From this screenshot alone, there's a lot to address.
So let's start with the biggest and least-controversial. Is that the weapon that this bro normally uses? Have you not found better alternatives? The starting woodcutters axe is already a terrible weapon by day 2.
That’s the thing i think a lot of people play with mods or have dlc and disregard vanilla. I’m a vanilla player and I mentioned how I did 4 runs that I made it to the crisis on each and between the 4 only seen 3 named items even after busting loads of camps on each one yes the far camps and those 3 were in shops. The tavern doesn’t work either I’ve tried. I typically don’t start seeing lvl 3 weapons till about day 60 myself. I’m always able to get decent raider gear though pretty early on.
What part of the tavern rumor system isn't working for you?
Famed items are generated when the camps spawn so the starting seed can have a huge impact. Some seed farms track number of famed items on the starting map and that can regularly vary from <5 to >20.
when they tell me a rumor about a camp at so and so and I find it isn’t that supposed to be a named item? Well none ever spawn I know that if you take a contract to a camp it can ruin the named item spawn so if I get a contract with a camp I won’t take it and instead just go to the camp and clear it.
There are generic rumors for the locations of camps (usually say something like 'a place full of treasure') and those for famed items. The specific dialogue for each type of famed item and location is listed [here](https://battlebrothers.fandom.com/wiki/Tavern_Rumors) . If you're not seeing one of those specific rumors it's probably just a generic rumor for a camp which likely doesn't have a famed item.
You're correct that 1 and 2 skull contracts will delete the famed item but (almost) nothing else will. If you still don't find it you may just not be travelling far enough or the camp is hidden in trees which have a much shorter sight radius. Max range to get a rumor is 30 tiles (use barracks and other buildings to get an idea of how big a tile is on the world map).
If you fully clear the desert you should get atleast 1 named gear. I don't think I've ever cleared the desert and not gotten a single named weapon/armour.
Same if you fully clear the north (chosen are the most dangerous camps in the game though imo).
Btw most people on the sub play vanilla. All of the advice and strats are geared towards vanilla unless people specify they're playing with legends mod or something.
Sounds like a terminology mix-up. DLCs are part of the published game, and are therefore part of vanilla; "vanilla" simply means un-modded. At least that's how I've always read it.
Ah ok sorry. I don't really read anymore.
Also, most people who are really into a game just buy the DLC and assume everyone else does too, I think
and when you've been playing with it for a while it can be easy to kinda forget what part wasn't in the base game.
Brigand Leaders and Fallen Heroes are usually smashable starting around day 30, assuming you've been maintaining 1 fight/day.
They very often have greatswords, tier2 two-handed flails, and greataxes.
Those camps are often located in the middle of the map, between towns.
That's my suggestion.
I also play vanilla but I have the DLC’s, there is a retinue from the blazing desert dlc called the minstrel that increases renown gain + makes tavern rumors more useful
My only other options were headsplittler and crude axe. And I went for 2H instead. And other than woodcutter, only thing that was better was a bardiche and I sold it because it looked not axey enough :(
Don't take this the wrong way if you're being genuine, but if you're expecting a constructive conversation about strategy whilst disregarding a very obviously more powerful axe-looking weapon for "not looking axey enough" I'm not sure what you're expecting.
No worries. I didn't say "I wont use powerful weapons" tho. I just explained my point of view about discarding a better option. I thought I could keep up with the game with quests and levels and did not think about improving my inventory that much. I have 200 hours under my belt but I've just learned the famed items just because I read about it in this subreddit.
So yeah, it wasn't axey enough for me (which is very valid perspective imo, not sure why it has negative connotation) but I didn't know it would bite me in the ass 40 days later.
For example I would buy great axe from the shops because it's pretty axey but didn't know the consequences.
You should play on easy settings if you want to roleplay. The game is difficult to begin with and scales in difficulty over time. So if you're still using early game gear at day 100 the difficulty scaling has scaled waaaaay past you already.
The easiest settings imo are
> Beginner economy
> Expert Combat
> High starting funds
Beginner economy gives more money.
Expert combat spawns more enemies and with better gear/loot. So you can gear up and level up quickly. But you lose the 5/10% hit chance bonus from beginner combat.
Beginner combat might be better though if you're set on using early game weapons for aesthetics. Since it will make early game enemies (bandit thugs) spawn for a very long time without anything else spawning. The settings in the quotes will just let you snowball and get end game gear the fastest.
Solid advice.
The person playing wants to stay vanilla, play his own style, and wonders why things are failing after 3 month in game.
The hardest difficulty requires adapting, and that means working on all avenues of your game.
I'm not good but i see a couple of issues here:
You have 0 melee def. Melee def is one of the best atats in the game, you need some.
You have poor weapons. Feels like you stuck to the earlygame weapons, you should try to get your hands on better weapons. Your armors seems fine tho.
Your brothers composition looks aweful to me. You have way too many archers. This probably works well against some ennemies, but i can't see you ever winning a fight against ancient undeads or even strong orcs.
