Incline Battle Brothers + Beasts & Exploration, Warriors of the North and Blazing Deserts DLC Thread

[Disgruntled]

Im on my first attempts at expert/ironman, usually play normal. I have to commend this dlc for making it a much smoother experience in the beginning, the abundance of passive quests means you can survive without running the do-or-die 2 skull quests or getting destroyed by an early raider/goblin ambush.
Day 95 now and progressing a little behind the curve for the declared orc invasion. Ive avoided alp and schrat encounters entirely but ive loved the couple of unhold fights ive been in. I think on their own they make for a well balanced compromise between difficulty, tactics and fun. Theres a clear curve on what you do and how well you'll fare, without the annoying gimmick challenges of hexen, alps, necrosavants etc where you either know exactly what you're doing or have your party wiped.

Spoiler

1 rookie bro lost and a bunch of broken bones and yet a satisfying and relatively short battle.

 

[Tigranes]

Levelling new bros might be a pain when you're at max level, but losing someone at level 5 or 6 is most definitely not a big deal.

You fight a 3 skull contract and lose a good level 5 bro that's been with you the whole time. It happens. You reinvest the earnings on a good bro (well scouted or a higher tier background) and maybe training (which is now much more worth the money). Within 3 or 4 days, maybe doing a couple of contracts and beating up a couple of brigands on the road, dude's going to be level 3-4 and well equipped enough to hold his own in a fight. It's only a problem if you pick up a level 1 beggar and expect him to march boldly into a 3 skull contract straight away. If that bothers you, you just never want to lose. It would be silly to be able to pick up a level 5 dude for a couple thousand gold.

Again, it's a bit different at level 10+. There I imagine the point is to keep a wider pool. You're not walking into every battle with your best bros, you're rotating dudes so that there's like 18 bros, some of them at your highest level, others three or four levels behind.

 

[Vilain Joueur]

We really need some battlepedia especially what enemies have what perks.
With current changes to perks I feel that every enemy have backstabber perk.
Losing because your mistakes or your overconfidence is fine but losing because your tactics didn't work and you don't know why is another.
Also I hear some news about OP mercenaries who also get new nimble. Also this one guy who take Goblin city with band of nimble brothers in shirts and straw hats.

Well, it's difficult to test these things. And very few people actually take the time to do extensive testing and publish the results.
Some Mercenaries can have Nimble (Archers mostly from my experience). But most Bounty Hunters have it. And since Nimble has been buffed it's much harder to kill them or even injure them. So yes, possibly deadly encounters. I met 18 Bounty Hunters myself on day 70 or so and it was a very challenging battle (maybe more than 24+ Orcs ones).

 

[Barbarian]

I can confirm that nimble is viable, but then again your bros only start to shine after level 7. I only went through the first crisis but I think such builds can work over longer term. I tried several builds but the ones working the best had both dodge and overwhelm(there is synergy with the higher fatigue/initiative due to light armor and the way those traits work). Steel brow, nine lives and colossus are also good but not strictly necessary(though they increase survivability greatly). Investing in defense skills and taking anticipation become important too depending on the gear setup. Also the talk of "naked bros" or bros only fielding linen shirts and straw hats is stupid, there is actual armor with no fatigue penalty(leather tunic) and there is also armor with very little fatigue penalty that is always worth wearing(blotched gambeson, gambeson, duelist hat, zweihander helmet, etc), specially with the cheap attachments that add no fatigue. Shields and weapons also don't interfere with the nimble benefit, so heater shields and even heavy one handed weapons(axes, maces) are good to go, though if you want the most of the initiative/fatigue bonanza round shields/bucklers and swords are best.

There is a nice balance with the new perk rework, they don't feel overpowered(you fuck up you still die) but yet with the right setup they can beat the heavy armored opponents and all other threats in the game.

I had to start a new playthrough. Seems the new patch somehow broke my save, I got two crashes and also random events stopped spawning(I spend over 40 game days with no single event happening, so I'm quite certain something is wrong there). I hope this doesn't happen again. I believe it has something to do with the new map fixes. The crashes were surmountable but the lack of events wasn't. I sure as hell want to enjoy the new content.

