Hold Fast

Hold Fast Martial  Basic  100 hours  Requires Melee Weapon (long, long-flex, or polearm) I This is the highly technical science of using a long pointy stick to keep someone the Hell away from you. Not only do you strike first with the weapon (assuming it has the reach feature) regardless of the actual initiative, but you can force a retest of their parry or dodge roll to in-fight and get past your defences. You may force this retest for anyone who is within your weapon's reach, even if they were not trying to get past you specifically. The only alternative for your foe is to try and go around you. That simple action gets really complicated when there is a whole line of other spearmen with you, each trained in this skill.

In a tight formation, a square of pikemen armed with 21-foot awls can collectively force a dozen retests against a lone attacker; this number is increased for defence-in-depth. Defenders packed together subtract three feet from their weapon for each intervening person—including three feet for the spud holding it. A very tall person, such as a Gaijin or Troll can effectively add a few feet to a weapon's reach, but cannot actually give the reach feature to a weapon that lacks it. Note that someone in a formation isn't easily able to back up and increase the distance: their mates are in the way behind them. The entire formation must partially withdraw, at least those few steps, to again put their foes at a distance.