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[Greenbane]

I was under the impression more expensive recruits were ultimately better than developed cheap ones due to higher starting stats and a higher likelihood of stars in good places. I think I brought it up in the official forums and that's sort of the answer I got, because I was otherwise questioning the purpose of higher character tiers.

Overall, it's just not intuitive. Hiring a very expensive recruit you're mostly buying gear and somewhat higher starting stats, but it can very well be a huge waste of cash. Someone recommended hiring Sellswords at some point, OK, will look into that, but why would I ever recruit a Hedge Knight or a Swordmaster unless I had literal boatloads of coin? For the higher tiers, I need either Tryouts to be more useful, or more guarantees that what I'm goddamn buying is actually worth it.

I'll admit it - the only savescumming I do is when hiring new dudes. It is just too annoying to get a completely useless one.

I've done this about three times in my current playthrough and got three shitty overpriced bros. Reloaded, of course. It's just stupid. Perhaps the "solution" is to take a glance at the gear you see they're carrying, guesstimate how much that goes for, subtract it from the hiring price and try to divine what the result means in actual skill. But that may well mean nothing, too. Why can't we just recruit naked bros? It'd be easier. On the wallet, at least.

Or just have the game clarify how much of the price is gear and how much is man...

Overall, yes, there's a need for more intuitiveness, better UX. I entirely get being abruptly beheaded by an unfortunate roll of dice, that's X-COM baby. But mercs shouldn't be able to BS through the interview like some BSy intern applying for an office job. I would imagine that to hire a fighter your life may well depend on, you'd thoroughly test them, not pay a part of their asking price to check whether they're fat and that's it.

[wereboar]

Here's another objection: recruiting people is still a crapshoot. The Tryout option is underused, only revealing traits (strictly secondary in importance) when it should at least show where the guy has his stars. There's nothing quite like shelling out 3,000 coin for a dude with lackluster stats (for his price) and stars in all the wrong places.

I actually agree with that critique. I've even started a topic on improving the Tryout feature on the official BB forums.

[Mephansteras]

You know, I think a better solution rather than the tryout cost would be if doing a Try-Out took time. Time is very important in this game, so having to take a few hours to properly check someone out might be much better than just spending a little bit of coin to instantly know a little bit about them.

[Greenbane]

Here's another objection: recruiting people is still a crapshoot. The Tryout option is underused, only revealing traits (strictly secondary in importance) when it should at least show where the guy has his stars. There's nothing quite like shelling out 3,000 coin for a dude with lackluster stats (for his price) and stars in all the wrong places.

I actually agree with that critique. I've even started a topic on improving the Tryout feature on the official BB forums.

I found this mod, which technically reveals stars on tryout.

Haven't tested it but there you go.

[Radsoc]

Very good game, just completed a first campaign after 46h of madness. Had just finished the 3 heavy armor task when the crisis ended. Things were still dangerous but they got relatively easy at that point. Now I will have to aim for the legendary company retirement.

Had been harrassed by gobbos a lot, so this was a very unexpected breath of fresh air:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Got severe losses in my first orc encounter. Then vs the Lindwurm (but I got one!), didn't know what to expect, then more than half wiped out with the bounty hunters.
Lost all my original companions, but turns out it's possible to recover.

Some things could be improved though. Sometimes things happen on screen without a forewarning when you have your attention on another part of the screen. I think I lost two people without noticing it that way. You see some blood splatter, but don't know what unit went down. + Once I pressed skip turn twice instead of once and skipped through the guy I wanted to move. Undo wouldn't make sense, but maybe a cancel if you press too fast.

[Knave]

Some things could be improved though. Sometimes things happen on screen without a forewarning when you have your attention on another part of the screen. I think I lost two people without noticing it that way. You see some blood splatter, but don't know what unit went down. + Once I pressed skip turn twice instead of once and skipped through the guy I wanted to move. Undo wouldn't make sense, but maybe a cancel if you press too fast.

It can be a bit sudden sometimes, in the top-left there is a log of combat you can scroll through to see who took/gave damage if you missed something. Would be interesting if they added a toggle to see more damage information right on screen though.

I saw your screenshot and for a second I was like' How did you get 40 dudes??'  before remembering you can travel with Noble House troops and basically be an army.

[Tack]

Oh I recognised those smug hats and tabards instantly.
Wish I had that kind of bankroll

[Greenbane]

Here's another objection: recruiting people is still a crapshoot. The Tryout option is underused, only revealing traits (strictly secondary in importance) when it should at least show where the guy has his stars. There's nothing quite like shelling out 3,000 coin for a dude with lackluster stats (for his price) and stars in all the wrong places.

I actually agree with that critique. I've even started a topic on improving the Tryout feature on the official BB forums.

I found this mod, which technically reveals stars on tryout.

Haven't tested it but there you go.

By the way, with this mod, I found a Historian with 3 stars in Ranged Attack (and 3 in Melee Defense) which I would've never found or hired otherwise. I do think that perhaps with a change in tryouts like this, the cheap background mercs should be somewhat more expensive to examine.

First level up gave a +5 from the rather bad starting stat (40), so we're off to a good start. Give him a few levels and he might become a master hunter!

Plus I've combined his natural background's +15% experience gain with the Student perk. Does that stack as in 15 + 20 (+35%) or is it something like 15 * 1.2 (+18%)? Throw in Arena lessons and he might climb reeeeally quickly.

[Knave]

My understanding is that any XP boosters are a straight stack, so background + student = training boost should get them leveled up fairly quick!

[Greenbane]

Lost a fine level 5 axebro in a tough swampy battle versus brigands and their leader. Poachers are rarer but seem deadlier than ever. There were a bunch of javelins involved, too.

Luckily, the tryouts mods should make replacement more manageable and cut down on the trial and error.

[EuchreJack]

Lost a fine level 5 axebro in a tough swampy battle versus brigands and their leader. Poachers are rarer but seem deadlier than ever. There were a bunch of javelins involved, too.

Luckily, the tryouts mods should make replacement more manageable and cut down on the trial and error.

Ouch, level 5 is the point where the axebros stop being expendable.  At levels 1-3, their lack of shields mean they tend to die more than anyone else.  Level 4 brings the Rotation skill, which can keep them alive a bit more, plus they've started to get some noticeable melee resist going.

[Greenbane]

Ouch, level 5 is the point where the axebros stop being expendable.  At levels 1-3, their lack of shields mean they tend to die more than anyone else.  Level 4 brings the Rotation skill, which can keep them alive a bit more, plus they've started to get some noticeable melee resist going.

It was tough but I decided to take the hit. Try and compensate for reloads in more serious situations (cursed Geists). Sometime something had to cost me.

This guy in particular I believe took javelins and/or the occasional arrow despite his shield, and by the time he was seriously wounded and bleeding, he was stuck in the ZoC of the heavily armoured bandit leader. Too risky to move out. Even though he managed to block a number of further attacks, my men couldn't take out that particular enemy before the axebro bled out. Unfortunately, he didn't get one of those permanent wound saves.

[Tack]

What do the reworked sleepybois do now?

[Majestic7]

Remember to use shieldbash when someone is wounded and in a bad place. I always forget it myself... but it works like an attack version of rotation or light step (or whatever that perk was that lets you slip away from enemies).

[Mephansteras]

Shield bash is an extremely effective skill. It not only moves people (letting you disrupt lines and get people moved in or out of contact) but also cancels Shield Wall, Riposte, and other such abilities.