Battle Brothers

> New Bro. Amazing stat, amazing traits. A true god of war

> Get an arrow in the eye during his first fight

> Survive, because he's too angry to die

> After three month, he become a true legend among the company. He manages to protect flanks alone, saves several battles single-handedly. One-Eye is a beast, a monster, equipped with the best weapons and armor. New recruits join the company just for the honor of fighting alongside him. He is a symbol, an inspiration to all those dreaming of another life. He killed everything that lives (or doesn't) and walks. Bandit, noble house, orc warrior, wiederganger, nachzehrer, unhold, alp, hex, barbarian king, lindwurm, necrosavant

> Returning from a difficult contract, the company attacks goblin marauders

> One-Eye charges sword-armored goblin. Miss. Three other goblins jump on him, crits, kebab him against a tree, and kills him


I swear, i love this game. Probably one of the more complex turn based tactical RPG ever.
You don't just need raw power, but also long and short-term strategy. Know your weapons, their particularities, but also your enemies' fighting styles and methods. Some strategies and weapons, effective against one type of enemy, will prove useless against others.

The game offers you an experience that's uncommon these days. Here, forget the idea of "min max" to have the perfect mercenary band. You won't succeed. You must adapt. Every day. With every encounter. With every death. Yeah, your Bro are going to die. But don't reload your game. Each death, each blow is a new lesson. And in the end, it's your enemies who will fear you... Until you get too confident and get crushed. Again. But it's okay. It's just a new lesson. The only failure is giving up. But your company needs you. Don't make this mistake.

Really fun game, but...
The only problem is there are so many anti-tactical things that stop you from being able to plan. "If bad luck makes your plan fail it wasn't a good plan" How am I meant to make a plan when I have no idea on the terrain, very limited troop placement, inconsistent enemies and task difficulties and vague mechanics. It's a shame because it's a really fun game and I would recommend it but the steep learning curve also comes with a frustrating realisation that the game is more shallow that you think it will be.

It's... so good... SO, SO GOOD. You can really appreciate how well tought everything the more you play it. How you discover little strategies, and how to beat whatever random smuck wiped you out last run. Distinct enemies actually matter and play differently. Just in the same faction (Undead) you have. Skeletons, who always move last but won't tire out: They are all with shileds and will play the long game to eventually tire your brothers. Zombies: Easy to kill, but they are a lot, and I mean A LOT. They respawn if you don't decapitate them. Ghosts: Stand in the back and spam fear so your brothers flee. Without being able to control them, they're as good as dead. Die in one hit. The catch? You have to take the horde of zombies separating you WHILE they spam fear. Not only that, you have a fixed 5% chance to hit them with ranged, forcing you to go close.
You see them, you die slowly and horribly... and then you learn. Skellys have shields? No matter, axes break them and flails ignore their defense bonuses. Zombies respawn? Not if you use cleavers, that always decapitate enemies. The ghosts make you unable to control troops? Go from 2 sides, since their attack is a kind of cone that can't hit everything at once. Also use the skill RALLY to give morale to your fleeing brothers. THE WHOLE GAME IS LIKE THIS.
The bad: This game is NOT for everyone. Losing company after company hurts, specially when you started to like your bros. They can get permanent injuries, wich almost always means you have to dispose of them anyways. I wish we could treat them, even if costly. It's sad to have to push them away and you'll slowly de-humanize them, like disposable tools. I don't want to play like that man.
The other problem is skills. While Bros are clearly NOT made equal, everyone has access to the same skill tree. Sadly, some skills are REAL bad in comparison with others. Some examples are Brawny, that should really give you more that what it gives, and that the best skill that you could pair it with, the light armor expert one, specifically states that doesn't apply. I think buffing these "low tier skills" would do marvels for the build creativity.
The other is the weapon expert skills. You basically specialize your bro in one type specifically. The problem is that some weapons, like bows and crossbows, are usable in only certain scenarios (skellys are almost inmune to long range for example) and a lot of times it's best to just use the type of weapon the enemy is specifically weak to. This is kinda aliviated by the fact that you don't always know what's jumping at you in the middle of the forest at 3 am, but still.
So yeah, absolute marvel of a game, losing is fun, buff ranged and low tier skills please. Fuck you Hoggart.

