I don't think you can win against serpents without losing guys

[KalkiKrosah]

They're pretty nimble and have a fair dodge stat (both ranged and melee), their armor is weak but their health pool is pretty high, their damage is on par with a hit from a one-handed axe being wielded in two hands and they take a long while to tire.

But from a strategic stand point there's only one way to fight them. Pick a guy (or two) and have him charge head first into the pit of serpents. The lead serpent will grab him into the group of serpents then he'll get him a few times (because vipers don't like to miss) and then pulled back one more time where he is so far back that you'll never be able to get to him before he gets pummeled by the surrounding 4-6 serpents he got grabbed into. This only buys you time to close the gap... you still have to pray that your guys hit their attacks because if not you're going to have to sacrifice another guy.

The best I ever did against a group of serpents was when I got a contract to save El-Hadet from what is terrorizing the townsfolk. No surprise that it was serpents. I located the serpents and then led them around for half a day. I followed the foot steps of a band of men which wound up being a militia detachment of El-Hadet. I backed up and let the militia be the front line. They had two of their guys grabbed and that's when I moved my guys in. I had to cheese the fight in order to win it without sacrificing a guy.

Is there another way to fight serpents in the early/mid game without the "choose who you would be ok with losing" approach?

[Cat®]

Hold your ground and use 'wait' to stagger your turns, and see if that changes the encounters for you. Snakes try to trick you into charging them when they still have AP left.

[Antifringe]

It also helps to get them to unbunch. I've found that by splitting my line into two groups, the snakes will sometimes resolve into a clean vertical line. This is much less dangerous than the chaotic blob that they normally form, because it doesn't have any pockets to place your bros into.

I still haven't mastered this technique, but I think it's key.

[The Duck Knight]

smokebombs to get away if pulled behind the enemy and the underdog perk to negate their backstabber.
also: 2H axes really shine against them.
It's also smart to make everyone engaging them at least medium tanky, as they eat glasscanonbuilds alive.

[titanopteryx]

When they grab your less durable guys, try to use the rotation perk to rotate in more durable ones. Like tanks. Having some tanks with rotation circle around and rotate the less durable guy out can save him. Otherwise, the southern cities seem to generate lots of patrol armies. When you encounter snakes , see if any are around. Dead mercs cost money. Dead southerners cost nothing.

[chandl34]

When I've fought them, I didn't have too much trouble baiting them into grabbing my best shield tanks. They already had shield wall up, and didn't get hurt.

[Hairy Coo]

Originally posted by chandl34:

When I've fought them, I didn't have too much trouble baiting them into grabbing my best shield tanks. They already had shield wall up, and didn't get hurt.

Doesnt grab cancel shieldwall the way billhook pull does?

[Whatever100500]

Originally posted by The Duck Knight:

smokebombs to get away if pulled behind the enemy and the underdog perk to negate their backstabber.
also: 2H axes really shine against them.
It's also smart to make everyone engaging them at least medium tanky, as they eat glasscanonbuilds alive.

Pull target is staggered and will only get to move after taking damage for whole round. By that point there are usually at least half as many snakes, so retreating with smoke is both too late and unnecessary.
Underdog doesn't negate backstabber (bonus goes back to +5 per surround instead of +10), though it certainly helps. Well, it's not like backline can afford it anyway.
So Nimble or 300/300 on everyone + high damage output is all I can say. But that's basically a level/gear check, not a tactically engaging opponent.

[wei270]

when they grab your shield wall the shield wall will come down.and you get stagged for two turns so you are never gonna get it up again.

1 i find best vs snakes is ranged, what you do is have your melee stand 2 hex away from your archers to keep the snakes back and you keep backing until at some point the snakes AI recongize your range threat and close in on your melee guys,
but reliable range is hard to get early so you have to use the sec method
2. alway have every one wait their turn, after the snakes move, move back and keep 4 empty hex between you and the snake, snake grab range is 3 and they can move once and grab.(they dont usually do that to melee but they can and some times will) keep backing in a long and the snakes will slowly form a line after 3 or 4 turns of backing, then once they are in a line and you are in a line things get alot better, still dangerous but much less so.

[w.f.schepel]

Melee def backed up with HP is your friend here. I basically just walk into them with my front line guys and slaughter them. They aren't particularly hard to beat once you get enough guys with 40-50 mdef and preferably around 100 HP.

Early game, snakes are a fight best avoided, but as soon as your front line men can survive alone for a round or two, there is nothing to fear from snakes.

[Moist Butt]

Originally posted by Hairy Coo:

Originally posted by chandl34:

When I've fought them, I didn't have too much trouble baiting them into grabbing my best shield tanks. They already had shield wall up, and didn't get hurt.

Doesnt grab cancel shieldwall the way billhook pull does?

it does...

[PK_Thunder]

I truly do not understand why so many people are getting their asses kicked by snakes. Do you just have a roster of 75% squishies, or what?

Advance into them and they are MUCH less likely to use grab.

[Something completely different]

I move my strongest tanks forwards as well so they can't reach the softies when grabbing and then move in and focus fire.

[juanval]

Dogs are the key

[laveley]

Against large groups the only choice is running if you dont have a late game band already.

Earlygame low numbers are maneageable but still risky.

[Cat®]

Originally posted by juanval:

Dogs are the key

That should be on a banner whenever you enter any forum for Battle Brothers. Any battle should just look like a scene from an R-rated version of 101 Dalmatians, that's how you guarantee success.