Laying low, AKA lowering Renown : is it worth it ?

[Percussigant]

My question is half about economic profitability, half about relationship mechanics.

To give some context : my current (ironman) company went from 12 good men to 6 good men after an unlucky ambush by Necrosavants. Since higher Renown means higher rewards and more difficult quests (the difficulty is the main point here), I was wondering if lowering my Renown would also lower the difficulty of quests offered and thus allow me to get my new rookie bros to the level of my veterans easier.

More often than not, my runs end with my company suffering a few critical casualties, which often snowballs into more veterans getting slowly chipped away until my team can no longer keep up with the opposition. At this point the typical scenario is that my team of well-equipped lvl 1-4 get into a fight they cannot escape from or cannot afford not to win for fear of bankruptcy, and they get wiped out, or I just give up on them and stop playing that company, or I just retire them entirely.

For my current run, money is not an immediate issue (it will be eventually if I can't reliably fulfil contracts anymore though). I am more worried about the long term consequences of betraying every employer I can (or at least target a region of the world I will not go to for a while) to get my Renown back down, thus getting less lucrative quests for a long time.

In a nutshell, I am currently sitting at around 1400 Renown (nobility contracts are unlocked) and wondering whether shooting myself in the foot would be a good idea.

[CHOO CHOO]

Can't you just take single-skull contracts for a while?

[Percussigant]

Originally posted by CHOO CHOO:

Can't you just take single-skull contracts for a while?

I have tried that, but it turns out those feel like they are now generated for a well-armed, mid/high level 12 man team. Even 1 skull contracts feel way too hard and I often suffer losses among my rookies on them.

[CHOO CHOO]

Huh. I guess you're playing on Veteran difficulty? Can't help you in that case.

[Percussigant]

My bad, I did forget to mention that. I always play on Ironman, Veteran economic & combat difficulty, and High starting funds.

[suejak]

Renown doesn't affect difficulty directly. Contract difficulty is scaled to the strength of your bros, size of your group, and the number of days, plus some randomness.

Increasing renown is always good because it only increases rewards without affecting difficulty.

What day is it? How many bros do you have and at what level? You might actually find fights easier if you jump back up to 12 bros with half being lvl 1.

[Percussigant]

Good to know, thanks ! The number of days might actually be the reason why most of my runs tend to get mired after some losses. Some quests definitely seem harder the more time has passed (ie, bandit leaders start appearing, you can get attacked when delivering cargo, etc).

It is day 94, I have 6 bros left (I took a break immediately after that tough battle and haven't recruited new rookies yet) : 1x lvl 8, 2x lvl 6 (one is one battle away from 7), and the others are lvl 3-5.

[turtle225]

Suejak is right. Renown doesn't affect difficulty. The misconception arises because renown unlocks Noble contracts which tend to be harder than normal contracts.

In my experience, number of men has a large impact on difficulty. Staying at 6 tends to make the game really easy at least in the early game. I've never tried it on the long term.

I would recommend a slow rebuild. Hiring the 6 cheapest losers you can find as soon as possible might not be a good idea.

[suejak]

OK, so your current average level is about 5. If you add 6 more level 1 guys, your average level will be 3, so the game will be scaled for 12 level 3s @ day 94.

We can't tell you which would be easier, but I tend to find more bros to be better, in part due to more tools per turn and therefore more robustness to RNG. Some people with 3k hours in the game leap up to 12 bros on day 1, so there's not a consensus on this. I say do whatever feels best.

Personally, assuming you have gear for them, I'd probably hire 6 cheapish guys from mid- to high-tier backgrounds ASAP: militia and wildmen with some brawlers and butchers too. Maybe a squire.

But what Turtle said may also be easier. You'll have to try and see!

[turtle225]

Yeah we don't know for sure. Equipment is important though. If you can't properly gear the new recruits then don't bother.

If you've got enough armor and can find some halfway decent recruits then hiring can work too. Just have your vets, preferably the 7's and 8's who should have Nimble or Forge carry the team until the new guys can catch up and focus on easy contracts or weak roaming bandits.

[WarWise]

I usually put my new guys on the back row and leave the front row for the veterans.
Always get a shield and a spear for new guys if they are going to the front.
Sometimes I leave the new guys with speark and shields on the second row so they have more room to maneuver and can choose when to engage.