To Hoggart or not to Hoggart?

[QuinZ33]

I've spent nearly 30 hours bashing my head against veteran ironman to learn the game, so I have a lot of experience with early game (and the latest I've gone is day 28), so I'm faced with this decision a lot.

Do you guys always accept the first quest to hunt down Hoggart? I've found that it wastes a fair amount of time, especially if the second town is really far from the first one, and forcing you to hire 3 extra men immediately isn't necessarily helpful.

On my longest playthrough, I skipped Hoggart, hired just 2 pretty decent men to start, and took my 5 man party to escort a caravan for some more early cash (let the caravan guards do most of the heavy lifting). That slow build put me in a much better financial position and I didn't have to worry about an unlucky riposte from Hoggart one-shotting one of my guys.

How do you guys handle the first mission?

[Saint Landwalker]

I've always accepted the Hoggart mission, but I've considered not doing so. I may try skipping it next time I start a new game, but right now I'm beyond Day 100 in my first finally-successful Veteran campaign, so hopefully that won't happen any time too soon. :P

I envy your luck if you were able to get a successful caravan mission early on. All my attempts at running a caravan escort early on in Veteran ended up with the group getting attacked by at least two groups of orcs or goblins and leaving just about everyone dead or maimed—I finally decided not to accept any caravan contracts until I was firmly established.

[Ghost of Kyiv]

I have never tried to do a run without it, and never really had any problems with it. I think that in the current version if you hire 3 men anywhere you can go face Hoggart without going to the larger village. If any of my 3 hired guys turn out to be completely useless, I just send them alone with crappy gear to tie up some of the enemies and get killed in the process.

I have always felt that it is a safe way to get an easy combat to begin with for some xp and loot, instead of having to gamble with the missions. I don´t recall the fight breaking any of my veteran ironman runs. Like Landwalker04, I never accept caravan escort contacts in the beginning, because you can´t avoid the encounters, and can´t rest/repair between them. And besides.. He deserves to die :).

[QuinZ33]

Originally posted by Tyler:

I I think that in the current version if you hire 3 men anywhere you can go face Hoggart without going to the larger village.

How sure are you about that? One of the quest markers is to visit the village.

[['w']]

Originally posted by QuinZ33:

Originally posted by Tyler:

I I think that in the current version if you hire 3 men anywhere you can go face Hoggart without going to the larger village.

How sure are you about that? One of the quest markers is to visit the village.

Yes I postet it once, and they wrote you can hire them everywhere, I will search for it

[['w']]

http://steamcommunity.com/app/365360/discussions/0/350542683195823954/

[Papa Pasda' Ⓢ]

I think in last update they added one more soldier on the hoggart quest, couldn't beat him yet tbh, would most likely skip it.

[willsama974]

Originally posted by Pasda' Ⓢ:

I think in last update they added one more soldier on the hoggart quest, couldn't beat him yet tbh, would most likely skip it.

No, they removed one on lower diff:
http://steamcommunity.com/gid/103582791438065501/announcements/detail/894352973047856381

"Changed introductory contract to no longer show the 'Hire at least 3 more men' objective once the player has done so but not yet completed the other objectives.
Changed introductory contract to have one less opponent in the final battle on lower difficulty levels."

[['w']]

Originally posted by Pasda' Ⓢ:

I think in last update they added one more soldier on the hoggart quest, couldn't beat him yet tbh, would most likely skip it.

last time I said to a friend, yes recruit more , no more, then we arrived on lowest difficulty at hoggart and I felt really bad for him.. guess we outmatched them 2:1 and didn't even get hurt... but later on a 400 gold caravan mission day 2.. some bandits, some hours later 7 raiders, followed by 10 raiders

[Papa Pasda' Ⓢ]

Well i guess that's one more for a novice like me. Thx for precising.

[['w']]

Originally posted by Pasda' Ⓢ:

Well i guess that's one more for a novice like me. Thx for precising.

holding formation, basic armor, shields for everyone, spears, ~6 guys should mostly be sufficient and well yes two 2-h axes in bags to crush their shields.

[Papa Pasda' Ⓢ]

Will probably try it after final release when things get balanced, gonna explore the foggy corners of the world for now.

[QuinZ33]

Originally posted by wilb:

Originally posted by QuinZ33:

How sure are you about that? One of the quest markers is to visit the village.

Yes I postet it once, and they wrote you can hire them everywhere, I will search for it

You are wrong about this, by the way. Even if you hire all the men at the starting village, you still need to visit the second town and come back.

This is usually fine, but sometimes it's a day and a half away, and the Hoggart fight isn't until day 3, which is a waste of time and wages.

[Mr.M]

Gives some loot and pretty easy exp tho.

I slaughtered them on my last try on expert ironman.

[['w']]

Originally posted by QuinZ33:

Originally posted by wilb:

Yes I postet it once, and they wrote you can hire them everywhere, I will search for it

You are wrong about this, by the way. Even if you hire all the men at the starting village, you still need to visit the second town and come back.

This is usually fine, but sometimes it's a day and a half away, and the Hoggart fight isn't until day 3, which is a waste of time and wages.

well okay then I misunderstood you, because I never tried it, seems it works like you wrote, hiring everywhere but you need to go up to the city.

[Trappist]

I always do the mission and get really frustrated when he wipes soe of my squad. ...But then i learn that takinng him down is much easier if you hire a fisherman and throw a net over him before clicking the stab button :)