War leader

War Leader is the title given to the person designated to lead Wolfpack in realm battles during events. The War Leader is given a sash denoting his/her status as War Leader. Voting is done on a per-event basis. Realm officers and knights are automatically entered unless they choose to decline the nomination.

So you want to be the War Leader… by Kyrian Hawksword

“Any fighter can defeat any other fighter on any given day.” Unknown

What I’ve put together here is based on my experiences as War Leader, some articles I’ve read from the SCA, as well as my background in the U.S. Army. Some of the information is taken straight out of the manuals.

War Leader in Wolfpack is a unique position. To my knowledge, no other realm (at least in Illinois) in Belegarth elects a person to be the battle leader at an event. It can be extremely overwhelming and you never seem to have enough time to get everything done. I hope that this essay will help Wolfpack members in preparing to be War Leader. What we want to accomplish during realm battles is pretty straightforward: win by eliminating all other realms on the field and not losing all of our fighters.

"The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in battle." Unknown

Like any other presentation (and when it comes right down to it, that’s exactly what it is), you need to prepare as much as possible before the event. To be successful, you will spend MUCH more time preparing than actually serving as the battlefield War Leader.

How you succeed, in a nutshell…

Know thyself.

Know thy team.

Know thine enemies.

One of the most important thing you can do is observe…observe yourself, observe fighters in action, observe units in action, observe how the realm fights together. While it can be a daunting challenge to learn the capabilities of at least 20 different people, it can be accomplished to some degree. It takes time and patience. As War Leader, you must strive to understand the strengths and weaknesses of yourself, your fighters, and your units.

I just mentioned observing yourself. What does that mean? You have to know how you react under stress. You must be mindful of the way you interact with other people in stressful situations. War Leader is a high-pressure position. You have to maintain situational awareness about the entire battlefield while trying to keep your fighters alive. The battlefield, especially in realm battles, is extremely fluid with no defined front. Things change in an extremely short amount of time. If you shut down or blank out under stress like that, better to find out before you actually serve. Then you can work on improving your reactions under pressure. Do you have a strong command voice on the battlefield? Your voice must carry on the battlefield or else no one will understand what you say. Learn how to project your voice from your diaphragm, not from your throat. You’ll be able to project loudly without straining your vocal chords. How comfortable are you at leading others? Have you had experience in leading others on the battlefield? Do you have confidence in your abilities? Does uncertainty hamper your ability to make a decision? Do you lash out in anger if things don’t go your way? Is your situational awareness good? Answer these questions before battle, not in the middle of it.

Start small if you’re interested in being War Leader. Look for opportunities for leading a small team. Leading two other people is a really good way to start. You still have the opportunity to contribute as an individual but you need to look out for your other team members. Also, you have to expand your field of vision past what you are used to seeing. You have to factor in what your team members are looking at too. Take the experience you’ve gained and apply it on a larger scale. For the most part, leading a unit or a realm is merely a difference of scale compared to leading a team; the techniques and experience you gain at the team level can be applied at higher levels.

If you know in advance that you’re going to be the War Leader, then try and set up some opportunities for training with the realm. A national event is not really the time to be learning to be the War Leader. At practices, watch the members who are not affiliated with a unit and see who they work well with as a team. Give them as many opportunities as possible to fight together so they start to learn how the other people think and react. Consider how friends fight together. People who know each other well outside of combat often work well as a team in combat. They understand the other person(s) and often know how they will react in a situation. That’s critical information that can’t be discovered in 15 minutes of fighting.

Some of the things you want to look for at an individual level (including yourself):

1) Fighting skill, preferences, and awareness

a) Is the person effective in the middle of a melee?

b) Is the person usually one of the last remaining fighters in a battle?

c) Does the person get hit by arrows or backstabbed often?

d) Does the person prefer to fight on his/her own or as part of a group?

2) Equipment: What equipment does the person use? Flail, punch shield, sword, strapped shield, javelins, bows, armor, spear, reds, and even rocks…the list goes on. Most everyone has a certain style they prefer to use and are most effective with on the battlefield.

