Most of these drills can be performed as combat drills, with hats on and swords swinging, or hats off, depending on new and how tired the troops are. Drills may be done with participants just calling good shots, or taking shots and resurrecting, or taking shots and dying, depending on what you want. Drills may be combined, and variation keeps folks from getting bored. The thing to keep in mind is that if you bore people, they won't want to play that game anymore - and they'll lose all interest in disciplined troop fighting.

What I'm looking for in these drills is echoing of commands by the troops, heads-up behavior, communication of problems as soon as they arise (e.g. "obstacle!" or “skirmishers coming in on the left!"), coordination in the face of confusion, and maintenance of unit integrity in the face of difficulty.

Following each drill, there's a quick debrief on what is going wrong and what is going right. If a drill had enough problems, we'll repeat it.

ADVANCE THROUGH FRIENDS. Form in two lines, both facing the same way. On “Advance at a Walk”, the rear line advances. If no “Stade” is given, the rear line filters through the front line, and then continues to advance. Both options (“Stade” and no “Stade”) should be repeated a few times. Note that to do this properly requires a lot of talk from the troops. Encourage this.

BRIDGE HOLDING. Form in two groups. Make a “bridge” by laying down poles or string to denote the edges. One group deploy in line across the bridge. The point of this line is to hold their position on the bridge. This drill is a little advanced, and should be done until participants are comfortable with being in a shieldwall, and with being pushed from behind. The center of the defending line bulges forward, and additional bodies are placed there to keep the center forward of the edges. When the attacking group hits, the defenders hold as best they can, and then on the call “push” all push at an angle toward the edges of the bridge, while trying to reclaim any ground they lost. This can be done with shots being thrown, or without weapons.

BRIDGE-SWEEPING. Form up in two groups. Make a “bridge” by laying down poles or string to denote the edges. One group deploy in line across the bridge. The point of the other line is to press into the enemy, and sweep as many as possible over the edge of the bridge. This drill is a little advanced, and should be done until participants are comfortable with being in a shieldwall, and with being pushed from behind. The center of the attacking line bulges forward, and additional bodies are placed there to keep the center forward of the edges. When the charge hits the defenders, the leaders in the center switch direction just prior to impact, to hit at an angle toward the edge of the bridge. This can be done with shots being thrown, or without weapons.

CHARGING. Forming up 5 in line in battle order, and having two charge through the line. Rotate the charging/receiving positions until all have had a chance to charge twice. Then do the same drill, with the line in Shieldwall, Prepare to Receive. Each charge drill is stopped 3 seconds after impact.

CHARGING WITH SPEARS. Just like CHARGING, but with a spearman behind each charger. The spearman pushes on the charger’s back to help him get through, and follows him through the line and into the backfield. In this case, the spear should stick with the shieldman as they go into the backfield, and not separate.

CHASE OFF. Form in shieldwall, while 2-5 become skirmishers. Those in shieldwall standfast, but on command a fire team or two peels off and chases the skirmishers off (or kills them). Skirmishers die if hit. On "Reform", fire teams rejoin the wall. Repeat until each fire team has had 2-3 chances to chase off the skirmishers and rejoin.

COLUMN-CHARGE. Form a column charge, facing at least two shields and preferably with a polearm or spear behind them. On “Charge”, the column punches through the join in the facing shields, and then alternates sides as they penetrate the line – the first man runs to the right, the second runs to the left. Whichever side the pole is on, that man runs him down. If the pole stays in the center, the third man runs him down.

COLUMN-CHARGE WITH DOOR. As with the column charge drill, except the formation is a shieldwall facing a shieldwall of at least four shields. One man in the attacking shieldwall is designated to be a door by tapping him on the shoulders and shouting “Door, door, door”. The “door” peels back and to the side, leaving a hole one-man wide. As soon as the “door” is beginning to clear the hole, the commander gives the column the order to “Charge”. This drill should be repeated until everyone has a chance to be the door. It works best if the column on this drill is no more than three people long, and can be done with a one-man “column”.

COVER UP. Form in shieldwall, and have poles or archers take shots at whatever they can find exposed. Legs should only be shot if the back leg is much too close to the front.

DYING. This is not really a drill on its own, but is rather a drill to combine with another drill. When hit with a good blow, the recipient “dies aggressively” (that is, forward onto/into the enemy), and practices covering up properly. The “dead” man should count to four on the ground, then crawl out of the crush forward through enemy lines. He then walks around to his own line again, and fills in. Those around the “dead” man fill in the hole as he dies. A variant is to only have one dead man on the ground at a time, if you don’t have a lot of bodies for the lines.

FALL-BACK INTO FRIENDS. This drill is done with two lines formed facing the same direction. On the command “Fall Back”, the front line begins falling back toward the rear line. On meeting the rear line, if there is no command to “Stade”, the front line should filter through the rear line. Otherwise, if “Stade” is given, they form up in front of the rear line. Both options should be done a few times. Note that to do this properly requires a lot of talk from the troops. Encourage this.

