Battle Brothers: We're on a Mission for Gold

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Battle Brothers: We're on a Mission for Gold

barkbell: Apr 14, 2006; woof

Gammymajams posted:

So I started another game. Day 6, level 1 contract, 5 bandit raiders my guys can barely hit even with spears, many of whom can 1 turn my melees, who each need to be hit about 8 times to die.

Flee

# ? Mar 25, 2017 16:24

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# ? Apr 24, 2024 10:15

Nordick: Sep 3, 2011; Yes.

Yeah it is absolutely okay and expected to just leg it and screw the contract if it's too much.

Should probably put that on the newbie advice section, bolded with a :siren:

or two.

# ? Mar 25, 2017 16:33

dogstile: May 1, 2012; fucking clocks
how do they work?

Thems the breaks, i tried to camp outside a bandit camp to regain some health and some loving direwolves attacked me, then the bandits attacked in the same battle

They just sat and watched, much like i would have done. I was pretty impressed

dogstile fucked around with this message at 17:37 on Mar 25, 2017

# ? Mar 25, 2017 16:38

Tin Tim: Jun 4, 2012; Live by the pun - Die by the pun

RabidWeasel posted:

Does anyone know if there's a relationship between the size of a settlement and how much will be offered for sale at a weaponsmith or armourer in that settlement? My most recent game had an armourer in a mining settlement which was great as it let me grind up to allied reputation and start buying good armour early, but it also seemed like they never sold anything better than scale armour and generally had a smaller selection than the more expensive armourer at a nearby fortress.

Yes. Larger towns will always have a bigger and better range of stuff to find. The way I saw it is that small villages with weapon/armor shops will only spawn high-end gear if they have the "well supplied" status after you led a caravan there

Also, tips for peeps that have problems with contract difficulty. Instead of going only by skulls, try to learn to use the reward money as a hint towards how difficult it will be and if you're able to handle that. 1 skull contracts are pretty safe to take early on when they're around 300-600 gold. This usually means bandit thugs or basic zombos which are easy to deal with even for your scrubs. You can even safely pick up 2 skull contracts in the 500-800 gold range. Those will usually have the same enemies as 1 skull contracts except that there'll be more. 10 thugs and a raider for instance instead of the 7 thugs you faced on a 1 skull contract. If you see 1000 or more gold rewards for 2 skull contracts then you have to get picky and be careful. Bandit raiders will appear in larger numbers for that kind of money and you can't safely beat them with mercs that carry spears and shields. Their armor is too good to beat them quickly and their weapons will cut your own scrubs to pieces. Undead will usually include armored zombos and necromancers at this point and again you don't want to deal with that with spear+shield scrubs. They'll just overwhelm you halfway through the fight. 3 skull contracts are obviously the dangerous ones that you want to pass until you're ready but sometimes you can get a 3 skull caravan escort for hella money. It's kind of a gamble to take these but it usually pays off because the money is based on travel distance and not on difficulty. There's the chance that you'll run into several hostile groups on the way and some of them may be too hard but on the other hand you can also go all the way without doing a single fight. Getting 3k for 2 days of walking is really sweet. And then there's also 3 skull contracts for bandit lairs and those can also be taken if the reward is below 1000 gold or at least not much more cause it means mostly thugs with a few raiders sprinkled in. Goblin and orc contracts should be avoided at all costs(even the cheap ones) until your band is a serious group with chainmail and tier 2 weapons cause it's usually not worth the trouble to go for them otherwise. One specific contract type I also want to mention is the "go to lair and get our artifact back" contract. Those will always pit you against skellies and they can ruin your little band early on. A contract like that for like 400 gold will pit you against 4 auxiliaries and they can cut through your spear+shield scrubs despite what the low amount of gold may make you think. Only go for those contracts if you have some blunt weapons or when your band is starting to get serious.

