SHIELD MANUAL FOR MELEE FIGHTERS

Lord William Campion

This is written as a tool for the training of melee shields for line units. It is in no way meant to replace one-on-one training or practice. The best way to learn shield work is to be a shield. I wrote this as a service to my household, Barony and Crown at a time when I was unable to serve bodily. I only fight melee sword and shield and do not profess any other martial skills. I have fought in 6 Pennsic Wars and many pre-war melee events. I have also served as senior shield to my household with the responsibility of training new shields. This is not a definitive work. It is my hope that it will grow and be expanded by those that follow. Have fun in the wall.

As a shield you are part of a unit designed to accomplish the mission of defeating the enemies of the Crown. A unit needs three things to be an effective fighting machine. SKILL, WILL and TEAM WORK.

SKILL: Each individual in the unit must know what their job is, how to do their job and do it well. As a shield you must be able to defend yourself and those around you, deliver a forceful attack with your weapon and work with those around you smoothly and efficiently. Do pell work, katas and spar in 1-on-1 and 2-on-1 practices to improve your individual skills.

WILL: Spirit, esprit-de-corps, drive. You must want to be a shield. There is no greater glory than the shield wall! What good is it to kill a man if you can not breath his dying breath?! You are in range of your opponent when you are inside of HIS helmet! Your will and morale will improve with practice and as you get to know and trust the others in your unit. You will know that each of them is skilled in their job and that together you can defeat just about anything that you come against. Work with your lance as much as possible both in and out of fighting. The closer you are outside the battles the more cohesive you will be in them.

TEAMWORK: This is the most difficult to achieve. Any gung-ho stickjock hero can run around on the field like a yahoo and die gloriously and not effect the final outcome in the slightest. You build team work by practicing as a unit. Fight as a lance as often as possible. Do war related projects as a lance, go out and party as a lance. The more you do as a lance/unit, the more you will be a lance/unit and not three fighters without a clue. Know your job in your lance and what is expected of you. Learn the other jobs in the lance and what to expect from them. Teamwork comes only after skill and will are achieved. Keep at it and things will come together.

DEFENSE:

Your first and primary mission as a shield is to STAY ALIVE. It does the unit no good if you get a kill and die in the process. Keep your shield in position as much as possible. Do not move your shield to take a shot, it telegraphs your move and it leaves you and others open. Learn your shield and how to work with and around it and not against it.

Part of the teamwork of the shield wall is keeping your friends alive. A shield tends to look forward and to his shield side, so his shield side is a bit of a blind spot. It si also tough to spot a spear shooting for far down the line on your weapon side. Its you and your teams job to watch out and cover each other's blind spots. You should block that pole arm shot that would go over your head, because its aimed at the shield on your right and he can't see it coming. You should knock down or bump that spear sliding across your shield facing. He's gunning for a buddy down the line. The same goes for shots coming through the shield wall. It may miss you, but it could be aimed at your lance sergeant's cup. A save is as good as a kill, and a blocked cup shot is good for a beer from the rescued victim.

Awareness: This is of primary importance. If you don't know what's out there, you can't defend against it very well. Keep your eyes open and know what is going on around you. Communicate what you see to those around you. Talk to your lance. If your lance sgt. isn't talking to you, then you talk to him. Make him respond. It can get real lonely on the front line some times. It is very easy to focus on your own small section of the battle, or even a single opponent. This is called tunneling, DON'T DO IT! Communicating will keep your awareness open while letting you concentrate on the problem at hand. Stay alert and stay alive.

Communication: As mentioned above communication is very important. You are a member of a unit. A bunch of individuals forged into a single "thing". If you do not communicate the movements of this thing will be awkward and slow and it will be killed mercilessly by the enemy. If you do communicate, if you all speak the same language, you will be strong and quick, skilled and coordinated and it will be the enemy who is killed without mercy. Shields must talk to each other about the opposing line, where it is strong or weak or where your own line is strong or weak.

