Please note that there are significant differences between 2nd and 5th ed combat rules. In 2nd ed you rolled attack vs defense, and then if you hit you rolled damage vs soak. So separate to-hit and to-damage rolls, more dice rolled, mor risk of Botch or exploding dice. You could roll an exceptional attack roll, hitting for sure, but then rolling a Bleh damage roll or even not doing any damage.
In 5th ed there is only one roll for each side, if the attack beats the defense, the carry-over is added to Dam bonus and compared to Soak score. The attacker already had 1 die in his attack total, and the defender already had one die in his defense total. I don't know why it was chanhed, there are many reasons, but I like the simplicity.
So when looking at a weapon, it doesn't matter if it as a huge Dam stat, if yiu don't hit. And weapons with higher Atk bonus are more likely to hit, and therefor more likely to cause damage. And a really, really good attack with even just a dagger can potentially be a killing blow. This may be an abstraction of combat, saying than sometimes you strike that lucky blow, hit that chink in the armour, sever an artery etc.
Combat plays a minor role in ArM as I interpret it and how we play. It deson't need complex, simulationist rules. Sometimes I could wich there were more tacticla choices, but overall I'm satisfied.
If you want combat to be more than just consequetive rolls of dice followed by simple math, build a narrative into the combat situation, use the environment, be creative.
Make the scene about more than just combat between armoured fighters.
If there are magi involved, they must be protected, otherwise they will fail their Concentration rolls in order to cast spells.
If there are rival Hermetic magi as opposition, imagine an ongoing Certamen where both sides' shield grogs tried to distract the opposing magus while protecting their own.
Have non-combatants going for other objectives during the fight: seach and find something, disable or activate a portcullis etc
Don't fight on a field or empty courtyard, fight up or down a staircase, along the battlements of a castle, or between two moving river barges etc. Make situations where the environment can be used actively, is a risk for Botches, or limits choices for advancement or retreat.
I once ran a fight in a Rhine saga against the Boglin, an under-swamp-water tentacle monster. The troupe encountered it while searching a swamp, at the edge of soft ground with trees bordering a large body of water. Retreat was a slow walk in mud along the water with the monster, forward progress was blocked by a waterway.
An archer grog climbed a tree to get a vantage point for firing arrows. The magus cast Bridge of Wood to enable crossing the waterway, but it was just barely long enough and not anchored properly. The rest of the grogs ran for the bridge. But the monsters tenctacles not hitting grogs hit an grabbed the railing of the bridge. By and by the bridge was disloged on one end, turned at an angle, and starting to drift on the water. All the while grogs were franticaly trying to get either on, off, or across the bridge, dodging attacking tentacles, or attempting to free captured comrades before they were pulled to te monster's maw. That was a great fight.
Sometimes I miss simple rules for special situations; disarming, knocking people down or back, crippling a limb...but that I can easily fudge.
