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

[Peacefriend]

Picking this up for the first time, are there recommended mods?

 

[Serus]

"Someone" will come recommend you "Legends". I say play the game as is, at least initially, only mods i suggest a QoL. Especially nice is the one that adds auto-pause in certain situations like enemy appearing on main map.

 

[Jrpgfan]

"Someone" will come recommend you "Legends". I say play the game as is, at least initially, only mods i suggest a QoL. Especially nice is the one that adds auto-pause in certain situations like enemy appearing on main map.

Speed mod is a must too. I don't know how people manage to play without those, game is slow as fuck.

 

[Vincente]

Decided to start an Oathtakers company where I only hire Oathtakers. 20-something days in.

And if you have 10k gold you can get an event where you buy this Oathtaker's armor and weapon for 9k but if you're playing as Oathtakers he just joins you for free with his equipment. Pretty cool.

 

[HumanTotemPole]

"Someone" will come recommend you "Legends". I say play the game as is, at least initially, only mods i suggest a QoL. Especially nice is the one that adds auto-pause in certain situations like enemy appearing on main map.

Seconded, Legends is for once you've mastered the base game. Definitely worth it once you have though.

I used to be anti-Legends but it’s actually pretty good. Every dedicated BB player should try a solo berserker run.

 

[tindrli]

Are you talking about Legends?

yes

Picking this up for the first time, are there recommended mods?

No. Just play a game. after 100 hours or so maybe add speed mod In my humble opinion is highly recommended but some people claim that it makes game somewhat buggy and i think that in battle it makes my bros miss if i shoot/att 2 times fast but thats just my paranoia .. then if you like a game you'll probably have many many hours and then you can go with legends.

 

[Peacefriend]

Thanks for the answers, I went with the speed mod (but not the pause mod, since its comments said it was not updated for the most recent versions of BB).

The game seemed very difficult at first (at medium difficulty), but it quickly became apparent it is easy to cheese. Play trader, dismiss everyone so you don't pay their upkeep, hire 2 or 3 goons who have 6 or less upkeep, with high initiative if possible (ratcatchers are exactly what you want), then take only package delivery and ruin finding quests, trade goods between north and south, avoid forest ambushes by using 1x speed while in forest, and retreat from every battle.
I feel I could keep this up indefinitely, I could go to 100k gold if I wanted. Am I missing something, is there some timed event by which I must have an army at the ready or what?
Or is it just meant to be played so that you limit yourself with a self imposed rule, like "never buy trade goods, never take package quests", for the normal game experience (where you have to do actual sellswording with actual challenge)?

 

[Barbarian]

Decided to start an Oathtakers company where I only hire Oathtakers. 20-something days in.

And if you have 10k gold you can get an event where you buy this Oathtaker's armor and weapon for 9k but if you're playing as Oathtakers he just joins you for free with his equipment. Pretty cool.

Playing with mods? What is that perk of the page with the golden laurels? Never seem that before.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

and retreat from every battle.

Username seems appropriate.

 

[k0syak]

Thanks for the answers, I went with the speed mod (but not the pause mod, since its comments said it was not updated for the most recent versions of BB).

The game seemed very difficult at first (at medium difficulty), but it quickly became apparent it is easy to cheese. Play trader, dismiss everyone so you don't pay their upkeep, hire 2 or 3 goons who have 6 or less upkeep, with high initiative if possible (ratcatchers are exactly what you want), then take only package delivery and ruin finding quests, trade goods between north and south, avoid forest ambushes by using 1x speed while in forest, and retreat from every battle.
I feel I could keep this up indefinitely, I could go to 100k gold if I wanted. Am I missing something, is there some timed event by which I must have an army at the ready or what?
Or is it just meant to be played so that you limit yourself with a self imposed rule, like "never buy trade goods, never take package quests", for the normal game experience (where you have to do actual sellswording with actual challenge)?

You are supposed to stay ahead of game scaling, which means taking as many fights as possible. Caravans are a horrendous time-sink early on, as are searching for ruins missions, unless you plan to bust the camp right away. Aim for 2 fights per day if you can.

 

[Peacefriend]

Oh okay, I didn't realize threats scale with time.

 

[k0syak]

Also, no need to buy trade goods, you can take them off the caravan hands' warm bodies, along with some other loot. Raiding caravans ensures "ambushed trade roads" in settlements, so you always sell for more.

 

[Kalarion]

Oh okay, I didn't realize threats scale with time.

They don't, or rather, time is not even close to the main factor in threat scaling.

The primary encounter scaling mechanic is how many bros you have in your team. The secondary factor is average level of your band. AFAICT time is only used to determine spacing between Crisis-level events, and to reset "special" event occurrence timing (usually associated with specific Backgrounds).

