Battle Brothers Pre-Release Thread

[Alienman]

So after playing a couple of rounds, I got to say "even" is a bit too easy. You get rich real quick, and get good weapons way too early. 2-3 hours in there was no real struggle anymore. Felt like I could retire happily. Buy a farm, kidnap a wife and eventually have my little battle bros run around frolicking in the fields.

Challenging though. Brutal. 4 Direwolves maimed my 7 man crew to bits on the first quest. Next time right out the gate my guys got ambushed by a bandit gang, consisted of bowmen and raiders. You can guess how that ended. The thing is, I like challenging more since the contracts pays less, which make it harder to survive but bandit raiders that early on ruins it.

 

[Wolfenswan]

I hope at one point formations will be in the game. The automated battle line has screwed me over more than once.

How are people levelling their battle bros? For front liners battle forged (and to a degree Colossus) seem like no brainers, as well as sundering strikes & executioner for all offensive focused characters. But then I'm less sure, especially for my shield guys. The bonus from shield expert seems somewhat small and the defensive II & III skills seem underwhelming. Utility skills have some nice stuff in tier II for offensive characters but I can't make any use of most tier I skills for them.

Edit:
Not the smartest harbor placement:

 

[AMG]

Utility tier one is absolutely broken. I pick quick hands and bags and belts on every character, it's ridiculously useful. Examples:
-Broke my shield? Woops, I have 2 spare ones. And I equip them for free.
-Shoot crossbow, swap to another one, shoot, swap to another one. Next turn shoot, swap to billhook and swing.
-Switching ranged weapons for polearms in general.
-Equiping shields at the end of turn with your backliners.
-Switching warhammers for more damaging weapons.
-Swapping to nets.
I could go on forever. The flexibility is ridiculous. For third perk pick pathfinder, it makes forest and swamp battles bearable. Rest is trash.

Colossus seems not very good to me. At best it lets you survive one more hit. At worst it does nothing. Now that nine lives is in tier one it seems strictly better, since it always saves you from one hit. In defense tier one I would pick dodge + shield master + battle forged (maybe nine lives is now better I'm not sure).

Bug report: Perfect focus double fatigue cost for some reason doesn't apply to billhooks and pikes. Didn't check with pitchfork, but I assume it's related to 2 range weapons.

 

[sser]

Utility tree is indeed quite strong.

One tactic I've been taking to is having maces/bashers up front looking for stuns, and head-hunters in the back with billhooks and spears. Running the perks together, you can get some pretty decent headshot chances with that setup and a billhook to the face is quite decimating.

I also like giving my high-fatigue wildmen the orc weapons -- in particular, the giant chain. I do take Colossus on my high-HP heroes like the Wildman. One in my current game is at 101HP at lvl 2, for example. Sadly, he's dumb as fuck and has -30% exp gain.

Nine Lives has spared my little Historian dude about four times now, from bandits, to enemy mercenaries, to a raging orc, to a crickety skeleton archer. I'm actually going to miss him if he does die. The last guy I missed was a Tailor. I had him fitted with his little fancy feather hat for a long time, but kept running into increasingly dangerous enemies. Fearing he might get hurt with his flimsy headgear, I gave him a more sturdy helmet. Very next fight an enemy mercenary drove a pike through his skull. RIP.

Obligatory double-prizes head chopping action shot,

 

[Agesilaus]

I'm liking it a lot on Challenging difficulty, but there are still some things that bother me. The quest with the undead chest is a little ridiculous for low level parties; I managed to win last time it came up, but at the cost of a near-total party wipe (and the lvl 1 scrubs that lived were immediately killed on the journey to the next town). To be fair, the player can simply run away from the chest, but at the same time... I think I was offered less than 200 gold for the mission. When the price-point is that low, I don't think anyone anticipates great danger. That's not to say the quest isn't profitable; if you win, you typically recover several high-tier melee weapons that are usually 2,000+ each at the weaponsmith.

Early game deadly difficulty is not much fun right now. I would recommend giving the player an addition 500 gold at the start. 1,000 gold (the current amount) is insufficient to hire and equip even the scrubbiest of lvl 1 scrubs. Sometimes you can get lucky with trade locations and bandit thug fights, and maybe it's easier if you do the tutorial (I always skip the tutorial because it's awful), but playing on ironman you basically die a thousand times in a row before you get off the ground.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Have you tried approaching iron man mode as you would a real rogue-like, where caution and means of escape are key to longer runs?

 

[Alienman]

I'm playing like that, at least this run. Had to escape a couple of times already

 

[Agesilaus]

Have you tried approaching iron man mode as you would a real rogue-like, where caution and means of escape are key to longer runs?

