[MA] Southern Kung Fu, the Common Folk and Tong Hatchetmen

[Icelander]

To perhaps narrow down what it is I want forumites to do with the information presented in this thread so far, I thought I'd collect my still-unanswered questions together with solicited-areas-for-comment.

1) Does anyone know what areas are usually targeted by armed attacks in Wing Chun or any other armed form of a Chinese Martial Art?

Obviously, this would not include information already listed in GURPS Martial Arts. I'm rather looking for real-world knowledge, knowledge of theory or even knowledge from (at least quasi-)realistic-looking movies.

I'm looking for this because the armed forms are often presented as optional, or at least addenda to an unarmed focus, for the CMA/Kung Fu styles as they appear in Martial Arts, so they do not receive the same detail of techniques and guidelines for roleplaying combat as the unarmed forms. Since I want to distinguish knife-fighters/hatchetmen/swordsmen/etc. coming from different cultural or style backgrounds from one another as much as possible, I'd like to know stuff like how choice of combat Maneuvers, combat options and target selection for a nanquan-inspired knife-fighter could differ from one with a background in kuntao, savate or the Dagger Fighting style presented in MA.

2) When using a horse bench in combat, what skills should one require?

Striking with it at full power and extension is not a problem. That's Two-Handed Axe/Mace, with maybe -1 or -2 to skill as an improvised weapon and a damage in the neighbourhood of sw+4 (it weighs 15-20 lbs., even if it doesn't have striking surfaces as effective as a mace).

Two-handed use for less-powerful strikes is an open question, however. Would one call it Polearm and give it lower MinST and lower damage, or would one just make use of Defensive Attacks with Two-Handed Axe/Mace skill? I'm inclined to allow both, as there is clearly some overlap between two-handed balanced use of a horse bench and some Staff/Polearm techniques. Also, since the typical grip isn't one where the weight of the bench is concentrated at the end of a lever, like the basic assumption for Two-Handed Axe/Mace is, the MinST would hopefully be lower. While it is a heavy weapon, it's not so heavy so to be unusable by everyone except the biggest men.

Clearly, defensive work with it could often make use of the rules on LT p. 114 for 'Improvised Shields'. While it's common to hold it in two hands for defence, this is not required, and the legs of the bench probably qualify as improvised handgrips anyway.

The problem I have is that Shield doesn't have any MinST requirement and so there is no reason for anyone to use the weapon in both hands instead of one. Even Defensive Grip doesn't apply with shields, so it can't be explained as that.*

In the real world, of course, the bench weighs enough to make one-handed use difficult for most people. Training can help with that, but that might also be because the horse bench is often regarded as a tool for building arm and wrist strength as much as a traditional weapon.

Used one-handed to bash and defend with Shield skill, anyone with ST from 8-10 (depending on bench weight) can handle it without penalties. That's way too easy. Granted, the damage from such bashes is limited, less than using the weapon as an Axe/Mace would be, but just managing to block at full skill with it one-handed ought to require above average ST (or appropriate Perks).

Also, I suspect that one-handed use ought to be Axe/Mace, but as with two-handed use, the bench is rarely held in a way that has all the weight concentrated near the striking end. It's more usual to have the point of balance closer to the user, which weakens the blows you can launch with it, but ought to translate into a slightly more managable MinST than the monstrous ST 17-20 that it would require to use a 15-20 lbs. weapon in one-hand with typical mace techniques.

3) Does anyone have comments on the Techniques that appear in this thread? These are:

Armed Aggressive Parry
Defensve Jab
Fast Strikes
Forearm Weapon Parry
Set-Up Jab
Underhand Grip Defence
Underhand Slash

4) Does anyone have comments on the two styles that appear so far? These are:

Shuang Fu ('Double Axe'; an armed style designed as a body of weapon techniques taken in addition to an unarmed (sometimes including small weapons) style.
Haihu Wing Chun ('White Tiger Wing Chun (Which in turn has various translations, most evocative 'Eternal Springtime', but more probable 'In Praise of Springtime'; a version of Wing Chun for emigrants in crime-ridden Western cities of my campaign, including more armed techniques and knife-fighting forms) style.

*Though it's easy enough to house-rule that Defensive Grip can indeed apply to shields. It's just that with purpose-built ones, you rarely find yourself in a position where you'd want to be holding just the shield and no weapon.