Combat Overview Revised

• Attack
• Defence
• Damage
• Armour
• Melee Weapons
• Missile Weapons
• Real World Data

Attack skill

You roll to strike an opponent and then if you hit you roll to see how much damage has been caused. Damage is absorbed by protective armour. any damage that gets through armour causes bruising or cuts depending upon the weapon type.

Your attack skill is the skill in the weapon. Each weapon has two (2) attributes associated with it, strength and dexterity, weapons need dexterity to accurately place blows and strength to wield effectively.

Some melee weapons are easier to manipulate than others, this is considered in their speed. The ranged weapon equivalent is accuracy, Some are simply better than others.

Round down at the end of all calculations.

Melee weapon

To hit skill = Weapon Skill + STR x modifier + DEX x modifier + weapon bonus + size

e.g.

Arming sword is cut and thrust weapon so has a multiplier of 0.5 x Strength and 0.5 x Dexterity

Ranged weapon

To hit skill = Weapon Skill + DEX + weapon accuracy.

Damage changes level at different ranges, the further away the lower the damage (the weapon has slowed).

Defence

The base armour is the armour covering your torso.

Dodge save = Base armour + dodge + DEX >= 20

Parry ( Attack is the best defence)

Your Defence = Base armour + weapon skill + Alert + Shield + size + 1/2(STR + DEX + weapon bonus )

Dodging instead of parrying

Your Dodge = Base armour + Dodge skill + Alert + Shield + size + DEX

Not attacking

Whichever defence used method you gain +2

Ranged defence

12 +size + shield (ranged)

One or two hands

Weapons which may be used with more than 1 hand gain damage and when used with 1½ or 2 hands. This bonus applies to all weapons hands even if they must be used with 2 hands. If they may be used with either 1 or more hands they are faster with more hands so also get a bonus to hit.

If a weapon can only be used with 2 hands it does not get the "To hit" bonus as it is already calculated in.

Damage

The maximum and average damage from a weapon rises as your ability increases.

Missile weapons do not increase in damage as you get more skillful

The damage is

1. Roll all the dice indicated
2. Pick the die with the highest value as the damage
3. If two different die sets are indicated (e.g. 2d12 + 2d4), then pick the highest from each set and add them together.
4. Add strength bonus

e.g.

An arming sword used at skill level 3 does 2d8 damage

A hero point causes either :

1. Double damage
2. Automatic hit (unless aiming for a specific location).
3. +10 to hit

Weapons with multiple attack styles

Some weapons such as the battle-axe may use either the piercing or the slashing side of the weapon. There is no penalty for choosing either one.

Criticals

Double damage

Fumble

Critial event, benefit the opponent

Weapon Fighting Styles

There are three types of weapon

• Cutting (e.g. swords)
• Chop / Bludgeon (e.g. maces, hammers, clubs / axes, some heavy swords)
• Thrust / pierce (e.g. spears, daggers / arrows)

  Cut = drawing a sharp edge across the body

  Chop = Heavy blade normally with a curved edge to focus the force on a small area

Bludgeon = Lump of metal/wood... Spreads the impact more than chop but less likely to slip with a glancing blow against angled armour (plate...) +3 to hit.

Thrust = Pointy but with continued force applied (includes rear facing pointy bits on pollaxes... )

Pierce = Pointy and a missile

If a weapon has more than one mode you may use either mode at will.

Different weapons are differently effective against an armour type, for example mail will stop completely a normal sword blow from cutting you, however in doing so some of the cutting damage is converted to blunt trauma as the impact jellifies your internal organs. A hard shell however such as boiled leather is better against blunt weapons as the force is spread out more, however a cutting weapon will go straight through it.

Although the bigger heavier blunt weapons do more damage they are more difficult to wield and tend to have attack penalties.

Armour

Damage penetration factor

† Armour (other than light leather) that covers the lower arms makes manipulating a weapon more difficult which causes a -1 to hit.

‡ Minimum strength is adjusted by your size bonus ( melee attack ).

¿ Plate armour, metal breast plates and monsters with hard shells / armoured scales are harder to hit as the armour is designed to deflect non-perfect strikes causing them to skid off with little effect as well as absorb any impact from good blows. Bludgeon weapons gain +3 to hit these armour types as they are specifically designed to defeat them. (This does not count if aiming for a particular location such as the head).

