Hi Resolve definitely helps (most of my front liners have like 70-80 when buffed by bannerman) keep from getting charmed, but the worst or most troublesome part is dealing with the hex (where she places a curse on a brother who then receives the same damage she does.) I too have gone at her with dogs but when my high resolve melee masters were no longer getting charmed now one of them would die from the hex!
My strategy, and so far I have been lucky enough to only fight groups of 1 Hexe and her minions, is to let my high resolve or poor melee guys start with their main weapons out. The rest I give clubs (main is in their bag, just in case she’s got Unholds or something). Why clubs? Because they can stun! So now I keep the dogs tied up, charge in, kill her minions, and then stun her (hex’d brother still takes some minor damage) let the hex wear off then kill the Hexe. The last couple groups have been easy peasy but I’m worried what will happen when I start getting more than 1 Hexe.
My guys are all level 2-5, so resolve ranges from mid 30s to 60s. How to you ensure everyone has such high resolve? Kick out low resolve guys? Skills? I have been raising it with every level gained, but I am finding it difficult to get it as high as I need it to be. I am getting more hexe fights now as well, so have been avoiding them. Also need it high for the alps fights of course too.
Alps got nerfed a bit in todays patch, but I don’t find them too difficult. I just have everyone go in naked, and then stay spaced out and they aren’t a problem. Hexes are still impossible for me.
I don’t know if it’s deep. You walk around, visit towns, and take contracts for (mostly) fights. The fights and building up your group is a ton of fun though. There is a real sense of improvement to it as you level up and get better gear. It’s a ton of fun, just not deep (or wide).
I finally beat a hexe. She had a bunch of spiders with her which were easy to defeat and she only managed to charm one guy who managed to miss on most of his attacks.
The skull ratings are completely out of wack in my opinion. I will get a one skull mission against 4 upholds or 2 hexes that I can’t win without significant losses, and then I will get a 3 skull mission to escort a caravan (which almost never require battles, just time) or to fight some brigands with one good archer that I do with ease.
I do take the perk Fortified Mind, which is a level 2 perk (so I believe your guy needs to be level 3, since they start at level 1). I also, depending on the rolls, put at least one if not every level then every other level of those 3 stat boosts into Resolve till I get my guys up there. If you are worried about your guys getting destroyed by a Hexe, then I would just avoid having to fight one if at all possible till they were ready for her. (I believe quests that have you kill a Hexe all involve protecting some rich guy’s kid, at least that is all the ones I’ve gotten so far, aside from the random wandering Hexe taking her pet Unhold out for a walk).
But I still strongly recommend clubs for the stun! I’ve kinda grown quite dependent on mace weapons lately for that game changing stun.
Also, I’ve found those “difficulty” stars quite misleading as well. I’ve gotten 3 star difficulty quests to kill like 10 direwolves when I had 12 guys all at like lvl 6-7 and 1 star quests to go root out an Orc den that has like 10 Young Orcs and 5 Orc Warriors.
I think the tactical depth is quite deep and wide, but I found it necessary to read some guides on Steam after my first couple run throughs ended in bitter defeat. There are lots of things that don’t seem useful or necessary at first (like nets) but become incredibly useful against certain types of enemies (like Unholds - read Trolls - and Orcs).
I think the recent changes since they released their expansion pack have also made the game easier to figure out without, say, paying top dollar to draft a Retired Soldier only to find out he is asthmatic and fragile (no wonder he retired…)
Thanks Mike. I guess by deep and wide I mean tactical/strategic — it does seem to be a bit of a “souls” type strat/rpg combo. It is on my winter Wishlist.
I think I’m hitting a wall. I’m around day 40. I have 9 bros, so-so gear, around level 5, and I’m starting face some of the tougher enemies. I really enjoy fighting brigands and such, but alps and witches not so much. It seems like those enemies are tedious puzzles rather than the yummy turn based combat I’ve been enjoying. And I’ve now got too many options. So many weapons and perks and Stat choices. I don’t know what to use on what. Which is the draw of the game I guess. But I’m all befuddled.
Read above, @Mike_Hernandez posted witch (hexe) tips a few posts above. Big thing is raise resolve and avoid them until you do it sounds like
Alps are easy. Get naked. Spread your guys out and make sure someone can always wake sleeping brothers. I dislike them just because they are very tedious.
I am not enjoying the new types of monsters either. They are difficult but not really fun. I much prefer straight up battles. On the other hand, I know I will get to a point where upholds and hexes become easy after I get my stats up. It gives me a goal of leveling up, which is still really fun for me.
