In light of my last post being about mind games, let's talk about the reverse of that. The value of oddity. Playing chess well is the idea that you track the movements of your opponent because you know the standard set of shots thrown from that particular position. If a florentine fighter drops their left hand to threaten a stab then it's pretty likely that if you so much as leave an inch for that opening they're going to stab the shit out of you. However, this also telegraphs that particular maneuver. When playing chess telegraphing a maneuver isn't particularly bad, it just means you get them to watch that hand. As a florentine fighter if I can get you to watch that left hand and convince you that there's a real threat there, it's quite likely that as a sword and board fighter your guard will drift away from the shield side shoulder I'm also hunting. But now suppose I walk up to you and I don't ever get into stance. Instead of moving up and squaring off I simply let my hand hang down at my sides. ...Now what?
You can only play chess with the pieces that are on the board
If a person doesn't have any distinguishable stance or style that you can immediately identify it's like going into a chess match where you can't see the opponent's side of the board. You can be sure that they have a strategy and are attempting to kill you but how they may approach that remains a mystery. Asher in particular often employs the - not taking an actual stance - stance. It's also possible to engage with a bizarre stance that works simply because your opponent doesn't know how to react to it. In some cases you can even leave what seems like a clear opening in order to bait out your opponent. One of my shield styles involves leaving a pretty obvious shield side shoulder opening because my shield is hanging lazily down by my waist. The thing is though that because I know that opening is there and most people swing for it, I am very prepared to block that swing while simultaneously getting their sword arm for that strike.
Its not good because it's odd it's odd because it's good
Having a weird stance isn't something that grants you any kind of inherent bonus. In most cases a standard defensive stance is going to suit you best because it covers all of the obvious angles of attack. Typically these stances also put your weapon in a sensible place to make sure that you have some semblance of a decent offense as well by reducing the distance between a target area and your weapon. What having a weird stance does for you is make you hard to read. Whenever you can do this you make it much more difficult for an opponent to react appropriately to the actions that you take from that stance. If a person has seen your weird stance enough then it stops being weird/new/novel and suddenly it won't work as well because eventually a person learns what shots you throw from that setup. Eventually, when I go into the exposed shield side shoulder stance, people stop swinging at the shoulder and go for other target areas instead which is the right call. (Although some vets, out of misplaced pride, try to pick the shoulder anyways, knowing full well it's bait. If you poke at a person's ego it's amazing what mistakes you can get them to make).
The point being that a weird stance isn't good but because it's weird it will often work a disproportionate number of times. I can no longer tell how many people I've killed with that exposed shield side shoulder stance, and by all rights it shouldn't work on anyone more then once but it does. In part I think it's because we're creatures of habit. If you get a person to respond to an opening whenever they see it they will react the same way by default every time it appears, regardless of whether or not it's clearly bait. I think that the reverse is also true. If you're a vet that's used to fighting a certain set of fighting styles over and over again you eventually memorize all the shots that they throw until you no longer have to think about it. When a person comes up to you then and takes a stance you've never seen before suddenly you have to start thinking about the fight in front of you again. While you sit there and stare at the other person, wondering exactly what they're doing, you are vulnerable because you're distracted. While you think about what they're trying to do they are free to strike.
There's such a thing as an element of unpredictability in a normal fighting style
While there's something to be said for having a bizarre fighting style the real takeaway is actually that if you can play chess in a way that your opponent can't read you, you set yourself up for success. One example of this is the 3 split, where a high cross is also a shield side shoulder flat wrap, a a gut side flat wrap, and a stab in disguise all at once. Even though a person knows you're going to swing, they can't necessarily read where the shot is going to land so if they're smart they'll keep all 3 areas covered. Fortunately with a shield those are pretty easy to cover, but the idea isn't so much that you always throw high crosses with some variation, so much as you understand that each swing you throw can be redirected mid flight. There are lots of examples of shots that are deceptive that rely on your opponent having an expectation of what you'll do, which you confirm at first, only to wind up doing something totally different. In the last example it's doing what appears to be very clearly a high cross, only to turn it into a different hit location. Another example is a hip scoop, where you very clearly attempt to swing at their arm, only to pass the weapon underneath their guard and into their torso a moment later. These shots work because you've broken the expectation that they had set for where they needed to block. It helps if during the fight you do also actually throw a high cross or two to train them that it's coming, or throw a shot on the outside of the arm between the wrist and the elbow so that they learn to block there. Once you've gotten them responding to these shots, then you can throw the other shots. If you've done a good job they're too worried about being hit by the first set of shots to respond to the second shot.
It doesn't matter how good you are
These shots are not about being the best player in the game. They aren't about being the strongest. They aren't about being the fastest. It has nothing to do with how fast you can run or how much reach you have. This is about having a better mind then your opponent rather then any physical traits you posses. So long as you can outwit them and throw shots at a reasonable pace you can win while making them do all the work. One of my favorite maneuvers is planting my weapon for a stab because I expect that they will move into it. On it's own the placement of the stab won't have enough power, and often because of how the angles are set up in the moment it can't even hit. But, because I've read my opponent, as they move they move the stab into an angle where it can clear their guard and, because they're moving, they add the force needed to make it sufficient force. This doesn't even require me to swing. It's just a matter of reading my opponent and knowing when and were they'll move. The rest is making sure that my weapon is there to greet them. This is all psychology and because we're all human, we all fall for it. I play these mind games all day long and that doesn't make me immune to them in the least. In the end, it's why I tend to tilt towards offense over defense. If I can make them have to play my games, instead of having to respond to their games, it's more likely I'll survive. All things being equal myself and my opponent are both flawed human being who can be played, and sooner or later that's going to happen. The only defense is to not leave openings in the first place and then to hit them when they have an opening. Just make sure it's ACTUALLY an opening and not just a feint.
After all. You wouldn't want to be played.
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