how to git gud?

[Noog]

I get owned early in this game, like within the first week, any tips? Not really sure what I should be spending early gold on.

[botlobby]

I would spend early money on buying some wildmen, or farmers. Brawlers are okay I guess. Because they are going to be crap with their melee skill give them all weapons that are easy to use (spear, sword).

Take only 1 star missions, no caravan escorts, and you should be good.

[ANDREW!!!]

Not sure how much help I am as I've only just started as well. But after failing horribly on my first play through, I restarted and am having a bit more success. I found that having half of my front line sword and board and spamming shieldwall with them helps alot. I place a sword and board (tank) every second hex and in between I put a two handed axeman (dps). Then my unprotected dps guys get overlapping shieldwall and so dont die as much. Also get yourself a few guys with long polearms (the ones that have a 2 tile range). Then place them in your second line and stab through your first line without ever being in danger.

Hope that helps. Not sure about what the best skill ups are etc yet.

[Noog]

Originally posted by Vice President Fluffy McSnuggles:

Not sure how much help I am as I've only just started as well. But after failing horribly on my first play through, I restarted and am having a bit more success. I found that having half of my front line sword and board and spamming shieldwall with them helps alot. I place a sword and board (tank) every second hex and in between I put a two handed axeman (dps). Then my unprotected dps guys get overlapping shieldwall and so dont die as much. Also get yourself a few guys with long polearms (the ones that have a 2 tile range). Then place them in your second line and stab through your first line without ever being in danger.

Hope that helps. Not sure about what the best skill ups are etc yet.

oh I thought sheild wall only stacked with adjacent sheilds?

[ANDREW!!!]

Originally posted by WE:

oh I thought sheild wall only stacked with adjacent sheilds?

Hmm I think you may be correct actually

[Noog]

Originally posted by EveryCrime:

I would spend early money on buying some wildmen, or farmers. Brawlers are okay I guess. Because they are going to be crap with their melee skill give them all weapons that are easy to use (spear, sword).

Take only 1 star missions, no caravan escorts, and you should be good.

what about armor though? is it worth it to shell out 500 - 1500 for armor for my best guy(s)

[Froblex]

Originally posted by WE:

what about armor though? is it worth it to shell out 500 - 1500 for armor for my best guy(s)

Nah, not yet. At least I don't bother. Unless you want to really protect someone, it's best to hold off until they have the fatigue to actually handle heavy armour.

The armour you should be aiming for is the reddish one, (I forget it's name now) which gives 80 armour. There's also one with 90 which is very good early on. Then upgrade to the hauberks, and eventually heavier armour when fatigue is high.

But, you may find other things work for you. That's the beauty of this game, everyone has different ideas and there's no single path to success. Experiment, and fail, and keep trying until you find what works for your play style. (I've been playing this game for ages and I'm still firing brothers and building guys in different ways, because I find I'm not using certain skills. I built my current team with a lot of guys with "adrenaline" but now they've all got the best armour and weapons, I never use it. So it was a wasted perk.)

And yes, the shield wall buff only applies to an adjacent brother who is also using the shield wall skill.

The tactic of having two handed guys flanked by protecting comrades can absolutely work with spear wall though. But I find it better to have everyone with a sword and shield, all using spear wall, the enemies just bounce off your wall and take damage constantly. If they break through you switch out weapons and pull out the two handed heavy hitters, or use shield bash and get the spears back up. Rinse and repeat.

Don't neglect archers. I have 3 at all times, and because all my other guys are sword and board fighters (who all have an alternative to switch to) my archers double up as two handers with poleaxes. If they run out of arrows or things get dangerous, they can switch to the axes and help out from the second rank.

Basically, "Quick Hands" is a perk I would really say every single brother should have. Packing shields and spears for spear walls is a must, so being able to change weapons every turn is absolutely critical.

