Gunning for Melees

Ever since RBGs were first introduced, fencers have been trying to figure out the best way to use them. The probelm with determining the best use has always been the limitations placed on them. In many melees, RBGs are either not allowed or are limited in number of weapons or number of rounds (at Estrella War this past year, sides were limited to a total of 1 round for every 10 opponents). I can see why they do this: they're trying to keep the melees from being straight gun-battles.

And in our period, gun use was limited. Compared to swords, guns were expensive and slow to produce. In addition, they had a long list of disadvantages: theycouldn't match the accuracy of a crossbow or a longbow, they were incapable of firing in the rain (the Battle of Villalar was won because the rebel's arquebus' would not work in the rain), they were prone to blow up in the user's hand, and the amount of smoke they produced made it hard to even see the enemy after a few salvos. Of course, they did have a few advantages: they were easier to learn than the longbow, they were faster to reload than a crossbow, and a soldier could carry more ammunition than with either a longbow or a crossbow.

It was these advantages that did bring firearms to the field, but the severity of the limitations kept them from occupying a large percentage of the armies of the times arsenals.

I have to say that in the SCA, I do like the idea of limiting the number of guns (and the 1 in 10 ratio from Estrella works quite well), but I'm not so sure about limiting the number of rounds. The reality of a soldier is that he/she will carry as much ammo as they can (the standard load for a U.S. Army soldier is 210 rounds, but most carry more into combat). For myself, I try to carry at least five rounds for my RBG when I bring it on the melee field.

Of course, this still leaves the question of how to use our RBGs to their greatest effect in melees. Which means we have to look at the various types of melees we do.

Probably the most common type of melee we do is the open field battle. Currently we normally line up our gunmen behind the line in open field battles with instruction to shoot commanders and other high-value targets (HVTs). And this does work, but it has some weeknesses. The first is that it doesn't take full advantage of the RBG's range. A gunner can only reach the front line shortly before his/her own line can and can't reach behind the lines until the front lines engage. The other weakness is that going after HVTs doesn't generally do anything to relieve the pressure of the front line. Most HVTs (commanders, White Scarves, etc.) hang out behind the lines so that even if you do get them, your front line is still fully engaged.

The Swiss didn't use their gunmen this way. In fact, they did the exact opposite. Their gunmen were placed in front of the main line. Once the opposing army came into range, they would stop and begin firing at the enemy's front line, poking holes in it and taking away its momentum. As they'd fire, their own lines would pass through, engaging the enemy before they could reach the gunners. The Swiss infantry would then be facing a stalled, weakened line and the now-protected gunners could switch from volley-fire to the more traditional (for us) role of sniping and supporting.

We actually do pretty well in bridge battles. Our standard tactic is to set up the gunmen to the sides of the bridge where they can harry the enemy forces. We still focus too much on HVTs for my taste, but at least we've figured out how to give our gunners a good depth of range without interfering with our own lines.

Ressurection battles are probably the easiest to figure out: in all but a few situations, RBGs are useless. Because of the length of resurrection battles and their never-ending supply of reinforcements, it is pointless to waste ammo on thinning out the lines or eliminating HVTs: they'll just be back in 30 seconds or so. Their only use is in a capture-the-flag scenario to remove defenders from the objective from a distance or to kill an opponent who has captured your flag. Anything beyond that is a waste.

Keep battles are the opposite of the ressurection battle when it comes to RBGs: gunners are so useful and the field is so limited that it's hard to screw it up. A perfect example is the Defend the Baroness battle from this last Uprising. Even aside from the canon, the defenders did everything right. They had gunners in the door, punching holes in the attackers line, and gunners on the wall, draining their reserves. That was about as textbook as you could get. And with only the single point of contact and the limited number of visible targets, its hard for the attackers not to use their gunners effectively: if you've only got one or two gunners, have them snipe the kill pocket and if you've got four or five, a volley-fire can wipe out an entire rank of defenders.

Yes, I suppose RBGs take away from the fun of melees (at least for those who are shot), but when you think about it, so does getting legged and left. So I figure if we're going to use them, let's see what happens when we use them right.