Heroic Lands

Press

A shove: putting an opponent where you want them, and sometimes on the ground.

A press is not an attack on the body but on the footing — a shoulder or both hands driven into an opponent to move them off their line. It wounds nobody. What it does is break a shield wall, shove a spearman off a bridge, or open the ground between you and a doorway.

Winning the Melee test earns an opposed Strength Trial (d6 + STR), at +2 per Impact Tactical Advantage and +2 if you pressed out of a Charge. If the presser wins the Trial as well, the margin decides what happens:

MarginEffect on the opponent
1–4Knocked back five feet.
5–9Knocked back five feet, and a Stumble mishap roll.
10+Knocked back ten feet and prone, and a Shock Roll against Shock Index 6 — 7 at a margin of 30–49, 8 at 50 or more.

Otherwise there is no effect at all. A press against someone markedly stronger is simply a wasted turn.

Only one Strength Trial is made per opposed Melee test, and only a combatant who initiates one and wins it may inflict the special effect. A counterstriking manoeuvre therefore cancels the attacker’s — whoever won the Melee test gets the Trial.