Hard armour (Boiled / Plate) provides +1 protection against magical fire / cold / acid, the other types catch fire or soak up the acid.

Always ignore damage before taking any when wearing armour, this reflects the better base absorbtion of thicker armour.

Thus plate against a sword only takes a fifth of the damage so the character only suffers the fifth point taken

e.g.

• A sword does 4 points - The character suffers 0 points
• A sword does 5 points - The character only suffers 1 point
• A sword does 11 points - The character only suffers 2 point

However against a club it only absorb half the damage so :

• A club does 5 points - The character suffers 2 points
• A club does 11 points - The character suffers 5 point

Armour location

With missile fire you may combine adjacent areas to make a larger target. This reduces the penalty by +1 per additional 20% of the body available as a target.

Note : Most non-naturally armoured monsters do not cover their lower arms / shins as this restricts their movement.

Helms

Creatures with helms that are struck and suffer damage must make an endurance save with a difficulty = damage suffered or be stunned until the end of the next round.

Magical damage

Damage from magic is not absorbed from armour unless the damage is of a specific type (e.g. bludgeon

Weapons

All weapons need dexterity / agility to make an effective strike, heavier and slashing weapons also benefit from a high strength. The weapon skill is thus based on two attributes (and the armour class adjusted accordingly).

† Minimum strength is adjusted by your melee attack size bonus.

¿ The width needed includes 3' for a normal human, this should be adjusted for smaller or larger creatures. It is the width required to use the weapon without too much hindrance or where you are fighting next to someone so there is some shared space. Less space incurs a -2 penalty for each foot.

§ Minimum dexterity of +2

† Riding check (9) required each round of combat or no attack.

¥ Touch is at +2 if touching armour is sufficient.

£ Pollaxes come in 3 varieties, with 2 out of three types of head on opposite sides selected from a hammer, a spike and a blade.

‡ The quarterstaff uses the 2nd hand more for speed and manoeuvrability rather than power therefore the bonus for the 2nd hand is reduced. included into the damage. Where there is 10'+ of open space it may be whirled with both hands at one end for an additional d6+½Str damage; however this will open up your defences and reduce you defence by 4.

The weapon bonus is a combination of its speed and length (each 6" > 2' blade = +1 to hit)

After all deductions for armour, saving throws etc 1 /10 of all damage in a single blow (rounded down) is taken as wound points instead of stamina points.

Missile weapons

Unlike melee weapons missile weapons do not increase in damage with higher levels as once the missile has left your hand you cannot make the adjustments necessary to counteract the opponents movements. Strength bonus still count towards extra damage (except crossbows) as that means you have thrown it harder and faster or used a larger weapon.

¿ Shortbows do not get any strength modifiers

† Flasks and other thrown objects come under the thrown skill, however the range and other statistics is different due to the weight of the object.

‡ Hurls grenade like objects. Due to the high arcs required it has a minimum range of 30 yards. 30 yards - 40 yards is counted as short range, there is no point blank range.

Real world data

Tests versus maille

Cutting test with the Poleaxe: The poleaxe failed to fully penetrate the maille, although believe me when I say whoever was under that maille would have been thoroughly dead. The poleaxe is a devastating weapon.

Thrusting test with poleaxe: the poleaxe’s top spike devastated the maille. It easily broke through and penetrated the gambeson underneath, burying itself in the 4x4 post at the heart of the pell.

Other

Too many people out there training at slow speeds or cutting and thrusting on fixed targets do not realize just how hard it is to land THAT perfect blow. Leather armor was very effective for it's intended purpose, protecting a person from incidental cuts and the less than perfect blows that are most of the blows happening in a melee. No armor will protect a person from that right-on, 90-degree perfect blow, if that happens your life will immediately begin to suck.

An un-split hide, say shoulder area, might be 5/8"+ thick. Properly treated it can be fairly supple. If you want to see how tough it is to cut, wrap a hunk of hide around a cardboard tube or a rolled mat and hang it from a tree limb, then set it to swinging and try cutting it.

Bob Charon has a quote that describes the perfect gambeson as being 24-30 layers of linen covered over with an elk hide 1/2" thick.

