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Nordick
Sep 3, 2011

Yes.
-It's 106 miles to Schweindorf, we got a full keg of ale, half a quiver of arrows, it's dark... and we're wearing mail.

-Hit it!





SO WHAT IS THIS?

Battle Brothers is the first major project of Overhype Studios, a small German indie team. In the game, you command a band of mercenaries in a gritty and unforgiving medieval fantasy world. It has a real time overworld map where you travel around, pick up contracts and manage your supplies, recruits and equipment. Combat happens on a separate battle map with a turn-based system. The game has often been described as "Mount & Blade meets XCOM/<some other turn-based squad tactics game>", which I find pretty apt.

The game can also be ball-bustingly hard, so check the second post for starter tips. Or jump right in, get horribly murdered and learn the hard way, that can be fun too.
If that was enough to convince you, go grab it on Steam! If not, read on.


HOW DID IT COME TO BE?

The game spent a couple years on Steam Early Access, and is honestly a great example of early access done right. For one, the profits from early sales were what allowed the dev team to start working on the game as a real full time job instead of a free time hobby project. From then on the game was steadily updated, and every update was substantial and for the better. Every iteration was also remarkably stable and bug-free. Any lulls in the update schedule were because the devs were actively working on some bigger changes to be introduced at once, and during these lulls they were very transparent and informative of their progress with steady dev blog updates. All in all the team has always come across as very competent, focused and reasonable people who know exactly what kind of game they wanna make and how to make it.

And most importantly, even in its unfinished state the game was tons of fun and many of us already put great many hours into it over the development process.

The game saw its full release on the 24th of March, 2017.


OK I MIGHT BE INTERESTED, BUT TELL ME MORE

Right, buckle up, this is gonna be a lot of words because I'm a right wordy bastard and I bloody love the hell out of this game.




LOW FANTASY

The medieval fantasy of Battle Brothers is a lot more medieval and less fantasy than is usually seen in video games. It does have fantasy creatures like orcs, goblins and undead, but there is not a lot of actual magic; No healing potions, magic wands nor wizards slinging fireballs left and right. In fact, you the player have no magic in your disposal at all, just a handful of (hopefully) stalwart men and their mundane equipment. Even any unique items are merely masterfully crafted instead of magical.

The game map is procedurally generated and the world has no background lore to speak of. There is a distinctly German(ic) flavour to everything, but other than that it's a very generic low fantasy setting. And that's fine, as this is not a story-driven game. There is a short introductory bit that explains how you got into the situation you start the game in, after that your story is your own to make. The world is mostly just a sandbox for you to do your thing, which is kill things for coin. It's not completely static though; more on this later.




A GAME WITH SLIGHTLY MORE WORDS THAN IN THIS OP

Despite the lack of actual plot, the game does have a good bit of writing in it. Whenever you pick up or turn in a contract, it is depicted in a descriptive narrative text box. You'll be skipping the familiar ones before long, but they do add some nice flavour.

In addition there are several dozens of potential random events that pop up occasionally as you travel around. Some are generic ones, others are based on things like the terrain you're in or your men's past occupations. Some are just flavour, others may have actual positive or negative consequences of varying significance, either as a consequence of how you chose to handle the situation or just as a matter of course. The events are quite well written and rare enough that they actually stand out when they happen.


KILLS TO PAY THE BILLS

You start the game with three men. These founding members will likely have very solid stats, but they are still just three level 1 guys with very basic equipment, so they can't really do poo poo on their own. Thus, it's up to you to use your starting funds to recruit more guys, buy them some pointy sticks and other equipment, and then go find yourself some work. You can do contracts or just raid enemy camps you come across on your own. The last big update also added the option of straight-up banditry by attacking neutral/friendly groups like trading caravans (you do this by ctrl-clicking). This will make the group's faction hostile to you for a long time, so it's not always a good idea, but it's there.

