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[piecewise]

for the heck of it, lets catalog our combat tricks

1.Strangling
Wrestling someone and strangling them causes instant unconsciousness (assuming they need to breathe). If you're fast you can catch, choke and strangle someone unconscious before they can get an attack off, leaving them helpless. It's a great way to deal with armored foes or overwhelming odds.

2.Power leveling fighting skill for better aimed attacks.
This is best done right away to get the full effect. Get a mission to kill a bandit and go to the camp alone (don't worry about being overwhelmed, the number of bandits that spawn is based mostly on the number of people following you). Kill all except one person and then strangle them unconscious. Set your combat preference to "close combat" and then just keep running into the enemy, stepping back and then starting again if you ever start to strangle him. This causes both the wrestle and fighter skill to level up extremely fast. You can get to legendary in a matter of minutes like this.

3.Dual wielding for more attack opportunities.
Wielding two weapons at once increases the number of attacks you can perform (swords allow for 4 different attacks each(stab,slash,slap and bash), so dual wielding two can allow for 8 ) This seems to increase the odds of random combat opportunities (the blue exclamation marks). With legendary fighter skill, superhuman agility and professional swordsman skill it's not uncommon to have 3-4 opportunities with each attack.

4.Aim for the hands.
While using a blade (ax, halberd, sword, dagger) it's a good strategy to aim for the opponent's hands, especially the one holding his weapon. I've found that even glancing blows can cause them to drop their weapon, rendering them much less dangerous.

5.Blades are better
Kind of a personal idea but in my experience blades are just plain easier to kill with. Pikes and spear are alright but hammers and maces are pretty crappy. Blades simply allow for quicker and easier disarming, more grievous, bleeding wounds and quicker movement speed (they encumber you less then blunt weapons).

6.Dealing with armored opponents
Armor is a real problem, especially if it's made of a higher quality metal then you're weapon. The easiest way around this is wrestling, either pulling the armor off or strangling the opponent unconscious and delivering a swift kick to the head. Blunt weapons seem to do more damage through armor then bladed ones, so a good punch to the head is probably a better idea then a slash. If you can't get the armor off, try aiming for unarmored bits. The hands and feet are rarely armored and damaging them can quickly undermine your opponent's ability to defend and attack.

7. Spill the guts
Spilling an opponent's guts isn't the nicest way to kill them, but it is an effective way to do it. Opponents with spilled guts will always eventually bleed out, and the act of spilling seems to increase hit chances for a few moments. One of my favorite combos is to cut off the weapon hand/arm, spill the guts and then decapitate.

8.Make them come to you.
Charging into battle is all well and good, but waiting and letting the enemy come to you is often a better idea. It forces them to come from a single side and usually lets you get the first attack in. If out numbered the best thing to do is usually to keep walking backward, separating the group and attacking with quick, blows before dodging away again. Combined with good speed and some strangling tactics you can slaughter dozens of people without much effort.

[Psieye]

4.Aim for the hands.
While using a blade (ax, halberd, sword, dagger) it's a good strategy to aim for the opponent's hands, especially the one holding his weapon. I've found that even glancing blows can cause them to drop their weapon, rendering them much less dangerous.

You can optionally try to cut off the arms if you have a good chance to lop it off entirely. Alternatively, damaging the spine can make them lose grasp too but you may as well hope to get a killing blow if you're aiming there.

Alternatively, steal their weapons and shields. With high wrestling skill (there is no reason you can't have it if you find some groundhog to train with), you can disarm opponents who would otherwise parry and block every attack with a weapon.

8.Make them come to you.
Charging into battle is all well and good, but waiting and letting the enemy come to you is often a better idea. It forces them to come from a single side and usually lets you get the first attack in. If out numbered the best thing to do is usually to keep walking backward, separating the group and attacking with quick, blows before dodging away again. Combined with good speed and some strangling tactics you can slaughter dozens of people without much effort.

