing run can be stopped by a friendly shock trooper chasing them through the middle of the lines.  This requires either being faster than their shock trooper or seeing their move and intercepting from in front of them a little bit.  This can prove to be exceptionally difficult, and is a fairly rare circumstance.

Theory Thursday: Strategies of WAR (the event)

Today we are going to take a look at a large scale battle as a case study. War is a great event near Indy, you should check it out if you get a chance. For the entire day, two teams battle it out to control 5 objectives in two rounds of regen battles. Holding the objectives gives you points based on time held that vary by the type of objective, the enemy castle being worth the most points and your own being worth the least. Each team has a mobile respawn point, or two, called Valkyries. They have a limited supply of revives before they have to return to base to recharge.

The basic layout of WAR.  Not quite to scale.  Note that neither team starts with
an objective.  The castles are just marked for clarity.

Given the terrain and objectives, the fighting is a long series of fights over choke points. Support weapons and good leadership are essential for winning this type of fighting. Of course, thanks to the scale of the engagement, communication between areas is spotty, at best. Objectives may fall with little notice.

The path near the lake is usually a hotspot of fighting, given that it is nearly the midpoint between both respawn points. The junction between this path and the dry riverbed, in particular, is often highly contested. Usually, whichever team has managed to take the side path has a slight advantage, allowing them to attack from an extra wide front and push the enemy back. For the forest side, losing here can be disastrous, allowing the enemy to block off the main route out of their base.

Typical engagement.  Both teams fight over the main choke points.  Blue team
started on the plains, giving them a little easier access to the lake and riverbed objectives.

There are, of course, other paths the forest team can take, one of which will put a force directly behind the fight at the junction, and another that leads out to an objective. This really highlights the importance of leadership and battlefield awareness. Seeing the enemy coming and responding quickly prevents them from gaining too much extra advantage. The flanking route can be shut down by a small force, and the other objective can be held with a few reinforcements. If the forest side pushes too heavily through the woods, rather than the path, the main attack has a good chance of getting to their castle.

If the lake path battle shifts in favor of the forest team, the dry river bed and lake objectives become new choke points. The plains team ends up having to split their forces and can't easily shift reinforcements from one to the other. However, if they break the enemy on one path, they have an easy shot at the other path's flank.

Red team pushes out of the junction, hoping to make ground on the river
bed and lake objectives.  they go pure defensive on the woods objective.

If the red team fails to hold out on both flanks,
they are in danger of losing the fight all together.

Should either team reach the enemy castle, they are often going to be forced to fight on two fronts, the castle entrance and the nearby respawn point. This is especially dangerous of the enemy has a Valkyrie stationed in the castle as well. If the attack can't push into the castle quickly, it will eventually be overrun by respawns as its own numbers dwindle.

Blue team made it to the enemy castle, but now has to deal with all those
respawns.  Looks like they'll have to play it safe and hope to get reinforced.

Winning the castle fight is rough and time consuming.  If the rear of the force (supply line, essentially) is secure, Valkyries and reinforcements can make from the respawn point it to help keep the fight going.  It seems that fighting cautiously and using the few respawns carefully is a key to success.  Should then enemy Valkyrie nearby run out of respawns, that is the moment to put pressure on the castle and hope to take it.

Once inside the enemy castle, holding it is a matter of holding a single choke point for as long as you can keep respawns flowing.  If you are extremely lucky, and have taken their castle while holding the path to their respawn point, you can more easily reinforce the area and keep them at bay.  Just be sure to monitor other points for forces funneling around the lake through the woods.

In our example, blue team's castle is a little harder to attack.  It is very difficult to cut off its reinforcements from their starting point because the open area allows them to easily flank a group.  This means that red team would need to spread out and bring many more people to act as a rearguard for their attack.  If your group isn't good at maintaining a strong, spaced out line, you will have a hard time here.  That's why the teams switching sides between the two rounds can be extremely important.