You will also have to manage your resources. You'll need to keep enough gold in reserve to pay your men's wages every day and get food to feed them. Fail to do either and they will start deserting you. You will also need tools to repair your equipment, ammunition for your ranged guys and medical supplies to heal any injuries. If you do well enough, between your rewards and any loot you find you'll keep accumulating more gold and better gear and be able to take on tougher fights. And so, little by bloody, sweaty little, you'll go from a bunch of pitchfork-wielding mooks to an elite squad of all ironclad badasses cleaving orcs in twain with greatswords.


Or greataxes, if you so prefer


BUZZWORD: DYNAMIC

Now, as I said, the world isn't static. There will be trading caravans traveling the roads, bandits and other enemies roaming the wilds and often attacking said caravans, soldier companies rushing out of nearby forts to chase away said bandits, etc. Enemies may raid towns and burn down outlying buildings, too. All this will affect things like availability of goods for sale, and the contracts offered to the player: If orcs from a nearby camp keep ganking peasants, there will likely be a job to clear the camp out. Groups of different enemy factions will also fight eachother. These dynamics can be taken advantage of; you can jump into an ongoing fight between enemies to watch the two groups go at eachother, then finish off the battered survivors and take their stuff. Or you can lead enemies chasing you near a fort or guard tower and have the soldiers deal with them.


That supply caravan oughta be loving grateful for my presence.


Picking up contracts, hiring men and trading stuff happens in settlements that range from pissant fishing hamlets to proper castles and great big cities. They will have varying services, depending on their size; weaponsmith, temple, tavern, harbour, etc. The bigger the settlement, the more services it has. Settlements will also have outlying "attachments" you can see on the worldmap, which will affect things in the settlement. For example a workshop means repair tools will likely be pretty cheap.

Many settlements also belong to one of the three (generated) noble houses, and how you handle contracts from them will affect your standing with them and may eventually lead to... things happening.


The scroll icon in the upper left corner indicates there is a contract available.


WE'RE ALL HEROES, YOU AND BJARNE AND I


The men you recruit are also randomly generated by the game cramming together a name, appearance and background. There's a whole bunch of possible backgrounds, and they are what you'll mainly be looking at when you recruit guys, as they will have some effect on stats. Just about anyone can potentially grow up to be a total badass, but some backgrounds are more likely than others.

When a brother falls in battle, there is a chance they survive but with some manner of permanent injury. These injuries' effects vary from negligible to downright crippling enough that you might let the man go anyway. Funnily enough, brain damage is one of the most harmless ones.

When a brother actually dies, it's permanent. That's unless they get raised as a zombie, in which case you will just have to kill them again, which is very sad.


Oh, don't mind the grunting and moaning, Addle is a solid bloke and will have your back in a fight.


OK COOL BUT WHAT'S THE POINT TO IT ALL?

Well the thing is, until the last big update the game didn't really have anything of an end goal. We would do contracts and roam around robbing enemy camps to gradually increase our company's badassedness and that was it. Still fun, but ultimately a bit lacking. Now, the game has three new features to allay that issue.

Firstly there are Ambitions. They are your company's own personal missions like "get the company to at least 12 men strong" or "get into good standing with a faction". The game will first present you with a choice of some simple ones, and they will then branch out from there, depending on your accomplishments, situation and the state of the world. Completing them will give you various rewards, mainly renown (higher renown will let you score more lucrative contracts) and a big morale boost. There are no time limits to completing ambitions, but you can cancel them if you decide you picked a bad one. This may make your men a bit grumpy though.

Second is Retirement. Instead of just putting the game down, you can "officially" end any campaign at any time by choosing to retire from mercenary life, at which point the game will present you an outcome depending on the state of your company and the world. You know, just to offer that little bit of closure.

Lastly and most importantly, there are three different "Great Evils", i.e. late game crises that start developing later into the game and that you can choose to get involved in. It will be either:
  • A greenskin invasion, where orcs and goblins will join forces and try to pillage and burn everything. (veterans of the early access period may find this idea loving terrifying.)
  • An undead uprising, where the ancient dead of a bygone empire rise up, gang up with other undead and try to kill everyone.
  • A plain old War, where the noble houses start going all Game of Thrones all over the place.
(Listing them here isn't much of a spoiler as they are listed in the starting menu so you can pick one. You can also choose to play without one.)

