Melee for Beginners - Objectives

This was originally published as part of the first part of the article. After a suggestion from Wistric, I have broken it off into its own section, and each section will now cover one topic. Coming next - Melee for Beginners - Roles in Combat


Common Objectives

The battle objective is the goal for each side in the melee. Some scenarios are fairly simple, others can be more complicated. Before the melee begins, the marshals will explain the objective and any other rules such as whether death from behind is allowed or how many resurrections each fighter has. Be sure to ask questions for clarification if anything is unclear. The most important thing to do in a melee is remembering the objective and working to meet it. 


Grand Melee – Sometimes called a Roman melee, this begins with all the fighters standing in a circle. Fighters typically can not start by attacking the fighter to their immediate left or right. There are no predetermined teams in a grand melee, though alliances may be made (and broken) during the fighting. The winner is the last fighter standing. Sometimes the two top finishers are used as captains to pick the teams for the rest of the day’s fighting

Warlord – In the first round each fighter fights one other fighter. The winner of that fight is the captain of the newly formed two man team.  Teams then continue to fight in this method until there is only one team remaining.

Last Man Standing – Very simple scenario, after dividing into two (or more) teams, combatants fight until all fighters from opposing teams are dead.

Capture the Flag/Get the Item – In this format, instead of the objective being to kill the fencers on the other team, each team must gain control of a flag or capture an item that the other team is trying to protect. There are a number of variations regarding the exact victory condition, but they could include keeping control of the flag for more than half the time, controlling the flag at random intervals, or number of times you can capture the item in a set period of time.

Territorial Control (Bridge/Castle/Area) – Similar to capture the flag, the objective in a territorial control is not to kill the opponent, but to maintain control of an area longer than the opposing team. In some scenarios where one team is the attacker, and the other is the defender, the scenario will be run twice, and the team with the best time wins.

Escort/Transport – In an escort or transport mission the goal is to get an object or person from one point on the field to the other.

Protect the Leader – The goal in a protect the leader scenario is to keep your leader alive while trying to kill the opponent’s leader. The side that kills their opponents leader a set number of times first is the winner. Typically in this scenario every fighter but the leader has unlimited resurrections and the leader can not be closer than a certain number of feet to their sides resurrection point.