FILL THE GAP. Form up some distance from two objects on the field. On the command “Shieldwall in that gap” (possibly preceded by “Follow me” or something similar to get the unit to the gap), the unit fills in the gap. If the gap is too small for the unit to fit within, the extras become additional reserves. If the gap is too big to fill in shieldwall, the command should give “battle order” or other means of extending the line. In all cases, fire teams should remain together during the execution of the drill. This can be done as a fighting exercise by forming in two units – the objective of one unit is to go through the gap, and the objective of the other unit is to fill and then defend it. The attackers should be close enough that the defenders don’t have a lot of time to fill the gap before they’re hit.

FILTER-IN. This drill may be done with any drill in which you are having people take shots, or may be done separately. Form in two lines (though it can be done with one). As the lines press on each other, tap one person to fall out of line. The rest fill in the hole as best they can. Then, send the fighter back into the line to “filter in” by squeezing between two bodies, shield-edge first, and pressing to the front to take his place in line. If using with drills wherein you’re taking shots, the tapping part is taken care of by the fighter either dying or pulling out after receiving a good shot.

FIRE-TEAM DUEL. Form into two fire-teams, facing each other. If you have enough fire teams present, more than one duel can be carried out at a time. The objective is to get past the fire team you’re opposing, or kill them. If dueling fire teams collide during this exercise, that’s okay – don’t call a hold. They can help each other or not, as they see fit. Different fire teams should have different objectives, or they’ll tend to default back to shieldwall rather than running the drill. Thus A and B are facing off, trying to get to trees A and B, while C and D are facing off, trying to get to trash cans C and D, somewhat distant from the trees.

FISHING. Form in two lines. Both lines Advance to Contact. Both lines press, and begin “fishing” with thrusting tips for bellies and legs between and beneath shield edges. It is crucial in this drill (as with all contact drills) that each side continue to press, as releasing pressure will get the guy next to the lazy shieldman killed.

FLANK DEFENSE. Form in two lines, each with some reserve. Sometime following lay-on, either side may send their reserve around in a flanking maneuver. The defender of the flanking maneuver commits their reserve to prevent the flank. This is a timing and awareness drill, and may be done without shots being thrown, but should be executed at a normal combat pace. If no shots are being thrown, the lines folks should still be pushing and making a lot of noise. Note that sometimes both will attempt to flank at the same time – it’s a wonderful demonstration of what happens when timing is bad.

FLANK THE FLANK. Form in two groups – one in line, and the other in some other formation (column, loose, whatever). On lay-on, the group that is not in line will try to run around and flank the unit in line. The unit in line will choose their timing, and then hit the flanking unit as they try to go by. This is a timing drill, and will demonstrate the perils of bad timing. The drill should be repeated multiple times, to give multiple people the chance to be the one calling the timing.

GATE CRASHING. One unit form in shieldwall, between two obstacles which will be the conceptual gate posts. The other unit form in shieldwall or column. On lay on, the side defending tries to keep the other side from going through the gate and achieving some goal past the gate. Exercise ends when the objective is achieved or the attackers are all dead. This may be varied by making it some form of resurrection scenario to give the attackers multiple tries.

HOOKING. This is a coordination drill for use with spears or polearms. It may be done with archers, as well, though shields should not be archers’ primary targets. Form in two shieldwalls, with at least two poles behind each wall. Following the command “Advance to Contact”, the spears will select somebody to work with. The spear, without a command, will tap the shoulder of the person they want to do a hook maneuver. That shieldman will roll his basket hilt onto the enemy shield, and suddenly drop his weight to pull down on the opposing shield. The spear then hits the exposed shieldman, and the “hooker” releases pressure. This can be done static, with blows just being called, but is most effective in a resurrection scenario to demonstrate the ability to open holes and to work on filling holes when they open.

KILL POCKETS. One unit form between two obstacles which are the sides of the bridge, the gate posts, sides of the sally port, or whatever. The other form facing, and on lay on the attackers attempt to achieve some goal past the defenders before they can form a killing pocket. The defenders start in shieldwall, and have as their objective the formation of a stable killing pocket sometime after initial contact (i.e. give in the center, then firm up).

MOVEMENT. Formed up in Shieldwall, moving about under command of one individual. After 3-5 commands are given (with proper echoing of each command), the "commander" taps one of the line, who drops out. The line closes the whole, and continues executing the last command. The guy who was tapped becomes the new commander, while the old commander fits in at the end of the line. Continue until all have had a chance to give commands.

MOVEMENT OVER BODIES. Drop obstacles of some kind all over the area to be moved in. Explain how to high-step over obstacles (and call out "obstacle") when encountering something on the ground, without looking down at it. Just as with MOVEMENT, change out commanders as the unit moves around.

MOVEMENT UNDER FIRE. This is nothing more than forming into shieldwall, and then moving about the field, while one or more poles harass the line by poking at them. The end of each drill is followed by a "Get-em" or "Charge", to give the shields a chance to hit the poles back and give the poles practice getting away. The drill is stopped 5 seconds after the "charge".