This information must also be given to the lance sgt. Lance sgt's are a shields long range eyes and ears. A shield usually does not observe much beyond 6-9 ft in front and to the weapon side. Lance sgt's help fill in the blind spots. Information and orders will also flow up and down the chain of command.
SPEARS:

One of your most deadly opponents are the enemy spears. Spears are fast, sneaky and often hard to see. In the line, they can strike from out of your line of site. If they are good they will work in teams, hooking shields and forcing openings letting others get the kills. With their long range (15 ft+) they can seem to come out of no where, but they are not unbeatable.

Spears need clear shots at you and even a sword blade in the way can stop them. If there are spears in front of you, keep your shield in position. Watch out for shield hooks, warn others about them and help to unhook when needed. If the spear is on your shield side, be aware of him. Shift position if needed, but don't expose your teammates. Call for help if you have to. If the spear is on your weapon side, try posting your weapon on your hip. this will cover a surprisingly large part of your body and you can punch block as needed. By the way, Don't let someone else kill you while you pay attention to the spear. After all, he's not out there alone.

POLES:

Next in the arsenal arrayed against you is the polearm. These guys are just plain unfriendly. They have a shorter range than a spear but are just as deadly. A pole in the wall generally has a range of about 6 ft or 2 ranks. This means if he's good he can kill you and your buddy in no time flat. Poles will most often go for your head, so keep your shield up. If you need to you can bring up your sword to help defend, but be careful this leaves your weapon side wide open to those nasty spears or even an aggressive shieldman. Again if you need help, call for it. There is almost always some poor sot of a long weapon back behind you looking for something to do besides pick his nose or polish his brass.

SHIELDS:

Last, but of course not least are the opposing shields. The good thing about them is, as a shield you already know all their strengths and weaknesses. The worst thing is that they also know yours. Just a few things to keep in mind, both to use and guard against. A shield can be used against it's wielder. Hiding behind your opponent's shield allows you to use your own some where else. Watch out for the leg 'em and leave 'em maneuver. A shield who can not move won't last long in a mobile battlefield. Practice fighting against various styles of shield and different length swords, not to mention mass weapons. The more you fight against different styles or the more different styles you can fight, the better chance you have against other shields.

By the way, is your opponent right or left handed? It helps to know what your fighting. When fighting a southpaw, all the shots are coming in from the wrong directions. His blind spots are now his free-fire zones and when you think you're safe, you're not. So watch your self. Fight against lefties when you can. My only piece of advice is to post your sword at your side and block with it as you come around their left (your right) flank. I once spent 20 minutes at a Pennsic pickup melee getting my hip crushed and frustrated until HE asked me if I'd ever faced a lefty before. I didn't even think to look to see if he was a lefty. Be aware of your opponent, take nothing for granted.

IMPACT TRAINING:

One of the basic skills of the shield wall is to execute or receive a charge. When you execute a charge, you must first know your objective. You can charge to impact and disrupt an opposing line, infiltrate an opposing line, or gain a physical objective/ piece of ground. Each of these goals has different methods, advantages and disadvantages. Practice charging from a halt and on the move, straight ahead and on the obloquies. Learn to form up while moving and to charge right after executing wheels or about-face maneuvers. It usually is NOT a good idea to stop 15 ft away from the enemy and try to form up to charge. The enemy can counter charge or is at least given more time to prepare for you. In order for a charge to be effective your entire line must impact at the same time. Otherwise, you come in piecemeal and they enemy will eat you up. The main responsibility for this falls to your commanders in getting you in position and letting you know what to do and when. Your responsibility is to charge without hesitation when the order is given. If no one specifies what kind of charge or who to charge (yes it happens), the default is charge to impact on the unit immediately to your front. In the attack or defense, victory in the charge will go to the lower center of gravity.

Charging to impact means that you attempt to inflict maximum disruption of the opposing line while maintaining your own units integrity. Often this is done to create openings in an opposing line so long weapons can create havoc or to displace opponents from a position. You hit the opposing shields with the intent of knocking them down or out of position, you and your long weapons then exploit the gaps to make a lot of quick kills. Afterwards you roll over the decimated unit. The technique for this is to rapidly close with the opposing line, then, at the last step of the charge, step down and into the center of the other shield. At the moment of impact you should be in a good, low stance, your feet a little more than fighting width apart, with your center of gravity below that of your opponent. You then rise up and into him. If your center of gravity is below his you will unbalance him and knock him back. If not, good luck (see receiving a charge).

