Tips For Surviving the Early Game?

[Seeking Solace]

67 hours into the game and I'm yet to make it past day 100 on a playthrough. :(

I feel like I'm stuck in an infinite loop. I do contracts, get paid, and then spend that money on upkeep, food, supplies, ammunition, and filling in lost brothers. My renown is the only thing that goes up. This loop goes on until my eventual demise by necrosavants or something catching me on the map and wiping my entire team out. That or I go bankrupt and a lot of people leave the party and I become unable to recover because I can't fulfill contracts anymore. No brother manages to survive all the way to level 7.

The majority of the contracts I keep finding in towns are at medium or high difficulties, but I can barely fulfill easy difficulty contracts. Anything higher than that and I'm guaranteed to lose some of my men unless it's some delivery which doesn't pay well. I only recruit brothers that have beggar backgrounds and the like in order to be able to handle their upkeep. I don't hire extra for reserves either.

The difficulty of the contracts are also a bit strange. In one of my playthroughs, I accepted an east difficulty contract on day 4. I had to defeat a Necromancer. I never faced a Necromancer before so I didn't think much of it. The Necromancer was accompanied by 3 skeletons wielding massive scimitars. One look at them and I was like: "Oh... ♥♥♥♥..." and clicked retreat. One of them got buffed by the Necromancer and became so fast it managed to catch 2 of my brothers and murdered them. These brothers were among the starting ones that carried the party so I had to retire. I'm bamboozled. How is this an easy difficulty contract? And why as early as day 4?

I play on the default southern start for the sake of learning the game. I play on Veteran Ironman with undiscovered maps and random seeds. I dislike save scumming and giving myself unfair advantages.

Any tips are welcome!

[Maloney]

It sounds like you're still learning the game so why not try taking off the ironman mode and undiscovered maps and then set it to easy and get a feel for the game. Anyone who rags on you for doing that to learn is just being a jerk for no reason.

And as for save scumming: sure you can play on ironman mode but how much are you learning each game? Unless you have infinite free time it makes a lot of sense to reload your day 70 game and retry that battle because it was against a new enemy you've never seen before and take the chance to learn to fight it. Come back to ironman when you know how to weight the risk reward of the quests.

[uni_08]

Git gud first, then play iron-man veteran

[Cat®]

Don't play on ironman, it hampers learning.

[Santo]

Uni_08, if you don't have anything useful or constructive to add to a discussion, consider silence as an option.

Solace, to begin with, I would definitely join Maloney and Cat in recommending you to play without Ironman until you feel the ropes. The game is brutal enough, having to restart every time you misstep won't allow you to try a different approach to the same situation to see what works and what doesn't. I would also drop the undiscovered maps for now (reasons for that below).

Now, having said that, a few quick tips: stick to swords and spears until you level up a bit (they give a bonus to hitchance). Pick only contracts against thugs until you have a stronger core of bros. Use nets, they are a surprisingly powerful tool for a very low cost. Sell your loot to get funds. Identify an easy trade route (hence why it's best without undiscovered maps) and follow it back and forth selling goods and picking easy missions to get enough money to rebound if something goes wrong. If you kill all thugs but one, dagger him down using Puncture to get his armor. Hire people from backgrounds such as Brawler and Lumberjack for your early-game frontline -- Thieves and Ratcatchers are also good as early tanks thanks to their high INI if you give them the Dodge perk asap. Pick perks such as Fast Adaptation and Backstabber to increase your hitchances in the early game (there will be time to upgrade to better bros later on).

I'm sure others will join the topic with more advice, but in the meantime there are lots of threads with tactical tips for early game fights, explore this forum a little bit and you'll find a lot of useful information :)

[The Duck Knight]

Originally posted by Santo:

Use nets, they are a surprisingly powerful tool for a very low cost.

Since we reached my favorite topic, the use of nets, here is something I would like to add for a VERY specific situation, which will happen to you sooner or later. Alps.
Without spoilering too much, I'll just point out 2 facts:
1. Chance to break from a Net is based on melee skill.
2. Alps got 0 points in melee skill.

What my point is on that...will become clear once you meet them. Trust me.


