Over the last 6 years or so (I feel old) I have had the pleasure of taking part in and leading somewhere into the 100’s of skirmishes. Both as battlefield runner, scout, and later commander through the Iron Raptors and Navarr – skirmishes are probably the best part of the game. This is involved everything from retrieving dead empresses bones, stealth scouting, securing carts of white granite, targeted kills, to retrieving artefacts or some highly questionable diplomacy. Great fun!!
My top tips would be:
Teamwork and co-ordination are they cornerstone of victory . If you have a good team who know what the objective is, are properly prepared, and understand to support each other – it wins 9 out of 10 skirmishes. So if you fancy joining – find out who is leading a given skirmish and ask what the objective is, and talk with the other members of the team. What does everyone bring to the fight? Can you heal? Fight?
Don’t rush the gate . This is a real pet annoyance of mine both IC and OC. Whilst everyone wants to get on a skirmish, rushing the gate last minute to get on – never works out well. At best you annoy the hell out of a the fighters (not IC wise), at worst you are the reason that the ritual team/ healing team are not there. Death is near certainty. So if you want to join a skirmish – find out who is leading it ahead of time!
Know what your objective is. Similar to the above you would be surprised at the number of times people have joined a last minute put together skirmish (or rushed the gate) without having any idea what they are doing on it. This leads to hilarious results of either characters joining hard fights without weapons/armour, or more commonly a five/ten minute period in the skirmish whilst the team discuss what the hell is the objective. If your opposing skirmish are waiting for you… it doesn’t end well. That said if you are properly aware, prepared and know what the timings are you can literally run a thirty minute in skirmish in nine minutes.
Pair up. Find someone who can cover your back, and you them. It counts for a lot if you are caught out, and really helps a skirmish commander to know in a moment how many people are still alive/injured etc.
Dress for the occasion. Simple put if it is a scouting stealth mission, you probably don’t want to wear your super loud jangling scale armour. Or insist on playing a fiddle whilst you go through the gate for a night skirmish… Dress for the skirmish, ideally asking around where it is going and what you might be fighting. So you are fighting Vallorn? You might want to pack some blade venoms, and grab some anti-venom. Fighting heavy infantry with shields? Consider polearms or archers (light permitting).
Violence isnt always the answer. Sometimes you are there to talk, do that awesome magic… or it’s ambiguous. Charging in without regard for what is going on normally isn’t the best idea.
EJECT! If its gone to hell/heresy, there is no shame in withdrawing at speed. Just check that the majority of your party are doing the same thing – or enjoy the RP of being branded a coward.