This game is a lot like X-COM / XCOM where the gear actually matters a more than the soldiers. Losing men is fine and will happen, you just don’t want to lose your best gear.
I actually disagree with that. Early in the game yes, having a nice piece of equipment is better since all of your men are basically fodder at that point. Later on though, losing that level 8-10 guy with a full skill tree is tremendously painful. You can easily buy a decent weapon from mid-game on but replacing one of your veteran guys is just impossible. It takes a loooong time to level them all the way up to max.
I wasn’t saying the soldiers don’t matter - I just think the gear matters more. Losing a max level XCOM guy is VERY painful, but just like in XCOM, you can have spare men around and level them up slowly to fill in the spots. Replace a downed guy with a guy a few levels down and it’s not that big of a deal - as long as he has good gear. At least that’s my perception. I’m having a harder time finding good gear (and it’s VERY expensive) than replacing soldiers.
Initially I got attached to the three starting guys and did all I could to keep them alive. But there are better guys like hedge knights you can hire and develop into superior mercs so I learned not to hang on to the original team. I do try to develop a team member into an inspiring leader, and if one of the originals is that guy then I make the exception.
Bought this last night, been playing a lot ever since.
What a surprisingly addictive game - highly recommended.
(So far just on a beginner non-ironman game; hiring farm hands and the like is working out well enough (which I pretty much have to do anyway as I never have enough gold for the better guys.)
Now Jost Badhand.
Maybe he should be called Badhand Goodhand.
Maybe when it heals I should rename him Jost Goodhands.
Jost has also had a broken arm and a deep abdominal cut in other battles. He’s either the unluckiest or luckiest of our gang, depending on how you look at it.
How is it for an early access game?
Quite good. No bugs, a few things not yet implemented.
I believe official release is soonish.
They’re currently working on a massive update that will be the final one before it comes out of EA. I’d hold off until after the big update since it’s going to change and add a lot of stuff.
From today’s blog here: http://battlebrothersgame.com/
We’re beginning to wrap things up this week by finishing the last remaining items on our roadmap of things to make it into the final major update. The obituary is done, the veterans’ hall is now fully working, and we’ve added a whole bunch of smaller features. If all goes according to plan, you can expect the update to hit the beta branch of the game later in February. Let’s take a look at shiny new things!
Looking forward to this -“Mercenary companies that can be hired by your enemies to hunt you down.”
Thanks! I’ll hold off at least until that update.
I hope the strategic aspect is better than Mount&Blade. I was disappointed about how bareboned it was.
Yeah, I am hoping it is better than Doom’s strategic portion as well.
Every time this thread is bumped I am hoping it’s with news of the final release. Really looking forward to this one. I already bought it, but have been waiting for the final release.
Goodhand’s bad hand got worse. Hand.
What strategic portion did Doom have?
Sorry, just having fun with you, M&B seemed a strange comparison.
Earlier in the thread BB strategic layer was compared to M&B.
Except for the actual battles, which are obviously handled very differently, the strategic layer is very similar to Mount and Blade. You march your company around anywhere on the map, other things are also moving around like caravans, soldiers, bandits, orcs, etc., and you can visit cities to pick up quests and so on.