Combat

p

Knock Down
Clubbing people in the legs appears to have a good chance of knocking your opponent down, which will give you the chance to do more hits or run for it if the battle is turning sour. Stronger attacks to the legs can even put an opponent down for days if they survive further combat.

Mobility
If it hasn't changed, every point below 100% mobility reduces your skills by the appropriate amount. So at 94% mobility, a skill of 67% is actually a skill at 61%. Taking those few minor hits at the beginning of a battle could lead to more crippling wounds as the battle goes on. So drop those 80 lbs of meat before heading into battle; it won't go anywhere.

Block or Dodge?
Blocking uses your weapon/shield skill, so if your block ability is higher than your dodge ability, make use of it. Dodging however, allows all damage to be avoided if successful and also prevents damage to valuable weapons by keeping them out of unnecessary clashes.

Counterattack
Counterattack is an aggressive way of reacting while in combat. You can dodge and counter at the same time instead of just dodging an opponent's attack. The way to deal damage is the same as a normal attack. But be careful, both you and opponent could be damaged at the same time while you are trying to counterattack, so if you are already hurt then try not to use counterattacks since they are more difficult to use than normal combat maneuvers.

Ignore
Ignoring an opponent's move is very dangerous because you would get hurt even when an opponent makes a sloppy attack. If you don't want to waste your turn NEVER use it.

If you are wearing very heavy armor, and want use bows in close combat you may want to chance ignoring your enemy's attack. Ignore can also replace counter-strike and blocking to prevent dropping your weapon, though dodging is almost always a better option.

Position
Facing doesn't seem to affect damage dealt since if they see you, they're already facing you. Attacking when you're undetected (Hiding) means the game won't factor in their dodge skill (Though hiding doesn't seem to work well in the current version). However, if YOU get attacked from a square that you can't see (Darkness or being attacked from behind) you will ALWAYS get hit. In short, NEVER turn your back on an enemy while within melee range. Because of how debilitating even a single injury taken can be, all attacks should be made from behind to inflict more damage or kill before your opponent can react.

Targeting
Attacking different body parts has different effects on an opponent, regardless of what they may be. The legs will always affect their mobility and head-shots will almost always be more likely to kill an opponent outright provided they make contact. For humans, injuring the arms will affect their ability to hold and wield a weapon in the affected arm while most animals can be lamed or downed if a foreleg or wing is damaged enough. Generally, if the outcome of an attack is uncertain, the body is the best part to target since it is the easiest part to hit.

Targeting priorities can change considerably if your opponent is wearing armor. Armor on any part of the body can make aiming at those parts undesirable for fear of damaging a weapon unnecessarily, or having an attack completely stopped by the armor and wasting a turn.

Multiple Combatants
Being attacked by multiple enemies doesn't seem to increase the chances of being hit, but it does multiply the danger of getting flanked. Each attack will get rolled separately, which can exacerbate the penalty you get from fatigue.

Starting with 3.13-p1, every enemy after the first one that is next to the player will lower the player's combat skills by 10%.

Tip- if you're in a village and want to clear it out find a small house with no windows at the bottom of the village, make sure no ones in it and stand in the doorway (that way no one can come up behind you to attack)-(warning be prepared to face up to 3 combatants at a time and up to 12 total) hold (...)(period) until people appear in attacking view. After you think you've gotten everyone hold [.........] to confirm no more combatants. (keep the village as your own)

(Always make sure the village isn't joined to other villages) (make sure u have a fine-masterwork weapon such as a battleaxe, warflail or a kaumolais spear) (always use good protection)

NPC's will not enter water, to clear out a camp/town that borders water, step out 2 squares into the water so there is one square of water between you and the bank. no one will ever come within melee range, throw any ranged weapon until they are all dead.

Resources
Most of these came with disclaimers about being outdated, however they may give you a view of what weapons do what

weapon table

armor table

thoth's weapon table

toth's tribes table