I still don't understand combat...

[Nicolai]

Righto then..so..i've been trying to figure out the combat sytem for like..an hour straight but I havent been able to really grasp it. I read up on the guide on the wiki but I can't even kill ants, something tells me I keep doing something horribly wrong if ants can almost kill me.

[Sidran]

Try reading this.
Learn combat related skills to unlock different moves and attacks.
Get your melee skill up a bit.. I think 20 should be fine and then practice on ants. Try different tactics.
In my opinion, combat system has some bright spots but is very counter intuitive. I am a combat newb, so could easily be wrong.

[Folly]

The system is a bit convoluted, but I found it very fun once I got used to it. I developed three slightly different strategies for fighting weak, intermediate, and strong enemies.

For the weak ants, an all-out offensive should be adequate for even the greenest hunters. Don't worry about initiative and advantage and intensity just yet. Simply activate the Bloodlust maneuver and the Jump move, and each time your red bar fills you can throw out a Punch. Ants should go down after just a few punches.
Make sure you're attacking individual ants; don't start off by raiding the anthill. And so that you can use your combat skills quickly and efficiently, put the most used skills on your hotbar. Use alt+# to create a second hotbar if you don't want to clutter up your main hotbar.
And most importantly, never let yourself get hit in the back, or you'll go down fast. Only click the enemy once and your hearthling will move straight towards him, and don't try to run away unless you're sprinting as fast as you can.

[Pansy]

Try finding someone to spar with. This really helps. You get to try a few moves out. Begin by putting on bunny slippers and taking off any leather or armour. Other wise clogs, clothes and armour will get destroyed even though your hit points will fully restore the instant the sparring is ended.

With unarmed combat, just stick to a few moves first. Make sure your automatic defense is set to dodge.

If you want to raise your initiative, try charge.
If you want to raise your defense, try dash.
If you want to raise your attack, try jump.

Do those things especially the last two until your red and blue bars are full or near full and their red and blue bars are empty or near empty.

Then try punch.

If you want to try melee combat do the same things except you can carry a shield and use an axe. In that case make sure your defense is set to sheild. (If you have no shield Dodge will work fine.) and do the same things with charge, dash and jump to give yourself a combat advantage. Once you have combat advantage use chop.

Once you have mastered these basics through sparring find an ant hill near the water (in case an urgent retreat is required) and try out real fighting. You'll have a good idea how the combat is going before you notice a huge drain in hard hit points if you practice with sparring first.