To an extent, yes. Unfortunately it's difficult to play that way in the early game. You have 1,000 gold, and if you spend it wisely you can add 3 or 4 scrubs with low-tier gear to your team. I would say that 6 lvl 1 scrubs is the smallest okay party for bandit thug bashing (you can consistently win with 0 to 1 casualties) and maybe you can get by smashing ghouls and zombies. Unfortunately, you don't have much money or food, so you must engage someone within a couple of days. Can you find the necessary opponents in that time? That's another question entirely; you're more likely to run into raiders, or larger zombie/ghoul forces. Ghouls are the worst in that they give you almost no gold (thus not helping your terrible financial situation), no equipment to strengthen your force, and they'll cost you tools and possibly casualties.

So, early game is when you're at your weakest, and when you're least able to run away. The previous version had a guaranteed bandit thug beat-down right outside the starting city, and you got 800 gold as a reward to boot. Once you were done with that, there was also a guaranteed ghoul/zombie fight right next door. We used to have 1000 + 800 + 2 x easy fight with equipment and experience + immediate caravan and/or delivery mission. Now... we have 1000 + maybe a little bit of equipment/experience from the 2 tutorial thugs + no missions.

EDIT: It seems the rules on loot have been changed. If you happen to see a strong friendly party engaged with the enemy, you can join and just hang back. In the old version, loot was tied to kills you actually made; now you don't need any kills to get the loot. I made a quick 1,000 gold plus tools and food by hiding behind a city patrol force.

 

[Reinhardt]

So, early game is when you're at your weakest, and when you're least able to run away.

But it's best part of the game.

 

[Helly]

EDIT: It seems the rules on loot have been changed. If you happen to see a strong friendly party engaged with the enemy, you can join and just hang back. In the old version, loot was tied to kills you actually made; now you don't need any kills to get the loot. I made a quick 1,000 gold plus tools and food by hiding behind a city patrol force.

Really? It might be a bug in the latest version, because in the Wednesday patch version I do remember joining a fight and only looting the stuff from the one orc I killed.

 

[Alienman]

One thing I find really funny in my current playthrough is that outside one of the biggest cities in my world there is an orc camp that keep raiding travelers and caravans. Instead of getting some men together and clearing that place out they continue to ask me to finish them off. I'm currently down to four men in peasant garbs and weapons. I just find it hilarious out of an role-playing aspect, especially since often I come running to that town with bandits and what not in tow. They have no problems with slaughtering them though. To add some extra fun factor to the whole thing is that currently my scouting of the place is saying that it contains very many orcs

Btw. Didn't the human factions attack bandit camps in the older versions, or am I remembering that wrong?

 

[Ninjerk]

One thing I find really funny in my current playthrough is that outside one of the biggest cities in my world there is an orc camp that keep raiding travelers and caravans. Instead of getting some men together and clearing that place out they continue to ask me to finish them off. I'm currently down to four men in peasant garbs and weapons. I just find it hilarious out of an role-playing aspect, especially since often I come running to that town with bandits and what not in tow. They have no problems with slaughtering them though. To add some extra fun factor to the whole thing is that currently my scouting of the place is saying that it contains very many orcs

Btw. Didn't the human factions attack bandit camps in the older versions, or am I remembering that wrong?

Maybe they're in cahoots.

 

[Alienman]

One thing I find really funny in my current playthrough is that outside one of the biggest cities in my world there is an orc camp that keep raiding travelers and caravans. Instead of getting some men together and clearing that place out they continue to ask me to finish them off. I'm currently down to four men in peasant garbs and weapons. I just find it hilarious out of an role-playing aspect, especially since often I come running to that town with bandits and what not in tow. They have no problems with slaughtering them though. To add some extra fun factor to the whole thing is that currently my scouting of the place is saying that it contains very many orcs

Btw. Didn't the human factions attack bandit camps in the older versions, or am I remembering that wrong?

Maybe they're in cahoots.

With the orcs? Maybe
It would be cool, but I don't think they have any diplomatic relations with the monster faction.

 

[oscar]

The goblin camp ambush/encirclement scenario is quite fun, saw some very cunning AI indeed in it: the wolf riders and infantry secured the hill in clusters while the archers sniped forcing me to split up my forces and attack at quite a disadvantage. Nasty fight and lost some good men (I should have immediately charged and tried to contest the other hills rather than trying to turtle and outshoot the goblins even though I had a good amount of firepower).

