The night troll encounters:
Each asterisk on the map could be up to 3 night trolls. Perhaps others have seen more per asterisk? The most any character of mine has seen represented by 1 asterisk is 3.
At dawn, Kamuk chooses the first asterisk to the east. He approaches from 2 world map tiles away moving southeast. He's armed with iron spear and tower-cap shield. He has ambusher on, and is on the ground to reduce his profile. He comes across what appear to be 2-3 night trolls.
Further inspection seems to indicate some dispute as one of them lies dead.
Kamuk moves northeastward and then stands up. He moves another tile and this is enough to cause one of them to break off. The first is a starved man consort recruit. All base level skills for night trolls are level 6.
The starved man consort recruit is a converted spouse, which has always seemed a bit weaker than a true night troll. Despite fighting from
a 1 level deficit for shield user skill, and a 3 level deficit for dodger skill versus the night troll's lvl 6 bite/strike/wrestler skill, Kamuk goes with
Zágod Rifot (Grip Block) in this fight.
Just some brief accounting of the ticks for the beginning of the fight. Kamuk's combat preferences are set to strike(for auto-weapon-dislodge)/stand ground/stand ground. This way everything is controlled as there won't be any random dodging to random tiles. Both starved man consort recruit and Kamuk are at neutral. Kamuk's first move is to grab attack (4 ticks). The possible outcomes are: (1) the grab lands and the starved man consort recruit begins/completes an attack; or (2) the grab misses, the starved man consort recruit dodges away. If Kamuk misses the grab, we restart the process. But he doesn't. Kamuk grabs the head, the starved man consort recruit begins a kick.
Kamuk opts to manually block the kick which brings the starved man consort recruit into recovery. With the grab to the head latched on, the starved man consort recruit cannot dodge any attacks. Next Kamuk uses an iron spear quick attack (4 ticks) to the foot. The possible outcomes: (1) spear hit/miss, followed by the starved man consort recruit's counterattack triggering a successful shield block or a hit; (2) spear hit/miss, followed by failed grip break attempt. What's likely is the starved man consort recruit will get hit and will have her attack blocked/make a failed grip break. A level 5 shield has a fairly low incident of failure against a level 6 attack.
So the foundation is laid with the starved man consort recruit on the ground. All Kamuk's attacks now have double the momentum. The quick attack now has the same damage as a standard attack.
The remainder of the combat just flows its natural flow. Kamuk will take what is offered target-wise, rather than any specific targeting/goal. It plays out best when this is followed. Kamuk adds on 3 additional grabs, 4 being the maximum a standing dwarf can make. He checks the menu for any attack of opportunity (indicated by cyan !) as those are all mostly 100% hits, any good hit (marked by a dark green +), or without those being offered, he'll just pass one instant to trigger any type of starved man consort recruit attack just to shield block. Any attack Kamuk will make will be a 4 tick quick attack whether that's a strike, a spear stab, etc.
This is what will transpire until the starved man consort recruit is killed in order to train up dodger skill, shield user skill, armor, fighter, and the attack skill sets. Unfortunately for Kamuk, after only 4 exchanges, there are a series of opportunity (indicated by cyan !) headshots. The first is a punch which is welcome since it does only light/moderate damage. The second is a spear stab which will be a killshot. I opt to work it organically instead of artificially and so the fight ends.
The next night troll is the starved man wrestler and the same process is followed.
EDIT: After pulling that 2nd night troll away, Kamuk found 3 other night trolls which all came on at the same time. That became an extended kite game of the multi-attack combo (quick attack + dodge away) until the last where he reverted to Zágod Rifot (Grip Block).
Kamuk will take a break at the local fortress Vaultreleased. He'll pick up a nice mace here.