Mad Jack's Fencing Academy

[Mad Jack of the Red]

I AM a fencer. What works on the fencing strip works in "Pirates": Keep the pointy end pointed at the bad guy. When ANY bad guy twists his torso around to make his attack, THRUST! Thrust, thrust, thrust. Anything else wastes time and can cost you crew members The silk fencing shirt and the balanced swords are good to have; the metal curiaisse, the same. The first thing to do is thrust. Never try anything else. Now go out there and whup ass. Class dismissed.
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"No captain can do wrong by laying his ship against that of the enemy." John Paul-Jones

[bryce777]

It might work well in real life but it doesn't work in the game well. They block quite a lot and the tougher opponents will have high chop or low slash that is higher than your thrust so you can't wait til they move.

It also only pushes them back one space while upper and lower push them back two. You also sometimes get a riposte in when you dodge, so instead of one hit backwards you get a total of three hits in with one combo!

The blocking til they are slow or block then attack methods work well and that is what I do now, but I used to just do fakes and never block. That works very well, start to thrust or whatever then switch to another attack when they start to block. However this swings the advantage meter to them so for the really fast opponents like montalban at swashbuckler, this is very difficult.

What I do now when I have a hard fight with a faster opponent is take rapier then keep dodging until the advantage bar goes 100% in my favor and the enemy is moving in molasses. Then I start low slashes and fakes if needed and can usually finish him off before he can even get an attack or block off.

[Salty Dog]

It works fine against slow opponents - 90 percent of the opponents. It does not work against fast fencers using a Rapier. If you wait for them to make their move you will not have enough tine to react. Also, there are delays built into your fencing. That is why you can't just press and hold the "thrust" button. Monty will eat you up.

What, exactly, did RupertLittleBear recommend we do, was it holding the #1 button for an uppercut? That usually works but not always. I think that is actually better than the "thrust" techince described above,.

When I face Monty I use a cutlass, then block and counter-punch, That is just my style. Your results may vary. There is nothing wrong with the Longsword.