Erminespot

2 on 1, how to chase down a KnightFiled Under: Fighting

I noticed a common tactic among the knights at Ice Castles the other week, and a lot of the newer fighters fell for it.  Most of the knights I saw know how to do this to people, and very few people seem to know how to stop it.

Let’s say the situation comes down to 2 relatively less experienced fighters vs. 1 fighter with relatively more experience.  We’ll call it 2 squires vs. 1 knight.  What the knight wants to do is string out the two un-belts so that he can have 2 single fights.  If the knight can accomplish, even for a couple seconds, a one-on-one with an un-belt, he’ll look to kill or leg that un-belt then move off to clean up the other one.

Of course, the two squires have a much better shot at killing said knight if they can both attack him at the same time.  Actually, any two fighters that are out of the “novice” bracket should be able to kill just about any white belt they can catch together.

So, watch what happens.  Sir Killer (red w/ white stripe) is looking at Squire Green (green w/ red stripe) and Squire Meat (blue w/red stripe) from the House of Green Eggs and Ham.  Sir Killer is going to quickly size up the two squires, and try to figure out which is the weaker.  He will run to that side of the formation.  In our situation, Squire Meat is the weaker guy.  (See Illustration 1.)

Illustration 1

Reactions to this vary.  In the “realy bad” department, they will just turn.  At that point, Sir Killer has two easy kills lined up.  If he’s feeling sneaky, he can charge Squire Meat and actually throw a shot at Squire Green.  Should such a thing happen, you’ll usually see Sir d’Oeuf, the guy who gave red belts to Meat and Green, on the side of the field crying into his glass of wine and considering when to have household ass wrap practice.  (See Illustration 2)

Illustration 2

In the “still quite bad department”, Squire Green will try to go around Squire Meat on his Left side, following the Knight.  If the knight in question is of the older, slower variety, and the Squires of the newer, faster varieties, this may work.  Also, if they already had their back to the wall (’wall’ being the out of bounds line or other obstacle) this may be the only if not the best solution.  If done quickly, you can trap the knight against that wall and kill him.  In that situation, Squire Meat should be 90% defensive and the killing blow should come from Squire Green as he closes.  However, in an open field situation, this is not the right motion.  (See Illustration 3)

Illustration 3

The right motion is to “cut the corner” or “head him off at the pass”.  It’s shorter by half at least, and most of the time, will have you crashing into the knight as his momentum takes him past your squire brother.  At this point, you’ve successfully denied the knight his one off fight.  You have two on one, so both of you should be raining blows down upon the knight, forcing him to block blows from opposite sides at the same time (or get out). (See Illustration 4).

Illustration 4

There are three possible motions that you may see at this point assuming the knight has survived the barrage.  First is, the knight continues on his first course of motion, and now seeks to isolate the guy who just cut him off.  The counter to that is, Squire Meat has to pull off what his comrade just accomplished – he has to cross behind and cut Sir Killer off at the pass.   Following on the knight’s heals only works if you are much faster than he is, so don’t do that.  (See Illustration 5)

Illustration 5

The second course is that Sir Killer may reverse direction, and attempt to roll around the other side of Squire Meat  (See Illustration 6).  This is the riskiest of all possible options, for both the knight and the two squires.  Squire Green has to make a choice – does he throw a shot at the knight as he tries to get away (usually opening himself up to parting shots) or does he simply book ass back behind his comrade (the opposite of the motion he just did)?  The answer has to be made in that split second.  The first option is more aggressive, and should be undertaken on knights who move slower than you.  The second option is more defensive, and should be undertaken on occasions where the knight is much better than the average white belt.  Squire Meat can make this a bit easier on his buddy if he can push “out” (or towards the right in our situation).  This makes Sir Killer’s path longer, and Squire Green’s path shorter.

Illustration 6

The last option for our Knight here is to retreat.  They will tend to make a retreat along a “J” or “C” type path, where he both backs out and curves toward the side of one fighter or the other.  (See Illustration 7)  Sir Killer’s goal here is to see who runs faster, and try to get you strung out again.  If he successfully escapes, don’t go rushing to follow and thereby leave your comrade behind.  If he gets all the way to the side of your formation, the guy in the back needs to cut the corner again and keep both of you on him.  Advance at him with the pace of the slowest guy, stay together, and don’t let him string you out.  If you get that glory hound howling behind your eyes, trying to run him down while he’s running backwards, you will leave your buddy behind and both of you will most likely die.

Illustration 7

While you are in the two on one, watch out for the “blind” shot.  Just because the knight is in front of your buddy, fighting with him, doesn’t mean he won’t throw a shot at you without looking at you.  He’s got you in the corner of his eye (how do you think he’s blocking all your shots?), and when he see’s enough bar grill open up, he’s going to shoot for it.

Most of the time, in larger melees, this is kind of stupid.  If one person can tie up two for any significant length of time, he’s won, regardless of who’s alive and who’s dead.  However, you may be called upon to do this in cases where an opposing spearman is chewing up our flanks and causing a lot of casualties.  Also, this might be the best way to open a hole so that another force can charge through for a shot at an enemy commander or archer.  In those situations, it’s important to realize how far you need to go, and not chase the singleton across the field.  Once they’ve moved off, let them go.  If they come back, we’ll have you charge them again.

