Combat in The Meidlands can be a brutal, but highly engaging affair. The general mechanics follow the same pattern as all dice checks, but have additional features to enhance player agency, allow characters to commit to particular strategies (as long as the dice are in their favor), and provide a truly collaborative tabletop combat experience.
The turn order alternates between the players and the enemies, so the optimal strategies entail making the most of actions in your turn, while being prepared for the enemy’s.
Each character gets 4 actions. On their turn, an action is making a single attack, moving 15′ on normal terrain, casting a low to mid level spell, drinking a potion, etc. However, a character without reserved actions leaves themself extremely vulnerable: without those actions to spend on their opponents’ turn, they cannot actively parry, provide cover defense with a shield, fully commit to dodging incoming attacks, counterspell, or react to charging or fleeing foes. A character who gets surrounded gets done in by the inability to keep up with their opponents, so strategic positioning also becomes vital.
To this end, a given turn is played in common with the whole party. There isn’t an opportunity for a player to zone out on their phone waiting for “their turn.” A player may use an action or two and then another player jumps to take an action and onto a third before back to the first. The party can strategically take command of the field as a group, since, with mundane, and especially otherworldly horrors, neglecting collective strengths and mitigating weaknesses can be deadly in a round or two.
There are also rules for taking advantage of high successes on attacks and parries (granting repostés on your opponent’s turn), discarding weak would-be hits to build up a technical or positional advantage in a duel, or even turn a level engagement into an up-close, drag-out, on the ground brawl, which can be especially effective against those depending on heavy armor or long weapons.
There are simple mechanics for burning actions to gain better aim for a ranged attack and quick and effective rules for potentially devastating called shots.
Despite the “crunch” of the rules, with moderate familiarity, the system is lightning fast, strategic and constantly engaging in ways most tabletop systems rarely are.