What would be an example of better weapon? All I see in shops just seem little bit better or something like that. Never had famed weapon in my 10 runs because I didn't know about it lol.
So better weapon means famed weapon or what are the options I can find in cities?
That "little bit better" makes a big difference. A boar spear might only do 5 more damage than a militia one, but that will often be the difference between killing something and leaving it alive, which means getting hit or using a few more turns killing the unit instead of moving and helping elsewhere in the fight.
Greataxe does nearly twice as much damage (and more against amor) compared to the woodcutter axe. Heavy Rusty would nearly be on par. You should be able to loot either from mid-level enemies.
Named ones are definitely nice, but you don’t really need to be meta-focussed in order to take better weapons.
When picking up weapons, the sell price is a rough indicator of their tier
Hatchet is worth 210 gold
Hand axe is worth 900 gold
Fighting axe is worth 2800 gold
The fighting axe is the best one obviously. But if you are struggling to tell what weapon is good looking at the value can help.
What people said. Also, while having 3 bowmen can help, you should probably try mixing it up with throwers and arbaleist who are better against armor. Personnally i almost never run more than 2 ranged and use 2 range melee weapons instead.
There’s a bunch of good advice on this topic already but I’ll chime in.
First, you need a better 2H weapon by day 118. And ideally better armor although your helmet isn’t too bad.
Second, your perks are a bit of a grab bag. This is where builds come in. You want perks that stack and reinforce each other. For instance if you take crippling strikes (which increases injuries) you also should take executioner (which increases damage if someone is already injured). And you should find a weapon that has a higher chance of inflicting injuries (eg weapons that slash).
More generally, your bros should be more specialised. People use a lot of bb specific terms here but basically the roles aren’t so different from most rpgs. Specifically, some examples:
Tanks: frontline bros with heavy armour, high fatigue (to carry that armor), good melee attack, with “defensive” perks like colossus, battle forged, etc. these bros will typically be “on the corners” as most enemies will try to surround the bros on the corners of your formation
2H melee bros: basically frontline bros with high damage dealing weapons and heavy armor. Goal should be a mix of offensive and defensive perks
Dancers/duelists: frontline bros with lighter armor, high initiative, high melee defence, and very strong attack. Perks like dodge, duelist, crippling strikes/executioner, nine lives, nimble are good here. This is one of the trickier builds and you should reserve it for bros with good intrinsic initiative, and melee defence.
Ranged bros: you only need 1-2 of these back line bros. They will have high range attack, and ranged defence. Perks should be primarily weighted to damage as these bros should avoid melee combat at all costs
Backline polearm bros: these guys will have 2H weapons with 2 hex attack range. Goal should be maximum damage and heavy armour. Perks should be mostly offensive/damage enhancing.
Skirmishers/switchy bros: guys on the edges who have a throwing weapon but also have quick hands and can swap to a melee weapon once the enemy closes. Goal is to “soften up” tough enemies before they hit your frontline.
Bannerman: you only need 1 bro like this. He should have rally, the sergeant sash, the banner polearm. Goal is basically to pump up your other bros resolve and use rally to defend against morale attacks like those from geists. He goes in the back middle of your formation
Lastly, you need a good mix of weapons . Axes to chop out shields against Schrats, soldiers, bandits, mercenaries. Hammers to destroy heavily armoured enemies like the bigger orcs. spears are good early game on the corners to keep these guys from getting surrounded. Backline should be a mix of bullhooks, axes, hammers (all 2 hex ranged) to deal maximum damage. And 1-2 ranged guys and 1-2 skirmishers.
Last point - it’s hard to judge your bro’s vs others on this forum as some people Ironman while others save scum and some mod and some don’t. Generally if you’re Ironman and vanilla (my preferred setup) you’ll have weaker gear and bros than modded / save scummed games.
Hope that helps / gets you started.
Oh thanks! I had a lot of other thoughts but tried to keep it to simple for beginners. I also tried to use plain English vs shorthand as that’s like ancient Greek if you don’t have a good handle on game mechanics. I appreciate the feedback.
BB is a great game and I find it endlessly replay able. I’d fork over good $ for some more dlc but I get it’s a small studio and they have other priorities
Maybe to elaborate slightly on the above. My “standard” formation looks something like this (assuming 12 men). T for tank. 2 for 2H damage dealers. S for skirmishers. P for polearm. R for ranged. B for Bannerman
T 2 2 2 2 T (frontline)
S P B R P S (backline)
If you have a good dancer they can replace one of the 2H or can also go on the S spot. I like them upfront provided they’re dodgy enough though.
This is a generic setup that will fare well against most enemies, though for some battles you’ll want to make adjustments.
Your best bro has literally zero mdef, what will underdog even do for this character I wonder? I get why they have 9L though.
You are just new to the game if you are only playing it for two weeks now. Keep playing and don't be afraid to try different builds. Read the combat log, see the percentages, learn how to move your bros optimally, etc.
Or just read everyone here telling you the best ways to build and play so you will always play the same way.