My personal way is to hunt for combat contracts with bandit thugs as much as possible early on. They give you much needed xp and gear on top of the money. Delivery contracts are poo poo and I would only take them if I desperately need the money to pay my group. I'll also try to snipe random bandit groups without raiders if I see them or travel the map a bit to find bandit lairs. Those can be good pickings if they don't have raiders. Basic undead are also fine to fight but they drop less good gear so I put less value on those contracts/lairs/groups. When I have a group of 8 solid guys in the range of lv 4-5 is when I start to hunt for bandit raiders and their gear. By that point I have mostly ditched spears(60+ melee skill is my mark for the switch) and rock any weapon that does more damage to speed up my kills. The tier 2 spear isn't bad but it still takes too long to kill people imo. Spearwall is a popular early game strat but the fatigue costs will catch up to you once the basic enemies phase out so I only bring out spears against orcs/zombos later on. And even then I don't always do it cause the damage isn't impressive enough. Once I have that part of the game rolling is when I look towards getting 12 good guys that then can take on 3 skull contracts if the money is good enough. Of course there's some rng to all of this due to the random map and stuff but this strat has worked for me since the early days of EA

# ? Mar 25, 2017 16:43

FreeKillB: May 13, 2009

Nordick posted:

Yeah it is absolutely okay and expected to just leg it and screw the contract if it's too much.

Should probably put that on the newbie advice section, bolded with a or two.

I would also add a statement emphasizing that there's no shame in starting a campaign on Beginner until you have a better feel for the mechanics. This is especially true since one of the differences with Veteran is that the first few days are quite a bit more dangerous (in my experience).

FreeKillB fucked around with this message at 16:48 on Mar 25, 2017

# ? Mar 25, 2017 16:45

Gammymajams: Jan 30, 2016

I'm playing on veteran difficulty, my first playthrough was beginner and it was too easy. I've now had a few abortive attempts at veteran. I have no idea how I'm supposed to take more than one or two raiders with this gear and character level without casualties. Progression in this game reminds me of Might and Magic games, where you're expected to plough through encounters without injuries to build up a critical mass of powerlevel to snowball the game. And if you fall behind, that's pretty much it. Is it normal to just wander the map cherrypicking encounters? Is it realistic to catch up if you fall behind the curve?

# ? Mar 25, 2017 16:48

Gammymajams: Jan 30, 2016

Tin Tim posted:

Yes. Larger towns will always have a bigger and better range of stuff to find. The way I saw it is that small villages with weapon/armor shops will only spawn high-end gear if they have the "well supplied" status after you led a caravan there

Also, tips for peeps that have problems with contract difficulty. Instead of going only by skulls, try to learn to use the reward money as a hint towards how difficult it will be and if you're able to handle that. 1 skull contracts are pretty safe to take early on when they're around 300-600 gold. This usually means bandit thugs or basic zombos which are easy to deal with even for your scrubs. You can even safely pick up 2 skull contracts in the 500-800 gold range. Those will usually have the same enemies as 1 skull contracts except that there'll be more. 10 thugs and a raider for instance instead of the 7 thugs you faced on a 1 skull contract. If you see 1000 or more gold rewards for 2 skull contracts then you have to get picky and be careful. Bandit raiders will appear in larger numbers for that kind of money and you can't safely beat them with mercs that carry spears and shields. Their armor is too good to beat them quickly and their weapons will cut your own scrubs to pieces. Undead will usually include armored zombos and necromancers at this point and again you don't want to deal with that with spear+shield scrubs. They'll just overwhelm you halfway through the fight. 3 skull contracts are obviously the dangerous ones that you want to pass until you're ready but sometimes you can get a 3 skull caravan escort for hella money. It's kind of a gamble to take these but it usually pays off because the money is based on travel distance and not on difficulty. There's the chance that you'll run into several hostile groups on the way and some of them may be too hard but on the other hand you can also go all the way without doing a single fight. Getting 3k for 2 days of walking is really sweet. And then there's also 3 skull contracts for bandit lairs and those can also be taken if the reward is below 1000 gold or at least not much more cause it means mostly thugs with a few raiders sprinkled in. Goblin and orc contracts should be avoided at all costs(even the cheap ones) until your band is a serious group with chainmail and tier 2 weapons cause it's usually not worth the trouble to go for them otherwise. One specific contract type I also want to mention is the "go to lair and get our artifact back" contract. Those will always pit you against skellies and they can ruin your little band early on. A contract like that for like 400 gold will pit you against 4 auxiliaries and they can cut through your spear+shield scrubs despite what the low amount of gold may make you think. Only go for those contracts if you have some blunt weapons or when your band is starting to get serious.

