[Technical Grappling] Teach me using examples

[Icelander]

To get a feeling for the system, I'll try a few turns between these worthy opponents. They each know the styles that the other will be using, so they'll reduce the effects of Deceptive Attacks and Feints from the other by 1. I'm using a house rule in my campaign that doubles the to hit bonus of Evaluate, so I'll incorporate that in these musings, but it's easy enough for others to halve the bonuses.

Mickey is faster, so he goes first. He's smart enough not to rush in, however. He Steps and Evaluates.

Master Braelgar is far more experienced, so he's not going to be the first one to make any mistakes. He also Steps and Evaluates.

It's not a big circle, so they're in range now. Sir Michael always moves toward Master Braelgar, but he steps back or to the side to keep at Reach 2. They continue their circling for two more turns, however, as they each amass the maximum Evaluate bonus (+6 in my campaign).

On the turn after that, Sir Michael acts, because he's less experienced, has Bad Temper and would probably lose a Will-based highest combat skill roll modified by disadvantages to avoid striking the first blow. Actually, his player would have been doing well to avoid using Move and Attack to strike in the first turn. ;)

Mickey Steps and Feints. He's Feinting at skill 24+6 and Master Braelgar gets to resist with skill 28 (and reduce any margin of victory by 4, 1 for knowing the same styles and 3 for Evaluate).

Most likely outcome is a victory, but with a margin not enough to cause a defence penalty. A lucky roll might result in a small penalty. If we roll for them, I get 8 (success by 22) and 10 (success by 18). No penalty.

Braelgar sidesteps to open the range back to Reach 2 and Hooks at the leg of Sir Michael. He would roll at skill 28+6-2=32, but he uses Deceptive Attack to reduce this to effective skill 16 and give a -8 to Sir Michael's Active Defences (which Style Familiarity reduces to -7). He hits with 11.

Sir Michael has Parry 17 under ordinary circumstances and he's holding his longsword in a Defensive Grip. This means Parry 11. A roll of 14 is not enough. A hit and Master Braelgar causes CP for his Trained ST 22, with a +2 per die. That's 2d+4, if I am not mistaken, which becomes 8 CPs, which is -8 to ST and -4 to DX for actions involving Sir Michael's right leg. Edit: No, damn it, it means -4 to ST and -2 to DX to actions involving said leg. That also means at least a -2 to ST and -1 to DX to all actions and -4 ST and -2 DX to whole-body actions, including attacks made with his sword. I'm guessing that Dodge and resisting take-downs would sum the whole-body penalty and the leg penalty, for a total of -8 ST and -4 DX? Or does the leg penalty not matter for that purpose?

I'm guessing that Sir Michael will now want to establish his own grapple. For that, however, he needs to move 2 hexes or use All-Out Attack (Long), right? Because even an Armed Grapple has only Reach C.

Alternatively, he could grab the halberd at -2 to Wrestling skill and Master Braelgar could not Parry with it without giving up the grapple on Sir Michael, I think. At least, since a limb used for a grapple cannot be used to Parry, I assume that the same applies to a weapon used to grapple, but I couldn't find a reference to that effect anywhere.

Edit: This is actually super important. If you've achieved a grapple with your weapon at Reach 2 using Hook, what Active Defences can you use against attempts to grapple your weapon and/or Break Free from the grapple?

You are using your weapon to grapple, so it is presumably not available for Parry until you let go, as per Armed Grapple (MA p. 67) and Hook (p. 74). And the 'technical parry' or 'counter' rules on MA:TG p. 22 specify unarmed combat skill.

Is Dodge the only legal defence here?

Or should you be able to use a version of a 'technical parry' or 'counter' in this situation to defend with your weapon skill without letting go, for example by drawing the opponent out of position with your grapple, perhaps with the Parry level based on the Hook technique or the Armed Grapple technique?