Group Fighting

A group combat is defined simply as a fight where there is more than one person per side. Group fighting differs from individual fighting in a number of ways. In an individual fight, you are on your own, and you live or die depending on your skill with your weapon and your ability to out-think and out-manoeuvre your opponent. In a group fight, playing like that will get you killed.

The first thing to remember about a group fight is that you are not on your own. You have your entire team to think about. You have to be able to rely on your allies to do their job - otherwise you cannot hope to win a battle. You must always communicate with your allies in order to have a hope of trusting them on the battlefield. You must be aware of what's going on around you, and you must be able to communicate that awareness to your allies. They will probably be grateful for the early warning of that flanking manoeuvre.

You must know your allies. You must know their strengths and weaknesses, and you must be able to identify them instantly in battle. You must trust them to hold up their end of the fight so that you can concentrate on yours.

Any group fight will rely on all the members of a team, not just one. However, all teams in a group fight have to have a leader. The leader makes the plans and directs the team in battle. The other members of the team must follow the leader's orders immediately and without question. A battle or a group fight cannot be fought as a committee. You may elect the leader beforehand if you wish, but once the leader is in place, the rest of the team must follow orders. If the leader's orders cause you to lose the battle, you know that it's time to let someone else be the leader.

The leader must always have a plan, and the team must stick to the plan. When making a plan, consider the following:

• You can not rely on winning a fair fight. Use your resources to overwhelm the opponent. This means sending four of your allies against two of the enemy. In any skirmish, you should arrange it so that you are guaranteed to win. Several of these skirmishes strung together mean that you win the battle.
• Always maintain the cohesion of your unit. Don't let anyone fight on their own, or they will be overwhelmed as above. Every fighter must have at least one partner, and they must stick together. An isolated fighter is a dead fighter.
• Stay mobile. A static formation can be outflanked. Even a shield wall should rotate to meet the enemy. Mobility is the key to victory, regardless of the size of the battle.
• Maintain your aim. That means sticking to your plan. Do not try to change tactics in mid-fight. Every fighter should know their role and should stick to it.
• It is usually no good to win a battle with only one or two fighters of your team left standing. In military parlance this is known as the pyrrhic victory. It means that you have technically won the battle, but not the war, because the next fight you face will wipe you out. It is much better to win with most or all of your fighters left standing, and this is no easy feat. Regardless of whether you have two or twenty fighters on your team, losing any of them is going to seriously affect the outcome of the battle.

Small Team (2 - 3 per side)

With only two or three fighters on a side, it is essential that each fighter knows their role in the battle. In essence, you are fighting as a single fighter, but with extended capabilities. Most battlefield tactics are out. It is more like a one-on-one combat. In this type of fight, equipment combinations are more important than battlefield tactics.

Equipment Combinations - Pairs

A spear fighter should always team up with a shield fighter. A lone spear fighter usually gets killed quickly.

The primary role of the shield fighter is simply to protect the spear fighter. The primary role of the spear fighter is to kill the opposition. If any of the opposition comes within attack distance of the shield fighter, then of course go for it, but it should be the spear fighter doing most of the work.

Be aware that people have a natural tendency to charge down a spear. The shield fighter extends the killing power of the spear to include the entire length of the spear, prefenting this tactic. When properly done, the spear fighter should remain perfectly safe from attack at all times.

The spear fighter should use the shield fighter's body as protection. If an enemy tries to attack, make sure they have to get past the bodyguard first. This usually means the spear fighter should stand directly behind the shield fighter. The spear should be held on the shield fighter's shield side, to avoid any entanglements with the bodyguard?s weapon.

When working without spears, left and right handed fighters should stand with their shields together. In other words, the left handed fighter stands on the left, and the right handed fighter on the right. That way, the two shields reinforce each other, and both sides of this "three-armed fighter" are threatened by a weapon, making it harder to flank.

In general, it is not worth splitting the team to flank the enemy. There are two reasons for this. First, if the other team does the same, you end up with two one-on-one fights where neither team member can support the other. Second, if the other team does not split, they can focus their attention on only one member of your team, and fight two-on-one.

Equipment Combinations - Trios

Two spears and one shield is a combination that can be particularly deadly, but the shield fighter must then protect both spear fighters. It is easy to outflank this combination. Instead, try two shields and one spear. The spear should always be on one flank or the other, never up the middle. In the middle position the spear fighter's mobility is drastically reduced, and it is mobility that makes the spear fighter succeed.

