swings vs thrusts

[Richard_Strey]

Or, with decent armor, CP and minor accuracy, go agressive red/red with an evasive attack. Say, 8 Evasion / 4 Cut to the neck or hands. That'll raise the opponent's TN to 14 or thereabout while threatening with an unopposed attack to a potentially unarmored location.

[Lance D. Allen]

Yes.. the red-red is a calculated risk, but if you can get your attack in first (the art of the samurai, remember) you can win. In this case, a thrust is good for gaining an initiative advantage.

Your possible counters are variable based on the style you're fighting.

If using a greatsword or longsword, I might recommend half-swording yourself, then countering with all available dice. Or a thrust of your own, to the upper chest. If he is wearing armor there, you get your +3 damage to help nullify it.

Or you could keep your sword at full length, and do an evasive attack to the arm, getting your +1 CP, and perhaps taking out his arm, preventing him entirely from striking you.

Alternately, there's the beat. From the one time I've crossed swords with Jake (where he beat my sword repeatedly, causing me to repeatedly full evade), I would guess that the beat can be effective against an attack as well, and if successful (ie, your beat successes outnumber his attack successes) then the beaten weapon is unable to be used in the strike, thereby rendering his attack void, and costing him dice the next exchange. It's risky in that if you fail, it would be as though you did not defend at all (because you didn't) and if you do succeed, you've not done any damage directly, but it could be very effective if followed up on immediately, esp. considering that he cannot even full-evade.

[Edge]

Thanks guys some of those helped a bit.  The problem with going red/red is that he still beat me to the first attack 9/10 of the time.  I proved to him that i still had a chance if i countered and it prob isn't a chance he wants to take in a campaign game.

[Overdrive]

Umm.. you do use 'buy initiative' when appropriate? I've found that almost nobody in my games dares to strike with all their dice in the first exchange. Why? Because it's so easy for a decent opponent to buy the initiative and take their sword arm off.

So, in the first red/red exchange, both combatants would allocate perhaps half of their dice into attack. The loser of the reflex contest tries to buy initiative. If successful, the now-loser tries to buy it back.

Maneuvers definitely count, and as such, this thing does not ever happen. But the threat of opponent buying the initiative is very real. I'd do it almost every time the opponent strikes with too many dice. And, because of that, they never do :)

[Salamander]

Umm.. you do use 'buy initiative' when appropriate? I've found that almost nobody in my games dares to strike with all their dice in the first exchange. Why? Because it's so easy for a decent opponent to buy the initiative and take their sword arm off.

So, in the first red/red exchange, both combatants would allocate perhaps half of their dice into attack. The loser of the reflex contest tries to buy initiative. If successful, the now-loser tries to buy it back.

Maneuvers definitely count, and as such, this thing does not ever happen. But the threat of opponent buying the initiative is very real. I'd do it almost every time the opponent strikes with too many dice. And, because of that, they never do :)

Overdrive and I share similar ideas. I would go for this before I went for the Counter if he has more dice in the Combat Pool...

If you do try to steal initiative, make sure you have enough dice to beat out his toughness and then put the rest into stealing intiative. He loses the arm, he loses his sword, he loses his CP he loses the fight. This is actually a classic move in most German Fechtbuchs.

[bergh]

Swords question:

Swords doing a Cut attack(swing), does cutting damage?
and when thrusting it does puncture damage right?

I can find it in the rulebook, so if you can please give me page number.

[Brian Leybourne]

Bergh,

I don't have the book handy for a page reference, but yes, that's exactly right.

Swings with swords and the like do cutting damage (I-VII)
Thrusts with swords and the like do puncturing damage (VIII-XIV)
Swings with blunt qeapons do bashing damage (I-VII)
Thrusts with blunt weapons do bashing damage also (VIII-XIV)

Brian.

[Turin]

There are situations that occur where your "best strike" (ATN, damage, etc.) may not be the best strike in a given situation.  I have sparred in hand-to-hand combat using martial arts, but rarely with weapons.  

But I think one thing would be similar - depending on the angle available for attack, or if you or your opponent are in an awkaward position or off-balance, or sometimes just through the exchange of blows or movement an opportunity for a good strike presents itself.

And this may be a thrust or swinging strike to the foot, head or wherever - it is just the most opportune strike that the opponent is least likely to defend.

I wonder if there is a good mechanic to allow this to happen in TROS - where you cannot just choose your power munchkin strike all the time that allows the best ATN and damage.

[Brian Leybourne]

I wonder if there is a good mechanic to allow this to happen in TROS - where you cannot just choose your power munchkin strike all the time that allows the best ATN and damage.

There is, it's called roleplaying :-)

I've had both sides of the coin - players who just pick the best possible attack every time, and those who try to be realistic about what moves follow what moves and available locations following certain moves etc.

The second group get bonuses to encourage that kind of stuff. The first dont.

Brian.

[bergh]

Hi

I think the best house rule and most easy to remeber is that if a character does the same attack at the same location twice in a row, the opponent gets a better diff. on his defence rolle.

So i a character whats all the time to attack the head of his enemys, then he must change from swing,thrust,swing.....and so on.

And if he can only swing, then he must change zones all the time.

easy and realistic.

[Ben Lehman]

Yet in a game where you have the luxury to crunch numbers there seems to be little reason to every thrust in the game with an Arming Sword. 1 lower ATN and 1 lower damage to boot (which seems overkill to me...the 1 lower ATN is already pretty much guarenteeing lower damage anyway).

BL>

1) Counters
2) Feints
3) Open-Faced Helms

In my experience, which albeit is limited, once distance is closed in a sword-fight, a lot of the fight becomes a matter of counters -- i.e. taking what you can get.  TRoS models this admirably.  And, of course, thrusts are much better at specific targetting.

Of course, I (houserule) give a 1 dice range bonus to thrusts if the player wants it, because they are slightly longer reach than cuts.  My fencing background is at work here, most likely.

yrs--
--Ben

[lokdu]

Sometime you know you will never hurt this damned full chain or plate armor warrior if you cut with your 1 hand sword (bing bing bing grrrrrrr ). So thrust to the face or perhaps to the hand is your friend .Hummmm if he have a full helm and gloves too it's time to run because you need this big claymore you forgotten .

[Tash]

The only thing you could do there is full evade over and over, hope he tires, then try half swording.