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[Man of Paper]

Don't knock skulls down wells then.

Also take this as you will, but I absolutely hate everyone involved in Battle Brothers. I got Sniper Elite 4 two days ago, my lady's getting me Ghost Recon when it comes out for my birthday, and I'm addicted to XCOM and must play it at least a little every day. How the hell am I supposed to fit all that gaming in on top of testing out this new update? Especially when I'm stuck playing for hours on end every time I start the damn thing up?

The absolute worst people on the planet.

[ThtblovesDF]

Releasing a dog while ending the combat turn at the same time (f) can result in a lock, i.e. the dog not doing anything and the game waiting for the dog to do something.

[Tack]

ancient dead

Yeah it is getting a tad old that every time I disturb a tomb, my men are surprised by the maps and paraphernalia, and every time everyone is surprised at Me being referred to as "The false king"

Somehow it seems to rub me wrong, like the whole map is dotted with roman-era ruins which have apparently never been disturbed (or never been perturbed by that disturbance); and you are the First Ever Person to survive contact with these skeletal hoplites.

I'm likely the only one but I'd enjoy some mention of there being "stories about" etc

[Neonivek]

ancient dead

Yeah it is getting a tad old that every time I disturb a tomb, my men are surprised by the maps and paraphernalia, and every time everyone is surprised at Me being referred to as "The false king"

Somehow it seems to rub me wrong, like the whole map is dotted with roman-era ruins which have apparently never been disturbed (or never been perturbed by that disturbance); and you are the First Ever Person to survive contact with these skeletal hoplites.

I'm likely the only one but I'd enjoy some mention of there being "stories about" etc

Well... history wise I know roman ruins can be found even in Albion/Britain.

I am not sure the romans ever QUITE made it as high as the norse.

Though what I love about fiction versus history is...

Fiction wise they depict the Albion people as being so fierce and barbaricly potent that they pushed the Romans back.

History wise if I remember correctly... it was more that it was FAR outside their territory, the terrain sucked, and the people weren't valuable... so they just never really bothered all that much. They were basically Sweden.

[Tack]

... which runs kind of tangential to the point that in This fiction

1. there is a bundle of crypts and ruins
2. There is a bundle of things people want inside those ruins
3. There is a bundle of mercenary companies who are better than you.

Leaving one of two conclusions

1. Nobody ever mentions the ancient dead even though they are a common occurrence and are often seen as guardians of crypts or building random forts in the middle of the wilderness in preperation of their emperor
Or
2. YOU and you alone are "The false king" because your face looks similar or something and none of these revenant soldiers have ever risen up before.


Maybe I'm reading into it way too much.

On a positive note: huge fan of the new nachrezers. Fought 14 on the easiest difficulty and lost no less than 2 men.
Their unique mechanics cause a strat change (defending bodies/pinning down retreating greedyguts), and are powerful and fearsome without being blatantly anti-fun.

[Greenbane]

I'm not sure if you, the company captain, are the alleged "false king". But it is fairly clear the Ancient Dead have some kind of personal beef with you.

I've only encountered them a few times, just Ancient Auxiliaries, so I can't add much to what you've already inferred from the encounters. Haven't faced the related endgame crisis yet, if I'm supposed to on my current game (picked a random crisis).

But it is rather weird that nobody knows about them. Perhaps they only started rising very recently, in the game's time? I remember reading something to that effect on one of the dev diaries. And as for people not knowing about the ancient empire, well, you have to consider this is a medieval context and proper education is likely reserved to the aristocracy, at best. I don't think you'd have gotten much more than a puzzled look from the average medieval commoner if you had asked them about the Roman Empire.

[a1s]

I have to say, I don't really buy bandits randomly attacking a mercenary platoon*, unless they've grown suicidal, from hunger or too much schnapps. It's like trying to carjack a cop, or mug a squad of GIs on patrol.


(*) yeah... it's not a company if you have 20 men, and only 12 fight. it might even be a section. 

