Battle Brothers

[Peregrine]

This is an Early Access game on Steam with great reviews so far - I picked it up the other day and am really enjoying it. It's kind of a top-down more story and character oriented Mount and Blade where you control a small mercenary company, travelling around a huge map and doing contracts, fighting bandits and so forth.

The game is definitely unfinished and I have a feeling there's a lot of stuff to be added but it's in a good state right now.

Each character you hire has a little background and one or two random modifiers (which you can't see until after you hire them.)




The main screen showing my group of 7 guys - each has a name, paperdoll for their gear, and their various stats. These include fatigue and morale, the morale can be very tricky if things start to go against you!

[MizzouRah]

I've been playing it too... love the combat system!

[Lonnie]

Played a bit more today and my entire company got wiped when I was ambushed just doing a delivery contract. I think I headed a bit too far east too early.

I have started renaming my guys for a bit more personality.

[Peregrine]

How do you rename them? I wouldn't mind doing that - though Asgeir the Tepid is a great name.

[Eaglesfan27]

Is it action based or turn based?

[Groundhog]

Turn based. I played a ton of this when it first hit early access, but shelved it until a few days ago because there was nothing to do after a point. As it is now, it's much improved - combat hasn't changed a great deal (minor tweaks) but the world is 10x more filled and interesting... from a glance it seems like they've tried to incorporate some of the better 'world map view' stuff from Mount & Blade.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

I've been playing it too... love the combat system!

What makes the combat system different from other turn based games like this, is it the AI, or just the options available?

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

What makes the combat system different from other turn based games like this, is it the AI, or just the options available?

TBH I haven't played many games like this, but the combat system goes in rounds, using initiative to decide the order (ie. it's not one side and then the other side, it's concurrent). Units have different attributes and skills that affect a number of actions, but in essence you have a certain amount of action points, and each weapon type has it's own different attacks/defenses that makes it useful against different opponents, and encourages you to use a variety of different "builds" amongst your men - guys with axes to break shields and armour, faster weapons (swords) to attack unarmed troops multiple times per turn, spearmen to provide flanking defense and also quick attacks, and polearms and archers to provide ranged support.

It's a lot deeper than it seems at first once you get a handle on it, and once you keep your warriors alive long enough to start accruing good gear and abilities, you end up with a pretty powerful little force. It just takes a few re-starts sometimes.

[Peregrine]

I found this extremely helpful tactical guide in the steam forums. Lots of good stuff here.

A Tactical Guide (of sorts) :: Battle Brothers General Discussions

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Peregrine

I found this extremely helpful tactical guide in the steam forums. Lots of good stuff here.

A Tactical Guide (of sorts) :: Battle Brothers General Discussions

Cool, I will check this out, seems like I would enjoy this game.

[Groundhog]

Been playing the hell out of this lately - keeps getting better and better each update. I'm at day 149 with my latest crew, and I don't know if it's just bad luck, but any time I send out more than 9 guys the game seems to ramp up the difficulty and I lose 1 or 2 brothers (generally without recouping their expensive armour and/or arms).

I've had my crew nearly wiped a few times - down to 3 or 4 - but managed to claw my way back by trading between cities ala Mount & Blade, which I've never really focused on before in this game.

My current fitout is 1 archer - I'm beginning to wonder if they are a waste, tbh, as they only seem useful to hit a couple of lucky shots before the h2h starts - 2 billhooks, and everyone else with the strongest one-handed weapon I can find, and a good alternative to that in reserve (ie. the best shield-breaking axe I can afford if the primary weapon isn't an axe). Everyone except my archer is in 210 minimum armour with the best helms I can afford, so fatigue becomes an issue for me after a few rounds, but keeping my guys alive is always my focus.

With that in mind, for skills my frontline h2h guys I focus on the middle tree to keep my guys alive, and once I've picked up one of the highest-tier skills in that tree, I move onto the offensive skills. With the billhook guys I focus on the offensive categories first and try to keep them away from base-to-base combat when possible.

Desperately mob-attacking an orc bezerker only to have it make it through your final attack of the turn with no armour or HPs is a terrifying experience... I've covered my eyes a few times when my best soldier is in h2h with one, because any hit can be a decapitation.

[BYU 14]

They release an update for this last week that allows you to customize the starting funds and financial difficulty as well as combat difficulty. This is huge for me as I like playing the harder combat, but wish gold was easier to gain. For as simple as the premise is, this is really a great game and the devs will be starting on a new game soon, which I will definitely support.

[Warhammer]

I have put nearly 250 hours into the game. I like the changes, especially the option to reset your equipment after the battle, that is very good for archers and guys that use thrown weapons before heading into melee.

Do not let the talk about the game not being updated any more put you off from buying. This game is complete and is a good value as well as being highly replayable.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Alas, we don't seem to own a computer (out of ... 3? 4?) that will run it.

Which reminds me, I still need to see if I can return this on Steam.

[Izulde]

I need to get back to playing this, especially since I breezed right through the Story Mode's latest two expansions in M:tG Duels

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Warhammer

I have put nearly 250 hours into the game. I like the changes, especially the option to reset your equipment after the battle, that is very good for archers and guys that use thrown weapons before heading into melee.

Do not let the talk about the game not being updated any more put you off from buying. This game is complete and is a good value as well as being highly replayable.

Yeah all the people bitching about no modding capabilities has me scratching my head. I am just under 100 hours right now and don't feel I have gotten anywhere close to all the play time out of it I will eventually. It's that good and the map seeding, giving you a new world every time makes it very replayable IMO.

It is right up there with XCom 2 for me.

[Warhammer]

A second DLC has just been announced for the game. This time they are expanding the map south and adding new classes and boons to the game.

[Thomkal]

Heh was all set to thank you for talking about a new game, then saw the original post date


I have put it in my wishlist so I can keep an eye on it though.

[Izulde]

Haven't gotten back to this, but still one of the most enjoyable games I've played in recent years. Will have to keep an eye out for the DLC.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by Warhammer

A second DLC has just been announced for the game. This time they are expanding the map south and adding new classes and boons to the game.

It looks like it's the third DLC actually.

Beasts & Exploration was the first
Warriors of the North was the second

I need to get both.

[Warhammer]

Oops, forgot that beasts and exploration was a dlc.