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

[Reinhardt]

Start peasant horde and trade.

 

[Fluent]

Don't start on the highest difficulty settings. Unless you think of yourself as Napoleon of tactical computer combat or a real glutton for punishments. In this games difficulties work like in the "good, old times". Which means that already the middle difficulty can be challenging for a newcomer.

And don't be shocked - but almost no one has legs in this game.

Sounds good! I'll pick a middling difficulty to start with, which probably equates to "Hard" for other RPGs.

No legs? No problem! Kinda...odd...but I'm not in it for the graphics, I'm in it for that sweet, sweet combat and simulation.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Pity that competing mercenary companies don't seem to use varied origins.
It would be interesting to fight against both of the new company backgrounds.

 

[Alienman]

Pity that competing mercenary companies don't seem to use varied origins.
It would be interesting to fight against both of the new company backgrounds.

Would be cool to have more interactions with them overall. Maybe sharing for difficult contracts and so on. This game has so much potential on the sandbox front.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Pity that competing mercenary companies don't seem to use varied origins.
It would be interesting to fight against both of the new company backgrounds.

Would be cool to have more interactions with them overall. Maybe sharing for difficult contracts and so on. This game has so much potential on the sandbox front.

Something like interactions with other rangers in Space Rangers 2?

 

[Serus]

Pity that competing mercenary companies don't seem to use varied origins.
It would be interesting to fight against both of the new company backgrounds.

Would be cool to have more interactions with them overall. Maybe sharing for difficult contracts and so on. This game has so much potential on the sandbox front.

Yes, that's the problem. Combat is great, atmosphere is good but what happens outside combat is... meh. The world is static, everything that happens is "for you". Even enemies are level scaled for your benefit - thankfully only to a certain degree which means the "run for your life" is heard from time to time, especially in early and mid game.
A good sandbox should allow for events in the world to happen independently. It makes for a "living", interesting world. For example the noble house not starting a fight randomly but having real relationship and only doing that if those go down too much. Player could make some missions from one of the houses that would influence that. Another possibility is player company competing with other companies for contracts, money and glory. And so on.

Space Rangers 2 is a good example of events happening independently from player. The whole war is simulated independently iirc.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Space Rangers 2 is a good example of events happening independently from player. The whole war is simulated independently iirc.

Pity that pirate questline on War Apar ruins that model.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

Huh, with all the additions to this game it really seems this Battle Brothers game is one of these "Ultimate CRPGs" that has just oodles of 'stuff' to keep u entertained with. I'm going to go ahead and likely start a new campaign soon, it would mark my first time playing the game, plus I own all the DLC. Should be fun! Any non-spoiler things I should know before jumping in?

lances. lots of lances. several fights you won't have to even move at all. then the undead will buttrape you, but this is another story and shall be told another time.

 

[Serus]

No one played Legends here? Other than Darth? I expected better results, a group of prestigious gentlemen who played the biggest mod for Battle Brothers and then decided that individuals as prestigious as themselves should return to playing vanilla Battle Brothers. Which is the most prestigious version. Well, i'd have to wait for him or visit discord - which is much less prestigious.

 

[Reinhardt]

lances. lots of lances.

and hats. never neglect hats.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

No one played Legends here? Other than Darth? I expected better results, a group of prestigious gentlemen who played the biggest mod for Battle Brothers and then decided that individuals as prestigious as themselves should return to playing vanilla Battle Brothers. Which is the most prestigious version. Well, i'd have to wait for him or visit discord - which is much less prestigious.

Maybe it's lack of tits that makes the mod relatively unpopular unlike Piratez.

 

[Barbarian]

Essentially paladins, Oathtakers are also on a quest to make whole the shattered skull of their founder. All that stands in their way is a nemesis born in the schism of Young Anselm’s death, a heresy which must be found and destroyed.

Wait, this does mean this origin has its own "main quest" and "boss fight"?

No one played Legends here? Other than Darth? I expected better results, a group of prestigious gentlemen who played the biggest mod for Battle Brothers and then decided that individuals as prestigious as themselves should return to playing vanilla Battle Brothers. Which is the most prestigious version. Well, i'd have to wait for him or visit discord - which is much less prestigious.

