Battle Brothers
Battle Brothers is a turn based tactical RPG which has you leading a mercenary company in a gritty, low-power, medieval fantasy world. You decide where to go, whom to hire or to fight, what contracts to take and how to train and equip your men in a procedurally generated open world campaign. Do you have what it takes to lead them through bloody battles and to victory? The game consists of a strategic worldmap and a tactical combat layer. On the worldmap you can freely travel in order to take contracts that earn you good coin, find places worth looting, enemies worth pursuing or towns to resupply and hire men at. This is also where you manage, level up and equip your Battle Brothers. Once you engage a hostile party the game will switch to a tactical map where the actual fighting takes place as detailed turn based combat. Manage a medieval mercenary company in a procedurally generated open world.
Steam User 132
I have nearly 500 hours in this game and I still play in the easiest difficulty.
Steam User 96
I recommend this game to those who come home from a stressful day at work and just want to sit back, relax, and throw your computer out the window in rage and anger.
I recommend this game to those who want to sit down with a glass of whiskey, listen to smooth jazz, play this game, and throw your glass and bottle at the monitor.
I recommend this game to those who want that chill and wonderful Stardew Valley experience but liked to get disappointed like their own son failing at life.
Because this is what that game is.
Not a chill experience.
Not a wonderful time.
But pure anger, rage, and death.
..and you will somehow want to keep trying and trying again until you finally reach at least 100 hours of game play and realize, you still rage quit after 3 hours of playing your next new campaign.
And I don't play on beginners mode because that's for a chill and relaxing rage but no quitting experience.
---- Additional Observations @ 100 hrs ----
"I got this. Overcame my frustration with this game hitting my 100th hour. My guys die all the time. It's all good. Yeah, whatever. Not gonna let this game get to me..."
Merc 1 @ 75% Hit misses (roll 80)
Merc 2 @ 85% Hit misses (roll 92)
Merc 3 @ 90% Hit misses (roll 91)
Dog @ 85% Hit misses (roll 86)
Zomb 1 @ 17% Hit (roll 15), Crit, Kill Merc 1
Zomb 2 @ 25% Hit (roll 17), Headshot Crit, Decapitate Merc 2
Zomb 3 @ 10% Hit (roll 3), Kill Dog
Ally Heavy Crossbow NPC @ 95% Hit misses (roll 100), Accidental Hit and Kill Merc 3 in the back.
GAME OVER
...the fridge has now been thrown out the window along with my laundry machine, TV, my own son who is failing at life, game monitor and dinner table...
---- Additional Observations @ 150 hrs ----
Bro's rolling at 85, 87, 90, 100, 100, 75, 26 (over a 25 hit rate)
Enemy rolling at 16, 12, 19, 7, 4 (under a 5)
Campaign Over
(Me grabbing my beer bottle and smashing it on the floor)
HAHAHAHA WTF!!! SUCH A TURD GAME!! AGAIN!!!!
SON, BEER ME!!!
WOMAN, CLEAN THE FLOOR!!!
Steam User 84
do you like missing 4 critical attacks with a chance of 70 percent each in a row which causes your most valued brother whom you spent 120 days training to be brutally disemboweled by an orc, all while a banger soundtrack is playing in the background?
then this game is for you
Steam User 527
I'm 64-years-old and I've played Battle Brothers 555 hours because it's a great game. Also because it's the only game that will run on the old computer in the nursing home. Each night I pray for a visit from either the Free Computer Fairy or the Sweet Angel of Death. Either is fine, really.
Steam User 50
Let me tell you about Melvin. Used to be a butcher. Joined the crew months ago, back near the beginning, back when we were scraping by, barely enough money to keep our weapons repaired. But he stayed around, sometimes grousing, sometimes drinking, always fighting. Somehow, through grit and luck, Melvin got himself a big shield and a shiny hammer. Convinced the rest of us to trust him, brave and reliable. Always keeping us safe. And then an orc cut off his head. ... So, let me tell you about Ivar. Used to be a hunter ...
