GAMERS DECIDE - Battle Brothers

[Top 10] Battle Brothers Best Perks That Are Great

SerMattzio — Wed, 18 May 2022 20:53:49 +0000

Which Perks should I pick in Battle Brothers and why?

Battle Brothers tasks you with building your fledgling Middle-Ages mercenary company into a force to be reckoned with. Every level up provides you not only with increased stats, but “Perk” points, which can be spent on unique abilities for your characters.

These perks are in fact central to building an effective fighting machine, so let’s have a look at some of the best!

10. Student

Student gives you a helping hand with levelling up

Student is a perk which is a little boring on the surface, but extremely handy. Picking Student gives your characters an extra 20% experience until they hit Level 11. When you hit Level 11, you’re even refunded the Perk point to use on something else!

If you’re intending to keep a recruit for a significant length of time, it’s pretty much a no-brainer and it’s sensible to get it on everyone you can.

Strengths:

Helps your men to level up faster, useful since enemies get tougher the longer the game goes on.
More experience is always useful.
Your characters get far more effective when they are levelled up.
Minimises the amount of time your men are horribly ineffective in combat.
Perk point is refunded once you hit Level 11 and can be spent on something else.

Weaknesses:

Delays you from using the perk point for something else that might be useful for your first level up.
Doesn’t help you in combat in any way.
Not very useful on poor recruits who don’t have much development potential.

9. Indomitable

When you're on the defence this perk is great

Much of your struggle in Battle Brothers comes from keeping your men alive as they take hits. Some enemies, such as those with two-handed weapons and beastly enemies such as Schrats, can put out a huge amount of damage. Sometimes, no matter your Melee Defence stat, you’re going to have to be able to survive the blows.

Indomitable comes in very handy here. For a cost of 5 Action Points and 25 Fatigue, you can reduce all incoming damage by 50% for the next turn. It also grants immunity to being stunned, knocked back or grabbed for this period.

The skill is most handy against Orcs (as it negates their charging stun attack), Unholds, Schrats and any other opponent who does a large amount of armour piercing damage, such as Barbarian Chosen.

Unfortunately, you’ll have to wait until your character hits Level 8 before you can choose this perk, as it’s part of the final tier of available skills.

Strengths:

Reduce incoming damage on one character by 50% for a turn.
Prevents you from being stunned when active.
Greatly increases survivability against enemies who do a large amount of armour piercing damage.
Reducing the damage so much lessens the chance of taking debilitating injuries from enemy attacks.
Works best on your “tanks”, characters designed to take hits and distract enemies.
Works well in conjunction with good Defence stats.

Weaknesses:

Costs a considerable amount of Fatigue to use.
Prevents your character from attacking that turn due to the Action Point cost.
Does not reduce your chances of being hit.

8. Gifted

Grabbing some early bonus stats can make all the difference

The statistics of your soldiers are of vital importance in Battle Brothers. In particular, attack and defence skills are key to the effectiveness of your men, and this is where Gifted proves itself an excellent perk.

Early-game especially, your company will be struggling to survive battles and level up. Gifted essentially gives you a free level-up; this is complete with maximum possible dice rolls for your stats on this skill-up, to ensure they get a +3 or +4 boost to each stat you choose, depending on the soldier’s talents.

While an extra +3 to Melee Defence, Melee Attack and Fatigue may seem like a small bonus for the exchange of a Perk point, Gifted can transform weaker soldiers into capable frontliners in the early game. It can also be used to simply further boost promising soldiers and make them useful earlier.

Archers and ranged weapon users typically don’t have such desperate need for perk points in general, so I recommend always taking this perk on them for the additional +3-5 Ranged Attack, which is a big help.

Strengths:

Helps you quickly level up important skills on your soldiers.
Very helpful early game.
Still useful on elite recruits later in the game if you want extra skill points.
Very useful for skilling up ranged weapon users quickly.

Weaknesses:

Costs you a perk point that could have been spent on a different skill.
Pales slightly in the very late game as you could simply keep levelling up max-level mercenaries, though it takes a long time.
Offers nothing other than the stat boost.

7. Quick Hands

Need to swap weapons immediately? Quick Hands has you covered

It’s surprising how often you will find yourself wanting to swap weapons or equip some other piece of gear mid-battle. Doing this costs you Action Points; enough to lose you an attack or rob you of the ability to move where you want to that turn.

Quick Hands changes this, by making you able to equip any weapon or item for no Action Point cost once per turn. The only exception is shields, which still cost the usual Action Point price.

This perk is more powerful than it might seem at first. It essentially allows your archers and throwers to “reload” for free, by equipping new throwing weapons or quivers. Additionally, perhaps its greatest benefit is giving the ability to your frontline fighters to switch to a long weapon like a Pike or Longaxe with no AP penalty.