There's a reason we use leather aprons in metal shops . Very,very cut resistant

Mary Rose draw weight 140-160lb

What I have gathered from reading here is first that swords simply cannot cut maille, and definitely cannot cut plate. Second, that while pointed swords can stab through maille, they cannot pierce plate. Third, that regular shortbow arrows have trouble penetrating maille, and can definitely not penetrate plate. Fourth, that longbow or composite bow bodkin arrows penetrate maille easily at close range, and cannot penetrate steel plate enough to damage the wearer, but can sometimes penetrate munitions plate.

There has been tests of axe vs mail, and the conclusions are pretty mutch the same as for swords; While totaly devastating to unarmoured flesh, a broadaxe bounces of mail and padding, maybe destroying or damaging a few links.

And on maille vs cloth, you certainly can get equal protection as mail using layered linen, but at the cost of movability and comfort since you will look like the michelin man. Linen is also a very good moisture absorber and insulator so it will be hot and soak up all yout sweat from the inside making it heavier and heavier as you go. Not to mention that small cuts and wear will have it deteriorate faster than a maille hauberk. But nonetheless, cloth armour was used,

Well even with the "Dane axe" being lighter and faster than th earlier style the weight would still be placed on the extreme end makeing the impact several times greater than what a sword could achieve. The effects would obviously be devestating to an un armoured opponent but would also severly wound a mailled opponent do to concusive force

Axes can cut. Axes can thrust. Axes can be used for grappling, much like a longsword. Axes can hook. Axes can hit behind a shield. Axes produce more powerful blows than swords. Well, it is generally speaking, there are very different axes, so some cannot thrust and some cannot hook.

Axes are better than maces against unarmored/lightly armored opponents because they are sharp and therefore can slice and thrust which does not require large swings. Maces also cannot hook.

Axes are cheaper than swords (because one can make a useful axe even of copper, not to mention harder iron and steel). Also every blacksmith was able to make axes, but very few were able to make swords. Axes are better for attack (give more powerful blows, I remember my surprise when small blunt reenactment axe which weighed ONLY 1 pound cut much deeper into a corner of a tree stump than a 3-pound sword). well, axes are, obviously, worse for defense (handle is a vulnerable part and balance is not the best one for fencing).

Axes are worse than hammers against heavily armored opponents. That is why in 14th century and later war axes often also had hammer heads and/or spikes.

2) Axes vs armor.

It is very difficult to penetrate both mail and jacks with a simple cut. But if one cuts with a point (where point slides across the armor) both axes and swords can break chain mail links and shred jacks. I experimented with cutting stuffed gambeson and found that such point cut was devastating while ordinary edge cut was totally useless and cut-slice was only marginally useful. Well, everything depends on sharpness and geometry of the point and quality/thickness of armor of course. But it is much easier co cause a blunt trauma with an axe than with a sword. I've been fighting with blunt steel weapons for several years and I barely feel most hits with swords. I wear chain mail over (relatively but not overly) thick stuffed gambeson as my body armor with more rigid limb protection. Even hits to my shoulders are not painful at all, though I do not use spaulders. But I am afraid of axes. I have seen helmets made of 14 ga mild steel being penetrated by blunt reenactment axes (with no injuries as penetration was not very deep, but I still consider it too dangerous. In our club we fight with full force only with single-handed swords as our armor does not offer satisfactory protection against axes, maces and 2-handed weapons).

3) Chain mail vs jacks.

Jacks were probably cheaper. But they tend to get really heavy when it rains. Jacks offer good protection against cuts and reasonable protection against thrusts. Chain mail is almost immune to cuts and offers reasonable to good protection against thrusts. However there is one big difference. Jacks protect well against round and rectangular bodkins, especially shorter ones, as well as other weapons with rectangular or nearly rectangular points such as some swords and daggers. However jacks offer far less protection against narrow broadheds (funny phrase, isn't it? Big Grin ) and other weapons with relatively narrow flat points with really sharp edges. I didn't do any experiments with triangular bodkins but I think that they will also easily penetrate jacks when properly sharpened. Chain mail offers better protection against such points. Oh, but jacks offer much better protection against blunt trauma.

Well, everything was written about some approximate generic axe, sword, jack, etc. In order to discuss the problem in more details one should exactly define which weapons and armor are to be compared.

Arrows - Broadheads better against padded than bodkins !