hmm.... what I meant was not quite a form of defensive combat, but actual, cowardly and honorless running away.
Bobby D:
your system sounds interesting, but from what i can tell its going to take a hell of a long time to play out a battle.... is there some way around this? maybe set certain parameters and automate some of it? (me personally, i like it, but if you plan on selling this one you have to make it more simple).
Ok, here are a few of my ideas (random) on defense:
"Never parry without attacking, never attack without anticipating to parry" - from something like <Über die Fechtkunst> 14th century
I do some fencing myself, and basically thats the way it goes. If you attack first, you have the advantage of being the one who sets the course of the next moves, you may also have the element of surprise. You can force your opponent into performing certain actions, which gives you an advantage in terms of predictability.
If you wait for the enemy to attack, you have the possibility of seeing his intended move, and acting before he strikes (there is no better time to attack than when the enemy advances). If you do not strike first, you parry, and thereby have your enemy in a predictable position which enables you to carry out the next attack.
So, who wins? Usually the one who is able to predict the opponents movements better (high skill), or simply the faster, more flexible one, who can use a mistake of the opponent to his own advantage.
I think if you seriously think about doing a "proper" combat system, you ought to try the weapons yourself. Get a few wooden models (swords, sticks, whatever), try to get the weight right (a bastard sword weighs about 2.5 kg), wrap some coushioning material around and try a few moves. If you go about it in a systematic way, you´ll soon have all the key moves there are to swordplay (low, mid, high, overhead attack, left/right, high, low overhead parry).
Or check out the HCA (historical combat association), for inspiriations on weapons check www.kkart.cz (my favourite arms manufacturer
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Shields are a bit problematic, because (speaking of the medieval ones) they were originally designed against projectiles or lances. A tower shield is much to big to be effective in close combat.
What they used instead were bucklers, like a shield, worn with the off-hand (strapped around the hand or wrist so you could still grab something with that hand), about 30cm diameter max. It´s primary use was to protect the hands when parrying with a one-and-a-half handed, or two-handed sword. the actual parrying was always done with the sword.
And, when fighting with swords, there is usually only one kind of defensive move, namely that which stops the enemy sword from making contact with your body (usually there´s only one way).
Actually, when heavy armor became popular (and larger shields), the two opponents would bash at each other (each others shields) until one of the shields gave out, or one of the opponents dropped from exhaustion (ever wear a 40kgs plate armor on a nice, warm june afternoon?). As soon as one was down, the other would stab him (cause you can´t slash or hack through a chainmail armor). Or just leave him there to die of exposure (once a knight was off his horse, the show was pretty much over anyway, cause he couldn´t get up. the heat would finish him off pretty soon anyway).
ever think about going less medieval and more renaissance? Cloak and rapier come to mind.... the cloak was actually used for parrying, entangling the enemies blade, distraction or entangling the enemy as a whole (throw the cloak over him, if he cant get out of the way stab him repeatedly until dead). With rapiers there would be a lot of fun combat possibilites... slashing, stabbing... for details on moves and so on just check out a fencing handbook.
And when you´re not hindered by armor, you can also evade. Otherwise you´re forced to parry (which has its advantages, as you stay within striking distance of the enemy).
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