Might be sadomasochistic on my part, but never got into legends because it somewhat takes away two of the most enthralling features of battle brothers: difficulty and germanic balance autism. Many of the mod features are somewhat cheesy and exploitable.

Don't start on the highest difficulty settings. Unless you think of yourself as Napoleon of tactical computer combat or a real glutton for punishments. In this games difficulties work like in the "good, old times". Which means that already the middle difficulty can be challenging for a newcomer.

And don't be shocked - but almost no one has legs in this game.

Sounds good! I'll pick a middling difficulty to start with, which probably equates to "Hard" for other RPGs.

No legs? No problem! Kinda...odd...but I'm not in it for the graphics, I'm in it for that sweet, sweet combat and simulation.

Play veteran difficulty. It is the way the game is meant to be played I guess. There is nothing wrong with checking the highest starting funds as well. Won't make much of a difference in the long run, it will only give you a bit of a boost in at the start.

Be careful with permanent destruction setting if you are planning a long run(i.e: try to go through all 4 crises). You might end up in a somewhat deserted world

Spoiler

filled with cities and keeps converted into undead necropolis and orc/goblin settlements

with fewer places to trade your goods, get jobs or hire recruits.

Noble war and holy war are the best options for first crisis, since both are entirely optional(you don't need to take part) and neither presents the risk of permanently destroying the settlements). Then again facing the undead or greenskin crisis first means they will be somewhat easier to handle... choose wisely. Or pick "random" and take your chances.

 

[underground nymph]

How to stop being a dirty savescum in this game? Even Ironman doesn’t help, I just alt+f4 when a battle goes bad for me.

 

[Alienman]

How to stop being a dirty savescum in this game? Even Ironman doesn’t help, I just alt+f4 when a battle goes bad for me.

Just learn to accept and enjoy bad outcomes. It makes for great stories. Also many people seem way to fast on quitting having one bad encounter, but usually you can recover even if it is tough. In other words, activate L.A.R.P mode.

I do wish you could continue in the same world but as a new company. That would be awesome from a story telling perspective. Maybe even finding your old company as undead.

 

[hivemind]

How to stop being a dirty savescum in this game? Even Ironman doesn’t help, I just alt+f4 when a battle goes bad for me.

stop trying to make yourself enjoy a tedious game mode

ironmeme is the biggest meme ever, if you arent doing it as exhibition of your game mastery then you are just making yourself replay the early to midgame over and over again

 

[Serus]

How to stop being a dirty savescum in this game? Even Ironman doesn’t help, I just alt+f4 when a battle goes bad for me.

stop trying to make yourself enjoy a tedious game mode

ironmeme is the biggest meme ever, if you arent doing it as exhibition of your game mastery then you are just making yourself replay the early to midgame over and over again

Not really. Perhaps You are a meme? Ironman just makes games that are well designed with ironman in mind better. The game becomes more tense, more exiting and usually better balanced because you actually need to spend consumables and take losses/wounds etc. And of curse the only way to have any real challenge in some types of games. That's why many people like it.


underground nymph
In Battle Brothers there is no need to replay "over and over". This is not a Roguelike, and even in RLs it is not always the case. All you need to not lose the game is to learn what to fight and what to avoid - that is all. Doesn't take that long. Once you've learnt it You will lose a brother or two from time to time (unless you are very good and attentive). As Alienman wrote, it's ok. As long as you can gain levels faster than you loose them you can continue playing and getting stronger despite losses. Just keep good reserves for such cases.
Lone Wolf start - this is the real ironman in this game. Don't do it unless you know what you are doing.