When a crisis hits, there will be contracts that deal with it. They will be challenging, but very lucrative. You will also have an option to pick defeating the crisis as your company's ambition, and doing so will act as a "soft ending" to the game. But you can also just stay out of it as best you can and watch as either the world burns down around you or it all blows over. And if you do defeat the crisis you will still be able to keep on trucking and merrily murdering things for their stuff until you feel like retiring.

All in all, Battle Brothers is not really a game you play to finish in the usual sense, but rather play until you feel like you've had your fill of your current company and put it down until you feel like another go. If you've ever played Paradox strategy games, you'll know what I mean.





SUMMARY

Game good, go get it.



LINKS

Old thread by HerpicleOmnicron5 if you wanna get a sense on how far the game has come (spoiler: really far).

The official site has the usual devblogs and forums and stuff. You can also buy the game through the website if you want to support the devs more directly.

There is a wiki but last I looked it was outdated as poo poo.

Nordick fucked around with this message at 17:42 on Dec 4, 2021

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Nordick
Sep 3, 2011

Yes.
NEWBIE ADVICE

-This post is just a quick collection of pointers to get you started. For more detailed guidance, check out :siren: this big honkin' beginner's guide by our own Hieronymus Alloy. :siren:

-Be sure to read the event boxes in the first few days of the game. Some of them are actually tutorial messages disguising as dialogue, and do explain some game mechanics stuff like bigger cities being better places to sell loot etc.

-It's perfectly okay to just run the hell away and abandon a contract if it turns out too much for you

-The difficulties are not a joke, don't feel bad starting on beginner just to get a hang of the game mechanics.


Equipment

- Different weapon types have different strengths that are not obvious from the item stat card, as they all have their own special moves, and even the basic attacks have different properties. For example, a spear's thrust attack has +20% to hit, making spears a good weapon for low-skill recruits. Spears also let the wielder activate the Spearwall ability, letting them take a poke at any enemy who tries to engage them them until their next turn; if the poke hits, the enemy takes damage and is repelled. In general, just about everything can be useful in one situation or another, so keep some spares around and experiment to find out what works for you. Equip a weapon and hover over its ability icons under the character's inventory to find out specifics.

- When shopping for gear, prioritize armor before weapons. Weapons are much easier to come by in loot (armor tends to get destroyed in battle) and better armor makes a big difference. Even if it's just a thick coat instead of rags. And don't go bareheaded if you can help it, even a lovely hood can and will save your guy from being instakilled by a headshot.

- That said, you can also take some measures to loot more armor: The secondary attack of flails always hits the head, use it to kill foolish brigand raiders without proper headgear. This will preserve their body armor. Alternatively, the secondary attack of daggers bypasses armor completely, but it does have a hefty accuracy penalty and is very fatiguing so you will likely have to surround an enemy to gangshank him.

- Non-polearm two handed weapons can be a bit tricky to use well early on when you don't have a lot of defensive options other than shields, but once you have a guy in some good armor and with good stats and perks, a greatsword will clean house like nothing else. They're still powerful even before that, but you'll have to be careful about positioning.


Recruits

- You will want to hire as many men as you can comfortably get decent equipment for. Encounter difficulty is based partially on your company size, so in the long run 8 brothers in good gear is better than 12 half-naked schmucks with sticks. In the very beginning (as in the first few game days) I find seven or eight guys a good starting point to gradually work upwards from. Don't blow all your money on hiring a single expensive hotshot, the difference in stats will not be that big and he'll just get swarmed and die. Cheap guys accustomed to physical activities - farm hands, brawlers, etc. - are what you should start with.

- Any new hire is always a little bit of a gamble, because they might end up having good or bad traits that you can only see after you've hired them. Perhaps most importantly, they will have varying talents denoted by stars on a given stat bar: more stars mean bigger increases at levelup. Even a lovely beggar can potentially develop into a fearsome killing machine (or at least a decent trooper) with a lucky combination of traits and talents and suitable perks, while conversely some blowhard badass sellsword might turn out to be a useless clubfooted asthmatic.


