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[Persus13]

Since no else has mentioned this, I generally give twohanders armor with the Bone Plating attachment, which allows them to shrug off the first body shot in a combat. Don't know if those are available without the DLC though. You also need to have killed some Unholds first.

[Majestic7]

Am I the only one who takes Nine lives for every guy? I'm just a wuzz that doesn't like losing men. Together with Light Footed or Rotation, it means I usually take zero casualties if the fight is winnable at all.

[wereboar]

I've found that Rotation is great on your tanks. But two-handers benefit from Footwork more.

Rotation basically is a tool for tanky bros to reposition themselves in combat - pull a wounded guy out of a tight spot and place a tank in his stead.
On two-handers rotation is not so great because when you suddenly need to pull out you don't always have a tank nearby. So you'll either be unable to rotate or will put another vulnerable brother in danger. Footwork is better here because it just lets a brother that is not supposed to be super tanky disengage at will.

In other words, rotation allows a bro to hold formation and save wounded dudes, while footwork allows a bro to chase specific enemies, position himself to strike multiple targets and disengage quickly when needed.

[Mephansteras]

I go with the 'all non-archers get rotation' strategy. Means I can constantly swap people around as needed depending on what is going on in the fight. So it's more of a Company-level perk in that regard.

Though I do see the merits of footwork for two-handers. May have to give that a try.

[AzyWng]

So I bought this game a while back last year and haven't really been playing too much lately.

There are a lot more badguys than there are your own troops, and the way I'm playing means that losing that war of attrition is inevitable...

I've read more than a few comments from more experienced players about how spears are great, shieldwalls are also effective, and so on, but whenever I try to use them (usually at the start of a fight 'cause I get worried) the enemy always seems to hang back or whatnot.

So, anyway, what advice do you folks have for a new player?

[Mephansteras]

Learn how different enemies fight. That is kind of key #1, since no strategy is going to work for every enemy.

Shields/Spears is a great combo, but it's situational. Bandits will often hang back if they think their archers can beat you. Getting high ground on them is good, or you can try to shieldwall while your archers take out a few of them to get them to change tactics. Once one or two charge you, most of them will. They might have a few with shields hang back to protect the archers.

I mostly use spears to protect the flanks of my line. Spears do have a +20% to hit, though, so they are great for low-skill mercs.  Against bandits I find flails (Lvl 2 & up) to be ideal. They often neglect helms and can be taken out very quickly with a few lashes to the head. Flails also ignore shields with their primary attack, making them ideal against bandit shield lines.

Also, don't be afraid to run from a fight if the terrain is bad for you. You can always reengage and try to get a better spot to fight. Never fight bandit marksmen uphill if you can help it, that's just begging for a ton of injuries.

[wereboar]

What the previous poster said.

Shield/spear wall is incredibly effective against some enemies (nachzehrers for example) and completely useless against other (unholds).
Ranged-heavy enemies (bandits, goblins) will often refuse to engage. So you either have to press forward yourself or (given you have really top notch archers) try to bring down their archers and force the survivors to attack.

Main advice for a new player: play with whatever combat difficulty, but do not increase financial difficulty. With larger rewards you will never lose war of attrition even if some bros die in every fight. Buy better armor for more experienced bros even if it feels like you can't afford it. Retreat if enemies seem to be too strong or the landscape is unfavourable.

[Tack]

Just got back into this, and I'm seeing a lot of talk about patch changes... but not what they actually entail. Are mail shirts and scale mail still the efficiency kings?

[Sindain]

No and yes. Worn mail shirts got nerfed (to 12 fatigue) so now its just shitty basic chain. They also added bunch of new armors in the 150-200 armor range. The new 160 for 15 noble armor is now the best light/medium armor around.

Scale mail is still pretty much the best for heavy armor.

[Mephansteras]

Note that with the expansion you get a lot of nifty armor modifications you can make from beast trophies which alter things a bit. Not sure if the mods the armor shops sell are available without the expansion or not.

[Cthulhu]

Every time I decide to play this game again I remember why I stopped last time.  Maybe there's a point where it doesn't feel like driving two trucks into each other until one stops working, but I don't feel like grinding that long to find out.  Early on your guys are just so fucking incapable that nothing you do feels like it's making a difference in whether you win or lose.

My two-hander doesn't even have the courtesy to die so I can stop being mad at him.  He's probably gone fifteen attacks in a row without hitting once, all >60% hit chance.

[AzyWng]

As irritating as Cthulu’s post is to read (I did, after all, spend money on a game they’re saying bad things about), I can’t deny that I’m feeling the exact same way about the game with the state I’m at - early battles feel like a meat grinder that’ll easily outlive my troops, and late battles are out I the question entirely.

[Tack]

At least the early game economic crunch has dropped slightly. I just managed to get through Veteran earlygame by having refugees and beggars on the wings who generally (always) died.

[Mephansteras]

It's got a steep learning curve, no doubt about it. Personally, I found the initial challenge level perfect, in that my failures gave me new ideas I was eager to try rather than frustrating me. But I can see how that won't be the case for everyone.

A few suggestions starting out:

1) Avoid anything higher than a 1-skull mission until you've got a solid band formed. That doesn't guarantee you won't get a nasty fight that kills a bunch of people, but it lessens the chances.

2) If you see an easy group of enemies on the world map, go for it. Especially if there is a fight going on you can join in  on. You'll get some XP and loot if you kill even one enemy. You need XP to get going, and anything that lets you get safe XP is important.

3) Formation is probably the most important thing. Keep your guys close and use shieldwalls to your advantage. Everyone using the shieldwall skill gets bonuses for everyone next to them also using that skill, so a full line gets a huge bonus. The same goes for your enemies, so knocking someone out of position can be very powerful. Not only does it break up the line, but anyone who gets moved loses any defensive skills they had up. (Like shieldwall or reposte).

4) Your front line's job is to stay alive and protect the back line. The back line (archers and polearms) are the ones who's job it is to kill. Any damage your frontline guys do is bonus.

5) Get a high damage back-line weapon ASAP. Hunting Bow, Crossbow, Spetum/Pike, any of those. They make a giant difference in how fast you can kill and that translates to fewer injuries/deaths on your end.

6) Early game, don't worry about hording stuff that might be useful later on. If it makes you money now, it's probably worth selling to buy better gear/soldiers. Once you're established you can worry about trophies and the like.

[wereboar]

My two-hander doesn't even have the courtesy to die so I can stop being mad at him.  He's probably gone fifteen attacks in a row without hitting once, all >60% hit chance.

You need to get him Fast Adaptation, man.
I'm not even kidding. I always pick FA for my "temporary" mercs (those who don't have good enough stats to survive until high levels).

Bros with low melee skill (< 60) are better off with spears and shields. Two-handed swords are reliably effective maybe with 80+ melee skill. Chances are you gave your dude a two-hander too soon.
Two-handed axes and hammers are much better early on because they reliably destroy shields.