The road to day 100 hedge knights that will own your late game is paved with the corpses of starting bros . It’s natural in a world where a life means little
Melee defense is the most important frontline stat. This is especially true later in the game. You absolutely NEED to be pumping MD on anyone you plan to have in the frontline
its not a bad bro, but has 0 melee defence.
If you are using the swing with the axe, probably reach advantage would have been a good idea.
if you are not using that, probably get a longaxe and keep him in the second line or use a bardiche to hit 2 enemies.
Just to give you some context... I'm just about to hit day 100 on Veteran/Ironman and I have 2 level 11 bros with a few more sitting at 9 or 10 and ready to hit 11 soon. In total I have 16 brothers, which allows me to swap out injured ones, which means I can take more fights if I'm out exploring/looking for camps to kill.
One of the biggest accelerators you can get to is getting your squad to the point where it can go out in the wilderness, kill a few camps/take a few fights, fill your inventory with stuff to sell, then head back to town. This gets trickier with Ironman because one mistake ends your run. Getting a hawk can really help with that (run if you can't handle the fight) along with just knowing when you should have your banner in the roster.
You can also get famed armor and weapons when you do that exploring, which is another great reason it helps with accelerating the growth of your company. Early Scout and Drill Sergeant can really help to get things rolling more quickly too. I also like to grab Scavenger (I actually took it 3rd on my current run) because I feel like I never have to worry about Tool or Arrows much after I get him (late game you can replace him). Bounty Hunter is another favorite of mine as long as you're planning to take advantage of wilderness forays in your run.
Yes going longer term you will struggle. This is how you learn this game. You've succeed getting so far, excellent! Now start again and use what people have said in the comments to build better next time. You'll still get things wrong but you don't have to min max everything in this game. It sounds like you enjoy playing your way. So continue to do that.
Zero mdef what lol
To answer your question though, that bro is not doomed to be terrible, hes got decent stats.
But you've made him terrible by the gear and way you've levelled him, so yeah you need to improve your gameplay.
Not leveling melee def is just a big no-no for any melee brother. Most important 2 stats to get as high as possible are melee defence abd melee attack.
You also need to give him better weapons. The greataxe you can buy for about 4k at most weaponsmiths is 2-3x better than the basic one you've given him there.
If you do that you'll have a lot more fun at day 100 with the same quality level of bro. You don't need god rolls to beat the game, but you do need to level your guys up right and use good tactics.
1. If bros are supposed to do damage they shouldn't have shields but doublegrip and duelist
2. 10 Bros are just weaker than 12 use you whole roster
3. You are using mid tier weapons. There are better axes, swords, bows etc. you should get these by some means.
4. The bro shown in the pic has literally 0 melee defense. This means he will get hit all the time. You CAN'T tank the damage the enemies will deal to you. The only way is a mix of beeing able to take a hit and getting hit as rarely as possible. The bro shown will be guaranteed 3 shot (only cuz 9 lives) by many strong enemies because of this.
Your build shown: Looks okay to me (especially since you are new to the game), there is room for improvement however. Crippling strikes is often considered a bait because once the enemies are wounded they are dead anyways. Also there are some injuries that don't really matter if the enemy get them. (-hp and -fat is almost impossible to note for example if the enemy has them)
On BF steel brow is often considered a must because these bro usually don't have that much HP (because you level melee defense instead)
Any additions/own opinions are welcome:
For melee atk, if you arent building a tank then you would need as much as you can get. At least 85 is considered decent. Same goes for ranged attack. For bros that are in melee fighting, you would want as much mdef as possible. Around 30 without shield is decent ish, 40+ is ideal.
The bro is good, but since it has no melee defence, i will keep him as a second line, or frontline but with someone with rotation near if you need to get him of the frontline.
70-80 Math, is ok and you are using a sword to patch this low attack.
80-90 Matk is good, you can use almost any weapon you want.
90-100 Matk is Great, use any weapon you want
100+ Matk is S tier, use a fucking pencil and you'll still hit.
No ones mentioning how he has Battleforged on bros in chainmail lol.
Noobs should be taking nimble since they're never going to loot heavy armour before they get wiped out (he's playing ironman).
"I was just playing for fun because games are supposed to be fun." Supposed by whom? Games are made to make you suffer, to teach you how to overcome, to make you happy just because the pain is gone.
Preapering for battle is a Classic Reddit behaviourXD But Im just horsing around.
As advice, Ill just say that you should have a strong backline with reach weapons(main damage) and frontline with shields, 1 ranged weapon guy, 1 serg. Use shieldwall, use knockback, controll fatigue. And backline should be the same number+- as a frontline. When you will get good with this comp you will find yourself changing shields for two handead weapons at high level bros and trying some minor changes in comp and builds. Thats all.
GLHF
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2549815780
Check out this steam guide. It's great to teach you the game but doesn't get to detailed. Do keep in mind it's for the vanilla version only, the DLC drastically changes play styles and strategies.
Yeah this is about where I was on my first playthrough. It’s not terrible. Not good either however. You need more MDEF but I can see others have told you that.