A frontline soldier with Quick Hands later in the game can swap from two-handed close combat weapons to two-tile reach weapons and decimate the enemy’s second row of combatants while ignoring those they’re stuck adjacent to. This can be devastating against enemies like Noble House armies and Southern City State armies. Both enemies rely on tying you up with less dangerous troops and piling on damage with their nasty-but-vulnerable backline of Billhooks, Polemaces and Crossbows. Swapping your frontline easily to your own Polearm weapons counters this.

Strengths:

Versatile and useful in many situations. Allows you to pull out a secondary weapon or restock on ammo with no action point cost.
Useful for “reloading” with archers or swapping to reach weapons like pikes with frontline troops.
Can be used to quickly get your dagger out to steal enemy armour at the end of a fight.
Increases the viability of other equipment such as nets.

Weaknesses:

Does nothing to make your men stronger, statistically.
Only useful on soldiers who will have a reason to be swapping items or weapons.
Takes a while for your frontline troops to have good enough Melee Attack to make switching weapons worthwhile.

6. Rotation

Swap one man for another. Simple but effective

We’ve all seen those action movies where the heroes take turns swapping in for each other mid-fight for dramatic and practical effect. Well, the Rotation perk allows you to do this in Battle Brothers and it’s super useful!

Rotation is best used as a sort of “emergency” ability. You’ll often find in both the early and late game that you can get into very dangerous situations in which the loss of one of your men is imminent. Maybe you took an unlucky mace blow to the head, or perhaps that two-handed cleaver bit into your soldier’s HP pool rather more deeply than expected.

Normally you’d now be in a lot of trouble – trying to move away from an enemy when they are adjacent to you gives them a free attack and would likely kill your character. Sometimes this doesn’t matter, if you have a recruit who is about as useful in a fight as a boiled turnip. On other occasions, though, you may have someone with real end-game skill potential who is about to die thanks to some bad luck. With Rotation, you can simply swap positions with another friendly soldier who is uninjured and fresh, then move your injured man to a safe position.

Rotation also has extra utility on your backline ranged weapon troops; they can get away if trapped in melee and swap position with a dedicated close combat fighter. You can also use Rotation to move tired troops into a better position without tiring them further. Simply use Rotation on another soldier to swap that tired two-handed axeman into a position where he can directly hit the enemy when his turn arrives.

Strengths:

Very useful for saving injured troops who are in a bad position.
Helps you to counter sudden influxes of damage by spreading it over your troops.
Can be useful for keeping archers away from enemies trying to tie them up in melee.
Can be used by fresh troops to move tired troops into better attacking positions.

Weaknesses:

Another utility perk that doesn’t contribute directly to better performance in battles.
Costs 3 Action Points and 25 Fatigue, so can be tiring to use.
You will often need to think ahead regarding which of your men is in danger or tiring out to get the most out of this perk.

5. Nimble

Specialise in light armour and dance your way out of damage

If you ever wanted your men to twirl around like Legolas from Lord of the Rings, dodging heavy blows and leaping about in their light armour, Nimble lets you do that. Kinda.

When wearing light armour (armour with a combined Fatigue reduction of 15 or less), you gain a reduction in damage taken to Health by up to 60%. This effect diminishes when wearing heavier armour, so you’ll want to stick to armour like chainmail, the like of which can be looted from Brigand Raiders and Noble House troops.

Nimble is a fantastic skill, one that fundamentally alters what enemies and battles you can take on. It greatly reduces the threat of heavy armour piercing weapons that would cripple your men ordinarily. However, your lack of armour will leave you much more vulnerable to slashing weapons with high HP damage such as swords. Cleavers are something you should really fear with Nimble characters and try to keep them away from enemies with these weapons if possible. The 20+ stacking bleed damage ignores your 60% health boost, so you’ll take huge amounts of damage from Cleaver attacks and die quite quickly.

These tips also apply in the opposite fashion when you are fighting enemies with the Nimble perk. Use Cleavers and Swords on them to maximise hit chance and health damage.

Strengths:

Gets better the more hit-points your character has.
One of two crucial skills (the other being Battleforged) that increases survivability of your men.
Gives good protection against nasty armour piercing damage (such as dagger “Puncture” attacks, war hammers and Schrats)
Effective even with cheap light armour. Great in the early/mid-game.
Most effective when used alongside Battleforged characters specialised in heavy armour, so you can tailor this skill for use against appropriate enemies.

Weaknesses:

Bad as a choice on characters who have low HP pools.
Not unlocked as an option until Level 7.
Cannot be used in conjunction with Battleforged (except in extremely rare cases of strong armour that is very light and easy on your Fatigue stat).
Very vulnerable to Cleavers and Whips, which cause horrible bleeding damage.
Quite weak against cutting weapons like Swords and Two-Handed Axes, which do a lot of Health damage.

