Since all characters in the clearing (the White Knight) are hidden, the Dragon's head starts out light side up. The main Dragon counter is purple side up because he is tremendous.
A round of combat is as follows (this is a simple version of the actual sequence of play):
His other FIGHT counters are still useful in alerting his weapon during the encounter step however. Since his FIGHT time needs to be less than 6 and his weapon's time is 6 on the un-alerted side, alerting his weapon would be a very good thing. (His FIGHT time needs to be less than 6 because that will guarantee a hit on the Dragon.
He doesn't need a MOVE counter since he isn't going to be attacked this round.
Now, on to combat:
The Dragon is put on an unused Melee sheet and the White Knight places his attention chit on it. He then puts his FIGHT T5* and his Great Sword in an attack circle, let's say he chooses "swing". The player puts the Dragon's body in the "Charge & thrust" square and the head in "Duck & Smash" and rolls for repositioning. A roll of '4' means no change so the Dragon stays in "Charge & Thrust". Roll 2 dice to see if the head "changes tactics" and a roll of 4,5 means no.
The White Knight guessed the wrong maneuver but still hit the Dragon because of his Attack time of 5 vs the Dragon's Move time of 6. The White Knight does Tremendous damage to the Dragon, killing it. The player records 10 FAME and 10 NOTORIETY.
Since the White Knight only used one '*' this round (his FIGHT T5*) he doesn't have to fatigue.
Note, experienced players wouldn't have bothered with all the steps. The White Knight would have just said, "I alert my weapon with my FIGHT H6, and kill the dragon with my FIGHT T5*."
The Swordsman, who happens to be nearby, sees an opportunity. This turn he uses his "clever" ability to go first, moves to the Captain's clearing, and blocks him before he can take his own turn. So the two end the day in the same clearing, and the Swordsman tries to deliver the coup de grace:
CAPTAIN: has short sword, helmet, and shield active; the sword is unalerted since he lost his turn and didn't take an Alert phase (weapons start every day white side up) Fatigued chits: Move M3** M4* M4* M4*(he was using the M3** every round to dodge the bats, and was forced to fatigue it on the last round) Wounded chits: Fight M4* M5 H5* Active chits: Move M5, Fight M3** M4* H5* H6 (he kept the H chits active to fight the bats with)
SWORDSMAN: has thrusting sword active; he didn't take an Alert before he reached the Captain's clearing, so it also starts combat unalerted Active chits: Move L2** L3* L3* L4 M4*, Fight L2** L2** L3* L4 M3** M4* M5
Round 1: at each step (except picking targets) the characters play in the order {Swordsman, Captain}, since the Swordsman took the first turn of the day.
The Swordsman's goal is to prevent the Captain from running away, and to avoid the Captain's attacks until he can land a blow through the Captain's armor. Since every round he faces a 1/3 chance of being hit and killed, the Swordsman wants to finish the fight as quickly as possible, so he wants every stroke to count.
The Captain wants merely to survive the combat. If the Swordsman gives him the chance to run away he'll do so, but otherwise he hopes he'll be lucky enough to land a blow early. His only advantage is that the Swordsman has to play his slower M Fight chits in order to damage the Captain's armor (otherwise the blows will glance off). He'll hide behind what's left of his armor and cross his fingers.
Encounter step: the characters can play Move chits on each other to "charge" and prevent them from running or taking other actions. Swordsman gets to play first, and he plays a Move L4 against the Captain. This commits the Swordsman to remaining in the clearing and to attacking the Captain. It also prevents the Captain from playing Move or Fight chits slower than 3 for the rest of the encounter step. Captain charges no one (there's no one else in the clearing, and the Swordsman is already blocking him).
The characters can now each take an action. Since the Swordsman used a Move chit to block, he must pass his action. The Captain now has the opportunity to activate a treasure (he has nothing useful), play a Move chit to leave the clearing, or a Fight chit to alert his weapon. Since Swordsman played a Move 4 on him, he can't run away; none of his active Move chits have times lower than 4. He could play a Fight M3** to alert his sword, but since there's no advantage to alerting a short sword (both sides of the weapon counter have no time number and the same damage), and he wishes to keep the fight chit for combat anyway, he passes.
(Note that any moves or fights played during the encounter step can't be used again during that round, and count towards the total "fatigue level" each character can play. So the Swordsman can't use his Move L4 again until next round; if the Captain had played the Fight M3**, he wouldn't have been able to use it later in the round, and he would have also reached the two-star limit.)
Melee step: the characters pick targets in random order. Since the two already know each is attacking the other, this step is trivial. Otherwise all characters in the clearing would be chosen randomly one at a time, and each in his turn would have to announce who his target was (before knowing who the people after him were going to attack).
