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Heatherwyne Training Manual
Yaroslav the Persistent and Philip of Meadhe
Lord Yaroslav is a familiar name to these pages as well as
to the Hosts of Heatherwyne. This modification of
his shire s training guide has been a few months in the revising, including
a review by Sir William the Lucky, Marshal of the Society. Note that this
article does not express Sir Williams own views, although his comments have
been taken into account.
FROM LONE
WARRIOR TO SOLDIER: A PURPOSE FOR THIS WORK
As a
fighter in the Current Middle Ages, nobody enjoys defeat. To avoid such a
distasteful position, a potential fighter attends fighting practice to be
bellowed at and maimed by an overmuscled churl,
then to tourney to try what one has learned until the fateful day when the
fighter is not eliminated in the first round. From there comes our
progress.
Engaging
in warfare in the SCA is only mildly related to the tourney one normally
attends. There is more of everything here: more Crowns in one place, more
costumes, more bugs. many. many
more fighters all gathered in the most inhospitable place you have ever
been to. It is here you must learn to fight beside the overmuscled
and doomlul churl mentioned above—and all the
other sworn foes you have managed to create at tourney. Here is the purpose
of this work: to keep you alive a little longer and make a war nor like
Hell, so you may spend your time gleefully wading into an enemy formation
rather than complaining about who forgot what.
This work
is not a 'how-to" for everybody. It was penned by two fighting lords:
Lord Philip of Meadhe, Marshall of the Shire of Heatherwyne at the time, and Lord Yaroslav
the Persistent, then Deputy Marshall for the Kingdom of Caid's
first General Staff. It then saw life as a text for training the "Heatherwynos." It captures a moment or two only,
as thoughts on the conduct of warfare in the Society have evolved beyond
"Get those guys!" And while the work before you was not used by
the General Staff, the authors wish to acknowledge those who made something
special happen across the Realm during the reign of King Balin of Tor:
Command:
Duke Sir Gregory of York, Duke Sir Martin the Temperate, Duke Sir Douglas Longshanks;
Ordnance: Sir Robear du
Bois, Master Olaf the MediOgre,
Lord Aethelred the Jute, Viscount Sir Christian
of Orange, Lord Edward de Anvil;
Training: Lord Madraut MacChlurain,
Lord Lasarian of Twrynyswr,
Lord Jehansuh Ess-Salamm,
Aethelred again. Lord Philip of Meadhe and Lord Yaroslav the
Persistent;
War Archery: Lord Morton the Grey and Philip again;
and for Sir Rand of Dunbar of Rieslingshire,
Viscount Sir Hugh the Undecided, Grandmaster of the Brotherhood of the
Blade, and Count Balin of Tor,
who provided us with a purpose during his reign.
Now read
carefully and make thee war upon thy friends . . .
STRATEGY,
TACTICS AND HASTY PLANS
Most of
what the classic military writers have provided is useless in the SCA if
used as it is, for the simple reason that we cannot have entire units
training as infrequently as once per week. We are besieged by excuses such
as "I sneezed on Monday" or "I'm modifying my armor—talk to
me next spring." What is beautiful in the textbook, such as the
feigned retreat of the Mongols, is worthless to us because of the high
discipline required, which means we can either ignore such tactics or raise
the level of discipline.
Let us
keep in mind scale. Save for resurrection battles, fortification fights and
debacles such as the infamous 2/2-hour bridge battle at Cloth of Gold II (Reislingshire, Caid, AS
XV) called by some The Great Bridge Siege, our battles in the western
realms normally last less than five minutes—one move in a typical wargame. At full strength, these average western units
are too small to carry off classic moves, such as the phalanx, and are
usually composed of a few dedicated individuals and a large and lazy group
of people who fight in wars so they can claim to be fighters in a largely
military society.
