Hi I was wondering when looking at the combat if after you lock on and look down with the camera control and choose the bottom right or left strike, if henry will swing low enough to hit the knee or upper thigh of the opponent? I know we chose leg armor so I was hoping I can force some downward strikes with melee weapons :).
Yes the cuts can strike the legs… however the reach to lower targets is much shorter than to the head (primary target) or the leading arm.
IRL you rarely get opportunity to strike to the legs in Blossfechten because of the reach issue (and when closing, pressing the arms gives more safety and control than attacking away from his weapon into the legs). Harness fighting gives some more options however, but this isn’t a style of combat we practice at our school.
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I played a lot in alpha and beta, and not once did I ever take a single point of damage on any of my leg armor, so I don’t think you ever get hit there.
It was definitely possible to hit enemies in the leg if you crouched and snuck up from behind, or the terrain was uneven. I never actually tried to hit them in the legs while locked on. It was also possible to hit unconscious enemies anywhere you liked, including the legs in beta.
So in a sense leg armor isnt really as useful. You can skip leg day lol. Im thinking its more protective from archers more then a melee fight. To be quicker i wont wear leg armor at all and maybe that will give me some speed lol
This is more situational than anything, and there’s other factors involved. For example:
When I’m sparring in my local ARMA group I have a LOT of success following a bind by dropping my point under my opponent’s hands and striking hard at the hip, or raking the top of the thigh while stepping out to the side (IE I’ll follow a right oberhau/Zornhau bind with a cut to the right hip or leg, while stepping out to the left). They all know I do it and to watch for it, yet I can usually pull it off and get clear without them being able to Scheitelhau to cover.
It helps that I fight with a somewhat longer sword than the others, (40" blade vs. 36") but the difference in length isn’t THAT significant, as it even works against opponents with enough of a height/arm length advantage to neutralize the extra reach of my sword.
Remember that if you’re sword-fighting someone in harness, the goal is to hit them where the armor isn’t because the sword won’t cut through plate. If you don’t wear leg armor as part of your kit, congratulations, you’ve just made your legs a BIG target (this is why so many skeletons from the Migration and Viking Periods have leg wounds: leg armor wasn’t widespread, and the legs were the one part of the body not reliably covered by the shield).
And honestly, if you’re already dressed out in harness from the waist up, not wearing it on the legs isn’t going to offer much of a mobility advantage, anyway.
No you cant target, only overhead attack can target head area Thats all i know