Mercenary Band Composition

[Adonia50]

I can't seem to find many good guides about mercenary band makeup. After restarting several times, I want to have a good solid band.

What do you guys use for your band, from starting off, to when you expand to 8+ companions? How do you develop and equip those companions?

(Btw i understand the mechanics of converting prisoners, etc)

Any advice appreciated

[Robin of Spiritwood]

Band composition is highly individual, you get to build as you prefer.

Generally you need to fill a couple roles-
1) The Tank
At least ONE tank is highly advisable, preferably shielded, and in heavy armour. Any class can work. You could go all-Tank and do well.

2) The Artillery
Ranged support fire is optional, but an Infantryman Archer gets 5 shots/round when fully developed, and this can lay waste to an enemy squad. Another version of this is the Ranger-Poisoner which can use a poison bomb to hit multiple enemies, and run away. A Spearman-Harpooner can fill a similar role. You can improvise "artillery" with any soldier carrying bomblets.

3) The Melee DPS
AOE attacking melee is efficient at spreading wide arcs of damage to the enemy team. Warrior-Executioners excel at this. Spearman-Halberdiers are good too. You can get very good results from Charge-based running assaulters, which are weapon skill dependent Swordsmen, or Vanguard Brutes.

4) Single target Killers
Exceptionally good at wiping out a single enemy: Ranger variants like Assassin/Cutthroat, Riposte-Swordsman/Fighters, Brute/Destroyers.

[zAcEz]

It really depends on your play style, but in general you'll want to have a balance of tanks, dealers & support.
Early game, using 1H & shield is more effective to reduce the amount of damage you are taking on your melee units.
Since the game always spreads out the turn order, there will be times where your unit is just sitting there taking damage.

For me, my focus was looking for the desired traits on my units.
Bloodthirsty, Strong/Nimble & Solitary are my priority picks for my combat units
Cooperative instead of Solitary for Spearmen & Archers.
Other positive traits are acceptable if I really needed to fill the role, but no negative traits.

I look for Hardworking, Stocky & Brawny on slaves for production.
As my team grew bigger, I added Warriors for AOE kills since the enemy packs also grew in adaptive.

Im not a fan of DOT damage so I ignore those builds

I started with Swordsman, Brute, Ranger & Archer

My party grew like this:
1. Swordsman - Tank
2. Brute - Melee Dealer
3. Ranger - Melee Finisher
4. Archer - Range Dealer
5. Ranger - Support
6. Swordsman - Melee Dealer
7. Spearman - Support / Range Dealer
8. Archer - Range Dealer
9. Bear - Tank
10. Bear - Tank
11. Wrongdoer - Support / Tank
12. Archer - Support
13. Spearman - Support / Range Dealer
14. Warrior - AOE Dealer
15. Warrior - AOE Dealer
16. Warrior - AOE Dealer

[DART VON FABLE]

One Tank (i like brute)
One archer
Two Melee DPS (i like Master Swordman and dagger rogue)
One support (Maybe lancer to move enemies)

No more.

[Gregorovitch]

In EA I considered spearmen as very good because then Spearwall cost 1VP. Now it costs 2VP and is unaffordable except in fairly rare specific situations. However they are still useful in defensive roles occasionally and also for VP farming during battle.

All the other classes, the melee sub-classes, rangers and archers are now the strongest IMHO and of those three I'd say by far the most effective in battle are the archers and the 1H melee.

For melee you def want to have an even spread of mace (which included hammers), axe and sword because you will get an even spread of legendary weapons of each type as the game progresses and you will want to make use of them.

I prefer 1H melee over 2H 'cos a) shields afford useful extra armour and guard, b) it is infinitely better to kill one enemy outright there and then than to merely damage two or three and c) I've found towards the end of the game the 1H seem to kill more enemies per turn than a 2H can damage anyway. YMMV.

With Archers you have a difficult choice between a Barrage archer and a Recoil Shot archer. Barrage is very useful indeed for tackling rats nests and certain other situations but I found it's usefulness drop off especially as it costs 2VP and has no certainly of delivering kills. I prefer Recoil Shot archers as they get two shots per turn and almost invariably get at least one kill per turn, later game very often two kills per turn.

For rangers I prefer backstabbers. A poisoned enemy can do just as much damage to you as a perfectly healthy one and poison doesn't kick until the end of their turns. I prefer one dead enemy to two or three poisoned ones since they can't hurt you.

My team at the end of my release run was:

1 x 1H mace
2 x 1H axe
1 x 1H sword
1 x 2H sword
2 x spear
2 x ranger (backstab build)
1 x archer (Barrage build)
2 x archer (Recoil Shot build)

This group was able to roflstomp enemy groups of 18+ with reinforcements incoming easily by level 12. The heavy lifting was done by the 1H melee and the two Recoil Shot archers. The other essentially mopped up most of the time.

I started with the two spearman option on account of my EA experience. A mistake I'd say I would not do that for choice now. I would start with two 1H melee and two archers if I could, can't remember what the options are exactly.

[Gregorovitch]

Originally posted by DART:

One Tank (i like brute)
One archer
Two Melee DPS (i like Master Swordman and dagger rogue)
One support (Maybe lancer to move enemies)

No more.

