Battle Brothers Pre-Release Thread

[YES!]

Does this game have any sort of character generation or are all characters made by the developers?

This seems far more of a strategy game with rpg elements than a rpg with strategy elements. Can someone articulate what this game is about please?

 

[vonAchdorf]

There's no character generation. But you get to determine their whole leveling up process and all additional abilities they acquire after their initial ones. Stat increases are partly randomized, but you still get to pick which you raise.

 

[Skittles]

Dogs mostly seem useful for chasing down single targets like archers and runners after a battle is over, are there any other good uses?

They can be used to get surrounds (and the to hit chance bonuses) and to halt enemies who're trying to outflank you if you don't have anyone free--they won't last long, but they can tie some enemies up and prevent them from advancing.

Does this game have any sort of character generation or are all characters made by the developers?

This seems far more of a strategy game with rpg elements than a rpg with strategy elements. Can someone articulate what this game is about please?

No char gen., they're all randomly generated to start. Advancement is level based, though, with you selecting three attributes to advance at each level and selecting one perk per level.

This isn't an RPG in any meaningful sense and this thread is miscategorized in a bad way. It's a squad level turnbased tactics game with a strategic layer. The game is about managing a small mercenary company. You take contracts for money, you hire, equip, supply and pay mercenaries, and eventually you confront an "end game crisis" that typically forces you to take harder contracts at a faster rate in order to prevent some sort of calamity. Over all, though, you're just aiming for a high score: maximum money and renown, having a full roster of top level mercs, collecting cool equipment for them, etc.

 

[Nahel]

Dogs mostly seem useful for chasing down single targets like archers and runners after a battle is over, are there any other good uses?

Taking some hits for you. They have a decent defense.

 

[Jimmious]

How do you guys deal with big packs of orcs? Their jump-stun thing is tearing my men apart. And they have a lot of HP so you can't kill off 2-3 fastly so that the rest have their morales drop

 

[Nahel]

Spearwall for the youngs and to delay the warriors/berserkers. Archer to snipes the berserker and the youngs and ruin their morale. Warriors must be tanked by bros with shields and damaged by 2 handed users (polearms, axe, hammers). The key is focusing on one warrior at a time in order to kill them fast. But big groups of orc warriors have no real solutions, they will often reach your backline and do a lot of damage. You need tons of armor in order to survive and not lose any bros.

 

[hivemind]

How do you guys deal with big packs of orcs? Their jump-stun thing is tearing my men apart. And they have a lot of HP so you can't kill off 2-3 fastly so that the rest have their morales drop

remove armour and use shrooms to assert your dominance over the subhuman greenskins

 

[Skittles]

How do you guys deal with big packs of orcs? Their jump-stun thing is tearing my men apart. And they have a lot of HP so you can't kill off 2-3 fastly so that the rest have their morales drop

Good advice from Nahel. I'd also suggest you keep a relatively tight formation to avoid the orc warrior repositioning to delay as long as possible the moment they break through to your backline.

I also find that flails are pretty good against orcs: the young rarely have much if any head protection and getting around the warriors' shields is pretty great. Berserkers are usually archer fodder, if you're keeping 2-4 good archers levelled properly.

 

[YES!]

Dogs mostly seem useful for chasing down single targets like archers and runners after a battle is over, are there any other good uses?

They can be used to get surrounds (and the to hit chance bonuses) and to halt enemies who're trying to outflank you if you don't have anyone free--they won't last long, but they can tie some enemies up and prevent them from advancing.

Does this game have any sort of character generation or are all characters made by the developers?

This seems far more of a strategy game with rpg elements than a rpg with strategy elements. Can someone articulate what this game is about please?

No char gen., they're all randomly generated to start. Advancement is level based, though, with you selecting three attributes to advance at each level and selecting one perk per level.

This isn't an RPG in any meaningful sense and this thread is miscategorized in a bad way. It's a squad level turnbased tactics game with a strategic layer. The game is about managing a small mercenary company. You take contracts for money, you hire, equip, supply and pay mercenaries, and eventually you confront an "end game crisis" that typically forces you to take harder contracts at a faster rate in order to prevent some sort of calamity. Over all, though, you're just aiming for a high score: maximum money and renown, having a full roster of top level mercs, collecting cool equipment for them, etc.

