The Fearsome Foursome: A Top-Tier Formation

There is no shortage of excellent guides on the various builds and play styles. As a result, the sheer volume of possibilities can be a bit overwhelming for new and veteran players alike. For that reason, this guide aims to lend some clarity and focus to the meta by showcasing four of the strongest available archetypes.

Introduction

Who are the Fearsome Foursome?
1) Melee two-handers
2) Cleaver duelists
3) Archer-throwers
4) The standard bearer

What?
Yes.

Where?
Orc sea of tents and large Chosen camps will easily fall victim to your overwhelming power. The formation is also capable of clearing all legendary locations, with a few substitutions recommended here and there. Melee bros instead of ranged for the Kraken, a sacrificial shield tank for the Black Monolith, pocket shields on the front line for the Goblin City approach, and more ranged units for the Sunken Library (bring slings).

When?
Mid to late campaign once your brothers have nimble or battleforged

Why?
1) Highest damage in the game
2) High utility + damage on par with two-handers
3) Highest ranged damage in the game
4) High resolve

How?
A combination of blunt force trauma, punctured flesh, and grievous bleeding wounds

The Formation

• The formation consists of a front line of two-handers and cleaver duelists
  
  
• The back line has our ranged units, standard bearer, and greatswordsmen
  
  
• Ranged units can be either bowmen or crossbowmen, and it's wise to have at least one of each, just in case you find a named bow or crossbow and want someone who can use it. In terms of optimization, I believe the bow slightly wins out over the crossbow and is generally favorable
  
  
• The greatswordsmen can be swapped out for two more ranged units when fighting goblins. They can also start in the frontline, reap with the swordlance as the enemy draws near, then move to the back if you're about to get flanked. The swordlance is interchangeable with the warscythe.
  
  
• The cleaver duelists can trade places with the macemen to gain a better spread when dealing with Geists. You may also want to field an additional sergeant for these encounters, but keep the banner and sash together on the better one
  
  
• Goblin pikes, swordlances and warscythes are good substitutes for the standard two-handed reach weapons if you find them before the dedicated mastered weapons.
  
  
• Suggested reserves: 3 additional melee units, 2 additional ranged units, 1 additional sergeant, and 1-3 dedicated shield tanks
  
  
• This is just a guide and is not meant to be interpreted as the absolute be-all-end-all. There is no ideal cookie cutter formation that is perfectly optimized for every single encounter. Players are encouraged to use their own judgement and modify as they see fit. I don't doubt that there are potentially stronger formations out there. This is simply a collection of very strong builds that I have found to be highly effective in addition to being fun.
  
  
  
  

The Two-Hander

The mighty two-hander is a force to be reckoned with. What he enjoys most in life is to see his enemies driven before him, and to hear the lamentations of their women. This archetype closely resembles the Barbarian Chosen, which are widely considered to be some of the toughest enemies in the game. To know your enemy, you must become your enemy. Just wait until you have Battleforged and some decent armor before retiring your one-handed weapon and shield.

Pros & Cons:

Pros:

• Big donkey damage
  
• Can take a beating, but can also use Rotation to move to a safer position
  
• 3-tile AOE attacks, 2-tile reach attacks, or 1-tile bludgeon to the face for maximum damage
  
• A E S T H E T I C

Cons:

• Takes a while before they ascend to their final form
  
• Heavy armor is expensive
  
• Due to high fatigue requirements, you may need to juggle armor around or settle for something lighter, like coat of scales instead of coat of plates to stay above 70-80 fatigue after equipment

Backgrounds:

Farmhands, Brawlers, Lumberjacks, Thieves, Militia, Wildmen, Sellswords, Adventurous Nobles, Hedge Knights

Traits:

Iron Lungs, Strong, Fearless, Tough, Dextrous, Sure Footing, Determined, Iron Jaw, Athletic, Brave, Bright, Deathwish, Lucky, Swift

Stat Priority:

Primary Stats: Melee attack (80), Melee defense (30), Fatigue (70-80 after equipment)
Seconday Stats: Hitpoints (80), Resolve (40)

Perks & Loadouts:

Two-Handed Swordsmen:

• Recover helps to keep you swinging on the longer encounters
  
• Quickhands allows you to switch back and forth to your reach weapons for added range, disarms with the whip, daggers for puncturing, nets, grenades etc.
  
• Rotation saves lives and can also be used offensively
  
• Reach Advantage boosts your melee defense when being flanked and swinging your sword
  
• Don't forget: swapping weapons will remove your stacks of Reach Advantage!