4. Battleforged

Who needs light armour when you can build yourself into a steel tank?

If Nimble transforms your men into surprisingly tough Health “tanks”, Battleforged morphs them into hulking great armoured behemoths.

The Battleforged perk reduces armour damage by 5% of the total armour value of the helmet and body armour of a character. This may not sound like much, and with light armour the value is negligible. However, with heavier armour (i.e., “300/300”, a helm and cuirass with 300 durability each) you’re looking at a 30% reduction in damage to your armour.

This may not sound like much, but it’s a flat 30%, meaning that damage from Swords and other weapons that inflict only low damage to armour in the first place becomes trivial.

Battleforged is a great all-around damage-mitigating skill against many high-HP damaging weapons in the game. However, unlike Nimble, the protection it offers is lowered as your armour becomes damaged and degraded during a battle.

It also offers no bonus to your Health pool, meaning hits from armour piercing weapons can still do extreme damage to your character. This makes Battleforged characters resistant to Cleavers and Swords but vulnerable to Hammers, Maces and Two-Handed Axes.

Strengths:

Very good at mitigating non-piercing damage when heavy armour is worn.
The best "overall" protection against damage.
Provides excellent protection against most Spears, Swords, and Cleavers.
Very effective protection against Bow weapons.

Weaknesses:

Takes a while to acquire the skill (Level 7 upwards).
Only useful when wearing very heavy armour that tends to be expensive or difficult to acquire.
Totally ineffective with light armour.
Still very vulnerable to blunt injuries such as broken bones and concussions that may be incurred through the armour.
Piercing enemies like Schrats are still deadly.
Crossbows and Throwing Weapons can still do a lot of damage.
Cannot be used with Nimble (unless, as above, you have a very Fatigue-light set of heavy armour, an extremely rare circumstance).

3. Killing Frenzy

Killing enemies faster is always useful

A lot of your fights in Battle Brothers come down to putting out the maximum amount of damage on your enemies possible in a short period of time. Killing enemies quickly can be essential for keeping your own men alive and reducing incoming damage.

For this reason, Killing Frenzy is always a solid perk to take. It gives you +25% damage on all attacks for 2 turns after scoring a kill. While the ability is active, it slightly increases the chance for enemies to target the character using the ability over others, but this is scarcely a problem.

Combined with two-handed weapons, Killing Frenzy can be an extremely useful mid/late game perk for increasing the amount of damage you can dish out quickly.

Strengths:

A flat 25% boost to your damage for each kill you score (though this bonus doesn’t stack).
Helps you kill tough enemies quickly and neutralise the most dangerous soldiers in the enemy ranks.
Good on pretty much everyone except dedicated “shield tank” characters.

Weaknesses:

Only available from Level 8 onwards, so you’ll need to level up a lot to get access to it.
Doesn’t add anything except pure damage output.
Only triggers upon killing an enemy.
Not very useful on soldiers who you aren’t using to deal large amounts of damage.

2. Berserk

In the Middle Ages anger management wasn't a thing

Berserk is a skill that gives you an extra 4 Action Points after killing an enemy a maximum of once per turn, once per turn, after killing an enemy. It is either extremely useful or extremely limited depending on the Fatigue level of your character and the state of the battle when it triggers.

Primarily Berserk is good for increasing the damage output of your main damage dealers, such as two-handed weapon users. It’s possible to get an extra attack with a two-handed weapon after scoring a kill, and this obviously increases your damage output enormously.

However, swinging that weapon again requires more Fatigue. You will often find heavily armoured characters become exhausted after killing an enemy and you simply cannot use the bonus provided by Berserk to do anything, limiting its use.

The utility of Berserk still makes it very useful. It can be good to give to men equipped with Pikes or other reach weapons, as they will be able to step forward, kill an enemy and then retreat to safety again with the extra AP. Otherwise, it can boost your two-handed weapons to the extent that they can kill one or two more enemies at the start of a fight and take the pressure off you early into the battle.

Strengths:

Gives you almost an entire extra turn every time you kill an enemy (once per turn).
This extra 4 AP can be used to launch another attack, allowing you to do more damage.
You can also use the 4 AP to use Rotation, retreat or move your soldier somewhere else where he is needed.

Weaknesses:

Becomes very exhausting to use, especially as a battle drags on.
Not so useful on characters who are weighed down with armour and have low Fatigue.
Not always useful if you cannot move to a useful position or effectively strike another enemy.

1. Duellist

Behold one of the most useful perks in Battle Brothers

Duellist is one of the simplest perk skills in the game, but by far one of the best. It simply allows 25% more of your weapon’s damage to totally ignore enemy armour when a one-handed weapon is wielded with the other hand free (or carrying a tool, like a net).