I'm quite liking the new lore and events and in general how the setting subtly hints and teases rather than making things explicit (what the heck was that grain event eluding to? Something like the Lost Souls?). Writing is quite charming as well.

 

[agris]

Men, I need help. I suck at this game. I'm playing it for the first time on Challenging and getting owned very regularly with 6 guys with the best gear (i.e. shit) I can buy at the start. Whether it's Hoggart or some 'young orcs', I'm facing enemies that are better equipped than me or far more accurate. The bowman you start with can't hit shit.

Is it expected that we explore the map and level up a bit before completing the Hoggart's head mission?

 

[Alienman]

Go "even". Challenging is brutal. Only go challenging if you like to see your men die

 

[Agesilaus]

Challenging is a little too easy, unless you hit a really brutal event like the undead crate. Deadly, however, is ridiculous at the start. You have to do some tedious thug hunting to get off the ground.

 

[orcinator]

My thoughts after playing the v0.5 and v0.6 betas:

Hope the world map controls will end up being more similar to mountain blade; auto pause when not moving, automatic following and, most importantly, the ability to make time go faster when moving and not just when camping (unless that's already in and I simply didn't press the right button). Also in regards to the map, the randomization can get pretty annoying, like my last game where 4 or 5 towns were away from any roads and/or on islands, made me wish for a hand-crafted map.



Not being able to see a new merc's stats before you hire him just encourages save scumming, especially with the more expensive ones since a bad stat array plus a bad trait or two means you wasted several thousand gold on someone useless and most likely lost someone actually useful. Would be nice if you could at least see the traits in addition to the job so I won't have to worry about that 6k gold sellsword being a fat drunken dwarf.

I'm not against the amount you can increase each stat by being somewhat random, but if they're pre-rolled and if I'm allowed to cancel after I choose which stats to increase it might as well show me all the values at once.


Lowering the max amount of tools carried to 100 feels more tedious than anything since it means I have to hang out near whichever town has em at a reasonable price. Would be more tolerable if tools couldn't go for 500g a stack.



Unless the enemy has range superiority, the game favors a defensive playstyle, orcs and necromances encourage you to sometimes move forward a bit. but there's no benefit to charging at the enemy,

 

[Wolfenswan]

Anyone else ever experienced the AI "freeze" during a turn? I "just" lost a near perfect because the AI refused to do anything after turn 8.

 

[Agesilaus]

Anyone else ever experienced the AI "freeze" during a turn? I "just" lost a near perfect because the AI refused to do anything after turn 8.

No, that's never happened for me. At most, there will be a brief pause. Did this happen under the new patch released today?

EDIT: Wooohooo, the latest patch increased the deadly difficulty starting funds!

 

[Alienman]

Sometimes, well, at least before the patch the game crashed when a militia or a bandit broke his weapon.

 

[Dr Skeleton]

Some thoughts on the new version:

There aren't enough contracts early on. I've started 3 times and played to mid/late game, 2 of 3 I had a problem with running out of money because I couldn't find any work. Last game I've played I finished the tutorial quest, razed one bandit location, did one quest for wolf hunting then couldn't find any contracts in 5 cities in a row, which is insane when you consider how far away from each other cities spawn now.

Random placement of cities is very, very random. I've had cities without any roads, by the sea and over a huge mountain range.

The road patrol quest is so broken I'm starting to think it's a feature. You can skip the road, wander into the woods and hunt random things for fun and profit. Which is exactly what you should be doing when you're getting paid per head.

On challenging I'm still getting 80% of my armor and weapon upgrades from loot. You simply can't afford most mid game equipment by the time you fight hordes of enemies that use it. I basically only buy spears, shields and armor with ~100 hp until I can afford late game armor and weapons. I'm not paying 500 for mid-tier sword when I already looted 3 of them from raiders and goblins.

The drunk / hangover debuffs apply too often and last too long, to the point I stopped using the tavern altogether. Also why can't I rest in a city (for even faster regeneration)?

I miss the caravan escort quest.

So much new stuff. Even the cosmetic things and different kinds of loot are nice. Same for new fluff and things like contract negotiations. Getting paid in advance is awesome.

I love the more complex quests, like the one when you go from hunting undead to hunting the necromancer.

 

[Alienman]

I agree so much on caravan quest.

 

[Serus]

We'll expand on the contracts and events for more story elements and player choices, but there'll be no one scripted story campaign to play through.

- well i already did, months ago but i might gift another one to a non-codexer friend of mine.

 

[Wolfenswan]

When I saw this I figured the battle would be a relative breeze:

What I got was 2 lucky crits on my backrow in the first 3 rounds and two other guys maimed. I hate bandit marksmen so much.