Battle Brothers Hits Early Access

You can tell what armor and weapons Raiders are using from how it appears graphically. Use armor and weapons pages on the wiki to familiarize yourself with what they look like, their damage range and durability.

I guess I just wish this info (enemy attributes, abilities, and equipment stats) were included in the tooltips during the battle. I’m not a fan of needing to jump back and forth between the game and a wiki, or keep notes on that type of thing as I figure it out on my own. Maybe they left that stuff out of the tooltips because they expect the player to want to discover that on their own. I do like figuring strategy out on my own, just not basic stats by fighting and dying.

So, I bought the hame during its early access phase, but quickly put it aside to wait for the full release. Now, all this recent discussion and @jpinard’s tale in the other thread have made me come back to it. Wow, this game is great!

I had a successful campaign on the easiest settings, but it all felt a bit too easy, so I moved up to the middle difficulty levels on ironman. Let’s just say that the average lifespan of my mercenaries has plummeted. It feels like the equivalent of jumping from easy to hard in most games, but I love it. Every choice needs to be made carefully. This game has me hooked now.

Any advice from you veterans for this harsh new world of medium difficulty settings? I feel taking the student perk might be a trap, at least for the early members of the company. It’s a longshot that mercs will survive long enough for it to pay off, so I want something that improves the soldier’s and the company’s fortunes immediately. What’s your take on it?

I loaded up my save that was just prior to my last battle where my party died, with the intent of just looking at the tooltips for the brigands and raiders. I decided to replay that battle that wiped my party out and won without losing any of my guys.

I still wish that I could see the enemy stats in game to decide if someone is too tough to fight. That’s really main main complaint as the battle system is cool. It has the things I like in a tactical game - zone of control and attacks of opportunity, meaningful terrain, different abilities, etc…

I find that in Ironman Vet, taking Colossus instead of Student gives the team a lot more longevity. The trade off is that you reach the higher levels slower. But in Veteran Ironman games, you need survivability.

The high powered brothers that you want to build can wait until later when you are having a good cash flow to hire better tier professions like Militia and the even better Sellswords.

Yep. I never take student anymore. That first pick is usually Colossus for the survivability or the one that lowers the damage threshold for wounding. For people with light weapons that attack twice that can be a lifesaver as it lets you cripple an enemy early. I particularly like it on bowmen.

I too wish there was more detailed info in-game or a proper manual, but the game is what it is and from discussions with the devs, it appears that at least early on during game development, they did clarify that they preferred to keep some things hidden (or to be intuited graphically) and to let players find things out on their own.

Technically, it is certainly possible to not know exact enemy stats and do without a wiki. A good number of players started playing during Early Access (which took place over a few years with many builds) and there was either no wiki back then or a very rudimentary one. Nor did the battle log have the details it now has. As you might expect, we learnt by feel and experience, playing through basic scenarios as tutorials and poring over dev blogs for little snippets of info. I think I can safely say virtually all of us had our fair share of deaths and fails, I know I certainly have.

But I think the Early Access players also understand that not everyone wants to die and reload repeatedly to test and figure things out. Some just don’t have the inclination nor the time for it, and others felt as you do (that stats should be visible for any turn based tactics game so that informed choices can be better made in battle or before engaging), which is why the wiki was made. As with every game, there is a learning curve and no one starts out being thoroughly skilled, but hopefully the wiki reduces the time required to get into grips with basics and makes the playing experience a little smoother.

It’s a bit hard to give specifics without knowing the details of the issue. It is possible that you might have simply encountered an enemy party very substantially stronger than yours, in which case an ordered retreat and avoidance might be the best solution.

But if having issues with most battles early on, I would say try to improve hit chances and defenses as much as you can. That generally includes using weapons with hit bonuses such as spears, swords, pitchforks, etc, making good use of Surround and terrain bonuses and focus firing vulnerable (poor armor) or dangerous units (2-handers) first. Defense wise, the frontline should be equipped with at least wood shields (shieldwall improves survivability markedly in the early game) and everyone should have at least some armor (cloth will do if there is nothing else but the frontline should get the best pieces). Aim to hire cheap backgrounds with modest bonuses to either Melee/Ranged Skill, Defense or Fatigue.

