Positioning around weapon skills

Plan around actual tile costs, skill range, and remaining fatigue, rather than the weapon’s damage number alone.

Inspect reach and control

The Polehammer has Batter and Demolish Armor at 1–2 tiles; Batter can strike through the front line, while Demolish Armor trades more fatigue for armor damage. The Spetum has Prong and Spearwall. Both reach two tiles, but they offer different damage and control jobs.

Check the whole turn

Flat-ground move, then attack

Assume a brother starts 3 tiles from an enemy, has 9 AP, 80 current fatigue and a post-equipment fatigue cap of 100. On a level plain, with no zone of control, height or extra terrain surcharge, one normal move step costs 2 AP and 4 fatigue. Move one tile toward the enemy, then use Polehammer Batter at its two-tile maximum range:

• Without Hammer Mastery: move (2 AP / 4 fatigue) + Batter (6 AP / 15 fatigue) = 8 AP and 19 fatigue. The brother ends 2 tiles from the enemy, with 1 AP and 1 fatigue capacity left.
• With Hammer Mastery: the same move and attack use 8 AP and 16 fatigue. Mastery multiplies skill fatigue cost by 0.75 and rounds up (15 becomes 12); Batter still costs 6 AP. The brother ends in the same tile, with 1 AP and 4 fatigue capacity left.

These are example costs, not a claim about every route: check the live movement preview when terrain, elevation, Pathfinder, a control zone or an earlier action changes the path or budget. The assumed current fatigue of 80 becomes 99 without mastery or 96 with it, both within the stated cap of 100.

Historical correction

Update 1.5.1 changed Strike Down’s interaction with an already-stunned target and fixed several Hook and Repel interactions. Older control-oriented advice needs checking after such changes.

See the weapon browser. Missing numbers mean unverified, not zero.

Choose the mastery by weapon family

Polehammer uses Hammer Mastery, not Polearm Mastery; Spetum uses Spear Mastery. For these weapons, mastery reduces skill fatigue by 25% but does not reduce Batter or Prong’s 6 AP cost. Polearm Mastery applies to actual polearms and can reduce Hook’s AP cost; a long silhouette alone does not decide the perk. Check the listed weapon skills and the live tooltip before spending AP.

Use combat fundamentals to distinguish equipment fatigue from skill costs, then check enemy mechanics for control immunities and dangerous exceptions.