Two-Handed Hammers:

• Identical to the greatswordsmen, with the exception of the change to Hammer Mastery

Two-Handed Macemen:

• Similar to the others with 3 notable changes:
  
• Mace Mastery for the weapon specialization
  
• Dodge insead of Reach Advantage as a defensive perk
  
• Crippling Strikes for dealing injuries through armor, setting up Executioner for our throwers
  
• Pick bros with high ini as your macemen, for synergy with Dodge and Crippling Strikes

Tactics:

• Start the encounters with your polearms equipped, then swap once the enemy engages
  
  
• For many encounters, on turn 1 or 2, if you move your entire formation back 1-2 tiles, the enemy will end their turn in range of your polearms, in which case you can swing at them from 2 tiles away. Count how many steps they can take and try to make them end their turn 2 tiles away from your frontline.
  
  
• You can't take 2 steps then swing with your two-handed weapon in the same turn with most two-handed weapons. You can take two steps, Quickhands to a dagger and puncture in the same turn, however.
  
  
• When low on stamina, Quickhands to a dagger or other 4AP weapon to get the last hit on a target for the Berserk-Recover combo.
  
  
• The single target damage of the mace is a better choice than stunning 90% of the time, but stuns do come in handy in a few key situations. I like to pick Mace Mastery for this reason. The lowered fatigue cost also helps to maintain the initiative. Crippling Strikes allows your macemen to potentially injure orc warriors and chosen on the first hit. Use this to your advantage by targeting them with your throwers.
  
  
• Use your reach weapons to punish melee units engaging with the back line. They're also highly effective for reaching over walled fortifications.
  
  
• The extra bag slot can be used for whips, grenades and nets etc. Don't feel the need to limit yourself to only carrying daggers.
  
  
• Goblin jagged pikes are a good substitute in the absence of mastered reach weapons. Their main attack only uses 5 AP without having to spend a perk point in Polearm Mastery, this allows you to:
  -take a step towards the enemy on good terrain
  -strike with the rupture ability
  -step back into formation in a single turn, giving the weapon an effective 3-tile range

The Cleaver Duelist

At the age of six, his parents were murdered by a group of Necrosavants. The boy was lucky to escape with his own life. Lost and alone, he was found in the forest by some of the mountain people, taken in and raised among them. However, he never forgot what had happened to his parents and vowed to deliver vengeance one day upon those responsible.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

• The disarm ability of the whip is extremely clutch
  
• The whip has a range of 3 tiles
  
• Very strong vs. Geists, Necrosavants, and Undead opponents in general
  
• Has a free hand that can hold a net, grenades, holy water etc.
  
• Can stack a lot of bleeds

Cons:

• The whip has pitiful armor damage
  
• Fatigue intensive, you'll burn out rather quickly
  
• Slightly weaker than a dedicated two-hander
  
• Perk hungry, so lacking a bit in passive defenses

Backgrounds:

Farmhands, Brawlers, Lumberjacks, Thieves, Militia, Wildmen, Sellswords, Adventurous Nobles, Hedge Knights

Traits:

Iron Lungs, Strong, Fearless, Tough, Dextrous, Sure Footing, Determined, Bloodthirsty, Iron Jaw, Athletic, Brave, Bright, Deathwish, Lucky, Swift, Hate for Undead

Stat Priority:

Primary Stats: Melee attack (80), Melee defense (30), Fatigue (80 after armor)
Secondary Stats: Hitpoints (80), Resolve (40)

Perks & Loadouts

• Recover is a good pick due to the fatigue-heavy nature of the build
  
• Quickhands is great for quickly switching between the whip and cleaver
  
• Duelist is essential as it allows you to sometimes cause bleeds through armor with the whip, and shred through armored opponents before decapitating them with the cleaver

Tactics:

• Conserve your energy, avoid whipping heavily armored opponents
  
  
• If you're getting low on stamina, the most efficient way to Recover is immediately after a kill in order to take advantage of the Berserk-Recover combo. This way you don't have to waste a full turn recovering, but rather 'half' a turn
  
  
• Throw nets and/or use disarm on the high threat targets: Necrosavants, Chosen, Orc Warlords, your mother-in-law etc.
  
  
• When daggering down an enemy for their armor, disarm them with the whip while the others puncture
  
  
• Similar to the way in which the Goblin pike functions, the Whip ability only uses 4 AP, so you can take a step out, whip an enemy, then step back into formation, giving the whip an effective 4 tile range. This also works with Disarm at a cost of 5 AP for disarming enemy throwers.
  
