Battle Brothers Pre-Release Thread

[eric__s]

This is Alfred. He was the first guy I hired and he's been in all my battles. For a while, it was him, my three founding guys and a hunter and they formed a fairly solid team. Then I took a contract to wipe out a graveyard that was a little too difficult and Alfred was the only one to make it out alive. In fact, Alfred only made it out because he retreated. I didn't have enough money to hire new people and I figured I had nothing to lose, so after he healed up, I decided to try my luck on the graveyard again. Alfred won all by himself. By now he was getting pretty powerful, but I still needed money to hire more guys, so I wandered from the village I was in to another village. Along the way, Alfred got attacked by groups of orcs and bandits and he was able to wipe them out all by himself. By the time he got to the next village, he was level 9.

For a while, I'd hire people and they just couldn't keep up; they'd get killed and Alfred would be left all alone again. I've finally got a fairly stable crew now, although none of them are nearly as good as Alfred. He could probably take most encounters by himself, although he's susceptible to ranged damage and he does get hit every once in a while.

Alfred's buddies on the left form a line because they can't take 7 orcs at the same time.

Also, I'm playing ironman so I'm not saving or reloading. Alfred's the real deal.

 

[Ninjerk]

What i'm reading is making me touch myself a little bit

 

[sser]

Swordmasters don't fuck around.


Alfred.

 

[oscar]

What the heck armour is that?

 

[Ellef]

Ok, I saw the incline tag and board-game-like and am intrigued. Worth getting in Early Access (I always tell myself no, but i'm weak)??

 

[oscar]

It's already pretty damn fun (though more of an open sandbox atm) and I'm impressed by how quickly patches are getting cranked out and complaints are being addressed. Attentive devs.

 

[Eyestabber]

Alfred's arnor is the same Kori had on the ss I posted earlier. Best armor in the game? 400 HP IIRC.

Ok, I saw the incline tag and board-game-like and am intrigued. Worth getting in Early Access (I always tell myself no, but i'm weak)??

Devs posted on this thread earlier on. They are clearly bros and are very codex-minded themselves. And I don't think it's all an act, because I played the games they said inspired Battle Brothers and IMHO they managed to get the "feel" of said games absolutely right.

Also, Codexians often complain that "this game has no soul" and whatnot, well....start reading the character bio and quest messages and you will be able to see that the devs poured their blood and tears on this project. Their own souls are fueling this thing, in a way.

 

[Eyeball]

It pisses me off that there's no real "routing enemies" in the game. When morale-broken, they just run off to the edge of the map and sit there quivering while you slog your surviving bros across the map to kill it, taking way more time than is amusing.

I sincerely hope proper retreating will be added later.

 

[Lucky]

Ok, I saw the incline tag and board-game-like and am intrigued. Worth getting in Early Access (I always tell myself no, but i'm weak)??

I normally never get Early Access games, because I have no desire to pay for the privilege of being glorified beta tester. This is the one game that I've made an exception for and I've not regretted it for a moment. In fact, I still would’ve considered it worth it if this was the finished product, because it’s already actually fun to play. No need for mods or having to handicap yourself to make the combat interesting. It’s the kind of fun where I don’t mind a bug that forces me to restart a battle that I was winning, because the fighting is just so enjoyable to play around with. The developers are also pretty great, posting lots of patches and being open about where they want to take the game.

If you're worried you might not like, just try the free demo first. It misses a lot of the features that the Early Access version has, but you’ll get a good idea of whether you’d enjoy the combat.
I also made a post earlier on about what the gameplay is like, so I’ll just quote that in case you’re interested:

Game is ace. I got sold on the game when I got slaughtered by some bog-standard zombies in the demo for breaking formation. Fights can go badly rather quickly if you’re not careful.

Combat is similar to HoMM3, in that it takes place on a grid and is turn-based, with turn-order being decided by initiative. There are also zones of control; friendly fire by archers; fatigue, morale and armour mechanics, with an injury system on the way. The troops themselves are single characters that you level up, rather than troop stacks, and you don’t level up the ‘hero’. Same goes for gear. You don’t kit out a hero but your mercenaries and what gear they have decides what skills they have. That’s one of the things I really like about the game, since it incentivises switching between weapons as the situation demands it rather than always using the same things.

The overworld map is where you travel around in real-time (with pause, if needed). There’s a day/night cycle that affects travel speed and visibility, plus traveling takes up money (mercenary wages) and supplies. Running out can mean desertion. There’s no base like with HoMM3. You can recruit mercenaries in towns and get supplies, but those are locations to visit rather than bases you control. This also means that losing all your mercenaries in battle means game over (though you can try and flee during the battle). Towns are also where you get contracts, which are your main source of income, and can get destroyed by enemies. There’s also a lot of emphasis on exploration, with enemies and sites that aren’t towns being hidden from you until they come into sight. You can also get ambushed in this way.