Thank you for the information. So there isn't a real end game or is there a story line that ends and the game is over after?

 

[Skittles]

Thank you for the information. So there isn't a real end game or is there a story line that ends and the game is over after?

There isn't a true end game, no. You can play until you retire unless you're completely wiped out. Winning the end game crisis I mentioned is something of a game win, but I wouldn't call it a true "story done." It's just the difficulty spike that you're hopefully preparing for in the first couple of months of your campaign.

 

[YES!]

Thank you for the information. So there isn't a real end game or is there a story line that ends and the game is over after?

There isn't a true end game, no. You can play until you retire unless you're completely wiped out. Winning the end game crisis I mentioned is something of a game win, but I wouldn't call it a true "story done." It's just the difficulty spike that you're hopefully preparing for in the first couple of months of your campaign.

Thank you again for your information. It is very helpful. Especially having clarification that this is not an rpg at all but has some rpg elements such as decent unit development.

 

[Jimmious]

I've a guy who started with the "Dumb" trait (-15% exp) and then got Damaged Brain or sth like that (-15% experience and sth else but +15% resolve haha) and got also a missing finger AND missing ear. I dont want to fire him, he's the mascot of the company

 

[Prime Junta]

Dogs mostly seem useful for chasing down single targets like archers and runners after a battle is over, are there any other good uses?

I use them for shock effect: when the enemy's wavering, dumping a couple of mutts around them will often get them to break. Also I just rescued one of my veterans with one -- he was getting overwhelmed, but the dog managed to bring his assailant down so he could withdraw.

 

[Mr. Pink]

Feature request 1:
obituary mouse over name shows stats of the deceased (without any injuries except the perm injuries inflicted before his final fight)
I have a hard time keeping track of who died
2.
option to have tiles that allies are standing on to be outlined a faint yellow and tiles the enemy is standing on to be red. If you join a battle and attack from the right side, it becomes very confusing when your bros are facing away from the enemy.
3.
More names please. I have 3 Hakons in my party.
More bandit leader names too.
4.
at the end of a war, when victorious, have a final contract to track and slaughter the leaders of the defeated faction and their elite bodyguards. Their fancy shirts and hats should be a drop.
5.
current melee and ranged defense as a bar below the hp bar
6.
4th tier daggers, or an estoc

 

[RK47]

Spearwall for the youngs and to delay the warriors/berserkers. Archer to snipes the berserker and the youngs and ruin their morale. Warriors must be tanked by bros with shields and damaged by 2 handed users (polearms, axe, hammers). The key is focusing on one warrior at a time in order to kill them fast. But big groups of orc warriors have no real solutions, they will often reach your backline and do a lot of damage. You need tons of armor in order to survive and not lose any bros.

Pick up any orc weapon and realize their murderous potential.
Now imagine them swinging with both hands for 20% more dmg.
Yeah.
Armor up. It's gonna hit hard.

 

[Prime Junta]

LTTP but anyway. What do your bros look like?

My backbone is a mix of axes, billhooks, and pikes. Still mostly woodcutter's axes, but I have one longaxe also; my next big purchase is a greataxe or another longaxe. I really dig axes because of the split shield ability -- and they do pretty decent damage against armour too. My base tactic is to find high ground if available, split shields with axes and finish with polearms; the ability to push and pull enemies is highly useful too in bumpy terrain. For example if I've got an enemy piker on a hummock I can pull him down with a billhook so my axmen will clobber him. Or I can use pikes to push enemies downhill, or out of contact with a brother who's getting clobbered so he can retreat. By themselves they're kinda useless against shields though, so the axes are a crucial complement.