This may sound rather insignificant, but when paired with the extra 25% damage already given by default by wielding a one-handed weapon like this, it makes one-handed specialists extremely lethal.

Equip a Duellist character with a one-handed mace, for example, and suddenly 65% of their damage is ignoring enemy armour instead of 40%. This is easily enough to inflict very nasty injuries through helmets or even through chest armour. Combined with other skills like Killing Frenzy and Berserk, you can suddenly kill even heavily armoured enemies with relative ease when this skill is used properly.

The trade-off is you cannot use a shield and the effect does not work with two-handed weapons, which are the other go-to for dealing high damage quickly. Duellists are therefore more specialised against highly armoured enemies than even your average two-handed weapon specialist.

Additionally, Duellists can strike twice per turn with their weapon rather than the once per turn mandated by most two-handed weapons. This means they have extremely high damage output, but also tend to tire very quickly. This is the main weakness of the Duellist playstyle.

Strengths:

Allows your weapons to ignore 25% more armour, a very powerful bonus.
Makes weapons like hammers and maces especially effective and lethal.
It becomes easier to inflict debilitating injuries on armoured enemies with Duellist.
You can still carry a net in your free hand and get the bonus. This allows you to throw nets on enemies to restrain them, and then pile on a lot of damage.
One handed weapons can swing twice per turn, making Duellists able to deal very high damage quickly.

Weaknesses:

A Level 8+ perk, so you’ll need a lot of levelling up.
Specialises your soldier to exclusively use one-handed weapons.
You’ll need good Melee Defence to survive without a shield.
Swinging a weapon twice a turn will tire your men out eventually, even with high Fatigue stats.
You’ll need high Fatigue to really make use of this over just using a two-handed weapon instead.

[Top 10] Battle Brothers Best Backgrounds That Are Great

SerMattzio — Wed, 18 May 2022 08:36:28 +0000

Which backgrounds should I recruit from to get decent troops in Battle Brothers?

If you want your men to survive their trials and tribulations in Battle Brothers, you’ll need to hire a wide variety of men from different backgrounds. The past of your soldier will determine what kind of skills he starts with, though there is a degree of randomness that also means even a humble peasant might become a great warrior if he starts with good stats.

Here are listed some of the most convenient (and simply best) backgrounds you can hire over the course of your adventure.

10. Farmhand

He may look humble, but if you're lucky he'll serve you well

In the early game, you’ll often be visiting small rural villages to pick up missions and cheap provisions. You might also want to pick up a cheap Farmhand or two to add to your wannabe army.

Farmhands typically come with good Health and Fatigue stats but tend to be lacking somewhat in Resolve and Melee Defence. However, you do still have a chance of getting good Melee Attack and Melee Defence, and/or talent stars in these skills.

A farmhand with decent base Attack and Defence stats plus some talent stars in these skills can be a very solid recruit for a cheap price.

Strengths:

Cheap to recruit.
Plentiful in small farming villages.
Ideal early game.
Good base health and stamina stats.
Can still be talented in Melee Attack and Defence.
Low wages.

Weaknesses:

Not elite troops to begin with by any means.
Usually not as strong late in the game compared to characters with more expensive military backgrounds.
Useless later in the game if they start with poor Melee Attack and Defence stats.

9. Fisherman

Teach a fisherman to wield a sword and he'll have Crowns for life...

While you’re visiting small villages in the early game, it’s almost inevitable you’re going to wander past some large coastal cities too. These can be a good place to offload gear for a good price and you might also want to check the recruiting pool for Fishermen. Like Farmhands, these hard-working men provide a good pool of potential mercenaries with reasonable base stats..

Strengths:

Cheap to hire.
Good stamina.
Appear in large numbers in big coastal cities.
Reasonable potential to have good stats.
Often come with a free net, a one-use weapon to snare enemies.
Potentially talented in Melee Attack and Defence.
Low wages.

Weaknesses:

You usually get what you pay for.
As with other cheap backgrounds, you may need to hire many men before you find someone with good stats.
Hiring poor recruits can drain finances early in the game.

8. Poacher

If you can shoot a deer you can shoot a man

If Farmers and Fishermen are good cheap candidates for your front line, Poachers are the rough equivalent for ranged weapon recruits.

Poachers will typically have mediocre-to-good ranged Ranged attack Attack skill and mediocre melee Melee attack Attack skill to begin with. This can make them a good basis for a “Hybrid”; a back-line mercenary who can use polearms and close combat weapons, but also swap to a ranged weapon.

However, for purely ranged offensive stats, the more expensive Hunter and Sellsword backgrounds can be a good deal better. The Poacher remains a humble option for your early or mid-game ranged recruits.

