General:
• Partner up. Find a primary fighter to work with, don't try and go it alone.
• Know your role. When you "partner up" you place the enemy fighter in a tough spot, they will have to always calculate 2 opponents now rather than one, increasing their susceptibility to mistakes. If the opposing fighter places to much attention on you, play defensive, your partner will likely find openings. If the opposing fighter places to much attention on your partner, he will likely open up to you.
• Communicate. Because your position is further back you can often see things better than the front line fighter, who might get tunnel vision. Be sure and ready to vocally and clearly communicate opportunities and warnings with your unit.
Specific:
• Florentine and other light armed fighters should make use of their speed and maneuverability, look for holes, and flanking opportunities, as well as to stop opposing fighters doing the same thing.
• Spear, watch for openings on opposing fighters made by your front line fighters and watch for mistakes made by opponents, disguise your reach and "snipe" the opportune openings.
• Range, even your presence can make an enemy nervous causing them to open up opportunities for your primary fighters. Sometimes it is good to stay low key and snipe, and other times it is good to let your presence be known not firing and just hover over the enemy like a cloud of impending doom.
(As always, feel free to add your 2¢ or disagree with me, I am always willing to learn)
My only critique here is that you're posting this entirely from the perspective a close-packed large line fight. As far as it goes, this is correct. Frankly, however, line fights like this happen at best a few times a year. Consider maybe pairing this with an article considering the possibilities of each style in a more open field. The small teams approach to mixing weapons styles is what gets the lions share of most fighters' time. A glaive fighter with two support shieldmen is a fairly effective open-field three-man team, for example
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'd consider re-thinking your take on florentine fighters. They aren't lightly armed in the slightest. If anything, it's an attack-oriented style that has no passive defense to rely on when your attention is elsewhere. In the case of a close-packed line, your advice seems fairly sound anyway, florentiners are at a disadvantage when standing within striking distance of half a dozen opponents, but again, considering them lightly armed puts you in an absolutely backwards mindset when considering other applications. On an open field, a talented florentiner has several advantages over the average shield fighter.
Just my two cents. Thanks for posting and keeping the site up.
I like... I have one spear tip to add. For those medium to small fights with only two teams facing off, a trick that works sometimes is to work the far end of one side(better the left because most people have shields in there left as well) and push it kill the end guy and then cut up and into there sides. It's hard to explain, but if you understand then it can be devasting in a confined battle space...
ReplyDeleteAlso I love tips and videos so keep em coming ;)
Thanks, Andrew!
ReplyDeleteWhen I called florentiners "light", I meant light weight, as opposed to having a large heavy weapon to maneuver or having to cary a heavy shield around. Probably a poor choice of words on my part.
Florentiners are defiantly the least understood unit in my mind. I can never quite place them.
Although, sword and bucklers,(shields no more than 20" in diameter), always seem to be misplaced as well. Our strength isn't in fighting in the line with the big tower shields, but teaming up with one or two other lighter faster fighters and flanking. The key to fighting light like that is completely in speed and surprise. Of course, I am not as experienced, that is just they way I have learned to fight.
ReplyDelete