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

[Payd Shell]

this game isn't about combat

it's about managing economic attrition

t. never reached late game

 

[hivemind]

t. never reached late game

t. grinded hours upon hours of dull and unengaging gameplay only to be rewarded with the amazing tactical experience of "legendary" fights that serve as a binary check for the viability of half your roster each

i swear to God* anyone who disagrees with me about this game is suffering from stockholm syndrome

you can still enjoy the game mind you, but you have to just admit your autism

tbh this is why the merchant autist is the best poster here**

he is at least honest about what the game is








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*Allah
**after me ofc

 

[Reinhardt]

have sex

 

[Payd Shell]

t. never reached late game

t. grinded hours upon hours of dull and unengaging gameplay only to be rewarded with the amazing tactical experience of "legendary" fights that serve as a binary check for the viability of half your roster each

i swear to God* anyone who disagrees with me about this game is suffering from stockholm syndrome

you can still enjoy the game mind you, but you have to just admit your autism

tbh this is why the merchant autist is the best poster here**

he is at least honest about what the game is








--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Allah
**after me ofc

Be that as it may, the economy becomes a moot point once you reach late game. Which was your point. I'm not going to pretend BB is an amazingly deep and complex game, I myself have many issues with how the devs approach pretty much everything in the game.

 

[hivemind]

My point is that the lategame fights aren't great counter examples to my "this game isn't about combat" because their design is heavily binary.

Besides the fact that you can reach critical mass eventually doesn't make the core mass(just look at global cheevo stats to see what % of players even actually touch on the lategame proper) of the gameplay not be about economic attrition.

 

[Old Hans]

those are really good. EXCEPT the bottom helmet is a jousting helmet. You wouldnt actually wear that into battle

 

[Fedora Master]

How does indirect fire work exactly? Should I aim at the back line in hopes of hitting whoever or take the high percentage shots at the front guys?

 

[Payd Shell]

My point is that the lategame fights aren't great counter examples to my "this game isn't about combat" because their design is heavily binary.

Besides the fact that you can reach critical mass eventually doesn't make the core mass(just look at global cheevo stats to see what % of players even actually touch on the lategame proper) of the gameplay not be about economic attrition.

>taking cheevos into account for anything
People buy games to own them, not to play them. Pretty much every game on steam has a very low percentage of people actually finishing the game if you look at the global achievements, often in the single digits. The game is about combat, because if you fail at combat, only then comes the attrition into play - you have to recruit new people, heal wounds at the temple, buy a bazillion tools to repair your stuff, camp for half a week until everyone is healed and everything is repaired. This quickly becomes a downward spiral past day 50 or so, where losing a Bro that's level 5 or 6 really fucking hurts. It gets worse as the game goes on, essentially making you lose the game if you lose half your company because there's no coming back from that other than excessive grind, at which point you might just start a new game.

The combat isn't really that good because it shoehorns you into very specific strategies. It would be nice if you could capitalize on CC, enemy fatigue and the injury mechanics the game offers but most of the enemies that you'd want to CC or injure are immune to that. Fatigue is of no concern for the AI because even a lowly bandit raider can spam shieldwall without ever running out of fatigue, unlike you. That's why 99% of the fights devolve into a dps race. That's why you bruteforce raiders, noble armies and goblins with archers, ancient undead and orcs with twohanders. Barbarians are the anti-meta, anti-player faction and require a specific setup that doesn't really work well outside of anything that isn't a barbarian and even then, barbarians are THE faction that can capitalize on bad RNG for the player the most. And let's not forget that indomitable is necessary for orc and unhold fights as well as many of the later fights.

 

[Darth Canoli]

You're wrong, dps is only for easy fights and a couple of enemies like Unhold.

Most of the fights if played on an adequate difficulty are about position, finding the right spot to make your stand, move your foes around so you can bash them appropriately.
Still, name a game where you have to kill your foes where dps isn't the universal solution ?

 

[Strange Fellow]

How does indirect fire work exactly? Should I aim at the back line in hopes of hitting whoever or take the high percentage shots at the front guys?

