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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Daniel D. Fox" data-source="post: 7282405" data-attributes="member: 55033">One of our favorite reviewers Prince of Nothing continues his take on the ‘brobdignagian’ proportions of ZWEIHÄNDER Grim & Perilous RPG over at his website Age of Dusk. This is part five, titled “Barbarism & Kicking People In The Face”:At last we come to that most fundamental of activities in a grim and perilous world. The baying of men and the pig-like squealing of the maimed. Pitted Iron piercing yielding flesh. The dry crackling of splintering bone. The pleasing crimon spray of arterial blood. Let us speak of combat.Before I say anything else, I must compliment whoever did the art direction for the combat section. It is chockfull of desperate bands of peasants fighting hopeless last stands against hordes of hideous ratmen a.k.a the meaning of life in Warhammer fantasy. It really drives home the atmosphere and energy of combat in Zweihander and for that I applaud it, as I applaud the medical ward with mutilated patients on the Chapter on Injury.Combat in Zweihander has changed somewhat from the parry/dodge 3 attack fest of 2e. Each participant in the dance of death has 3 Action Points (less if they suffer from debilitating injuries) but it limited to A SINGLE ATTACK ONLY.  Different actions have a different AP cost. Parrying or dodging an attack costs AP, thus there is a trade-off between going all-out or saving some actions in case an enemy gets in a hit. In addition to the habitual attack/charge/disengage to avoid attack of opportunity, Zweihander gives you several options. The ability to deliver guarded or all-out attack has been done away with, but it is still possible to use a called shot at the cost of reduced accuracy (despite the lack a hit-locations system) in order to inflict additional damage and to prevent your opponent from parrying or dodging. In addition, characters have access to moves like grappling (OP as <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />, albeit it risky since the character initiating the grapple must also expend his full turn holding the foe, almost a surefire way to disable a single more powerful opponent however), throwing sand in someone’s face to blind him, strikes meant to stun, knockout punches ah la James Bond that only work on suprised or helpless foes, Shield Breaking blows (only effective when using a two-handed weapon) and Cow-tipping them to the ground. While you can only use a single attack action per round, it is possible to combine this with a Perilous Move (aka a kick to the groin or throwing sand into someone’s face) so the combat can be pretty dynamic. The addition of an inspiring speech move and a litany of hatred move which can be attempted once per combat was something I really appreciated (I have not seen many leadership based attacks or actions in roleplaying games), and the benefits are tangible while remaining plausible (a +1 to damage and peril threshold or a -1 if you are using the Litany of Hate to bully your enemies).<a href="https://princeofnothingblogs.wordpress.com/2017/11/12/review-zweihander-wfrp-retroclone-pt-v-barbarism-unrelenting-savagery/" target="_blank">https://princeofnothingblogs.wordpress.com/2017/11/12/review-zweihander-wfrp-retroclone-pt-v-barbarism-unrelenting-savagery/</a>[ATTACH]91120[/ATTACH]</blockquote>

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