Strengths:

Reasonably cheap.
Easier to find in forest villages and near Hunting Cabins than Hunters.
Ideal early game.
Reasonable basic ranged stats on average.
Can sometimes still be talented in Melee Attack and Defence.

Weaknesses:

Suffers from being a weak “Jack-of-all-trades”.
Not as strong as more specialised backgrounds.
Sometimes don’t even have very good ranged skills.
Often too weak to bother with later in the game, when you want stronger new recruits as standard.

7. Brawler/Militia

Militiamen look almost professional!

Brawlers can often be found in the large cities. These burly fellows have a pretty good chance of starting with reasonable Melee Attack and Melee Defence stats, making them another solid choice for your front line.

However, it’s worth being aware that Brawlers can start trouble in towns at random, damaging your reputation. This can be cancelled out by having a Monk on your team who can calm the Brawler down.

In addition to this, a levelled-up Brawler may offer to train your new recruits in another random dialogue event. This can be quite useful, though usually it results in the addition of a few points in Melee Attack and some temporary injuries.

There is also an event in which your Brawler enters a fighting competition. This is worth being weary of – taking part can involve in horrible permanent injuries to your character, so choose wisely if he is a good recruit.

Militia are similarly skilled to Brawlers but lack the negative events and are more expensive. They are another good choice for a mid-game or early mid-game mercenary recruit. You can often recruit Militia from towns that have a Militia Barracks outside.

Strengths:

Cheap and quite often reasonably skilled in basic combat skills for the price.
Quite common in cities.
Especially attractive choice in the early game.
No particularly negative stats, including likely reasonable base Fatigue and Resolve.
Brawlers can trigger events where they train your new recruits.
Low wages.

Weaknesses:

Still a cheap background with mediocre stats at times.
Brawlers can cause a few negative random events in towns.
Usually not as strong late in the game compared to characters with more expensive military backgrounds.
If you get unlucky, they may have underwhelming stats and poor resolve. Try hiring and firing several.

6. Bastards/Adventurous Nobles/Disowned Nobles

He knows nothing, allegedly

As was common in the Middle Ages, the name is referring to this man’s parentage rather than his personality. Bastards can be pretty good recruits due to their ties to the nobility; you can often expect them to have some basic melee attack and defence skills, more-so than the usual peasants, Brawlers and other cheap-as-dirt recruits.

In many ways, the Bastard is a middle-of-the-road background, offering slightly more skill on average for slightly more expense.

This background is useful for another reason, however. Have a Bastard in your company for long enough, and there is a chance the Noble Houses will send an Assassin to kill him. If you play your cards right in this event you might be able to keep both men for a hefty sum of gold, and the resulting Assassin recruit can be quite good.

Adventurous Nobles and Disowned Nobles are essentially like slightly more expensive, slightly better-on-average skilled Bastards. They can also be very useful hires in the mid-game, though Nobles do not offer the same event chain that leads to the Assassin recruit.

Strengths:

Often good bang-for-buck as a recruit of medium expense.
Quite common in large fortifiedlarge, fortified citadels.
Usually reasonable base stats, poor Resolve, but can be very powerful frontl line fighters if they have talent stars in combat skills.
Not many negative events associated with this background.
Can attract an Assassin recruit randomly.
Can start at Level 1-3, at random. ThusT they can be a good quick replacement if a veteran soldier dies.

Weaknesses:

Middle-of-the-road stats most of the time.
Quite expensive to hire, so poor stats can be disappointing.
Unless you get good skill rolls and some useful talents, often not particularly excellent as a recruit for any one specific role.
Resolve can be low on Disowned Nobles and Adventurous Nobles can argue with other soldiers from lowborn backgrounds.

5. Monk

Who says a holy man can't crack heads?

Monks are available in towns that have Temples. Their physical stats, like Fatigue, Health and Initiative are normally mediocre, but they are actually very useful recruits in moderation.

This is because Monks typically have high Resolve, the stat that measures “bravery” of a mercenary. High Resolve can be powerful against enemies such as Geists, which can make your men flee in terror mid-battle. When given the company battle standard, the standard bearer increases the Resolve of all nearby men based off a percentage of his own Resolve value.

A Monk with high Resolve is a great recruit for a “Sergeant” or “Bannerman." When given the Rally skill, you can stave off the effects of bad morale effectively.

Additionally, Monks can be extremely useful in many random events. They can calm down two Hedge Knights fighting one another (if you happen to recruit several in one playthrough) as well as cancelling out Brawlers starting fights in town. Several events involving arguments or debates can also be solved with a Monk to get yourself better rewards or eliminate risks.

Strengths:

Quite cheap.
Found reliably around Temples.
Good base Resolve.
Potentially excellent as a Bannerman used to rally the troops.
Can still be talented in Melee Attack and Defence if you get lucky.
Fixes many bad random events for you and gives you some benefits in these events.

