Wartales

You guys should release a Mercenary Guild DLC next and let us run an adventure like guild where we can send extra party members off for side missions or to accept contracts to assist wars and protect villages from raiders and bandits. Or even better release a DLC that lets us build a Mercenary Outpost or Base of operations as a main hub or settlement for our crew.

Absolutely great game with huge potential.
I hope devs will make more DLC and I hope there will be more sailing.
Vanilla game: 10/10
If You like turn based battles, crafting, resource management. Progress and upgrade.
Pirates of Belerion: 12/10
Shame is not a part of vanilla with sailing everwhere.
Absololutly great DLC.
The Tavern Opens!: 7/10
Great idea - but mechanics could be better. I should can take and store products.
The Skelmar Invasion: 8/10
More wartales, so DLC is ok but could be better.
Missing sea battles with skelmars.
The Beast Hunt: 7/10
Good but very short and story could have some twist.
The Pits: ???
Does't look like DLC I'm looking for.
What I'm missing?
1. Own castle or citadel where You can keep prisoners, regroup forces and build and upgrade Your properties.
2. Mounted battles with riders
3. Did I mension about more sailing? :)
4. more minor profession (this smith, thief, etc) - some cleric or priest? healer? porter? peddler? barber? sharp with cards? tailor?
5. camp tools for groups ot this same profession
6. advenced armor and weapon customisation using mix of smith, handyman nad alchemist reciepies.
7. some rouste leage?

I cannot put a negative review, but I'm far from being completely positive either on Wartales.
It's a 3D clone of Battle Brothers, without the replayability of BB as it's a predefined map. The fights quickly become too easy, and the game quickly becomes repetitive. It doesn't bring me to the same "zone" that BB did, I cannot put a finger on why.
If you don't like the low graphics of Battle Brothers, don't want to be infuriated after roll dices, but still want this vibe of guiding your own Mercenary band, prefer Wartales over Battle Brothers.