And to add something to your early game questions:
screw 2H weapons. during early game nearly every hit is devasting, don't waste your defense for "MOAR DAMAGEEE!". Shields save lives. Keeping your Brothers alive is a good strategy.

[Zsass]

Alright, first rule you learn on this game: never pick a contract with Necromancer or undead involved.
Undead have this capacity to quickly tire out your mercenaries and Necromancer, of course, have this habit to raise the dead and manipulate them easily.

Second, the recruitment: don't always hire beggar, it's nice in the beginning but you quickly understand they're the lowest of the lowest because of their poor skill.
Hiring extras is REALLY useful when half of your brother are injured and you don't have enough cash to pay for the treatment.
Reading the background of the brother you want to hire can help because each of them can have a advantage in a particular skill (for example Butcher have a decent skill in Melee and hitpoints)
The Battle Brothers wiki is a gold mine if you don't know the advantages that some brothers may have.

For the supplies, you can save your tools by having your weapons and armor repaired at the gunsmith and blacksmith for a certain sum.
You can check on other villages or town to pay less your supplies and equipment for your mercenaries, don't hesitate to be greedy!

And lastly, I really advice to not play with undiscovered map because you can fall on strong opponent (bandits with armor, orcs for example) in early game making you end quickly your run.

[Kampfschwein Fjonda]

There are a few very strong guides for beginners on this board.

[Estieukua]

Originally posted by Zsass:

never pick a contract with Necromancer or undead involved

And never pick a contract to defend the village from bandit raiding parties, in case they turn out to be zombies with a necromancer.

[Estieukua]

If you're looking for very cheap early-game recruits, there a some backgrounds with a low hiring cost and low daily pay that also start with bonuses to several stats (as opposed to the penalties that cheap backgrounds like beggars and cripples get).

For example:

• messengers often cost ~120 crowns (7 daily) but start with 105-110 fatigue and 35-40 resolve (and possibly a very small bonus to defences)
  
  
• gravediggers often cost ~50 crowns (6 daily) but start with better-than-average HPs, fatigue and resolve
  
  
• vagabonds have some weaknesses but are usually very cheap (usually 7 daily) and start with excellent fatigue (100-115) and make useful Shieldwallers/Spearwallers in the early game (they are also prohibited from having any of the negative fatigue-related traits, such as Asthmatic, Clubfooted, Fat)
  
  
• flagellants are usually very cheap (usually 6-7 daily) and have weak HPs (40-55) but very good fatigue (95-110) and resolve (40-50)
  
  
• gamblers are very cheap (usually 7 daily) and have excellent resolve and initiative and ranged defence (sometimes a little bonus melee defence as well)
  
  
• masons are cheap and start with better-than-average fatigue (95-105) and also gain an additional +5% experience from combat

[Fatbill]

Keep in mind, that the AI plays with different goals than you.

It is your goal to win the battle, without losing a BB.

The AI concentrates on killing at least one of your BBs, and not necessarily with actually winning. It actually does not care about winning, only targeting your "weakest" or most injured BB for death, usually.

(Plus don't depend on the hit percentages for anything but a laugh, the way the RNG in combat is implemented, is not true to the math, no matter what the boosters of this game say.)

[Seeking Solace]

Thanks a lot for the tips, everyone! And thanks for the Jester award! ^-^

I will keep your advice to heart. The reason I love Ironman so much is that gives me the thrill of the possibility of losing the campaign at any moment so every decision made is a life or death one. I feel like it's kinda boring to progress through the game without dangers and the possibility of losing everything by just undoing the mistakes. I can see why it hampers learning though, having to start over every time I make a fatal mistake and learning a big lesson once a playthrough. Following your advice, when I lose my current playthrough my next one will be without Ironman.

I've read a lot of guides regarding weapons, how damage works, arguments for and against every perk, and the backgrounds. I browse the wiki a lot too! Although I guess it's all meaningless on Ironman when I face an enemy I'm ill prepared for. T_T

Thanks for the advice regarding what contracts to do and those to avoid. I think that's the biggest reason as to why I keep failing economically. Doing contracts that don't pay off for the effort or that I'm not ready for yet.

