Posture & Stamina¶
Every soldier on the field, you included, has two hidden meters on top of health:
- Posture is how well he keeps his guard and footing. Blocks, parries and hits wear it down, and it recovers over time. When it runs out his guard breaks: he can be staggered, drop his weapon or shield, be knocked off his horse, or take damage that crushes through his block.
- Stamina is how fresh he is. Attacking, blocking, shooting and being hit drain it. A tired soldier hits weaker, moves and reloads slower, and loses posture faster.
Settings¶
| Setting | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Posture System | On | Needs RBM AI on. Off also turns off the two options below. |
| Stamina System | On | Needs RBM AI and the Posture System. |
| Posture GUI | On | Shows the bars described in What you see. |
| Player Posture Multiplier | 1x | 1x, 1.5x or 2x your own maximum posture and its recovery (and stamina, with the Stamina System on). AI soldiers are unaffected. |
| AI Kick and Bash | On | Kicks and bashes cost posture and stamina and can knock a man down. |
See the Settings Reference for the full list.
Posture¶
How much you have¶
Maximum posture is built from your skills:
- your skill with the weapon in your hand counts the most;
- Athletics on foot, or Riding on horseback, adds a smaller part;
- carrying more armor adds a little: each kilogram of armor over 5 kg adds one point of posture.
Switching weapons recalculates your maximum, but you keep the same share of it you had before. Posture recovers on its own over time, also faster with higher skills. If you haven't attacked, been attacked, shot or been shot for 10 seconds, it recovers three times as fast.
What drains it¶
Every melee exchange costs posture on both sides: the defender pays for stopping the blow, and the attacker pays for having it stopped.
| Outcome | Defender | Attacker |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon block | Loses posture. On a break he is staggered, damage crushes through, and he may drop his weapon. | Loses posture. On a break he is staggered and may drop his weapon. |
| Weapon parry (perfect block) | Loses less than on a block. Same break effects as a block. | Loses more than against a block. Same break effects. |
| Shield block (correct side) | Loses posture. On a break he is staggered and may drop his shield. | Loses posture. On a break he is staggered. |
| Shield block (wrong side) | Loses posture. On a break he is staggered and may drop his shield. | Loses posture. On a break he has to catch his breath. |
| Shield parry | Loses less. On a break he is staggered and may drop his shield. | Loses more. On a break he is staggered and may drop his weapon. |
| Clean hit | Loses posture equal to the damage he took. No stagger on its own. | Loses posture. On a break he has to catch his breath. |
| Chamber block | Both lose posture. Whoever breaks is staggered. |
How much a blow drains depends on:
- The weapons on both sides. Every weapon class has its own posture profile. A two-handed sword drains far more from a blocker than a one-handed sword, and shields, large ones above all, are good at absorbing blows. In every class, a parry costs the defender less than a block and sends more back to the attacker.
- Skill against skill. The attacker's weapon skill plus Athletics (Riding on horseback) is weighed against the defender's. Holding a shield counts as extra skill for the defender.
- Closing speed. The faster the two men move toward each other, the harder the impact. Charges hit posture hard.
- Where the weapon connects. The closer the point of contact is to the weapon's center of mass, the more the blow drains.
- Perks. The base game's perks for weapon handling and shield protection reduce the posture you lose when blocking.
- Stamina. An exhausted man loses up to 25% more posture, both attacking and defending.
When posture breaks¶
- Stagger. The man reels back and can't act for a moment.
- Crush-through. When a weapon block or parry breaks, part of the blow gets through as damage. You get a message like "Posture break: Posture depleted, 12 damage crushed through". The damage depends on the attacking weapon and the defender's overall armor, and is smaller if the block only just broke.
- Disarm. If the breaking blow overshoots by at least half the man's maximum posture, he may drop his weapon (only if he has another melee weapon to fall back on) or his shield.
- Dismount. A rider is knocked out of the saddle when the blow that breaks his posture alone dealt at least a third of his maximum. Chip damage that happens to empty the bar is not enough.
- Recovery. After a break on a block, parry or missile hit, the man gets 75% of his maximum posture back at once. An attacker who breaks on a clean hit only gets a third back. A defender emptied by a clean hit gets nothing back at once and recovers at the normal rate.
Missiles and posture¶
Being hit by a missile costs posture, and twice as much on the head or neck:
| Missile | Hit on the body | Hit on the shield |
|---|---|---|
| Arrow, bolt, throwing knife | 25 | 20 |
| Javelin, throwing axe | 100 | 70 |
If a missile empties your posture you are staggered, and your posture refills to 75%. Shooting and throwing cost posture too. Bows cost the most per shot, crossbows very little, and thrown weapons are in between. Skill reduces the cost.
Stamina¶
How much you have¶
Maximum stamina and its recovery come from Athletics. A helmet with heavy face protection (30 face armor or more) halves your stamina recovery. Stamina recovers faster the emptier it is. Below 70%, it recovers three times as fast once you have been out of combat for 10 seconds.
What drains it¶
- Attacking, blocking and parrying. Two-handed weapons cost a little more, and skill reduces the cost slightly.
- Being hit, more the harder the hit.
- Heavy armor. Every action costs more stamina the heavier your armor. Athletics offsets part of that weight.
- Shooting bows and throwing weapons. Higher skill (above the weapon's difficulty for bows and crossbows) makes it cheaper. Crossbows pay when you finish spanning them, not when you shoot.
- Being hit by missiles.
- Throwing a kick or bash, whether it lands or not.
What tiredness does¶
Effects grow gradually as stamina falls. At zero stamina:
| Effect | At zero stamina |
|---|---|
| Damage of your blows | 85% |
| Movement speed | 85% |
| Swing and thrust speed | 85% |
| Weapon handling and shield block speed | 50% |
| Reload speed | 80% |
| Ranged accuracy | Worse spread while moving and unsteady; longer time to steady your aim |
| Posture lost when attacking or defending | Up to 125% |
The good side of being fresh:
- Above 70% stamina your armor counts for more, up to 30% more at full stamina. Below that it counts at its normal value.
- Above 85% stamina you slowly regain health: 0.9 HP every 10 seconds.
AI soldiers also attack and react less sharply when tired.
Kicks and bashes¶
With AI Kick and Bash on, AI soldiers kick, shield bash and weapon bash, and your own kicks and bashes follow the same rules:
- Each kick or bash costs posture and stamina as it starts, hit or miss. Higher skill makes it cheaper. Kicks and bashes use mostly Athletics with a smaller share of your weapon skill.
- A raised shield stops a bash but not a kick.
- One that lands deals damage and drains the victim's posture and stamina like any blow (see Combat & Armor).
- It knocks an enemy on foot down for certain if he is still reeling from a posture break or posture tiredness, or has his posture emptied by it. Otherwise it's a roll against relative skill. The chance is higher from behind, against a man kicked or bashed moments before, against a tired man, and for a kick rather than a bash, and lower the heavier his armor. A man already down is not knocked down again.
What you see¶
With Posture GUI on:
- Your bars. Your posture bar, plus your stamina bar with the Stamina System on, are shown during battle.
- Your opponent. For a few seconds after you trade blows with someone, his name, health, posture and stamina are shown.
- Messages. Posture breaks are reported in the message log, including any crush-through damage.
With Slow Motion in Combat on (default), breaking an enemy's posture briefly slows the battle, as killing or knocking out an enemy does.
Other details¶
- A horse killed while running at speed in a field battle staggers the foot soldiers in its path.
- In tournaments, everyone's posture is reset between matches.
- Missile and melee hits from your own side don't touch posture.