There are
also subcommanders whose credentials for command
are experience at playing wargames. Fine and
dandy, except you cannot reproduce SCA conditions in a wargame
such as the devastating effect of certain individuals. What we are saying
is to employ not the scale but the style of classical warfare; we also
cannot forget the evolution of warfare, not in technology (although that
could apply), but in organization. Therefore what is needed is a set of
uniform commands, a desired weapons mix, and a command control structure.
UNITS
Each unit
should have a basic training which is common throughout the particular
Kingdom; such a basis is provided in this manual. From there, each unit
should specialize, the direction of specialization based upon the type of
unit the members have decided to become, e.g., a solid shieldwall,
a shock squad, lightly armored cavalry, or bloodcrazed
mob. This choice should not be made lightly, for one type of unit cannot do
the work of another type, nor should it be expected to.
Before
turning to unit composition and weapons construction, we should mention
something about esprit de corps. This comes from an in-group/out-group
approach. Legend-building comes into play, such as the endless retellings
of battles which bore our ladies to tears, getting to know the units your
levy faced in wars, bragging about all the dirty jobs you got volunteered
for. However, induced paranoia should not be used, as some have done. We
are not here for that—and it doesn't work. It's also distasteful.Another,
more positive, approach is to instill unit pride through the use of uniform
shields, weapons, tabards, etc. The appearance of professionalism in
soldiering helps the mental attitude considerably. Hopefully such a unit
will feel well-trained when facing a levy whose shieldwall
comes off like a museum—one of everything, nothing alike.
Another
vital step is to never forget the support personnel, the non-combatants, many
of whom are young, who ride along to the war and who end up giving you
water, carrying shields and helms when the battles are done and camp has
somehow moved further away than you recall. They should be considered as
part of the levy and praised at every turn because you wouldn't survive a
war without them.
UNIT
COMPOSITION AND WEAPONRY
Here is
yet another highly subjective, personal view of the authors, who have not
traveled beyond the western Kingdoms.
The
majority of the levy falls into the weapon-andshield
category, the weapons-mix hopefully every fighter has been authorized with
in those Kingdoms where specialized authorizations are required.
The first
choice would be sword and shield, as most fighters are familiar with this
particular combination. Into this category, one may include shortswords and falchions, where legal. We have not
particularly favored thrusting shortswords; in
the heat of a melee, thrusts of a moderate force become difficult to
acknowledge anywhere except the eyeslot area (notice how cleverly we avoided the groin,
hoping fighters will do likewise). Also slashes frequently fail, either
because of connecting with a mushy tip or the shortsword
lacking mass. Still something has to be said in favor of this weapon; they
appear in brasses such as those of Ralph de Knyveton
( 1370 ) and Sir Thomas Grene
(1462); the Norse didn't do badly with them, either.
We've
highly recommended the falchion as a substitute (where legal), which uses a
blade, something all fighters, even occasional ones, are trained to use.
Perhaps in Kingdoms where the falchion is not legal, a short, slightly
heavy sword would do the same trick.
As to
axes being used, unless one is trained, axes would not be strongly recommended
due to a need for a strongly developed blade-sense, which the infrequent
fighter rarely possesses. Why spend a weekend flatting people? Even the
mace requires expertise if one is to be reasonably effective and not strike
every opponent with the shaft, which is likely to take place when weaponsmiths construct maces with extra-long shafts
"for the range." However one should not make the shaft too short
in order to avoid this; otherwise you will never strike an opponent in a
wall fight.
Therefore,
we turn back to the short, slightly heavy sword. Its length makes it a good
weapon for infighting, being fast and easy to move. As we are speaking of
units which have small numbers practicing regularly, but fielding more for
wars, there is a need for a weapon usable by virtually untrained troops.