My personal way is to hunt for combat contracts with bandit thugs as much as possible early on. They give you much needed xp and gear on top of the money. Delivery contracts are poo poo and I would only take them if I desperately need the money to pay my group. I'll also try to snipe random bandit groups without raiders if I see them or travel the map a bit to find bandit lairs. Those can be good pickings if they don't have raiders. Basic undead are also fine to fight but they drop less good gear so I put less value on those contracts/lairs/groups. When I have a group of 8 solid guys in the range of lv 4-5 is when I start to hunt for bandit raiders and their gear. By that point I have mostly ditched spears(60+ melee skill is my mark for the switch) and rock any weapon that does more damage to speed up my kills. The tier 2 spear isn't bad but it still takes too long to kill people imo. Spearwall is a popular early game strat but the fatigue costs will catch up to you once the basic enemies phase out so I only bring out spears against orcs/zombos later on. And even then I don't always do it cause the damage isn't impressive enough. Once I have that part of the game rolling is when I look towards getting 12 good guys that then can take on 3 skull contracts if the money is good enough. Of course there's some rng to all of this due to the random map and stuff but this strat has worked for me since the early days of EA

This is a really great post, thanks. It sounds like you really cherry pick contracts when playing. Doesn't that burn a lot of time moving between cities to find the right one? And so you'll be falling behind the difficulty curve if you don't find something that fits your criteria? For me it's been kind of ambiguous whether it's worth my while intercepting random groups of enemies on the world map, since there's always a risk of injury and there's less financial incentive without a contract. It seems like you recommend hunting easy stuff/ bandit thugs etc that are roaming the map? I think I'm gonna be more selective from here on when picking contracts and fights. Once I understand exactly what each mission is going to look like from the description that should make things easier.

# ? Mar 25, 2017 17:00

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

dogstile posted:

Themselves the breaks, i tried to camp outside a bandit camp to regain some health and some loving direwolves attacked me, then the bandits attacked in the same battle

They just sat and watched, much like i would have done. I was pretty impressed

Sometimes when that happens you luck out and the wolves kill the bandits before they get to you. In fact, trying to kite one group into another before I fight is one of my favorite things to do if I can pull it off.

"Is that...a pack of Nachzerers? Let me just stand next to this caravan full of guards."

# ? Mar 25, 2017 17:34

ditty bout my clitty: May 28, 2011; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

Bought the game, started on whatever comes after beginner, wiped a squad of 10 twice to 3 of the wolf thingies. Started beginner, barely held off bankruptcy for 17 in-game days, got out-teched by brigands. Died.

Any way to earn money outside of questing? This game seems to punish failure a lot.

# ? Mar 25, 2017 18:12

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

The key to direwolves early is spearwalls and realizing three things.

One, the first hit to them will wipe their armor on a bodypart generally but not do very much damage. Two, when they start taking HP damage, they lose morale FAST. Three, panic spreads. So hitting them a couple times with spears will start panicking one, then you can start spreading panic to the others.

# ? Mar 25, 2017 18:18

dogstile: May 1, 2012; fucking clocks
how do they work?

Direwolves aren't actually easy and will gently caress up raw recruits even if they have shields. You will want, at minimum, ragged armour (55 durability) and a decent helmet (full leather cap will do).