Leveling

- Melee Attack and Defense are obviously important stats, and if you get a brother with high talents in either, you will likely want to hold on to him for dear life. Especially high melee defense guys are prime candidates to use two-handers , since they can stay alive without a shield.

- A less obviously vital stat is Max Fatigue. Every action raises the fatigue bar, and when it fills up you can't do anything until it goes down. For front line guys you will most likely want to raise it on every levelup, and pick the Brawny perk that reduces armor's fatigue penalty. Personally I try to keep my frontline guys' max fatigue at least around 70, maybe 60 as a bare minimum. Backline guys like polearm users will get by with less.

- If you find that one of your brothers is still a bit poo poo after some levelups, don't be afraid to look for a replacement with better stats/talents/traits. 55 melee attack is good for a rookie, but terrible for a level 5 guy.


Enemies

- Bandits are typically what you should mostly stick to fighting in the early game. Bandit thugs are mooks with lousy equipment and easy to deal with, while raiders can be drat tough but will also be a major source of better equipment early on. Their archers can be nasty, especially if they happen to have crossbows.

- Goblins are typically pushovers in fantasy games, but in Battle Brothers they will murder the poo poo out of you. They are fragile but kinda hard to hit, they will throw nets on you and skewer you with polearms, and their archers are lethal. If you have to fight them and they have ambushers in their ranks, do it at night to dampen their ranged capabilities somewhat. Preferably, stay the hell away from them until you have some levelups and good gear. Even then, be prepared to be stabbed right in the kidneys through your armor. Wolfrider packs are also a helluva thing for the unprepared.


Nobody has ever been as hosed as these guys right here.


- Orcs will also murder the poo poo out of you. Not by being crafty little shits like goblins, they just hit like a brick truck. When fighting orc young, try to focus your damage on the unarmoured ones first, as killing a few of them will cause the others' morale to go down. It's also not a bad idea to prioritize the ones using orc weaponry (don't worry, you'll recognise it), because it is goddamn devastating. Most of all though you should prioritize berserkers over all else because they will ruin your poo poo if you let them. Orc warriors are ridiculous armoured juggernauts and are generally best avoided altogether until you have high level guys in top-end gear.


Pictured: An appropriate force response to orcs


- Undead vary a lot in challenge. Wiedergangers (= zombies) are the basic ones. They're mostly easily handled, but armored ones in large numbers can be challenging; they can take a beating and have a habit of not staying dead, so they can wear you down through sheer attrition. The Ancient Dead are skeletons; Ancient Auxiliaries are pretty wimpy, but the rest are bad news for a newbie company. Same goes for other types of undead, especially necrosavants. gently caress necrosavants.

- Monsters consist of direwolves and Nachzehrers. Direwolves are stupid fast and can do a lot of damage to lightly armored guys, but are also pretty fragile and their morale breaks really easily. Spearwall is great against them, if you can get it up before they're in your face. Nachzehrers are corpse-eating monstrosities that buff themselves up by eating the dead in battle. They're not very hard unless there are a lot of the buffest ones.

Whatever you didn't find out from this wall of text, don't hesitate to ask about in the thread. Just don't mind if it sparks a big grognardy argument over whatever game mechanic might be in question. :v:


RECOMMENDED WORKS OF FICTION FOR YOUR MEDIEVAL MERCENARY ACTION NEEDS

The Black Company series by Glen Cook. It is, fittingly, a gritty fantasy novel series that follows a group of mercenaries and their endeavors. I haven't read them myself but I've heard nothing but praise for them.

Ironclad is basically Battle Brothers - The Movie, if Battle Brothers had castle sieges. The movie is straightforward and gritty and the battle scenes are brutal as hell. Paul Giamatti and Vladimir Kulich are amazing in their antagonist roles. Also, this scene is basically Battle Brothers Greatsword.avi.

Nordick fucked around with this message at 19:18 on Apr 15, 2019

Airfoil
Sep 10, 2013

I'm a rocket man
This is a good game. That is all.