It is hard to help You. I do the same but in normal games. I tend to save every few minutes in case i need or want to reload. Not in every game and not always but i have that issue in some games. One reason i started to enjoy IM mode (also RLs), apart from the reasons i already mentioned is that they "force" me to stop savescuming which kills tension and excitement for me. To savescum in a IM game you need to cheat the rules - for example using alt-f4. I don't do that, i don't cheat as a rule when playing "seriously". Ironman helps me NOT to savescum. But in your case it doesn't work so i don't know how to help you. Try to change you attitude. You know, tell youself "loosing is fun" but only when it happens from time to time. It makes victory sweeter. Also brothers are expendable - there are always a better one than the one you lost. He is waiting somewhere to be trained and kick ass.

 

[hivemind]

Not really. Perhaps You are a meme? Ironman just makes games that are well designed with ironman in mind better.

And notably Battle Brothers isn't one of them.

There is no genuine 100% lose condition that calls your run quits and grants you absolution, there is only tediously replaying the early to midgame experience of farming your new hires up on bandits on other easy encounters while avoiding "hard" fights until you are back to having a full team of capable bros.

If I'm learning to fight Schrats or Lindwurms and I fuck up and my lvl 11 bro dies I want to restart the fight and try something else so that I learn the tactical battle thing. I don't want to fucking powerlevel a guy up for like idk an hour or two that I can go back to learning a given encounter. That's literally just insane.

"Save Scumming" is such a dumb term when it comes to turn based tactic games. Like, if you try a tactic that didn't work in a fight, why shouldn't you "save scum" and try another one? Why would you prefer to spend hours grinding back up on trivial encounters just for the another try at an interesting one.

 

[Serus]

Not really. Perhaps You are a meme? Ironman just makes games that are well designed with ironman in mind better.

And notably Battle Brothers isn't one of them.

There is no genuine 100% lose condition that calls your run quits and grants you absolution, there is only tediously replaying the early to midgame experience of farming your new hires up on bandits on other easy encounters while avoiding "hard" fights until you are back to having a full team of capable bros.

If I'm learning to fight Schrats or Lindwurms and I fuck up and my lvl 11 bro dies I want to restart the fight and try something else so that I learn the tactical battle thing. I don't want to fucking powerlevel a guy up for like idk an hour or two that I can go back to learning a given encounter. That's literally just insane.

"Save Scumming" is such a dumb term when it comes to turn based tactic games. Like, if you try a tactic that didn't work in a fight, why shouldn't you "save scum" and try another one? Why would you prefer to spend hours grinding back up on trivial encounters just for the another try at an interesting one.

But notably it is.
Lack of loose condition is exactly what makes it good for IM. This the reason why you do NOT have to "tediously replay" anything like in some RL. Why would you anyway. It gets tedious when you have to repeat the same battle 2 or 3 times. You rlogic is completely backwards.
If your level 11 bros dies then you replace him with another levelled brother from reserve. And you don't have to go back to "tediously" fight early games enemies. I never had to and that was on highest difficulty (no one forces that on anyone). And I am not even a good player compared to some. You know that thing called reserves? As long as you lose bros worth significantly less exp than you gain exp, you should be ok. The only problems are: a lot of bros dies in short period of time or a crucial bro dies. The latter mostly mean bannerman. However bannermans are really needed only against a few enemies so you can level one when playing normally. In the end: don't loose too much brothers - but you can loose a few here and there.

Additionally you can learn fighting specific enemies doing a non-ironman campaign. That's how i learned how to fight some late game enemies. And then go IM. No one said it is forbidden.

Yep, i am a bad tactician so i try a tactic that doesn't work and... i face the consequences. You otoh always know that you can reload which means you can't really loose. If you can't loose then how you can really win? You don't even need work on good tactics. Just a mediocre one that combined with good rng will be enough to "win".
And i already answered to the nonsensical claim of "spend[ing] hours grinding back up on trivial encounters". This is bollocks.

Tell me one thing. All your talk is theoretical, right? You never really played IM and this why you imagine those crazy scenarios, scenarios that exists only in your head? Well i did play IM and know those thing from practice. And i know of others who have the same experience as I. Sure, sometimes a good bother dies but you never have to go back to fight easy, earlier game tier enemies - let alone "for hours". That can only happen if you loose half of of your bros, which isn't a normal thing to happen.