In essence, the role of the two shield fighters is to engage the enemy head-on and tie them up in close combat. The role of the spear fighter is to look for attacks of opportunity. The spear fighter must be fast and accurate. As soon as an opening presents itself, attack. The spear fighter should be positioned to attack the opponent's weapon side. It is much easier to attack an opponent?s weapon side than their shield side. As with a one-on-one fight, the emphasis is on ending the battle quickly.

Uneven sides

These are some of the hardest battles. Perhaps they started out as two-on-two, but one person has been taken out of the fight. In any case, the solo fighter should be prepared to move about a lot.

For the pair, the ideal situation is to get the solo in between the two fighters. For the solo, you must prevent this from happening. The solo should aggressively attack one of their opponents and take them out of the combat as quickly as possible, reducing the fight to one-on-one. In a protracted fight, the solo will always tire more quickly than either of the pair will.

Skirmish (4 - 10 per side)

The skirmish is where tactics start to come into play. In a large battle, you can divide your side into "task forces", which you then dispatch to achieve a specific objective on the battlefield. In a small skirmish, these "task forces" are likely to consist of no more than two or three fighters at best, and you can usually have only two of them. Again, each fighter must know their role in the fight, and stick to it. It is often worthwhile not bothering and keeping all your fighters together.

Use of the Shield Wall

The front rank of fighters overlap their shields. This is usually impenetrable without a concerted effort (see flying wedge below). Hanging guard is essential for the shield wall front rank, as you are not able to raise your shield to block high blows without breaking the coherency of the wall. See the article on Shields for more information about the shield wall.

When defending, the shield wall should always overlap their shields in a consistent direction. The shield that has another shield in front of it on both sides is a weak point in the line. The shields should reinforce each other. This way the strength of the shield wall as a whole is equal to the strength of all its fighters added together.

The shield wall is not usually an attacking formation. A shield wall can slowly advance while keeping its coherency, and is usually quite potent when it does so. But this is best suited to attacking a static position than anything else, because it is quite easy for a slow-moving formation like this to be outflanked.

Spears and pole weapons should be placed in the second rank. This does not necessarily mean that they should fight between or over the heads of the first rankers. They may also fight at the flanks of the formation. One of their main priorities is to ensure that enemy fighters do not outflank the shield wall.

Flying Wedge

This is a formation used to break shield walls. It is described in detail in the article on Shields.

There are a few important things to remember about the flying wedge formation. The first is to stay in formation! Nothing is worse for a flying wedge than for the point fighter to go charging off and the followers straggle or delay afterwards. This only leads to the point fighter attacking the wall on his own and more often than not, dying an ignominious death. Keep the formation of the wedge.

The second thing to remember is that the point fighter doesn't even need a weapon. The point fighter's job is not to make attacks on the enemy, it is to create a breach in the shield wall so that those following can exploit it. This leads to the third point, which is to follow up the attack. A flying wedge on its own only creates the breach. This is pointless if the enemy has a chance to regroup and reform the wall.

Flanking

It is essential to master this tactic as a team; otherwise the battle ends up as a number of individual fights and usually finishes with only one or two fighters left standing. This manoeuvre can be done in two ways.

You can have some fighters fight head-on, and some split off and flank. This is a trade-off. Either of the two task forces is weaker than the whole enemy team, but the flanking side can usually attack against one side of the enemy, making it easier to "roll up" the enemy formation. Usually an enemy detachment meets the flanking force and you are down to an even battle again.

The other technique is known as the Refused Flank. In this textbook military tactic, you commit your entire force to one side of the battle, in an effort to bring overwhelming force to a small part of the enemy line. When done correctly, the whole of the allied army is set against a small part of the enemy, and simply moves up the line. Against an enemy with fast reactions, this is less effective. See below for how this tactic works in larger battles.

Use of Spears and Pole Weapons

The main contingent of any team in any group combat will consist of shield fighters. Regardless of whether they use swords or axes, it is the shield fighters that make up the core of any unit. All unit tactics will focus on the shield fighters.

The role of lighter fighters with spears is more flexible. They can be used as a mobile reserve, attacking where the shield fighters seem weakest. They can be used to flank and harass the enemy. They can be used to pick off stragglers.