If you aren't sure what to do, make sure you are fighting over a point or keeping the enemy away from them.  There is no sense fighting over a piece of woods near their base if they hold all the other points.  Try to avoid getting stuck in one area.  If you get bogged down, look for alternative routes and easier targets.  Sometimes, changing where you attack will draw a larger force than the enemy can afford to send.  For example, this post talks about a pair of people attacking a base by themselves, but managing to draw a sizeable force to deal with them.

Tactics Spotlight: Shock Trooper Offense

Shock trooper is a term I throw around pretty loosely. The truth is, shock troopers can fill whatever role their team needs, and usually play a large part in causing or stopping decisive action. Today's tactical spotlight looks at a few things that shock troops do on the offensive.  Remember, fortune favors the bold! 

Minor breakthroughs are a pretty common goal for them. With a bit of armor and a plan, they aggressively force their way through weak points and gaps. One of the more common targets is polearms, rushing in to disable the wielder and do as much damage to the formation as possible. If their team follows up the charge, it may even lead to a major breakthrough.

Other than just happening to be on the line, in the thick of fighting, shock troopers sometimes act as an advance force for their team, strafing the enemy line and picking off targets of opportunity during the maneuver phase. They accomplish this by using the space between the lines to maneuver, relying on vision gaps to let them get a few shots off before being noticed.

Should the enemy line have a sufficient weak point or gap, the strafing trooper can easily attack it and attempt to break through. Succeeding at this point buys them a chance to take out key targets and archers before their team even has to fight them. However, once the gap is exploited, it will often force them to redress the ranks. Therefore, it is difficult for such a maneuver to gain the team much of an advantage unless the trooper is extremely successful at killing their numbers or being a sufficient distraction.

Top: the armored up knight strafes the line, sacrificing armor to get kills and limbs.  He uses the vision gaps to pick his targets.
Bottom: While strafing the line, he notices a gap, sacrificing most of his remaining armor to push through and start killing the enemy backfield.

Shock troopers can also be found causing and exploiting gaps during the battle itself. Often, it requires two or more working together. One trooper engages the enemy next to a gap, pinning them in place and allowing the other trooper to slip past unopposed. This is also a common tactic seen on the flank when one side has more flankers than the other.

A group of shock troopers has great potential to wreak havoc on a line, especially if each if them is capable of holding their own behind enemy lines. In this instance, a common practice is to follow each other through a gap, using the first one as a distraction to cover the others on their way in. Once through, they split up and work to deal as much damage as possible.

The pair of knights notice the spacing gap in front of them.  The left knight pushes in on the enemy knight and keeps him preoccupied, allowing the right knight to push around, through the gap.  Notice the two fighters to the left of the action, they are going to have to fight defensively or be overrun.

Even in the event they can't group up, a pair of shock troopers can strafe the line on opposite directions, crossing paths midfield. This creates a situation where vision gaps get created as people turn to defend against one shock trooper only to be cut down by the other. This indirect teamwork still relies on each person's ability to attack and defend on the move.

Shock troop offense is usually a high risk, medium-high reward.  In order to gain the most benefit, the rest of the line has to work off of any gaps or weakness the shock troopers create.  They also need to keep in mind that they may be left on the defensive while the shock troops focus on killing the other enemy flank.  Communication and situational awareness will also help the team take advantage of a minor breakthrough, possibly even rolling through a gap in force.

I'll talk more about how to stop shock troopers and defensive tactics they use a little next week.  Until then, good luck and good hunting.

Choke Points

If you've been to a few major events, there is no doubt you have seen a bridge, city, or castle fight. All three have one theme: choke points. Anywhere that forces people to fight across a small opening without any way to flank it fights about the same. These are the most intense, and dangerous, battles we usually see.

What separates this type of fighting from most others is the difficulty of causing decisive action. Unlike field battles, where there are gaps and flank routes, choke points are usually decided by attrition, to a degree. The stalemate phase ends up being the majority of the fight, until numbers dwindle on one side or the other to the point that gaps can form.