  
• Decapitate scales with lost health. That is, for each 1% of lost health you deal an extra 1% of HP damage, but not armor damage. For example, if the target is at 80% HP you will deal an extra 20% damage to their HP
  
  
• Spam Decapitate on wounded enemies, Recover as needed
  
  
• Decapitate Wiedergangers to prevent them from resurrecting
  
  
• When fighting hexen, wear the undead trinket and use the whip to disarm your bros if they get charmed.

The Archer-Thrower Hybrid

“You have described only too well," replied the Master, "where the difficulty lies...The right shot at the right moment does not come because you do not let go of yourself. You...brace yourself for failure. So long as that is so, you have no choice but to call forth something yourself that ought to happen independently of you, and so long as you call it forth your hand will not open in the right way--like the hand of a child.”

Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Able to snipe targets at a distance with the bow
  
• Ranged advantage baits the enemy into charging
  
• Deals heavy close-ranged damage through the use of Throwing Mastery
  
• Wears light armor, therefore plenty of surplus fatigue and no need to spec into Recover
  
• It's fun

Cons:

• Can't use ranged abilities when engaged in melee
  
• Lower survivability compared to heavy armor users
  
• Can snipe enemies but is also vulnerable to being sniped
  
• Weak in closed corridors like forest encounters
  
• Has to be babysat and rotated out of harm's way

Secrets:
If you only try one build in this guide, try this build

Backgrounds:

Squire, Witch Hunter, Shepherd, Beast Slayer, Poacher, Bowyer, Sellsword, Hunter

Traits:

Determined, Iron Lungs, Night Owl, Eagle Eyes, Strong, Swift, Athletic, Tiny, Iron Jaw, Tough, Quick, Bright, Fearless, Optimist, Brave, Lucky

Stat Priority:

Primary: Ranged attack (90), Hitpoints (90), Fatigue (90)
Secondary: Ranged Defense (just enough to get it higher than your melee units)

Perks & Loadouts

Archer-Throwers:

• Bags and Belts allow you to carry 3 stacks of throwing weapons and a melee weapon
  
• Colossus gives some more HP to our fragile Nimble brothers
  
• Executioner increases damage on the tougher targets. The front line sets up the injuries
  
• Quickhands lets you quickly switch between bow and throwing weapons
  
• Bow Mastery grants +1 range to our shots
  
• Throwing Mastery greatly increases throwing weapon damage
  
• Duelist completes the build by adding armor penetration to our throwing weapons
  
• The melee slot gets a firelance for emergencies because:
  A) The special attack scales off of ranged attack skill
  B) It covers 2 tiles
  C) It causes burn injuries, which can be exploited by Executioner
  D) It's also a spear with +20% to hit chance

Crossbow/Gunslinger Variant:

• Crossbow-thrower variant with the only change being Crossbow & Firearms Mastery
  
• Also functions as a handgonne-thrower hybrid, or the "Gunslinger" see my other guide

A note on Executioner vs. Overwhelm:



Ovewhelm is another potential pick for the Executioner slot, but I believe Executioner to be the optimal choice for the following reasons:

• Overwhelm requires that the person attacking have higher initiative than their target
  
  
• This creates the burden of having to put points into initiative upon leveling up and/or carefully monitor the turn order each round
  
  
• A look at the Wiki[battlebrothers.fandom.com] reveals some rather high initiative requirements to hit these benchmarks for many common units
  
  
• For example, even the humble Brigand Raider has 115 initiative, while Orcs, Goblins, Barbarians, Nomads etc. have significantly more
  
  
• Undead units, on the other hand, have low initiative and can therefore be targeted by Overwhelm with relative ease
  
  
• This leaves us with the choice of being stronger vs. Undead or most of everything else
  
  
• Bearing this in mind, on a balance of probabilities, you're more likely to gain benefit from using Executioner for a majority of encounters with the unfortunate exception of Monolith
  
  
• With that said, if players would prefer to simply min-max for the Black Monolith and Sunken Library, they should consider picking Overwhelm or Recover instead of Executioner, just be advised you'll be gimped vs. the big boys like Orcs, Chosen, Unholds etc.
  