I love Battle Brothers' stories. In this turn-based tactical strategy game, set in a somewhat fantastical medieval world, the player commands a rag-tag band of soldiers, all of different backgrounds, all of randomly distributed skills and traits. Because of the procedurally generated variants–maps, available items, enemy distribution, etc.--the game has substantial replayability.
A fair piece of the game's strategic difficulty comes from selecting and developing one's soldiers. There's never enough money to afford the best mercenaries, those with substantial combat experience, ability, and armor. Instead, the player bolsters the squad with average workers--farmers and fishermen, maybe a barber or tailor--and hopes they live long enough to become useful. Part of that utility comes from shaping the characters' stats and perks, awarded with each level up. These choices help the characters to specialize: before long, the band will have swordsmen and archers, sneak-thieves and heavily armored tanks. Each of these choices opens up different character abilities and playstyles, though not all of them work equally well against all kinds of foes.
At times, the game’s difficulty borders on unfair. On a first playthrough, the player won’t be sure of different enemies’ movesets and weaknesses. Many fights have uneven numbers, and the enemies will often be better equipped than the player’s troop, especially in the game’s first weeks. There’s a lot of unlucky rolls and unexpected deaths. Though the player usually has a choice to abandon battles, these retreats aren’t always successful. More than once, I’ve had a retreating soldier sniped down by an especially accurate bowman. Because each character has been personally selected and developed to bolster the team, each casualty feels awful. Though it would be easy to give up, stomping away from the game’s cruelty, the better path is to recruit someone new and try to rebuild. … or maybe to start the playthrough fresh.
I’ve started so many games of Battle Brothers, each time full of confidence that this time I’ll win. And sometimes I do: sometimes I play so effectively for so long that the game warns me to stop the playthrough. There are no more challenges ahead; it’ll all be trivial. There’s some joy in wandering about, destroying the very characters who once killed your band of brothers. But what I prefer is the beginning, the struggle to survive. And there’s such variety at the start: Battle Brothers has a host of selectable starting conditions, from three mercenaries trying to build a company to a horde of pitchfork-wielding peasants who’ve abandoned their indentures. There are cultists and hunters, gladiators and a wandering knight. These game starts vary in difficulty–some of them feel impossible–but each time I start a playthrough, I’m hopeful to take part in an interesting story of camaraderie. On this front, Battle Brothers almost always succeeds.
Incidentally, if a player prefers not to struggle against a steep learning curve and difficult odds, there are many resources available to help them figure out the best way to play. There are theory-crafted meta builds, ideal weapon setups, YouTube walkthroughs aplenty. I’ve preferred not to use these, because I want my men to survive by the barest margins, not waltz through the challenges as a team of superheroes. Along with these useful guides, Battle Brothers also has a significant collection of useful community-created mods. Notable among these are those that speed up the game’s movement. Despite the adventure of it all, walking from city to city or waiting for enemies to attack can be a downright plodding snoozefest.
Even when I lose, Battle Brothers is a game to which I keep returning. It’s replayable, engaging, and perhaps even a little “addictive.” The hours fly by–one more battle, one more city, one more trade route. There’s depth to the glory and the defeats, and for me, that makes it worth buying.
Recommended. Strongly.
Steam User 61
XCOM 3: Mount & Blade Dark Souls Prepare to Die Edition
Steam User 48
This game is a bastard...
Ironman mode only. That's how I play it, that's all I know. This game chews you up and spits you out.
You will spend time building a company, make progress, and begin to grow attached to the grim troops you command. Then they will all die in a lopsided hopeless battle you should have avoided. You will become certain that anything below 75% hit chance will miss. You will utter tirades of profanity at the malicious system behind the game. Then, after you stare at the final bloody remains of your annihilated company and read the depressing epilogue, you'll start again.
Why? Because the atmosphere is awesome, the strategic depth is deceptively vast, and the few successes you have feel so sweet in the face of certain doom.