[Man of Paper]

@a1s: First step to arming up is fighting someone with better stuff, so I figure they're doing the same thing. I mean, chances are you're either poorly equipped, making you an easy target, or you have a good bit of gold/are kitted up, making you a juicy target. Since I have seen many a bandit pack keep their distance from me, I figure it's accurate.

On the Ancient Dead discussion:
-@Greensbane: I figure you're right about the rising recently thing. They're Ancient, but still functional, so perhaps they haven't been utilizing their remains too much.
-@Tack: Given how prolific death is off of the roads, I don't think a metric asston of unmolested sites is too far out there. On the topic of their commonality and the fact nobody mentions them, perhaps you and your men are able to survive only because of the fact that you are presumed to be the [SPOILER], and those other, "better", companies, fell because they didn't have that, ah, protection. I dunno how the crisis goes, but I feel like a self-fulfilling prophesy kind of thing falls in line with the feel of the game, at least in that case.


And to be fair, most of what I do when I play games is rationalize through headcannon, so I tend to come up with excuses for things that shouldn't be (not saying anything mentioned above is unintentional). I like having an excuse to share my thoughts once in a while.

[a1s]

Spoiler: presumably a bug (click to show/hide)

The text implies I got a raise, but the amount did not change. One of those is probably a bug.

[stabbymcstabstab]

On the Ancient Dead discussion:
-@Greensbane: I figure you're right about the rising recently thing. They're Ancient, but still functional, so perhaps they haven't been utilizing their remains too much.
-@Tack: Given how prolific death is off of the roads, I don't think a metric asston of unmolested sites is too far out there. On the topic of their commonality and the fact nobody mentions them, perhaps you and your men are able to survive only because of the fact that you are presumed to be the [SPOILER], and those other, "better", companies, fell because they didn't have that, ah, protection. I dunno how the crisis goes, but I feel like a self-fulfilling prophesy kind of thing falls in line with the feel of the game, at least in that case.


And to be fair, most of what I do when I play games is rationalize through headcannon, so I tend to come up with excuses for things that shouldn't be (not saying anything mentioned above is unintentional). I like having an excuse to share my thoughts once in a while.

Also remember that undead are things that are known to exist and are pretty common, so grave robbing isn't probably that common outside of large, armed, and/or desperate groups like a bandits and mercs. That and direwolves, orcs, goblins, bandits, what every else gets added, etc people probably stay in town or on well mapped and patrolled roads.

[Tack]

(Cool profile pic btw)

Bug #3- The 'Return merchant to X village' sidequest (Which I got after a greenskin raiding mission) has some minor breaks with game text and also a quest coin which doesn't disappear after the completion of the quest.

[Neonivek]

Are throwing weapons even worth the investment?

They EAAAAAT ammo and essentially cost many times more then bows end up doing... for an effect that isn't an improvement over bows or crossbows.

[Greenbane]

Day 57

Still Veteran. Things have gotten quite tough. After quickly completing two easy ambitions (name a Sergeant and getting recognized by the noble houses), the following ones turned out quite hard. There's one which has you accrue 10,000 crowns in two weeks, which I couldn't complete as that involves doing 8+ hard contracts (assuming bounties of 1200-1400) with minimal expenses (little more than tools, medicine and food), which means pulling off all these difficult battles near-perfectly and finding all those jobs in record time.

I picked another ambition after failing the aforementioned one, which entailed procuring three sets of heavy armour. What the blurb didn't tell me was that it meant suits and helmets with a minimum of 240 durability each. Suits of armour like that cost over 5,000 crowns each, and the helmets aren't significantly cheaper. This entails coming up with about 30,000 crowns, which I don't see feasible in, again, two weeks with a mid-range company (very similar to my earlier description) without a frankly impossible amount of perfectly accomplished missions if you don't already have over half the ambition's requirement by the time you pick the objective.

