How soon do you guys try to get 12 men up?

[Lampros]

As in have a full squad? 15 days into the game? Early? Later?

[Lampros]

Bump! :(

[Stübi Senpai]

Immediately. Early game is the "warm bodies" phase. Hire a bunch of guys that only cost between 100-300, give them basic weaponry, and start doing contracts and hunting Brigands. I usually have 12 guys up before Day 5.

Once you get gear, dress the guys that actually survived and got levels up, while hiring more dudes as "meat".

You won't start assembling your actual bros until a few dozen days in, when you can afford to start hiring higher quality Bros, like Militia, Hunters and such.

[Sai Kyouji]

by the 3rd or 4th battle

[Kernest]

About 1-2 days after I pick up the ambition to get to 12 bros.

[Lampros]

Got it; so I wasn't doing it wrong. Thanks!

[UnluckyNoob]

I'd recommend recruiting 9 at day one if possible(i.e. there are enough cheap recruits available) and 12 as soon as you get some armors/weapons/ambition.
Hiring too many ASAP will lead to hard battles and require some tactical skill (which is rare now with all those nimble builds).

If battles like below are OK for you, hire 12 at day 1. If no, hire ~9.

Day 3: 7 auxiliaries * quest:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1584760870
Day 5: 9 brigands including marksman and some raiders:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1584761195
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1585179591
Day 8: * or ** "return" quest, brigands with some raiders and necromancer:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1585179651

[Tephros83]

Originally posted by Lampros:

As in have a full squad? 15 days into the game? Early? Later?

I do it fairly organically... meaning I start with 6 or 7, and then consider adding guys as I get raider equipment to give them, but wouldn't keep a guy above 8 or so unless I thought he was above average and worth training - unless I have injuries and he makes the difference between working and not working. Similar for above 12, I end up breaking 12 with injuries, usually. And then by day 80+ or so I am at 19 almost the whole game, hiring people and making the painful decision of who to fire if he's better than my worst guy.

[turtle225]

Originally posted by Tephros83:

I do it fairly organically... meaning I start with 6 or 7, and then consider adding guys as I get raider equipment to give them, but wouldn't keep a guy above 8 or so unless I thought he was above average and worth training - unless I have injuries and he makes the difference between working and not working. Similar for above 12, I end up breaking 12 with injuries, usually. And then by day 80+ or so I am at 19 almost the whole game, hiring people and making the painful decision of who to fire if he's better than my worst guy.

Oh good, I was beginning to suspect nobody would agree with me here. This is exactly how I run it.

12 guys by day 5 sounds like madness to me. That's just asking for tough battles that are going to get level 1 clowns in 30/30 armor killed. Rather than waste my money hiring fodder units to die I'd rather spend my money on gear and armor to keep people breathing.

For the 12 man ambition I hire a bunch of scrubs and then immediately fire them. Rushing to 12 guys makes the game harder if you can't outfit them. 30/30 armor will not cut it.

[jfoytek]

it depends on the cost of your 12 men...

If there all beggar's thats 48 gold upkeep

but if your running 12 companion or better guys thats 120 gold upkeep and the game will start to scale differently

you will see larger battles etc and maybe you may want to stick with 8 men to get some xp first... or if your happy with cheep mercs then grab those 12 men asap and get the ambition done...

[Drathnar1]

I don't think there's a right or wrong way to go about it. I've seen players doing well either way.

Some players are comfortable with more men and like to have some battlefield fodder as buffers. As contract spawned enemy forces scale directly with roster strength, getting 12 men soon tends to result in larger scale battles, but it's not necessarily a bad thing as you then tend to get gear faster (provided the battles go well). While XP awards as a whole are increased per battle, splitting XP with recruits not suitable for late game tends to "waste" a good portion of it and early cheap recruits mostly tend to have poor stats.

Others prefer to recruit more gradually which keeps daily upkeep low and prevents spikes in difficulty. The gradual increase allows for more selective hiring, especially with late recruits, but gear drops may be less than that of a 12-men roster.

I'd like to think 6-8 is a fair number for the first 10 days or so (you'll need at least 6 for Hoggart anyway), expanding to 10-11 at the end of the next 10 days and getting the last recruits a little later. It's largely based on personal preference, the quality of the hired men and of course financial status.

[uni2]

10 - 15 days to reach 12 men is legit

[Thirty-O-Six]

Originally posted by Lampros:

As in have a full squad? 15 days into the game? Early? Later?

I usually start with 6 for the first 5 days or so. I continually look to hire after that. In my current play through I’m at 7 and it’s day 20. I might do it very differently than most but i try to look for only genuine recruits or backgrounds that have unique advantages long term (caravan hand, historian, thief etc). I wil occationally hire fodder but try not to do this aggressivly as the moral mechanic could easily plague my troops early game (cheap meat dies and causes another brother to flee). I don’t feel rushed to make my squad have a certain number. The game scales really well and if your really careful about the battles you choose you should be just fine sub 12 guys for a long time.

[Primitive Dog Owner]

Last game I had 14 guys by day 12 and I had fired 2-3 more, this was on Expert Combat, Easy economy

This resulted in a 2 skull contract for 760 gp on day 12 which had "many raiders" and a brigand leader

I daggered him down losing one guy who was designated as fodder

It's not necessarily a bad thing to speed up enemy progression, but you have to avoid some fights, like too early marksmen

[BrowneHawk]

I decided to stay under 12 all the way up till day 60. Mainly because I was getting bad rolls on on the 12 men ambition. Also was trying it out because I noticed the AI merc companies were all 8 men. SO figured if they can hang I can hang.

The battle scale is a thing. I didn't get a fight of over 12 enemies untill I finally grabbed 12 men. Got stuck on the kill 12 enemies ambition for quite awhile because of it.

When I do another play. WIll definatley revert back to just grabbing some warm bodies. 12 crappy cheap guys cost just as much as one really good toon. They can all die quick.

[Sai Kyouji]

Originally posted by BrowneHawk:

I decided to stay under 12 all the way up till day 60. Mainly because I was getting bad rolls on on the 12 men ambition. Also was trying it out because I noticed the AI merc companies were all 8 men. SO figured if they can hang I can hang.

The battle scale is a thing. I didn't get a fight of over 12 enemies untill I finally grabbed 12 men. Got stuck on the kill 12 enemies ambition for quite awhile because of it.

When I do another play. WIll definatley revert back to just grabbing some warm bodies. 12 crappy cheap guys cost just as much as one really good toon. They can all die quick.

Not a bad choice actually, your men get more experience spreaded out that way.