epee

An epee is close to a dueling sword, but still pretty far from a rapier.

Foil and sabre are pretty wussy (light) compared to their real world equivalents but an epee is quite close to a rapier or dueling sword.

Many of us were routing for Korea today in the team women's epee event because of this.

This is particularly ugly in epee, because if you strike simultaneously, you both get a point.

It's like telling someone skilled with an epee she's going to have start breaking boards.

In short, foil to learn initial form and practice, and then move to epee.

If you took fencing at an Ivy League school for you PR requirement you would know all about foil, saber, and epee fencing.

If you’ve tried epee, moving to foil I believe would be hard and not as enjoyable.

I agree with you though that epee is the most fun, and also the most realistic.

In epee many points are scored off your hand or foot.

I know I myself while continuing to fence with foil for years, much preferred epee.

Our policy was to start people on foil with a strong focus on form for usually about a year before moving to Sabre or epee.

In Epee, if you poke someone in the toe, it "kills" them.

(I realize the arm position difference can create a challenge for some there ) “Foil is art, Sabre is theater, epee is truth”.

Epee fencing in particular favors defense, which is why the score is routinely so low.

Foil is definitely a better game to play, the problem is fencers (usually those starting from Epee) who are thinking of it as a duel.

Epee looks quite different, there’s no right of way and the score target is the whole body, so it tends to be slower.