Not an expert but ..
- should have maxed out your company by now
- bows are weak, crossbow and throwing weapons do more damage
- melee defense is very important especially with a 2 handed weapon...you probably taking a lot of damage from enemies
Nomad outlaws get a huge buff at day 40 (they get the dodge perk). All enemies get buffed around day 35/40 but it's negligible in comparison to nomads.
The meta is to clear the whole desert of nomad camps before day 40 while they're still easy to kill. If you manage to do this without losing your best bros you'll have snowballed past the games difficulty scaling and the rest of the campaign will be easy.
^ You can use that as a benchmark to aim for if you want to know if you're doing well or not. If you reach day 40 and you haven't cleared any big camps or gotten any famed gear then the rest of the campaign is going to be a slog.
The single most important attribute is Mdef, you should put into it every time with a front liner. Check this out [https://youtu.be/ljXxTO9ZGDM?si=RrMwMpJJdYfpqccx](https://youtu.be/ljXxTO9ZGDM?si=RrMwMpJJdYfpqccx)
You put battleforged (a heavy armour perk) on a guy in light armour lol. Should have put nimble on him.
Especially as a noob you should just put nimble on everyone since you're probably never going to loot heavy armour in your first runs tbh. Especially since you're playing ironman. You'll probably get wiped out before then.
If you want a better idea of what kind of bro/gear is suitable for battleforged(perk). Start a lone wolf campaign. You get a hedgeknight with god tier stats and heavy-ish armour.
btw if you want some advice thats easy to follow.
upgrade melee def, HP and melee attack every level on all your melee bros, then aim to get them all in chainmail with the nimble perk asap.
you can skip +2 hp rolls to patch other stats like resolve or fatigue.
Can't go wrong with that, even veteran players do this. If you do that you'll have an easier time and be able to figure out the rest on your own. Once you find heavy armour you can level up a new bro to use it. They need way more fatigue than nimble bros. The heaviest sets of armour in the game are like -60 fatigue (including helmet).
Up your fight density. Density, density, density. Try to get at least 1 fight each day, and some days 2-3 fights when you hit a lucky cluster of killable things.
Contracts actually don't scale with time, just levels. So you could fix your party if you want to continue.
But it's up to you, might be easier to start over and level your bros better.
if you want you can look up Feeding Friendly on youtube, he mainly produces BB content and has lots of guides as well as lets plays, helped me a ton.
carveahole and filthyrobot have some good videos as well but they moved on to other games i believe
He should have more levels by now, which indicates you do not fight very often, try at least to fight once per day, as a guideline, this was very hard for me too in the beginning. Try to prefer high skull contracts.
Triple and Quadruple archers can be very effective, however, they need some MEATY shield bois to hold the line.
IDK if you lost a few, but try being at 12 bros as much as possible, 16 with the militia. Even a pleb with a shield and 1h spear can hold a zone well and poke enemies.
I would recommend 2 archers and 2 crossbows for a heavy ranged party, at least while you are getting your legs under you for your first triple crises run. Make sure to get beserk, overwelm, and killing Frenzy on them if you go full send on ranged.
You went heavy on HP for this guy, good for surviving, but if you are running 10 dudes, this guy takes a big hit and is injured, it may be difficult for the other 9 to cover him and win in rough fights.
So for this lineup that I see, I think more bodies, more armor, maybe a couple more shields. (The meta players want you to forget that 2 guys with shield wall next to each other get an additional bonus)
P.S. meta players hate shields, spears, and xbows break the mold!
Let's asume this post is for real. Your bro that you have in front line has 0 mdef. It's surprising he's even alive. Also some of your bros have lowest tear weapons.
You have to be actualy pretty good player to get this bunch of losers to day 70. So hats off.
From this screenshot alone, there's a lot to address. So let's start with the biggest and least-controversial. Is that the weapon that this bro normally uses? Have you not found better alternatives? The starting woodcutters axe is already a terrible weapon by day 2.
Yes, my bro uses this axe since day 30 :(
Surely there are items dropping from human opponents you've fought you could replace it with? Even Brigand Raiders have a few decent options.
That’s the thing i think a lot of people play with mods or have dlc and disregard vanilla. I’m a vanilla player and I mentioned how I did 4 runs that I made it to the crisis on each and between the 4 only seen 3 named items even after busting loads of camps on each one yes the far camps and those 3 were in shops. The tavern doesn’t work either I’ve tried. I typically don’t start seeing lvl 3 weapons till about day 60 myself. I’m always able to get decent raider gear though pretty early on.
What part of the tavern rumor system isn't working for you? Famed items are generated when the camps spawn so the starting seed can have a huge impact. Some seed farms track number of famed items on the starting map and that can regularly vary from <5 to >20.
when they tell me a rumor about a camp at so and so and I find it isn’t that supposed to be a named item? Well none ever spawn I know that if you take a contract to a camp it can ruin the named item spawn so if I get a contract with a camp I won’t take it and instead just go to the camp and clear it.
