think that combat system may be a bit deeper than people think.
It definitely is. Personaly for me Warband feels very spamy compare to Chivalry. By spamy I mean that you can attack and block almost at any moment, there is no any weight in youre actions. Footwork, timing and tactics becomes useless if your enemy knows how to block. In Chivalry however you need to be extremely accurate. Every wrong action you do is a chance for your enemy to strike. Combos, kicks/shieldbash, ducking under swings(EPIC) and sometimes jumping above, dodging, sprint attacks, feints. Of course some M&B players may not like it because its different, or because they believe that nice deep melee game cant exist without warband directional combat.
It's nice video but these guys are s-key heroes
Blocking does seem harder than in cRPG, probably because you need better timing.
It can be hard can be easy, depends how skilled your oponent is. Basically there are 3 ways to break oponents defence: by timing, hit around a block and draining stamina.
You cant hold your parry like in warband, it stays for like 2 seconds. That allows to do some tricks with timing, making strikes faster or slower by moving your mouse, but mostly with feints. Even with slow weapon good feint is almost unblockable. Not so effective against shields though. Unlike parrys you can hold youre block with shield as much as you want.
You can hit above a block with overhead, you can jump above a block with thrust, or you can try to hit aside. All this things require footwork and accuracy. To counter such strikes you need to aim with your blocks, move it towards enemys weapon, even if you are using shield. Sometimes require good reflexes.
This is not implemented yet, but will be added soon. If your weapon is heavier, your oponent will lose extra stamina while blocking. So for example if you are using 2H maul and your oponent has a 1H sword, you dont really even need to hit him directly. Just force him to block few times and you will have the advantage.
btw I like how archers are implemented here. Powerfull, slow, decent in melee but cant kite like in crpg. Also they have +50% backstab damage, so they are more like archer/rogue class.