In oblivion fighting with a sword and a shield required no skill what so ever. all it took was holding your shield upuntill your opponent attacked, then they would recoil and you could get 2-3 hits in. it was stupid to attack first or else you would recoil and they would be able to hit you.

i know it has been said that if you use a sword to block attacks in skyrim, then you need to time your block so you cant just hold the block down the whole time untill your opponent attacks which sounds like a very good idea to me. i am still worried about recoiling after hitting a blocked attack.i think if you block an attack then the only thing that happens to your enemy is that they used up some fatigue, and also if you make an attack that is blocked then you only lose fatigue but can keep fighting. it would be a more fast paced way of fighting and require more skill. also if you are not a melee fighter then it would obviously be harder to fight, such as having a smaller window of oppertunity to conduct a block (.25 seconds instead of a full 1 second window of a trained fighter for example), but if you are good enough you can still pull it off and have a chance at winning the fight. i just really did not like the whole recoiling and being defensless for 2 seconds when fighting in oblivion.