Combat Values

Before the real fight - a math lesson with a weapon's CV.

(In my opinion this is an optional rule, but the rule book sees things different, but do not worry, this rule is not complicated, it is only capable of keeping suspense before a fight exceptionally high, too high ! - Translator)

Before the real fight may begin, you have to take a short time to calculate the comparison value for your weapon (nice word isn't it ? The german equivalent is about the same...), abbreviated CV. This value will give you a relative value how well your weapon is employable in AT and PA.

It is noted as AT/PA, that is the value before the slash is a relative value for attack and so the value after the slash has to be the value for parade. The higher any of these values the better for you!

When two fighters approach each other, they are in similar unsecure position as their players, because the players have to crosscheck their CVs right now. You subtract the one PA from the other AT and the other way round, i.e. the other PA from the on AT. So you got two differences, that are now eligible to be substracted from the player with the worse CV, but take a look at our examples:

Example 1: Alrik uses a sword (CV:7/7), Mara carries just a dagger (CV:2/1). Now crosscheck the AT of the sword (7) with the PA of the dagger (1) resulting in a difference of the value 6. This number will now be substracted from Mara's PA-value, since she had the worse value. Now crosscheck the PA from Alrik's sword with the AT of Mara's dagger. Again, Mara has the worse value and this results in her subtracting 5 (7 minus 2) from her AT-value. So Mara looses 5 points on her AT and 6 points on her PA-value, Alrik looses nothing.

Suppose Alrik would have AT:12 and PA:11 for swords, then Alrik would still fight with those values 12/11. If Mara, however, had AT:13 and PA:12 for knifes and daggers, her new values would now be AT:8 (13-5) and PA:6 (12-6), or shortcut 12/6, for this unequal fight.

Example 2: Swanja (AT/PA:13/9 in Axes and hatchets) carries a barbar's battle-axe (CV:10/2) and Tiro (AT/PA:12/12 in Thrust weapons) carries a rapier (CV:7/6). The crosscheck would give the differences 4 (AT:10 of the axe minus PA:6 of the rapier) and 5 (AT:7 of the rapier minus PA:2 of the axe). So, in this case, Swanja looses 5 points on her PA and Tiro looses 4 on his PA, i.e. Swanja is fighting with AT/PA:13/4 and Tiro with AT/PA:12/8.

So, as you can see, not complicated, but delicate...

Dodge

As you might notice in the way it is written, this chapter is usually not part of rule book 2, but since it is easy to understand, you might well be interested. In accordance with the full rules you will have the possibility to avoid a strike in any given battle scenario. This avoidance (AV) needs a value, and this is determined similar to the long-range basic value. It is the result of: AV=CO+IN+AG/4. And again you just take the integer, not some rounding procedures to get you value.

Attack (AT) and Parry (PA)

The following is the same thing that you already know from the standard rules, so this will only be an overview.

The offender starts off the fight with an attack. That is, he thrusts or stabs his weapon into the direction of the defender. The success depends on a test he has to undertake, i.e. she rolls a D20 and the result has to be equal to her AT-value or less. Now there are two chances for a defender, if the offender succeeds (if he does not, they swap around and the defender becomes offender and the other way round): she may raise her shield or weapon against the offender's weapon, this is called parade (PA) or she may avoid (AV) the strike by making way. The parade or the avoidance roll is the same as the AT-roll, only she has to roll equal or less than PA or AV to succeed.

If the attack is successive, but the parade or avoidance is not, than the overall attack succeeds, i.e. the defender is hit and you have to calculate the damage done. This is the task of the following passage. Now, only to remind you again, after the strike is over, the right to attack swaps, i.e. the defender will be offender and the other way around, no matter, if there was a hit or not. And this procedure repeats itself after each strike.

Hit Points (HP) and Damage

Each time, a defender is hit, because she could not avoid the strike or parade it, this will be quite harmful for the defender: she will suffer from wounds of variable size and this could reduce her skill in fighting.

Whenever the attacker hits, she has to determine what her weapon can arrange as damage. Most of the times this is a roll of a D6 with a number added according to her weapon. For example, the effect of a sword (HP: 1D+4) will be 5 to 10 hit points. From this amount of hit points you still have to subtract the defender's armour resulting not in the hit points any more, but in the damage points. The damage points are now subtracted from the life energy of the defender, before the battle rages on.

Elgor (AT: 13, PA:11) carries out a heavy strike by his sword (HP:1D+4), (i.e. the player of Elgor rolls a 3 on a D20) against Beorn (AT:12, PA:12), who can just parade (i.e. 12 on a D20). As a counter manoeuvre, Beorn, however, manages to break his enemy's defence (Beorn rolls 9, Elgor 14). Beorn carries a battle club (HP:1D+4) and its effect will be 1D+4 hit points. Since he throws 6 on the D6, this will 6+4=10 hit points. Elgor wears leather armour (armour points 3, see next page), so he looses 10-3=3 damage points of his life energy and his new life energy will now be 7 points lower, which is quite a lot.