ok, imo combat is not that bad as people say. as it is right now, just slowing the swings a bit would make it much more skill based since we would be able to dodge or parry, also give us different weapon reaches and u will have a very nice combat system, were people will have to time their attacks and when to go in to try to hit, distances will become important cos of the different ranges of the weapons (from a knife to a stave or w/e), so with just 2 tweaks , SWING SPEED and WEP RANGE we get a very skilled based combat for the moment.
im just suggesting something that can be done easily so we have something decent while they work out the combat like they want. mount and blade basis are these, diferent swing rates and ranges, so everything is based up on timing ur hits etc.