Turning
now to shields, the selection of the shield shape and size is nearly as
important as the selection of the implement of destruction you elect to
strike your friends with. The target or roundshield
doesn't cover enough area for a more-or-less stationary fight, although for
a unit on the run it might not be bad. Oddly enough, the Viking round also
creates problems because, in forming a shieldwall,
the excess can get in the way of your shieldbrothers
swinging weapons. Heaters do not offer enough protection to the legs from polearm thrusts, not even the so-called "cheater
heater," because of the point at the bottom. Kites, while better, have
the same problem, that of the point, which was developed for combat on horseback.
Since this was not designed for infantry, to use it for such causes it to
be somewhat ineffective.
This
brings us to the Celtic-style shield and the scutum
or Roman-style shield. Both have eliminated the troublesome point and cover
larger areas. Now comes the debate. With the
Celtic shield, which has corners rounded off, one is not as blinded when
fighting and the corners are great to fire through. However, if you can
fire out, someone else can fire in, especially a polearmsman
down the line in a formation fight. This was demonstrated at Cloth of Gold
II, when Heatherwyne engaged the levy of Tarnmist, which was using the Celtic shield design. Heatherwyne shieldmen were
blinded by the corners and shots were harder to throw but the corners did
stop weapons, while Heatherwyne polearms were able to take advantage of the openings
noted above. It should be noted that the scuti
were not made for running, as we discovered when the next units appeared
and slaughtered us. The corners can be annoying and the shields can prove
too cumbersome. They can also save your life. The choice is yours.
As to the
construction of the scutum, we recommend that the
armorer and his minions take 5/8~~ plywood and
cut it into 2'x4' sections, which are then banded with aluminum J-metal or
L-metal (used for drywalling and which can be
shaped to the shield very easily), then banded further with hose. We
suggest the arm should be at roughly a 60° angle behind the shield. As to
the pavis, it should be made as light as
possible, banded for safety reasons, able to stand on its own and able to
shield two archers. One might also mount a quiver on the back.
Turning
to spear and shield, this has come off as extremely limited in use,
although there have been individuals in the Kingdoms of Atenveldt,
Caid, and the West who have been effective. It
requires extensive training for a unit to use it and requires large numbers
as well. We experienced strain on joints and muscles, especially in the
elbow, wrist, and shoulder. We also discovered, at the Baronial Wars (Dreiburgen, Caid, AS
XIV), that having a couple of fighters armed in such a fashion on the
flanks crippled the unit.
As to polearms, each polearmsman
should carry a secondary weapon on his wrist for those times when the shieldwall blows it and lets someone inside. Each unit
also needs the mix of polearms and pikes. The polearmsmen should work as teams and learn to rotate
their fire together against particular targets.
This is
the section where one of us must eat a healthy diet of crow: florentine or double weapon fighters. In a formation
fight, the man is meat, and that was the opinion we held until the Great
Desert War II (Atenveldt,
AS XVIII). We originally
considered florentine fighters as useful as swimfins in a melee, and we still think so for bridge
battles, but some experimentation (read Lord Yaroslav's
stubbornness about giving up his two swords) led us to reconsider our
position. We found florentine to be effective,
especially as flankers or roving intimidators and in conjunction with pikemen.
Some
battles allow missile weapons. If that is the case, we have opinions for
both archers and javelineers. We've felt that
archers should carry no less than 30 to 40 arrows each, which sounds like a lot, but arrows disappear quickly. They
should never fire as individuals, but in volley, firing not quite at the
same time to produce a rippling effect in a line or staggered off-speed
firing. One might also consider two lines of five archers each. On the fire
command, the archer on the left end of one line first while the man on the
right end of the other line fires, the two lines rippling; the archers
should otherwise be in pairs and might carry a pavis.
As to targets (victims, not shields), the unit of archers should fire upon
entire units, seeking to destroy first one unit, then another, the first
unit being the enemy's own archery unit.
The
javelin has seen use in SCA combat in battles where archery has been
allowed between the Kingdoms of the West, Caid,
and Atenveldt, and the Atens
have apparently experimented with throwing axes. If the javelin is being
used, perhaps the polearmsmen should carry
several to be hurled almost in the style used by Rome: throw javelins, then rush in to
engage just as they are coming down and the unit being attacked is covering
against them. While we have not used throwing axes. as
they are not legal in Caid, we suspect you could
do the same thing.
