Question on Supi wound penalty

[Tobias]

Ran a test-fight between 2 experienced soldiers (back of the book) to test it out.

Scripting started off 'random' (6 different maneuvers, d6 for which they scripted, d6 for which volley they had their second action), which makes for wacky combat, but pits odd maneuvers against each other and really gets me a feel for what works and doesn't.

To mix things up a bit, I decided to tweak one experienced soldier into a spear-fighter instead of and axe-wielder, everything else was left the same.

The spear-carrier took a Sup to the head in the first exchange - over the long run the +1 ob would hinder him (although he got in some nice shots on the axe-guy, stopped by the armor, though).

2 questions:

1. Isn't +1 ob (Supi) a worse penalty than -1D (Light)? (Don't have to make a Steel check for the Supi, though).

2. In one volley, A was performing a Beat&Bind against S, who was Avoiding. So S rolls his Avoid, and is penalized by +1 Ob for Withdrawing, +1 Ob for the wound. Needs at least 3 successes to start adding Ob to his opponent.

I was wondering about the Ob penalties on his Natural defense against the B&B though - does he get the withdrawing & wound penalties again, there? In other words, he'd be penalized twice.

Anyway, it was a good fight, with many blows bouncing off the armor. Which is why Axe-guy got smart at some point, and I got away from rolling randomly for him, and scripted 'Set Beak Strike, Beak Strike'.

Which he rolled 4 successes on, Mark Hit to the Head with VA of 3 vs Leather armor - Severe wound time.

I now understand why knights with swords would be like a Boffer Larp. Give one of them a beaked axe, though.....

Oh, and another question - what would the stats of a military pick be?

[Angaros]

Mathematically +1Ob is worse than -1D. But losing a die means so much more. Less actions, test for steel, closer to knockout for example. And those disadvantages mean so much more than the difference in chance of success.

[Tobias]

True enough!

Here's another one. Ex1,Volley1.

I script Avoid

He scripts Set (unwieldy), Strike

My avoid is completely useless, right? No +1 ob on his Strike due to the fact there's an avoid in my volley? (that's only for missile, right?)

I'm finding that a spear with a beak at the end's a nasty weapon. :)

Oh, and another one for when the experts are back from Origins:

Say I've got an Axe, and am outside range against the opponent's spear (who is in optimal).

Can I script Beat&Bind or Disarm with my close? (on the reasoning I'm attacking the weapon, which IS in range) I've seen abzu do it in an Arena fight (but he added a +1 ob as if it were a lunge) - it seems an interesting way of closing on the spearman other than avoiding on the way in.

[Kublai]

Another thing to remember about Supies is that they don't take away a potential 6, which can be opened up with Artha.

I would totally allow a beat and bind while closing... AND I wouldn't dare add any Ob penalty. While the attacker may be out of range, that spear tip is damn right in your face!