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

One thing that the OP doesn't quite get across that I love about this game: The special attacks for weapons are tied to the weapon. You don't have to go through a bazillion levels to get the ability to go 'gently caress that guy and also the pikeman he's trying to protect behind him' with the Greatsword, you just have to have the greatsword. Sure, your perks and levels and talents will make stuff better, but right off the bat you get to do cool poo poo.

Nordick
Sep 3, 2011

Yes.

Night10194 posted:

One thing that the OP doesn't quite get across that I love about this game: The special attacks for weapons are tied to the weapon.
Good point, I edited the bit about weapon types to make this clearer.

ShootaBoy
Jan 6, 2010

Anime is Bad.
Except for Pokemon, Valkyria Chronicles and 100% OJ.

Game owns, go buy it.

I'm kinda toying around with making a Roman style company. Shields and scramasaxs (scramasaxi?) to stand in for gladii, and giving all the front line javelins. Problem is, I have no idea where to get scramasaxi in large quantities. In all my other games I'll see maybe 2 in markets and 1 other from bandits. Only people I ever see carrying the things with any regularity are caravan guards.

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Today was the first time I was outnumbered by orcs.

It gave me an important insight into the combat system.

That is, don't loving let yourself get outnumbered by orcs. I'm extremely lucky the level 7 that went down just lost a finger.

GlyphGryph
Jun 23, 2013

Down came the glitches and burned us in ditches and we slept after eating our dead.
Hints for new players:

You can attack neutrals when not on a mission. It's ctrl-click or alt-click, I forget which off hand. Kill some merchants, have some fun! Make sure not to poo poo where you eat though, keep the banditry and murder to places you don't rely on for missions.

Stat upgrades! The normal amount gained for a states is 1 to 3, plus the bonus for that stat. (some stats, like fatigue, get a bigger bonus than others.) Each of the first 2 stars increase the minimum by 1, so a 2 star skill means they'll be getting a +3 every levelup guaranteed. The third star is special though - it actually increases the maximum by one, meaning you'll get roll a 3 or 4 for that character every levelup (plus the stat bonus).

Headshots: Headshots do 50% additional damage vs health, and cause special injuries.

Fatigue increases as you fight. It is bad. Managing it is important. It lowers your initiative, prevents you from doing stuff. It goes down at a rate of 15 per turn, normally. The only way to improve that is the Iron Lungs trait, which is incredible.

Every weapon has something, usually two things, that make them worth using, except for swords, which are not worth using despite having two things.

Weapons Guide
Spear: +20 bonus to accuracy for their basic attack make this an important weapon for low skilled troops. Even high skilled troops can put them to good use, though, by using the Spearwall skill - this doesn't get the bonus accuracy, but autoattacks anyone who moves into range and, if they are hit, pushes them back. Low damage, though, and an enemy successfully moving next to you will suppress the Spearwall ability unless you have the mastery perk. Does less damage vs. skeletons.

Axe: Axes break shields. That's pretty much it, but that can be very good, especially on longaxes since you can break shields from a space away. Do pretty good damage too and has a chance of beheading enemies, as well as doing additional damage when the head is hit. They have an increased fatigue cost per swing, however!

Clubs and Maces: Maces not only cause health damage, they cause fatigue damage to the opponent. They do this even on a miss! A few of your guys swinging maces can easily lock down an opponent - assuming you have the fatigue to do so yourself, because swinging them aint cheap.

Swords: Like spears, swords get a bonus to hit, although it's only +10 instead of +20. Like spears, they also have a low fatigue cost of 10, rather than the 13 of heavier weapons. They also do more damage, and instead of spearwall you get "riposte" - a special ability that counterattacks whenever an enemy misses you. It's not really that great! Unfortunately they are also worse against armor than spears, so the damage bonus doesn't mean much, and while they are lighter to carry it's only by 2 points. When you put it all together, they are actually kind of terrible.

Flails: Flails have several good things about them. They ignore the defense bonus of shields with a normal attack. They have an ability that gives a guaranteed headshot. Their normal attack gives a bonus chance to hit regardless, and with their perk then you can completely ignore shields with their special headhunter attack, which can be awesome. They are the most fatigue heavy one handed weapons to carry and swing, however.

