Exploiting weapon reach in GURPS

I once wrote a sample combat in GURPS between a spearman and a swordman. I was disappointed by the lack of advantage that wielding a longer reach weapon. First, if you haven't seen this video first, have a look:

Easily impressionable people like me will be intrigued by the reach advantage gained by the spearman. Here are some thoughts about making the best of this assymetry, or mitigating its implications.

Standoff ranges : Exploiting the reach advantage

If you have the reach advantage, meaning here that your weapon is held such that your reach is longer than your opponent's, there are a number of tactics that will maximize your effectiveness. Having a longer weapon on its own isn't enough, you must fight accordingly in order to make it count. In this post, I'm assuming a reach 2 vs reach 1 combat. Tactics for other combinations would invariably have to vary.

Whatever you do, you must manipulate the combat such that your opponent has to cross your standoff range as often as possible.

Positive balance of hits using Wait actions

Initial state: When your foe is beyond your own reach.

Best: Weaker defenders who rely on a step backward to boost their active defenses.

Rationale: You are sure to try a strike, and you may avoid one on you by forcing a retreat for your opponent. 

1. Call a wait action to be triggered when the foe gets into range.
2. Once triggered, call some kind of attack action.
3. Optionally, make a step backward after the attack.

This option is better than moving forward because you don't need to close in and possibly waste energy doing this. Also, if you move forward and attack, you opponent will next be able to cross inside your danger zone without contenting with the tip of your weapon. 

Play the long game: let 'em run

Initial state: Foe at least at the edge of your reach.

Best: Playing with Fatigue rules, you can give away terrain.

Rationale: Crossing the gap in reach is bound to cost something to your opponent.

There are about three ways to pay for your foe to get in range with you:

1. Move and attack  - This means lower probability to strike.
2. All-out attack - This means that your foe is waiving an active defense in the coming turn.
3. Extra efforts - such as "great lunge", "Giant Step" or "heroic charge" cost precious FPs.

If you can't Wait, then you may want to widen the gap with your foe. If you start in reach, you may attack and then make a step backward.

But... what if there is no space to trade behind me?

Initial state: No possible retreat.

Best: When your reach advantage is critical.

Rationale: Occupied hexes are not impassable spaces, you can go through.

Life is hard, and sometime there is no ground to trade for safety. You can give up and adjust your reach to match your foe's with a ready action. You may also consider turning the situation on its head and close within your foes's reach and possibly take this into a close combat. Ask yourself, which option plays the least into your opponent's battle plan (and still works with yours)? 

Let's assume here that the ideal option is to maintain reach advantage AND that there is a wall, or a bottomless chasm behind you. You need to find a way to switch place with your opponent. We don't think about this option usually, but in GURPS a hex can be shared and even moved through in the presence of a bad guy.

1. An optional pre-move is a feint so your foe is compelled to move out of the way in the following turn.
2. Call in a Move and attack: you'll need your full movement allowance and the ability to strike here. Alternatively, use an heroic charge, which give flexibility in some cases but will cost you a precious FP.
3. Enter the foe's hex and either:
1. Evade and continue forward. Evasion is covered in B368 and comes down to a DX contest, usually at -5 for you if your foe is standing up. This is unlikely to work in most cases!
2. Slam through! This will be done at no penalty nor skill cap unlike other types of attacks. 
3. Strike with your favorite close combat move if you have one! Keep in mind that all you want to achieve is to get him/her out of the way. If you manage more than you foe's ST-2, be sure that the GM remembers knockbacks.
4. Proceed forward until you are in the right spot OR until your reach your movement's midpoint.
5. Turn around to face your foe. This is possible only if you have spent at most half your movement points for this turn. As a GM, I would be tempted to grant a two rather than one hex side facing change against a FP. This would leave your foe on your side rather than your back... a small blessing.

This is not an easy thing to do, but it is possible. In my award system, even just trying this would probably get a PC a point in Brawling.

