Wartales

Wartales is tricky for me to recommend. I really love this game, a lot. I love not being the hyper important chosen one just doing stuff that becomes important, I love turn based combat, I love little interactions between members of my troop to make random, personal stories, I love having animal companions of various types. I love the story being grounded in low-fantasy medieval style for the most part, but being loose enough for exceptions(you want a female mercenary? All fine. You want 70 individual mercenaries and animals in your troop? Sure. You capture an animal? It's fighting for you instantly no matter what it is. Fables and adventure tales? Real if you go looking, within reason and the worlds lore).
However, the game is far from perfect. There are ads for DLC within the world itself which is frustrating to deal with if you don't own it. The walking and running speed is slow even with horses with horseshoes to speed up movement. The game is not balanced well after lower levels, but you can take this as a power fantasy. Then the power fantasy becomes a slog again because it never switches up combat unless you're doing DLC content. There's also just flat out better and worse classes in game. A Swordsmaster can kill off an entire combat encounter in one turn if you play it right. The grind for your Profession(a separate add-on for your character to be a Cook, Bard, Miner etc. for a bonus and to interact with the world) is not balanced at all and very oriented to repetition to the point it's frustrating. Those small random interactions to personalize your playthrough repeat on a loop, same wording and all, just picking random companions. I truly wish there was more variety because the mechanic starts showing more than the emergent storytelling.
The biggest problem in the game is twofold. There's no end point, and scenarios don't change much when complete. So you just stop playing when you're done with no overall satisfaction to 'your' mercenary troop unless you're imaginative, and there's very little replay value because after a scenario is finished the world doesn't change very much to respond to your choices and there's only A or B outcome.
WarTales is also buggy, sometimes critically so. And the DLC as mentioned are fairly expensive and numerous for what they are. This is a game tailor made for me, but it's probably best around $15-20 USD.
Tips and Tricks for the interested:
-I always keep 1 prisoner in camp to swap around to professions I don't care for or don't want to drop progress for. A trait can crop up to give you a bonus for this, too
-You can recruit prisoners you capture, but they are not worth it. The exceptions are Wrongdoer(good for every playthrough, 30% Crit bonus party-wide does not stack with more than one), Juggler(good for animal focused troops), and Purifier(good for Guard)
-Animals count in Adaptive towards enemy count. A bear for example spawn ~3 more enemies, despite the creature attacking once per turn.
-Special recruits with a small backstory usually have special traits or an extra Skill
-Any and all DLC should be picked up on sale, but the only ones I found worth the price were the Skelmar and Belerion
-Personally, if you play Adaptive, try favoring a small troop under 8 active combatants. Because if you have like 70 fighters, the game will have 90+ and eventually you're taking hour(s) on a single combat encounter. For example.
-Your best friend in this game is going to be Movement. Seriously, invest in Movement at least a little and be prepared to add Layer of Fox to your materials

"Great... but ultimately flawed. While I love the core experience, the combat becomes excessively belabored by the midpoint. The most egregious issue, however, is the aggressive monetization: leaving in-game hooks for over $100 worth of DLC (triple the base game's price) is a cheap immersion-breaker. Placing a prominent, inaccessible castle that constantly begs for a purchase is a crime."

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 highly recommend the base game for anybody that likes strategy rpgs. Great graphics, low dependence on rng, immersive area based stories. However, I DO NOT recommend any of the DLC's unless you get them on a really good sale. Each DLC either offers such little content it should have been included in the game or is massively overpriced for the content it does add. For example, base game may include something like 4-5 regions for about $40. Then they'll charge $20 to add 1 more region. The DLC's are blatant cash grabs.

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.

I have never wished harder for a "meh" option on Steam. Wartales takes 100 hours to finish but 15 hours to be done with. It has dozens of systems - none of them are bad, but all of them are paper thin. Progression is just fast enough to keep you going but never enough to be satisfying. There's always something to do, but not a single highlight.

I am putting Wartales away after beating a bandit troupe 3 levels above my party. This has both exhausted the skill ceiling for the game and rewarded me with several items I won't be allowed to equip for 20 more hours. Though time in Wartales passes in a not-unpleasant haze, I have suddenly realized that life is too short and precious for more of this.

I understand some of the gripes from longtime players here in the reviews pulling the game down to mixed overall, but god is that so misleading on the overall quality of this game. There is an absolute treasure trove on content here, even if you don't buy a single DLC. At about 40 hours in right now I am about halfway(?) done with the available content and still have tons more ahead of me. The overall gameplay loop is in credibly rewarding and very fun to engage with.
Having to take care of your troops paying them and feeding them, everyone having preferences and specializations, all are really well done and fit perfectly in the world. Crafting or finding upgraded gear is done in a way that feels natural and not forced, but still incredibly rewarding.
Exploring the world is incredibly fun, combat is both engaging as well as terrifying at times because if one of your members die in combat, that is it, they are gone for good. It is one of the only turn bases games I have ever played where combat actually carries some weight and risk with it.
This is a phenomenal example of how to do an RPG correctly. With the overwhelming piles of AAA slop that saturate the gaming space today, seeing a title that is made with heart and soul is a rare find.
I only grabbed this game because I saw it on sale for $13, and god that was a steal. One of the few games out right now that is well worth the full asking price.
There are a couple of small cons I have, but they are wildly overshadowed by all the good that permeates every corner of this game.
The overall "mixed" reviews are egregiously out of touch with the experience a new player will have in this game for the first time. If you like turn-based combat or RPG open world games just do yourself a favor and pick up this gem.