Daggers: Daggers are pretty nice. Low damage, but low fatigue cost. They have a special that let's you ignore armor COMPLETELY, but it has a reduced chance to hit and can't crit. If you kill an enemy without damaging their armor you get to keep their armor, so $$$. The cost nothing in fatigue as a backup weapon, and the Master lets you attack more often - 3 times with just the dagger, or as an addon to another weapons attack after moving (assuming you have quick hands).

Other weapons also exist but I'm done.

Hammerstein
May 6, 2005

YOU DON'T KNOW A DAMN THING ABOUT RACING !
The longer I play this game, the more I think that this is not a low magic setting:

Necromancers, teleporting vampires, spell-casting goblin shamans, insta-evolving Nachzehrers, ghosts....and so on...

It's a shame the game is not moddable, since there should be less mundane ways to deal with all those supernatural threats. Holy water, burning oil, silver weapons, talismans of protection, blessings and so on...

I certainly don't want fireball casting mages, but the company should have access to better tools against magic and super undead.

Tin Tim
Jun 4, 2012

Live by the pun - Die by the pun

Good game about mans that kill other mans. A+ if you even remotely like squad based tactic games

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

I did not know maces built fatigue on a miss.

Ivan Shitskin
Nov 29, 2002

This game is fun and neat.

I disagree that swords are terrible. They are in fact good. A sword specialist with a noble sword can gently caress poo poo up, especially when fighting shoulder to shoulder alongside a warhammer or other armor-piercing weapon. Hammers do loads of armor damage but poo poo for health damage. Military picks are not even much different from daggers when it comes to damaging health. And compared with a warhammer, swinging a noble sword does more health damage at nearly half the fatigue cost. Warhammer swings cost 14 fatigue, noble swords cost 8. Throw in the +10% chance to hit and you have a solid weapon.

They're good against the undead, since fatigue is your worst enemy there. A good sword specialist with the appropriate perks can cleave through zombies more efficiently than other guys. They're good against goblins, since they don't wear much armor and can be tough to hit. They're less good against brigands (except for the thugs and archers), because of their shields and mail armor. For them, flails and axes might be better. Axes are like a good middle-ground between swords and hammers.

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Swords also do good work for your generalist recruits when a bunch of bandits drop Arming Swords.

Hammerstein
May 6, 2005

YOU DON'T KNOW A DAMN THING ABOUT RACING !
Speaking of swords, I started a new campaign today after the last became too frustrating post day 200.

One of my first recruits is this guy:



Ratcatcher with Quick for a whopping 128 Initiative and talent stars in melee. He is perfect for the unarmored swordmaster build.

Phrosphor
Feb 25, 2007

Urbanisation

GlyphGryph posted:

Hints for new players:


Axe: Axes break shields. That's pretty much it, but that can be very good, especially on longaxes since you can break shields from a space away. Do pretty good damage too and has a chance of beheading enemies, as well as doing additional damage when the head is hit. They have an increased fatigue cost per swing, however!

When you break someones shield, they will switch to wielding their primary weapon in both hands, giving bonuses to that weapons attack. DO NOT BREAK AN ORCS SHIELD!

RabidWeasel
Aug 4, 2007

Cultures thrive on their myths and legends...and snuggles!
Some of the new events are hosed up, spoilers for people who don't like to be spoiled on that kind of thing:

You can run into a guy getting flogged for loving a dead horse. You can recruit this guy and he has the title "the filly fiddler". Also there's an event where you run into a roving gang of prostitutes (I don't loving know) but they're actually using it as a front to rob people. This one sucked particularly hard because it gave injuries to my entire team.

My most recent game is going great but I have a really bad feeling that I may have left it too late to start recruiting stronger backgrounds, I'm trying to slot them in on day 40 and they're loving useless at low levels.

The Bramble
Mar 16, 2004

It's worth noting that besides the excellent gameplay itself, this is an extremely well written game - especially for a European developer. The events, the interludes as you negotiate a contract, the character backgrounds - everything gives an amazing sense of place and is presented in a personal way without resorting to cliches. I love the combat, and I love the writing. That's pretty rare in most games, I find, usually one is just in the way of the other.