 

[Lios]

Both ironman and savescummer are valid ways of playing the game. I do ironman when I want to just go with the flow, take whatever country bumpkins and losers (and occasional superstars) I happen to find and shape them into a capable fighting force. I normally go for a single crisis maybe two and then quit. Some perks make more sense in this mode (nine lives, maybe resilient- which is a great perk, i don't understand the hate for it- and others) and you realize that it isn't that much of a deal to regroup, rehire etc after a battle gone to shit. Plus you learn how and when to pick your battles, when to retreat and when to retreat asap, and other stuff.

Savescummer mode I also enjoy when I want to fuck/stick around more in an awesome map for example with arena ports, when I want to breed supersoldiers through selective savescumming while hiring in towns and when a motherfucking chosen one shots one of my most promising dudes, get through 3 or more crisis, generally when I want a slower and more relaxing Battle Brothers experience.

I enjoy both of these ways to play the game, and I suggest that everybody tries both of them and see which one tickles his/her fancy.

 

[thesecret1]

The game becomes more tense, more exiting and usually better balanced because you actually need to spend consumables and take losses/wounds etc. And of curse the only way to have any real challenge in some types of games. That's why many people like it.

Important thing to note, Ironman is usually only fun if you know what you're doing, where a defeat is an occassional obstacle to recover from. If you're just going from one defeat to another because you suck (ie. aren't that familiar with the game and its tactics yet), then Ironman is just going to be one long frustration that'll end with a rage quit. Personally, I only start doing Ironman runs in games once they start feeling too easy even on max difficulty.

 

[PorkaMorka]

Battle Brothers is more suited for ironman than many roguelikes, because once you learn the game you DON'T have to play the early parts over and over. Because you just lose some guys, not the whole run. It has partial failure states, not just a binary win or lose.

There might be a few wipes that are outside your control in the very early game but once you have stabilized your team with some gear and levels, you will rarely wipe if you take fights with an appropriate challenge level. (Eventually you'll learn which fights those are.) Even if you push yourself a little, you shouldn't lose your whole team, but you might take some losses.

The real run ender is getting too strong, to the point where the normal content is no longer challenging, but feeling like you still need to grind before doing the legendary locations. Having some tough battles and some losses along the way helps delay the end of the fun and keep things in that interesting mid game stage for longer. It also means that each run has a unique "story".

If you played without accepting losses and reloading each fight until it was perfect then you'd quickly reach the boring stage of just grinding easy camps to get ready for legendary locations. That might be fun once or twice, but that's not the best part of the game, that's not what keeps people coming back for 1000 hours.

However, most people should only play Ironman after they've already learned the fights by saving and reloading. And the game doesn't make it obvious that the difficulty works this way, so a lot of people probably save scum a few times then quit, thinking of it as just a grinding game... or lose a few times to a gimmick fight on ironman then quit.

A rare case where the game actually rewards the people who invest a lot of time in mastering it; it's more fun once you are good enough to play ironman without constant restarts.

 

[oasis789]

Huh, with all the additions to this game it really seems this Battle Brothers game is one of these "Ultimate CRPGs" that has just oodles of 'stuff' to keep u entertained with. I'm going to go ahead and likely start a new campaign soon, it would mark my first time playing the game, plus I own all the DLC. Should be fun! Any non-spoiler things I should know before jumping in?

don't be afraid to switch from mercenary to bandit. robbing caravans is the quickest way to outgear the level scaling. taking crappy jobs to fight monsters with rookies is a bad idea.

 

[Reinhardt]

robbing caravans is the quickest way to outgear the level scaling.

Lol, poorfag nigger. Instead of robbing caravans BE a caravan!

 

[ERYFKRAD]

robbing caravans is the quickest way to outgear the level scaling.

Lol, poorfag nigger. Instead of robbing caravans BE a caravan!

 

[gogis]

How to stop being a dirty savescum in this game? Even Ironman doesn’t help, I just alt+f4 when a battle goes bad for me.

You don't need to restart even if just one guy left standing. Quest difficulty revolves around your party strength, so you can build up again. And number of days is just well, a number. There is no end date, it's sandbox