Weaknesses:

Usually not brilliant stats for combat.
Usually not as strong late in the game compared to characters with more expensive military backgrounds.
Later in the game, Bannermen can be less relevant.

4. Hunter

Like Poachers but better

What do you do when you need a character proficient with ranged weapons, but Poachers just aren’t good enough? In this case, you need a Hunter.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, can be found in settlements with Hunting Cabins, though they are never present anywhere else unless a Hunting Season event is on in the town.

A little on pricey side at around 1,000-2,000 Crowns, Hunters nonetheless are one of the best backgrounds in the game for Ranged Attack skill, meaning that they are an excellent choice for your next archer, thrower, or crossbowman.

Strengths:

The best pure Ranged Attack skill background in the game.
Predictably found in towns with Hunter Cabins.
Can make for excellent archers, throwers, or crossbowmen.

Weaknesses:

Too expensive to be practical very early in the game.
Usually not particularly good at Melee Attack or Defence.
Archers and ranged units can be less useful than melee units in some of the most challenging fights in the game.

3. Sellsword

You get what you pay for

In Battle Brothers you are running a company of sellswords…so it makes sense you might want to hire a Sellsword! These tough mercenaries are found in large, wealthy fortress citadels and can be picked up for a pretty penny.

They can excel in close combat stats, often start levelled up to some extent and can even have good Ranged Attack skill too. This can make them very solid frontline or versatile backline troops.

They come with a downside, though. They’re very expensive to hire at 2,200 to 4,000 Crowns, you can still get unlucky with some mediocre stats on them, and they demand a high daily wage. Sellswords also have a good chance to have the Greedy trait and have several events that make them demand more money or even threaten to leave you for more cash elsewhere. You’ll need a Paymaster retinue member (Blazing Deserts DLC) to prevent these events.

Strengths:

Typically possess good-to-excellent stats.
Can be built into great melee troops, good ranged troops, or even a combo of both.
Can come with reasonably good equipment, such as expensive weapons or chainmail.
No great statistical weaknesses.

Weaknesses:

Expensive to hire.
Demand a very high daily wage.
Sometimes lack specialisation.
Have a lot of negative cash-related events, unless you have a Paymaster in your Retinue.

2. Swordmaster/Retired Soldier

Beware an old man in a profession where men die young

At large cities with a military barracks, you can sometimes find Swordmasters and Retired Soldiers for hire.

Swordmasters are older men who were legends with a blade back in the day, but now they’re past their prime. Nonetheless these fellows can make extremely good recruits, though their skills really don’t come cheap.

Swordmasters have the potential to start with extremely good Melee Attack and Melee Defence skills right from being hired, but their HP and Fatigue stats are slightly weaker on account of their age. After levelling up, Swordmasters can reach an extremely high Melee Attack stat, making them very useful damage dealing soldiers.

Additionally, Swordmasters offer several positive random event dialogue options and no negative ones. They have one big drawback; they will eventually gain the “Old” stat after levelling up several times. This reduces their HP, Fatigue and Initative but gives a bonus to Resolve. This can be cured permanently by using a magical waterskin; this item can only be obtained once in game, from the “Grotesque Tree”, a location found randomly in the wilderness.

Fill a waterskin rather than drinking from the water near the tree, and you’ll be able to restore a Swordmaster’s youth…or cure any permanent injuries one of your men might have picked up.

Retired Soldiers are essentially cheaper Swordmasters with poorer starting stats. They don’t gain “Old”, which is something of a bonus, but their poorer stats offset this. They can still be very useful and capable mid-to-late game recruits.

Strengths:

Very good Melee Attack skills, decent overall stats.
Excellent for niche frontline builds (i.e. an armour piercing Duellist-skilled character).
Useful right from being hired.
Interact positively in random events.

Weaknesses:

Swordmasters will eventually get old and lose some stats.
Expensive to recruit.
Quite poor HP and Fatigue stats given the expense.
Demand a fairly high wage.
Not always easy to find in the recruiting pool.

1. Hedge Knight

One of Game of Thrones’ most iconic and scary characters was Gregor Clegane; “The Mountain”. Hedge Knights are essentially Battle Brothers’ equivalent; towering, imposing and vicious knights who roam the land and bow to no Noble house.

The most expensive recruits in the game, Hedge Knights are worth the cost. They’ll typically already come equipped with an expensive and deadly weapon and their own armour. Blessed with excellent overall starting stats, they often join your company already levelled up slightly and possess great growth potential.

Overall, they are ideal late-game recruits for your frontline.

There are some drawbacks, though. Hedge Knights can cause trouble in towns and will also fight each other if you have several in your company – they can even end up killing each other! To stop this, you’ll need a Monk in your gang too.