MOVEMENT WITH DEATH. Have the unit move around the field, just as in the movement drill. As they go, however, tap a shield man and tell him he’s dead. The “dead” man should make some loud acknowledgement of his death (“Good shot!” or “Ah, I’m dead”), and fall forward and cover up. The rest of the line should fill in the hole, and continue executing the command they were performing when the “dead” man fell, stepping over the “dead” body as they go. After the line moves on, the “dead” man should get back up and fill in on the end of the line.

NO-ROLL. Form lines, with one side longer than the other. As the lines advance toward each other, when the shorter line clearly is going to be lapped and rolled by the longer line, the commander of the shorter line stops his troops, and commands a fire team to split from the line and assume battle order to extend the line. The short line falls back if necessary, to give time to accomplish this task. When the call “Go” is given by the marshals, the short line stops falling back and battle is joined. The objective of the long line is to roll the short line, if possible, either before “go” is called or during the ensuing combat.

ODDBALL. Not a drill of its own, this is a drill to combine with others In the middle of whatever is going on, throw out “oddball” commands (e.g. “Form Thingie”, “Prepare to Sing”, “Ready spears”). These should be commands that are not on the unit command manual, nor on the kingdom command manual. Some should be fairly obvious regarding what the intention is (“Get ready to run”), and others should be as obscure as possible (“Formation three”). When giving the oddball command, the commander should change the inflection of his voice, or face away from the unit while shouting a little louder, in order to vary the sound.

PICK IT UP. This drill starts with one group disorganized and scattered around the field. The other unit is started some ways away. The disorganized unit has their eyes closed when they are placed, and keep their eyes closed until “lay-on” is called. The disorganized unit must reform in time to meet the organized unit, which will do their best to hit before the disorganized unit can get organized.

PUSH-PUSH. This is really just to get folks used to making contact with the enemy and pushing on their formation. Units form up in shieldwall, advance to contact, and then keep pushing - without turning the facing of the line, letting the enemy slip through, or opening up their own formation. Variations include having only one side push and the other try to standfast, or both sides pushing.

REPULSE. Form in two lines facing each other. Give “Advance at a Walk” to one line, and wait until they are about 9’ away from each other. Give “charge” the moving line. Immediately following impact, give “Advance to Contact” to the line that received the charge, following with many exhortations of “push, push, push!” This drill should be stopped after about 10 seconds of pushing, and then the roles reversed.

ROLL. Two lines form up, one longer and one shorter. As the units advance toward each other, when it is clear that the longer line is going to overlap the shorter line, the shorter line stops advancing. The shorter line commander may command fallback, but may not extend his line. The longer line commander should give no special orders – Advance to Contact should be sufficient to cause the members of the long line to wrap around and roll the short line.

RUSH THE SPEAR. This is done by individuals. Have a spearman face off with a shieldman. On “Go”, the shieldman rushes the spearman, trying to kill him as quickly as possible. If the spearman runs away too quickly, the shieldman should turn aside and look for other targets. If the spearman doesn’t rush off, the shieldman should run him down. Spearmen in this drill should vary between just running backward (taking shots, if it’s a shot drill), and just turning tail and running.

SHOTS DRILL. Form in two facing lines. On Advance to Contact, both lines press and begin throwing shots only at the guys to either side of whoever is in front of them. If the lines are staggered, then they throw at either the person closest on either side, or the ones farther away on either side. The point is to get people used to throwing at angles, rather than at whoever is in front of them. The drill can be constrained to “only thrusts to the left”, or “only overhand to the right”, or “only buttspikes to the right”, or some other constraint regarding shots allowed.

STANDFAST UNDER HARASSMENT. Form in shieldwall, while 2-5 become skirmishers. Those in shieldwall simply standfast. If there are 6-10 to form the wall, have those who take a good shot fall out and count to three, then look for an opening to fill in. A variant is to have them die (forward!), then crawl out, walk around, and look for an opening to fill. If there are no openings, fill in at the end. This exercise continues until folks look tired - 30-120 seconds. Skirmishers just call good shots, but don't take them.

STEWED MEAT. All participants are placed on the field randomly, with their eyes closed. Each participant has a rag tied on his arm, or a dot on his helm, or some other identifier, the color of which he knows. On “Go”, each participant opens his eyes and looks for his teammates, while fighting or avoiding his enemies. This drill should have no commander identified prior to “go” – there should be lots of shouting to reform. Smart folks will move toward the center of their scattered group while shouting to reform, effectively executing a “reform on (whoever’s in the center)”. Some fighting may be inevitable as the groups get closer, but nobody should concentrate on fighting in preference to reforming. This exercise is even more fun if archers are included, though they should be “parked” near the edges of the “stew”.

TWO-ON-ONE. This drill takes two shieldmen, and pits them against one. The objective of the one shieldman is to keep the two occupied as long as possible. The objective of the two is to kill the one as quickly as possible. Note that this drill should always be done with a movement objective as well (i.e. “You’re also trying to go thataway”). Thus, if the one shieldman moves too far from the line of travel, the two shieldmen should abandon him and move toward their objective.

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