  
• Taking a point from Colossus and putting it into Overwhelm is another option, but you'll just be trading your own survivability to increase that of the front line; a risky proposition

Tactics

• Fire the bow and crossbow at the weaker trash mobs as they approach
  
  
• Snipe enemy ranged units whenever possible
  
  
• Leverage the Killing Frenzy buff gained from clearing trash to punish the tougher targets
  
  
• Switch to throwing weapons when the enemy comes within 2-3 tiles of range
  
  
• Use javelins on armored targets and throwing axes on skeletons
  
  
• Aim for the injured targets to take advantage of Executioner
  
  
• To farm heavy throwing weapons, kill barbarians while they have their throwing weapons out
  
  
• When engaged by enemy melee units, switch to the firelance and use the special attack
  
  
• Enlist the aid of your melee units who can either beat down the engaging enemy with their reach weapons, or rotate you to safety
  
  
• Consider using the handgonne on your crossbow unit(s) when facing large swarms of unarmored enemies such as Wiedergangers, Nachzerers, Webknechts etc.
  
  
• Don't sell your goblin poison, save it for hard engagements and dip your arrows in it
  
  
• Pack a fire pot for the challenging encounters

The Standard Bearer

“Stand like a beaten anvil, when thy dream
Is laid upon thee, golden from the fire.
Flinch not, though heavily through that furnace-gleam
The black forge-hammers fall on thy desire.

Demoniac giants round thee seem to loom.
'Tis but the world-smiths heaving to and fro.
Stand like a beaten anvil. Take the doom
Their ponderous weapons deal thee, blow on blow.

Needful to truth as dew-fall to the flower
Is this wild wrath and this implacable scorn.
For every pang, new beauty, and new power,
Burning blood-red shall on thy heart be born.

Stand like a beaten anvil. Let earth's wrong
Beat on that iron and ring back in song.”

Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Improves the resolve of surrounding allies
  
• Can rally fleeing brothers back into the fray
  
• Can use a whip or throw grenades when needed
  
• Lots of build variety and theorycrafting potential

Cons:

• You're hosed if he dies, necessitating the preparation of a backup in most cases
  
• Has to spend points on sergeant-specific perks, leaving him weak in other areas
  
• May struggle to keep up fatigue-wise during Geist-heavy fights andlegendary locations

Backgrounds:

Squires, Wildmen, Monks, Cultists, Adventurous Nobles

Traits

Fearless, Brave, Cocky, Drunkard, Hate for Beasts, Hate for Greenskins, Hate for Undead, Iron Lungs, Determined, Optimist, Deathwish, Strong, Athletic, Quick, Tiny, Tough

Stat Priority:

Primary Stats: Resolve (pump it), Fatigue (80), Melee attack (80)
Secondary Stats: Hitpoints (90), Initiative (96)

Perks & Loadouts

• Recover refreshes your stamina when you're spamming Rally the Troops
  
• Pathfinder provides mobility for chasing down fleeing allies. Rally the Troops suffers a penalty based on distance, so Pathfinder helps to get you where you need to be
  
• Quickhands allows you to switch to a whip, strike or disarm once, then switch back to the battle standard in the same turn. This keeps 100% up time on the resolve buff from the banner while adding some more versatility and range to the unit.
  
• Fortified Mind adds a multiplier to resolve
  
• Relentless is, in the opinion of the author, an overlooked hidden gem. More on this later
  
• Polearm Mastery allows the sergeant to contribute damage with less fatigue
  
• Cleaver Mastery removes the disarm hit penalty of the whip
  
• Nimble keeps him light on his feet and helps to conserve fatigue

Thoughts on Relentless:

• Relentless keeps your initiative high. We want our sergeant to have high initiative to give him the option of starting first in the turn order so he can Rally the Troops before they act
  
• Problem: 95+ initiative means the sergeant will start before Geists in the turn order
  
• Therefore, we want the option of waiting until the end of the turn without penalty
  
• We have that option, it's called Relentless

Consider the following scenario:

• You are fighting Geists or Ancient Priests
  
  
• Being the sergeant, your initiative is normally higher than that of the other brothers as a result of wearing light armor and being inactive, which preserves fatigue and by extension, your initiative
  
  
• We don't want to act first in this scenario, we want to wait until the Geist spreads his fear or the Ancient Priest horror effect triggers before we rally. This is where Relentless shines:
  
  
• Wait your turn
  
  
• The Geist fears the troops
  
  
• You Rally the Troops
  
  
• Thanks to Relentless, We start the next round early in the turn order
  
  
• Now we have the option to either:
  A) Rally the Troops a second time if morale is still shattered
  B) Wait again if morale is raised. Depending on how things go this round, we can Recover, or repeat the cycle.
  
  
• Conclusion: Relentless functions as a kind of passive Adrenaline. When combined with Recover during windows of opportunity, it turns the sergeant into a rallying machine. Moreover, if you bring two of these guys, never fear, theGeistbustersare here.