BASIC
FORMATIONS AND MANEUVERS
Here
follow the basic formations and maneuvers, as well as a list of commands.
If they seem overly simplistic and insulting, we apologize, but previous
knowledge should not be assumed to be possessed. These formations should be
practiced regularly to do any good at all.
Originally
one of the commands used in Heatherwyne was
"Halt!" As Count William the Lucky pointed out to us, this needs
to be replaced with another command because it sounds too much like
"Hold!"—a command we are conditioned to respond to for safety's
sake. Perhaps "Stop!" might fit the need. If that is the case,
then each soldier should be trained~~ to understand and perform the
following commands and maneuvers: • Stop • Forward, march • Forward at the
walk, march • Forward at the run, march • Prepare to engage • Engage •
Prepare to charge • Charge • Form a wall, march • Form skirmishes, march •
Form the column, march • Guide left/right • Refuse the left/right, march •
Ground • Stand up, march • Prepare to withdraw by the numbers • Withdraw •
Prepare to resist missile fire • Form a square/prepare to resist swarm.
Note. Commands
to stop • prepare to charge • charge • prepare to engage • engage • guide •
ground • and withdraw do not require the executionary
command of "March." Units may be readied for an impending
maneuver by prefixing the word "Prepare" to a command and omitting
the executionary command.
Definition of
symbols:
Commander C
Friendly weapon/shield a~
Friendly polearm
Hostile weapon/shield ,O
Hostile polearm ,
Shield
Wall Formation: Sword and shield men should be shoulder to shoulder with
gaps between the shields no greater than 3 inches. Poleamrsmen
should be to the shieldman's shielded side so
that he will not interfere with the shieldman's
sword swing.
The formation in Figure 1 allows the commander of the unit to confer
with polearmsmen on march prior to closing with
the enemy. Figure 2 is the formation the shieldwall
should use as the unit prepares to engage the enemy, polearmsmen
being to the shieldman's shielded side if
possible.
Command. Form a wall, march!
•a~~a~~a~~~
•a~~a~~a
///
/ / /
C
C
Figure
1
Figure 2
Skirmish
Team Formation: As plans go to hell and units dissolve, we need skirmish
teams in order to salvage the remnants of the units and provide more mohile subunits or skirmishes, able to goad hostile
formations with greater effectiveness. There has been debate concerning
having the skirmishes vary in strength from three to five men. The example
shown here relies upon the three-man skirmish, the ideal combination being
a right-hander, a left-hander and a polearmsman.
In Figure 3, shieldmen in each skirmish have 3 to
5 meters between them, the poles behincl, with 5
to 7 meters between each skirmish.
Command: Form skirmishes, march
•~~—~~~—
/ / /
C
Figure 3
The
Column: The column, shown in Figure 4, is a formation used to punch through
shieldwalls on a charge and is formed by folding
the shieldwall until it is three men wide, the
first three men being shieldmen. The men on the
outside ranks or flanks are the remaining shieldmen
or double?weaponsmen,
while the polearmsmen are protected in the middle
of the formation.
Command. Form the column, march!
00000000
•a~~
• a
• /~~
• / •
Figure 4
Guide
Maneuvers: Men A and B are the pivot men for Guide
Right and Guide Left maneuvers. For the Guide Right command, B remains
stationary while the unit pivots around him. The guide command is repeated
until the unit is facing the desired direction. No command is necessary to
halt the maneuver.
Command. Guide right!
A
F~~F0~~
A~~*~~oooB
/ / /
Figure 5
Refuse:
As with the guide, A and B are the pivot men and remain and turn in place
to the new orientation, as shown in Figure 6. This maneuver is actually
accomplished in two phases.