Charging to infiltrate means that you will sacrifice your own units integrity so you can penetrate the opposing formation and gain access to their back ranks or rear areas. Be warned, you will lose a lot of long weapons in this kind of charge. It is usually coordinated with a follow up unit that will take advantage of the confusion in the ranks you just passed through. This kind of charge can be used to try and tie up rear ranks or a reserve where flanking is not an option. When you execute this kind of charge you try to slip between the enemy shields and stay alive while doing it. Leave kills to the follow up unit. Get through the opposing line and go for the objective. Try and regroup on the other side but do not slow down much to do so.

The technique for this charge is to approach the opposing shield head on, at first. As you step down you also step over to your right half a step. When you rise up and into the opponent, you punch his shield on his left (your right) and pop him open. At the same time, use your pommel to hook and pop open the shield to your right. Your two actions combined with those of others, should open up a gap between the shields that you can slip through. Now the tricky part is surviving to the other side. As soon as you open the shield to your right, strike down towards his helm and weapon arm. This is primarily a sweeping block, but who knows, you might just get him in the process. Advance into their line by stepping into the gap you just opened. Once you're in the opposing line you want to advance in a right oblique (45 degrees) stepping right behind the shieldman you just swung at, close your shield and keep on going. At this point you should be safely through the line and into to those soft squishy back ranks we dream about. You are the most vulnerable during this charge just as you come through the line, your shield is open and your sword is out of play. Be aware of it and close up as soon as you can.

In this type of charge, usually around half break through the line on the initial impact and about half of them come out he other side alive. The half left behind usually sifts through soon there after with 30%-50% casualties. Both lines are pretty disorganized at this point. Infiltrators must always remember to keep going for the objective and let the follow up unit take what you leave behind. You will most likely be operating on your own if you make it through, so be ready to fight against the odds for a while until your friends show up. The usual objectives are to harass or chase off long weapons and leave the enemy shields unsupported.

Charging to gain an objective involves a mad dash by the unit to get there first with the most. Usually, you must sacrifice unit integrity to do it. In this maneuver, get there as fast as you can and look for your unit once you're there. When you arrive at the objective form up with any friendlies you see and hold until relieved. Regroup and reorganize when and if you can.

Receiving a charge is the act of reacting to an opponents attempt to disrupt or infiltrate your own line. Receiving a charge has two methods. First you can counter charge, many units use this tactic. The problem is that it is difficult to coordinate an effective counter-charge and you can end up hitting the other unit piece-meal. It does have the advantage of allowing you to use your brawn and momentum against the enemy charge. When counter charging, treat it as a charge to impact. My personal favorite is to stand and receive. Place yourself in a broad stable stance with a low center of gravity and watch your opponent. Some people come in blind with their head buried behind their shield, some don't. Try to impact your opponent squarely in the middle of their shield, as close to the bottom as possible. Step down and then up into the enemy attack. Again victory will go to the lower center of gravity. You are attempting to almost pick up your opponent on your shield. This robs him of his balance and momentum while exposing his head to your rear ranks (your pole arms will love you for it). Then you hurl your hapless foe back into his own ranks to cause further destruction. The advantage to this method is maintaining your line and position, along with the added bonus of keeping your long weapon support. The disadvantage is that it requires a fair amount of training to be done right. I often am able to get in a few low line thrusting attacks with my short sword when I receive a charge.

Beware of unchivalrous fighters that will keep charging after death and often will grapnel shields to pull them down as they die. If they don't die nicely, keep hitting them harder.
OFFENSE:

You are not out there just to look pretty, your mission is prioritized as follows:

1) Stay alive, you are much less effective if you are dead.

2) Keep your friends alive, they too are less effective dead.

3) Kill the enemy.

