Some guards can be quite tiring to hold for an extended period. Ochs especially can be murder on the shoulders unless you’re fairly well conditioned to it.
8lb swords are wall-hangers. Longswords ranged between 2.5-4lbs, and even the big two-handers seldom got above 6lbs.
Nevertheless, Im a 45 yo man and am pretty sure I could hold a 6lb sword in a block position for at least 60 seconds. I understand they need to penalize a block spammer in some manner but my overall point is that I find this less believable than directional blocking. Since this is a SP game, see no reason they cant implement both such as M&B.
Edit: Also wanted to state that I find the animations pretty damn smooth and actual beautiful looking - no small feat for sensor captured which can be quite blocky. I’d actually love a battle replay from the 3rd position with maybe a few dynamic angles and cool music to watch how my battle actually looked from the outside. Ok maybe thats moronic for medival times -but still I’d love it! 
Ten times crashed into ground by enemy 
I love the idea…
I think Bannerlord 2 will have a kind of replay system.
There is actually more in it than just timing. @Vik, lead combat designer, has posted some details about it even in this thread. I recommend you to read all his posts, he wrote a lot of interesting stuff about the combat, you won’t get better info elsewhere. 
Basicaly, position of your sword affect your perry, because if you copy your oponent, it’s easier to make a timed block. Here is the post from @Vik.
Also, I played the alpha a month ago and I currently don’t have a PC so I can’t check it, but from what I remember, holding a block button doesn’t drain your stamina, it only drains stamina when the actual block happens, while the the timed block doesn’t drain stamina at all, which is the difference. Anyone can confirm it or do I remeber it wrong?
Thank you Freix that was exactly what I was I looking for. Since the thread seems currently flatined Ill just make a few comments here:
Seems that the conversation and perhaps focal point of the combat system is heavily influenced by fencing or that sort of rapier quick wrist action and that is some of the reasoning behing the “no need to move when blocking” -as they are simple wrist movements. Yes, but what about the hack and slashers, not all medieval sword fighters battled with such refinement -when someone is about to unload a heavy overhead - you bet your bottom that if your gonna block, your gonna move that arm to a perpendicular angle or the like. The impulse to block is just that -an impulse -not the action needed. That is where direction comes into play along with footwork.
The Clinch. So this seems to be some sort of needed engine feature to avoid weird model vs obstacle clashing?!? Have to say that is a bizzare way to resolve it -why not simply let the weapons collide and reverb off of inanimate objects. Also how does this play out when fighting multiple guys on the warfield? Certainly dont want to lock with someone when an enemy is at my back…?
The “matched up stance” direction is something I suppose -but why not just go full monty with directional if thats the case? Anyhoos, gonna play some more and try to get a better understanding of the nuance. Also love that the RPG stats will effect the speed etc in real time -love that.
Not necessarily. There’s plenty of techniques that involve just redirecting the blow off to the side, or even guiding it past you., neither of which require (and in fact you wouldn’t WANT to) meeting it perpendicularly.
This is actually already implemented. the clinch is not because of of the weapon collision but the location of player to opponent to surrounding objects (as described in the above quote).
If you have yet to watch it I suggest watching Video Update #4 Combat. Viktor Bocan (aka @Vik) explains the system and object collision. Its an older video so things may have changed one way or the other, however I know for a fact from personal experience in the alpha your blade hits and bounces off surrounding objects. I have beaten several opponents by pushing them into the fence when then swing (depending on how they attack) their sword gets clinched on the fence.
As suggested by @Freix @Vik is the Lead Combat Designer reading all of his posts will cover most of your questions on the combat system. He also occasionally pops in to clarify things so don’t be shy about using them tags(@ symbol before users name).
Currently there is only 1v1 combat in the alpha we have to wait and see what comes of multiple opponent fights. Unless I missed something posted by a Dev team member or something in a video update I do not believe to much ahs been revealed on this yet.
My guess is that there will be no special mechanism or techniques for multiple oponents situation. Because as was mentioned by devs in reality fighting one vs two is most likely end up by your death. (maybe except cases when the two guys are completely unexperienced)
But what I think is that all it needs is to improve switching between opponents. Because even in current alpha build I was able to make some sick moves against those two cumans.
It would be a good idea to upgrade the arena fights for Alpha0.5. To fight against 2 or 3 opponents in the arena would be a good practice.
To fight against the two cumans I need 15-20 minutes(get the sword, meet the cumens), for one try.
In the arena it would be more fun
I did it like this:
And then everytime I died I used continue option.
Even with so many tries I had I did not learn how to defeat them easily. It is always incredibly hard.
Is it just me or does the blocking seem quite hit and miss? I can’t figure out if I’m just not timing them right or my game is bugged.
Its all about the timing, unfortunately the lack of optimization in 0.4 makes it very difficult to correctly time things due to frame drop.
It does not change the results too greatly but playing on lower settings and turning vegetation all the way off is when I get the best results.
