Dr Grant wrote:
Yeah I've often thought along similar lines, particularly since the introduction of Special Strikes in the Hobbit rules. Consider now that you get the advantage/disadvantage of a Piercing Striking axe for free and yet you have to pay 2 points for a similar (but far riskier) risk vs gain trade-off with a two handed weapon.
IMO the -1 to your duel roll is far to big a disadvantage. I play with Beserkers a lot and hardly EVER go two-handed, with 2 attacks it's almost always better to guarantee the win and then use your extra dice to wound. I will only go two handed when I can be reasonably certain of winning the fight with my other dice (I'm talking about at least 4 normal dice and preferably 6 before I go two handed).
I would far rather see an alternate version of Piercing Strike. I think Piercing Strike should be a straight +2 strength if you win and -2 defence if you lose. That removes the need to roll any extra dice whilst ensuring that (in 95% of fights) whoever wins the fight will have a greater chance of wounding than if they hadn't piercing struck.
Similarly I would suggest maybe a two handed weapon makes you +3 Strength and -3 Defence or similar.
Not set on those numbers by any means, I'd just like to see some standardisation of the bonuses.
Whilst I like this idea I'm not sure it would work, just thinking from the perspective of my wood elves I could give them elven blades and make them all strength 6 with very little downside given their terrible defence anyway which would be a little overpowered especially given their high fight value