Strengths:

Start with their own decent armour and equipment.
Excellent base line frontline troop stats on average.
No real weaknesses in stats.
Offer several positive outcomes in events.
Fantastic scope for development into premium quality late game warriors.

Weaknesses:

Unbelievably expensive. Expect to pay at least 10,000 Crowns.
For their expense, you could still get unlucky and get stats that are not as good as they could be, such as Talent stars on less useful stats.
Several negative events are associated with them if you don’t have a Monk in the company.
Will fight with each other.
Can be hard to find, check large Noble House citadels.

Battle Brothers Best Origins – Which to Choose?

SerMattzio — Wed, 18 May 2022 07:54:56 +0000

Which Battle Brothers origin story should you start your game with?

Battle Brothers gives you several different starting backstories for your Middle-Ages mercenary company, called “Origins”. Each origin gives you slightly different abilities and changes the way you’ll play to a varying degree.

Below we cover the different origins and the ways they’re likely to impact your gameplay.

1. Rebuilding A Company

I used to be a mercenary like you, then I took...

Difficulty: Easier.

Rebuilding A Company is essentially the “default” start to Battle Brothers. Your men will have no specific advantages or drawbacks over the course of your campaign, and you’ll start out having lost a battle to some Brigands. Your task will be to hunt down and kill their leader, Hoggart the Weasel, as part of a tutorial mission of sorts. The game will take you through the early steps of building a mercenary company and then set you loose uponin the open world.

Strengths:

A good Origin to pick if you’re just starting to learn the game.
Gives you three well-balanced recruits to start with.
Good if you want a “plain” game, where you can focus on the main game mechanics without any other interference in your style of play.
Has a fun little story of revenge to start your playthrough with.

Weaknesses:

Doesn’t really teach you anything new if you already know how the game works.
The tutorial may be repetitive if you’re experienced with the game.
No unique mechanics for your mercenary company.

2. A New Company

A fresh start with three standard Northern recruits

Difficulty: Easier.

A New Company is essentially a modified origin based off “Rebuilding A Company”. You’ll start with the same mix of three soldiers with good attributes lending themselves to one-handed weapons, two-handed weapons, and ranged weapons. However, the tutorial is removed along with the story of Hoggart the Weasel, allowing you to start out doing whatever you want right from the very beginning.

Strengths:

Another good origin for new players.
A good “plain” origin for experienced players.
Allows you to leap straight into the open world adventuring.
Gives you three balanced starting recruits.

Weaknesses:

Lacks a tutorial for extremely new players.
No unusual or unique mechanics for your mercenary company.

3. Southern Mercenaries (Blazing Deserts DLC)

Southern mercenaries can spice a game start up

Difficulty: Average.

The Southern Mercenaries origin gives you control of a group of soldiers from the sun-baked deserts of the South. This origin was introduced with the Blazing Deserts DLC and gives you an excellent quick jump into the new items and enemies introduced with this add-on. It is perhaps more difficult than the usual starts in the more Northern parts of the map since Southern enemies are generally regarded as more dangerous in the early game. However, there’s nothing to stop you venturing wherever you like.

Strengths:

A good, quick introduction to the Blazing Deserts DLC
Good for experienced players who want to leap straight into exploring the South.
Another good “plain” origin with no unusual impact on gameplay.

Weaknesses:

Starts you off in arguably a more dangerous part of the map, as Nomads and beasts like Ifrits and Serpents can be harder to fight in the early game.
If you’re looking for unusual gameplay alterations, this origin does not offer them.

4. Trading Caravan

Buy a goat fur, guv'nor?

Difficulty: Medium.

The Trading Caravan origin marks an interesting divergence; it is the first on our list to provide you with unique bonuses and disadvantages for taking this start to your game.

You’ll start with only two men, both with the Caravan Hand background. These recruits can still have reasonably good stats, butstats but having one less man than usual will make it a bit harder for you to win fights to start with.

On the other hand, you get a bonus 10% boost to trading prices. This is actually a very significant upgrade over the course of a game, and you’ll be able to make a lot of extra cash through selling trade goods and weapons looted from dead enemies.

You do have one more disadvantage: your level of Renown starts at zero and builds 66% slower than usual, meaning you will progress to better mercenary contracts at a much slower rate.

Strengths:

Interesting change from normal gameplay, especially if you want to learn more about trading goods between cities.
The two Caravan Hands you start out with will be better on average than the usual Farmhands and Fishermen you will probably be hiring early on in other origins.
A permanent 10% boost to your sales prices will earn you a lot of money over the course of a game, especially if you take Retinue members like the Trader and the Paymaster (to increase trade goods and lower costs).

Weaknesses:

Renown penalties will slow down your progression into later-game Noble House contracts.
Harder early game makes this an unsuitable start for very new players.
Only a very simple change to the game, veteran players may find the resulting gameplay a bit boring.