When you see an opportunity, take it, but (you knew there was a but didn't you) don't die in the process. You are an integral part of a unit and losing you to kill a single enemy is a net loss for us. Kill when you can but staying alive is better than not. You will get better at knowing when to take shots and when not to. As a rule of thumb, if you have to take even half a step or shift your shield don't take the shot. Sometimes you can get away with it, but often you won't. As you gain more "tactical sense" you'll be able to see this better, and get away with it more.

You can't defend them to death. In this game, you can't win just by staying alive. You must kill the enemy. The key is to learn how to kill them without dying yourself. An aggressive and effective shield wall is the key to victory. Keep this in mind.

Practice your pell work with your shield on. Strike opponents to your front, forward diagonals and sides. Do not move your shield out of position to do so. This will help you learn your range. Practice the lowline thrusting stroke to the opponents groin/abdomen/hip-socket area. This is a fast, deadly attack that does not expose you to the enemy. In comes in handy in close quarters.

The best way to improve your skills is to fight and do pell work. Pell work refines your ability to throw quick, accurate blows that will register. Fighting teaches you when to throw those blows. Keep at one-on-one fighting year round to build your individual skills. If you do, its one less thing you have to work on in the melee season.

The best way to work on individual aspects of teamwork are to do drills. Drills are group practices with set goals and methods. You use drills to work on the "skill" of responding to a specific situation (what is my and others job here) or teamwork. Like pell work, drills refine your ability to do things, fighting melees lets you know when to do them.

A good melee drill is to form shields into two opposing lines in combat order starting six feet apart. Spar (acknowledge blows but do not take them) without maneuvering (i.e. flanking). You can add long weapons to spice it up some. This will help you train for fighting in a tight formation. Practice this same scenario in open and skirmish order, with and without long weapons, attacking and defending. These are also good opportunities to work on communication, awareness and double-teaming to get kills. Keep the talking during the breaks down to a minimum needed for training. If you burn daylight telling war stories, all your new ones will be about dying like dogs.

Other good drills are 2-1 and 3-2 fights. These are not as easy or as tough as they may seem. Numbers are really only an advantage if they work as a team. These quick (usually) and clean (hopefully) fights can help a lot. A good variant is to rotate fighters down the line 1>2>3>4>5>rest>1>..., so every one fights with and against everyone else, both on the larger and smaller sides. This exercise is good for building communication and team work within the company but requires a strong ground work of these same attributes at the lance level. Fighting 2-1 within the lance, while rotating will help build that ground work, but remember you need to fight other shields, as well as both spears and poles too.

DYING

When you die, die defensively, and loudly. Just because you have given the ultimate sacrifice to the crown doesn't mean you can't be of some further use to your unit.

DIE DEFENSIVELY. Die under your shield. You will get stepped on, so cover up. You still have to get up and fight in the next battle. Injuries will hurt you and the unit.

DIE LOUDLY. Let your friends know that you're dead so they don't count on you. Dying loudly may also be the first clue to an enemy attack.

DIE GOING FORWARD. You should not clog up your own ranks with your corpse. Fall out of formation and cover up. You have already made yourself useless, don't make yourself a hindrance too.

Also as a side bar, I have occasionally heard it advocated that fighters should die offensively (trip/foul enemy weapons/shields. I feel this is a dangerous and unchivalrous practice and should not be encouraged. You may want to point it out to the Marshals when it is observed. Please though, do not whine. Beat the enemy through superior skill, tactics, or numbers not by rule lawyering them to death. Any unsafe practice does need to be addressed for the safety of all.
Unit Maneuvers:

In order to move as a unit you must all speak the same language. To this purpose, my unit came up with the following commands. Commands have two parts, a prepatory and an execution part. The prepatory command warns you that you are about to do something and gives you the most important part of the command. The execution part tells you when to go and finishes the command. "FORWARD......MARCH" Forward is the prepatory part and March is the execution. The prepatory command is usually a direction (left, right, forward, to the rear). The execution is the action (march, wheel, charge, etc...). In larger battles this will often begin with your commander calling out your unit name to identify who the order is for. Orders should be repeated by line sergeants and lance sergeants.

FORWARD: Move at a steady march, keeping formation, straight ahead. A modification of this is DOUBLE TIME where you jog wile keeping formation.