The main advantage that a spear or polearm fighter has is mobility. While the shield fighters form a solid bastion, the spear fighters move around and provide most of the tactical advantage to a unit.

Polearm fighters should be used in a similar role to spear fighters. The main difference is that a spear fighter usually has a longer range than a polearm fighter. They work quite well together.

In a large combat do not be surprised if it is the spear fighters who cause the heaviest casualties on the enemy.

Large Battles (more than 10)

The largest battles are usually the most interesting, because true unit tactics can be used, but they are very uncommon. It is recommended that each fighter wear a token identifying which side they are on, as it can become quite confusing in the heat of battle. Green and purple scarves are recommended.

What follows is a more detailed look at some aspects of large group tactics. Note that this discussion now becomes almost purely theoretical, as most group battles in practice have little or no real tactics. Good battlefield tactics requires a large amount of drill and training, and groups are generally unwilling to commit the time required to train in this manner. Most large battles consist of the two sides forming up and smashing into each other. Tactics are limited to two: the charge and the flank.

Large Group Tactics: Units

As commander, you should always divide up your army into multiple units. Each unit, if large enough, should also have its own lieutenant, subordinate to the overall army commander. Units of only two or three fighters can get away with no lieutenant, if all the members of the unit know what they are doing.

The first unit is called the Strong Centre. Their role is to engage the enemy head on. It consists of the heaviest armour, the biggest shields and the most gung-ho fighters. It should also be your largest unit in terms of numbers. As army commander, this group is your main priority. Send them against the enemy with no hesitation. They will win or lose you the battle. 60% of your fighters should be shield fighters in the Strong Centre.

The second unit is called the Wing, left or right. Where there are enough people, use both. Their role is twofold ? protect the flanks of the Strong Centre, and outflank the enemy. If the Strong Centre meets the enemy off-centre, then one wing fights defensively and the other attacks. 30% of your fighters should make up one or both wings.

The third unit is the Mobile Reserve. This consists of light, fast fighters such as spear fighters, and their role is to simply go where they are needed. Initially they should hang back from the fighting until committed. If the enemy line is broken, they should rush to exploit the breach. If the friendly line is broken they should rush to plug the gap. In either case, fast movement is absolutely essential. This unit works very well if it consists mainly of spear and polearm fighters. Throw in a few two-handed axes as well, and it can intimidate an enemy simply by being there. 10% of your force is usually sufficient for the reserve.

The overall army commander should either hang back from the battle with a small unit of bodyguards, or should take part leading the Strong Centre. The larger the battle, the better it is for the commander to appoint lieutenants on the front line and direct the battle from a safe position. The main task of the commander is to appropriately commit the Reserve unit in the right place at the right time.

Large Group Tactics: the Refused Flank

Let us assume that you are fighting against a stupid enemy general who does not react with tactics of his own, as it will make it easier to describe. You have a total of 30 fighters on your side. 16 of them are armed with sword or axe and shield and wear heavy armour, including the designated commander. They make up your Strong Centre. 5 fighters with lighter gear are designated as the Right Wing and 5 as the Left Wing (where there are an odd number of fighters, always give priority to the defensive wing in a situation like this). This leaves a Mobile Reserve of 4 spear fighters. One member of the Mobile Reserve is designated the line sergeant. It is the sergeant's responsibility to observe the flow of the battle and direct the reserve into combat. If there were only 20 fighters, 12 of them form the Centre, 3 the Reserve, and 5 form the Right Wing. There is no Left Wing.

To execute a Refused Flank attack you must commit your Strong Centre to one side of the enemy line in a spirited charge. For the purposes of argument, let's say the left. This allows the Left Wing to extend around the enemy formation while the Right Wing falls back to protect the army from the enemy, who will of course advance to attack the Strong Centre's otherwise undefended flank. The Reserve as usual goes where the need is greatest. If you do not have enough fighters for both wings, use only the defending wing (Right Wing in this example). Frequently fighters from the enemy flank break off to meet your Left Wing, which is just fine because it further weakens their line at that point. Even if you lose the Left Wing, your Strong Centre should be sufficient to roll through the remaining enemy and head for their centre line.

What happens here is that the overwhelming force of your army is committed to a small part of the enemy. The Strong Centre and the Left Wing move up the line of the enemy taking out fighters as they go. The Right Wing protects them from any counterattack while the Reserve assists wherever they are needed.