I usually avoid them in the early days, it's entirely RNG dependant if you'll win and there generally isn't much you can do to influence it aside from having better brothers

# ? Mar 25, 2017 18:27

Gammymajams: Jan 30, 2016

Day 7 360 gold 1 skull contract: 6 raiders. What the fuuuuuck.

Edit: Turns out, this time I beat the raiders. That extra level on a few guys made a big difference. Well, this is embarassing.

Gammymajams fucked around with this message at 18:39 on Mar 25, 2017

# ? Mar 25, 2017 18:31

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

There is a certain momentum you have to get and if bad luck takes you out at the knees over and over it can be a dead run. But as the tooltips remind you, "Losing is fun."

# ? Mar 25, 2017 18:45

ditty bout my clitty: May 28, 2011; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

This game is seriously addictive.

# ? Mar 25, 2017 18:52

Kibbles n Shits: Apr 8, 2006; burgerpug.png; Fun Shoe

I hope they release an expansion pack someday that adds land ownership and medieval politicking etc. It doesn't need to be literally mount and blade but It would be cool to be able to stake a claim and grow in other ways besides your bank account/renown and your men's gear.

# ? Mar 25, 2017 18:57

Tin Tim: Jun 4, 2012; Live by the pun - Die by the pun

Gammymajams posted:

This is a really great post, thanks. It sounds like you really cherry pick contracts when playing. Doesn't that burn a lot of time moving between cities to find the right one? And so you'll be falling behind the difficulty curve if you don't find something that fits your criteria? For me it's been kind of ambiguous whether it's worth my while intercepting random groups of enemies on the world map, since there's always a risk of injury and there's less financial incentive without a contract. It seems like you recommend hunting easy stuff/ bandit thugs etc that are roaming the map? I think I'm gonna be more selective from here on when picking contracts and fights. Once I understand exactly what each mission is going to look like from the description that should make things easier.

Yeah my style is slower and very cautious early on but keep in mind that the curve does not just auto-ramp with time. It's also dependant on the strength of your band so it never really outspikes you in that sense. At least I haven't seen it. And I catch up with the curve fairly quickly once I got my band out of their baby status when my core is lvl 4 or 5. Random groups on the map offer less rewards than contracts do, but they offer extra xp wich is super important to me. Important enough that I'll hunt down weak monsters with bad loot if most of my band is still below lv4. The difference that your perks and stats make is very noticeable after you played the game for some time. For instance there is a world of difference between having the shield master perk asap on your line and not having it or delaying it. The extra numbers on your mans really make the difference for what things you can deal with. Raiders suddenly become less problematic if they just whiff their attacks and give you more time to poke them to death with your ragged assortment of weapons. And another early crutch is improving your armor to padded leather or better asap. Tanking a few extra hits is the edge you need to force through early combat contracts with a shabby roster. Also spear+shield on any melee merc early on is the way to go until you have melee of 60 or better. There's honestly a lot of different things that you can do early to give you a boost but a lot of it will come to you with just getting playtime under your belt.

I guess most of the early game strats can be put into 2 styles that have generally been accepted as good. You either play like me where you'll go slow and try to forge a small core of solid guys that then go for higher pay contracts to catch up, or you'll go wide with lots of cheap bodies to force through high pay contracts asap. Trading the lives of two or three random scrubs you hired for 300 gold total to loot a chain shirt or a tier 2 weapon in your first few days actually isn't bad. I don't play like that so I can't really go into details but I do suspect that this strat is more viable for higher difficulties than going slow

marshmallow creep posted:

There is a certain momentum you have to get and if bad luck takes you out at the knees over and over it can be a dead run. But as the tooltips remind you, "Losing is fun."