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Yeah, the little fiction interludes are actually quite good.

The art is also great.

Nordick
Sep 3, 2011

Yes.
One of my favourite contract narrative bits is the ending to a caravan escort where the caravan head is telling you about some past run-in with bandits and the last sentence is just "You nod as if you give two shits about what's happened to this man" which is just so hilariously loving blunt.

Nordick fucked around with this message at 03:07 on Mar 23, 2017

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Nordick posted:

One of my favourite contract narrative bits is the ending to a caravan escort where the caravan head is telling you about some past run-in with bandits and the last sentence is just "You nod as if you gave two shits about what's happened to this man" which is just so hilariously loving blunt.

I like the one where you walk into the noble's house and grab a glass of wine for yourself and he starts to sputter and get pissed.

Then you inform him your men wiped out the greenskins as he asked, and he just goes 'Oh, uh. So, cash is alright, huh? Drink well earned.'

Phrosphor
Feb 25, 2007

Urbanisation

Merchants in general are portrayed as being shady as gently caress. I was really surprised when one last night asked me to reclaim his prized coin collection, every other merchant or town leader has asked me to get some crazy eldritch totem or talisman that results in the whole town celebrating it's return. The fact that this guy just liked shiny coins was refreshing.

Coolguye
Jul 6, 2011

Required by his programming!
hey please find attached my comprehensive and authoritative review of battle brothers:

GAME

GOOD

GOOD

GAME

like/comment/subscribe

marshmallow creep
Dec 10, 2008

I've been sitting here for 5 mins trying to think of a joke to make but I just realised the animators of Mass Effect already did it for me

This game takes a weird hold of you. I want to keep playing, crushing my enemies, but because your dudes can be ruined if you make the wrong move or have a bit of bad luck, I get anxious that if I play a round I'll end up worse off than when I started. So I'm anxious to play, but the playing makes me anxious.

marshmallow creep fucked around with this message at 04:08 on Mar 23, 2017

GlyphGryph
Jun 23, 2013

Down came the glitches and burned us in ditches and we slept after eating our dead.

Phrosphor posted:

When you break someones shield, they will switch to wielding their primary weapon in both hands, giving bonuses to that weapons attack. DO NOT BREAK AN ORCS SHIELD!
Actually the bigger problem for warriors than the damage boost is the fact that they will stop shieldwalling and attack twice. Ouch! They might do that anyway though.

It's also fine if you can kill the orc that turn or have someone capable of eating their counterattacks.

So breaking the shields of normal orcs is fine, and breaking the shields of Orc Warriors in preparation for a good dagger shank is fine IF you have them surrounded and taunted

Goatse James Bond
Mar 28, 2010


I've made a huge mistake.

I concluded today's session right before kicking off a hilarious battle with my company, thirteen noble-soldier grunts, nine brigands, and fourteen goddamn orc young. (On like day 40, where I could probably handle either hostile group with only moderate worries)

I am to no meaningful degree worried about it, but it's going to take a bit and involve a lot of me letting the troops eat the brunt of the assault.

While trying to do enough damage to stragglers that I get the loot. :getin:

PotatoManJack
Nov 9, 2009
This game is great. I've been playing it for ages (have over 60 hours in it) over early access.

Not only is the game really well made and really fun, but the devs are cool people who care about the player base and have consistently been listening to the community and putting out a regular stream of updates.

Go buy this amazing game and give money to cool people.

John Charity Spring
Nov 4, 2009

SCREEEEE
I've managed to beat all three of the late game crises now and I think the one I liked most was the noble house war. Partly because they just kind of fizzle out eventually and this fizzling seems most appropriate for the noble war rather than the apocalyptic undead/greenskin invasions.

radintorov
Feb 18, 2011
Overhype just released two tutorial videos aimed at new players:
World Map
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOGp9DxqQyg

Tactical Combat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJZBhZLU2RA

Exmond
May 31, 2007

Writing is fun!

radintorov posted:

Overhype just released two tutorial videos aimed at new players:
World Map
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOGp9DxqQyg

Tactical Combat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJZBhZLU2RA

Is there anyway to get the log chat to uhh display more clearly? Like Orc attacked Benjamim Button and hit for X damage?

