Logan's Blog

Most of us should be familiar with blood of heroes by now as we have played it twice at practice. Just in case, here is a quick summary of the rules.

The game is played with two teams of five. The ball in this game is a simulated dog skull. Each team tries to place the dog skull on a stake defended by the opposing team on the opposite side of the field from the stake they are defending. Doing so scores one point. The game is played for three rounds of three minutes. If a team scores two points they win. If the time runs out during a round, that round is a draw.

Each player on the team has a role and a specified weapons set. The quick is armed with a dagger and is the only player allowed to move the dog skull. The slash is sword and dagger and is the main source of offense. The drive and back drive are sword and scabbard. And finally, the chain is sword and cloak and is defense. The chain is not allowed to cross the midfield line.

The game is played 180 degrees with death from behind. Running is not allowed, instead you must limit yourself to a fast walk. When a player is struck dead they drop to their knees for a five count, counting out loud. At five they stand up and announce loudly “Up”. They may not be hit, move, pick up the dog skull, or attack until then. A player may voluntarily go down to regenerate any injury. If a marshal sees that you are running, or not taking shots, or doing something else wrong they announce “Jugger Down” and you go down immediately without question, comment, or explanation, for a five count. Finally a player who is down may be “Pinned” by a member of the opposing team if that person places their sword on the chest of the player to be pinned, looks them in they eye and announces “You are pinned”. To maintain the pin the pinner must continue to make eye contact and periodically say “You are pinned”. Should the pinner look away or remove their sword the pin is broken and the one pinned may immediately stand up and announce “Up”.

Each round is started with the two quicks in the center of the field inside a circle. The slash is 15 ft behind the quick, and the drive and back drive are to either side of the slash. On go the two quicks duel it out in the circle. No one else is allowed to enter until the dog skull leaves the circle. It may be that one quick kicks it out, or slays the other, it does not matter. No one gets to go in until the skull leaves. You may, however, move about as soon as the round is started.

So, those are the rules. I think this game is great! It represents a great example of small unit tactics on an open field. The way this game is won is through loosely coupled teamwork. It is impossible for you and two buddies to form a line and fight because the game is so dynamic. In doing so you put three of your team of five in one place. Your opponents should just go around you. Furthermore only 3 players on  your team are even whole players because the chain can’t cross mid field, and the quick only has a dagger. This means that a pair is likely the largest group you can form without leaving an area exposed. Finally, the game is 180 dfb, and you never kill your opponents. Instead  you leave them behind to pop up in 5 seconds. That is as long as you have before they come around and dfb you, or surprise you from the side. This makes the game very tight, very fast, very dynamic, and very mean.

Pretty much all of the above things are things that Scola melee forces need to work on. In the past our melee tactics were very much equivalent to a fighter playing the rock. We never give ground, we are accurate to all get out, and if you come running strait at us you are going to die. Our existing tactics are even good on a flank, where we can only be bent from one direction. Our tight unit discipline makes exposing us on only one angle difficult because our partners always cover for us.  However, when exposed on a field that is to big and open we have found our rock tactics impractical. Once our fighters get surrounded, and isolated away from their pairs and trios they tend to get destroyed.

That is the beauty of blood of heroes. You are always mostly on your own. The largest number of buddies you are likely to have with you at any time is one. Usually that is the quick or chain with one other person. So, the way blood of heroes is played successfully is with rogue individualism and loosely coupled pairs. The circumstances of the game make it so that you must be comfortable on your own to be successful. A typical scenario is you hear your chain calling for help. You hustle back to help stop the opposing quick from scoring. You get killed. Your team moves the skull out of your zone and all the up team mates move out as well. Now you pop up. Only 30 seconds have gon by and your teams tactics have shifted twice. Further you are alone (since your team moved out) and  you need to be effective alone. You need to find where your opponents have stopped your quick, and come at them from the side or from behind to suddenly crush their defence and allow your quick the opening she needs to score.

I am not trying to say that it is all about going it alone either. The best tactic seems to be the loosely coupled pair. The two that work together, but don’t stand together. They draw out their opponents. They create temporary numerical advantages. They split and roll their opponents into unfavorable, confusing configurations. A good example might be that the quick and slash are moving up the field. They see the opposing chain and drive in between themselves and the goal. Rather than rush in the quick stops and allows the drive to come forward and challenge her. At this time she moves to the side to force the drive to turn with her, and the slash capitalizes on the turning drive and hits them. Now we have a temporary (less than 5 second) 2 on one situation against the lonely enemy chain.

I am still getting my head around this one. I need to play it more. But I am sure it will be good for us in improving our open field tactics. I think after we get comfortable playing blood of heroes we will be comfortable split up on the open field. It will make us better at stopping cascade failures as well. And also likely make us better at flanking and rolling lines.

Logan Out