Battle Brothers Pre-Release Thread

[Anthony Davis]

Wow, Necromancers are ridiculously overpowered.

They can resurrect at least 3 dead guys a turn (and the old school gold box trick of standing on corpses doesn't work, they just push you off into what is frequently a worse tactical position). They can fight reasonably well and geared decently (tier 3 weapons). They can possess undead to make them fight better - while you have them engaged in melee with your bros.

Frustrating to encounter something like that off of a 2 skull mission (it was 10 armored zombies and a necromancer). Wiped my entire party of 12 bros after 40+ turns.

I don't think they should be able to rez so many a turn, or does that just happen every turn even without the necro? Why can't I spend a turn and lop their heads off once I've downed them?

Regarding the mission, I was told it was defend the town from bandits (a 2 skull mission) and it wasn't bandits, it was a necromancer and his horde of armored zombies... with polearms.

In case you're wondering why I didn't just retreat - it doesn't start off bad vs. these guys. Just every turn I down 2 or 3, and then the very next turn they get up. I thought the Necro was raising the undead (and maybe he wasn't?) but by the time you think about running, your bros are exhausted.

Also, I had already rebuilt the company after a 50% wipe when I was surprised by 14 ancient ancillaries (I had 10 bros at the time). I thought about quitting right there and starting over, but tried to rebuild. I'm not going to try and rebuild them a 3rd time in a single game, even if I could've retreated.

 

[Anthony Davis]

Apparently you were meant to snipe the necro down.
Which is pr. much the only solution in this fight.

I had two archers, but he hangs back REALLY far and he keeps a single zombie right in front of him. That zombie had a shield and a mace and blocked all sorts of shots from my two archers. He also had a tree on his north - it was just a mess.

 

[Anthony Davis]

As much as I love this game, and I do love it, there are some aspects that frustrate me a little bit.

For example, right at the beginning of the game, I need to hire 3 men. I find two men, both blacksmith apprentices, and both cost the same 150g plus 9 per day. I hire both of them.

One is fine - no perks or defects.
The second is clubfooted and disloyal.

Sigh. Fire him and go the codex to whine about my 150 gold I wasted. ;-)

 

[RK47]

As much as I love this game, and I do love it, there are some aspects that frustrate me a little bit.

For example, right at the beginning of the game, I need to hire 3 men. I find two men, both blacksmith apprentices, and both cost the same 150g plus 9 per day. I hire both of them.

One is fine - no perks or defects.
The second is clubfooted and disloyal.

Sigh. Fire him and go the codex to whine about my 150 gold I wasted. ;-)

I honestly would not pick up recruits immediately. Especially at the first city of the game since it's one day of nothing happens until you trigger Hoggart's camp.
My best advice would be to cherrypick at start - travel to 2nd/3rd city, check out the recruits - money is scarce, recruit 'positive quality' men like Farmer's 'Increased HP & Fatigue' to serve as front liners, while those with high Melee skill but low HP/Fatigue be put at the back with Pitchforks as stab-fodder.

Mid-game I can start experimenting with those more exotic backgrounds like Juggler's Headshot bonus and other weirdos.
The game doesn't reward experimentation in early game. I was honestly struggling until I got into the Spearwall frontline and 2-Tile Poke on the back routine. Current game had like 4 mission streaks from start with no casualties and minor wound. Then I hit a patrol mission and ran into 6 Orc Raiders and got destroyed completely despite having 2 donkeys and 4 caravan hands with kitchen knives as back up. Of course I reloaded and just walk past the fight to collect my patrol fees.

'No problems?'
'Nothing, just a few dead donkeys, abandoned cart and a few dead men. Probably Malaria.'
'Damn. I promised you 40g per head, but since you did nothing, here's 250 gold for completion.'
'Thanks.

There's no shame in chickening out.

 

[Latro]

Of course I reloaded

Shame on you.

 

[Anthony Davis]

I only pick up generally "safe" recruits, farm hands, blacksmith apprentices, and the like. That clubfooted traitor in waiting was a blacksmith apprentice.

 

[Anthony Davis]

also, RK47, no Ironman? Tsk Tsk.

 

[RK47]

also, RK47, no Ironman? Tsk Tsk.

I'll save it for co-op LP I'm planning where we trade saves daily.
I see no point in frustrating myself when I'm still learning the game's meta from scratch.
The whole 4 battles with no casualties was done while doing steam chat with Ashery who is more familiar with the game.

 

[Skittles]

They can resurrect at least 3 dead guys a turn (and the old school gold box trick of standing on corpses doesn't work, they just push you off into what is frequently a worse tactical position). They can fight reasonably well and geared decently (tier 3 weapons). They can possess undead to make them fight better - while you have them engaged in melee with your bros.

My observation of their behaviour is this: Wiedergangers will revive at half health on the following turn unless they've been decapitated, but won't rise a second time. Cleavers and Bloodthirsty bros help to get those decaps/fatalities. Necromancers can resurrect one and possess one per turn. They're allowed to resurrect any body on the field, including zombies who've been killed twice already.