I can complete two-skull contracts which net me over 1,000 crowns, but they come with a real risk of losing someone experienced, and at the very least I end up with wounds to heal and a pile of broken armour to mend, both of which cost time and money.

There's something off here. On the one hand, I'm not sure every ambition needs a time limit. On the other, these are clearly endgame objectives, and perhaps the player shouldn't have these (tenuously explained) options before a certain level of experience.

At this point I feel I'm breaking even. I had a brief period of time in which I was seemingly ahead of the curve, with money to spare and battles winnable without too much friendly blood spilled. But now I'm at Reputable (1575) renown and while contracts are generally lucrative, they're quite dangerous and not unlikely to set me back if I lose a skilled fighter. Losing someone, especially someone from the first line, often means losing their expensive armour, presumably unless they were decapitated, the financially merciful alternative, before their suit was destroyed.

And that brings me to the subject of recruits. They tend to be quite decent, but inevitably level 1. More experienced recruits are ludicrously more expensive (both to hire and maintain) compared to a brother raised in battle from his green beginnings. So I often have to get those level 1s and forge them myself in an increasingly brutal world.

And that leads me to the matter of renown, which seems to be the root of many things. The world inexorably gets harder as your company progresses, and that's fine, but perhaps there should be more variables at play controlling the strength of the enemies. There could be a company power level of sorts scaling enemy difficulty, for instance, which could take into account the quality of your gear and experience of your men.

Perhaps more sensibly, instead of rubber-banding enemy strength around the player company's, just don't get rid of low-level jobs as the game progresses. Renown would grant you access to tougher, more lucrative missions, but maybe as a player I should always have the option to take a few milk runs and play it safe for a while. You could make it so taking "underpowered" jobs for your company doesn't earn you nearly as much renown nor relations with the parent town/house, and perhaps eventually your renown would start to decay.

That may or may not be exploitable by the grind-minded, but I suppose what I'm worried about is having a significant loss in the context of an ever-rising renown and threat level. What'd happen then? Would the world rather jarringly rubber-band back to allow me to compete having lost, say, 3-4 experienced fighters? I had that almost happen when almost half my company broke in the middle of an exhausting battle with the Ancient Dead (14 auxiliaries). And what'd happen if I remain stuck in this break-even phase, raising brothers but eventually losing them, and the endgame crisis comes around?

I don't know, maybe I need more practice, or need to learn to do some things better, calculate my risks more carefully. But I'm throwing my experience out there so you guys can review it and determine whether to make changes in some of these areas.

Here's my current company, with the new Sergeant highlighted. Previous one was the big axe wielder, recently cut down by the last orc of a contingent, which was moments away from being slain itself. Murphy's Law strikes hard at times.

Are throwing weapons even worth the investment?

They EAAAAAT ammo and essentially cost many times more then bows end up doing... for an effect that isn't an improvement over bows or crossbows.

I've had quite a bit of success with them, and they "reload" once the battle's over, so I'd say they're well worth the investment. Javelins at least: throwing axes are technically better against armour, but I was otherwise unimpressed by their stats.

[Neonivek]

I know they reload. Though they cost 3 ammo a throw.

A lot of the enemies are kind of cheap in a lot of respects... in that they don't have to deal with the same limitations your units do... like ammo some of the time (to admit... MAYBE they have three backpack slots of ammo / throwing stuff... THEN FREEKEN AGAIN!!! Why is it that you are the only ones who have to pay for your choices?)

[Tack]

I like throwing axes because 1: They're lighter than javelins and 2: They hurt skeletons and shields more.

Fought my first orc warrior post patch (Okay, five and a warlord and six young) and Wow I am still impressed by the difficulty curve on this game. Lv8 and my guys are still having a tough sell.

Also re: Day 57 - You have seperate sergeant and bannerman? I figure if someone has high enough resolve to carry the banner, they're usually the ones to get rally as well.


Edit: Huh. First time I've ever used the warbrand. It's 4AP per swing. Actually has better DPT than a greatsword.