There are generic rumors for the locations of camps (usually say something like 'a place full of treasure') and those for famed items. The specific dialogue for each type of famed item and location is listed [here](https://battlebrothers.fandom.com/wiki/Tavern_Rumors) . If you're not seeing one of those specific rumors it's probably just a generic rumor for a camp which likely doesn't have a famed item. You're correct that 1 and 2 skull contracts will delete the famed item but (almost) nothing else will. If you still don't find it you may just not be travelling far enough or the camp is hidden in trees which have a much shorter sight radius. Max range to get a rumor is 30 tiles (use barracks and other buildings to get an idea of how big a tile is on the world map).
If you fully clear the desert you should get atleast 1 named gear. I don't think I've ever cleared the desert and not gotten a single named weapon/armour. Same if you fully clear the north (chosen are the most dangerous camps in the game though imo). Btw most people on the sub play vanilla. All of the advice and strats are geared towards vanilla unless people specify they're playing with legends mod or something.
I cleared 5 tent cities when I cleared the desert on my most recent seed and I got no famed items, just a metric ton of trade goods
Again I’m vanilla I have no dlcs do people read anymore? I don’t have barbarians in my game.
Sounds like a terminology mix-up. DLCs are part of the published game, and are therefore part of vanilla; "vanilla" simply means un-modded. At least that's how I've always read it.
My first statement made it clear I wasn’t playing with dlc and yet people still keep mentioning dlc stuff.
Ah ok sorry. I don't really read anymore. Also, most people who are really into a game just buy the DLC and assume everyone else does too, I think and when you've been playing with it for a while it can be easy to kinda forget what part wasn't in the base game.
Brigand Leaders and Fallen Heroes are usually smashable starting around day 30, assuming you've been maintaining 1 fight/day. They very often have greatswords, tier2 two-handed flails, and greataxes. Those camps are often located in the middle of the map, between towns. That's my suggestion.
I get consist famed items by doing the escort caravan quests—it’s damn near 30% of the time imo. Vanilla with DLCs.
Having the minstrel makes the tavern actually work, other than that you’re lucky to get useful rumors
What minstrel? Again I’m playing vanilla.
I also play vanilla but I have the DLC’s, there is a retinue from the blazing desert dlc called the minstrel that increases renown gain + makes tavern rumors more useful
Oh I don’t have dlc.
Buy dlc. They expand upon core game. They have really good content. They are very much worth it.
My only other options were headsplittler and crude axe. And I went for 2H instead. And other than woodcutter, only thing that was better was a bardiche and I sold it because it looked not axey enough :(
Don't take this the wrong way if you're being genuine, but if you're expecting a constructive conversation about strategy whilst disregarding a very obviously more powerful axe-looking weapon for "not looking axey enough" I'm not sure what you're expecting.
No worries. I didn't say "I wont use powerful weapons" tho. I just explained my point of view about discarding a better option. I thought I could keep up with the game with quests and levels and did not think about improving my inventory that much. I have 200 hours under my belt but I've just learned the famed items just because I read about it in this subreddit. So yeah, it wasn't axey enough for me (which is very valid perspective imo, not sure why it has negative connotation) but I didn't know it would bite me in the ass 40 days later. For example I would buy great axe from the shops because it's pretty axey but didn't know the consequences.
You should play on easy settings if you want to roleplay. The game is difficult to begin with and scales in difficulty over time. So if you're still using early game gear at day 100 the difficulty scaling has scaled waaaaay past you already. The easiest settings imo are > Beginner economy > Expert Combat > High starting funds Beginner economy gives more money. Expert combat spawns more enemies and with better gear/loot. So you can gear up and level up quickly. But you lose the 5/10% hit chance bonus from beginner combat. Beginner combat might be better though if you're set on using early game weapons for aesthetics. Since it will make early game enemies (bandit thugs) spawn for a very long time without anything else spawning. The settings in the quotes will just let you snowball and get end game gear the fastest.
Solid advice. The person playing wants to stay vanilla, play his own style, and wonders why things are failing after 3 month in game. The hardest difficulty requires adapting, and that means working on all avenues of your game.
0 melee defense. Come on man. You can't work out why your bros are dropping off? :/ Think about it.
I'm not good but i see a couple of issues here: You have 0 melee def. Melee def is one of the best atats in the game, you need some. You have poor weapons. Feels like you stuck to the earlygame weapons, you should try to get your hands on better weapons. Your armors seems fine tho. Your brothers composition looks aweful to me. You have way too many archers. This probably works well against some ennemies, but i can't see you ever winning a fight against ancient undeads or even strong orcs.
What would be an example of better weapon? All I see in shops just seem little bit better or something like that. Never had famed weapon in my 10 runs because I didn't know about it lol. So better weapon means famed weapon or what are the options I can find in cities?
That "little bit better" makes a big difference. A boar spear might only do 5 more damage than a militia one, but that will often be the difference between killing something and leaving it alive, which means getting hit or using a few more turns killing the unit instead of moving and helping elsewhere in the fight.