If your target is obstructed you suffer a -75% to hit (50% with the Bullseye perk). Hits to other targets than the one you were aiming for take a penalty to damage. As for who to aim for, I'd say it depends. If there's a strong frontline that'll take many turns to breach you should probably go for archers or polearm-users, because given time they can really fuck you up. Then again, it's often worth it to go for the frontline if there are lightly armoured and shieldless enemies, or helmetless ones which with a bit of luck can be dropped in one hit. This way you can thin the lines early and possibly drop the resolve of the rest, which is a huge boon.

 

[Reinhardt]

I will take what is mine with fire and blood! Family heirlooms of thousands merchants!

 

[Reinhardt]

Sexy sarge. Now i just need named dagger.

 

[Reinhardt]

Surrender, stupid savages! We have higher ground!

 

[hivemind]

what an amazingly tactical encounter in no way determined entirely by spawn rng

truly the xcom of our generation

 

[anvi]

That pointy mouth helmet looks like madonnas boobs. Although it would be good for smoking a joint while riding around in medieval times.

 

[Payd Shell]

You're wrong, dps is only for easy fights and a couple of enemies like Unhold.

Most of the fights if played on an adequate difficulty are about position, finding the right spot to make your stand, move your foes around so you can bash them appropriately.
Still, name a game where you have to kill your foes where dps isn't the universal solution ?

Actually unholds are one of the few fights where positioning matters. As well as nachos (gotta control those corpses), necrosavants (use their AI against them by surrounding vulnerable bros with your frontliners) and schrats (avoid the 3 tile attack). When it comes to raiders - you out-archer them and keep your formation. Later in the game enemies will almost always outnumber you and if they have the ranged advantage are content with camping where they spawned. Orcs will eventually mess up your formation with warriors unless you can keep up indom every round which you can't unless you use the adrenaline + recovery strategy. Goblins are the same as raiders, just more dangerous because their archers will puncture your guys eventually if you catch up with them, mowing them down with arrows is the smart solution and later on the only one that's viable considering shamans will root you in place anyways. Noble armies are raiders on steroids. An enjoyable fight if you aren't heavily outnumbered, but if you are, your best bet is to snipe their backline with archers. They use crossbows so their range is worse than bows, making them easy picking especially because they're mostly lightly armored, the same with billmen. Ancient undead you overwhelm with damage because you'll lose a battle of attrition - they don't have morale and fatigue, you do. So your best bet is to destroy as many of them as fast as you can before their frontline has time to put up a shieldwall every round. If you break their shields, you give their backline enough time to decimate your frontline, ancient undead have also fearsome, so you want to avoid as many hits as possible. Pikes have a to-hit bonus, so it's not feasible to defend against them for multiple rounds.

Barbarians are the only faction that seems to be designed to screw the player no matter what you do. Chosen are tanky enough that you can't thin their numbers when they advance, their throwing weapons hurt and their maces and hammers are deadly especially with their special rotate ability which they use to focus fire one of your guys. They also have crippling strikes and executioner, paired with their high armor ignoring weapons, one hit means you'll get an injury and the next almost always means one of your bros is dead. Then you have beastmasters with their infinite range to control the armored unholds, which is a really stupid design decision because the obvious choice would be to either kill them with archers first or use a flanker or two with dogs to tie them down, but this isn't possible because they stay out of archer range and by the time one of your guys reaches them the unholds are tied up in melee with your guys anyways. Flanking is impossible once you start getting heavily outnumbered.

 

[Sarissofoi]

I agree with this silly mushroom.
Offense>defense. That is why Barbarians are more dangerous than Orcs as orc warriors often shield-wall or have one handed weapons when Barbarian Chosen will just go on full smashing spree.
Mushroom is right - at last my experience tell me so and you know that I have it plenty.
I will add that balancing enemies around having either Adrenaline or Indomitable really screw player that try less than optimal builds.

I experienced with some company builds and having like 6+ high tier archers make Brigands, Goblins and Noble Troops a easy prey. I used shield tanks to protect them but to be honest having Battleforged AoE twohanders would probably work even better in some cases.
2handers fielded en mass deal with most of enemy easily - sure having 1 or 2 tanks help but their role is to just tie enemy forces so you can slaughter fast their not tied units. But to be honest against most equal enemies they are waste - only useful when you just need throw a guy as a bait when enemy have real numerical advantages.
Fielding Late more than token 1hand&shield units don't work. Not enough Dmg, not enough Fat, lucky hit that can you fuck up increase in longer fights. You cannot crush enemy morale fast enough or kill them fast enough too. Sure it helps when fighting monsters but only as specialized support unit.

