Rodent Wars Forum

Because it's shield combat (only slow strikes go through a Dune energy shield) it's supposed to be different, and it is. There's more feinting, the real attacks are slow, and you can afford to take a hit because of the shield.

I asked a friend who makes knives and does some martial arts, and he says it's pretty good. The moves look a lot like silat, an Indonesian knife martial art where you block primarily by striking at their arm. It's also like kali (also known as escrima) a Philippine martial art based around stickfighting.

In kali, there are ten basic strikes, which you can learn about here. I've watched the gif frame by frame. In the first fighting shot of the gif, Gurney attacks with Strike 1, and Paul blocks with his forearm. Gurney uses Strike 2, and Paul either parries or does a Strike 1 with his right knife. Paul then replies with a Strike 2, throwing Gurney's arm aside.
     In the next shot, Gurney is swinging downward in Strike 9. Paul blocks with his left hand and throws Gurney off balance, then drops down and winds up for a Strike 4 as Gurney comes down with another Strike 2. Both strikes land, but are stopped by the shields.

Gurney's footwork doesn't look great, but Paul's is good from what I can see (it's the movement advantage that allows him to make that knee strike). Really, I'd say that's great closing skill. I've recreated that move in sparring with friends, and I think that it would only work if you close, throw the enemy off balance (like Paul does) and then dropped down to strike. That aiming for the leg instead of the side is a bad idea is probably not true, because your opponent is striking at you and will expect you to stay high. So whether the move is a good idea depends on the context, which the trailer doesn't show. Gurney probably should've be ready for something like it, but since we don't have the whole fight I can't say whether Paul made a foolish rush or a brilliantly timed one.

The swords/knives they're using are called kindjals. Unlike the book, they're straight-bladed and single-edged. It's similar to the Japanese sword called the Dao. Here's some dao sparring:

It's quite similar to Dune.


Overall, I'd say Dune seems very accurate thus far.
Rating: 8/10

EDIT: Copied this to the new Knife Fighting thread as well.