Tips for Starting Campaign?

[The Silent Assassin]

So I understand that this game is meant to be VERY challenging, but even on the easiest difficulty I still can't seem to find a fight that I don't lose most if not all my initial party in. (The only exception to this being the campaign the game marks as the "tutorial" one) I get that starting out as a ragtag group of men wearing...well, rags, I'm not going to have good odds against something like a horde of undead or a large band of thieves who are armored to the teeth. But I would think I should be able to do a basic mission I got from a small town that only pays a few hundred gold without getting my butt kicked right?

Am I missing something? Is there another way to level up my group and/or earn money so that I can actually arm them and make them able to fight without dying in two hits?

[DarrkPhoenix]

Make sure your front line is equipped with shields at the start, until you can gain some levels and boost your front line's mdef a bit. Swords and spears offer a hit chance bonus, so are a good weapon choice at the start until you boost matk a bit. Bandit thugs are the easiest opponents, so should be your primary prey to get funds, gear, and levels at the start. Beasts are quite dangerous for starting companies, so are best to avoid right at the start. Between these considerations "Retrieve stolen item" contracts are a relatively safe way to go until your company gets a bit stronger (caravan contracts can seem easy, but can easily turn into deathtraps if you get attacked by a strong enemy force). Try to gear up a group of 6-7 bros before looking to expand your company much further.

[Haohmaru]

You are correct that the game is freaking hard and makes no effort to ease you into it. Indeed it is normal to be wiped out early on in the game before you get established.

The standard tips are try to equip your guys with shields and spears early on. Be very conservative in battle, use the shield wall as much as possible as one or two hits will take out your guys and shield wall makes them much harder to hit. It is always tempting to try to go for the kill instead but when your guys inevitably miss their kill shot they get left wide open for a counter attack. Therefore maintaining a shield wall as much as possible is a good way to keep your guys alive.

It is also tempting to use two handed weapons early on because they do more damage and look cool, but again early on they are just an easy way for your guys to end up dead. Until your men are capable of dodging blows in combat or have good enough armour to absorbs some hits, avoid two handed weapons altogether.

Other than that, try to pick and choose your starting contracts. Avoid two skull missions and generally avoid higher paying one star contracts as they usually mean you are going to fight a more difficult battle! You just have to be really conservative until you start to see your guys leveling up and getting better gear than they start with.

[Beatbeat Goodbeat]

shields and spears front line and pitchforks in the back line. backline should be bros you like to live longer. spears give 20% chance to hit and pitchforks 10%. Swords are also good too but spears are cheaper and numerous.

[Wolfie]

I'm pretty new, initially tried the peasant militia but found it too difficult to get going. The second try i went the barbarians and having a blast, you start with 3 solid warriors and incidentally went to the desert regions basically you can fill your ranks with fodder like beggers and slaves called something like indepted (that require no upkeep). I dont have anything too complicated basically a shield wall (get those shields up!) with a back row of pikes, no archers or anything ill try more complex builds next run. Once built up large wealth in the south from the arena and contracts now going all viking back north raiding caravans, villagers and company.

Some tips that might help, that ive descovered so far.
Don't be shy abut taking a day or two to rest your guys between gigs, arenas good for that especially decent pay while the bulk of your forces rest. Do caravan gigs and hide behind the guards when attack, let them take the brunt of the attack otherwise they will sit back while you get slaughtered, always ask for more money and more again if you think its not enough, shout a round of ale to your army if your expecting a difficult fight ahead, get their morale good before the fight.

Hope this helps and have fun

[```]

hi

[The Silent Assassin]

Originally posted by Giovani:

hi

Hi

[Lil Bunny]

On your very first day, you should recruit 3-4 more bros, particularly looking whether some of them have stars in melee defense/melee attack. You should keep those bros from dying. Buy a militia spear or two/a sword so just you have some more damage in your first/second quest. If you still have funds, you can buy some more weapons just because you can or invest in a padded leather armor (90 protection i think) which goes around for 220-300ish a piece. Don't forget to give everyone a shield since all your melee/ranged defense probably sucks right now. Put the armor on a guy with decent melee defense and make him your "tank". The goal is for you to least not lose the first three starting bros in the first few contracts since they have decent stats and can be reliable mid-late game bros. I highly suggest purchasing a padded leather armor at the start just so you have someone who can tank more damage. You can also give the ranged bro you start with a melee weapon first as the crossbow tends to hit the shield/miss with his stats. The most difficult part of the game is the start as you'll get rekt if you have no armor. You just need to keep on fighting battles to level up and earn money.

