The Riddle of Steel: why not using all dices to attack ?

[Lacco]

Sorry for the delay, I was quite busy in the last days.
But I also recovered Flower of Battle, so something good has happened.

No problem, been busy too.

And will have to keep my answers short this time

Let's see: with a DTN of 7 on the parry, the peasant had a 30% chance of doing 3 or more successes. With 8 dices, the fencer would have done 5+ successes in 56% of the cases. So around 13% chance for the fencer to fail.
Which is better than the previous case, but it relies on the opponent using a sub-optimal tactic.

Interestingly, sub-optimal tactics are what both players and NPCs indulge in quite often. You may see for yourself.

The main problem I have with this is that the dice pool is, in the end, an abstract mechanic.
I'm not really sure of how to represent real moves and real behaviours with it.
For example you can say the peasant doesn't know feints exists, but on the same token I could say he should go full evasion anyway, because he's agaisnt a clearly superior opponent and can't afford to not use its best defensive option.

Consider this:
REFlex represents your ability to react quickly - basically, to act in combat as fast as possible.

Your proficiency with the weapon represents both your skill to wield the weapon, wound your opponent with it, but also use it for defence.

Now together, they represent how much you can actually do in single moment of combat. When considering traditional white-red situation, where an attacker swings his sword and the other blocks it with shield, taking into account human speed of movement, you do not have too much time to do anything besides some footwork, a feint, thrust and return to your guard to receive opponent's blow.

With higher CP, you are able to do more and you are able to do better. You are able to hit harder, more efficiently, to catch opponent's blade or redirect his own energy for your own attack.

CP is an abstract value, but what you do with it represents combat much better than anything else I have ever seen (Burning Wheel comes second).

Like in reality, you can put all into one powerful swing - and if it connects, you will most probably crush the opponent - but if you miss, you overextend yourself and can not do anything to protect against his blow. And if his attack connects, you may be sent staggering back, holding your wounds instead of your weapon.

I checked RoS and the Toss maneuvers says "If you win each success in the margin cause him to lose..."
Stop Short says "If the attacker wins, then his opponents lose dices..."

Correct.
If you win, he loses dice, you retain initiative.
If you lose, you lose initiative.

But at that moment, the opponent can not announce an attack (so you are safe while you use it; do not use during RED-RED).

This is more a problem of terminology, I think, as nobody can agree what exactly a rapier is, what a sidesword is and so on.
Anyway, I think the Cut and Thust sword from RoS or the Sidesword from FoB are nice and balanced, and other weapons could be "skins" of those.
For example I could use the Sidesword stats for a rapier, to make a thrust oriented weapon that can still cut.

If you plan on using mainly civilian swords, you can also make modifications to ATN/DTN/DMG stats (usually a +1/-1) to create different subtypes.

The bonus to REF for thrusts sounds really interesting, but I can't find it on the handbooks. Any chance you remember from where it was? It's not in the hit location tables neither the initiative section.

It's actually my memory going wrong. The paragraph is the description of Thrust maneuver, page 64. Also FoB, page 39.

It's +1 to REF if you use thrust and opponent uses cut and you tie for initiative (so it's a tiebreaker, not a bonus).

Will have to remember this one for my next game.

Yeah, reading through FoB and there are many options that improve the game a lot. That rule for stealing initiative is really neat and does a lot against the alpha strike tactic.

Well, with all those dices I would go full attack

Who wouldn't?

...well, maybe someone who wants to toy with the BBEG.

At this point I'm mostly convinced, but why not?

No problem. Here or shall I set up a separate thread?

Also: if you plan on playing by post (as opposed to live table), there is an option to first go through the fight mechanically and to narrate it afterwards. Blow-by-blow combats are better for live tables.