I would also recommend not expanding the party too quickly as enemy numbers scale with yours. A decently geared brother who can carry his weight in a battle can be worth more than 2 poorly equipped ones who can’t. You will need at least 6 to deal with Hoggart and keeping the band between 6-8 for the first several days may make early battles a little more manageable.

On Student, it’s a pretty decent perk to help late recruits catch up in levels. As for whether early recruits and your first few Companions should take it, is largely a matter of taste and playing style. If there aren’t any particular other early perks that interest you and you are able to manage just fine, keeping core recruits alive all the way to the late game, taking Student as a long term investment for XP gain is not objectionable. On the other hand, if having trouble with early battles, I would favor perks that immediately improve power (ie Fast Adaptation) or survivability (ie Colossus). Perks are generally quite balanced in the final release and there’s a case to be made for each, depending on playstyle and circumstance, so don’t take my recommendations as something set in stone.

This is something that dawned on me last night. I got lucky and found a 90-points damaged armor and a damaged morningstar for cheap after only a few days. That one super-equipped soldier really carried the whole team for the next few fights. Fewer soldiers also means more xp per company member for a any given fights.

I don’t think that the combat is my main source of problems. It’s very challenging, but I find it quite manageable and fair. I have a good handle on the required tactics. Still, overconfidence is my main weakness, and it’s punished swiftly!

The real challenge will be getting rid of the bad habits I picked up while learning the game on easy mode. I’m getting there though. Getting attached to individual soldiers, even the three starting companions? Nope. Spending two days delivering cargo to the other end of the map for 90 gold? Nope. Taking a mission in a crypt or graveyard in the first week? N-O-P-E!

Learning all this stuff by playing the game is really fun. Isn’t that what’s called the Chick Parallelogram? ;)

I think part of the cause for the big jump in difficulty is the unforgiving feedback loop between the combat and economic sides. This is a game where Pyrrhic victories are a frequent possibility, especially with low renown in the early days. Limping around with no tools or medical supplies means a sad end is in store for the company.

This is something that’s great about the game. There doesn’t seem to be one ultimate build that’s clearly superior to all others.

Thanks for the advice and encouragement!

We have to live with the design decision for better or for worse.

One of my chief gripes is that it costs so much just to find out if a hireling is good enough for the job.

Tip: Read the background notes carefully. They can typically give a sense of how a recruit will turn out. Avoid negative descriptions like the plague.

I think this is a good compromise, let the captain slowly improve with each new hireling.

Example:
0-10: hirelings - beginner. Can only see background.
11-20: hirelings - grunt. Can see the best and worst score.
21-25: experienced. Can see 1 random additional score.
25 hirelings + 5 mid-tier (1k and above) hirelings: Can see 1 random trait if they exist
… etc

This adds a good progression (which is not cheap) and removes ambiguity to the game that all players can appreciate.

It also enhance the RPG experience and rewards ironman play and discourages save scrumming.

That is a cool mechanic.

The initial 3 Companions are all pretty decent men (wasn’t always so during Early Access, but that’s another story), especially when compared to other early recruits. While there is no need to get too attached, I do feel keeping them around is generally a good idea as they are the core fighters in the early game. If I were forced to choose one to be sacrificed, it would probably be the spearman. The 2-handed axe wielder has good potential to be a strong meleer and the crossbowman has better average Ranged Skill than any other background except Hunters.
I actually think it would be nice to have an achievement where the 3 Companions are still in the company at retirement, just like having Dismas and Reynauld make it to the endboss battle in Darkest Dungeon.

I agree that transporting cargo doesn’t pay much, even in the late game. However if the distance is fairly short and the party was heading towards that settlement anyway, I wouldn’t mind picking the contract up. Apart from the gold, getting +25 Renown is always nice as it improves contract payout.