In any case, Wiedergangers are really, really vulnerable to spearwalls and to archers. Once they've gone down the first time, their armour, if any, is usually in tatters and you can one shot them pretty easily. Since the necro's aren't the real source of the resurrections, it's sometimes worth it to play defensively and wipe out all their minions twice so that when you push for the necro, you don't have to worry about six reviving behind your lines, just one or two.

I honestly would not pick up recruits immediately. Especially at the first city of the game since it's one day of nothing happens until you trigger Hoggart's camp.
My best advice would be to cherrypick at start - travel to 2nd/3rd city, check out the recruits - money is scarce, recruit 'positive quality' men like Farmer's 'Increased HP & Fatigue' to serve as front liners, while those with high Melee skill but low HP/Fatigue be put at the back with Pitchforks as stab-fodder.

Hah. I play the exact opposite way. I'll hoover up any recruit that costs less than 200gp and blow the rest on helmets and shields in those early days. For the first couple of months, it's a contract a day and a casualty every other day, minimum. If I get a shitty recruit? Well, he gets a two hander instead of a shield.

 

[Urthor]

Jesus the orc parties, they didn't skip on the end game difficulty spike. The amount of armor is actually obscene.

 

[Anthony Davis]

They can resurrect at least 3 dead guys a turn (and the old school gold box trick of standing on corpses doesn't work, they just push you off into what is frequently a worse tactical position). They can fight reasonably well and geared decently (tier 3 weapons). They can possess undead to make them fight better - while you have them engaged in melee with your bros.

My observation of their behaviour is this: Wiedergangers will revive at half health on the following turn unless they've been decapitated, but won't rise a second time. Cleavers and Bloodthirsty bros help to get those decaps/fatalities. Necromancers can resurrect one and possess one per turn. They're allowed to resurrect any body on the field, including zombies who've been killed twice already.

In any case, Wiedergangers are really, really vulnerable to spearwalls and to archers. Once they've gone down the first time, their armour, if any, is usually in tatters and you can one shot them pretty easily. Since the necro's aren't the real source of the resurrections, it's sometimes worth it to play defensively and wipe out all their minions twice so that when you push for the necro, you don't have to worry about six reviving behind your lines, just one or two.

There is definitely no limit to the number of times Wiedergangers can be resurrected, at least on Veteran, if it's a function of difficulty.

I did manage to put a couple on the ground permanently with a decap, but I wish they'd add a feature to decap a corpse if your standing on it (and if you have an edge weapon).

 

[Alienman]

I had my crossbowman sneak around and plug the necromancer. It was a tough fight though.

My world has fallen into war. I guess my world shattering event is that the noble houses finally duke it out. There seem to be real chaos all over the place.

 

[Kayerts]

I played this last year and am trying again now, both times on expert. My feeling (which I sense is particular to expert mode) is that BB has a great beginning, a pretty bad midgame, and a good endgame.

Early game, I could handle basic contracts with numbers and smart gameplay, and while I didn't want to lose bros, they're still low-investment and very replaceable. Contracts are fun and exciting, every new recruit and piece of equipment feels like a major upgrade. Almost every won battle feels like a meaningful step toward some goal.

Midgame hit a slump after I maxed out at 12 active bros and the difficulty continued ramping up. I may have overdone it with the renown growth from noncombat missions, but eventually I hit a point where the only contracts I could reliably handle were personal delivery, beasts terrorizing a village (wolves or neo-ghouls), and relic recovery (thieves or basic ancient undead). I could also cheese the rampaging greenskins in the noble contracts. (Just lure the enemy into a castle company, collect an easy 1.5-2k.) This happened to an extent last year but was nowhere near as bad, and I think it's because, back then, I could handle goblins and bandits with night attacks. (Whereas now my tactical options for those are to 1) fuck myself or 2) cross my fingers and hope that some asshole with a piece of wood doesn't 360-no scope me.) Kite shields and bumping ranged defense mitigates but does not reliably solve this problem. Eventually my frontliners will have armor strong enough to shrug off arrows, and my backliners will have Nimble, but for now I mostly just avoid bandits and goblins. That makes for a pretty slow, boring grind through the midgame.

The late midgame / endgame is starting to get good again, as I'm gradually gaining enough power to handle the full complement of threats. I recently took out a mixed group of orc boyz (young, warriors, and two zerks), then another group some ancient undead supported by off-brand vampires. I'm getting there. I'm not sure I'm in the right place on the expected power curve, because war just broke out between two of the noble houses.

I'm not really sure what to do with my endgame skill build. The last time I played, I figured out that the thing to do was to get perfect focus, and then get berserk, and then marvel as your human blender manages to solo an orc warboss. It seems that the devs noticed that this was stupid and removed perfect focus, so I'm not sure what to do now. The perks in the last two tiers seem to be significantly better than the ones before them, so do you just stack killing frenzy + berserk + your choice of nimble or battleforged? Maybe duelist and footwork if you're making a back rank assassin-type? I'm not clear.

 

[Drew]

There is definitely no limit to the number of times Wiedergangers can be resurrected, at least on Veteran, if it's a function of difficulty

On their own, without a Necro, they should only rise once, right?
I believe that's what he meant.

