Martial Artist - clarification

[Tehet]

As I have been preparing new cards for next year, one of the things I noticed was that the Martial Artist talent requires no hands.

Up to now I've rather seen it as limited to a faster Move and a useful tool if disarmed.

The question is this. If it requires no hands is the FV Bonus added on to whatever weapon the figure is using or does it allow a secondary attack as a weapon in its own right.

My monks await your answer...

[Blofeld]

I've always run it as a separate attack so you could stack it up with two one handed weapons and that for three attacks a turn. I may have been playing wrong but that was how I understood it. I'm sure Craig will be along soon to clarify
Hope that helps
Blofeld

[Craig]

Let us first go to the Holy Tome:

Martial Artist;
Can fight unarmed very effectively (using karate, kung-fu, aikido, jiu-jitsu, savate etc.) - see Weapons Table.
Also gains a bonus of +1 to Speed.

Weapons table
Unarmed (martial artist) FV+1 Pluck +0

Our intention was to give a person an effective attack using bare hands, elbows, knees and feet. So Martial Artist is an attack weapon in and of itself. Figures armed only with shooting weapons or who have lost their weapon to a fumble can thus fight without having to resort to fisticuffs (FV+0, Pluck +1).
It also gives you greater speed which, as we know, gives you an improvement to your defence when fighting, as the figure blocks and dodges their opponent's attacks.

It does not give a bonus to any handheld fighting weapons.

However, a martial artist with a decent FV and a pistol is a dangerous foe. They can shoot the pistol while in a fight in the shooting phase, then either concentrate their fists of fury onto a single opponent or split their attacks between two or more....