Right now its just "X person took X damage" making it a bit confusing

Tias
May 25, 2008

Pictured: the patron saint of internet political arguments (probably)

This avatar made possible by a gift from the Religionthread Posters Relief Fund
Great OP! I have one nitpick, though: It's not just a 'gritty fantasy world', it's a blatant and well-done homage to the Old World in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, right down to principal enemies being orcs and undead, greenskins doing mushrooms and riding wolves, and nobles asking you to 'hunt gobbos'.

It's not all it is, a lot of it is also a realistic portrayal of median age medieval life, but it bears mentioning IMO.

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Tias posted:

Great OP! I have one nitpick, though: It's not just a 'gritty fantasy world', it's a blatant and well-done homage to the Old World in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, right down to principal enemies being orcs and undead, greenskins doing mushrooms and riding wolves, and nobles asking you to 'hunt gobbos'.

It's not all it is, a lot of it is also a realistic portrayal of median age medieval life, but it bears mentioning IMO.

If it were the Old World then where's my gun and puffy sleeves? :colbert:

It's a similar concept but about 400 years back.

marshmallow creep
Dec 10, 2008

I've been sitting here for 5 mins trying to think of a joke to make but I just realised the animators of Mass Effect already did it for me

Also where are the elves, dorfs and wizards? Is an army of goatmen going to stomp through a village in the next content patch?

Fat Samurai
Feb 16, 2011

To go quickly is foolish. To go slowly is prudent. Not to go; that is wisdom.

Tias posted:

Great OP! I have one nitpick, though: It's not just a 'gritty fantasy world', it's a blatant and well-done homage to the Old World in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, right down to principal enemies being orcs and undead, greenskins doing mushrooms and riding wolves, and nobles asking you to 'hunt gobbos'.

It's not all it is, a lot of it is also a realistic portrayal of median age medieval life, but it bears mentioning IMO.

Yeah. I'm willing to accept "ratcatcher" as a nod to Warhammer, but that's it.

For content: The sound design in the game is pretty good, and it manages to give hits "weight", like Darkest Dungeon.

marshmallow creep
Dec 10, 2008

I've been sitting here for 5 mins trying to think of a joke to make but I just realised the animators of Mass Effect already did it for me

When you hear an axe land and see someone's armor disintegrate, you recoil.

Dreylad
Jun 19, 2001
Although hearing the slice of your greatsword wielder and the resulting flying heads is really satisfying.

Agree that they nailed the sound design and the animations in combat.

Snatch Duster
Feb 20, 2007

by FactsAreUseless
Rat catcher is an old and legit medieval job. There are still people in India that are ''rat catchers.'' Do you all think that pest control and exterminators are new professions?

Not everything is a reference to Warhammer you goddamn dorks.

Fat Samurai
Feb 16, 2011

To go quickly is foolish. To go slowly is prudent. Not to go; that is wisdom.

Snatch Duster posted:

Rat catcher is an old and legit medieval job.

Yeah, but it's specific enough for me to admit that maybe it's a reference :shrug:

Not that it matters much.

Tias
May 25, 2008

Pictured: the patron saint of internet political arguments (probably)

This avatar made possible by a gift from the Religionthread Posters Relief Fund

Snatch Duster posted:

Rat catcher is an old and legit medieval job. There are still people in India that are ''rat catchers.'' Do you all think that pest control and exterminators are new professions?

Not everything is a reference to Warhammer you goddamn dorks.

The ork berserkers do mushrooms, the goblins ride wolves, and your company captain who dies in the intro is named the same things as the captain in the WHFB mercenary company simulator from 98. But what do I know, I'm a dork :iiam:

GlyphGryph
Jun 23, 2013

Down came the glitches and burned us in ditches and we slept after eating our dead.
These guys aint afraid of no ghosts.


(Not mine, but doesn't that look fun?)

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Tias
May 25, 2008

Pictured: the patron saint of internet political arguments (probably)

This avatar made possible by a gift from the Religionthread Posters Relief Fund
bros got gear :o

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