Incline MENACE - sci-fi turn-based tactical RPG from Battle Brothers devs - coming to Early Access in Q3 2025

[Hydro]

CoH/DoW

CoH/DoW comparison is pretty thin. I think of it as a classic character with different skills with the skills being his squad members e.g. adding antitank or sniper.

 

[ropetight]

Players can field two fundamentally different units, namely infantry squads and vehicles. Each infantry squad is led by a squad leader who also represents the unit in combat and is a distinct character who acts in events and more outside of combat.

The size of infantry squads can vary between 1 and 9 elements but will mostly be around 5. The unit shares one health pool, and one element will perish with a certain amount of hit points lost. This will reduce the unit's firepower as more and more fighters drop.

So, infantry in Menace is more akin to RTS model; Company of Heroes and Dawn of War come to mind.

Vehicles also have a health pool, but instead of losing elements, a vehicle will collect “defects,” aka injuries. Defects range from an overloaded targeting computer to a disabled engine or might even lead to a catastrophic explosion, instantly wiping the vehicle out.

Vehicles have more personality than infantrymen, maybe because they are more valuable in gameplay.

Squad leader is supposed to be the personality.

It looks like Dawn of War/Company of Heroes (Warcraft 3?), but maybe it will be more fleshed out.

they mentioned that the squad leader has personality, and actual characters that interacts outside of tactical phase

so it's like CoH/DoW but the Leader unit is unique (much like Characters being attached in Warhammer 40,000 board game from my understanding)

You could attach leaders to units in DoW and they gave units personality in scripted scenes.

 

[Hydro]

Players can field two fundamentally different units, namely infantry squads and vehicles. Each infantry squad is led by a squad leader who also represents the unit in combat and is a distinct character who acts in events and more outside of combat.

The size of infantry squads can vary between 1 and 9 elements but will mostly be around 5. The unit shares one health pool, and one element will perish with a certain amount of hit points lost. This will reduce the unit's firepower as more and more fighters drop.

So, infantry in Menace is more akin to RTS model; Company of Heroes and Dawn of War come to mind.

Vehicles also have a health pool, but instead of losing elements, a vehicle will collect “defects,” aka injuries. Defects range from an overloaded targeting computer to a disabled engine or might even lead to a catastrophic explosion, instantly wiping the vehicle out.

Vehicles have more personality than infantrymen, maybe because they are more valuable in gameplay.

Squad leader is supposed to be the personality.

It looks like Dawn of War/Company of Heroes (Warcraft 3?), but maybe it will be more fleshed out.

they mentioned that the squad leader has personality, and actual characters that interacts outside of tactical phase

so it's like CoH/DoW but the Leader unit is unique (much like Characters being attached in Warhammer 40,000 board game from my understanding)

You could attach leaders to units in DoW and they gave units personality in scripted scenes.

These leaders were pretty static RPG wise with a limited amount of improvements available.
Same goes for squads.

 

[Sarissofoi]

Units can see and shoot through all buildings and assets smaller than 3x3 tiles. Only larger structures or objects will block all lines of sight and fire. There has been a lot of development, testing, and trial and error behind this decision.

That is what get me worried. Not women in combat roles in board game. Its not real guys. Chill out.

Spoiler

(Also I could bet my left nut that if it come from japan it would be fine).

Seething on women in the tactical games is kind of new development. I get from where it come but seriously guys get a grip.
I bet Menace and Overhype will provide more tangible reasons to seethe or go full Reeeeeeeeeeee mode.
If Aliens or Jagged Alliance or Power Dolls come out today you would get whole crew of zoomers and culture warriors screeching their souls out.
Silly times. True end of the world must be near for such clown world to exist.

 

[ropetight]

These leaders were pretty static RPG wise with a limited amount of improvements available.
Same goes for squads.

CoH and DoW (one of the sequels) could level up leaders and attach specialist weapons.
Static compared to JA2 and X-COM - sure.

Menace has 5 visible attributes (aim, closed eye/stealth?, star?, magnifying glass?, striked eye?) for squads/leaders + HP + armor on the squad screen, it is unclear if some are upgraded skills, equipment or both.
So, pretty "streamlined" and similar to squad tactical games.

 

[Hydro]

CoH and DoW (one of the sequels) could level up leaders and attach specialist weapons.
Static compared to JA2 and X-COM - sure.

Yeah, I know. Leveling up though was pretty nominal being rather a “choose an upgrade/item”. Specialist weapons like flamethrowers or plasmas indeed changed the capabilities of a squad, but again was pretty limited in options.

 

[Brancaleone]

Units can see and shoot through all buildings and assets smaller than 3x3 tiles. Only larger structures or objects will block all lines of sight and fire. There has been a lot of development, testing, and trial and error behind this decision.

That is what get me worried.

Sounds a lot like the painful decision to cut interiors from Battle Brothers because that would force them to code some actual AI instead of relying on randomized actions AI units would get stuck.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Its literally the same system like in Dawn of War II, ie each squad leader is a character with background and a bit of a storyline, while squad members are mooks. I dont have any problem with this, DoW2 was p. gud. I am actually quite curious how deep will the personality of the squad leaders go here, will they talk between missions/will their morale or opinion on the PC change on the basis of performance/choices etc. It could be fine, hopefuly the writting will remain at least decent.

