Hitting Targets of Opportunity in Combat

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

Maybe. One does note that the shins were always armored in ancient times, though, even when more vulnerable areas were protected (though usually behind a big-ash shield.

There are plenty of periods where torso and head armor were vastly more common than leg armor.

I was talking about this a couple of years ago with a guy that I was sparring with and he pointed out that for one-handed swords it's actually really hard to make an effective attack on the legs, you need to be well within striking distance, you are likely exposing yourself to counterattack, the shin itself is a poor target for swords because there aren't any tendons, blood vessels, fat, or muscle, just skin and bone (cutting bone is actually not easy), and worse the lower leg is a mobile target that the opponent can just move while sidestepping into a counterattack. All of which he was able to demonstrate.

The coup de Jarnac was famous because it was a rare event that is difficult to pull off, and it was to the hamstrings, not the front of the shin. If winning duels by cutting legs was ordinarily viable, Guy wouldn't be famous!

This is probably mostly below GURPS resolution though.

Boffer LARPS favor leg attacks by counting light touches which could probably be ignored in a real fight and having weapons that require no recovery, making counterattacks less effective.