3) Roles (of both fighters and units)

a) Front line/shield wall

b) Flanking (attacking a line or flank using superior mobility)

c) Harassing (usually single fighters looking for targets of opportunity)

d) Support (primarily archers)

These same criteria work for observing units and the realm in action. It’s usually obvious what things a unit is good at doing because they will do them all the time. Look at the experience level of the fighters in the unit. Watch how they work together. These will provide you insight on what tasks the unit is effective at. If a unit is good at skirmishing, then give them tasks that involve skirmishing. If a unit is good at holding the line, that’s probably a good place to have them. Ideally, we’d have units that can do everything well. One thing I’d like to add is that you can use this to your advantage. If the other realms notice that you have the same lineup every battle, you can change what tasks each unit is executing and disrupt the others’ plans. Make them think you’re predictable and then do something completely unexpected.

After you’ve gotten a good feel for the capabilities of your units and individuals, you have to analyze your opponents the same way. Watch for the power fighters and units. This is where you really have to deal with uncertainty. You don’t see these other units and realms all the time. In fact, you may have never seen them before. You can’t be sure about their capabilities, their strengths, and their weaknesses. This is why feedback after a battle (more on that later) is so critical. Treat each battle as a learning experience and adjust your planning as you learn more about whom you are fighting. Watch the fighters from other realms during the day. See who are the ones who stand out. They should become very obvious as the day (or event) progresses.

Whether looking at yourself, your realm, or your opponents, you have to do it objectively. Don’t let your personal feelings, whether positive or negative, affect your assessment of their capabilities. If you consistently and objectively use the same criteria for evaluation, you will get a much more unbiased picture of what’s going on.

Phases of battle

1) Assessment. We’ve already discussed it at the unit and individual level. Before you even line up on the field, you should have a pretty good idea of what most everyone in Wolfpack is good at and likes to do. Now you have to look at the other realms on the field. It’s usually obvious which are the largest realms and where the most fighters/largest shields/most armored/biggest threats are. Never assume anything. Rate the realms by threat level. Look at where you are at in relation to the other realms. Think about how you will react if they should immediately move to engage you. At the same time, identify the realms that would be the easiest to engage. A good planning model for determining success against a realm is by using a 3-to-1 ratio of fighters. If you outnumber a realm at least 3-to-1, then you have a good chance of wiping it out with only a minimum of casualties. If your odds are closer to 2-to-1 or 1-to-1, then victory can be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to achieve without massive casualties.

2) Plan. Come up with a plan. You’re not going to get a lot of time. Try to come up with some things you want to do before the realm battles begin. Again, assign tasks to units, not individuals. The mission is normally straightforward: Survive and eliminate the other realms. Keep the plan simple, as many people aren’t familiar with complicated tactics. If you have something complex you want to try, give it to one of the more experienced units. Discuss it with the unit earlier in the day and give them an opportunity to figure out how to make it work.

3) Communicate the plan. If there are a large number of people fighting, it’s more efficient to pull all of the unit leaders together and disseminate your plan. Often, you have very little time to explain. Get to the major points and the tasks you want each unit to accomplish. Give the unit leaders sufficient time to disseminate the plan to their members. In the Army, we use the “1/3-2/3” rule. Whatever time you have, always leave 2/3rds of that time for the subordinate leaders to get the information out to their people. This can often amount to a few seconds so try and use your time wisely.

4) Execute your plan. Watch for threats. Communicate to everyone about what’s going on. Let people know if something’s approaching that they’re unaware of. Speak up! You have to communicate clearly and concisely. While we call it “War Leader”, I think it’s more like a “War Commander”. What’s the difference? Your responsibility is to the entire realm. It’s often not practical to lead the entire realm from the front. It will make you a big target. Assist if you think it’s necessary but try to avoid the melee. Let the unit leaders lead their units. As a commander, you are responsible for the “big picture”, watching how the battle develops and where you may have send people. Take a step back. Don’t just look at what you see in your field of view. It’s often useful to be an archer while being War Leader. Archery forces you to constantly scan for targets and potential threats. Also, you can still contribute combat-wise with some well-placed shots.

