Direct Wounding
Direct wounding is both the act of causing wounds directly to characters, as opposed to wounding them by winning skirmishes or using archery, and a broad strategy of wearing down characters with exertions and wounds rather than killing them in skirmishes. Free Peoples direct wounding strategies tend to aim to kill minions before they get to the end of their skirmish, while Shadow direct wounding strategies simply seek to apply wounds to wear down and kill companions before the end of the game.
Belying the name, direct wounding strategies usually incorporate both exertions and wounds. Except for the purpose of wound prevention, there's rarely any real difference between exerting an enemy character and wounding an enemy character unless that character is exhausted. If you have the option, wounds are better because they can kill characters, of course, and when you have access to both, you'll usually want to apply exertions before wounds so you can secure kills.
Direct wounding strategies often also incorporate archery, especially in the case of Shadow strategies. Archery is very effective for finishing off exhausted characters.