Alright. I think it's time to talk about Wartales, one of the ultimate TRPGs you might ever see. Comically, I'm 200 hours into my playthrough and I still haven't finished the base campaign (although I am pretty close to the end at this point). I'd guess between the remainder of the main campaign and the DLC, I'll be closer to 300 hours playtime by the time I wrap it all up. And that should already be an indication of what you can expect from this game.
There are a lot of systems at play within the game, from the actual tactical battles to the overland exploration to managing your mercenaries, crafting, wrapping up side quests and area scenarios, and so on. And that doesn't even factor in the DLC, which adds more layers of gameplay to the experience. If you want depth in a game, this is that game.
Curiously, I still haven't gotten bored of any of this, which is a bit anomalous for me personally. Now, I do think my playtime is in some part a reflection of how much I'm enjoying the larger scale battles. The game scales to some extent the enemy numbers in battle to match or at least get close to how many mercenaries you have. And I have around 70, lol. Not all are combatants though. All but two of my horses (ponies) are pack horses. Two of them have the bloodthirsty trait though, and they do end up in the battle, lol.
So, let's talk about your mercenary company. You start out with a couple mercenaries and have the ability to recruit more from the various inns throughout the game. Each usually has three potential recruits, and they change as time passes. You can hire each for "x" amount of cash and prestige points (both are required). Each potential mercenary has a class and will choose a subclass as they level up. The classes are swordsman, brute, archer, ranger, spearman, crossbowman, warrior, and pugilist. All of them are very useful, and having a good mix of all of them is optimal. You will eventually choose a captain and three lieutenants from your crew, and there is an advantage to doing so, but mostly you will forget about that pretty quickly. You will also be able to recruit mercenaries from the prison in each land, and often, these are the best mercenary recruits. Beyond that, you will occasionally meet other potential recruits via completing quests or meeting at certain locations.
But that's not all, lol. You can also capture almost any enemy, and they can also be recruited into your troop. For animals, it's as simple as capturing them. They immediately join your troop. For human and certain inhuman prisoners, you have to travel with them for a while, and if you manage to keep them from escaping, they will periodically ask to join your troop as well. And typically, these troops have different classes than what I mentioned above. Such as Marauder, Macebearer, Poacher, and so on. They're kinda like stripped down versions of what you already have, with a focused and limited upgrade tree. There is a little bit of challenge in capturing some enemies, not because the act is difficult, but rather because you can often one shot certain enemies, and so if you need to capture something with a lower hit point total, you will need to go out of your way to have one of your weaker mercenaries do the deed. And this does factor into several quests where it is actually required to capture "x" enemies for whatever reason, so it's something to keep in mind. An enemy is only able to be captured when they're down to like 10% of their health total.
Speaking of upgrade trees, this is where the RPG mechanics start to factor in. As you level up, you will level up your stats (such as strength and constitution) but will also gain new abilities at certain intervals. You will generally have three to choose from, although occasionally four, and you can also learn new ones via scrolls that then become available as a selection as well. It's a fairly robust system, and there really is no filler at all in any of the class ability trees. Animals also level up, but they generally only have one or two abilities to choose from at various level intervals. No less useful though, overall. Additionally, a lot of abilities have a second tier that can be unlocked via the use of skillbooks which can be purchased from special vendors (trainers and black market merchants generally).
Crafting is also featured prominently in this game, and each craftable item needs to be learned first, either via knowledge points, which you earn through travel, encounters, exploration, etc...; or can be learned via recipe scrolls which can be found or purchased pretty much everywhere. Generally, vendors will have a couple specific ones each. For example, an alchemist will have a couple alchemy recipes. An innkeeper will have a few food recipes. Blacksmith for smithing recipes. But they are also given as quest rewards and can be found in some treasure chests or stashes as well. Crafting is important, in no small part because
You will often need to craft upgraded weapons and armor to keep your troop properly equipped. You'll find it advantageous to craft special items to buff your gear and stats. To heal. And most important, you will need to cook food for your mercenaries. Who will need to eat whenever you camp. And you will need to camp because there is also a fatigue meter. Camping resets your fatigue meter, feeds your troops, pays your troops every third camp, and as you progress and unlock more stuff, you will also use your camp to craft certain items, research rare books and artifacts found, actually cook your food, and plenty else besides.
There is another points system in the game which serves as an additional type of upgrade. These points are earned by achieving specific goals in the game. Such as picking "x" amount of lock. Killing the enemy leader first "x" amount of times. Finding new locations. And so on. This specific system is reminiscent of what you might be familiar with in games like Borderlands. Only, instead of small percentage buffs, the actual rewards are in four different categories, and have a variety of end results, such as getting better market prices, being more efficient while crafting, learning to be fine with eating the corpses of your enemies, and so on, lol. And each of the four categories can be leveled up to 12. These unlock certain quests at level intervals as well. For example, one category unlocks the ability to open a trade post in a major city, and as you level up, you earn the right to open more trade posts. Which have a couple functions, the main one being fast travel between cities.
Each land has its defacto capital city. Most are actually towns, but there is one actual city as well. And each land has its own story scenario, which will take the form of multiple quests designed to bring you to one of two outcomes, which concludes the story for an area. However, each land also has a lot of side quests to complete as well.
And I've already reached the character limit for a Steam review while only having scratched the surface of what this game offers. It's about as expansive and detailed a TRPG as you might find, and it mixes in a lot of simulation type stuff as well. If you like detail and enjoy diving into the minutia of multiple systems, this is definitely the game for you.
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There's way too many factors that peaked my enjoyment for Wartales that I find it difficult to pick the best topic to start off for this review. That being said, I can say I love every single aspect of the game so far EXCEPT for the Rhythm mini games for the bard profession but that's simply because I really really suck at it.
Now I found there's a bit of every aspects of games that I like in Wartales. From Runescape's movement, Fire Emblem's combat, Point and Click Indie game puzzle solving, Bannerlord's traversal, Progression systems of JRPGs, Conan Exile's capture system, Resource Management, Troop Management, Base Management, World Building management, Side stories and Exploration. There's probably many more that i've yet to discover since I've only 100%'d one area of the world so far. That still doesn't include the DLC's I can definitely see myself going over 500hrs in total in Wartales with this amount of replay-ability.
It's a tough game, for me at least. I'm playing on the Normal Difficulty and it's already been a challenge. You can basically play however you want like so far I only tried leading a team of 4-8 characters looks like we can definitely add more as there's no indication of any limit. You can be nice to everyone or be a dick it is completely up to you.
Story wise? there's stuff going on in the world sure but you and your team isn't in the center of it. Like you can participate in conflict and help each side on different battles and that's the beauty of wartales. My friend says the way I describe Wartales is that it's a sandbox game. Doesn't feel like it, but I understand why it comes across that way.
Will update once i try out the DLCs but for now this review is solely on the base game 100hours in.

Wartales - An adventure that never ends
After more than 240 hours, I can say with certainty: Wartales has completely captivated me. Just finishing the main game took forever, but that's exactly what I love about it. There is always something to do, always a new challenge - and when you think you've seen everything, you still find a hidden detail, a new tactic or a nasty ambush that puts the whole group to the test.
What I particularly like is the level scaling system. Each region gets harder the further you progress, but that doesn't mean you have to forget the old areas. Quite the opposite: you can return to the starting region at any time and strengthen yourself with ease, train new recruits or improve equipment. This system ensures a pleasant balance of challenge and reward.
A little tip: If you find the pendulum at some point, be sure to return to your very first starting point and use it there. I won't say what happens - but believe me, it's worth it!
I also bought the DLC The Skelmar Invasion... but after 240 hours I haven't even started it yet. Why? Because my fighters still haven't reached level 12. And believe me, if you're under level 12, this DLC is more of a suicide mission than a worthwhile challenge. So it's better to keep leveling up before you plunge into your own doom.
All in all, Wartales is a great game for anyone who loves turn-based combat, an open world, and countless hours of strategic gameplay. Once you get sucked in, you won't be able to get out so easily - and that's exactly what I want from a game.
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After more than 200h I can say that this game is really good. The main mission are interesting and your decisions are important.
You can have a huge group (mine is more than 22) so money and food could be a challenge.
Each region has their on history and I liked that some even has different accents.
At first sight I never thought this game will have such deep lore and world building, it feel really rich and real. I hope they keep making it deeper and expanding it.
The graphics are good, the finishing combos and the blood is one of the things never bored me.
The only bad thing is that at the end your mercenaries are so powerful that most battles are more a chore than a challenge.
Still, I really recommend it.
Note: I play on Linux, sometimes it won't open but trying to change the version of proton could help. I played 200h Linux so instability wasn´t a problem