Wiedergangers and Nachzehrers should be fairly easy to tackle early on. Use Spearwall and watch them walk mindlessly into it.
Early contracts involving artifact retrieval from crypts, on the other hand, will net you an encounter with Ancient Auxiliaries, which is a different ballgame. Flails are good weapons here as these foes have Shield Expert and will not hesitate to use shieldwall to further boost their defenses. Spears are still useful for their hit bonus and zone control but do only halved damage. Archers should opt for a reach weapon where possible (yes a pitchfork also does halved damage but it’s better than plinking away at 20% damage via arrows). In short I would say these are doable towards the later half of the first week but you may need a little more preparation than in other battles.
Of course in many cases, you can opt to retreat from the battle (incurring -15 Renown and a drop in mood) and still be able to finish the contract.

On having a harsh feedback loop between combat and economics:
There’s no simple solution to improving combat performance but every little bit helps, better gear, better stats, making good use of delay/surround and deciding which enemy groups can be safely tackled without taking too much damage or casualties is largely a matter of experience and how the party is set up. Having more ranged attackers makes it more likely that enemy forces will charge your lines, which can make battles considerably easier as that gives your forces a first strike advantage and potentially the most favorable terrain as you can decide where to engage.
When facing overwhelming odds, it’s probably more prudent to retreat, preferably after making it to the map’s edge than to try to battle and end up with a pyrrhic victory.

Early on it’s a good idea to check out prices for the various settlements and see where essentials like tools and medicine can be bought relatively cheaply. In general, when buying you’ll find the best prices at Village Halls and Fortified Manors, whereas you should aim to sell spare gear at City Halls and Strongholds. The same also applies to buying and reselling trade goods. Prices are discussed in more depth here.
The key to having decent earnings in the early midgame is to repair tier 2, 3 weapons before selling as sell prices scale proportionally with remaining durability. Repairing low level armor on the other hand, is a drain on tools with a net loss upon selling.

Yea I agree that hiring could perhaps be made a little less random. I think there have been several suggestions over the years, but the devs have kept to the original scheme, claiming that they had already factored in that players would need to waste some gold on subpar recruits.

I like the idea that the captain improves his skills and judgement with each hire, however seeing ‘best’ or ‘worst’ scores is a little subjective as backgrounds have different stat ranges and depending on how it is implemented may also reveal too much. Paying a certain amount in advance proportional to hiring cost to reveal one of say 3 scores could cut down a bit on randomness but I suspect the devs probably don’t want to commit to rebalancing the hiring process at this stage.

Not that the hiring is anywhere near “balanced” judging from the feedback of players who save scrum to hire. =)

Thanks for all the advice, it’s quite useful!

I agree with you guys about the hiring crapshoot being somewhat annoying. @cicobuff’s idea is interesting, but it may push the game too far into Football Manager territory and detract from the immersion.

What about an “interview process” where you select one of your current brothers to test one or two skills? Different backgrounds could influence the outcome of the event, i.e. a swordmaster’s opinion on melee skills would be more reliable than a cultist’s, or a prospective hire with the adventurous noble could refuse to abase himself to such a test.

Obvious physical deformities like being tiny or fat that negatively/positively impact stats should be, well, obvious. I don’t know why they can’t be known before an offer is made.

Discoverable things, like knowing someone is a coward or has iron lungs, is something that should only be revealed after they join.

And eunuch?! Too much information!

Come on, the icon alone justifies its inclusion!

Well, on day 20 something my battle brothers ended and the game spit out a score of 9.

I had just fulfilled my 3rd renown project and I got a nice new battle standard. Things can turn sour real fast.

I find that the background info is not totally random and contain clues as to what the recruit will turn out.

Sometime I feel that playing with the day in mind is not helpful for my gameplay mindset. I have died many times in the past taking on jobs just because of the day and forgot that my squad lacks the perks and equipment to handle the next higher tier of well paying jobs.