 

[tindrli]

Yes i noticed by day 130 or so all my bros have 2H weapons. 1 hammer 1 mace 2 big swords one falil and rest are axes and then 2 bros with axe and shield. And for some reason i think that more hammers are essential at least in heavy armored fights.

 

[Reinhardt]

Main problem with shield bros - you need many spare shields.

 

[Payd Shell]

Main problem with shield bros - you need many spare shields.

use orc shields, they're great bait for enemy axes / twohanders.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Actually unholds are one of the few fights where positioning matters. As well as nachos (gotta control those corpses), necrosavants (use their AI against them by surrounding vulnerable bros with your frontliners) and schrats (avoid the 3 tile attack). When it comes to raiders - you out-archer them and keep your formation. Later in the game enemies will almost always outnumber you and if they have the ranged advantage are content with camping where they spawned. Orcs will eventually mess up your formation with warriors unless you can keep up indom every round which you can't unless you use the adrenaline + recovery strategy. Goblins are the same as raiders, just more dangerous because their archers will puncture your guys eventually if you catch up with them, mowing them down with arrows is the smart solution and later on the only one that's viable considering shamans will root you in place anyways. Noble armies are raiders on steroids. An enjoyable fight if you aren't heavily outnumbered, but if you are, your best bet is to snipe their backline with archers. They use crossbows so their range is worse than bows, making them easy picking especially because they're mostly lightly armored, the same with billmen. Ancient undead you overwhelm with damage because you'll lose a battle of attrition - they don't have morale and fatigue, you do. So your best bet is to destroy as many of them as fast as you can before their frontline has time to put up a shieldwall every round. If you break their shields, you give their backline enough time to decimate your frontline, ancient undead have also fearsome, so you want to avoid as many hits as possible. Pikes have a to-hit bonus, so it's not feasible to defend against them for multiple rounds.

I'm not saying BB is the quintessence of tactical combat, it's not, it's good but i've played better, even recently, without naming the obvious ones with Warbanners, truly excellent or the upcoming Urtuk.

I also have to disagree on your strategies, people say you have to march on corpses against Nachos, never felt the necessity to do so, if they want to eat corpses, good, that's just more fun.
With decent archers and 2 handlers, they're never a problem.

As for Unhold, your comment is retarded, they move you around as they please so position doesn't matter as long as you're prepared to strike hard when they get in range and when there is too many of them, just use bait so split the group, murdered 13 armored unhold with 12 lvl 11 mercs once, took forever though, the only thing that matters is to have the swap perk on most of your guys, this and dps.

Position matters more against high level undead, goblins, mercs and companies.

As for the chosen, they're tough alright, never was a problem as long as there is not too many of them, more than 5-6 is a pain and requires some thinking but they die just like everything else.

 

[Darth Canoli]

By the way, i recruited the Barbarian King.

Epic battle mess against the undead ...

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Spearmasters combined with crossbows seems to be best counter against chosen.

 

[Murk]

I just go in and kill them before they kill me. Also, disarm is very strong against them -- especially if you disarm -> adrenaline -> disarm another on one character.

Anyway, the cultists have survived their 2nd crisis... and still no goddamn prophet (but like 6 of my dudes are level 5 in the cult, which is pretty dope as far as buffs up the ass go -- the mini iron lung effect is amazing, and the big HP boost makes a nimble build very easy to do). It seems that Davkul has abandoned me, and in doing so has caused my faith to deplete.

Next up, duelist beast slayers who also use ranged weapons. Trying some weird hybrid builds with throwing spears + duelist 1handers. Was tempted to try the poachers run, since faster movement seems like a nice QOL boost, but I don't want to play as archers. In general I find archers less good now, and am finding as much or more success just fielding flankers to take out enemy archers.

 

[tindrli]

bros, for academic purpuses what do you think? is it worth it?

and another question, what are those giant skull&bones for?