Combat in Steel Age

Contests of control, pressure and timing — not hit-point attrition.

Steel Age combat is simpler than it looks. Most exchanges resolve in one or two opposed rolls, and a fighter who already holds Momentum often needs only one. Everything else in the chapter handles the exceptions. A round is roughly five seconds.

The round

• Opening Phase — Opening Order is rolled once at the start of the fight and holds for every round after. Those not yet engaged move, shoot, prepare, or commit. Hesitate and the moment is taken from you.
• Engagement Clash — the fight for control of the flow. The winner takes Momentum over the foe they declared.
• Momentum Press — only a combatant holding Momentum may press, and the defender rolls to resist. All presses are rolled, then resolved highest first, because the quickest press can break another fighter's control before they act.
• Damage is the same roll — no separate damage die. Take the raw margin between the two rolls, add lethality and attribute, and set it against Resilience.
• Aftermath — fatigue lands, morale is checked, and the bleeding tick. Fatigue never touches the round it was earned in; it comes due in the next.

At 0 Health, the Trauma Check is immediate. Survive it and you are incapacitated and bleeding out — unless someone reaches you.