Right now the story is fairly bare-bones, but the developers plan to expand on that with there being a Great Enemy for you to fight that grows in power as the game progresses. However, the emphasis is on replayability, so while there will always be a ‘Great Enemy’ that tries to sweep the land, which one of the factions it turns out to be will vary per playthrough as it’s the natural result of the interaction between the different factions. You can also knee-cap it by disrupting the factors that would allow it to gain power.

 

[Jack Dandy]

eric__s Dear god, you've gone and made a Gregor Clegane.

 

[Ellef]

Thanks all, played demo; died to zombies and skeletons because i was careless. I'm sold. Read the last several pages and the positive feedback ratio reminds me of Underrail.

 

[Agesilaus]

Battle brothers Is definitely worth getting now, it's going to keep you well entertained for hours. It reminds me a little of starfarer/starsector when that game first came out on early access, because they both have combat engines that are really enjoyable.

 

[Eyestabber]

Holy SHIT dem full grown Orcs are scary. Just won a battle with a single casualty but...OH BOY. I was praying for mercy from the RNG gods all battle long. The fact that I had some shitty militia "helping" me made it even MORE intense, because I watched as the orcs simply MOWED the militia down before clashing against our shield wall. Really interesting to see adult orcs pushing frontliners aside and going straight for billmen/archers. They may look dumb, but they sure as hell AIN'T!

Seriously considering the supporter's upgrade.

 

[Agesilaus]

Adult orcs are brutal in large numbers if you don't have the ability to destroy armour quickly. I'm just thankful that they're susceptible to morale failures; they typically approach behind the young orcs and berserkers, so if you can kill off the unarmoured orcs quickly you might find the adults breaking and running.

I wonder if the defence skill that causes morale checks on every hit would be a good pick against adult orcs. If you can get them to flee, you get a tonne of free hits, and when they're wavering they are more likely to miss and be struck in turn. Constant morale checks would take a lot of wind out of their sails.

 

[Eyestabber]

Orcs are making me consider bringing some warhammers and greataxes. I never thought I'd need that much "power over finesse" but DAMN their armors are tough!

I really like how the devs managed to make every enemy type mechanically unique, despite how blatantly generic their concepts are.

You have your typical "bandits", guys that are like shittier versions of your own guys. Same rules, same weapons, only weaker, much weaker.

The undead may seem like pushovers during the first 1-3 turns, but after a while the fact that they don't get tired starts to slowly turn the tide on their favor. A deceptively strong opponent. And ofc, seeing your own dead guys rising again to punish you for being a shitty commander is absolutely priceless.

Werewolves have insane mobility, but are otherwise fairly predictable. Their uniqueness lies on the fact that they seem to attack 3 times per turn. Or maybe they do something else I didn't pay much attention?

And then we have ORCS. I'm pretty sure every new play enters this game thinking "orc = trashmob". You only realize how sadly mistaken you were after they start cleaving your guys. Getting REKT by orcs you thought were harmless is kinda like an initiation of sorts.

You guys found any other enemies I din't mention? I read about ghosts and vampires, but I think they aren't implemented yet.

 

[Ellef]

Yep, a lot of enemies punish you for thinking they're trash. The AI is relentless as well, poor positioning of your archers looking for a clean shot will get you in big trouble. I'm enjoying the fact that I need to have alternate weapon types if I find all the enemies have shields or something. No weapon focus feats to railroad your choice, which is nice.

I've only fought a few battles in this game, and I'm feeling the pinch from a lot of broken armour and some skulls.

 

[Lucky]

Having Orcs be an actual threat is a way more effective way of making the player feel powerful, than having them as level 1 thrashmobs. It's always weird when in most games the lore and visual design tries to make them sound and look intimidating, while mechanically they're pushovers. Here they look like bigger, stronger and tougher than humans - and they actually are, and if you treat them like bandits they'll steamroll you.

Oh, they're definitely in, though ghosts are pretty hard find at the moment. You'll probably lose some guys fighting vampires for the first time, as the way they fight is unlike that of the other undead. You'll definitely lose some guys if you stumble across their big brother.

Yep, a lot of enemies punish you for thinking they're trash. The AI is relentless as well, poor positioning of your archers looking for a clean shot will get you in big trouble. I'm enjoying the fact that I need to have alternate weapon types if I find all the enemies have shields or something. No weapon focus feats to railroad your choice, which is nice.

I've only fought a few battles in this game, and I'm feeling the pinch from a lot of broken armour and some skulls.

It's a pretty great way of motivating the player to use different weapons. They all have their uses, though some might suit your playstyle better than others. Just dropping the whole weapon proficiency issue also makes for way more interesting gameplay. More games should do that; having those limits hardly ever makes the game more exciting.

 

[oscar]

Lost Souls are the punishment for never spending points on levelling up my Bro's resolve (unless they got a starting background that makes them wet themselves upon receiving a scratch). The most utterly beaten I ever got was a fight against a pure party of 16 of them with an armoured and high-level party in a forest. I only managed to kill a handful of them with lucky archery before getting surrounded and routed with most of the bros shamefully dying while trying to escape the woods.

