Aimed Blows My Way

Okay, so it’s a pretentious title. No more so than anyone else’s, what with all
these “the perfect” this and “the perfect” that; what I’m going to show you here is
several different ways to make aimed blows and win with them.
There is no one specific way to make an aimed blow. You’ll hear a lot of
managers claim that they “HAVE” to have a 21 DF in order to be any good at all. Well,
that’s a trifle exaggerated. It’s NICE to have a 21 DF. This will increase your
attack rating, and give you a certain boost. But it isn’t necessary for a good,
solid, long-term aimed blow.
I’m going to give several examples of aimed blows, both how-tos and how-not-tos.
All the aimed blows represented here actually fight on one of my stables, so I did
this all by hit-and-miss. Unlike some managers, I don’t believe that the first,
third, and fifth rules of aimed blows is “they die.” It’s only the third rule.

Now then. Design:
ST: Any, really. You can go low, since aims can handle daggers and open hand
just fine.
CN: Again, any. A little more can help them take a hit, but if they’re lucky,
they’ll do all right even if they can’t.
SZ: Any. This is a versatile style. Big ones do great. Little ones do great.
WT: I’m going to surprise you, here. Anything. Yep, anything. Best is 11-21,
of course.
WL: Again. Any. Honest! An aim can do without will and can also use it to its
best advantage. But from here on is where you’ve got to pay attention.
SP: LOW. Keep it below 9 if possible. Below 7 is better.
DF: HIGH. 21 is always best, but 17 works okay, too.
So now you have a rollup with a low speed and a high deftness and it doesn’t look
like much else. You’ve got a good aimed blow. Yes!

Examples of “do” design aims:

     1) 7-5-12-21-11-7-21
     2) 11-16-6-21-9-4-17
     3) 10-15-6-17-9-6-21
     4) 13-9-5-17-17-6-17
     5) 11-5-10-11-21-5-21
     6) 8-10-9-17-15-4-21
     7) 5-10-7-17-17-11-17
     8) 12-12-7-21-9-6-17
     9) 7-11-8-11-21-5-21
    10) 9-14-8-15-17-4-17

Ten is a good, round number. 1-4 are Immortal. All have winning records. Most
of them beat lungers in one minute. The low-con ones have the most trouble, because
they can’t take a hit–if they get hit, they go down. Fortunately, that’s only killed
a few of mine (the dead ones I won’t list just now, since it’s so depressing).

Examples of “don’t” design aims, unless you’re as insane as me or much more
experienced in your aimed blow running:

     1) 17-5-5-11-17-9-21  (beat the DA three times before he was killed--he gets a 
special place at #1)
     2) 13-8-12-11-11-18-11
     3) 11-12-6-21-13-8-13
     4) 11-12-12-17-11-4-17
     5) 12-7-18-13-13-5-16 (my first)
     6) 11-14-7-9-17-9-17
     7) 9-11-9-17-11-10-17

There’s certainly more “don’ts” than dos, but those are ones I actually have
played somewhere; 2-5 are immortal, with usually 50% records except for the 11 DF (who
is in permanent retirement). He came along early in my aimed blow career, when I was
making EVERY rollup into an aimed blow to see for myself what worked and what didn’t.
That didn’t. Some of the mortal ones I’m still running, and they do well enough, but
as I said, until you get a little experience there are some things you may not want to
try unless, like me, you want to see what happens for yourself.
Now for strategy. This is probably the most important thing you’ll give your
aim.

Weapons: Scimitar, unless they don’t have the strength for it, in which case, dual
daggers. Longsword is next, then fists, then quarterstaff. You need an 11 ST for
longsword, so that’s probably not always realistic. If your aim likes to fight with
his fists, you can let him, but I’d advise waiting until he’s got some experience, and
you know your opponent isn’t much on armor and parrying, because you can do yourself
some serious damage on the parries. Quarterstaff is a two-handed weapon, so bear that
in mind if you use it.

Armor: Keep it light, no more than ARM/H, and then only if you’re worried about your
opponent. An aimed blow is a fast, offensive warrior–don’t load him down.

Strategy:

10        8         8         6         6         6         10
10        2         2         1         1         1         10
 1 --------------------------------------------------------- >
LL --------------------------------------------------------- >
HE --------------------------------------------------------- >
 D

That’s a good, all-purpose, general strategy. Some aims will want to play around with
it, and you let them–see what they like. But, and this is VERY important: keep that
KD low! An aimed blow relies on his control and his accuracy, and higher KDs will
cause them to lose a lot of that. If you’re bloodthirsty, change the attack location
to the head. I recommend the legs for knockdowns. Either way, your aim will attack
THAT LOCATION, over and over again, until he has defeated his opponent, and very
decisively, from total parries (the classic aimed blow opponent) to lungers (the
classic aimed blow enemy). Remember: the aimed blow is an OFFENSIVE style. He has
some finesse, but he is a brutal and efficient warrior. Keep him in control; he’ll
win. You can also play with desperation, but for me just dropping the first minute
tactic often works just fine. As for the use of decise, as always, it’s up to the
manager, but decise will help keep your aim from “standing around looking for an
opening” in the first minute. Get him moving.

As always, experiment, find what works for you, and have fun.

Raf
Lord Protector
Ivory League
Manager of Tex’s Rangers (51, 100, 101), Assassins (40, 105), Impressionists (27,
105), The Damned (30, 105, 101, 102), etc.