Cut off their legs or feet and you can do this much more effectively.

[Uzu Bash]

8.Make them come to you.

Known as 'kiting' the enemy; draw them along like a kite on a string.

[BoffoDorf]

Nice post with interesting info.

I found it interesting interesting that you discount maces as "crappy" and then mention how much trouble you have with armored opponents.
Slashing weapons are great against un/lightly armored opponents, but armor is expressly designed to stop them.
Bashing weapons are good against armored foes, but suffer against the lightly armored foes.
Thrusting weapons, like spears and pikes, are good for fighting larger beasts that have their vitals shielded by tough hides and thick muscles.

Anyway using a weapon that suits your opponent is something to think about. Mix and match those hirelings if you want to specialize!



edit: ug grammar!

[Jacos]

When faced with an enemy with limbs which are hard to cut off, cut off the eyes and run around it throwing stones at close range.

[KaelGotDwarves]

All you need to know is this:

Character creation: Always max agility and put points into blocking if possible. Agility = speed+more attacks+dodging = life. Blocking = saving your ass.
 
High agility elves run easily circles around everything and pick up rocks and other junk and throw every creature to death without letting anyone hit them except for archers.

Knock enemies unconscious through strangling/whatever + throat hit with edge attack or teeth/shake.

None of the armor covers the throat, so no glancing hits on unconscious armored foes. It's a critical mortal wound every time - even with elven wooden weapons against heavily armored bandits.

[tomas1297]

 Don't take any mental/emotional stats.You'll live a lot longer.

[Ktalyx]

If you are overwhelmed by ennemies and if you can swim without drowning, try to run to a nearby murky pool and begin to sneak once you're in it, most enemies won't see you.
Also when attacked by bogeymen, try to make them dodge in an open space (climbing on the side of a bridge saved me many times, they keep falling when they dodge. According to my experience, it is almost impossible to survive on a flat terrain.

[Uzu Bash]

Character creation: Always max agility

There are a lot of skills that will improve agility, so points may be better spent in stats that don't improve with skill, like recuperation/disease resistance. I'm not sure whether starting agility influences max agility in this version, or by how much a margin each of the peasant/hero/demigod chargen tiers.

[Jacob/Lee]

9. Throwing is your friend. Don't use sparingly.

[toupz]

You waste lots of training hits you could have with a melee skill when you kill enemies by throwing stuff

[piecewise]

Nice post with interesting info.

I found it interesting interesting that you discount maces as "crappy" and then mention how much trouble you have with armored opponents.
Slashing weapons are great against un/lightly armored opponents, but armor is expressly designed to stop them.
Bashing weapons are good against armored foes, but suffer against the lightly armored foes.
Thrusting weapons, like spears and pikes, are good for fighting larger beasts that have their vitals shielded by tough hides and thick muscles.

Anyway using a weapon that suits your opponent is something to think about. Mix and match those hirelings if you want to specialize!



edit: ug grammar!

The problem with maces and hammers is that they do about equal damage armor or not. This means that against armored foes they're alright (not great though, since attacking limbs or trying to disarm with them is much more difficult) and against unarmored foes they're pretty much the same as punching. I've played both types of weapon and even against armored foes blades seem to kill much quicker and with more reliability.

[Untelligent]

There are a lot of skills that will improve agility, so points may be better spent in stats that don't improve with skill, like recuperation/disease resistance.

Recuperation doesn't really help much in the middle of combat, so I wouldn't put a whole lots of points in that. I wouldn't bother with disease resistance at all -- even take points out of it -- until you actually get good enough at the game to last long enough to find a titan or similar monster.

[toupz]

I wished using a blunt weapon like a maul gave us the possibility to make an enemy fly a few tiles away propelsed by the blow

[Jacob/Lee]

You waste lots of training hits you could have with a melee skill when you kill enemies by throwing stuff

You also make the enemies waste the possible stab to the throat they could get by melee attacking you.