Knowing the outcome of an attack before choosing to actively defend

[Tomsdad]

Originally Posted by Ultraviolet

This 'feeling out your opponent', this is one reason I like The Riddle of Steel.

The mechanics would then be to choose 'white die' for defence, and then allocate a large amount of dice from the combat pool for the first exchange. Assuming the enemy chooses 'red' and attacks, you may get a good MoS and thus turn the Initiative around. And if you are clever you've chosen a defense than comehow gives you an advantage - some bonus dice - for the next attack. And that's how you get him!

But you could also go for a more aggressive approach and choose 'red' hoping the opponent wants to feel you out and chooses 'white'.
And then simply declare a weak attack hoping he wastes a lot of dice for dfence. Sure, he easily defends and wins initiative - but then you choose a nasty defence with all your dice, something that carries over to the next exchange.

After the first exchange you know his total number of combat pool dice, and can plan for the next round

Or if you both choose red, cross your fingers and hope you've done enough to gain enough of an advantage!