 

[golgo21]

Jesus the orc parties, they didn't skip on the end game difficulty spike. The amount of armor is actually obscene.

use bros with 1handed or better 2handed hammers,1 hit from a 2handed hammer will strip the armor from an orc warrior.

 

[34scell]

I think goblins are a bit too good. Best I could do was hide to draw out their archers, but they still end up doing two or three times above average damage for the early-mid game.

 

[Urthor]

use bros with 1handed or better 2handed hammers,1 hit from a 2handed hammer will strip the armor from an orc warrior.

Even then you're going to need the most supremely boosted party with an absurd amount of fatigue. Plate armor on everyone, lots of billhooks with 200% armor effectiveness so you can reach over the first row and attack them, pretty sure I'm not taking on one of those until I'm properly deep in the endgame and have a fully stacked group.

Also fyi, the polearm style weapons, pikes longaxes and billhooks are pretty much broken everyone. Instead of having the backline shoot shortbow shots and do basically no damage, you can hand them a longaxe or a billhook and they can do a shitload of damage from behind your spear wall/shield wall almost at will, while your frontline wails away with 1h hammers/axes and shields. That's pretty much what I'm aiming for once I get enough gold, but I only just got noble quests, and you don't really start raking it in until you get the 1k-2k noble quests.


Also getting good party members is basically lategame gold roulette pretty sure. At higher renown/friendliness you get much better dudes, so the policy I'm following is that earlygame I'm not super duper worried about gold stars, and then lategame once I amass the motherload I will play hire and fire roulette with bastard sons/squires/apparentices until I get characters with 3 gold stars in melee attack(!!) and hopefully in fatigue, to nurture into lvl 11 super soldiers.

 

[Saark]

Always fight goblins during the night, equip everyone with kite shields and slowly advance with shieldwalls. It's still gonna be infuriating fighting against those little motherfuckers but it's at least doable consistently that way.

 

[Skittles]

There is definitely no limit to the number of times Wiedergangers can be resurrected, at least on Veteran, if it's a function of difficulty

On their own, without a Necro, they should only rise once, right?
I believe that's what he meant.

Yup, on their own only once in my experience (on Veteran). I'm curious to know if he's experiencing something different.

Also fyi, the polearm style weapons, pikes longaxes and billhooks are pretty much broken everyone. Instead of having the backline shoot shortbow shots and do basically no damage, you can hand them a longaxe or a billhook and they can do a shitload of damage from behind your spear wall/shield wall almost at will, while your frontline wails away with 1h hammers/axes and shields. That's pretty much what I'm aiming for once I get enough gold, but I only just got noble quests, and you don't really start raking it in until you get the 1k-2k noble quests.

Ranged+polearm users are the way to go. Invest in ranged skill, ranged defense, and melee skill, get Quick Hands, have the best of both worlds. I wouldn't call them broken, though.

 

[Alienman]

Necrosavant raped my best archer. R.I.P.

Never fought those guys before. They are real big meanies and refuse to die when punished.

 

[34scell]

Always fight goblins during the night, equip everyone with kite shields and slowly advance with shieldwalls. It's still gonna be infuriating fighting against those little motherfuckers but it's at least doable consistently that way.

Even then the damage they do is wildly disproportionate to the other factions. And once you get to melee they still perform pretty well.

 

[Reinhardt]

Always fight goblins during the night

It doesn't work that good now. They still miss very rarely, but night prevent you from oversnipe them. I prefer day fights in current version. And, well, i prefer other side of the world map from gobboz.

Game says we are winning this war, but i'm not so sure. Biggest noble house already lost 2 settlements and on the brink of losing one more. This time it's not small frontier fort or backwater city, it's one of the keeps. Guard towers razed, no more noble troops spawns when greenskins attacks, shops are empty. I mean literally empty - no tools, no food, even overpriced.

Only me and troops from other houses, but theirs bases are far away and mine is even farther, so we can't protect this city everytime.

Greenskins are pretty smart for a greenskins. They lure troops on the other side of frontier river into the swamp so they can't return in time and then another groups start attacking city from the other directions.

 

[Blaine]

Kinda funny that the lords hire you to take care of orcs and other creatures, when they easily could purge the whole land from all foul things with their own troops.

Why would they risk their retainers when they can hire a bunch of mercenaries to do it instead?

 

[Alienman]

Kinda funny that the lords hire you to take care of orcs and other creatures, when they easily could purge the whole land from all foul things with their own troops.

Why would they risk their retainers when they can hire a bunch of mercenaries to do it instead?

Sure, but they are losing a lot of money from trading and such just sitting on their fat asses waiting for the random mercenary company to show up to fix their problems And these guys would roflstomp even the toughest of orcs, no problem.

 

[Reinhardt]

And these guys would roflstomp even the toughest of orcs, no problem.

No, i think, resources are finite. Noble houses will lose war of atrition. Two keeps in red circle no longer can spawn troops. Blue arrows are cities that send meat to the grinder right now.

Orc base west of Dornthal need to be dealt with ASAP, but i can't do it - there is too many orcs here. It's spawning raiding parties like this -