How to fight serpents?

[YourLittlePogchamp]

What are other peoples' counters to fighting them? Apparently with how absolutely small the contract rewards are, they must be pretty easy. But they have the oddest style I've seen yet and they keep tearing my low level band apart by how they just immediately kill 1-2 of my brothers in one turn.

[hurdygurdyman]

I have so far been treating them like webknechts (sp?); an adversary that can be hard to hit, can disrupt your formation, and has poison.

I avoid them until I have a few levels under my bros' belts.

I stay grouped together as we advance to the meeting engagement, moving-up only a couple of hexes at a time, so when they grab one of my bros I have usually have AP left to swarm the snake that did it, preventing my grabbed bro from getting swarmed himself.

Gaining localized numerical superiority adds the group to hit bonuses (or adversary defense penalties, whatever), and I concentrate my killing power on one or two individuals so they die quickly, allowing me to then repeat the process on others, and so on, and so on.

Crude, but effective.

That said, if someone like Turtle225 or suejack offers different advice, I would definitely listen to them instead of me, lol

[Moist Butt]

Serpents fight is all about positioning. In the early game the fight is pretty RNG because your bro won't have enough meele def and they can pull and gank. There isn't anyway to stop this from what i have seen. I would send your tank forward and let them pull the tanks. Shieldwall and hope you can outdamage before your tank(s) die.

[Coal Lobster]

They're trivial in the later-game with underdog and stats. Their difficulty isn't really reflected in the rewards(a seeming problem with many Blazing Sands contracts). Using the tank to get pulled as recommended is sensible. 2-3 can be handled in the early game without excessive risk, although again the rewards are lackluster.

[Grigsey]

dodge shield tanks early game + a few crossbows for an opening volley then charge when close.

[Hans]

I don't understand how serpent's work, it seems like their "grab" ability has 100% chance to hit? I'm on day 41 of a new V/V ironman run and, other than an unfortunate early death to getting shot in the face by an arrow, ALL of my other 4 character deaths are from getting "chain" pulled by serpents.

I thought maybe using spearwall would stop their attack the same way you can stop an orc's leap attack, but that doesn't seem to do anything either. They have what is essentially a 3 range unblockable pull that will then place your character BEHIND the attacker (mean they've effectively moved your character 5 whole freakin' spaces). To make matters worse, on the current fight I'm doing against 7 serpents, they immediately pulled my new expensive Beast Hunter bro TWICE putting him surrounded by 6 snakes.

It did not matter that I used spearwall, deliberately charged out my 2 higher level tanks as bait, or killed their "scout" serpent with my archers. They lol'ed in my face and just slither-ported my newest member and ripped him apart before he got a chance to even raise his damn shield. Voldemort would be proud of these nagini ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

Unless there is some kind of tactic that's going way over my head, there does not seem to be any purpose to fighting snakes as I have absolutely zero control over protecting my characters. Other than the 3 snake fights during the first ~2 weeks of my current campaign, they've killed a bro literally every encounter.

[Percussigant]

I think a couple high mdef tanks with Taunt is the way to go. Not sure if shieldwall resists the slitherportation, but even if it doesn't having some control over who gets to bite the bullet seems like the safest option against one-shot threats like snakes. I'll have to give it a shot.

[Gildongs]

Dont use swords. They have armor. At first level, I kept dying to them using swords. Then i used maces and hammers and its a walk in the park. they dont have a ton of HP.

[MagnusGrey]

I haven't been having any problem with them at all yet. Since they are going to pull you in anyway, take the turn where you can move fowards and get in a single hit before they get their attacks.

They have low armor, low moral, do large damage, and break formation.

This means that you can combine stuns and focus fire to remove several from the fight on the first turn you engage, the stunned ones lose the next turn as well, and you get 2 attacks each with your line, stunning again as needed.

Oh and make sure to shieldwall with any Bro with low mdf, or they will straight murder them.

[PhonkLover]

None of the strategies listed here work. The serpents spawn 7-12 before day 10. They never miss because of surround bonus and they will effectively 2 shot any type of brother. They are either bugged or a sick early game joke from the devs. I am coming to realize the desert is pretty horrible content. Too bad, there was potential

[RDG]

Mace stuns can be very effective, they don't have a lot of HP, stopping a couple for a turn can save a brother.

[Moist Butt]

Originally posted by Sit Still:

None of the strategies listed here work. The serpents spawn 7-12 before day 10. They never miss because of surround bonus and they will effectively 2 shot any type of brother. They are either bugged or a sick early game joke from the devs. I am coming to realize the desert is pretty horrible content. Too bad, there was potential

I think they increased the difficulty overall. I don't ever remember seeing bands of 6 raiders on like day 6. It's usually 4 raiders with maybe 1 or 2 thugs.

[Whatever100500]

I think the only option is to come fight them later, when your front is tanky enough to survive till your damage dealers can rescue them. With range 3 auto-hit attack I don't see any counter-play.

[['w']]

why does drag even haven a 100% success rate, this should get drastically lower with weight (okay they are gigantic snakes, well)

day ~ 56 fighting 8 snakes, a two star mission, feels like a 4 star and I've no luck so far, savescumming like crazy right now. (always moved too soon into their range, instead of waiting)

tried to use nets, but without quickhand and them destroying the net in one turn, this doesn't work

against grab, spearwall doesn't work, shieldwall is useless, no idea why both are 100% negated, at least spearwall should do something, and shieldwall with multiple bros side by side


works:
wait & tight formation!
don't move a single bro, wait until they are one tile away or they will change their movement to this one guy who will get dragged into the middle and most certainly die (if low lvl)

tank if you've been isolated

two handed cleavers massed on one side, two attacks against a naked enemy, if you can manage to hold a line and when you aren't surrounded

underdog (only got 1 with this perk)

lots of archers?? ( I've only one blind monk)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2199187028

high ground will make such a fight far more demanding