tactical guide - very rugh draft

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tactical guide - very rugh draft

Postby Jcollins » Sat Nov 28, 2009 12:42 am

again, SUPER ROUGH DRAFT

The Basics of this document will place an emphasis on small unit tactics, skirmish tactics and group composition as well as commands. The Combat system in Amtgard is both fluid and turbulent
The most common types of tactics used in Amtgard that you can see in almost every park will be strategies used in a line battle. Diagonal Defense, Rolling the flank and Feinting the Reach and Pole weaponry. All seem to be valid tactics but are limited to line battles. The intent of this document is to aid in battle field tactics by giving instructions on the formation and structure of units as well as tactics.

War Fighting vs. Skirmish Fighting.
War fighting is the art of mass combat using traditional and historical tactics. Skirmish fighting focuses on small units working in concert toward the overall collective goal.

Structure
A unit is the smallest part of a battalion but it is also the key to building a larger army. The composition a unit and growing progressively larger is a Unit (3 people), a Lance (2 units and a sergeant), Company (26 people) a battalion (90) and finally a regiment (300). On average in Amtgard most Fighting companies will field up to a lance unless there is a special occasion. In the case of Fighting Companies such as the Saracens and Free Company that recruit widely it wouldn’t be unheard of to be able to field an entire Company.

Unit Structure and Rank
There are four common formations of units are listed below. Within a unit the command structure will be a corporeal followed by two soldiers. In a lance comprised of two units you’ll have 4 soldiers, 2 corporals and 1 lance sergeant. A unit should focus on fighting together as often as possible. Teams should elect who their corporeal is. It is the responsibility of the corporeal to see to their training, equipment and transportation. It will be the benefit to the members of the unit to practice with the reach and pole weaponry, Shield and One handed weaponry. It should also be a priority to armor the points on the members of the unit that are normally attacked.
The Hunter / Flanker Unit
2 Poles and a Shield
The focus of the Hunter / Flanker unit is to reach the flank and rear of an enemy and cause mass destruction. This unit from its strength will cause the enemy to chase them down and draw its focus off of the primary attacking force. When left alone this unit should focus on isolating and destroying smaller units.

Line Team
2 Shields , 1 Pole Arm
The Line team is the most basic of the unit formations. A Line team can accomplish all mission types. It can create shield walls and front line units.
Strike Team
3 Poles
The Strike team is composed of 3 poles. The focus is mass destruction. This team is a great long range unit that can be deployed after battle has started and has an assault team to open up a hold for them. The greatest weakness of a Strike team is a rival assault team.
Assault Team
3 Shields
The Assault unit is best for short range missions. The Assault team plays an excellent role as a block unit in a quick charge or defending against such a charge. The nature of the assault teams make them fight in close ranks, an Assault team requires quick reformation after short charges as well as very aggressive fighting techniques.

Alternative Units
Sniper Units
2 Bows 1 Pole
The role of this alternative unit would take the place of the hunter / flanker unit with its ability to wreak destruction upon enemy forces.

Shutter Shot Units
2 Shields 1 Bow
The shutter shot unit would take a similar role as the line unit.

The Lance
A lance set up is made up of 2 units and a sergeant. The role of a sergeant in the lance is similar to that of the corporal in a unit. Sergeants in a lance will typically use a pole for the added devastation force it can provide.
Commands
Commands in a unit or lance will be not be as extensive as those heard in an army or in a mass combat.

Ready Up: Prepare, make sure you are ready to act
Fall Back: Don’t turn your back on your opponent but begin to move safely backward
Double Time: Move at a run speed
Move: This completes a command and is given after ordering a unit or lance with some sort of movement. Olympus, Ready up, at a trot, move.
Advance: walking speed, move isn’t needed after this command.
At a Trot: Jogging speed
Break: This command is used if a lance is going to separate and launch an attack suddenly against an opponent.
Wheel Left: This command tells the unit or the lance to turn to their left in an orderly fashion. The left most member of the unit or lance acts as an anchor while the rest of the members begin taking steps to the left until everyone is faced and is uniform again.
Wheel Right : much like Wheel left except in a right motion.
Pulse: Pulse is a limited command that tells the team to attack for a limited amount of time then take a few steps back then advance forward and attack again until a new command is given or the situation changes.

The Basics
by now after reading this you’ve got some idea of what you’d like to do for a unit or even a lance. Friends and ideas come to mind. The following is a list of common sense things to keep in mind while on a team.

Need to know, Nice to know
When working in a lance or a larger assembly keep in mind that the entire mission objective or the goals of the commander might not be made clear to you. The overall objective will be that you need to focus on is what your sergeant or corporal makes clear to you. Sometimes it’s nice to know what is going on but most times in a mass warfare you don’t need to know as it could cause miscommunication with other friendly units during the course of the war.

Having a plan:
This goes hand in hand with Need to know , Nice to know. You should always know the plan for your particular team. Decide what the best course of action is going to be to achieve the goal of the plan and then execute it.

Crossing the Battle Field
Based on your unit and its objective determine the best way to get where you need to be at on the battlefield. Sometimes this requires units to employ the leg em’ and leave em’ tactic. Get to your place on the field that you are needed as fast and as safe as possible.

Target Acquisition
While working on a team it is important to be able to identify priority targets on the field as well as seek out and destroy stray or doubles and smash any disorganized or chaotic force if it is within the scope of your team and skill.

Never kill the guy in front of you
Working on a team means you have friend to your side. When confronting the enemy rely on your team mates to take advantage of their oblique angles while attacking.

