Magic Realm Combat: Round 3

On to combat round three between the Black Knight and the Heavy Trolls.

In round two, the Black Knight undercut and killed Troll 1.  The Black Knight has been lucky so far, suffering only a couple of rounds of fatigue.

In combat round three, the Black Knight is going to do something a little different.  He is going to alert his mace so that he gets another quick attack.

As you can see, the Black Knight's "Fight M3**" chit is in the "Used this Round" box, on the right side of the combat sheet.  Because this Fight chit has a speed of 3, the Black Knight can use it to alert his weapon (since the speed of 3 is faster than the Troll's speed of 4).  The Fight M3** chit is placed in the "Used this Round" box, and is unavailable for any other activity this combat round.

However, playing that chit allows the Black Knight to play his mace in its alerted state with a speed of 3, meaning he cannot miss, since the Troll has a slower move speed of 4.

Once again, the Troll is placed in the top-most pink "Charge and Thrust" opponents box, and coincidentally the combat resolution roll of 2 results in the Troll moving to the bottom-most "Duck and Smash" box.  It matters not that the Black Knight's thrust attack does not line up with the Heavy Trolls duck maneuver, because the Black Knight's Heavy Fight chit, and the mace's speed of 3, combine to finish him off anyways.

You will note that the Black Knight played both a H6 Move chit and H6 Fight chit during this round of combat.  A character can only use a maximum of two effort stars per combat round.  Since the Black Knight's Fight M3** chit was played to alert his mace, he was unable to muster additional effort in his fight or move actions.  At the end of the third combat round, the Black Knight must set aside a third chit, representing the fatigue suffered in readying his mace for the killing blow on Troll 2.

The Black Knight was lucky.  He suffered three fatigue in dispatching the two Heavy Trolls.  The Black Knight can usually dispatch the Heavy Trolls if he attacks from hiding, however, he was caught flat-footed and in the open during this encounter, a position that would normally see him suffer at least one wound, and sometimes the loss of his shield or armor.