Right of Way saves the day. Or not.

Right of way (Hereby ROW) is the basic theory behind foil that makes us special. ROW basically means that you are not allowed to make a suicide touch (unlike those crazy epeeist).

ROW is established by threatening your target (ie Raising and extending your arm and taking a step forward). Once ROW is established you have the right to attack UNLESS you hesitate. Hesitation means you instantly loose ROW.

So you attack...and they parry. You no longer have ROW now because they took control of your blade and pushed it off target. They now have the right to attack you, unless you can pull off a remise (Will be described at the end).

So they parry, and will most likely be attacking you now (Also known as the riposte). To regain ROW you MUST parry them back. If you simply try an hit again and they hit you, you loose.

The only exception to not parrying is that you remise, or push through with your original attack and still hit them after the parry. This method normally only counts if you can hit a one light.


An example of action:

Fencer A attack, has established ROW.
Fencer B parries attack, obtains ROW.
Fencer B riposte.
Fencer A parries B's riposte, obtains ROW.
Fencer B lunges and hits A. A hits B with a lunge at the same time, slightly after B lunged.
Fencer A wins the point because B did not establish ROW.