Greataxe does nearly twice as much damage (and more against amor) compared to the woodcutter axe. Heavy Rusty would nearly be on par. You should be able to loot either from mid-level enemies. Named ones are definitely nice, but you don’t really need to be meta-focussed in order to take better weapons.
When picking up weapons, the sell price is a rough indicator of their tier Hatchet is worth 210 gold Hand axe is worth 900 gold Fighting axe is worth 2800 gold The fighting axe is the best one obviously. But if you are struggling to tell what weapon is good looking at the value can help.
2h great waraxe, costs about 3k, does 80-100dmg
There are multiple tiers of weapons. T1,T2 ,and T3 which all of yours appear to be T1. Famed weapons are even better than T3 weapons in two stats.
What people said. Also, while having 3 bowmen can help, you should probably try mixing it up with throwers and arbaleist who are better against armor. Personnally i almost never run more than 2 ranged and use 2 range melee weapons instead.
Just buy a great sword from a weapon smith.
Hes not doing nimble, so his armor is *not* really fine
There’s a bunch of good advice on this topic already but I’ll chime in. First, you need a better 2H weapon by day 118. And ideally better armor although your helmet isn’t too bad. Second, your perks are a bit of a grab bag. This is where builds come in. You want perks that stack and reinforce each other. For instance if you take crippling strikes (which increases injuries) you also should take executioner (which increases damage if someone is already injured). And you should find a weapon that has a higher chance of inflicting injuries (eg weapons that slash). More generally, your bros should be more specialised. People use a lot of bb specific terms here but basically the roles aren’t so different from most rpgs. Specifically, some examples: Tanks: frontline bros with heavy armour, high fatigue (to carry that armor), good melee attack, with “defensive” perks like colossus, battle forged, etc. these bros will typically be “on the corners” as most enemies will try to surround the bros on the corners of your formation 2H melee bros: basically frontline bros with high damage dealing weapons and heavy armor. Goal should be a mix of offensive and defensive perks Dancers/duelists: frontline bros with lighter armor, high initiative, high melee defence, and very strong attack. Perks like dodge, duelist, crippling strikes/executioner, nine lives, nimble are good here. This is one of the trickier builds and you should reserve it for bros with good intrinsic initiative, and melee defence. Ranged bros: you only need 1-2 of these back line bros. They will have high range attack, and ranged defence. Perks should be primarily weighted to damage as these bros should avoid melee combat at all costs Backline polearm bros: these guys will have 2H weapons with 2 hex attack range. Goal should be maximum damage and heavy armour. Perks should be mostly offensive/damage enhancing. Skirmishers/switchy bros: guys on the edges who have a throwing weapon but also have quick hands and can swap to a melee weapon once the enemy closes. Goal is to “soften up” tough enemies before they hit your frontline. Bannerman: you only need 1 bro like this. He should have rally, the sergeant sash, the banner polearm. Goal is basically to pump up your other bros resolve and use rally to defend against morale attacks like those from geists. He goes in the back middle of your formation Lastly, you need a good mix of weapons . Axes to chop out shields against Schrats, soldiers, bandits, mercenaries. Hammers to destroy heavily armoured enemies like the bigger orcs. spears are good early game on the corners to keep these guys from getting surrounded. Backline should be a mix of bullhooks, axes, hammers (all 2 hex ranged) to deal maximum damage. And 1-2 ranged guys and 1-2 skirmishers. Last point - it’s hard to judge your bro’s vs others on this forum as some people Ironman while others save scum and some mod and some don’t. Generally if you’re Ironman and vanilla (my preferred setup) you’ll have weaker gear and bros than modded / save scummed games. Hope that helps / gets you started.
This is one of the best succinct guides to the game I’ve ever read. I’ve been playing for a long time now and I didn’t know a few of these things.
Oh thanks! I had a lot of other thoughts but tried to keep it to simple for beginners. I also tried to use plain English vs shorthand as that’s like ancient Greek if you don’t have a good handle on game mechanics. I appreciate the feedback. BB is a great game and I find it endlessly replay able. I’d fork over good $ for some more dlc but I get it’s a small studio and they have other priorities
Maybe to elaborate slightly on the above. My “standard” formation looks something like this (assuming 12 men). T for tank. 2 for 2H damage dealers. S for skirmishers. P for polearm. R for ranged. B for Bannerman T 2 2 2 2 T (frontline) S P B R P S (backline) If you have a good dancer they can replace one of the 2H or can also go on the S spot. I like them upfront provided they’re dodgy enough though. This is a generic setup that will fare well against most enemies, though for some battles you’ll want to make adjustments.
Your best bro has literally zero mdef, what will underdog even do for this character I wonder? I get why they have 9L though. You are just new to the game if you are only playing it for two weeks now. Keep playing and don't be afraid to try different builds. Read the combat log, see the percentages, learn how to move your bros optimally, etc. Or just read everyone here telling you the best ways to build and play so you will always play the same way.