 

[Elhoim]

Fought the alps for the first time today, ambushed by them. The weakest part of the expansion, definitely. They are "hard" to kill (is difficult to reach them), but also it's very hard to die from them. It's an exercise in tedium, and there doesn't seem to be a way to "speed up" or improve the killing process.

 

[Vilain Joueur]

I can confirm that nimble is viable, but then again your bros only start to shine after level 7. I only went through the first crisis but I think such builds can work over longer term. I tried several builds but the ones working the best had both dodge and overwhelm(there is synergy with the higher fatigue/initiative due to light armor and the way those traits work). Steel brow, nine lives and colossus are also good but not strictly necessary(though they increase survivability greatly). Investing in defense skills and taking anticipation become important too depending on the gear setup. Also the talk of "naked bros" or bros only fielding linen shirts and straw hats is stupid, there is actual armor with no fatigue penalty(leather tunic) and there is also armor with very little fatigue penalty that is always worth wearing(blotched gambeson, gambeson, duelist hat, zweihander helmet, etc), specially with the cheap attachments that add no fatigue. Shields and weapons also don't interfere with the nimble benefit, so heater shields and even heavy one handed weapons(axes, maces) are good to go, though if you want the most of the initiative/fatigue bonanza round shields/bucklers and swords are best.

There is a nice balance with the new perk rework, they don't feel overpowered(you fuck up you still die) but yet with the right setup they can beat the heavy armored opponents and all other threats in the game.

Great feedback! Thanks!

 

[Dr Skeleton]

How's the beastslayer background, btw? Only two I've seen would cost me over half my current funds, so didn't risk it (on Ironman so no reload).

No specific background bonus, haven't seen any events yet, but I only just got him. He's not terrible, has decent starting melee, ranged and fatigue and was already level 3 with a longbow when I hired him, he just has pretty bad talents and no traits. For 2500 that's not great but you could do a lot worse, and I've seen cheaper ones too.

also am I retarded or are the weapon mastery perks(other than bow/xbow) kinda overrated? the fatigue reduction is nice but I feel like you benefit a lot more from just completely changing your weapon loadout on an encounter individual basis which leaves you without getting the per benefit a good portion of the time

Fatigue reduction is really important though, for 1h weapon regular attacks that's 2-3 fatigue saved each attack, so 4-6 every turn in combat, and a lot more with attacks like flail lash or cleaver decapitate. But yeah, some of them are a lot worse, like the polearm mastery seems not worth it. You can still change the loadout for some battles and use a weapon with mastery for most, in this campaign I encountered a noble house squad fighting necroservants, so I joined in and got 2 khopeshes, now I have a high melee skill butcher with cleaver mastery and he's killing it.

I can confirm that nimble is viable, but then again your bros only start to shine after level 7.

I got nimble for my starting bro archer to test it and he's now at 60% hp damage reduction just with the random stuff he's wearing, so I'll probably get it for everyone in the second line as goblin and marksman insurance. Haven't tried a melee build yet, but it could probably work, with a good low-fatigue armor + direwolf attachment you could get a nice damage reduction and some spare fatigue. I've read that tree attacks ignore armor (?) so it could shine there too.

Does anyone know if hex works with bleeding or poison? I couldn't test it yet because the only hexe I've seen so far had tree bodyguards and I'm not ready for that yet.

Fought the alps for the first time today, ambushed by them. The weakest part of the expansion, definitely. They are "hard" to kill (is difficult to reach them), but also it's very hard to die from them. It's an exercise in tedium, and there doesn't seem to be a way to "speed up" or improve the killing process.

Dogs. Dogs completely wreck them, even at night you'll almost from the start know where the alps are, how is the terrain and have them engaged in melee before your guys get to them.

 

[Sarissofoi]

polearm mastery seems not worth it

It wasn't before but it is now.
1 less AP on attack is really good. Especially with throwing weapons and quick hands.

