[ULFGARD]

For new players (or even complex characters) one good option is to do a bit of the math for any combinations in advance for anything the players think they'll have their characters do. This can be complex if their characters have lots of maneuvers, or relatively simple such as Neck Attack-8 (because they have skill-13 and intend to strike at the neck often) or even Telegraphic Attack: Neck-12 (given the same skill-13). A handful of such predetermined modified attacks (noting effects -- cutting attacks to the neck do double damage after penetrating DR, telegraphic attacks are +2 to defend against, etc.). That's handy.

Once you've been through a few combats, have the players look up any options they intend to use prior to their turn so that they're done (or mostly so) before they try to do something exotic. And have a standard "default" action for indecisive players (something like "Swing attack to weapon arm") or assume that they Do Nothing if they can't come up with an action when their turn comes up. After all, the player has had everyone else's turns to think about it. This is no different than enforcing such actions in DnD (nothing is less fun than someone wasting everyone's time while they decide what spell to cast, especially if they've been peppering everyone else with commentary up until their turn).

I've never used the combat cards, but they sound like a good idea if they work for you, and might help enumerate what options are available in combat.