Diagonal Defense
Block for your friend. If the enemy is squaring up with a unit block as many enemy shots as possible so long as it doesn’t put you or the unit in harms way.

Tunneling
Sometimes the mission of a unit will be a lonely one, such as hold the bridge until reinforcements arrive, or defend the Standard. Tunneling is so named because you begin to focus on the one order you are given. If the orders cause the unit to become isolated it is of great importance to keep your resolve and follow orders your allies are counting on you.

Grading yourself
Pre Battle, Mid-Battle and Post Battle. Make a note to yourself during these three stages of things you see yourself doing wrong or right as well as those on your team. It’s important to be completely honest after a battle and compare notes. Learn from the mistakes you made and try not to do them in the future.

Life on a team
The Don’t List
Don’t over extend yourself or expose yourself to an attack that shouldn’t hit you.
Don’t run off alone and leave your team
Don’t interrupt the corporal or sergeant when they are giving orders.
Don’t get yourself killed, your more effective alive.
Don’t stop off the field and leave your unit if your team wipes out


the Do List
Do make sure you are willing to switch positions and weapons with members of your unit.
Do make sure everyone has the gear they need
Do enjoy your team and have a great time.
Do keep mental notes so next times you can change any mistakes.
Do listen to orders if you are not in charge and let them play out. Amtgard combat is fast enough and resets quick enough that you can test a great many strategies and commit a ton of mistakes without wasting hours of your time.
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Re: tactical guide - very rugh draft

Postby Calarn the Black » Thu Dec 31, 2009 4:04 pm

In a unit as I'm reading here, your numbers of polearms are outnumbering shields by a lot. that is pretty much the reverse of sound tactics on a Belegarth field. Shields are needed to protect the polearms, otherwise they'll simply be run down. No unit of 3 polearms will survive being attacked by even a single competent shield user.
Also, flanker units need to be fast and hit hard; rarely will you see a ploearm used in that capacity, as the flankers won't want to be tied to protecting a polearm, they're there to cause damage and sew confusion.
you're placing a ton of emphasis on the ability of a polearm, but I think you've got a bit of a skewed viewpoint on it's actual tactical capability. Polearms need competent shields guarding them to be effective on a Bel field.
Not trying to say what you wrote isn't a decent summation, Thorpe, but I think your unit makeups are a bit out of whack to normal tactics.
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Re: tactical guide - very rugh draft

Postby Jcollins » Fri Jan 01, 2010 8:27 pm

Im completely ok with feed back.

the stance I take on it is what I've seen on the field between Bel, Amtgard, SCA and NERO trying to put some basic strategies together that should with little modification work for most (maybe not the SCA but other foam fighting)

thanks again !
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Re: tactical guide - very rugh draft

Postby Wisp » Fri Jan 08, 2010 11:33 am

Really depends on the players and about a hundred other criteria. For a SI unit, yeah, this would be strong. We are pole arm heavy and fight very efficiently with them in Bel / Dag situations. For Amtgard situations, depends on the militia or class battle game. The biggest lesson we learned from this last Bridge Wars was the weakness open to the competent "hero" lone fighter that just pours in a never ending stream from a Rez battle. When the line breaks down as people rez at the rez point, it becomes fish in a barral. Totally a matter of initiative and keeping it from the jump If you can keep your line in place and only lose players in ones and twos to go rez at the rez point, this would work great and has on several occassions for us, most notably Lord of War (on a micro scale version) and Gates of Summer Dag event.

For an average newb who finds this primer, picks up the matching weapons and takes the field with his newb unit... probably not. Also the typical Dag/Bel pole useage is almost entirely different because of the heavy difference between Reds and Double Greens in the game. The way they've evolved on how they use them would make it a very limiting set up for the average Belegrim or Dagorhirrim I would think. Amtgard by contrast has an omni directional blade that can stab... BIG difference on the effective power projection when considering SPEED. A good Amt pole arm fighter fights with the same tenacity as if they were going balls out with a sword and board. When most Amt pole arm players pick up a standard Bel Glaive, they have to slow down considerably because of the weapon design. Most of the technique and such still is appliquable but it is really outside the box from my Bel/Dag travels.

In short, you need to completely start this over from scratch and keep this game plan as a company tactic. Always play to your strengths and I'm still of the opinion this is the way to go in Bel / Dag events with our particular team. But again, thats OUR particular team. That also needs work. :armor1:

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Re: tactical guide - very rugh draft

Postby Vrohi » Thu Jan 21, 2010 9:36 pm

Oh I like this I like this a lot Im saving it!
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Re: tactical guide - very rugh draft

Postby Josheb-basshebeth » Tue Jan 26, 2010 7:09 pm

I think it's decent.
But come on, who can write up a non-error strategic guide anyway?

Good job, man
But I think you should rely on shields more, they are the backbone and support for the lances, and vice versa. What I find to work during big line battles is keep having your shields step forward and have your spears as agressive as possible, even if they know that they can't pierce lines, it puts pressure on the enemy.
Seeing that, the commander gets pretty mad at this movement, so he wants to go aggressive to, so his soliders don't lose faith in him. Now by going so offensive you problaly have more fighters. This is what I do. Start relying 50% more on your assualt or strike force, whatever you call it, and enemy morale will drop, beacuse they know they are definately starting to loose. Finally, start wraping your line around his, not into a cirle, but a little past the side flanks, and watch your enemys get dropped!
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