 

[Dr Skeleton]

I suppose. I'd still rather get berserk for the potential 2nd polearm attack than spend points on ranged+switch to throwing, though maybe I can make the mastery ap and fatigue reduction work with berserk. Right now I have 1 guy that uses a crossbow and a billhook with quick hands, he can shot and attack for 1 turn but not reload the crossbow, so it's meh, he's already got quick hand so maybe I could give him bags and belts and some throwing axes. All my throwing first liners always die horribly for some reason. Just in this campaign I had a throwing/melee wildman with decent stats and a kite shield and he still got killed by some random goblins.

 

[Sarissofoi]

Its good because 4AP for movement or one throw. If you kill you can do second throw with berserk. Or if you kill somebody with pike you attack second if not switch to jav and throw. It increase damage still not essential.

 

[Parabalus]

Pike mastery is insanely good, you can double move + attack or double attack + move with berserk, makes them feel worth it even later on, when they get compared to polehammers + longaxes.

 

[Reinhardt]

Polearm mastery is really good in long battles against big hordes. And it's every battle later in. It gives you much needed additional firepower with second possible attack AND mobility to be where you needed.

 

[Parabalus]

The new (scripted) fights where you can find enemies clobbing already clobbing each other are great. Ran into an orc camp which was infighting, and a nachtzehers vs lindwurms brawl, made for easy pickings.

 

[Reinhardt]

Ork brawl is not new. It's one of the possible outcomes when you attack their camp.

 

[Elhoim]

Dogs. Dogs completely wreck them, even at night you'll almost from the start know where the alps are, how is the terrain and have them engaged in melee before your guys get to them.

Yeah, tried them and they work. The main issue is that it feels like a gimmick fight, which takes a lot of time but without much challenge. If you are going against them, have everyone with dogs, throw them, then move around the map finishing them off. Movement and kiting is the weakest part of BB's combat, and this fight is designed around it.

In any case, they don't detract from the experience too much and the atmosphere in those fights is top notch, from music, sounds and graphics.

But they should definitely make it so Rally the men has a chance to wake people up or break charm. It's a fucking horn in their ear, dammit!

 

[Reinhardt]

It's a fucking horn in their hear, dammit!

Speak for yourself. My sarge rallies men swearing in slav.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

It's a fucking horn in their hear, dammit!

Speak for yourself. My sarge rallies men swearing in slav.

Shouldn't that be even louder?

 

[tindrli]

Polearm mastery is really good in long battles against big hordes. And it's every battle later in. It gives you much needed additional firepower with second possible attack AND mobility to be where you needed.

did you tried Polehammer?
its great for destroying armor from a distance sadly you cant choose head or torso but still i use it in combination with a bro with flail

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

You can keep your goedendags.
Wooden mallet is my current favorite for early game 2-handed.

 

[Shackleton]

Dammit I can't stop playing this game! Picked it up when the DLC launched, at £20 for the whole lot. Was very tempted when it released, but Darth Roxor 's harsh review put me off as I'd harboured my own suspicions about the staying power. I'm 30 hours in and it's really got its hooks into me, got my money's worth already and no sign of getting fed up yet. First game in ages I turn it off and straight away get thinking about the next session.

Can't say I'm Ironmanning it for my first game, but I'm living with the losses (mostly!) and loving it. Just lost 3 of my favourite bros on a 'clear Orc Cave' mission and I'm hunting replacements. Still think the Alps are a flawed monster to fight compared to the rest of the enemies, but the game is so incredibly addictive I can forgive them one slip.

Best strategy game I've played since the original Xcom.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Has anyone had 3-sided fights involving alps or hexe yet?
How do they behave in those?

 

[Teut Busnet]

Dammit I can't stop playing this game! Picked it up when the DLC launched, at £20 for the whole lot. Was very tempted when it released, but Darth Roxor 's harsh review put me off

There's a lesson here somewhere...

 

[Sarissofoi]

Hexes are the new goblins.
Fuggen bullshit.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Hexes are the new goblins.
Fuggen bullshit.

 

[Murk]

People saying they only got Hexes late in the game, I'm jealous as hell. I've been getting them all over and in contracts.

So far, liking all the new stuff, and it really shows how a good base game gets better with simply adding more stuff.

Had some interesting mercenary fights a few times while guarding caravans, then, getting cocky, I took a 4 day escort mission. Around halfway, event with Necrosavant attack.

"I regret my decision"