In addition to those, I've got two specialists: a crossbow sniper (from the original trio), and one guy using a warbrand I found. The sniper is a pretty good damage dealer and can sometimes take out a guy in the opening which is good for morale, and also good at suppressing enemy archers or murdering necromancers. The Kriegsmesser guy is brutal at finishing once the axmen have peeled off the shields and softened the armour. I'm thinking of adding a two-handed hammer or two to the mix once I can afford it.

I should also probably get arrested for cruelty to animals because I've gone through a quite a few war dogs. In easy fights -- as if there are any! -- I just use them to chase down fleeing enemies. Otherwise I use them for shock effect on softened-up enemies or as a last-ditch effort to save a veteran who's in trouble.

I have however been unreasonably humanitarian with my people. I really hate to lose them. I hire cheap, kit them out in my cheapest armour, give them a pike, and put them in the middle of the back row. If they survive a couple of fights to level up, they'll make room for the next poor sap to take on the life of the sword. (Or axe, in my case.) I'm now up to ten brothers, most in chainmail, a noob or two still in lamellar. My current project is to get all my axmen equipped with greataxes; I won't be hiring any more until then. After that, thinking of adding a hammerer or two to the mix for extra can-opening effect.

Question: is the longaxe treated as an axe or a polearm? The description says "type: axe" but it behaves like a polearm and the wiki lists it under them. Asking because of specialisation.

 

[Latro]

feature request 7:

i want to kiss my bros

 

[Reinhardt]

But you can do it already.

 

[Dr Skeleton]

Question: is the longaxe treated as an axe or a polearm? The description says "type: axe" but it behaves like a polearm and the wiki lists it under them. Asking because of specialisation.

I'm pretty sure it falls under axe mastery when it comes to fatigue cost reduction and split shield boost.

 

[Reinhardt]

Reading steam suggestions forum. Most of the time it's "gib us base/females/magic" but sometimes you can find really good ideas like if ork berzerkers forced to protect some cowardly shitslingers, they should attack nearest target, even friendly.

 

[RK47]

if ork berzerkers forced to protect some cowardly shitslingers, they should attack nearest target, even friendly.

I don't get what you said.

 

[Reinhardt]

Enemies now often stand and protect archers. In case of berserk - he should slaughter gobbos himself, get berserk buff and charge.

 

[Marten Broadcloak]

LTTP but anyway. What do your bros look like?

Pretty much like you. I made the mistake to create a huge spearwall and specialize all my men in spears; that was before I realized spears were useless against armor, so I'm now transitionning to axes, which are great against pretty much everything. I only have 2-3 longaxes though, because I need shields on every foot soldier or gobelin skirmishers tear them apart. Are hammers that good? For now, my non-axemen use flails, very effective against enemies with shields or shitty head armor. I heard maces are great, too, for they can stun reliably, but that's not really my style.
However, I have three good crossbowmen and I'd never go back to having only one, they are way too useful. When there are five archers in the enemy army, I need to take them down fast and can't afford to wait five turns (at best) for my sole crossbowman to take care of them.

I'd love to use wardogs, but for now they seem to lack a lot of depth. I'll wait for a patch to improve on them.

 

[Prime Junta]

Yeah I'm thinking my next recruit or two will be crossbowmen. I'll specialise my no-longer-so-green pikeman into hammers and move him to the frontline to make room.

I stopped using shields altogether, I find the extra wallop a two-handed axe gives is more than worth it. So far anyway. I haven't had too much trouble with skirmishers (goblin or otherwise), they go down pretty quickly when you tap them with an axe and follow up with a strike or two from polearms. I do try to put my axmen on high ground though whenever possible.

 

[Marten Broadcloak]

I stopped using shields altogether, I find the extra wallop a two-handed axe gives is more than worth it. So far anyway. I haven't had too much trouble with skirmishers (goblin or otherwise), they go down pretty quickly when you tap them with an axe and follow up with a strike or two from polearms. I do try to put my axmen on high ground though whenever possible.

So you have no bro with a shield, and you rush the enemy archers and all? Damn, my men would die so fast. Do you use heavy armor? I suppose you have to be pretty mobile, but on the other hand since your soldiers rely only on armor for their protection, it's tough to give them light armor. What day & difficulty setting are you at?