Advice for skeletons

[Beowulf]

Skeletons are one of the hardest enemys i have come across so far, now i know there are going to be worse enemys farther in the game, however they are a huge pain for me if they come in any group larger then 4 any advice on how to beat them easier?

[The Mighty Mulletman]

Depends. If you're on a relic mission you can run to the edges and flee and still complete the mission. That's more avoiding the issue.

Try pikes, long axes and throwing weapons. Don't bother with bows or crossbows against ancient dead but they do work against zombies. Against zombies bring cleavers and axes to decapitate them and keep them from rising from the dead.

Don't fight geists without warhounds or high resolve brothers and a sargent.

[jfoytek]

So what skeletons are giving you issues??? If its Auxilleries your in trouble as they're one of the easiest mobs you could fight in the game....

If its a Legionary Army with 5+ polearms behind a competent shield wall then I understand some of your issues!

The Legionary's with shields are low priority they dont cause alot of damage, you need to focus on the Polearms... Take them out with 2 Handers or with your own polearms

One Tactic I will employ is to have my flanks stacked with my 2 handers and Polearms and let the 2 handers flank out wide and the polearms stay at the ends of a spear wall....

Let them send themselves at the spear wall while you move your high dps 2 handers around there sides and engage there Polearms.... and slowly crush there flanks with your own polearms... and then collapse around them and encircle them....

If your using shield bro's with swords / hammers you will be having a hard time with this enemy as your just going whif on his shields... if you got spears there accurate enough to do a little damage and also give you the spearwall which does solid damage.... Axes ofcourse can break there shields so there pretty usefull in this fight...

So change your tactics or change your merc's weapons....

[Evolutionsgemüse]

I still use my archers and crossbowmen to break the armor apart a bit. It's not much, but there's nothing else they can do at the beginning.
When melee starts, bring axes to destroy the shields. I usually give my archers and crossbowmen longaxes to reach from the second line. Combined with axe-tanks in the front that should make quick work of any shieldwall.
Next step is finishing the legionaries with the polearms: have your tanks fight them as usual, but jump with your polearm users (who are little protected since they don't have shields) back and forth. Since you know when your guys and when the skelletons act, you can move your polearm users back and forth, hitting the skelletons without getting hit.

Use perks like rotation and this quick foot skill to get your brothers out of danger if they are hit to often.

[gnorf73]

I flank them with 2 bros with greatsword and another guy who's a cleaver duelist. Probably would work better with hammers. I'm working on making a couple hammer bros so I can try that. You need at least 3-4 good tanks (high resolve is extremely important on those I've learned even if they don't break their stats including melee defense gets lowered substantially even if they only pee their pants a little) that can hold the line and tank the shots from their pole arm guys while you work the flanks. If you have any archers just give them pole-axes to crack shields. My tanks also have fighting axes with axe mastery cause their melee skill is horrible and hitting a shield is always 100%.

[Barahur]

Early in the game, use flails. They ignore the basic defense bonus of Ancient Dead shields which are brittle but have good defense values and they all have the Shield Expert perk.

When you have a full band of degenerates later in the game, what messes up the Ancient Dead are 2H Greatswords and 2H Hammers (especially Greatswords). This is due to the Split special attack which can hit the pikemen in the back rank. Shatter, the special attack for the 2H Hammer, if it hits, can knock them around and mess up their shield wall.

[The Duck Knight]

they are a pain in the ellbow ( ) when they are working in formation.
You know? Frontline with shields, backline with pikes. Terrible, the pikes deal tons of damage and the shield-bearers keep them save for too long, right?
Here is a tipp:
Destroy they formation, get their marching order messes up. They are stupid, if you keep the shieldbearer from moving, the pikes will move on.
Use terrain to split the formation or throw some throwing nets to sabotage their tactics.
They won't adapt to that, and stupidly move on.

[happy]

Originally posted by The Duck Knight:

they are a pain in the ellbow (:devilskiss: ) when they are working in formation.
You know? Frontline with shields, backline with pikes. Terrible, the pikes deal tons of damage and the shield-bearers keep them save for too long, right?
Here is a tipp:
Destroy they formation, get their marching order messes up. They are stupid, if you keep the shieldbearer from moving, the pikes will move on.
Use terrain to split the formation or throw some throwing nets to sabotage their tactics.
They won't adapt to that, and stupidly move on.

that's GOOD advice
2 handers is a late game answer, the above works with lvl 1s

[That One Guy]

A valid solution that I sometimes use if I want to minimize important casualties at any part of the game in any battle, is distraction tactics. Any enemy in Battle Brothers seems to enjoy chasing Beggars and Cripples in sack cloth. Pulling part of an enemy's formation away from the whole, at the cost of an expendible unit, can mean the difference between a stunning victory and a disaster.