Which should answer your earlier question: yes, you can play the game the way you're talking for as long as you want. But you will technically never meet the requirements to "beat" the game, because Crises only pop if you have a band of at least 9+ bros with an average level of 6 for at least 30 days (give or take a week or so depending on group makeup and average level). You could consider your technique cheesing I suppose, for the fact you're able to buy and hire whatever the fuck you want given enough time trading :D. But the truth is that, setting aside soft gear restrictions (mostly having to do with rapidly increasing fatigue costs and lack of ability to deal with them at low levels), you're going to have to start levelling at some point in order for the game state (primarily encounter strength and Crises) to change, at which point the game will start working as intended rather rapidly.

Probably the biggest cheese this game has to offer is the player's total control over when a Crisis is spawned, given basic knowledge of the scaling/progression mechanics going on under the hood. My most common practice is to freeze my party at the cusp of a Crisis by sticking with a band of only 8 bros, level them all to 11 and gear the shit out of them, and then pop a Crisis by recruiting a couple more bros when I feel comfortable I can handle it.

 

[k0syak]

"Difficulty of non-contract locations and roaming parties scales mostly with distance to civilization and time. Roaming parties also scale slightly with player strength, but less so than contracts, and non-contract locations don't scale with player strength at all. [6]

Therefore, contract-spawned mobs and locations are always closely matched to the player's party and offer an appropriate challenge. As non-contract locations do not scale to the player's party strength, far-off locations will probably be risky or difficult early in the game, whereas in the late game, these become juicier targets for unique hunting, especially if the player has levelled up speedily."

Most enemies also receive buffs around day 40, some of them very impactful, like nomads getting dodge.

 

[Vincente]

Decided to start an Oathtakers company where I only hire Oathtakers. 20-something days in.

And if you have 10k gold you can get an event where you buy this Oathtaker's armor and weapon for 9k but if you're playing as Oathtakers he just joins you for free with his equipment. Pretty cool.

Playing with mods? What is that perk of the page with the golden laurels? Never seem that before.

It's an Oath symbol, Oathtakers take Oaths instead of ambitions.

 

[Kalarion]

"Difficulty of non-contract locations and roaming parties scales mostly with distance to civilization and time. Roaming parties also scale slightly with player strength, but less so than contracts, and non-contract locations don't scale with player strength at all. [6]

Therefore, contract-spawned mobs and locations are always closely matched to the player's party and offer an appropriate challenge. As non-contract locations do not scale to the player's party strength, far-off locations will probably be risky or difficult early in the game, whereas in the late game, these become juicier targets for unique hunting, especially if the player has levelled up speedily."

Most enemies also receive buffs around day 40, some of them very impactful, like nomads getting dodge.

Yes. But time scaling doesn't work like other stuff. For mob buffs it happens in very discrete chunks. At day 40, as you said, and once more at I believe day 180, when most endgame monsters receive significant stat boosts (Lindwurms are the big one, they become much much more difficult to beat in packs at that point). As far as camps, the only thing that changes is the size of the camp and the completely random addition of named mobs occasionally. And even here, those things are much more affected by party strength (as measured by size and average level) and global reputation then time.

Contrast that with how roamers and contracts scale off of party size and level in a consistent manner across multiple breakpoints. I think my point still holds. Time is a factor but (1) not even close to the biggest, (2) the way time scales threat won't really affect a pure trader run at all (even accounting for the boosts to mobs past day 40, the theoretical scenario put forth by Peacefriend wouldn't run into any problems associated with it that the gear and advanced recruits acquired via stacks of cash couldn't solve) and (3) other time-based threat scaling is easily controlled by the player (eg my example regarding Crises). And most importantly, it's not really possible to "beat the game" (which I take in the manner the developers intended, resolving any of the 4 Crises) as a pure trader. You absolutely must have a certain party size and strength before a Crisis will initiate, you can literally freeze the endgame state forever if you feel like it (which is exactly what his proposed run would do).

Edit to add: I completely forgot to address the fact that my original post didn't touch on the time scaling mechanics pointed out by k0syak at all. Those were good points and important information that I should have addressed in my original response. I just wanted to acknowledge that.

 

[k0syak]

I used to play "cautiously" - i.e. stick with a lower number of decent bros and try to level them, but then did a 180 and the difference is staggering. Hire a ton of fodder, put the better ones in the back and swarm the walking loot dispensers with sheer numbers. Supply caravans and early mercenary bands (before they get overwhelm) are great target for a suicide rush with a bunch of bums. Always ready to sacrifice those for some day 14 billhooks and 230/150 armors

 

[k0syak]

Day 10 supply caravan!

 

[Eyestabber]

Holy shit this game got some absolute trash enemies added to it. I want a mod to remove Hexe from the game right now.

 

[Serus]

Holy shit this game got some absolute trash enemies added to it. I want a move to remove Hexe from the game right now.