Summary
Battle Brothers is a fun and rewarding experience IF you are willing to invest time and effort.
By time, I mean you'll probably spend the first 4 hours figuring out all the different scenarios that you'll encounter.
By effort, I mean you need to learn from different guides explaining the game's systems.
This is more of a planning and resource management game rather than a combat focused game.
If what you’re looking for is casual fun, play on the easiest difficulty, because even normal difficulty will cause you problems if you don’t understand the systems properly.
Check out CarveaHole, FeedingFriendly, and FilthyRobot on YouTube for guides.
What to expect in terms of gameplay
You would think that combat is the focus of the game, but its more like the "proof" if your plan works.
Planning is a significant part of the game that reviews don’t talk about.
Determining the direction to go when exploring the overworld.
Checking each mercenary’s stats and spending skill points.
Equipping appropriate gear on your mercenaries.
Evaluating the risk/reward ratio of contracts.
Post-Battle analysis
These are activities you will do A LOT, especially in the early-mid game.
Skipping over these will hurt you in the long run.
Resource Management is another significant part of the game that reviews don’t talk about.
Money
Gear durability
Food
Medical Supplies
Mercenaries
These are resources that you have to properly manage, especially in the early-mid game.
Resources are more important than combat. Certain enemies become irrelevant when your mercenaries are decked out with strong gear.
If it sounds like a lot of information, that’s because it is, and we haven’t even talked about combat yet.
The combat mechanics are based on dice rolls.
You can really get screwed over by the dice rolls in the game. Risk mitigation is the best way to approach combat. Rolling for a 50% chance is exciting, but not a reliable way to play the game. This will lead to you not playing the game how you want.
Want a mercenary to become a 2-handed axe wielder? Too bad, he will probably miss more than half his swings, and since he doesn’t have a shield, he’ll die after missing his attacks.
Objectively speaking, spears and shields are the most reliable way for you to get out of the early game.
Cool-sounding builds will only come online somewhere during the mid-late game.
Reward
The systems I’ve mentioned above do interlock in a satisfying way once you’ve gotten the hang of them. Struggling through the early game with your mercenary band and slowly building them up to defeat the late game crisis is an experience that this game uniquely offers. Cliche as it may sound, this game is about the journey, not the destination.
The price for this reward?
Learning the game’s systems through guides, and applying what you’ve learned through trial and error.
Play on the easiest difficulty if you want to roleplay and live out the mercenary fantasy :)

This is one of the best underrated gems that you will ever find, provided you have the time and patience to learn its ins and outs. It has great story telling, many events that are character specific, many great battles, skirmishes, unlikely allies and monsters! Overall a really great experience that can be frustrating at times, especially if you're newer, so I recommend playing on beginner difficulty the first few tens of hours, especially if you're not used to these types of rather unforgiving but highly rewarding games. I would honestly hope for either a sequel or more content for this game because the developers have struck gold.

this game is Fantastic.
that probably won't be your first thought about it though. it has a weird, rather "minimal" look , it has classic turn based model combat, and , let's face it, the game is hard, and will generate a lot of frustration on your first runs (possibly on a lot of next ones, not gonna lie).
what i love about this game is that you start with kinda blank sheet and story of your recruits will write itself along the numerous encounters you will face. your favorites characters will have awful frustrating death, to some goblin poison while you won't be able to do anything about, or receving an arrow right in the head from a loosy poacher when you thought the fight was in control.
As a fan of "The Black Company" books saga from Glen Cook (dark fantasy wich i highly recommand), where you follow the evolution of a mercenay company through the eyes of company's analyst (historian), i enjoy feeling like i'm taking on this role. You'll get attached to some characters , that will probably die anyway, and characters you didn't care, for some reasons, will survive many injuries and became the unsung heroes of your company.
it's just a great game if you like turn based tactical, medieval, are willing to take losses, give the game a bit of time before you can fully apreciate it.

I have an obscene amount of hours clocked in this game and an itch to put in more that I have to suppress otherwise I wouldn't get much experience playing other games.

The game has a pretty steep learning curve, does not hold your hand, or offer much in the form of guidance. But it is oh so rewarding when you do get the hang of it and are able to take on the more challenging battles the game has to offer.

My favorite Turn-Based Strategy game ever. If you're on the fence, play this and profit.