That's not going to get you very far in Region Locked mode.

[Stardustfire]

its still a miracle how many ppl get DPS (Damage Per Second) in a Turn based combat....
Hyperfastclicker so it flows like a RTS?

[=]

A good composition really depends on the weapons you find and your own preferences.

My own preferred strategy is to wipe out opposition before they can really strike back so I maximise damage. This does mean that DoT builds aren't very useful but they still have their place against bosses.

I only have 1 main tank, a brute with the weapon that doubles his guard. He can tank extremely well as he usually has 80% guard and heavy armour, his only real weakness is being attacked from behind. His damage output is awful though so he just stands somewhere getting hit by something scary.

My main damage dealers are cutthroat rangers as their damage output can be extreme. They can one shot lightly armoured enemies with their basic attack and they can kill nearly anything (that isn't a bear or a boss) in a single turn with their full attacks behind an enemy, especially once they hit level 8.

Spearmen are still very useful, they aren't as good at shutting down enemy movement but they are extremely good at generating passive valour points and they make solid support tanks, just don't use crafted spears with them as they break engagements. I also quite like Harpooners but they are quite situational.

Executioner axemen are the best AOE class in the game (IMO at least) as their class special attack is 360 and they can killed 3-4 enemies a turn if you can get them into groups of enemies.

Archers are weak early game but once they get good bows they can become quite useful, especially against hordes or weak enemies like plague rats. They are also good at generating passive valour points.

I have found that animals are all extremely disappointing. You need to either give each one a specific collar or give up a perk point from one of your archers to actually be able to control them in combat but they don't actually do anything useful, they don't even generate valour points for you. They are also a liability against anything with the plague as they don't wear armour, nearly everything that attacks them will infect them.

I am currently using 1 Brute tank, 2 off tanks (1 with axes and 1 with swords), 4 cut throat rangers, 2 archers (with the overwatch attack), 1 each of the 2 handed AOE classes, 3 spearmen, 1 harpooner and one bear (who I just use to tank).

I give everyone with a 1 handed weapon (except my main tank) a basic torch. This gives you an additional weak AOE attack for free each round that can set enemies on fire (and you if the burning enemy engages you). I find that the extra 20-30 damage is often enough to finish off a wounded enemy or drop them below 50% health to trigger the wrath ability.

[zaphod]

Originally posted by =:

...I give everyone with a 1 handed weapon (except my main tank) a basic torch. This gives you an additional weak AOE attack for free each round that can set enemies on fire (and you if the burning enemy engages you). I find that the extra 20-30 damage is often enough to finish off a wounded enemy or drop them below 50% health to trigger the wrath ability.

Have you tried replacing the torch with, for example, a hand bomblet?...you will lose the unpleasant property of setting yourself on fire. DoT remains, only instead of fire (15%) you have bleeding (20%), less Crit. Hit but more variability with the "second weapon"

[Rex]

Brute (Vanguard) with Wrath and his upgraded special ability (grants extra movement and brutality) will bulldoze multiple units in a single turn. Warriors (Berserker) with their upgraded special ability (ignores Guard) and the class upgrade Recklessness (first attack does double damage) can one shot even the most heavily armored units at the beginning of a battle. Just a few ideas.

[DarkDescent]

Originally posted by zaphod:

Originally posted by =:

...I give everyone with a 1 handed weapon (except my main tank) a basic torch. This gives you an additional weak AOE attack for free each round that can set enemies on fire (and you if the burning enemy engages you). I find that the extra 20-30 damage is often enough to finish off a wounded enemy or drop them below 50% health to trigger the wrath ability.

Have you tried replacing the torch with, for example, a hand bomblet?...you will lose the unpleasant property of setting yourself on fire. DoT remains, only instead of fire (15%) you have bleeding (20%), less Crit. Hit but more variability with the "second weapon"

I find out that Bleeding is extremely useful! Better against high HP units. The only sad part is that it doesn't stack. But poison solves this issue.

Harpoonmen are a reliable source of slight Ranged bleeding early on.

[Spawnling]

Originally posted by DarkDescent:

Originally posted by zaphod:

Have you tried replacing the torch with, for example, a hand bomblet?...you will lose the unpleasant property of setting yourself on fire. DoT remains, only instead of fire (15%) you have bleeding (20%), less Crit. Hit but more variability with the "second weapon"

I find out that Bleeding is extremely useful! Better against high HP units. The only sad part is that it doesn't stack. But poison solves this issue.

Harpoonmen are a reliable source of slight Ranged bleeding early on.

Bleeding Oil? It can be found in Drombach, the Purifier Adelheid between Mount Ernes & Hulburg sell it. The Purifiers in Grinmeer also sell it, which can be aquired rather early.
With concentrate it has 50% to proc bleeding damage when you hit a bleeding enemy.
Fun times with something like Officer's Pilum (legion), which attacks 4 times... ^^

Edit: The Aim skill doubles the range of ranged attackts. Harpooneers throw is considered a ranged attack, was well as the throwing weapons that lie around on the battlefield.