Truth

Also direwolves are pushovers when you have leather armor or better. It's all about catching them with your shield line and then focus killing them asap. If you get unlucky and run into them real early then yeah it's gonna be rough but if you fight super defensively then you should at least win

Tin Tim fucked around with this message at 19:08 on Mar 25, 2017

# ? Mar 25, 2017 19:01

Soup du Journey: Mar 20, 2006; by FactsAreUseless

I know that RA greatsword tanking is the hotness for endgame frontliners, but how viable would it be to run a line of heavily armored, shielded warhammerers focused on outlasting the enemy? I'm thinking something with battle forged, brawny, shield expert, recover, hammer mastery, and probably crippling strikes, fearsome, and executioner. other perks added to taste

# ? Mar 25, 2017 19:03

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

Good for Noble War, doable for undead( though they will have the fatigue edge, naturally), and lovely for orcs, whose elites will clown on your armour and HP no matter what.

# ? Mar 25, 2017 19:17

Disgusting Coward: Feb 17, 2014

Is it just me or has the game gotten a bit more naked since release?

# ? Mar 25, 2017 19:58

Flavahbeast: Jul 21, 2001

How does decapitate work, is it just a random chance when struck with a decapitate-capable weapon? I had a dude get decapitated who I thought had pretty good head/body armor but the combat log just says "brigand thug killed fritz" with no damage data

# ? Mar 25, 2017 20:00

Patrat: Feb 14, 2012

I am now feeling immense love for flails after getting two of them really early on, I gave them to my two melee companions (with 70+ melee attack) and it has lead to significant harvests of good quality armour through decapitation of raiders. I just need a longaxe now so that I can have somebody behind them break shields and facilitate the head removal.

# ? Mar 25, 2017 20:07

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Flails are a solid but tiring weapon and the huge damage range can be wonky.

# ? Mar 25, 2017 20:09

Coolguye: Jul 6, 2011; Required by his programming!

Flavahbeast posted:

How does decapitate work, is it just a random chance when struck with a decapitate-capable weapon? I had a dude get decapitated who I thought had pretty good head/body armor but the combat log just says "brigand thug killed fritz" with no damage data

you need to die to the hit and the decap chance is rolled separately. the cleaver skill decapitate just sets that chance to 100% so it's effectively a finishing move. it's very odd that you have no damage data.

# ? Mar 25, 2017 20:22

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Cleavers are pretty great in general. A military cleaver or khopesh will gently caress dudes up.

I'm never sure when or how to use their special, though.

# ? Mar 25, 2017 20:25

RabidWeasel: Aug 4, 2007; Cultures thrive on their myths and legends...and snuggles!

Gammymajams posted:

This is a really great post, thanks. It sounds like you really cherry pick contracts when playing. Doesn't that burn a lot of time moving between cities to find the right one? And so you'll be falling behind the difficulty curve if you don't find something that fits your criteria? For me it's been kind of ambiguous whether it's worth my while intercepting random groups of enemies on the world map, since there's always a risk of injury and there's less financial incentive without a contract. It seems like you recommend hunting easy stuff/ bandit thugs etc that are roaming the map? I think I'm gonna be more selective from here on when picking contracts and fights. Once I understand exactly what each mission is going to look like from the description that should make things easier.

It's not really cherry picking it's more like don't take long distance cargo or caravan missions unless you want to go to the region in question anyway, and don't take missions which will kill you (which is usually suspiciously highly paid or 3* missions). Fighting random enemies or even engaging camps is a good idea if you think you can win without taking meaningful losses.

Gammymajams posted:

Day 7 360 gold 1 skull contract: 6 raiders. What the fuuuuuck.

Edit: Turns out, this time I beat the raiders. That extra level on a few guys made a big difference. Well, this is embarassing.

There's a fairly big rear end difference between "raiders :lol:

" and "raiders :stonk:

", don't be scared by the name as they can often be wearing just gambesons with falchions or something equally easy to handle. Before the beta branch started I got fairly used to day 2 or 3 bandit groups on expert with raiders in and that was when they would often have pikes!