Phase 1: Each man drops straight back to the positioning line. The
positioning line is an imaginary line drawn backwards at 45° from the pivot
man. The final orientation of the positioning line is determined by the
line drawn between A and B.
Phase 2. Once troops are stationed along the positioning line the
soldier-to-soldier spacing is dressed to form a shieldwall.
This is the hardest of the basic maneuvers. It must be well-practised. Only postions A
and B are critical as all other men form up on them. It is the
responsibility of the man on the moving end of the line to begin to dress
the soldier-to-soldier spacing as soon as possible. No command is required
to stop this maneuver.
Command. Refuse to the right, march!
\ A~~\\\\~~B—
•\.
• \
•B
\
Figure 6
POSITIONING
LINE
Ground:
The Ground command is used to provide a further obstacle for the enemy on
the move, such as on a bridge. When the Ground command is issued, the shieldmen immediately halt and drop to one knee, shield
and weapon held ready. The poles remain standing to protect the kneeling shieldmen and help them resist the charge.
Command. Ground!
Preparatory
to movement/marching, kneeling shieldmen should
be ordered to rise.
Command. Stand up, march!
Withdraw:
The Withdraw is used for an orderly retreat. First, odd numbered shieldmen withdraw on command, while even numbered shieldmen and poles remain on guard, the odd numbered
men two paces behind the polearmsmen. On the next
withdrawal command, the remaining shields and poles withdraw and dress the
line.
Command to Initiate Maneuver. Odd numbers, withdraw!
Following Command. Even numbers, withdraw!
DRILLS
Now that
you know what weapons to bring and what formations to use, you need the
training aids or drills in order to practice with these new tools.
Remember, the goal is not only to have everybody in the same unit know the
same commands and carry them out the same way, but to be part of an army or
host capable of the same thing.
Marching:
This is a very simple drill, using the list of commands given in the
previous section. The levy grabs shields and weapons (with possibly helms
or leg armor) and marches in formation, various members of the levy being
allowed to command and calling out the commands at random. The added
wrinkle is to march over broken terrain, such as park benches, through
trees and playground equipment, etc. After all, how many wars are fought in
nice, flat, clear space?
Charge/Reform/Stop
Charge Drill: This is a variant of the previous drill with emphasis upon
regrouping after the fun of charging through something. The levy marches,
is told to charge at an arbitrary point, swinging weapons as they hit the
point and regroup upon command, facing in the same direction as the
commander is facing. They then resist a charge, bracing appropriately, then
do it again. A nice touch is to designate certain members of the levy as
dying at random, getting the troops used to cutting their losses and
staying together. Here one may also practice the shieldwall/column/
skirmish/reform drill, which is related.
Shieldwall/Ground/Withdraw Drill: Not every battle goes
as planned and so we have to have the means to withdraw comitted
troops, especially if we can send in a fresher unit to replace weary men.
The troops should learn to cover each other as they withdraw. It is
especially useful to practice in broken terrain.
Resist Missle Fire Drill: With arrows and javelins flying
about, we need to be able to resist such. To drill, the levy should be in
armor including screen or mesh and simply take all manner of fire, both
advancing to meet the enemy and standing still, since we cannot always
attack or advance. This can be combined with a launch missile weapons
drill.
Polearms Drill: In this drill, all shieldmen
form a wall in armor while all polearmsmen poke
or hack at the shieldmen. Neither side can
advance upon the other. In particular, the shieldmen
need to learn they do not need to peek over the top of the shield. That is
when they die.
Bridge
Drill: For this drill, designate the boundaries of a bridge. All fighters
are in armor and are divided into two groups, which alternate between
advancing and attacking and retreating while defending.
Shieldpass Drill: In full armor, all shieldmen form a line. One man runs down the line,
hitting his shield against the other shields, the stationary men doing
their best to resist his efforts. When he gets to the end of the line, the
next man goes down the line. The idea here is to train men to pass through
a shieldwall, striking blows as they pass
through. It also teaches one to resist a charge.