ADVANCE: Move by steps while on guard to the front. This is done to move into long weapons range of the enemy.

WHEEL: This is when one end of the line remains stationary while the rest of the line pivots around that point by advancing. The farthest man out gets to run. This order is given as "Right Wheel" or "Left Wheel". The direction given is the end of the line that remains stationary.

DENY: This is the opposite of a wheel. One end of the line remains stationary while the line pivots around that point while falling back. This maneuver is used to refuse the flank. The direction given is the end that gets to run.

ABOUT FACE: Turning your entire unit to face the rear. Shields should turn to their weapon side wheel long weapons slip through the line. If you turn to your shield side, all the long weapons get trapped on the wrong side.

FALL BACK: To move away from the enemy, but remain facing them and keeping formation. This is the reverse of the ADVANCE command and is often used to move out of long weapons range of the enemy or to straighten up a line

RETREAT: This is the run away command. The unit breaks into its component parts (lances) and runs like hell. Ideally you have been given a place to run to, if not, follow your sergeants and veterans.
ORDER: Order is a term denoting the tightness or density of the line as it executes the above maneuvers.

CLOSE ORDER: Shieldmen stand almost shoulder to shoulder, with shields overlapping. This presents a formidable defense but greatly limits offense and mobility. Usually you will be in a static defense and will either be kneeling or alternate shields will kneel and stand (crenelating) to let the long weapons work.

COMBAT ORDER: This is the default order. There should be about one armoured fist's space between the edges of adjacent shields so your sword and long weapons can work. This allows good offense, defense and mobility.

OPEN ORDER: This is when shields are more than 6-8 inches but less than a full shield width apart. This usually occurs as the unit moves quickly over terrain or when you need to extend the line. This allows greater mobility and flexible offense but defense suffers.

SKIRMISH ORDER: This is when shields are more than one shield width apart, usually 3-9 feet. This offers great mobility, the long weapons move into the front line and offensive ability climbs but you are on your own for defense. This is usually done to move over broken terrain or so you can act as a screen for some other unit.

Note that skirmish order is not a skirmish troop. Skirmish order you still try to fight and maneuver as a line. Skirmish troops are trained for a much more fluid small unit type of combat with very different objectives. Never confuse the two.
A brief note on shield and weapon styles.

I have not attempted to describe specific weapon and shield styles. There is no "right" style. Each unit needs to look at how it plans to fight; heavy, medium or light/skirmishers and what combat orders it is most likely to be in; close, open or skirmish. With this in mind decide as a unit the shield design and weapon mix you want to use. As a rule of thumb, as you move towards heavy troops in close order, shields get bigger and shorter weapons are used. Conversely, as you move to light/skirmish troops in skirmish order, shields get smaller and swords get longer.

My company is a heavy troop of close order infantry. We fight with large pavise type shields and heavy falchion type short swords with thrusting tips. Other heavy troops in close or open order use large scutum type shields, short swords and/or mass weapons. Medium troops in close, open or skirmish order tend to use smaller scutums or war heaters and broad swords. Light/skirmish troops fighting in open or skirmish order use tourney heaters, small round shields or bucklers and broad swords.
A brief discussion of units.

The unit I belong to is organized first as a company, then by lines and finally by lance. Each of our heavy lances is made up of 2 shields commanded by a lance sergeant with a long weapon. Our support lances (floaters) are made up of a 2 man long weapon team. Our lines consist of 2-4 heavy lances with up to 2 light lances and are commanded by a line sergeant. The company is made of 2 lines and is commanded by our captain. We also work closely with a local company of skirmishers to our mutual benefit. This works for us. Other things work for other groups. I have seen groups that fight effectively with up to 6 men per tactical unit/subunit, but they often have means for separating into 2 smaller units, if needed. The point is, it works for them.

Get your people together, choose a commander and subcommanders and decide how you want to fight. Look at other units on the field who win or fight well and ask them how they do it. Then organize yourselves and go to it. Don't be afraid to change things later if you find faults in your system or weakness in your style. Above all else, have fun and fight with honor.