Initiating Hand-to-Hand Combat

[Shaira]

Hi everyone,

Both ITL p116 and Melee p17 say:

"A figure may move into an enemy figure's hex, initiating HTH combat, if (a) the enemy has his back to the wall, or is lying down, prone, or kneeling, or (b) the enemy has a lower MA, or (c) the attacker comes in from the rear, or (d) the enemy agrees to HTH combat. Initiating HTH combat is considered an attack."

This seems to suggest that a defender with a higher MA than an attacker trying to initiate HTH combat may simply refuse to enter HTH combat. However, I'm not quite sure how this is intended to interact with the 1d roll to determine how the defender reacts - results 5 and 6 seem to clearly indicate that the defender doesn't want to engage in HTH.

Here's my imagined scenario: two characters are engaged in melee, one drops his weapon. Instead of trying to pick it up, he simply throws himself at his opponent, intending to initiate HTH. However, the opponent has a higher MA, and obviously prefers to keep hacking at the unarmed guy with his sword. Can he simply decide to refuse the "invitation" to enter HTH? IE, in such an instance only fighters with a higher MA than their opponent may force them to engage in HTH? Or does the very act of trying to initiate HTH automatically precipitate the 1d roll, which itself assumes the defender is going to try and fend off the attempt to initiate HTH? Or am I misreading things?

Cheers,

Sarah