[MR] Nothern Army Muster Plan for the 31st.

[guylestran at aol.com]

Greetings from the Northern Army of Darkness,   that sound you hear is 
the army preparing to thrash Atlantia's foes on the field of Pennsic 
for the glory of it's Crowns and Atlantia.

We are going to have the following rough plan.  It is subject to change 
as the details are hashed out today.
However I wanted to at least get something out for his Grace so people 
know what to expect.

Be advised we will have combat archery here,  however Baron Barre will 
also be doing combat archery classes at On Target.  I would advise if 
you are new to combat archery, or thinking about it, that you attend 
Baron Barre's class.  If you have a kit we would love to see you at the 
War Muster so you can practice shooting at people and working with your 
units.

Here is the rough plan for the Day

His Grace Badouin, the Hammer of the Atlantian Crowns will be attending 
and in overall command, followed by his Three (let us add Gregor and 
make it an even 4)  Horsemen, Sir Tascius, Sir Theron and Baron Max and 
  Lord Gregor (who will have command of the archers and advise his grace 
on archer deployments).  Archers will also work decentralized with 
their units.  We will feel this out as we go.  His Grace provided the 
training guidance for the Horseman (well lets add Gregor for an even 4) 
to plan around, they came up with the following which I stole and cut 
and pasted the hell out of.

His Grace will address the Army along with the Four Horsemen so 
everyone knows what is going on for the day.
We will start with technique drills (e.g., breakthroughs, flanks, 
speed-kills, maneuver/cohesion, spear-partnering, etc...)
Then build up from a rotating set of a few technique drills at a time 
that we could swap-out (e.g., the first set of two could be 
breakthroughs and speed-kills and have half of the group in each then 
we rotate them through a flank and spear-partnering drill).

Then we will move to a Triad Bear Pit.

Then we move to to a Lance Bear Pit.  No wounds retained, limit of 
three wins then new teams. Otherwise this is a bearpit with seven on a 
side. We prefer that the seven are made of triads with a commander, 
from the same unit, but we will see what we have.

Then we break for Lunch

Then we move to a Restricted Field Traffic-Control Resurrection.
Restricted Field -- Restricted field - Basically a bridge battle but 
instead of 'dead when you leave the bridge' combatents are just 
restricted to a 30-50 foot wide "bridge". If a fighter strays he is 
just to be told to rejoin in the backfield. The purpose of this is to 
have fighters fight as if they were part of a much larger field army. 
No flanking unless a flank is made.  Limited front training is always 
important, and Resurrection training is vitally important for this 
Pennsic given the very large number of Resurrection battles.  We want 
to try practicing the traffic-control-at-Resurrection approach  It is 
something we've discussed needing but have yet to practice or attempt. 
Then we move to a pair of Set-Top Battles (each side gets to deploy 
first once).

Set-Top Battles -- This is an approach to Commander Training.  Forces 
quick reaction and response, decision-making, and tight 
command-and-control.    First force will deploy and then the second 
force gets to deploy such that they are within 30 feet and have eye 
contact. (No backfield set-up) This automatically gives them field 
position advantage. Once the second force is deployed the commanders of 
the first force has one minute to make a 'how do we deal with this 
plan' before lay on.
Then we move to a set of three Timing Field Battles.  Timing battles- 
Three battles. Battle one, right side
charges, left side advances at a walk and charges only for the last 30 
ft. Battle two, left side just
charges the right advances at the walk and charges the last 30 ft. 
Third battle, both side advance at the
walk. The purpose of this combat is to allow commanders to practice 
adapting to the battle field
situation as it develops.

For the archers that attend they should focus on killing command and 
control units, working with their own commander and units also.

Then we gather together for lessons-learned discussion, AAR (after 
Action Review).

I would ask that commanders at all levels look this over.

We don't have much time until Pennsic.  If you plan on fighting and 
need help with anything please contact us.  If you are looking for a 
banner and a cause to fight for, the Northern Army of Darkness is the 
place to be.  However if you need help we have to know,  let someone 
know either in your chain of command (barony or household) or contact 
His Grace, one of the 4 hoursemen of myself if you are not sure where 
you fit with the rest of the Army.

We will have a Muster in June and try for anther in July.

I remain
Sir Guy