Spears - have higher hit chance buff than swords but the damage is kinda meh. Use spearwall to divert enemies to a location. Enemies will generally avoid the spearwall unless they have no choice/are itching to hit you.

Swords - decent melee weapon for new recruits/early game as they also have +% hit chance and deal decent damage.

Tips:
1.) Equipment. Get knives/daggers for EVERYONE at the start (in their bags). Just point out one or two enemies you want the armors from and leave them for last. You want to lock them with one of your pros and just spam shield wall (do not use attacks as you'll eat your fatigue). The goal is for that bro to lock the guy with the armor you want as long as possible to allow your bros to clean up everyone else. Surround and shank him to death with your daggers (Skill 2) when all is safe. Profit $$$$.
*This strategy tends to be very dangerous for that lone bro when dealing with stronger enemies like bandit leaders/two handed enemies.

2.) Plan your actions. As much as possible, surround the enemy first before hitting them. If you can move all your bros first to the position/enemy you want them to engage before starting the fight. Each bro that is adjacent to the enemy will give a +5% chance to hit (10% with backstabber perk) so leave the hitting when you're all set.

3.) Contracts. Safest contracts at the start are about "Thieves", bringing an item/artifact back. Some camp clearing contracts are safe enough but may pose some challenge depending on the enemy. Beast hunting/"Hunt what terrorizes...." contracts are generally more dangerous at the start but can be accepted once you get used to the enemies and have decent gear.

4.) Money. I also had money problems when I started the game.... However, after some playthroughs I figured some stuff out:
- Contracts are a huge part of your income. Do not negotiate your contracts until you have decent relations with the village/town or negotiate only on towns that you don't care for. Higher relations = better prices for both buying and selling. If you have the Blazing Suns/Desert thingy DLC. One of the retinue party members will give you 3-4 times more chances of negotiating if you like negotiating your contracts.
- Repair "TIer 2" and up weapons before selling them. You will figure this out as you play through the game. Generally, only sell and repair tier 2 weapons, but you can also repair and sell some of the tier 1 weapons like shortswords. You can use a wooden shield as reference for prices. If the shield price is 15-16 and below, do not sell equipment in that town. You can min max in selling stuff but you are looking for around shield price of 18 before the repairing + selling can give you decent cash. You can always sell them at the 15-16 price if you need the money.
- Repair armors with around 110+ protection. They can be worth it if you sell them with a town you have a good relation and has + 18+ shield price.
- Increase your fame through completion of ambitions, contracts and clearing camps. The higher your fame, the more the contracts will pay. Choose ambitions that you think will be the easiest to finish.
- Search for towns with "workshops" and base your contracts around that area. This town will usually sell tools cheaper than other towns without them. Good tool prices are 180-210ish. Friendly relations with any town will generally help bring the tool prices down.
- You can sell trade goods (Furs, Wood, Amber, etc.) on a town that does not produce them for small profits. You can use the "worth" of the trade good as reference before buying. Buy low sell high (Wood purchased for 180 sell for 220/250/300 in another town).

5.) Two Handed Weapons. Do not use two handed melee weapons yet. If you want to, use a polearm/something with a 2 tile reach instead. These weapons can also be used by bros who you want to level. But in my experience, I give the bros I want to level a weapon + a shield since 2 tile reach weapons generally miss when I use them and so they do not get the last hit ;~;

6.) Two Handed Weapons - Extended. Only start using two handed weapons when you unlock the "Reach Advantage" perk. Much better if you also unlock "Berserk" before giving someone a two handed melee weapon. Melee attack should be around 67+, and melee defense at around 22+ to be a decent two handed bro that does not eat all attacks. You also want to at least have a 150 armor for your two handed bros since they will definitely eat some attacks. For me, the heavier armor for two handed bro, the better.