 

[Eyeball]

Meh. Just get the perk that makes you immune to spooky stuff in the 2nd tier of the defense tree. Then 1 bro can pretty much solo a legion of ghosts since they insist on using their spook attack even when it clearly has no effect.

 

[eric__s]

What the heck armour is that?

It's heraldic mail. I bought it at a castle and it's the best armor I've seen so far.

 

[Agesilaus]

^^ Someone said the strongest type of armour has 400 health, but Heraldic Mail only has 320. I'm with you, though; Heraldic Mail is the heaviest armour I've seen (although I imagine the Orc Warlord armour is heavier).


I don't think Raiders are shittier versions of your mercs. The "thugs" definitely are; they have crap equipment and die easily. The raiders, though, are better than almost all starting mercs. Their stats are okay and their equipment can be mid-game level. A small group of raiders will tear through an early game mercenary company; they hit fairly often and their mail armour is decent protection against early weapons. The marksmen are the best archers I've met so far, too; the skeleton ones are annoying because you can't shoot them back effectively, but the bandit marksmen are brutal if you don't have the armour to soak up arrows.

As far as I'm concerned, it's the undead who are the easiest to destroy early-game. Ghouls and unarmoured weidergangen are very easy to beat down. They're highly susceptible to ranged attacks, have poor melee defense, and except for the odd mail-wearing weidergangen they're basically unarmoured. The only time I've felt even vaguely threatened by ghouls and weidergangen is when I'm in a forest and I split my men up. Don't break formation and you'll be okay.

Late game undead is the hardest in my opinion, though. It would be cool if the undead were affected in some way after you kill all the necromancers on the battlefield. Maybe weaken them, or cause some of them to fall apart?

Oh, they're definitely in, though ghosts are pretty hard find at the moment. You'll probably lose some guys fighting vampires for the first time, as the way they fight is unlike that of the other undead. You'll definitely lose some guys if you stumble across their big brother.

Big brother? Is there a second type of vampire? I always thought it was weird that they were called "withered vampires", like there was some other type of vampire that they were planning to implement.

My advice for vampires is to make sure that everyone is wearing at least mail armor, including your archers. Can't drain blood if there's still armour left!

Also, has anyone see the undead duke from the demo yet? I'm talking about the weidergangen who would cast some sort of spell on the other weidergangen to make them more agile and aggressive. I haven't seen them yet at all; my large-scale undead locations just consist of necromancers, various types of skeletons, and the odd ghost or withered vampire.

 

[Ellef]

Just had my first encounter with the undead outside of the demo; my level 2 party of eight people against 17, excluding regens. Battle went forever with my small party holding out their small grassy hill, stretched to the limit with fatigue and broken weapons leaving one guy with nothing but shield slams to do.

The game nails the desperation of zombie hoards better than most zombie games.

 

[Lucky]

The undead doing zombies better than zombie games is why I keep recommending the demo to people. It doesn't overwhelm you with them, but it does make you imagine how difficult actually fighting a large amount of them must be. You'll also definitely lose if you get careless against them. Making the demo actually kill players like that was a smart decision, because it lures in the kind of players who'll enjoy this type of game and give good feedback. Sure, I've seen the occasional player on other forums complain that the game's too hard, but mostly a lot of people excited by actually getting challenged for once.

Big brother? Is there a second type of vampire? I always thought it was weird that they were called "withered vampires", like there was some other type of vampire that they were planning to implement.

My advice for vampires is to make sure that everyone is wearing at least mail armor, including your archers. Can't drain blood if there's still armour left!

Also, has anyone see the undead duke from the demo yet? I'm talking about the weidergangen who would cast some sort of spell on the other weidergangen to make them more agile and aggressive. I haven't seen them yet at all; my large-scale undead locations just consist of necromancers, various types of skeletons, and the odd ghost or withered vampire.

My bad. I kept thinking that withered vampires were the advanced versions and that I was somehow missing the early-game vampires. I'm almost certain that there will be a more advanced version though, considering the name suggest that they're a diminished version of something and that a white haired vampire with nobleman's clothes is included in the art.

 

[HiddenX]

I can't stop playing this raw diamond of a game, brilliant!

 

[Agesilaus]

My bad. I kept thinking that withered vampires were the advanced versions and that I was somehow missing the early-game vampires. I'm almost certain that there will be a more advanced version though, considering the name suggest that they're a diminished version of something and that a white haired vampire with nobleman's clothes is included in the art.

Ah, no worries, perhaps it's for the best. I think withered vampires are the most difficult opponent in the game so far. They're not the strongest, and you can take them down with a couple of well placed hits, but their tactics are so infuriating. I've never fought more than one at a time, perhaps they should implement roving vampires like the roving werewolves.

If any of you guys spot the undead duke, let me know. He's the only enemy I haven't found yet.