The Swordsman charges at The Kobold Thief!
The Swordsman slashes The Kobold Thief in the left foot with her ({iron long sword}) and the severed part sails off in an arc!
The Swordsman collides with The Kobold Thief!
The Kobold Thief is knocked over and tumbles backward!
The Swordsman stabs The Kobold Thief in the left lower leg with her ({iron long sword}) and the severed part sails off in an arc!
The Swordsman stabs The Kobold Thief in the left upper leg with her ({iron long sword}) and the severed part sails off in an arc!
I feel bad for the kobold. I guess just lopping off the leg to keep it from running away wasn't good enough.
That and either longswords are really wide, or kobolds are really tiny.
Longswords are more than twice the size of shortswords (700 vs 300) and also have larger contact areas. However I've had stab attacks lob off limbs almost as often as slashes with shortswords and spears. One of my swordsdwarves earned a reputation for removing goblin heads by stabbing them in the face.
Also, my contribution: in the same fort as Urist McFacelift (and even training in the next barracks over) were my speardwarves. A couple months after the latest load of migrants and literally right after the dwarven caravan had left the map a siege arrived with a hearty dose of green-skinned nutjobs and their big hairy trolls. Since most of my military was quite well-trained and well-equipped and of a decent size (27 members of a 111-dwarf fort, full iron equipment minus silver maces/hammers) I decided to sally forth instead of letting them get tripped up in cage traps for 'live exercises' later.
Except of course the new guy. I'd put him in with my speardwarf squad after setting his uniform (still ironing some of the military crap out at the time), so in the 2 months or so between his arrival and the goblins he'd made it to Adequate Speardwarf and novice dodger, shield/armor user and fighter (either a quick study, surprisingly good teachers or good luck getting sparring in honestly). When I decided to head out he'd apparently decided to take a nap so I figured he wouldn't wander into the meat grinder.
Right before I begin the slaughter one of his squadmates decides to take a booze break (they have waterskins/flasks but won't drink in the field for some reason) but I didn't register it at the time because I had goblins to butcher. I send the bulk of my force out to meet the main 3 squads to the south of my entrance while my marksdwarves camped out over the trapped entryway.
I had noticed a fourth squad and some troll on the north side of my fort, but as I like walling in large tracts of surface I figured at their pace their brethren would be purged by the time they'd be in a position to even try a run down my sawmill.
The resulting events however exposed flaws in my logic
1.) The southern groups put up a hell of a fight, and while I didn't lose anyone they held for an obscenely long time
2.) The northern squad and trolls picked the exact moment I shifted my focus south to hustle to my entrance
3.) The trolls decided to take the lead, pushing through my cage trap setups at the fort corners and absorbing most of the marks' fire
4.) That damn new guy REALLY wanted to be part of the fight
So suddenly I've got a lone, raw recruit facing off against an elite swordsgob and the 5 hammers who were still behind him (the rest, like the trolls, were busy being marksdwarf practice pincushions) completely alone and backup literally just out of reach.
And then I learned that my logic was
still flawed, as apparently this guy was the god-killing offspring of Kratos and Boadicea. I watched the fight only for him to emerge victorious and unscathed.
Note the following did NOT occur under a Martial Trance.
Summation of log (Spear = the dwarf, SG = the elite, and HG1-5 are the hammergobs):
Spear stabs the SG in the left hand with his +iron spear+, and the severed part sails off in an arc!
Spear stabs HG1 in the head with his +iron spear+, punching through the skull and tearing the brain!
Spear stabs SG in the right hand with his +iron spear+, and the severed part sails off in an arc!
Spear bashes HG2 in the head with his +Iron spear+, driving the skull through the brain!
Spear stabs SG in the left foot with (spear) and the severed part sails off in an arc!
Spear stabs HG3 in the upper body with (spear) tearing the heart!
Spear stabs HG4 in the head with (spear) and the severed part sails off in an arc!
Spear stabs SG in the right foor with (spear) and the severed part sails off in an arc!
Spear stabs HG5 in the head with (spear) tearing the brain!
Spear kicks SG in the head, jamming the skull through the brain!
This is after removing all the blocks, dodges and parries he pulled off during the fight.
So he picked up a few quick levels in most of his combat skills, and walked away unscathed with a shiny new title and blood most likely pouring off of him. I pray he finds death in some fashion that doesn't involve the word 'berserk' and my dining room, assuming death even wants to deal with him in the first place.