Parry and Close combat

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by martinl

I have seen fencing manuals that explicitly recommend stepping into close combat and going for wrasslin' or dagger based murder if your opponent is a better swordsperson that you.

As have I. There's a persistent myth that a long weapon has the magical property of "holding foes at bay" merely by existing. A long weapon is absolutely capable of that, but only if the user decides to use it that way.

• If the user just kind of stands there thinking (Concentrate) or fussing with gear (Ready), the long weapon isn't even really a threat.
• If the user simply rushes to the attack (an Attack, All-Out Attack, or Move and Attack maneuver), there's the risk the target will sidestep, duck, or ward off the weapon and continue past it, getting into close combat. This risk is heightened if the user actually rushes toward the target.
• If the user attacks at long reach with a Deceptive Attack, or after a Feint, the blow is likely to hit and stop the victim at that reach. This interpretation of Deceptive Attack represents using your skill with the weapon to keep it between you and your foe.
• If the user takes a Wait maneuver, that pretty much guarantees the first strike. This works best when combined with the aforementioned Deceptive Attack to reduce defenses and/or a Stop Thrust to improve damage.
• Regardless, the user should be sure to retreat on the defense and step back when attacking.

What bugs a lot of gamers is the bit where the person with the superior weapon – the longer one that does more damage – has to use a bunch of special rules, adopt a reactive strategy (Wait), and give ground, all of which feel a bit like sacrificing the initiative to someone less well armed. Whereas the fighter with the shorter weapon or no weapon is best served by constantly closing and attacking.

The thing is, long weapons actually do require considerably more point control and maneuvering space to realize their reach advantage. When it's impossible to trade distance for time, they're a liability.

The illogical extreme is the missile weapon. Consider a pistol vs. a guy with a knife: You don't want to let the knife-user get close, least of all close enough to grab your weapon or arm, and you want to take your time and calmly aim; charging forward, blazing away is useless, as several literate Old West gunfighters bothered to write down.

Something similar goes for a two-handed sword vs. a giant spider: Keep backing away, force the spider to waste its turns on Move instead of Attack, take Wait to get a shot at it each time it tries to get close, and if it manages to close in, avoid being grabbed by retreating . . . and then back away again as you whack it. If you can't do those things, then odds are you're fighting on its terms. That happens (the encounter in ISaR is cooked that way!), but making it fight out in the open where you can see it coming from a huge distance would be fighting on your terms. Good strategy regardless of weapon reach is always to try to turn the tables so you're fighting on your terms, not the enemy's.