Pros and cons for 6 bros vs 12?

[AH-1 Cobra]

Obviously increased costs, but I also heard that enemy difficulty goes up with more bros?

I'm at like day 40 something. When should I start getting more bros? I currently got 6. However, if I had 12 bros to pay/feed/equip, there is no way I could afford the expenses, and I'd be operating at a constant loss.

I read one of the guides about making money early, but its too vague, and I need specifics. For example, I bought a crap ton of amber at below value in a town, but I can't find anywhere to unload it for a decent profit. Even went to villages with ambushed trade routes, and the amount I'd make is chump change. We're talking like 20 gold per amber, which isn't enough to cover the operating costs moving between the 2 locations. Specifics on this, please.

[suejak]

There's no consensus on this. 6 bros will lower average enemy difficulty but 12 bros offer much greater tactical flexibility for handling problems, especially your favourite: RNG.

Think about it. If you only have 6 guys and each guy has 2 swings per turn at max, then you have much less robustness to RNG. 12 bros also means a lot more weapons with a lot more functions and a lot more tools per turn to handle problems. 6 bros won't have that flexibility, as you may only have a couple weapon types and if they miss, well, you're boned.

You don't need 12 bros to be successful so you should only buy those you can equip properly and pay for. An extra guy in rags will only be a burden. The game is a balancing act of economy and combat success.

Regarding your edit on trade stuff, in general you want to buy in small villages and sell in big cities. Better relations will improve prices. There's a lot to say on this topic but that's the gist.

Trade goods alone will rarely make bank but every little edge helps. Buying cheap lumber and selling to a town that's reconstructing will make good money, for example.

[AH-1 Cobra]

What's a good default spread for 12 bros?

I'll divide (maybe shoehorn) bros into specific roles, just for clarification.

- Shield + spear (or mace) AKA tank bros
- 2h polearm bros AKA berserker bros.
- Ranged AKA sniper bros.
- Sargent

I'm thinking 4 tank bros, minimum.
I'm thinking 4 berserker bros, minimum.
1 or 2 sargents?
The rest would be snipers.

Recommend me a hypothetical 12 based on the above, or tell me something I should be using that's not included.

[suejak]

There's no easy answer for that either and it depends on what you're fighting, what weapons you have (including their tier), as well as what your bros are good at.

If you're fighting thugs, I think shields with spears and swords will work fine in virtually every fight. Your priority is to maximize hit chance because one or two hits will be enough to kill virtually any thug.

Against raiders, it's more complicated but I think there are a few key weapons: maces, flails, spears, archers, polearms, and DPS 2-handers. You can also throw in a shield guy whose job is just to be really good with a shield, if you have one of those.

Against raiders without hats, the secondary attack on flails can one-shot if double-gripped or otherwise do massive damage even if used with a shield. I'd go with at least 2 flail guys.

Maces are key for their stun against high-DPS targets. Stunning a guy, especially 2-handed users, opens him up to focus fire from your side. I'd go with at least 2 mace guys.

Spears w/ spearwall help control the battlefield and can be great for, e.g., keeping guys off your archers or protecting vulnerable flanks. I'd go with at least 2 spear guys.

1 sergeant is usually fine.

2-3 archers is a good target.

Polearms are good both for raw DPS and the stagger effect of certain poke/pull attacks. You can potentially knock a guy to the end of the turn order and lower his initiative in the next turn. Check the tooltip to see if an attack does stagger or not. Depends on your equipment but 1-2 polearm guys are usually useful.

Some of these can be swapped out for powerful 2-handed weapons, even early game, but this is a bit risky and may require more familiarity with the systems. The goedendag, for example, does massive damage AND gives +20% to hit just like spears, so you can throw that on almost any old disposable cripple for high potential payback.

There's a lot more to say but those are my general thoughts.

[AH-1 Cobra]

How do I get towns to reroll the hires?

I had to travel around the whole map, and do a crapton of save scumming, just to find 6 bros with halfway decent stats (not even close to godly). It took me forever to find a decent sargent.

I still can't find a decent sniper. Every recruit I've seen has sub 50 ranged, which isn't gonna hit the broad side of a barn with any arrow or bolt. I've seen plenty of hires with 60+ in melee, but all the ranged bro prospects are pure 100% garbage.

I had enough trouble finding 6 halfway decent guys, if I try to find 12, then I need to know how to reroll the recruits.

[suejak]

Honestly, I tend to use basically every hire in the early game. If you choose well, it's uncommon to get someone truly useless IMO.

You choose bros based on background, price, potential role in the party, and sometimes even equipment. Think about what you want from a hire and look up backgrounds here (https://battlebrothers.fandom.com/wiki/Character_Backgrounds) before hiring.

Once you hire, think about what that bro can and will be good at. If you don't have a good answer, give him a 2-handed axe or a goedendag - he'll be a shield-breaker (100% to-hit chance) or a glass cannon DPS flanker!

For archers, poachers reliably have ranged skill in the 50s, and hunters will reliably be extremely good archers. If your guy has unimpressive ranged skill, give him a bow and Fast Adaptation, and take 2 quick shots every turn. You'll burn through more ammo and especially fatigue, but he'll hit pretty frequently due to +8% per shot.

[AH-1 Cobra]

So there isn't a viable way to reroll the hires?