I almost exclusively use spears and adarga shields (and knives for stealing armor). Spears provide such a massive bonus to hit chance that it seems to be the clear winner early-game regardless of enemy armor/HP ratio and despite the low base damage. I understand that this falls off exponentially as the brother's MATK grows higher but I'm not sure what's the threshold to make the switch. Same goes for shields vs two handed and duelist. I feel like the defensive bonuses of the adarga shields massively increase the survivability of my brothers, but when is it worth it to stop using them and go for two handed and duelist instead? What's the stat threshold or criteria at which doing so is ideal?

I'm also confused regarding bows and crossbows. Throwing weapons are much more accurate and deal much more damage with the proficiency. Throwing weapons are also one-handed so I benefit from Duelist and can equip shields. Why would I want to use a bow or a crossbow over Javelins? Are there any other advantages beside the extra range?

Originally posted by Estieukua:

If you're looking for very cheap early-game recruits, there a some backgrounds with a low hiring cost and low daily pay that also start with bonuses to several stats (as opposed to the penalties that cheap backgrounds like beggars and cripples get).

Neat list! I will take your advice and refrain from recruiting brothers with heavy stat penalties from now on. They don't seem worth it when there are cheap good ones. Indebted are especially bad. They cost +190 crowns and have really horrible health and resolve and are completely nude. The 0 crowns upkeep makes up for it only if they live long enough. The southern cities are full of these and gladiators, assassins, and nomads, all of which are pretty expensive. I guess I will refrain from recruiting and hanging there early-game.

Originally posted by Fatbill:

(Plus don't depend on the hit percentages for anything but a laugh, the way the RNG in combat is implemented, is not true to the math, no matter what the boosters of this game say.)

Really? The game lies to you with the rolls? Can you elaborate?

[turtle225]

Originally posted by -Solace-:

Originally posted by Fatbill:

(Plus don't depend on the hit percentages for anything but a laugh, the way the RNG in combat is implemented, is not true to the math, no matter what the boosters of this game say.)

Really? The game lies to you with the rolls? Can you elaborate?

No. The game does not lie on its rolls (unless playing on Beginner where it is rigged in your favor).

[Fatbill]

There have been many threads on the nature of the RNG in this game, how it is applied in combat, and some of us (especially someone like me that uses a bunch of statistical/dynamic system modeling tools at work) have seen that something is not working correctly.

Often, later in the game, you will have BBs with 90% and higher chances to hit a target, and yet miss 3 or more times in a row. I have personally whiffed on 3 consecutive 95% shots more than once, that is a supposed 8000:1 shot. I have had the same with supposed 10000:1 and higher shots. Too many to believe it is working correctly.

At work, I would send a model giving me those results back to the "math shop" to get some additional testing (of various types) done on it.

Conversely, the devs have said that the chances of pulling a 3 x 3* BB is 1000:1. That DOES seem to work correctly, according to the odds, and most people haven't seen a 3/3 BB. I have seen one, once.

Other people will come out and argue this and that, but there seems to be a disconnect between what is supposed to happen, and what is seen happening.

So that 95% to hit may not actually hit 95% of the time and probably won't "because the data set is not large enough to smooth down any statistical swings" according to the boosters (yeah, BS).

Or something is not working correctly.

That is the gist of it, take from it what you will.

[Fatbill]

Oh, and on the subject of crossbows, they get better range than javelins and axes. And can have up to 14 shots in an engagement. It is 5 for javelins and axes.

Also, for crossbows, they progressively get more ability to bypass armor on the heavier models, and, by stacking certain skill choices, you can hit very hard, even through armor. Plus get the skill that allows you an extra 4 action points after a kill, which is enough for a second shot in the round.

And later game, there are some things with very heavy armor, indeed.

Some people have their ranged specialists take the skills for both crossbow and thrown weapons, to get the best of both worlds.

[Seeking Solace]

Originally posted by Fatbill:

Also, for crossbows, they progressively more ability to bypass armor on the heavier models, and, by stacking certain skill choices, you can hit very hard, even through armor.

And later game, there are some things with very heavy armor, indeed.

But heavy javelins also have 70% AID with Duelist and have 49-63 base damage with proficiency. They also have 80% damage vs armor. They also only cost 4 AP so they can be thrown twice per turn. That's almost double the damage output with higher accuracy at close range.