I think I need to scrap my current game. Longest I have played a game yet; I am at the orc crisis. My guys are ok, at around level 7-8, but my gear doesn’t seem great. I have 14 guys, one with a polearm (the standard), 3 archers (who are not good), and the rest are front-line melee. Most of my melee are one handed weapons with shields, but I have a long sword guy and a long ax guy as well.
The orcs are just killing me with their charges (along with the goblins who throw nets). I can usually do a battle and make it through it, but I am stuck on a siege where I am at the 3rd consecutive battle and my guys are just too worn down to make it. Rushing doesn’t work. Forming a shield wall doesn’t work. I sold off all my spears thinking I didn’t need them anymore, but I read they can be handy for the orc charges. The other companies all went into town so they aren’t helping.
Any ideas how I can get past this? About 6 goblins and 6 young orcs. It really shouldn’t be that difficult, but I just can’t do it without a few deaths.
Playing with the idea of starting over and constantly recruiting guys looking for better skills. So far I have just kept everyone and tried to make them work, but I think that was a mistake. Money has always been hard to come by though.
A lot of people from what I’ve read on the forums generally try to avoid the Orc Crisis as the first crisis since it can be so difficult. I actually got lucky when I had them as my first crisis as I had about 3 'bros ready to level up and get a top-tier perk, which I immediately went with Indomitable. It can still be a huge mess though.
So, I’m going to assume we have to go with what you got and not anything you could get. The only thing to do is make contact before they charge. The charge goes 2 spaces and they can move and charge, so if you see an Orc 3 spaces out you need to make contact with him or he will charge and stun that guy. This isn’t so much of a problem except on the flanks, where you could have a frontline guy make contact but there is still an Orc in the back that can charge him from the sides.
Even though your archers may not be any good, hopefully they are using bows or throwing weapons. You can get two ranged attacks (or more with Berserk) with them and you do not need the armor penetration from the crossbows. Every attack you can get on those guys will help as once you get them routing you’ve won the day.
There are a couple useful weapons I found to be very effective with Orcs (I didn’t have Spears either). Maces (Young Orcs are quite susceptible to the stun) and Cleavers (Young Orcs don’t have much armor and those cleavers just chop them up). The great thing is that Orcs drop both (though Orc maces/clubs kinda suck) so hopefully you have some from the previous battles. Orc weapons will suck the bejeesus out of your fatigue though, but hopefully the engagement will be shorter due to the increased damage. Orcs don’t generally have great melee attack/defense so if you can mitigate that charge you should be good.
On the one hand, having the Orc crisis first can really be tough (also, those “siege” type missions are the absolute most difficult) but it is much easier to deal with Young Orcs and Goblins than Orc Warriors and Orc Berserkers that you fight in large numbers when it is your 2nd or 3rd crisis. Hopefully you don’t have to deal with the Orc Warlord (bros WILL die when you fight him).
Thank you, with you advice in mind I sat and thought about my load out and did the battle again and won it. My company is still limping from battle to battle though. Every fight is doing too much damage. I think I need to get to that 20 man filled.
I still really want to start again with everything I learned though…
Thanks, that was really interesting. I always find it fascinating how much we rely on the Bayeux Tapestry for this information. It’s a reminder of how little we truly know about that time period.
Still chugging away at my BB campaign. We defeated the orc invasion and I turned down the option to retire. I don’t have a ton of money (~10k) and still need better weapons and armor. I have started to wander the map a bit more outside of missions in search of named items. My guys do great unless there are a lot of archers, then it’s a struggle. The AI knows which brothers have the weakest missile defense and gang up on them it seems. Every time I start feeling like a bad ass, I get in a fight that kicks my butt.
Love this game so much, it surprises me how little of my Steam friends have played it.
I was kind of curious as to why my company kind of sucks (some of the new DLC stuff, and the upper level undead monsters, are really kicking my butt), so I watched some of FilthyRobot’s tip videos on YouTube. I have been save scumming so I have only lost something like 3 brothers by about day 130. I learned that was kind of stupid, because I am still using guys who were farmers, tailors, etc. I have hired a few better guys since then, but it looks like I should be gradually replacing all my starting guys with better professions. Even at around level 9 and 10, my stats are really low.
He also does different builds for his guys. I just have 3, front line, pole arm, or ranged. Seems like that was silly of me as well. He barely uses shields, I still almost entirely use shields.
On the otherhand, in my old age, I don’t want to think too hard about this stuff. He has spreadsheets full of stats, and that just takes the fun out of it for me. I need to find a happy middle ground.