Communicate! Communicate! Communicate! I can’t stress this one enough. You have to talk to everyone and give your commands in a loud, clear, and concise manner. Keep your commands short (Shift left! Engage that realm! X unit, engage their flank!) and repeat them at least twice to make sure everyone hears it. Keep in mind that this will single you out as an important target and reveals your intent to the other realms, yet another reason to avoid being in the front lines.

5) Feedback. This is one of the most important steps in learning to be a War Leader. Find out what went well and what didn’t. Listen to what people have to say. Adjust your plan if needed. After the battles are over, ask some of the veterans about how you did. Take the good with the bad. Accept criticism and focus that anger or frustration you might feel into something positive. Identify the mistakes you made and figure out how to avoid them in the future.

When you make a mistake, there are only three things you should ever do about it: 1. Admit it. 2. Learn from it, and 3. Don't repeat it. - Paul "Bear" Bryant - University of Alabama football coach

The KISS Principle. Remember to Keep It Simple, Stupid. Never assume that everyone is going to understand the tactics you want to use especially if they’re complicated and require special training to work properly. Most people don’t study tactics regularly. An inexperienced fighter often finds it difficult to look beyond their individual view of the battlefield. What works? Having a fast unit hit a flank hard and continue moving; using backstabbers who can get quick kills and move out of range before anyone can respond; utilizing heavily armored “tanks” who can pin down or destroy small groups of unorganized and unarmored fighters…these are only some of the successful (and simple) tactics used on the battlefield.

Don’t break up your units. Keep them together. If you have a specific task, assign it to a unit, not to a hodge-podge group of people you pick out. If you feel the task is too small for the number of people in the unit, then consider giving them several tasks. But be careful about relying on the success of one unit. The members of a unit are typically familiar with fighting with each other and that can make them more successful at achieving whatever missions you give them. Conversely, pulling together a group of people unfamiliar with each other could defeat you before you’ve started.

Try not to let the realm get backed into a corner or trapped against a battlefield boundary. If you get surrounded, find a gap or a weak point and punch out. Do something besides waiting there to get slaughtered. Getting caught in a DIP (die in place) mission is not fun.

"Never stand and take a charge, charge them too." – Nathan Forrest (a Civil War general) on his favorite movement, the charge.

Take the initiative. Make the enemy respond to you, not the other way around. One thing I do want to point out is that when the enemy moves, inevitably they create gaps and opportunities that you can exploit. Sometimes you need to wait for opportunities like that.

"Four brave men who do not know each other will dare not attack a lion. Four less brave, but knowing each other well, sure of their reliability and consequently of mutual aid, will attack resolutely. There is the science of the organization of armies in a nutshell."-- Battle Studies, Ardant du Picq

Anytime the realm gets spread out and you still have survivors, pull them all together. There is always strength in numbers. Consolidate everyone into one large force. Don’t let the enemy pick apart your fighters a few at a time. Don’t let stragglers fight a person one-on-one. Have them fight at least two-on-one or preferably three or four-on-one.

Remember to use combined arms as much as possible. The combined arms concept is to use the different weapon systems available to maximize your strengths and minimize your weaknesses. For example, shield fighters are very good at protecting against arrows but can run into trouble against reds or other shields. If you mix a spear or an archer in with some shields, then the spear or archer can take out potential threats to the shields before they can even engage. While this is happening, you are protecting the spear or archer from melee attacks and other archers. Our game balance is basically shields stop archers---archers stop reds---reds stop shields and you can use this to your advantage.

Engage the enemy at your maximum effective range. This means using your archers, spears, javelins, and rocks outside of melee range. If you can get kills or gimp fighters without risking any casualties on your side, then you have a distinct advantage.

