Which came first: the damage or the protection?

[GMMichael]

While I find my preferred method slower, I find the resulting decision spaces interesting.
To reiterate

1. Attacker to hit
2. Defender decides whether to spend reaction to defend
3. If defender defends roll defense
4. On defense fail or no defense, attacker rolls damage
5. Armor reduces damage

It's that second step that makes it interesting: the decision of whether to spend the portion of your action economy to defend - especially in Free League's games.
I also strongly dislike armor as to-hit-penalty.

Slower doesn't always mean worse. I have no problem with a slow-motion combat game as long as it's super-immersive. What I don't want to do is get bored out of my mind watching another player make slow decisions.

I like that second step too. To me, the decision to save the action isn't "I do nothing." It's "ouch, you took 4 damage. What happened?"

I wonder if a good way to trim some time off the process is to make the decision to roll a declaration: if the attacker rolls a damage die at the same time as attack roll, it's random damage. If not, it's halfmax damage (I think that a good name for it - halfmax. Tyrion would approve). Same for defender: roll protection at the same time as parry (defense), otherwise it's halfmax.