The Shamrocks: A Battle Brothers Interactive Dynasty
 

So I picked up Battle Brothers during the last Steam sale and I've been obsessed with it ever since. I thought it'd make for a fun interactive dynasty.

For those who haven't heard of it, Battle Brothers is a turn based strategy game set in a medieval fantasy world where you run a team of mercenaries. You take on various contracts (defending towns, escorting shipments, delivering packages, hunting down various enemies) to make money and upgrade your team.

If you're interesting participating, I need:

Name:
Nickname: (the brave, the mighty, etc.)
Team Role:

The team roles include:

Shield - Front line guys who will carry a one handed weapon and a shield.
Melee - Big guys who use two handed weapons like axes, hammers, or swords.
Polearm - Guys who sit directly behind the line and use pitchforks, hooks, or poles to attack the enemy line.
Archers - Bows and crossbows.

The team is maxed out at 12 (but will probably begin with 6-7). I'll probably aiming for a lineup of 5 Shields, 2 Melee, 3 Polearm, and 2 Archers.

You will have no control over your starting stats, but I'll let you decide on your skill upgrades when you level up.

Finally, people die often in this game, so be prepared to have a backup character.

Here is our team roster and current stats...

Mercenary	Battles	Kills	Damage Done	Damage Rcvd
Al Bumm the Cover	7	7	1185	56
Gork the Gorker	7	6	960	350
Da Law With the Arrows	7	3	736	0
Mizz the Zou	6	6	999	80
Deacon Palmer the Wall	6	9	675	41
Jerome Simpson the Suicidal	6	6	1168	43
Walik the Wicked	6	9	1119	150
Coffee the Warlord	1	2	109	127

Tier 1 Perks

Fast Adaption - Adapt to your opponents moves! Gain an additional stacking +7% chance to hit with each attack that misses an opponent. Bonus is reset upon landing a hit.
Crippling Strikes - Cripple your enemies! Lowers the threshold to inflict injuries by 33%.
Colossus - Bring it on! Hitpoints are increased by 25%, which also reduces the chance to sustain debilitating injuries when being hit.
Nine Lives - Once per battle, upon receiving a killing blow, survive instead with a few hitpoints left. The next hit is likely to kill you for good, of course.
Bags and Belts - Unlock two extra bag slots to carry all your favorite things.
Pathfinder - Learn to move on difficult terrain. Action Point cost for movement on all terrain is reduced by 1 to a minimum of 2 Action Points per tile, and Fatigue cost is reduced in half. Changing height levels also has no additional Action Point cost anymore.
Adrenaline - Unlocks the 'Adrenaline' skill which puts you first in the turn order for the next round, to have another turn before your enemies do. Feel the adrenaline rushing through your veins!
Recover - Unlocks the 'Recover' skill which allows for resting a turn in order to reduce accumulated Fatigue by 50%.
Student - Everything can be learned if you put your mind to it. Gain additional 20% experience from battle, and an additional perk point upon reaching the eleventh character level.

Tier 2 Perks

Executioner - Inflict additional 20% damage against targets that have sustained any injury effects, like a broken arm.
Head Hunter - Go for the head! Gain +10% chance to hit the head for critical damage each time you hit the body. Bonus is reset upon hitting the head.
Bullseye - Nailed it! The penalty to hit chance when shooting a target that has no clear line of fire is reduced to half for ranged weapons.
Dodge - Too fast for you! Gain 15% of the character's Initiative as a bonus to Melee and Ranged Defense until first hit in combat.
Fortified Mind - An iron will is not swayed from the true path easily. Resolve is increased by 25%.
Quick Hands - Looking for this? Swapping items in battle becomes a free action with no Action Point cost once every turn.
Gifted - Mercenary life comes easy when you're naturally gifted. Instantly gain a level up to increase this character's attributes with maximum rolls +1. (Doesn't take 3 stars Talent bonus into account for the maximum roll.)

Each character will have 8 main stats.

Melee Skill
Ranged Skill
Melee Defense
Ranged Defense
Hit Points
Fatigue: This accumulates during battles and mercs with lwo fatigue may need to rest before performing another action.
Resolve: How well the character responds to positive or negative events.
Initiative: Determines your position in the queue to perform an action. Higher initiative means you act before your enemies.