Why? Hexe is one of the more original enemies mechanic wise and also fun/frustrating to fight against.

 

[Eyestabber]

I REALLY miss the days before this game became the dork souls of squad tactics. BB was fun back in the day, but nowadays it caters to people whose definition of "fun" is sticking their dicks in a blender. Every time I reinstall the game I hope it somehow improved, but no, changes are always for the worse. Forest fights remain a complete cancerous clusterfuck, map generation is STILL a coinflip between autowin and autoloss (esp. in hills/mountain maps), a gazillion armor bypassing shit is STILL in the game, 95% attacks with two handers are STILL missing 110% of the time, the AI is STILL hitting five 10% odds attacks in a row, the gear grind is even worse than it ever was, losses after the early game are STILL a death sentence, Beasts and Exploration should've been called "FUCK YOU, the DLC", hiring people is STILL impossible without savescumming (unless you're an imbecile willing to accept the game stealing your money), perks are still garbage until Killing Frenzy/Berserk.

I played a single crisis and I have zero motivation to keep playing. If anything, my appreciation for deterministic systems has increased. Speaking of which:

Why? Hexe is one of the more original enemies mechanic wise and also fun/frustrating to fight against.

Same Hexe, but this time the coinflip went my way and she died turn 1 with two arrows to her skull. If only the RNG clusterfuck was limited to the fight itself, but no. The Hexe's bodyguards can change and they can go from a couple spiders (screenshot) all the way up to Schrats and Unholds. Same contract, completely different encounter, zero player input, RNGsus became lord and master of this game.

 

[Peacefriend]

You seem to expect RNG to be manageable with a single enemy, which it indeed isn't, but it is manageable across your campaign as a whole. So retreat more! And abandon contracts if they turn out to be too threatening! You are not supposed to engage every fight! Barbarians have dogs, but few other enemies can prevent you from retreating.
I have had 2 fights against Hexes so far, one I ran from with no casualties, the other I won. I liked the Hexes.

Also you can use an easier difficulty, that's what they are for? And you can disable the expansions if you really dislike them.

 

[Serus]

I REALLY miss the days before this game became the dork souls of squad tactics. BB was fun back in the day, but nowadays it caters to people whose definition of "fun" is sticking their dicks in a blender. Every time I reinstall the game I hope it somehow improved, but no, changes are always for the worse. Forest fights remain a complete cancerous clusterfuck, map generation is STILL a coinflip between autowin and autoloss (esp. in hills/mountain maps), a gazillion armor bypassing shit is STILL in the game, 95% attacks with two handers are STILL missing 110% of the time, the AI is STILL hitting five 10% odds attacks in a row, the gear grind is even worse than it ever was, losses after the early game are STILL a death sentence, Beasts and Exploration should've been called "FUCK YOU, the DLC", hiring people is STILL impossible without savescumming (unless you're an imbecile willing to accept the game stealing your money), perks are still garbage until Killing Frenzy/Berserk.

I played a single crisis and I have zero motivation to keep playing. If anything, my appreciation for deterministic systems has increased. Speaking of which:

Why? Hexe is one of the more original enemies mechanic wise and also fun/frustrating to fight against.

Same Hexe, but this time the coinflip went my way and she died turn 1 with two arrows to her skull. If only the RNG clusterfuck was limited to the fight itself, but no. The Hexe's bodyguards can change and they can go from a couple spiders (screenshot) all the way up to Schrats and Unholds. Same contract, completely different encounter, zero player input, RNGsus became lord and master of this game.

Are you done being grumpy? Nothing you mentioned is new. Morons players that don't understand how RNG works were always there. So were people who don't know how play games involving managing rng and risk. Git gud - and in such case, running from an encounter and/or cancelling a contract when needed may be part of it and is a valid choice. It's not a linear game where you have to win everything. Also ALWAYS bring dogs to a fight, at worst they are a good distraction when you run reposition yourself. There are people (including myself - and i am far from being really good) who can do such fights and very rarely loose someone. Hexe is a "tricky" fight, once you know the "tricks" it's manageable. Still interesting though because forces involved vary.
If i'd had to point the worst enemy - in terms of being boring not difficulty - those white fat night things so boring to make your men and you sleep.

One last thing, the game is not meant to be played past 1 or 2 crisis(es?). Saying the game is boring if you play longer is like saying a 4X game is boring after you have become the biggest power in the galaxy/on the planet/etc. Of curse you can play it more, and if you find it fun, please do so. But keep in mind that BB was never balanced for that.

 

[HumanTotemPole]

Big big balance changes if you haven't played since before B&E Eyestabber. Top recommendations would be check out new nimble, check out fat neutral builds & check out 2 handed flails (+/- new HH). You'll be suprised what a team of appropriately built subpar bros can achieve.

Agree with Serus above that Alp fights are the real cancer.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Alp fights are the real cancer.