Struggling against shielded enemies

[VIII Konrad Curze]

Im struggling a bit, against large amounts of shielded enemies, like the undead. My team consists of 3 axeman, and 3 crossbowman, so I can do a few stuff against them, but Im wondering if I could do something more, to counter them effectively. Also I`ve noticed that te axe skill, that targets enemy shield is extremely weak, and slow. It takes about 3-4 hits of the "split shield" to crack that shield. Should I use normal attacks instead ?

[turtle225]

Splitting shields is rarely fatigue/AP efficient.

The trick with Ancient Dead is that their AI can be baited into engaging you with 3 tiles of movement, leaving them no AP left to shieldwall. Since they have poor initiative, you can usually get two rounds of attacks on them before they put the shieldwall up.

The simplest way to achieve this is to move your whole team back one tile on the first turn, except for one tank at either the top or bottom of your formation. It may take a bit of practice to get the hang of how their AI moves but once you do they become very easy to beat.

That aside, if you do get stuck in a scrum then dropping a bunch of dogs for extra surround bonuses can help. Flails will ignore the base values of their shields and will give you the best hit chance.

They take half damage from piercing weapons, and even less damage from ranged piercing weapons, so your Xbows are going to be very bad in this fight. If you have any polearms lying around then use those instead, even if your melee skill is bad.

If you only have 6 bros total then 3 of them being Xbows is probably your biggest problem.

[ecb2]

I have a shield tank of my own in my current PM run. At 71 melee attack, and with
axe mastery, he can 1 shot even enemy kite shields fairly often. He just uses the best,
standard 1 handed axe currently.

I like having the option of at least 1 shield smashing specialist. I also keep a couple of
pole axes in the back line.

[Jimib4158]

How come you cant hire a couple more BB? Maybe 3, try at least one pole-arm imo

[VIII Konrad Curze]

Im sorry, but I wrote it a bit wrong. I have 12 brothers, but 3 of them are crossbowman, and 3 are axeman. I mentioned only them, because I think that these 2 roles, are meant to be something of a counter for shielded enemies.

[Jimib4158]

Originally posted by VIII Konrad Curze:

Im sorry, but I wrote it a bit wrong. I have 12 brothers, but 3 of them are crossbowman, and 3 are axeman. I mentioned only them, because I think that these 2 roles, are meant to be something of a counter for shielded enemies.

you have a couple of pole arm then? They cut through armor pretty well ive seen, especially upgrading them

[turtle225]

Originally posted by VIII Konrad Curze:

Im sorry, but I wrote it a bit wrong. I have 12 brothers, but 3 of them are crossbowman, and 3 are axeman. I mentioned only them, because I think that these 2 roles, are meant to be something of a counter for shielded enemies.

Splitting shields is technically a counter, but it's rarely efficient to do so. If you are trying then make sure you have Axe Mastery and a Fighting Axe. Fighting Axe with mastery can 2-shot their shields, which costs your bro his turn, but that's a lot better than any lower axe which would take 3+ hits to break their shields. The Greataxe, Barb 2H Axe, and Mansplitter can also one-shot their shields with mastery, but this again costs your bro his turn.

Flails are maybe a more straightforward counter since they ignore the defense gained by the shield (but not defense gained by the Shieldwall skill).

Xbows do not have any inherent counter to shielded enemies. If you want to bring ranged bros against Ancient Dead then equip them with Throwing Axes as it is the only non-piercing ranged weapon. If you have Throwing Spec and Duelist they can do pretty well, but otherwise it is usually better to bench your ranged guys in this fight and bring more melee or polearms instead.

For polearms, try to avoid piercing-type polearms unless that is all you have, as they will do half damage to hp (still do full damage to armor).

[A5G_Reaper]

I think you need better recruits, 71 melee skill is rather poor to blow through interlocked shieldwall.

[ecb2]

Originally posted by A5G_Reaper:

I think you need better recruits, 71 melee skill is rather poor to blow through interlocked shieldwall.

He has 3 more, full level ups to go, and 3 stars in Melee Attack. Admittedly, I could have
built and leveled this guy better/differently. I am pretty happy with him though. He is a
decent all round tank, and he still even now is very handy at smashing shields.

When you can have 16 bros in your lineup, and another 9 on the bench, you can afford
some less than stellar recruits (or at least I can).