Each time you level up, you will get to improve three of those stats. How much you get to improve them depends on random rolls, although each character will have some skills with extra chances for good rolls. There is also a skill tree where you pick a new skill that can give you additional buffs. (I'll post those above when we get there.)

The game will also show current stats in the following categories:

Head Armor
Body Armor
Action Points (For in battle use)
Morale
Damage
Effectiveness vs Armor
Chance to Hit Head
Vision

Name: Da Law
Nickname: The One with the Arrows
Role: Archer

Hope you have better luck than me at this game, I can't get anywhere not playing on easy :)

Walik
The Wicked
Polearm

Name: Gork
Nickname: The Gorker
Role: Melee

Name: David Corperial
Nickname: The Sure Eyed
Role: Archer

Al Bumm
The Cover
Shield

Deacon Palmer
Wall
Shield

I think I'll install this tonight and play.. it's been a long time.

Mizz
The Zou
Melee

Jerome Simpson
The Suicidally Stupid
Shield

It took a while. I finally mastered beginner (100+ days) and will be running this one at veteran.

I'm not playing on Iron Man, so I will reload if there's a total (or close to it) team wipe in the interest of keeping the dynasty from meeting a premature end.

The game always starts with this intro. Your former captain is slain during a tough battle. You're left with three people to finish the fight and rebuild the squad.

Here is what the battle map looks like. That's Hoggart the Weasel scampering away on the far right. We will get our revenge on him later.

It won't let me edit player names until after the first battle, but from top to bottom, that's Da Law with the bow, Gork with the axe, and Al Bumm with the shield.

This first fight is pretty easy. I don't think it's possible to lose any of your three starting guys in it. Here's the recap:

Round 1: Da Law takes a shot and misses. Gork moves in and kills the nearest bandit in one shot. Al Bumm moves in front to block the other bandit.

Round 2: Hoggart escapes. The other bandit moves in on Al and misses. Gork moves in to take a swing, but misses. Da Law moves to get better firing position. Al gets two good hits on the bandit, but he's still standing.

Round 3: Gork takes a brutal hit and is wavering, but Da Law is there to finish the bandit off with a direct hit.

Battle wrapup:

Loot: A lonely pickaxe.

Al Bumm the Cover

Kills: 0
Damage: 79
Damage Received: 0
XP: 60

Gork the Gorker

Kills: 1
Damage: 55
Damage Received: 69
XP: 82

Da Law the one with the Arrows

Kills: 1
Damage: 34
Damage Received: 0
XP: 82

This is what the world map looks like.

At the top left, it shows your current gold, food, tools, ammunition, and medicine. Managing all of these things is sometimes more difficult than the battles.

And here's what it looks like when you visit a town. Depending on the size and type of city, different buildings are available. These building can include:

Marketplace - Basic goods and services, including limited weapons and armor. Every town has one of these.
Temple - On the bottom left in this town. You can pay to speed up the healing process for injured mercs.
Hire - At the bottom center. This is where you go to hire new mercs.
Weaponsmith - Advanced melee weapons.
Armorer - Advanced armor.
Fletcher - Bows, crossbows, arrows.
Tavern - Boost morale by buying drinks for your mercs and/or gather information from townsfolk.

And now let's take a look at our team...

Al is loyal and less likely to leave if we run out of money/food. His extra potential at Hit Points, Fatigue, and Resolve is perfect for a shield man.



Special Traits: Loyal (less likely to leave if we run out of food)

Da Law has extra potential in both ranged attack and ranged defense, but has a negative trait in that he's prone to bleeding.

Deacon has good potential in Melee and Melee defense, with fantastic potential in Initiative. The drawback is several negative traits. He's dumb (gains experience slower) and fragile (fewer hit points).

Gork is gluttonous and will eat more food than the others. That's fine as long as he swings that axe as well as his skill implies.

Jerome looks to be a pure defensive specialist, so it's good that he has some extra melee defense and fatigue skill. No negative traits is a plus.