7.) Goblins. Do not be afraid to engage small goblin parties of around 5-7. They have decent weapons if you can find and kill them at the start. Just make sure to have reliable hitting chances (use a sword/spear) and a shield to bring them down as they have low health pools and easily waver.

8.) Orcs. You can also take your chances on "Orc Youngs" if you find a camp/a roaming party. They also have good starting weapons but are more dangerous than goblins.

9.) Lure the enemy. You can lure enemy parties to caravans/militias/companies then smack them with a 34 vs 12 scenario. Just make sure you get the last hit for the loots <3

10.) Ranged Bros. Reliable hitting chances for ranged weapons start at around 65+ ranged skill. They are long term investments as they probably wont help that much when you first get them. But once they get the perks and stats they need, they can be a big help to all of your fights. For stats, you can prioritize ranged attack, then choose between fatigue, resolve, health, and ranged defense. You can also go for some melee stats if you want to make a hybrid.

11.) ALWAYS HAVE A STOCKPILE OF WEAPONS. You need a variety of weapons to deal with enemies. The following are the enemies I have most encounter with (I only have blazin suns DLC)
Raiders - I generally bring ALL AXES for melee bros bc i hate it when they block the attack. Also bring shields/kite shields if they have marksmen/poachers.

Hyenas, Ghouls, Wolves - cleavers deal significant damage to them. Swords/Axes are also amazing if you don't have cleavers. Any weapon will do actually as long as you hit them ;p

Nomads - I also like axes for these guys but ranged weapons will help against two handed nomads.

Undead (Zombies) - CLEAVERS! Decapitate skill will chop their heads clean off and will prevent them from resurrecting.

Undead (Fallen Hero) - treat them as very upgraded raiders that can resurrect indefinitely >:(. They almost always have very good armor and decent weapon so you need to isolate them with a good bro and dagger them to death. Sometimes their armor are already damaged so you have to be careful when dealing with them.

Undead (Legionnaires/Auxiliaries/Roman Themed Undead) - I also bring ALL axes for melee bros except for my two handed guys. Plow through their shields then kill them all or go around their formation to kill the pike wielders. Prioritize killing pike wielders.

Goblins - generally bring shields as they almost always have archers. Any type of weapon deals decent damage as they are very squishy but they can be deadly if you cannot reliably hit them. They also carry VERY GOOD STARTING WEAPONS (Cruel Falchions, their pointy Pike thing, their spears) as they have lower fatigue penalties and deal decent damage. You can also get decent cash from repair + sell of all their melee weapons in a town you have a good relationship with + 18+ shield price IIRC.

Orcs - I haven't dealt that much with orcs aside from my second game in battle brothers. Orc "Young" tend to have lower/no armor so you can use cleavers as they deal higher raw damage. Orc "Warriors" have very tough armor so you need hammers to destroy their protection. Orc "Berserkers" have scary damage :< but tend to be like orc youngs so you can also use cleavers to bring them down quickly. Idk who does the charging attack but orcs have a charging attack that can disrupt your formation.

*For reference I have a stock of at least 6 for each type of one handed weapon (tier 2). That could be me preparing for any battle but that could also be because of my hoarding tendencies. I'm at 157 inventory capacity and I only have around 20-40 free space because of all the "replacement" equipments :3

Hope this comment helps! (Sorry if it spoiled some contents for you)

[rubyismycat]

you arnt alone buddy lol i lost count of the number of times i had to restart when i was a noob hundreds? thousands? dont worry at all youll get there in the end

[SiberianApe]

I usually give for sort of "core" melee bros in the middle of the front line and cheap sacrificial dudes on the flanks for distraction and support ranged rear. The flank guys who survive I move closer to the center of Frontline formation and give them better gear. Usually works well especially when not getting ambushed. Could be a bit of a mess otherwise. Also post above about spears and shields for new guys is 100% correct for my style of play.