[Teut]

Originally posted by WE:

Originally posted by EveryCrime:

I would spend early money on buying some wildmen, or farmers. Brawlers are okay I guess. Because they are going to be crap with their melee skill give them all weapons that are easy to use (spear, sword).

Take only 1 star missions, no caravan escorts, and you should be good.

what about armor though? is it worth it to shell out 500 - 1500 for armor for my best guy(s)

I think the first armor you should BUY is the Mail Hauberk wich should cost between 1000 and 1500 and has an excellent protection to fatigue value.
You can get by with the helmets you loot for a longer time, they should have around 140 protection for the beginning of the game.

I also wouldn't bother with 2handed brothers until they have better armor, they tend to be very squishy in mail shirts.
Spears (20%) and swords (10%) have a hitchance bonus, good for brothers with low melee attack, axes can split shields and maces can stun opponents.
I'd say the first couple of weeks at least half your frontline should be spears, so you can build spear walls.

Good luck!

[Pringles™]

Is Worn Chainmail still a part of this game? If so (and if it isnt changed), it has a very efficient armor/fatigue rating in the game, despite being worn and kind of brown looking. Its not the broken version of the chainmail, but the other, rusty version, with some leather parts. Its a very good early game armor, and I would recommend getting it for all guys that have over half their maximum fatigue still available after putting it on.
Armor will be the death of you if your men cant do at least six consequent attacks/actions after engaging with it. Otherwise they turn into relatively durable, squealing punching bags. But its possible to make it out, even on very hard difficulties. Gud lak.

[WarWise]

Play the game a lot, and learn through your mistakes.

Learning is half the fun of the game. Dont ask for a lot of information elsewhere, learn by yourself.

Losing is fun.

[Zlodey]

Reserve part of the team as designated cannon fodder. It is easier to pull difficult battles, when you have sacrificial pawns and calcalmly lose them. Shield&wepon is usualy enough for cheap guys to last for couple of rounds. Also it hels to cycle recruits until you find ones with cool talents and stats.
Population of beggars, cripples and other bottom feeders sure went down in my game.

[Pringles™]

Originally posted by Zlodey:

Reserve part of the team as designated cannon fodder. It is easier to pull difficult battles, when you have sacrificial pawns and calcalmly lose them. Shield&wepon is usualy enough for cheap guys to last for couple of rounds. Also it hels to cycle recruits until you find ones with cool talents and stats.
Population of beggars, cripples and other bottom feeders sure went down in my game.

Be careful when taking losses near others, though. It can drop the morale of your friends.
Since you cant put a "designated bait" shirt on your guys, your team may get second thoughts about engaging if they see the bait get ripped to shreds :D

[titanopteryx]

I was trying combining a front line spear wall with the perks that cause injuries to be inflicted more easily and morale checks to happen every time the enemy is hit. Regarding getting gear, and this is a ♥♥♥♥ thing to do, you can follow around militia until they get into a fight, join the fight, and loot the gear off any militia members that get killed or any enemies you kill while they're distracted by the militia.

One thing you can do early on is buy trade goods from villages and sell them at cities. This will allow you to make extra money while not causing the enemy groups to become larger with higher level guys too fast. They grow larger with higher level guys as you complete missions and win fights.

[Muscarine]

Here, a guide on how to gitgud like a Slav :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etpv-GM4exw

[cool man]

Originally posted by Muscarine:

Here, a guide on how to gitgud like a Slav :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etpv-GM4exw

does it cover slav squatting?

[ElDuderino]

New early game strategy I've discovered on my latest restart. Don't sell those knives and daggers you pick up early. Instead, equip them in a belt slot. Find bandit parties with a couple raiders. Pick one out and save him for last. Surround him, switch to your pokey things and spam puncture attack. Since armor isn't damaged it's a gauranteed loot drop. Great way to get quality chain shirts when you should only be able to afford leather.

I started doing this for good RPG lolz, but it works and it's alot of fun!