We have no two handed weapons available yet, so Mizz will be starting with a pickaxe and small shield. Mizz's amazing potential in ranged defense is very useful as the enemy archers will often aim at front line guys who don't carry a shield.

Pitchforks have a two tile range, but still count as melee, so Walik's great potential there will make him very dangerous. He is Dexterous (extra Melee) and Fearless (extra Resolve).

David, I'll have to wait a little bit before adding a second archer.

Nice, hopefully destined for a long career. To anyone else considering joining, fighters using polearms have been a huge help in my game and I always have 3 in my party of 12. Longevity is better than frontline guys too :)

Wall not dumb. Oooo look a squirrel!

Gork hungry

Hope you catch it for dinner, because Gork ate everything else.

Time to get our revenge...

Battle time!



Round 1 - We let the enemy come to us and set up a spear wall. Da Law misses badly.

Round 2 - They start a flanking motion at the bottom side of our line. Da Law gets a good shot in to weaken a bandit, who then promptly runs suicidally into Deacon's spear. Mizz trades blows with a bandit and Deacon moves in to finish the guy off.. Al and Walik finish off another guy at the bottom. Gork takes a big hit from an enemy archer so I move him out of harm's way. Jerome charges the enemy archer.

Round 3 - The archer tries to flee. Hoggart is now left with a 5 on 1 situation. We hold our spots and make him come to us. He tries to move around us and come after Gork. We cut him off and start ganging up on him, but he's tough. Jerome keeps chasing the archer.

Round 4 - Hoggart is completely encircled and can only hold out so long. Walik sticks a fork in his head to finish him off.

Round 5 - The archer flees. Everyone runs after him, but he gets away.

This is probably the first time I've done this mission without losing anybody. Mizz has a pierced chest and Gork has an injured shoulder. They will both be out of action for 3-4 days.

Loot: Spear, shield, flail, club, sword, 86 gold, 1 tool, 2 ammo, 4 food.

Battle stats:

After resting so our guys can heal, it's time to make some money. I give Mizz a sword and a better shield. Still no two handed weapons available. Here's our next mission, which I negotiate up from 270 gold to 360.

We quickly find the thieves and it's battle time!



Round 1 - They're standing up on a hill. We set up a spear wall and wait for them to come to us. They start to make their move and Da Law wounds the first guy in.

Round 2 - The enemy tries to get through our spear wall and one bandit meets a brutal end at the hands of Deacon's spear. Two are eventually able to break the spear wall and engage Al and Mizz in melee. Da Law finishes off the guy he wounded. The enemy is attempting a flanking maneuver at the bottom, so I send Deacon down to cut it off. Al takes out one of the front line guys and Walik finishes off another. That's 4 kills in one round!

Round 3 - One of the three remaining bandits retreats. Da Law tries to snipe him, but misses. Al kills the guy who tried to flank the very bottom. Jerome and Gork encircle the remaining bandit. Gork destroys the guy's shield.

Round 4 - Deacon finishes the encircling maneuver and easily kills the guy.

Round 5 - The guy from earlier hadn't fully retreated, but now finally does. We're too far away to catch him.

No injuries this time! Not much loot either as we pick up a spear, a flail, and a leather cap. But we do have four level ups!

Stats...

Time to decide our level ups.

1) Pick three of the stats you want to level up. The number in brackets is how much they will increase.
2) Pick one of the perks listed in the third post.



Al Bumm the Cover

HP: 59 (+4)
Fatigue: 95 (+4)
Resolve: 41 (+3)
Initiative: 108 (+4)
Melee: 59 (+2)
Range: 37 (+3)
MeleeDef: 7 (+2)
RangeDef: 9 (+1)


Gork the Gorker

HP: 61 (+4)
Fatigue: 103 (+3)
Resolve: 42 (+4)
Initiative: 110 (+5)
Melee: 59 (+3)
Range: 34 (+4)
MeleeDef: 5 (+2)
RangeDef: 7 (+2)


Da Law the One With the Arrows

HP: 60 (+2)
Fatigue: 94 (+3)
Resolve: 44 (+4)
Initiative: 105 (+5)
Melee: 50 (+3)
Range: 46 (+4)
MeleeDef: 0 (+1)
RangeDef: 0 (+2)


Walik the Wicked

HP: 59 (+4)
Fatigue: 101 (+4)
Resolve: 36 (+4)
Initiative: 107 (+4)
Melee: 49 (+3)
Range: 32 (+3)
MeleeDef: 3 (+3)
RangeDef: 1 (+3)

Walik the Wicked would like these please.