Xemeo's face shows just how intense fighting over a castle can be.
Photo by: Ellie Apland

Obviously, this type of fighting favors long range, heavy armor, and large shields. Support weapons do a great majority of the work. Spears and glaives focus their efforts on killing the front lines, while archers and javelins focus on taking down the enemy support and targets of opportunity. This can leave most shieldmen on the defensive, blocking arrows and spears while protecting their support.

However, the role of the sword and board user isn't to be underestimated. Individually, they are extremely vulnerable, especially if they were to push forward. As a coordinated group, they can push forward, one step at a time, to apply pressure on the enemy. This can force the enemy line to engage and open up their defenses to swing, giving your side an opportunity to dish out some damage in counter. Experienced groups often move together well, pushing up to the call of "step" nearly in unison.

Choke points are one if the times when using a kill pocket formation can give your side a great advantage. Defending a bridge is usually better accomplished from the friendly side of it, forming a kill pocket just outside of the crossing. The edges should just be in swinging distance of the bridge as the main force is in a semicircle between them. The goal is to end up with more fighters on the front than the enemy can possibly achieve as they cross the bridge. It also opens up angles for archers and support weapons to abuse. Note that you may need some reserves to act as archer guards and block arrows for the edges of the pocket.

Casualties will happen, of course. Anyone legged is in a pretty dangerous position on the frontline. Headshots happen most often in this situation, many times from shots directed at other people. If you are uncomfortable here, back away and let fresh fighters fill in the front rank. The dead need to clear the area as soon as they get a safe moment to do so. Lingering around the middle ground during such intense fighting is just asking for injury. As the front lines fall, shields need to step up and protect the support. Anyone capable should pick up fallen support weapons and get them into action immediately.

Individual action can sometimes help force a decisive action. The full armored charge of an individual can distract and reposition targets so that the line can push forward and inflict heavy casualties. On a rare occasion, the fully armored rusher might squeeze through intact, albeit with his armor mostly gone. This minor breakthrough is only likely to result in a few support weapons or archers being taken out of the fight, but that is usually a good trade for one person.

Once the numbers begin to thin and one side is reduced to only a single line of defense without reserves, the other side will often push one side of the choke point in force, using their superior numbers to force a major breakthrough. Attrition had already decided the battle, but this charge can reduce casualties and hurry the situation along. Because choke point battles are often part of a larger fight, finishing them quickly can help apply pressure in other battles across the field.

When battles are fought across several choke points, sometimes it is best to fight defensive on most of them, applying extra forces as they are needed to either boost defense or flood a gap. Situations with three bridges, for example, might see a large reserve force wait behind the middle bridge. Fighting defensively across all three, the commander waits to see a battle begin to turn in his favor and dispatches reserves accordingly. Archers, in particular, are often switched between bridges to apply extra force quickly.

 

City battles are similar to the three bridge example, in that once one section has fallen, flankers have free run to back stab other sections of the line. City fights are just a complex series of choke point battles. Unlike the bridge scenario, the array of corners and paths opens up flanking attempts and gaps in the enemy line. Vision gaps are somewhat more common in complex city layouts. Any section that pushes up too fast may be exposing their flank by moving past a side corridor that connects to the enemy backfield.  Teams that have a better awareness of the city's layout are at an advantage, being able to quickly get to the most advantageous positions in the maneuver phase of the battle.

Regardless of what type of choke point you encounter, your goal is to maintain a strong line and win the battle of attrition.  Cautious fighting can pay off, but you still need to inflict casualties to the enemy.  At some point, you may be forced to have your line be aggressive and push up into the fight, accepting that you may lose some fighters.  As long as your team works together and keeps in a tight formation, you should be able to keep the pressure on and start winning the fight.  Just be mindful of safety, of yourself and anyone else that is legged or dead in the middle.