The problem was (and still is with Fighting Fantasy in my opinion), that if the two combatants involved in a fight are fairly well balanced in the Skill department then combat itself can become pretty much never ending, with neither participant being able to land a blow and all the excitement that's supposed to come with risking life and limb leaving you feeling rather limp instead.
So what I see as the best solution is to introduce the Spite Damage mechanic from Tunnels and Trolls.
All this means is that every six rolled in combat, inflicts a wound regardless of who wins or loses the round. In addition to this "lucky" damage, when "Testing your Luck" to increase the damage that you have inflicted this round a success doubles the amount, including Spite (rounding up) but, a failed test halves it (rounding down).
Effectively this would mean that you could potentially dish out 8 Stamina damage in one round with a successful Test of Luck and a double six, which I feel is a nice replacement for the Mighty Blow rule that kills an opponent outright on a double six.
Finesse also plays a big part in combat I feel, so I have also added a house rule that inflicts an additional point of damage upon the losing combatant for 3 points of difference there is between the combat totals.
For Example, Dave the Delver (Skill: 10) is locked in combat with Mr Generic Goblin (Skill: 5). From the outset it is clear that the Goblin is outclassed but being slow of wits he chooses to fight for the sake of fighting.
Dave rolls 5,4 for combat whilst the Goblin rolls 6,1.
Dave wins the round 19 to 12, inflicting 2 damage as normal but, also an additional 2 damage for his finesse. So the Goblin is taking a rather nasty 4 damage but, it's not all one-sided.
That 6 rolled by the Goblin inflicts a point of damage upon Dave regardless of the fact that he came out on top in combat.
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