HP: 59 (+4)
Initiative: 107 (+4)
Melee: 49 (+3)

And for my perk Colossus

Gork hungry

Level up:
HP
Resolve
Melee

Perk
Crippling Strikes

Da Law

Level Up
Ranged Skill
Hp
Initiative

Perk
Student

Al Bumm the Cover

HP: 59 (+4)
Resolve: 41 (+3)
MeleeDef: 7 (+2)

Perk: Colossus

Thanks for the quick responses. Forgot to copy the screen for our next mission objective, but we're tracking down bandits who made a pass at a councilman's daughter.




Round 1 - The Raider with the pike gets a little over confident and moves in without cover. We're able to put three guys on him, but only Deacon connects with a good shot. Al is stuck at a height disadvantage, so I just have him keep his shield up to be safe.

Round 2 - The raider ignores all three guys surrounding him and takes a brutal shot at Walik, who is left with 9 HP. It takes three of us to finish off the raider. Da Law gets in a nice shot on a thug who was trying to flank at the bottom, forcing him to abandon that attempt.

Round 3 - Walik's luck is short-lived as the other raider finishes him off with a throwing axe. Ouch. Gork takes a brutal hit, but returns the favor by splitting a thug's head open. This allows us to flank them at the top.

Round 4 - We now have them surrounded and the other thugs go down quickly. Our shield guys show off some good offense in this battle. The final raider is holding strong.

Round 5 - The raider realizes too late that it's a lost cause to fight off 6 of us and tries to retreat. Mizz's sword puts an end to that.

The big after battle news is that Walik didn't die! Hooray! He has suffered a permanent injury. With the loss of his finger, he has a 5% penalty to Melee and Ranged skill. Could be worse.

Also, our loot includes that nice looking pike from the raider, which will more than make up for Walik's missing finger. We also pick up a nice metal helmet, some extra gold, and some tools.

Three more guys level up!

Mizz the Zou

HP: 57 (+3)
Fatigue: 91 (+3)
Resolve: 39 (+2)
Initiative: 104 (+5)
Melee: 55 (+3)
Range: 35 (+3)
MeleeDef: 5 (+1)
RangeDef: 5 (+4)


Deacon Palmer the Wall

HP: 68 (+3)
Fatigue: 115 (+3)
Resolve: 36 (+4)
Initiative: 107 (+6)
Melee: 55 (+3)
Range: 35 (+4)
MeleeDef: 5 (+3)
RangeDef: 5 (+2)

Jerome Simpson the Suicidal

HP: 68 (+2)
Fatigue: 109 (+3)
Resolve: 31 (+4)
Initiative: 107 (+5)
Melee: 47 (+1)
Range: 34 (+3)
MeleeDef: 3 (+3)
RangeDef: 2 (+1)

Jerome Simpson

Fatigue
Resolve
Initiative

Adrenaline

Deacon Palmer

Initiative
MeleeDef
Resolve

Nine Lives

Are you also doing trading runs between cities to get funds? And can you change Waliks hairdo when you find a Barbershop, LOL.

Yep. I always pick up goods if they are lesser or close to the actual value, then drop them off at a big city.

What kind of hairstyle do you want?

Still waiting on Mizzou to level up.

For anyone interested in signing up, the roles I need most right now are:

Shield
Polearm

David, if you want to switch to one of those, that's cool, or you can wait for the 2nd archer spot to open up.

Mizz the Zou

HP: 57 (+3)
Melee: 55 (+3)
Range: 35 (+3)

Crippling Strikes

Anything but the wood shop teacher look :) Bald or long

Range will be useless for you. It only applies when using a bow or crossbow. which you'll never use.

I copied and pasted the wrong one :D sorry, it was late for me!

Initiative: 104 (+5)