If you lose, don’t take your frustrations out on people. Don’t scream or put them down. It accomplishes nothing but to turn people off to what you have to say. This is a game (and/or a sport, hobby, lifestyle, depending on your perspective)! One of the analogies I use is that this is a real-time strategy game with real people. Don’t take it so seriously that it stops being fun for you or for others. I enjoy winning just as much as anyone else. However, I think it’s more important that we not get overly focused on the competitive aspects of our game. Accept that, through no fault of your own or the realm’s fighters, you may still lose. If you win, that’s great. If you don’t, you didn’t. Sometimes all it takes is a little luck to turn the tide of battle. Don’t automatically look for someone to blame (including yourself or the other realms). As with anything else, Murphy has a knack for showing up when you least expect him…

Remember some of Murphy’s Laws of Combat:

1) Murphy was an optimist.
2) No plan survives first contact with the enemy.
3) You are not Superman.
4) The important things are always simple. The simple things are always hard.
5) Perfect plans aren’t.
6) The easy way generally gets you killed.
7) If you can't see the enemy, they still may be able to see you.
8) In combat, anything can get you killed, including nothing.
9) Fortify your front and you’ll get your rear all shot up.
10) If the enemy is in range, so are you.
11) Friendly fire isn’t.

Some other useful battle leadership stuff…

The Principles of War (from U.S. Army doctrine)—the fun acronym MOOSEMUSS. These principles can be applied at virtually all levels of warfare from a one-on-one battle all the way up to a large-scale melee.

Mass: Concentrate combat power at the decisive place and time.

Objective: Direct every operation towards a clearly defined, decisive, and attainable objective.

Offensive: Seize, retain, and exploit the initiative.

Surprise: Strike the enemy at a time, at a place, or in a manner for which he is unprepared.

Economy of force: Allocate minimum essential combat power to secondary efforts.

Maneuver: Place the enemy in a position of disadvantage through the flexible application of combat power.

Unity of command: For every objective, ensure unity of effort under one responsible commander.

Security: Never permit the enemy to acquire an unexpected advantage.

Simplicity: Prepare clear, uncomplicated plans and clear, concise orders to ensure thorough understanding.

The Rogue Warrior’s Leadership Code (This was written by Richard Marcinko, who has written several books and is one of the founders of Seal Team Six, the counter-terrorist unit.)

I will test my theories on myself first. I will be my own guinea pig.

I will be totally committed to what I believe, and I will risk all that I have for these beliefs.

I will back my subordinates all the way when they take reasonable risks to help me achieve my goals.

I will not punish my people for making mistakes. I’ll only punish them for not learning from their mistakes.

I will not be afraid to take action, because I know that almost any action is better than inaction. And I know that sometimes not acting is the boldest action of all.

I will always make it crystal clear where I stand and what I believe.

I will always be easy to find: I will be at the center of the battle.

FAQ

1) How do I get people to listen to me? First off, you have to make sure everyone can hear you. There’s going to be a lot of noise and chaos on the battlefield. Your voice has to carry over that. Try not to make any really glaring tactical mistakes, the kind that gets everyone wiped out easily. If you make a mistake, admit it and drive on. Don’t let your pride convince you that it’s OK not to admit you make mistakes. That’s arrogant, plain and simple. Learn from your mistakes and don’t make the same ones over and over. People will follow you if they believe you are making good decisions; they have to have faith in your ability to lead them. Be confident and honest in your actions. Everyone will be looking to you for direction. If you provide none, they will go off and do their own thing…not necessarily the right thing for the realm to be successful.

2) What do I do if someone doesn’t listen to me? Don’t scream at or berate them. That will often egg them on to more disobedience and sometimes they may take some people along, further reducing the effectiveness of the realm. Lead by example and treat people the way you want to be treated. If you enjoy getting screamed at and being treated like dirt, that’s your problem. Don’t share it with everyone else. It can be hard to accept that some people just want to do their own thing and not listen to “authority”. In reality, you really don’t have “authority” as War Leader as there is no recourse should someone not follow your orders. The quicker you learn to deal with that, the better off you will be. This is a game. People do this because they want to. You always have to keep that in mind. Figure out how to use that to your advantage. If someone doesn’t want to stay with the group, then use the person to go harassing other realms. If a person likes to go blindly charging into an enemy’s line, then use that to distract that realm while you move another unit into a good position.

