ANST - Combat archers

Michael F. Gunter mfgunter at fnc.fujitsu.com
Wed Nov 11 12:47:26 PST 1998


I appreciate Don Dore's statements but I think I may have not illustrated
a point correctly.

> There are two issues here. One is unit composition, which I will get 
> back to later. The second is command and control. Assuming you 
> have hunter units, it is necessary that the command staff (and that 
> means more than just the top commander) understand their use 
> and apply them effectively.

The command and control can be with the H/K units and sometimes pointed
out by a foot commander. (Hey! Kill THAT guy!)

> First, I will point out that I have never seen en masse fire amount to 
> much on the SCA field. By en masse I mean being able to have a 
> large number of archers concentrate fire on a limited area to 
> decimate a flanking unit, create a large hole in enemy lines or take 
> out a C&C unit. 

Here is the area where there is confusion. I do not mean "en masse" like
all of the archers on the field firing at once, ala Agincourt. I mean
the 4 or 5 members of a H/K unit firing at _one fighter_ all at once.
I agree that the "en masse" attempts in the past have met with unmitigated
disaster. Especially since a small group of fighters reaching this massed
unit of archers destroys it. My idea of smaller groups of archers will 
hopefully give them the mobility to not be caught by armored fighters.
Plus, if one group is caught, the whole archer force is not eliminated.

> Numbers: How many archers did we have at Gulf? My guess would 
> be around 25 or so. I suspect we would need a units of at least 60 
> or more to make massed fire work.

True. But that would give us 5 effective H/K teams.

> That would give us two waves 
> of 30 (one-two punch) or 4 waves (and thus continuous fire) of 15. 
> Even then we could only concentrate that fire on a relatively small 
> area.  

Which is why the massed fire has never worked.

> Second, we would need to up bow poundage. Way up -- like 75 lbs
> or more. For safety reasons that is just not practical.  

Whew! You had me worried there for a second. :-{)}

> So, do I have a better idea? Yes, what Gunther suggests works. I 
> have seen Trimeris use it to great advantage in the past, though 
> not so much last year. Trimeris created hunter units with just one 
> archer, a couple of spears, some shields and a great sword or two.  
> I would suggest there be 3 or 4 archers in that group and, perhaps, 
> drop the greatswords. That gives a squad total of 10 to 12.  
> Alternately, you could have very small squads with half that.  

I'm not sure about using this in open field. We'd have to play with it.
But I think there should be more archers in with the massed troops on
bridges and gates. Having an archer or two with the second rank really 
messes up those times when they let the spears come out in front of
the shields.

> I will go one step further and say that the place to have our archers 
> is in amongst the troops. About where the pikes like to be. Talk 
> about a target-rich environment! Standing back occasionally 
> lobbing a shot into a melee is better than nothing, but not at all on 
> a par with the kind of destruction you can do to the enemy or the 
> level of support you can provide your own troops from up close.  
> 

I agree with this. I really don't want to see archers firing just in a
mass of people. I want those arrows to count. That's why I want the archers
to work as teams. See a target, kill it. Don't just hope you do something
inside a mass of fighters.

I also agree with the good Don in that we need more training and cooperation
among the combat archers. I would really like to see quite a few archers at
the War Colleges so we can test some of these ideas. 

It's going to take everyone in Ansteorra to win this War. If you aren't a 
fighter, volunteer to train with siege engines. Bear water. Make an armor
repair kit and fix armor beside the field. HL Gilli has a tent where they
repair arrows and archery equipment. Get authorized to marshall.

Everyone is needed and the more we have the more effective we'll be.

Thanks,

Gunthar
Princeps Ansteorrae





> Don Doré  
> 
> 
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