Basically, once a Urist McSwordsdwarf becomes Urist McSwordmaster (or any of the elite weapons skills that are natural to dwarves), he would be eligible for a military-version strange mood. He would then go to a barracks and begin performing his mood. When he is done, he will have created a new unique combat technique/special move.
This would also be able to tie in the planned development features of combat styles, stances, tactics, techniques, special moves, etc.
Techniques (special moves) would be perfected by a military dwarf with a strange mood. Once perfected, he has the ability to teach his fellow comrades the technique, should they meet the criteria. These Techniques could also be made in world gen, by great warriors and historical figures, etc.
I figured the best way to explain the way they would work, would be similar to an engraving or a piece of dwarven art. Hell, combat is the Dwarfiest art, right?
A sample of a technique could be this :
Erlindastot, "The High Sword"
This is a sword technique of legendary skill. It is a counter-attack used against armed foes. The technique consists of a parry, followed by a wild slash to the head. It was perfected by Urist McSwordsLegend at Boatmurdered in 1050.Basically, it would have a weapon requirement, and a skill requirement in that weapon skill. Some techniques would be harder to perform than others. It would then have a technique type, be it Counter Attack, Feint, Disarm, Disorient, or Execution, or whatever Toady wanted to add.
After that, it would have a target. So far I can only see combat techniques working on enemies that a dwarf would have previously killed. Armed Foes could be a replacement for any weapon wielding humanoid, be it elf, human, goblin or other. This could also be interchanged with particular races, but I think most techniques that work on an elf work on a goblin as well.
The main part of the technique is the series of combat moves it uses. In adventure mode, you can do a technique in succession (i.e., parry on turn 1, then head->wild slash on turn 2), but the upside of mastering a technique is that both moves can happen simultaneously. That legendary swordsdwarf is so good, he just parried and chopped your head off before you could react.
It obviously would need balancing, either techniques could only be mooded by the most skilled of dwarfs (maybe Urist McAxelord with 37 goblin kills?), or add another parameter, like "is most effective when <foe> attacks <bodypart>, the only problem being that eventually we'll get that story of "Urist McAxelord perfected Alakalak, the Abbey of Abbeys, a legendary axe skill. It is a counterattack for Elephants. It is most effective when an Elephant bites at the right eye. It is a dodge followed by a quick slap to the third toe, left foot."
I think that it would be an interesting mechanic to add to the game, and would give those legendary dwarves in the military some sort of aspiration beyond just being good. Any thoughts?