Melee Meatgrinder: This is a larger scale version of "meatgrinder." Meatgrinder
has the fighters form a line. One man holds the field, fighting each man in
the line until the holder of the field is defeated. All injuries are
cumulative until death. In melee meatgrinder,
three fighters hold the field against three others. The last three fighters
left alive hold the field against three more. All injuries are cumulative,
and no weapons can be changed save by those already killed.
Weapons
Grab-Bag: All the weapons are placed in a pile. The fighters form a circle
around the arsenal and run at the pile at the same time. You fight with
whatever you get your hands on first which hopefully teaches you to be able
to defend yourself if you drop your weapon and have to grab the nearest
one. By the way, this happens to be a free-for-all.
THERE IS MORE
TO A WAR THAN FIGHTING
You know
what weapons to use. You know the commands. Your Unit knows how to stay
together. You could charge against a brick wall and knock it apart. But you
forgot to put ice in the ice chests, to bring Gatorade, to bring fuel for
the stove, someone forgot his helm, and you are living on potato chips. You
are learning that there is more to a war than fighting. Wars in the Society
are radically different from the one-day tourney; therefore you should plan
to go differently than you would to a tournament.
In Caid, tourneys are one-day events. Wars are not and are
usually held in out-of-the-way places, without niceties about. You should
plan precisely what to bring; this includes living space, sleeping bags,
armor, weapons, etc. You should also plan on eating sometime during the
weekend even if you are like us and claim you never eat at events. We lie.
We do have to eat.
So now
you are bringing along cooking utensils, stoves, pots, ice chests—with ice
in them!—and fuel to cook with. While you are planning this, you may as
well plan some type of menu that won't kill you, who will cook what, who
will clean up afterwards, and who will take care of the camp.
Step 1.
Find out who is going, who has vehicles which can be trusted, and who wants
to drive. Put that on the list.
you are about to start.
Step 2.
Put down who has pavilions or tents, as well as sunshades, and tarps to
cover the gear. Determine which tents you are bringing, keeping in mind you
may wish to use one to store armor in when the armor is not in use. Assign
various individuals to bring stoves, fuel, cooking utensils, pots, water
containers (since you may end up in a place you could swear is Dune where
there is one tap on the other side of camp), a frying pan or two, ice
chests, lanterns, firewood, and a chuckbox, which
the group has assembled over the weeks, months, maybe even years, and which
contains spices, instant coffee, tea, powdered drinks and soups, some
canned products such as stew and chili to be held in reserve. We recommend
you construct a sturdy chest for the chuckbox for
appearance and durability. Also included should be a fix-it kit, which
contains a hammer, rivets, scrap leather, snips, a portable anvil, mesh for
archery, duct tape, spare closed cell foam, contact cement, thong. Armor
may fail or you may need to modify something to meet standards in the area.
Step 3:
Now you should plan out the meals in greater detail, which is determined by
the types of people going, planning on the three square meals a day and
remembering your dietary peculiarities.
Step 4.
Moving to the martial category, bring all personal armor, including extra
helms (one of us once had to loan an extra out because he helped one lord's
grill move—too well), personal shields, even if you have levy shields
(yours may break or you may wish to fight challenges), as well as levy
shields if you have them, and anything else you can think of.
Step 5:
The previous parts were concerned with the group. This one's for you. List
the gear you need or think you can't live without. Even though there is
duplication, list your armor, weapons, sleeping bag, soap, towel, tp, plates, bowl, mug, horn or stein, mundane clothing
(do you want to break down in costume in Needles or Barstow?), costumes,
boots, and whatever beverages you care for. Also remember the Gatorade or
water, because you'll be dehydrated after fighting.
Step 6.
Assemble the gear in one place, shop for the food, load everything into the
appropriate vehicles somehow and head for the Crusades!?:
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