Building an army

[iFrame]

New to this game, need some tips and tricks on the best way to raise an army.

Its much harder here in Kenshi than in Rimworld.
I'm never short on money, food, supplies etc, but i'm always short on capable warriors.

Pls bare with my rant, kinda frustrated.

The recruitable npcs basically are like newborn babies with extremely crappy stats worse than a stupid baby goat, i find this appalling and a questionable design decision. Gimme a knife and 3 adult goats, i'll show you how its done and i'm a pretty small guy too.
The time and effort investment to train a single warrior to barely decent stats is also ridiculous. I dont really mind this in early game cos well you're building up and teching up but even further into the game, your still stuck with the traditional training methods with insane amounts of micro and crazy long training periods, add to the fact that they're half the time dangerous. Training dummies might as well be removed honestly, besides they lack training dummies for many other more important stats which obviously should be in the gane just higher up the tech, like a bench press to train strength etc. Safe scumming is a godsent here but i dont like playing that way, just like how Rimworld discourages it so you can have the full experience. Also this game encourages cheesing, running to npc town when raided etc. I just find the mechanics broken.

Im enjoying the gane but this part of the gameplay is so broken imo. Would appreciate some englightment on raise an army.

[Kuromiya]

Buy mercs. If you check the bars, you can hire soldiers for 1-3k per day.

Also, you can cheese high-end gear by training a thief and sending him to Black Desert City. The Scraphouse market there stocks weapons up to Edge 3 quality; steal a few of those and your newbies will deal enough damage to give them a chance. And there are mods which add better training dummies, if you want bench press machines etc.

Personally, I'm really enjoying crossbows; my army is specifialized in them, and while I need to micro their deployment for each engagement, a well-positioned line of gunners tears through even the most OP enemy swordsmen.

[RandomDude]

I honestly don't get any new recruits after I build a base unless I haven't put any time into the squad so far.

I usually build the fighters up before starting a base. If i HAD to do it, I'd try and get them trained up on the highest level training dummy before having them fight for real. Having themset to block only and then send them out against weak squads or strong solo fighters would get their defence up fairly quickly (at least to similar levels to attack).

Once you're at the 30/30 mark you just need to have them keep fighting and fighting. More fighting...

Or you can capture strong people, give them a weak weapon and have your weaklings bea on them like other players do.

[Rusted Cake]

Though I am also new to the game I have gotten used to it pretty quickly.

If you hit up different cities you can come across the odd specialist or unique npc. If they are a war vet of any sort they will have decent starter stats. (Usually 20 in all weapons & 20 dex/str)

Ofc there is always mercs for extra muscle, but I prefer my boys get gud aswell, otherwise who will be the muscles's muscle when the bandits come in bulk?

This is a semi slow game, take your time & be brutal. A few lost limbs is better than lost lives due to lack of training & combat. Most recruits may suck, but given time can become legends themselves.

Yes this game is certainly broken I agree, so do not be afraid to patch in some missing features using mods, I don't like modding my games unless it is needed tfor quality improvement. I mod this game.

I also suggest using options to reduce number of raider attacks as they are agreed to be bs on normal. No joke when I say I have had time son normal settings where around 150 raiders would attack in just 2 days after building the first house.

Mods & options are a must tweak.

[iFrame]

I resorted to mass hiring mercs. I have no issue with money, gear, supplies etc. Its just so hard to get a decent army going. Also the unique characters are far and few, mainly use them as a commando squad.
Mid game onwards is a nightmare with enemies having 30-40 stats and huge numbers, those mercs dont stand a chance and you cant train a warrior fast enough to fight that.

[Ensign]

Yep its not perfect or ideal.

This game is great when its modded though. So mod it.
-More training dummies so all stats and skills get as high as 70.
-Recruitable high lvl characters that can speed you to the army building part.
-Indoor industries so you dont have to start a dangerous, often raided outpost for a decent income. Eliminating the need to cheese by following patrols and scavanging.

This game is alot like a bethesda game. People are all over them for thier "amazing" games. But really no one likes fallout or elderscrolls in thier vanilla state. They are popular becuase they are moddable, the mods make the game more feature rich. Kenshi is the same. Its a pretty decent game, but the mods really help fix alot of the annoying parts.

Dont get me wrong im a slow game lover. But here its rediculous. Early game the struggle is fun, but it needs to not bog me down with the same struggle for every 30 members i will recruit. Its not hard, its tedious. So the training dummies mod is great.

[Digstar]

Use recruitable prisoner mod. Simply jail captured hungry bandit or anyone else for that matter and follow the dialogue options available when you talk to them.

[Zee_]

Search out the various unique recruits. Most of them start out with much better skills than the generic bar flies you find everywhere. Others (like Greenfinger) start out with crap combat stats but start with good farming and engineering skills.

Traveling around from city to city will help with general stats and athletics as well, so its a win-win.

[Demonbox]

You can as suggested either using mods (the one to recruit prisoners and the training benches ones are good example) or take your time with the game.

This is a game that likes to be played slowly, rushing to get high level stats, a big army, a town and to the "end content" tends to result in frustration.