 

[darkpatriot]

they mentioned that the squad leader has personality, and actual characters that interacts outside of tactical phase

so it's like CoH/DoW but the Leader unit is unique (much like Characters being attached in Warhammer 40,000 board game from my understanding)

FFFFUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!! Why the fuck can't they have randomly generated characters. I don't want yet another tactical squad based game that I am probably not gonna play because they have "Unique" pre-set characters.

You are just assuming or making this up, right? The devs haven't actually said this? Please tell me that's the case.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

they mentioned that the squad leader has personality, and actual characters that interacts outside of tactical phase

so it's like CoH/DoW but the Leader unit is unique (much like Characters being attached in Warhammer 40,000 board game from my understanding)

FFFFUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!! Why the fuck can't they have randomly generated characters. I don't want yet another tactical squad based game that I am probably not gonna play because they have "Unique" pre-set characters characters.

You are just assuming or making this up, right? The devs haven't actually said this? Please tell me that's the case.

From game's Steam-page:

Pike is the model marine – loyal to the Republic, and a professional soldier, unwavering in the face of adversity. Rewa suffers from the trauma of past scars, a violent rage constantly boiling beneath the surface. Lim owes Pike for saving his home colony, and distrusts non-Marines – but he'll have to learn to meet them in the middle as the going gets rough. Every squad leader in MENACE has a history and personality, and as their commander,

Each playthrough features a selection of characters from a massive pool – learn how individual backstories are tied together and prepare to navigate the unique combinations of each run. Stories unfold in unexpected ways as your squad leaders push from engagement to engagement. Watch them crumble under pressure from a cataclysmic threat, and do your best to train them for the fight against the MENACE.

 

[rojay]

"With this tool, we can create a huge variety of human-made settlements, military outposts, factories, and more that all look different and have different setups. The important thing is that they make sense and are not random piles of buildings."

I know it's a work in progress, but I have the opposite impression from the screenshots.

 

[Harthwain]

Even Battle Brothers was only "half-CRPG" or "almost-CRPG" and this one is supposedly even less so.

I'd argue that's what made Battle Brothers so strong. It is also what made Jagged Alliance so interesting: it wasn't an RPG, but in some ways it was more of an RPG than most self-proclaimed RPGs we see nowadays. Having less of that may turn out to be not so good for MENACE in the end. Then again - as some people already mentioned - it did work for Dawn of War and similar games, so maybe they can land on that crowd instead.

 

[Zombra]

Each infantry squad is led by a squad leader who also represents the unit in combat and is a distinct character who acts in events and more outside of combat. The size of infantry squads can vary between 1 and 9 elements but will mostly be around 5. The unit shares one health pool, and one element will perish with a certain amount of hit points lost. This will reduce the unit's firepower as more and more fighters drop.

Love this. Nameless soldiers are essentially hit points for the real characters. So I don't have to worry as much about losing a beloved merc, yet I still get to see high-stakes battles with heavy losses on both sides. Cool design.

 

[Melcar]

Everything has to be an RPG these days.

 

[Space Satan]

I can't understand why they abandoned BB, because they have a STEADY twitch fanbase and steady playerbase. And for it to grow allyou have to do is to make some DLCs and content. Yet they choose to abandon their most profitable game and develop a new one in a most generic setting with the most generic mechanics. I see a clear repetition of Darkest Dungeon 2 debacle.

 

[darkpatriot]

I can't understand why they abandoned BB, because they have a STEADY twitch fanbase and steady playerbase. And for it to grow allyou have to do is to make some DLCs and content. Yet they choose to abandon their most profitable game and develop a new one in a most generic setting with the most generic mechanics. I see a clear repetition of Darkest Dungeon 2 debacle.

Games aren't meant to be developed forever. They are meant to be finished. Games as a service is a modern day abomination.

 

[Space Satan]

*Laughs in Path of Exile, Starcraft, Hearts of Iron IV, EUIV, Stellaris, Farming Simulator, Stardew Valley etc.*
Becasue capitalizing on initial success is for loosers. Successful guys start new franchizes, new games, new titles.

 

[rojay]

I can't understand why they abandoned BB, because they have a STEADY twitch fanbase and steady playerbase. And for it to grow allyou have to do is to make some DLCs and content. Yet they choose to abandon their most profitable game and develop a new one in a most generic setting with the most generic mechanics. I see a clear repetition of Darkest Dungeon 2 debacle.

Games aren't meant to be developed forever. They are meant to be finished. Games as a service is a modern day abomination.

They said they wanted to do something new, and I can respect that. I've had periods in my job where I did the same thing for 2-3 years and it can get old. Not like I wouldn't have continued to do it to put food on the table, but it's always been nice when something new came up and I got to learn things.

But also, is there any reliable data on what sort of sales they had from DLC? I've always been under the impression that there's a pretty steep drop-off from sales of an original game and sales of DLC, even for games with a rabid fan base. Seems like it's probably a good financial decision to move on. Just hope they stick the landing.

