Editing Mnemon Explains Solar Combat (section)

===Universal Offence===
''Use EVERYTHING at your disposal''

Listen to the tales of the most glorious of your kind, Anathema. Do you hear of how they stood still in a blank stone corridor, trading blows with their enemy until one fell?

No - their voices rung out over their battles. They fought in places fascinating in their own right, and with their hands changed them. They used allies, tools, vehicles, and every other thing Fate put in their path.

Listen to the tales of the failures amongst the Solars - how they stood still, or ran a little, how they treated battle grounds as if they were dojos, how they thought only of their daiklaves, and how the Wyld Hunt killed them.

These Solars died with their best weapons rusting in their sheaths, wondering how they were defeated when their essence remained unspent, their most powerful charms unused.

Look to your charms. Apart from the perplexing impotence of your horsemen and sailors, your non-combat charms are far mightier than your Dawn powers. Compare Masterful Performance Exercise to Excellent Strike. Speed the Wheels to Reflex Sidestep Technique. I'd strangle every living person on the Isle for such charms, and you would put them aside just because someone draws a knife?

"But Mnemon, the Wyld Hunt is warned about our powers. They're told we're silver-tongued manipulators, so how can we usefully use social charms on them?"

Rubbish! Are they not told you are powerful warriors? Do they not attempt to parry your blows? Do you not cleave their heads from their shoulders regardless?

Is there a third party on the field? Bring them into the battle on your side. Does your enemy have followers? Shatter their morale or win them over. Impressed by an honourable foe? Show them mercy and bring them under your banner. An opponent's defences too good? Taunt him into a rage. Either side using large bodies of troops? Use Bureaucracy charms to speed or slow the passage of orders. Enemy's daiklave not yet in his hands? Larceny charm. Kill an opponent out of sight? Use Perfect Mirror and infiltrate their ranks. Trying to discern the enemy's plan based on their actions? Ten Magistrate Eyes.

Have you been forced to fight in a location without interesting, useful terrain, or does the terrain favour the enemy? Change it. Smash a hole in the earth and push enemies in - you now have high ground. Enemy fortresses are there to be torn down. A river is a weapon waiting to be diverted onto foes. Towers can be toppled to make bridges or to crush foes. If the enemy is on flammable ground, burn it. Use your Craft and Athletics to make the field just the way you want it. Scenery doesn't dodge, and how can any action changing it not be a +2 stunt?

All of these abilities can be used before the battle to disadvantage the enemy, but they do not stop being useful when swords are drawn - and not only that, but when everyone's using combat magic anyway, who's to say whether the anima glow came from defence or a social time? Etiquette demands a time and a place for everything - battle is always a good time, and if the place isn't good enough, make it so with your fists.

Use everything on your character sheet. No character with ten Solar charms is useless in battle.