RabidWeasel fucked around with this message at 20:29 on Mar 25, 2017

# ? Mar 25, 2017 20:26

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

So I guess you can't get ancient legionnaire armor like you can their helmets? Because I let a man die so I could dagger a skeleton and it didn't drop.

# ? Mar 25, 2017 21:07

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

gently caress ghosts.

Incidentally, I just ran into ghosts for the first time.

# ? Mar 25, 2017 21:08

Patrat: Feb 14, 2012

So something that I just ran into, if you have a couple of archers do not be afraid to fight a single orc berserker, they are lethal but completely unarmoured. If you steal their chain? Stick that thing on some well armoured guy with good stamina and watch him just walk up to people then execute them. It is like a Flail x2, admittedly also x2 the stamina cost.

# ? Mar 25, 2017 21:12

Kibbles n Shits: Apr 8, 2006; burgerpug.png; Fun Shoe

Flails are baller as gently caress especially in the early game when you'll find random rear end in a top hat enemies with no or minimal head protection. Lash them down like the pathetic worms they are. The fact that they ignore shield defensive bonuses is even sweeter. Just run straight through the enemy shield wall and knock their skulls in. Of course you only get 3-4 swings before your fatigue is capped.

# ? Mar 25, 2017 21:16

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Also, raiders can and often do carry the max tier flail.

# ? Mar 25, 2017 21:21

ShootaBoy: Jan 6, 2010; Anime is Bad.
_{Except for Pokemon, Valkyria Chronicles and 100% OJ.}

Kibbles n Shits posted:

I hope they release an expansion pack someday that adds land ownership and medieval politicking etc. It doesn't need to be literally mount and blade but It would be cool to be able to stake a claim and grow in other ways besides your bank account/renown and your men's gear.

That's almost certainly going to be a thing you'll have to look to mods to cover. Devs have been pretty adamant that land ownership is not going to be a thing.

# ? Mar 25, 2017 21:38

Kibbles n Shits: Apr 8, 2006; burgerpug.png; Fun Shoe

ShootaBoy posted:

That's almost certainly going to be a thing you'll have to look to mods to cover. Devs have been pretty adamant that land ownership is not going to be a thing.

Ah, I didn't know that, I hadn't really followed on the official forums or devblogs or anything. Are they considering at least adding some modding tools?

# ? Mar 25, 2017 21:41

Hieronymous Alloy: Jan 30, 2009; Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!; Morbid Hound

Ok, bear with me here --

I've been trying to work out a little chart to figure out what skills to take, by role -- not as a "best" build but as a basic thumbnail build I can just refer to as I level up bros. Here's what I have.

1) Everyone takes Student at first level.

Past that:

Idea being, to put off 1) the decision about which endgame weapon to use as long as possible, 2) the decision about whetther to make a bro shield or 2hander as long as possible, and 3) which if any "crowd control" options to take until you've found out what the endgame crisis you're facing is (so you don't waste a whole team's worth of crippling strikes perks on undead).

Thoughts? Is this a crazy approach or is there anything obviously badly wrong in this setup?

# ? Mar 25, 2017 21:48

Gammymajams: Jan 30, 2016

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

Ok, bear with me here --

I've been trying to work out a little chart to figure out what skills to take, by role -- not as a "best" build but as a basic thumbnail build I can just refer to as I level up bros. Here's what I have.

Something about this game makes us all autistic, me included.

# ? Mar 25, 2017 21:52

ShootaBoy: Jan 6, 2010; Anime is Bad.
_{Except for Pokemon, Valkyria Chronicles and 100% OJ.}

Kibbles n Shits posted:

Ah, I didn't know that, I hadn't really followed on the official forums or devblogs or anything. Are they considering at least adding some modding tools?

I think proper mod tools are on their 'list of things to add if the game sells well enough to let us'. So I'm hoping to does really well so I can get my 40000 slightly different medieval weapons.