[Flharfh]

I would stick with 8ish in the early game to save money. When you can afford more you should never stop at 12 - difficulty doesn't scale beyond 12, and it's absolutely critical in mid and late game to be able to switch out wounded bros so you don't have to sit and waste time waiting on guys to recover. So if you can afford 12, you should immediately try to get at least 14 or 15, even if the spares are cheap disposibros.

[suejak]

Just go to a different part of the map. I don't remember how frequently they reroll - I think it's every 3 days or something.

[msunavygrad]

Get to 12 as soon as you can afford to, the tactical advantage is well worth it. As far as hiring, even guys with horrible stats are useful. Give a guy and axe and he can destroy a shield 100% of the time early game. Give him a shield and he can shield bash and absorb hits like a champ.

The early game is about survival, not min/maxing. If you spend your time going from town to town in search of recruits you are wasting time and money in my opinion, and you aren't even getting to play the game - which is tactical combat.

[MagnusGrey]

Wait. You just posted a negative review because this game is pure (100% to use an exact quote) RNG. But you are still asking for strategy advice in the forums.

Why would strategy help if the game is pure RNG like you claim?

And If the game is not pure RNG, then your review is false.

Either way, if you dont like the game, why are you still playing it?

I'm confused.

[jpinard]

First of all crimsonedge - I hope you're not a purveyor of trash like your user icon represents. Maybe you like frogs and don't realize its background. Also I too am a bit surprised you're still playing after reviewing the game as pure crap (which it isn't). This game makes Chess look like child's play.

Away from that, some map seeds suck. If you want a really good map seed, where you can survive well with excellent recruits use this one: FVKSEPVUSN

Don't worry about trade. Your money will be in too short supply most of the time. With the map seed above your starting bros kinda suck, but what will be awesome is your ability to hire Wildmen and Hunters. Gathering huts are where WIldmen flourish and woodland towns with woodsy add-ons will have hunters. Those are the guys you want. Also focus on farmers, thieves, and brawlers.

If you're worried about losing bros, DO NOT EQUIP THEM AS 2-Handers until they have mad stats 15+ defense). Unless you shield them they WILL die.

As soon as possible get your guys up to kite shields. They are critical to being able to deal with marksmen and gobbo archers. Without them you will be mincemeat. To keep your guys alive in the beginning go for traits that will help them stay that way:

L1 Colossus
L2 Steel Brow
L3 Shield Expert / Rotation and decide if they will have not enough or plenty of fatigue. plenty of fatigue go Brawny and later battleforged to wear heavy armor. Crappy fatigue then go Nimble and make sure to max out HP

L5 you want Underdog for anyone who will engage via frontline. Give footwork to archers and polearm only dudes so they can get out of trouble.

This is just a start. As you get better and understand the game better, then you can go for more advanced tactics based on what this guy does: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gKplp5RT2Migt45AP6uItw7WUXXmOO-qQd33fvqY2GI/htmlview?usp=drivesdk&sle=true#

[AH-1 Cobra]

Originally posted by MagnusGrey:

Wait. You just posted a negative review because this game is pure (100% to use an exact quote) RNG. But you are still asking for strategy advice in the forums.

Why would strategy help if the game is pure RNG like you claim?

And If the game is not pure RNG, then your review is false.

Either way, if you dont like the game, why are you still playing it?

I'm confused.

My negative review stands. And I stand by my comments that this game is too RNG.

I just had to reload my game nearly 20 times just to get through a fight against bandit raiders without someone getting killed. That was with 8 guys vs their 6. It was nearly impossible. I basically had to flip a coin and hit heads 6 or 7 times in a row to win. The stars aligned one time for me. I guess you could say gambling has a special place in my heart.....

I figured I would at least give this game a fair chance. However, the more I play it, the more I realize that my initial review was correct.

[AH-1 Cobra]

Originally posted by jpinard:

This game makes Chess look like child's play.

Yeah.....no. Sorry.

When I tell my pawn to take something, it doesn't say "60% chance to take piece". I don't roll some kinda RNG slot machine before taking a piece on a chess board.

One is actual strategy, the other is RNG. The absolute best you can do is give yourself the best odds to win. Losing a character = losing the battle. All but the easiest fights, I have to save scum anywhere between 5 to 20+ times to pull out with all of my bros intact.

[AH-1 Cobra]

This game needs a global +15-20% hit increase to both players and enemies. That would make the combat a little more strategic.

[Semo]

Look Battle Brothers isn't an easy game. It's brutal.

I currently have 1,137 hours on record but you can easily add another 200 hours spend on reading guides, wiki, builds and tactics. I still ask for help and read up on new guides, tips and tricks.

This is a guide on building decent brothers. It's not up to date but it's well written and will give you a decent idea on what works. It's what got me started.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/365360/discussions/0/135513549090901828/

Get to know the different type of hires. It actually matters.
https://battlebrothers.fandom.com/wiki/Character_Backgrounds

Use the perk calculator to plan out your builds.
http://tumult.cc/bb-calc.html

Use the wiki. Read up on stuff and just play the game. You will get a feel for what works and what doesn't.

If you thought i've seen every event and every rare item with my 1000+ hours you're dead wrong!
I've spend most of my time starting a new game and trying again. Not every run works out.