On the ground

The fighting does not stop where the swords do. Inside the measure a man can be taken hold of and thrown, and a man on his back is not fighting any more, he is being killed.

Wrestling

Wrestle (4) (G) tries to throw down a man he is closed with (Measure). It costs 4 action points and half as much wind again as a stroke. It cannot be done from the ground, or to a man already down, and it invites no free blow.

The tooltip gives the chance to put him down. What decides it:

• Strength, more than anything: each point of strength one man has over the other is worth 5.
• Skill at wrestling, the art itself and not the art of the weapon in his hand. It counts for less than strength.
• Weight carried. Once the hands are on, weight tells: every kilogram of kit the man being thrown carries more than the thrower makes him easier to throw, and every kilogram less makes it harder.
• His state. A man reeling from a blow is 20 easier to throw. His defence, and both men's wounds, count as they do for a blow.
• His friends. Each of his own at his shoulder takes 4 off.

The chance is never less than 10% or more than 95%.

If it works he goes down, still closed with the man who threw him, and his nerve is tested (Nerve). If it fails, he keeps his feet, and the points and wind are spent.

A man on the ground

A man on the ground is marked on the ground in the order bar. There:

• he strikes at −20, and nothing he holds reaches farther than the next hex;
• his weapon turns nothing, and is −5 to his defence instead of its own worth;
• his defence is −15 besides;
• the gaps in his armour are 60% easier to find for anyone striking at him;
• he cannot walk, turn, take a ward, wrestle, throw or shoot;
• a man who closes in on him gets inside at 95%.

He can still strike, at those odds. Little else can be done from there but get up.

Standing up

Stand (4) (S) gets him up. It costs 4 action points and as much wind as two steps, and he can only do it on legs that will bear him (Legs that will not bear him).

Every man closed with him strikes as he rises, if he still has his blow for the round. A man who is only standing next to him, not closed with him, gets nothing. Unless one of those blows puts him out of the fight, he is up once they are done.

Knocked down

A blow can put a man on the ground without anyone laying hands on him: a heavy enough blow carries his balance past the step that would recover it. A man knocked down is reeling as well, and has 3 fewer action points in his next turn. See What a blow does. A man who drops senseless from shock is on the ground too, and helpless until he comes round (Wounds).

Legs that will not bear him

A leg bears him while it still works at least 30% as well as it did. A leg works as well as the worst part of it, so any of these puts it out:

• a thigh or shin bone broken;
• a hip out of its socket (a torn knee leaves the leg bearing only just, and anything more wrong with it puts it out);
• the muscle of the thigh or calf cut most of the way through;
• the nerve that serves the leg cut, whether in the leg itself or at the hip or groin;
• the spine hurt.

A ruined foot is not enough on its own: a man can hobble on one. A foot cut off is another matter, and the leg no longer bears him.

Where the leg fails decides whether he stays up. Below the knee — the shin bone, the calf, the foot, the knee itself — he goes down on one knee, on that leg, with the other foot planted before him. He is not on the ground: he strikes, parries and turns as a man on his feet does, but his guard is 8 worse, and he cannot walk, only shuffle on the knee, at 3 times the price of every hex. The log says he drops to one knee, and whether he will ever rise from it. Above the knee — the thigh bone, the thigh's muscle, the hip, the nerves at the hip or groin, the spine — he cannot hold the leg at all, and it takes him down however sound the other is. So one broken shin puts a man on one knee and leaves him fighting, and two, or one thigh, put him on the ground.

The moment his legs stop bearing him he goes down, and when a blow does it the log says his legs gave way. He cannot get up until they bear him again. A leg that is only numbed, from a blow to its nerve, comes back in a turn or a few, and he can stand again. A leg broken or cut through does not come back.

A man down on legs that will never bear him again can still swing at whoever comes near, but he no longer counts as fighting. When nobody on a side is left fighting, that side has lost (How a battle ends).

Beasts

A beast stands on any three of its four legs. With two gone it goes down, and like a man it stays down until enough of them bear it again. A troll stands on two, like a man.

Where an armoured fight ends

A man in good plate is hard to cut. The rules of this chapter are how he is killed anyway: not through the plate, but past it.

Close in on him, so that his long weapon is inside its measure and his shield is worth less than half. Wrestle him down. On the ground he turns nothing, defends at −15 and shows 60% more of his gaps, and he stays closed with the man who threw him. Now a dagger or a half-sword strikes him at +7, with its own help finding the gaps on top of his. Getting up costs him four points and a blow from that man as he rises.

This is also why strength matters to a man in armour, and why every kilogram he wears is a kilogram that helps put him down.