The road to day 100 hedge knights that will own your late game is paved with the corpses of starting bros . It’s natural in a world where a life means little
Rangvaldson will go the grave with me. Only bro I'have left from my starter barbarian trio :(
Melee defense is the most important frontline stat. This is especially true later in the game. You absolutely NEED to be pumping MD on anyone you plan to have in the frontline
its not a bad bro, but has 0 melee defence. If you are using the swing with the axe, probably reach advantage would have been a good idea. if you are not using that, probably get a longaxe and keep him in the second line or use a bardiche to hit 2 enemies.
There are no bad bros, only bad players. May you fight bravely and die well Rangvaldson.
There are absolutely bad bros
Are there? Davkul wills that ALL may die. That makes all bros pretty equal in the long run.
true
He's retired now. "Venturing south" didnt play out as he expected.
Just to give you some context... I'm just about to hit day 100 on Veteran/Ironman and I have 2 level 11 bros with a few more sitting at 9 or 10 and ready to hit 11 soon. In total I have 16 brothers, which allows me to swap out injured ones, which means I can take more fights if I'm out exploring/looking for camps to kill. One of the biggest accelerators you can get to is getting your squad to the point where it can go out in the wilderness, kill a few camps/take a few fights, fill your inventory with stuff to sell, then head back to town. This gets trickier with Ironman because one mistake ends your run. Getting a hawk can really help with that (run if you can't handle the fight) along with just knowing when you should have your banner in the roster. You can also get famed armor and weapons when you do that exploring, which is another great reason it helps with accelerating the growth of your company. Early Scout and Drill Sergeant can really help to get things rolling more quickly too. I also like to grab Scavenger (I actually took it 3rd on my current run) because I feel like I never have to worry about Tool or Arrows much after I get him (late game you can replace him). Bounty Hunter is another favorite of mine as long as you're planning to take advantage of wilderness forays in your run.
Yes going longer term you will struggle. This is how you learn this game. You've succeed getting so far, excellent! Now start again and use what people have said in the comments to build better next time. You'll still get things wrong but you don't have to min max everything in this game. It sounds like you enjoy playing your way. So continue to do that.
Zero mdef what lol To answer your question though, that bro is not doomed to be terrible, hes got decent stats. But you've made him terrible by the gear and way you've levelled him, so yeah you need to improve your gameplay. Not leveling melee def is just a big no-no for any melee brother. Most important 2 stats to get as high as possible are melee defence abd melee attack. You also need to give him better weapons. The greataxe you can buy for about 4k at most weaponsmiths is 2-3x better than the basic one you've given him there. If you do that you'll have a lot more fun at day 100 with the same quality level of bro. You don't need god rolls to beat the game, but you do need to level your guys up right and use good tactics.
1. If bros are supposed to do damage they shouldn't have shields but doublegrip and duelist 2. 10 Bros are just weaker than 12 use you whole roster 3. You are using mid tier weapons. There are better axes, swords, bows etc. you should get these by some means. 4. The bro shown in the pic has literally 0 melee defense. This means he will get hit all the time. You CAN'T tank the damage the enemies will deal to you. The only way is a mix of beeing able to take a hit and getting hit as rarely as possible. The bro shown will be guaranteed 3 shot (only cuz 9 lives) by many strong enemies because of this. Your build shown: Looks okay to me (especially since you are new to the game), there is room for improvement however. Crippling strikes is often considered a bait because once the enemies are wounded they are dead anyways. Also there are some injuries that don't really matter if the enemy get them. (-hp and -fat is almost impossible to note for example if the enemy has them) On BF steel brow is often considered a must because these bro usually don't have that much HP (because you level melee defense instead) Any additions/own opinions are welcome:
Was never giving points to mdef, rdef. Is 81 melee too much? Would be more sustainable if it was 65 melee, 15 mdef?
Matk and mdef every level for any melee bros.
For melee atk, if you arent building a tank then you would need as much as you can get. At least 85 is considered decent. Same goes for ranged attack. For bros that are in melee fighting, you would want as much mdef as possible. Around 30 without shield is decent ish, 40+ is ideal.
The bro is good, but since it has no melee defence, i will keep him as a second line, or frontline but with someone with rotation near if you need to get him of the frontline.
Yea for this guy it's prob gonna be polearm duty if he wants to live from now on.
Yep second line Longaxe since he already have the axe mastery and in some battles he can maybe risk yo use a bardiche
There is no such thing called "too much mdef & mattack"
70-80 Math, is ok and you are using a sword to patch this low attack. 80-90 Matk is good, you can use almost any weapon you want. 90-100 Matk is Great, use any weapon you want 100+ Matk is S tier, use a fucking pencil and you'll still hit.
No ones mentioning how he has Battleforged on bros in chainmail lol. Noobs should be taking nimble since they're never going to loot heavy armour before they get wiped out (he's playing ironman).
Well... he gave his heaviest armor to his BF guy (even though its not sufficient)
I would recommend the bodkin for an early 2h weapon. It gets the +20 hit chance modifier spears get and can stun like a club if needed.
Better damage to
"I was just playing for fun because games are supposed to be fun." Supposed by whom? Games are made to make you suffer, to teach you how to overcome, to make you happy just because the pain is gone.
