This is the first time we've encountered first ward. Normally, people learn first ward vs. half-shield. Instead, we learned third ward vs half-shield which is more or less identical.
First ward
First ward is held with the sword pointed backwards under the buckler arm - even tucking the sword into the armpit. From this position you can make strikes from the left, typically a left oberhau, a left mittelhau, a left unterhau, but also the stichslach. In fact, the stichslach is probably easier to do from first ward than third ward. The way to make a left oberhau or stichslach from first ward is to push out your buckler arm and rotate it clockwise (as if you were making a punch). This gets your elbow out of the way of your sword. You cut to a position with your buckler on your right. With buckler control, you can then move your buckler over your sword hand onto the left hand-side, which now frees your sword hand. This is illustrated in the image below.
The play
As usual, we have (up to) six stages.
Before the fight
The coming in
a) I attack, or b) They attack
I defend
a) I control and win, or b) They control and win
We grapple
Stage 1 Before the fight
At some point, I see that my opponent (the defender) is moving into, or is lingering in, First Ward.
Stage 2 The coming in
Seeing my opportunity, I step in and strike into Krucke on the right.
Krucke is said to be a rare counter-ward, used only by the Priest and his students. It is only explicitly shown against first ward.
This is where we run into trouble: what on Earth is happening in the above image?
Given that the primary attack from first ward is a stichslach (or a right oberhau), on this occassion, Krucke is likely to be a held with a vertical blade on the right. It needs to be held high enough that it protects against both a low thrust from their left, and the left oberhau. This is somewhat like Alfred Hutton's seconde guard.
Stage 3a I attack
As usual, if they fail to react, I make an attack. From Krucke I can fairly easily rotate back into a half-sword-like position (with the buckler crossing over my sword hand) and make an oberhau or a thrust. In the illustration below, the Priest was in Krucke and has attacked the student (this is one of things that makes i.33 hard to follow - the roles of the Priest and the Student frequently change in the illustrations).
The play ends here and the sequence starts again, this time moving to 3b.
Stage 3b They attack
This is where the play gets a little complicated. There are several attacks they can make.
The attack that I want them to make is to attempt a stichslach to the right of my sword, or a rising unterhau.
The better attack they can make is to bring their sword to the left of my sword (from my perspective), which blocks my attack. It also sets them up for a thrust to my belly, or a shield-knock and Nucken.
The third option is that they themselves go into Krucke and bind me.
Stage 4 I defend
Since I'm already in a defensive position, my defence is likely to be a turn of my body to the right, or to the left, depending on what attack they are making. The key to the defence is the counter-attack I make...
Stage 5a I control and win
If they attempted the stichslach to the right side of my sword (from my perspective), or if they attempted to make their own Krucke, then I simply bring up my point and thrust them from below, as shown in the illustration below.
However, if they attempted to attack the left side of my sword (from my perspective), my defense is to grapple. To grapple, I maintain a bind on their sword with mine (pushing their sword out to my left), and I step forwards. I separate my buckler from my sword. Then I wrap my buckler arm around both of their arms. This is similar to the grapple in the play of Third ward vs. Hanging-ward, but my sword hand is on the right side of my buckler this time.
This ends the play.
Stage 5b They control and win
If they have attacked to the right of my sword (from their persective), before I can initiate a grapple, their best bet is to quickly shield-knock my buckler, and then Nucken.
This ends the play.
Stage 6 We grapple
I will omit this section as grappling is described in stage 5a.
Videos
I.33 - Crucke vs Prima Custodia - YouTube - this shows some of the play but not all variations.
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