Getting past the firewall : Tactics to use when yours is longer than mine

Brute-force through with combat options

Initial state: You are on the wrong side of your opponent's danger zone.

Best: When FPs are in short supply OR you can afford to-hit penalties.

Rationale: A basic attack won't be optimal in many situations.

If you can't get in range in a single step, you will need to make a move. There are two main ways to close the gap:

1. Move and attack : Get -4 to hit and you can do a full move. Unless you are heavily encumbered, you probably won't need a full movement. 
2. All-out attack : This is a reckless move to make in most situations. You get 1/2 move, which should be enough.
1. long - Stretch and equalize the  reach for a turn. For added safety, strike from where you are and move backward to mitigate the effects of the counterattack. 
2. strong, determined or feint -  Make your one shot count such that the counterattack will be weak. You know you are gambling here...

I think that extra efforts are better options here (see below). 

Brute-force through with extra efforts

Initial state: You are on the wrong side of your opponent's danger zone.

Best: When you can't afford to take on to-hit penalties.

Rationale: For a short combat, trading FPs against battlefield advantages makes sense.

Unless you are willing to take on a Move and attack (at -4) or an all-out attack (no active defense), you will need to find a way to get in reach. As outlined above, there are a number of extra efforts to do this:

1. Great Lunge - Get the benefit of and all-out attack (long) without waiving the active defense.
2. Giant Step - Add an additional step to your movement allowance.
3. Heroic charge -  Get the benefit of and Move and attack without skill cap and penalty.

Just keep in mind that doing this may be playing into your opponent's tactic. If you are to force your way in, might as well make it count so you don't have to do this too many times!

Strike at the weapon

Since this is the only thing that is in reach for you, why not strike at the weapon itself? A C reach weapon can be targeted at -5, -4 for reach 1 and -2 for reach 2+ weapons. There are two options with a weapon strike:

1. Disarm: Done at an additional -2 (can be bought with techniques). If successful, roll a quick contest of weapon skill to see whether you knock the weapon off your opponent's hands. The contest is done at +2 if you use a Jitte/Sai, and -2 if your foe is using a two-handed weapon.  
2. Break weapon : This is harder to do and you have to hit pretty hard to achieve anything A typical melee weapon made of solid metal has a DR of 6, have about 10 HP and a HT of about 12 (against shattering). However, a wooden weapon would have a DR  2-4 and much fewer HPs. Low quality weapons will tend to break faster as well because they have a lower HT.

Throw off the weapon with a Beat

The beat was explained in a previous post: use your ST-based weapon skill to swing your opponent's weapon out of the way for the coming turn. This is pointless to do this against a stronger foe. However, I would argue that leverage play a very important role here if you are beating a spear tip. I'd house rule that a you get +2 to your effective ST per difference in reach levels with the weapon that you are beating against.

Do it with a friend!

It becomes very difficult to keep two opponents out of reach with the tactics described above. Two cooperating allies can act in turn act as spoilers and a strikers. Arguably, everything is easier when done as a team. I'm not sure that this is in scope for this post, but it may save a PCs life...

Get in there!

You ought to realize that if you get inside of your foe's reach, he/she will fight with a penalty (-2 per reach "layer" I think... I can't find the rule anywhere in the books anymore). If you can stay within reach, your foe will either have to pay the penalty, move away from you, or spend a turn changing grip to adjust the reach. Staying within the reach is the hard part:

1. Get in close combat reach (C reach).
2. Corner your foe such that he/she can't move away.
3. Why not just get in close combat altogether if this is advantageous? 

Conclusion

I re-ran the combat between Burt and Bob and came up with different conclusions: reach is a real advantage  to the extent that the opponent with the longer reach can maintain the initiative more readily. What's above isn't an all inclusive list of tactics, and I sure hope that I've left many other to be discovered and used against the bloodthirsty NPCs of both of my Middle-Earth campaigns.