# ? Mar 25, 2017 21:51

John Charity Spring: Nov 4, 2009; SCREEEEE

marshmallow creep posted:

So I guess you can't get ancient legionnaire armor like you can their helmets? Because I let a man die so I could dagger a skeleton and it didn't drop.

You can get it, but it's basically not worth it (unlike the helmets, which have some utility). Roughly equivalent to mail shirts (basic or otherwise, so between 100-130 armour) but with a higher fatigue cost.

# ? Mar 25, 2017 22:04

Hieronymous Alloy: Jan 30, 2009; Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!; Morbid Hound

Gammymajams posted:

Something about this game makes us all autistic, me included.

It's the Warhammer influence. It's worse than trains.

# ? Mar 25, 2017 22:08

Tin Tim: Jun 4, 2012; Live by the pun - Die by the pun

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

Ok, bear with me here --

Dude I love that your're doing this please keep on nerding at full force :respek:

Here are some quick thoughts

-I like recover but I don't like it enough to pick early over pathfinder. I don't find myself with fatigue issues at that stage whereas the movement bonus will always be great when it applies

-Brawny is also great but I rather take the shield perk earlier for average line bodies

-Polearm mastery on sergeants is sorta wasted since the fatigue reduction will not really be noticeable with one attack per turn. Maybe worth it if you slot berserk too?

I actually never used student myself since it was a crap perk in older builds. Does the xp bonus really outweigh the fact that you're down a perk for most of the game? It just seems like your guys will always slightly underperform until you hit 11

Tin Tim fucked around with this message at 00:29 on Mar 26, 2017

# ? Mar 25, 2017 23:04

Coolguye: Jul 6, 2011; Required by his programming!

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

Ok, bear with me here --

I've been trying to work out a little chart to figure out what skills to take, by role -- not as a "best" build but as a basic thumbnail build I can just refer to as I level up bros. Here's what I have.

1) Everyone takes Student at first level.

Past that:

Idea being, to put off 1) the decision about which endgame weapon to use as long as possible, 2) the decision about whetther to make a bro shield or 2hander as long as possible, and 3) which if any "crowd control" options to take until you've found out what the endgame crisis you're facing is (so you don't waste a whole team's worth of crippling strikes perks on undead).

Thoughts? Is this a crazy approach or is there anything obviously badly wrong in this setup?

couple of things:
Student only ever makes sense if you intend to keep a brother permanently. in the first ~30 days or so, you will be using MANY dudes that are sub-par and do not fit into your long term plans. your own spreadsheet seems to reflect this; you mention 'if nothing special', as a note. well, if there is nothing special about a specific brother, that brother has no business being in your final setup. you'd be better off taking something else so that character renders maximum value while he's with you.

you have a fair number of people taking Dodge here, but they do not also take Brawny. the two skills mix incredibly well due to Brawny giving between 8 and 10 extra initiative points in even medium armor.

with archers, you do not need bow mastery at all. the only thing bow mastery does is give you +1 sight and +1 range, and with top tier bows your range is already 8 tiles. the 25% fatigue advantage is not really relevant for bows because it's not the end of the world if an archer has to chill a round to take a breather - it CAN BE the end of the world if someone on the shield line has to. even beyond that, you are not likely to fatigue out as an archer unless you are using quick shot near exclusively.

# ? Mar 25, 2017 23:28

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# ? Apr 24, 2024 10:15

Fat Samurai: Feb 16, 2011; To go quickly is foolish. To go slowly is prudent. Not to go; that is wisdom.

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

Thoughts? Is this a crazy approach or is there anything obviously badly wrong in this setup?

I like Rotation in my Two Handers as soon as I get a longaxe. I find myself 3 hexes away from my target a lot of times, and swapping position with a brother is usually enough to hit something.

# ? Mar 25, 2017 23:39

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Battle Brothers: We're on a Mission for Gold

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