3) What do I do if I freeze or panic? You have to get back your focus and maintain it. If it’s becoming overwhelming, focus on a small thing, deal with that, and then move on to the next thing. There are two ways I approach it. Either I reduce the number of people (or areas) I’m watching out for or I will adjust how far I’m thinking ahead. Remember, almost any action is better than taking no action at all. Stick by your decisions and follow them through. Don’t get wishy-washy in the middle of the battle.

4) We lost badly. What now? Poll members of the realm about what went right and what went wrong. Again, there may have been factors out of your control like a lucky arrow shot that turned the tide of battle. Murphy often rears his ugly head when you least want him to. Adjust your battle plan to the changing situation. Be flexible and don’t get into a particular mindset because you’re comfortable with it. I know it’s a cliché but you have to think outside the box. It keeps the other realms off-balance and forces everyone to react to what you’re doing, not the other way around.

5) The other realms keep ganging up on us. How do I deal with that? That’s a very challenging situation. Maneuver Wolfpack where it can only be engaged by one realm at a time or where the other realms may end up taking potshots at each other. Stay moving and make sure everyone stays together as much as possible but not clumped together. That makes people prime targets for the archers.

6) There’s this one unit (realm) that constantly stomps over us. What should I do? Talk to one or several of the other realms about going after that realm first and then fighting amongst yourselves afterwards. If that doesn’t work, then you really have to maneuver Wolfpack to stay out of range and let some of the other realms whittle their numbers down before you try and engage them. Sometimes you may not have a choice but to engage them. In that situation, have everyone gimp and go…engage but don’t stop moving…continuing to hit and move through that realm. If your fighters get bogged down and stop to engage, then the other realm may be able to concentrate several fighters against your single fighters and wipe them out. After you’ve gone through that realm, call all the survivors together and make an assessment of what fighters remain.

7) How should I organize the realm for realm battles? That’s a very encompassing question; you could write an entire book about the topic. You have to consider what kind of battle you will be fighting? Is it each realm for itself? Does the battle consist of groups of realms fighting against each other? My suggestion is to do some research in the military history section of both bookstores and libraries. Also, the SCA has many interesting articles about combat although you have to remember that their melee can be different from ours. Also, many of their articles are written for battles on a much larger scale than most of ours.

However you decide to set up the realm, don’t try and do it on the battlefield. Come up with a plan prior to battle and, if at all possible, communicate it before the battle begins. A basic layout I like to go with is to have a shield wall with the units deployed on either side of the wall. I would also have archers behind the shield wall and some small teams in the back of the formation to protect the realm from backstabbers. This is a pretty generic setup, useful for different types of battles and there are many ways to modify this formation. Remember that this formation will probably not survive the first contact with the other realms. It will often get completely dispersed or disrupted by the end of the battle.

7) What books can I read to learn about tactics? There are a lot of resources out there if you’re willing to look. Some are The Art of War by Sun Tzu, Cannae by Adrian Goldsworthy, and the Dictionary of Ancient & Medieval Warfare by Matthew Bennet. Many of the books published by Osprey have organizational and tactical information that can be applied to what we do.

Summary

These are taken from Jester of Anglesea’s (a unit in the SCA) article entitled “Some Thoughts on Melee Fighting in the SCA”. You can find the entire essay here along with a lot of other good articles: http://scamelee.freeservers.com/. As with anything else, you need to look at these articles with the knowledge that their melees are slightly different from ours particularly because of unbreakable shields, legal headshots, below-the-knee shots are illegal, the reduced role of archery on their fields, and many kingdoms prohibiting a kill from behind.

Work as a team.
Communicate.
Fight the way you planned.
Don’t let the enemy use his resources.
Aggression.
Avoid a fair fight.
Maintain unit cohesion.
Be aware of what’s going on around you.
Someone has to be in charge.
Stay mobile.
Sometimes you have to leave your buddies behind.
Take small bites and keep chewing.
Fight on the oblique.
Don’t do stupid things.