After targetting, everyone plays attacks and maneuvers secretly, then all plays are revealed simultaneously and resolved. Attacks hit if their time numbers are lower than the move times of their targets, or if attack and move are in the same direction. (Combat works like two-way scissors-paper- stone with the addition of speed factors.) Damage and striking order are determined once all attacks are checked for hit or miss.
The Swordsman knows that he can automatically hit the Captain if he plays an attack of time 3 or better (the fastest move the Captain can play is time 4). But his thrusting sword is unalerted, and the white side of the counter has a time number of 4 listed, so any attack he plays with it will be time 4. Thus he conserves resources; he plays a Fight M5, which costs no fatigue, does additional damage, and will still play as time 4 with the sword. He plays the attack in Swing, because he wants to either destroy the shield or kill the Captain if he hits (if he Smashes the helmet will block the strike). He maneuvers with a Move L3* (which matches the Captain's fastest possible attack) in Charge.
The Captain wants to avoid an automatic hit from the Swordsman, so he plays a Move M4*. He takes Duck as his maneuver, since if the Swordsman's attack matches directions he'd rather take the hit with his helmet. For his attack, he would like to use his Fight M3**, perhaps catching the Swordsman unawares, but this would exceed the two-star-per-round fatigue limit. Since any higher time attack will only hit if it matches the Swordsman's maneuver, he also conserves resources and plays a Fight H6 in Swing. He plays his shield to cover one of the other two attack directions, and puts it in the Dodge oval.
All plays are revealed, and hits determined. The Swordsman's attack was in the wrong direction (Swing vs Duck) and tied with the Captain's move time 4, so it missed. The Captain's attack also missed (Swing vs Charge, attack 6 slower than move 3). A missed attack allows the character to flip his weapon to the alerted side, so both will begin round 2 with alerted swords. Both sides must also pay for fatigue: if either character had used two stars worth of chits during the round, he would have to take one star's worth of chits out of play. Neither did (Swordsman played Moves L4 L3* and fight M5, Captain played Move M4* and fight H6), so they go on to the next round.
Round 2: the Swordsman must again play a Move chit to charge the Captain if he wishes to prevent him from running (he must do this every round). Again he plays a Move L4. Neither takes an action, so the melee step begins. They target each other, and each makes his attack and maneuver plays:
The Swordsman can now play an attack of time 3 (no time number on the red side of the thrusting sword). He has to decide whether to use a Fight L3* (which will do nothing if his attack strikes armor) or a Fight M3** (which will keep him from playing a Move L3* as a maneuver). He's still wary of a time 3 attack from the Captain, so he chooses the weaker attack, playing Fight L3* in Thrust to avoid the helmet, and Move L3* in Charge again.
The Captain knows he'll be hit this turn if the Swordsman plays a time 3 fight chit, so he goes all out in the attack, playing Fight M3** in Thrust (still having to guess which way the Swordsman will move), and Move M5 in Duck again. His only hope is that his shield will block the attack, and he again plays it the Dodge oval.
Plays are revealed: the Swordsman's attack time of 3 is less than the Captain's move time of 5, so it automatically hits. The Captain's attack and the Swordsman's move both have time 3, and since they were played in the same directions (Thrust vs Charge) the Captain also hits.
All hits must now be resolved in order of time and weapon length. In any round of combat but the first, attacks that were played with lower attack time number are always resolved before attacks of high time number. (During the first round of combat, longer weapons strike before shorter weapons.) In this case, both attacks had time 3, so the times are tied. In order to break the tie, weapon lengths are compared; since the Swordsman's thrusting sword (length 4) is longer than the Captain's short sword (length 3), it strikes and does damage first.
First we check to see if the attack strikes armor. Since the attack was played in Thrust, and the Captain had his shield and helmet in the Dodge and Duck ovals, it gets through. (Had it struck armor, the attack would have done less damage, and wouldn't have hurt the Captain.) Next we calculate damage level: the thrusting sword is L weight with one sharpness star, and the attack was played with an L Fight chit (which equals but doesn't exceed the weight of the weapon), so the attack inflicts L raised one level = M harm. Since this damage equals the Captain's Medium vulnerability, he suffers a serious wound. The Captian rolls two dice and gets a 4, 6, he must wound 6 chits. Unfortunately, he only has 5 chits active so he dies immediately. The Captain's attack is therefore cancelled (and the Swordsman is safe).
Since there are no other combatants in the clearing, combat is essentially over for the day. When one character kills another, the winner immediately gets all the dead character's gold and possessions, so the Swordsman gets to take the Captain's weapon and armor, and adds the Captain's recorded gold points to his own. He also gets the Captain's notoriety points. Not bad for a day's work...