Why no tactics for a 3 or 4 on 1 situation?  Because the only time that should happen is at the very end of a “last man standing” type battle.  There’s very little reason to tie up more than two people trying to kill one enemy.  If you find yourself in such a situation, just make sure you stay together and mob the person.  Kill them as quickly as humanly possible, and keep throwing power until you hear good or they are on the ground, then move on.  You got caught by a speed bump, the least you can do is hit the gas afterwards.

Tags: 3-man-melee, Fighting, melee

Fighting Report: Ice Castles 2009Filed Under: Fighting

Hopefully this will be the first in a series of fighting reports, detailing my adventures in armor.  If you were there and saw something, or if I mention fighting you, in one of these reports; feel free to chime in and correct any thing I say here.  If you have questions like, “how did you do that?” feel free to ask.  I’ll explain as best I can.

The day’s fighting was divided up into the 3 man melee in the morning, and Classic Tournament of Chivalry style pickups in the afternoon.

The 3 man melee showed to me the power of simple plans.  Our goal was pretty simple.  My squire brother Phillip was on the left, I was in the middle, and Sir Corby on the right.  Phillip and I had shields, Corby a polearm.  By running to the right hard and fast, we were generally able to deliver Sir Corby to the right flank of our opponents.  This would allow him a free shot or two on our opponent’s left flank, while Phillip and I hold up all three of our opponents.  When our opponents pulled the classic 2 and 1 split, we simply ignored the singleton for a second and killed one or two members of the pair.  Our team went 4 and 1, and lost that one because we didn’t execute the plan correctly and quickly.

As we moved on to the single pickups, it was explained that this was *classic* style ToC.  That meant, that we’d have a bear pit (or two), with Knights from one line and Unbelts from another.  The classic part was, if the unbelt kills the knight, the unbelt stays.  If you can run through a couple Knights, then good on ya.

I’ve found that ToC style bear pits are really good for learning and testing.  I can try to formulate a plan against a given knight while I’m standing in the line, then try it out when I get to fight.  Often, other fighters will “read my mind” and try what I was going to do, and will get killed, and thus I have to start over.  While it looks like an endurance test for the knights, it’s a mental test for me.

Vs. Sir Corby – I managed to get stick on my knight, while he tried to stab me with his polearm.  I wanted to make sure that I didn’t give him a face thrust or head chop opportunity while closing.  I figured that if he went for the leading leg and I lost it, I’d just have to die forward (no easy feat on a concrete floor wearing my better knee armor) and shoot for his legs.  I closed quickly and managed to get inside the reach of his weapon, then started striping up his thigh until he said “good”.  We fought again, this time with Sir Corby and I both equipped for sword and board.  He basically took me apart.  I’m still trying to figure out what to do to penetrate his shield defense, considering he’s the one telling me how to do it to other people.

Vs. (His Majesty) Sir Jason – while I managed not to get beaten like a seal, I didn’t actually get much on him by way of stick.  The shield side pass didn’t work out, and my sword side pass isn’t good enough to consider using against knights yet.  In talking with Corby about it, he pointed out that there seems to be an opportunity when you back out of range – so teasing the range game might net results.  Just as I’ve done with Duke Cuan (His Majesty’s Knight), I accidentally stepped on his toe.  In this case, it caused him to be distracted mid leg wrap, and thus landed it with insufficient force.  So yes, I stepped on the King’s toe to block.

Vs. (His Excellency) Sir Bryce – Sir Bryce surprised me.  He seems able to dodge a lot more than I thought he would.  I only saw him fight a couple of newer fighters before I fought him, so I didn’t get the opportunity to plan like I would have otherwise liked.  His offside body shot can be devastating, and should be watched for.  Don’t let his blog posts about his weight and athletic ability fool you, he’s being very modest.

Vs. Count Sinclair – I managed to surprise His Excellency from my knees with an over the head offside shot, and took him in the arm.  He yielded the fight rather than re-armor.  To pull this off, I had to hop up and forward, from my knees, while twisting my upper body and really flick my wrist to target and get power on the shot.  It’s a little wild, but so long as you don’t land on your opponent’s toes, and you keep your target in sight so you don’t whack someone’s hand, it seems like it can be done safely.

Vs. Sir Bryan – going in I knew the two primary shots that I should expect from that boat-oar thick sword.  One was a wrap to my shield side shoulder, and the other was a hanging offside that runs up and down my body.  I’ve taken both of them before, and they can be rather painful in the bruise department the next day.  Pain has always been a good motivation to block, in my book.  Unfortunately, I think I was a bit too concentrated on defense and thus missed opportunities to go on the offense.  I also tried my back step sword leg wrap on him, and ended up hitting him just a bit low.  I think I may be rusty on this shot, so it’s time to get back to practice with it.

Over all, I felt like I had a really good day.  Part of that was from borrowing a light sword from Sir Corby.  I think it’s time to bite the bullet and get some lighter (and more expensive) basket hilts.  The crappy bar stock $25 special isn’t cutting it anymore.  However, part of my success was in working out plans and evaluating them on the side of the field.  I had a plan to get to the range I wanted, and I had a plan for what I wanted to try once I got there.  More often than not, it didn’t work out the way I wanted.  However, more often than not, I lived through the pass and didn’t get one-shoted on the way there.  I’ll have to polish a couple of shots (the good old flat snap, and that leg wrap), and I need to figure out an effective sword side pass.

Tags: 3-man-melee, Bryan, Bryce, Corby, Fighting, Jason, Sinclair, ToC