Tactics

• Embrace the relentless-rally-recover combo. or completely ignore the combo and do as you normally would
  
  
• Give your sergeant the hyena fur mantle and/or pop a cat potion to buff his initiative
  
  
• Quickhands to a whip for disarming on demand
  
  
• Distance matters, move closer to the breaking troops before you rally
  
  
• Pop Rally the Troops to mass-awaken your allies vs. Alps

Conclusion

[Bug Space]

Dude's just having fun. Express some creativity and let it inspire your own builds.

[Hormesis]

genuinely feel bad for anyone who reads/follows this. title should be: here's how to play like me! in case you don't feel like playing yourself. might as well watch this dude stream instead, save yourself hundreds of playing the game/farming

[ppp12312344]

Nicely written guide. However I would say your take on bannerman is flawed, you really don't want to go before the geists
Geists have 95 initiative. Generally without investing into initiative your banner brothers should go after them after gears
Going before geists:
Turn starts --> your bannerman has nothing to do so pass --> geist screams --> your brother breaks/flees --> the fleeing brothers get pushed to the end of the non-waiting rounds--> fleeing brothers have their turn before bannerman and run/taking AoO --> your line breaks
The ideal scenario is:
Turn starts --> geist screams --> your brother breaks/flees --> the fleeing brothers get pushed to the end of the non-waiting rounds (that's how fleeing turn order works) --> your bannerman's turn before the fleeing brothers --> you rally and stop them from running --> your now rallied brothers can have their turn
Which is why having high initiative is actually pretty detrimental to the functionality against gheists specifically

[Kato Kaelin, Eternal Guest]

Great guide. I've been using a lot of polearm/xbow hybrids as well as liberally using throwing weapons on everyone, which have been great for midgame...but I neglected to get a Sarg or deadicated cleaver/whipper etc.

Current playthru might be hosed, but your guide will help on next.

[Nerdgasm]

I love the bardiche and wish I would've put more emphasis on it for the guide. I would 100% advocate to replace 1 of the greatswords with a bardiche. I think it's superior to the greatsword in a lot of ways, really strong in the front line due to the line attack as you mentioned. Amazing weapon, one of my favourites and very underrated. In my opinion the bardiche is way better than the greataxe with the 6 tile aoe swing. I find that's just too reckless so it feels like a wasted opportunity cost, then again I'm just not a big fan of lone wolf builds so I am biased against the greataxe and highly favour the bardiche because it keeps your bros tight in formation and can hit the enemy back line.

[Nerdgasm]

"Also, do you generally have enough Fatigue for Quick Hands on 2H characters?"
Yes, my favourite start is peasant militia and I generally aim for farmhands, or miltia backgrounds for their good fatigue. Where I get filtered fatigue-wise is when adding a weapon into the third slot. It pretty much needs to be a dagger or you'll be over encumbered. I wish I could have a polehammer, 2handed hammer, and 1handed hammer but it's too heavy. There's also the secret Russian loadout that uses bags and belts to solve this issue. You do like you normally would with quickhands to polearm, then stack a bunch of 1handed weapons in the empty slots.

[Lampros]

One more: What do you think about a bardiche instead of a greatsword? I am not fond of greatswords due to their inability to do much against heavily armored targets, and bardiches have the same line AoE and does much more damage against armored targets in general. Of course, it doesn't have the half circle AoE, but I find heavily armored targets most problematic enemies in this game.

[Lampros]

Also, do you generally have enough Fatigue for Quick Hands on 2H characters? 2H builds are Fatigue-intensive as is, and carrying an extra 2H weapon really weighs you down. Of course, I am currently playing a Cultist campaign (where you do have extra Fatigue), so I am trying your Quick Hands build. But I wonder if it is inconvenient in a non-Cultist campaign.

[Lampros]

Got it - thanks for the responses. On cleaver duelists: I've never really used cleavers, preferring maces or hammers. But I was going to try them after reading your guide. Also, I had previously run 4 tanks in a group of 12, but I am going to reduce their number going forward. Still, no tanks is a bit too risky for this coward! ;)

[Nerdgasm]

@Lampros
I always field the cleaver duelists when facing undead. The whip is really nice for disarming the polearm skeletons, the lower AP cost of duelist is nice when combined with berserk, and the decapitate ability is great vs. zombies. I suppose it's not ideal, the ideal loadout probably being pure maces and hammers but I find it gets tiring trying to game the system too much, so I aim for versatility vs. minmaxed specialization in most cases.