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If it's a live situation then it depends on the distance i've been given.

Usually I tend to use my left hand to control the distance between myself and my opponant.

use the three D's (see my street fighting arcticle).

The then be pre-emptive with a right cross or hook.

If I haven't got time the use of the three D's i'll spit in the eyes/face and then use a right cross or hook the guy is already in my face then a headbutt.

If i'm sparring I like using a low round house and then use my hands (Jab, cross hook etc).

Or feint high and shoot in low for a double leg takedown. If I successfully mount i'll just pound them until they give me an opportunity to arm bar.

Each situation is diiferent though so I tend to go with the flow and capitalise on what ever opportunity presents itself.

Mine's pretty simple. I guess it's because of how I'm built.

But, in sparring, my blocking isn't all that good, so, not so much as a real technique as a stradegy, I just keep going offensive.
And while I know it tires me out a lot faster than it should, I manage to "kill" the guy before that happens in a normal spar match. And since it's with swords, well, it doesn't take that much to kill somebody anyway.
The whole stradegy for me is "Keep whipping it around until you kill it". XD
Well, that's in a no-holds barred. Most of the time we do points, just for sake of kendo the actual sport, and then I actually think before letting go.

In which case- god am I famous for leaving myself open so much - I really like the forehead strike.

The forehead strike is not a downward strike, comtrary to popular belief. It's entirely different, actually.

A downward strike is basically throwing down the blade with a lot of force to cut through the head (Basically, of course that's NOT going to happen).

A forehead strike is using minimal force to just crack the skull at the forehead, thus damaging brain responses and junk, and then you whip back quickly and watch them fall over.
Or, if they're lucky, struggle for a few minutes. Or seconds. Whichever.

For cutting tai mats(I never knew how to spell it, I am sorry, we never sat down and spelled our supplies, we only spoke). For Tameshigiri (formal cutting), our style is supposed to be Mu Shin Ryu, of no mind, meaning we think of nothing when we "kill" someone. (Tai mats, depending on how many you have, represent roughly the actual thickness of a human body part. One is usually a wrist, two an arm or leg, three a neck).

Well, this never worked for me. Trying to think of nothing just got my blade stuck halfway through the mat each time. So finally I kept repeating, "It's just a stick. Anybody can cut through a little twig". And after that I pretty much owned tameshigiri. sweatdrop

Hey, that's one of mine, too!

Dude, mine would have to be, the Donkey punch. or the a** up heads down technique. Least favorite? Snow Ball.

To be perfectly honest I have a tendency to go for evasion and/or grappling, if I get the chance.
Perhaps partially due to a few accidents while I started doing karate and ended up blocking and striking where it hurt when friends attacked me, more or less jokingly, I suppressed the more violent responses to being attacked. Counterattacking doesn't really come very naturally to me these days.

I suppose it's alright though, as beating someone up too severely, whether or not they attacked me first, can end up sending me to jail anyway.

Ah, the beauty of law and order.

In Sweden there is a law that forces the police to erase all records of criminal activity after four years, if the person in question hasn't been caught for any further crimes during that period. I don't think I've ever gotten further than a warning, so hopefully I'm not too well known to them.

Can't say I've done anything that serious anyway.

Kamehameha. When done right, no can defend.