Peter's Warrior Guide
This guide is for all those Knights out there. Its purpose is to help promote different fighting styles and thus varied interaction and activity during combat. It was inspired by GoK's Warrior Guide and Kit's Warrior Guide.
Classification
- You are an Knight if you are wearing full plate but not relying on it for your survival, using skill and abilities rather than brute strength with your weapons and retaining the ability to move fluidly through a combat.
- Key Atributes
- 5+ TMR in Plate Mail
- A reasonable defence and Initiative
- Large Shield
- Good Sword
- Strengths
- Reasonable Defence, Good Initiative, High Skill
- Determination, Bravery, Honour
- Tactical Awareness, mobility
- Weaknesses
- Less Defence than an Agility Fighter
- Less Damage than a Tank Fighter
- Less Magic than a Mage
- Tactics
- Timing is everything.
- Be solid an reliable
- Take only the blows you have to
- Maximise your mobility
- Defend your party.
- Key Rules
- Withdrawing
- Flee
- Shield Charge
Strategy
The Knight is a combination of Agility Fighter and Tank. Armoured enough to take the blows but agile enough to manouver round the battlefield and enough Willpower to avoid being stunned for long.
- Be aware of the battlefield. A knight will often be the only fighter able to get out of a melee and have enough TMR to go to someones aid.
- Be aware of all your action possibilities. The entire battle is filled with possible targets and it may not be worth spending the time to finish the one you are facing.
- Protect the weak. Mages and Agility fighters can be taken down quickly if not protected. But the team is important and you should be prepared to take a few blows to ensure the whole team remains functional.
Armour
Wear as much armour as you can and still have at least 4+ TMR. If you cannot do this in plate consider becoming a Tank Fighter or Fighter/Mage.
Defence
While armour is your main defence you still need to maximise your defence to reduce the number of Endurance hits you take. All the armour in the world won't help if you are too slow to get your eye out of the way. Use the largest shield you can and still use a large sword.
A shield also allows you to Shield-Charge or Shield-Rush opponents allowing you to damage the opposition as part of your movement. Given that the most effective tactic of a knight in combat is mobility this is a powerful attack in the hands of a skilled knight.
Close Combat
This is not a combat style that works to your strengths so avoid it if possible. In case it does happen ensure both Dagger and Unarmed are ranked highly and try to leave as soon as is reasonable
Missiles
Most missiles will be unable to penetrate your Armour but ensure your defence remains high to avoid the arrows sticking in. If they do remove them as soon as possible. Agility is your friend.
Rules
Players of Knights need to know the basic rules well, especially all the movement options. Their actions may be complex and and in many cases the timing of when things happen is important. If you are unsure, look up the special rules for your action the pulse before.
Flee
Fleeing is not quite what it sounds, while you may be turning your back to an opponent and leaving at speed it does not mean you are not running into another fight. This manouver allows for maximum TMR while leaving a melee, but does allow opponents to go first so good armour or high defence is a must in order to survive it.
Flee is an often misplayed rule so you should always check your GM is aware of the rule before using it.
The rule reads;
- "An engaged figure who does not have an opponent in their Melee Zone may Flee. This allows them the same options as an unengaged Move. Any opponent able to Melee attack the figure automatically receives Initiative."
The important part of this is 'opponent able to Melee'. There are no free hits, no extra actions, however you do lose inititive so you may be hit as part of an opponents action even if you are faster then they are. If you are slower there is no difference.
The next important part is the lack of opponents in your Melee zone. This one is something you need to be constantly aware of to ensure you can get out of combat when required. Often you will need to turn around remembering that a 180 degree turn uses up 1 TMR.
Assuming you can turn however the rest of your movement is your own.
If partially surrounded you may need to do defensive/offensive withdrawls in order to position yourself to flee.
Withdraw
If you are a Knight there should be very few opportunities to use this manouvre. The only times to consider these are
- There is no facing available to gain you all three front hexes free of opponents.
- You need to move a single hex in order to acheive your goals.
Any other circumstance you either need to stay fighting or fleeing is going to be a better option. Simply because you have only a single hex of movement (more with High agility but you should be wearing plate mail) which means it takes two actions to move a reasonable distance around the battlefield rather than one.
Shield Rush/Shield Charge
Combined with the Flee action these are a potent weapon in the knights arsenal as with two actions the knight should be able to move from one side of the battle to another.
The difference
- Shield charge - This is where the Knight charges (at least 2 hexes of movement) and at the end of the movement may attack the opponent with +20 added to their strike chance.
- Shield Rush - The knight must move at least one hex and make an attack (no additional modifiers). If the attack is successful the opponent must make a 3xAG check or fall prone.
Some GM's allow these actions to be combined as a possible interpretation of the current rules
Both have their place on the field of battle and the Knight should use both judiciously.
