I once sneaked up on a Njerpez warrior while wielding a rough woodsman's axe. It was dark, wintry, and I was good at being stealthy. Relatively new to the game, I didn't realize that a sneak attack automatically hit, so I chose to strike his body. The axe bit the warrior's leg so hard that he could no longer walk upon it, and he fell. Even though he had fallen, he proceeded to attack me with his woodsman's axe, which was better than mine. When he fumbled and dropped it, I (G)ot it from him. This process repeated itself when he fumbled his knife. Finally, he drew his scimitar and attacked me, beginning steadily to get the better of me, even though he was stuck prone! I looked and saw that he was clad in metal armor - a stark contrast to my furs - so I ran away and went home to lick my wounds.
I came back to where he was the next day, finding him flopping about in the snow. Clearly the weather had not killed him like I thought it would, but I wasn't about to re-engage him in melee. Instead, I cut down a number of young trees and made about nine javelins, and proceeded to throw them at him until enough of them connected and rendered him unconscious. Poetically, I then beheaded him with his own axe.