Part of this is that people have adjusted to my newer strategies. You know - that thing which happens when you evangelize the new strategy you're using. So now that my new strategy is out there and part of the understood meta-game, it doesn't work nearly as well. This is sad, but it is not unexpected.
It is a useful exercise to go through the reasons I have been playing a blade-extended game, to understand why I am changing it. Here I shall outline my standard stance, and then the other two I have been using. They exist on a kind of a continuum, from blade-extended through Fabris 60, into the "back" stance. They could also be called "Front", "Mid", and "Back" stances, due to the location of my sword in the stance.
Blade-Extended Stance
The dude to the left, on the right page is the one you should look at for this.
I fight with my arm fully extended because my sword will need to go there anyway. It is the best way to make it hard for my opponent to gain good opposition on my blade, since my strong will be farther forward than their strong. As well, my blade will have to pass through that space anyway. A skilled opponent will be able to parry my full-intent lunge on reaction, so giving additional time for them to do this won't change anything.
The result is that my "far" stance can gain opposition on a blade easily, if my opponent has worse opposition than I do. As well, I have faith that my disengages are stronger than my opponent's disengages in that stance, because I hinge my disengages around the point of balance of my blade, rather than my hand or wrist. (For more details, see Guy Windsor's Capo Ferro-based text.)
This stance has trouble when my opponent does one of two things:
- Refuses blade contact
- This is generally only a problem with they have either more range or aggressive blade opposition. (Ogedei's "zone blocking")
- Uses their dagger to get out of opposition
- So, according to Meyer, there are a few ways you can parry things. One method is to use your blade solely for offense and your dagger solely for defense. (Is that really canonically Meyer? Note to self, re-read that part of his manual.) When doing this, if I have good outside-line opposition on their sword, they will be able to lever through with their dagger and then use the line they have created to pool-cue me with their sword.
- I could respond to this by switching my blade from an attack to a zone-block and taking their hand with my dagger.
Some of these things are surmountable. But my mind has trouble staying in one place for a long time, so I wanted easier, more reliable solutions. These are the solutions I came up with.
Fabris Plate 60
Either dude in the left page works for this.
I actually came upon this stance by parallel construction. I wanted a place in which I could manipulate their sword, reinforce with my dagger, and still throw strong feinting shots. I tend to keep my dagger a bit lower than pictured, so that my head is bait. This is probably Bad Fencing, but it works a surprising amount of the time.
This stance allows me to overcome dagger-based opposition by putting my own dagger into the mix. Alternately, it allows me to initiate a motion with my dagger and cut over my dagger with my sword. It's pretty great.
It is of note that this stance allows for me to drop my dagger toward their sword, if they're gunslinging. Then, terrible things happen to them, because all of their actions are so large.
"Back" Stance
Reprinting this picture. The dudes to the left are the closest historical basis I've found for this yet, though it's sort of like being in Vom Tag with your dagger extended.
This stance is funny. In the picture above, rotate either fencer such that their dagger and left foot are pointed toward their opponent's right hand. The idea of this stance is to use the dagger primarily for defense, and then to do tricky cutting things in order to land a thrust. This can include cutting through their blade, if their left-hand blade is mostly parallel to the ground.
This is the most effective stance I have yet found for fighting against longer-range-than-me blade-refused case. I stole it from a short fighter who has used it to great effect.
*****
Those are my ways to stand, as of now. They will probably last me through Pennsic, and then I will start work on Thibault or something like that. I will likely outline some likely spitballed-and-flowcharted actions for these stances, but for the moment this is all I've got.
(Images are from here: http://www.faegtekunstensvenner.net/SalvatoreFabris/Index.htm)
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