 

[Oreshnik Missile]

The only time it might make sense to have women or boys fighting is in a desperate civilian defense... except that even in cases like the battle of Blood River, the men shot the guns and the women were relegated to reloading.

People justifying this feminist propaganda are libtards with shit taste.

 

[Harthwain]

I can't understand why they abandoned BB, because they have a STEADY twitch fanbase and steady playerbase. And for it to grow allyou have to do is to make some DLCs and content. Yet they choose to abandon their most profitable game and develop a new one in a most generic setting with the most generic mechanics. I see a clear repetition of Darkest Dungeon 2 debacle.

...which they did?







It's not like they jumped ship right away.

*Laughs in Path of Exile, Starcraft, Hearts of Iron IV, EUIV, Stellaris, Farming Simulator, Stardew Valley etc.*
Becasue capitalizing on initial success is for loosers. Successful guys start new franchizes, new games, new titles.

Guys who made Starcraft made Diablo and Warcraft before that (and World of Warcraft after that). Also, Starcraft 2 was serialized pretty late, compared to the other titles. Hearts of Iron and Europa Universalis was made by people who also made Crusader Kings and Victoria. So, yeah, "successful guys" actually DO "start new franchizes, new games, new titles".

 

[Reinhardt]

So, infantry in Menace is more akin to RTS model; Company of Heroes and Dawn of War come to mind.

you misspelled "dark omen"

 

[Kruyurk]

So, infantry in Menace is more akin to RTS model; Company of Heroes and Dawn of War come to mind.

you misspelled "dark omen"

You mean "dark women"? Come on, not this again.

 

[The Wall]

Since their inception computer games had women combatants, and it never was a problem. On the contrary it added to a setting.

Now that we're in the middle of a culture war, such things acquire much larger importance.

You don't have to participate in a culture "war," friend. You can acknowledge that both sides of the political divide are trying to get you worked up over woke shit and you can wish a pox on both their houses.

You support one side in the culture war, while pretending to be above it. You try to shame people by acting as if they're ridiculous when they acknowledge that there is a culture war, but we both know that you aren't saying a peep when game devs, politicians, actors etc. etc. sit on twitter and explicitly state that they hate white men. You downplay anything that one side does in this stupid fucking culture war when it's the current year and we know for a fact that it's ideologically motivated.

You're disingenuous, manipulative and hypocritical. You argue in bad faith. A genuinely awful human being. At least stand for the things you believe in, instead of this manipulative pretending-to-be-neutral bullshit. All of the above applies to anyone else doing this slimy "it's so silly that you get triggered by hearing a woman" act, too. No, it's not hearing a woman that's making people lose interest in the game; it's seeing that the devs are pushing the same tired "strong women in roles that men are logically suited to" propaganda that they've seen a thousand times. They've seen it and they know that it means that the devs are fully infected by the culture war. If you were as neutral as you pretend to be, you'd be just as tired of seeing it.

Always the case. "Don't you think both sides are just as bad" types somehow always lean very far towards the woke. Concern trolling or whatever they call it.

Anyway, it isn't just that there's muh wahmen.. as always with retarded woke crap, it looks like a circus checklist. Gotta have a nig, gotta have a tranny(esque) and so on. So obvious they're ticking off boxes and it always looks fucking ridiculous.

Your very post proves you are just as bad. You are terribly racist and misogynist.

Fortunately you and your ilk don't represent the right in general, but you make a very good example of how when the SJWs say that the people who oppose them are all racist misogynistic white nationalists, they aren't entirely off the mark.

The more you rant and rave any time some work of fiction is not dominated by white characters conforming to traditional gender roles the more you provide them an easy example to point to to claim they are correct about how terrible the people who disagree with them are.

If you stuck to legitimate criticisms of SJW; adding in racial and gender diversity where it doesn't make much sense (historical settings or changing the race/gender of pre-existing characters), adding pronouns, hamfisted political viewpoints included in settings/narratives to push the SJW agenda, or even unrealistic over representation of homosexuality in more realistic settings; you would be able to make the sort of claims you would like to against the 'both sides are just as bad' argument.

Instead, you push a narrative of white superiority, male superiority, and are against the very idea of diversity or tolerance.

So yes, you are just as bad, dummy.

Although, the cultural left has a much higher percentage of radicals and their radicalism is much more readily accepted, while the radicals of the cultural right, such as yourself, are much less representative of the overall cultural right. Most of those on the cultural right reject your ilk.

Although, these days most of the remaining active culture warriors on the right side of the culture wars do tend towards such radical views. The more moderate ones having been exposed enough to the radicals to have caused a majority of them to have disassociated with it.

This is why you will lose in Ukraine and everywhere else. Cringe weak loser who plays with digital barbies shooting guns, get cucked to death by better men. It's an HONOR of our generations to CRUSH boomer shabbo scum like you and your jewish lords like Zed Duke of Banville during our lifetime

P. S. Menace stinks of low-T soy frappes drinked by german policemen with saggy tits that suck muslim cock to de-escalate crime situations. I already got it off my personal incline list.

Thanks for Battle Brothers, now fuck off