rather than a series or sliders, which would get very cumbersome...i would suggest either a single slider as grono originally said, or stances.
I have been fighting with medieval weapons for a good while now, and there are many different stances, each with it\'s own strengths and weaknesses.
For example, two of the most common sword and shield stances are behind the head, and the Iron Chicken.
Behind the head offers good attacking options to land solid, well aimed shots on your opponent, especially the head, shoulders and knees.
Iron Chicken involves holding your sword on a slightly downward angle above your shield. It is tricky to use many of the basic attacks from this stance, but you have excellent defensive options.
There are probably dozens of stances for each basic weapon group, eg, sword(or axe or whatever) and shield, two swords, two handed sword, polearm, and longpike.
Wow, that was a long one...
Jessyn