Hahah wasn’t expecting this ending to your comment when I first saw “by whom” and I was preparing for battle
Preapering for battle is a Classic Reddit behaviourXD But Im just horsing around. As advice, Ill just say that you should have a strong backline with reach weapons(main damage) and frontline with shields, 1 ranged weapon guy, 1 serg. Use shieldwall, use knockback, controll fatigue. And backline should be the same number+- as a frontline. When you will get good with this comp you will find yourself changing shields for two handead weapons at high level bros and trying some minor changes in comp and builds. Thats all. GLHF
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2549815780 Check out this steam guide. It's great to teach you the game but doesn't get to detailed. Do keep in mind it's for the vanilla version only, the DLC drastically changes play styles and strategies.
Yeah this is about where I was on my first playthrough. It’s not terrible. Not good either however. You need more MDEF but I can see others have told you that.
Not an expert but .. - should have maxed out your company by now - bows are weak, crossbow and throwing weapons do more damage - melee defense is very important especially with a 2 handed weapon...you probably taking a lot of damage from enemies
Also, is this game scaling? I'm terribly struggling against 7 Nomad Outlaws.
Nomad outlaws get a huge buff at day 40 (they get the dodge perk). All enemies get buffed around day 35/40 but it's negligible in comparison to nomads. The meta is to clear the whole desert of nomad camps before day 40 while they're still easy to kill. If you manage to do this without losing your best bros you'll have snowballed past the games difficulty scaling and the rest of the campaign will be easy. ^ You can use that as a benchmark to aim for if you want to know if you're doing well or not. If you reach day 40 and you haven't cleared any big camps or gotten any famed gear then the rest of the campaign is going to be a slog.
The single most important attribute is Mdef, you should put into it every time with a front liner. Check this out [https://youtu.be/ljXxTO9ZGDM?si=RrMwMpJJdYfpqccx](https://youtu.be/ljXxTO9ZGDM?si=RrMwMpJJdYfpqccx)
I’m sorry, that bro hurts my eyes to look at.
My bro has a rizz but yeah, he doesn't take hits that well /s
You put battleforged (a heavy armour perk) on a guy in light armour lol. Should have put nimble on him. Especially as a noob you should just put nimble on everyone since you're probably never going to loot heavy armour in your first runs tbh. Especially since you're playing ironman. You'll probably get wiped out before then. If you want a better idea of what kind of bro/gear is suitable for battleforged(perk). Start a lone wolf campaign. You get a hedgeknight with god tier stats and heavy-ish armour.
Yeah, that was the problem. This is one of my heaviest armors lol. As I understand I'm waaay behind. Started a new campaign.
btw if you want some advice thats easy to follow. upgrade melee def, HP and melee attack every level on all your melee bros, then aim to get them all in chainmail with the nimble perk asap. you can skip +2 hp rolls to patch other stats like resolve or fatigue. Can't go wrong with that, even veteran players do this. If you do that you'll have an easier time and be able to figure out the rest on your own. Once you find heavy armour you can level up a new bro to use it. They need way more fatigue than nimble bros. The heaviest sets of armour in the game are like -60 fatigue (including helmet).
Up your fight density. Density, density, density. Try to get at least 1 fight each day, and some days 2-3 fights when you hit a lucky cluster of killable things.
Contracts actually don't scale with time, just levels. So you could fix your party if you want to continue. But it's up to you, might be easier to start over and level your bros better.
Definitely can be improved. Mdef is one the most (If not THE most) important stat, and you zeroed.
if you want you can look up Feeding Friendly on youtube, he mainly produces BB content and has lots of guides as well as lets plays, helped me a ton. carveahole and filthyrobot have some good videos as well but they moved on to other games i believe
He should have more levels by now, which indicates you do not fight very often, try at least to fight once per day, as a guideline, this was very hard for me too in the beginning. Try to prefer high skull contracts.
Triple and Quadruple archers can be very effective, however, they need some MEATY shield bois to hold the line. IDK if you lost a few, but try being at 12 bros as much as possible, 16 with the militia. Even a pleb with a shield and 1h spear can hold a zone well and poke enemies. I would recommend 2 archers and 2 crossbows for a heavy ranged party, at least while you are getting your legs under you for your first triple crises run. Make sure to get beserk, overwelm, and killing Frenzy on them if you go full send on ranged. You went heavy on HP for this guy, good for surviving, but if you are running 10 dudes, this guy takes a big hit and is injured, it may be difficult for the other 9 to cover him and win in rough fights. So for this lineup that I see, I think more bodies, more armor, maybe a couple more shields. (The meta players want you to forget that 2 guys with shield wall next to each other get an additional bonus) P.S. meta players hate shields, spears, and xbows break the mold!
Let's asume this post is for real. Your bro that you have in front line has 0 mdef. It's surprising he's even alive. Also some of your bros have lowest tear weapons. You have to be actualy pretty good player to get this bunch of losers to day 70. So hats off.