5. Peasant Militia

Sometimes filthy peasants are all you need

Difficulty: Medium.

The Peasant Militia origin offers a fun spin on the usual cycle of the game, giving you a full roster of 12 badly equipped peasant soldiers to begin with. You also have an expanded battle and roster size, leaving you capable of hiring up to 25 men at once and fielding 16 in a battle instead of 12.

The downside of this is that you are only ever allowed to hire men from lowborn backgrounds, unless they join your company from random events as you travel.

This is a really powerful origin, even though you start the game quite weak. If you manage to keep the more promising recruits alive, it is entirely possible for them to develop into powerful late-game soldiers. Once trained up and equipped with good gear, the bonus to roster and deployment size is a straight upgrade over a standard company.

Strengths:

Huge increase to the number of men you can employ at once to 25.
You can field 16 men in battles instead of 12.
Very fun to develop lowborn recruits into good soldiers.
A fun challenge for experienced players.

Weaknesses:

A difficult start for inexperienced players.
You cannot recruit from some of the more experienced and interesting troop backgrounds.
Very weak at the start and takes a long time for the company to develop. Not a good origin if you’re looking to play a short campaign.

6. Band of Poachers

Hunting rabbits hones useful skills

Difficulty: Medium to Hard.

Starting the game as the Band of Poachers gives you three capable Ranged Weapon recruits right from the start of the game, including a Hunter and 2 Poachers. You also gain the ability to always scout enemies that are near you, including enemy camps, which can be very helpful. Finally, you move slightly faster on the world map.

However, you start with almost no equipment, no close combat specialists, and very limited supplies. Your inventory space is also permanently reduced.

Overall, it’s a fun way to start a game if you are looking to build several archers quickly from the beginning and the bonuses and drawbacks you get are not too extreme.

Strengths:

A fun and interesting way to start the game with ranged specialists right from the start.
Being able to always scout nearby enemies is very useful later in the game.
You can easily recruit some close-combat men from local peasants at the start of your campaign.

Weaknesses:

Over-specialised to begin with and harder than a “normal” origin.
Permanently reduced inventory space can be annoying in the later game, though you can expand your inventory space by upgrading the Wagon (through random events, or the Retinue screen if you have the Blazing Deserts DLC).

7. Oathtakers

Everyone's favourite blinged up knights

Difficulty: Medium.

The Oathtakers start casts you as the leader of a small group of faithful warrior zealots. You’ll start with two well-equipped and armoured characters and the ability to take Oaths.

Oaths will replace the standard challenges available over time to your mercenary company, instead allowing you to take on specific challenges that boost some aspects of your characters while also conferring disadvantages.

For example, the Oath of Humility lowers your contract pay by 33%, but also increases the rate at which your men gain experience. These Oaths last 10 days each and are then replaced by a new Oath.

Eventually, you will get a random event in which you must defeat a group of “Oathbringers”, another group of questing knights who wear heavy armour. This will bring the side-story of the origin to a close.

Strengths:

You get to start with two excellent recruits with good armour and equipment.
Oaths add an extra quirk and challenge to the game that can be fun for experienced players.
The Oathbringers storyline is enjoyable and leads to a mini-boss fight of sorts at the conclusion of the story arc.
Unique armour and equipment is available to your recruits at the start of the game.

Weaknesses:

Constantly having to take Oaths can get frustrating later in the game when you are trying to achieve objectives that the Oaths make harder.
You are fairly weak at the beginning of the game with only two men, even with good equipment.

8. Deserters

You're in for a rough start...

Difficulty: Hard.

Starting with the Deserters origin frames your company as a group of men who decided to go AWOL from a Noble House army. You’ll start with excellent equipment (such as Chainmail and Heater Shields)), but your men have extremely low Resolve, meaning they flee easily. This can be difficult to overcome even with level ups, as a minimum Resolve of 50 is recommended for most troops.

You also start with low funds and your old employers are hostile to you. This can make lingering around the territory of the Noble House very dangerous, but also possibly very profitable if you are able to kill some of your old comrades and loot them later in the game.

As a bonus, your men always first to act in the first turn of combat. This can actually bebe quite a powerful bonus in larger fights later on.

Strengths:

You start with good armour and equipment.
You have three recruits who have decent attack and defence stats.
The origin allows you to jump straight into fighting tougher-than-usual battles to begin with.
You always act first during the first turn of combat.

Weaknesses:

Your men have abysmal Resolve, and this low morale can cause serious problems for you in battle, especially against Undead enemies.
A Noble House will be trying to hunt you down right from the start of the game.
You start with poor funds.

9. Northern Raiders (Warriors of the North DLC)

Who wouldn't trust this friendly fellow?

Difficulty: Hard.

If you want total amoral anarchy, this is the origin you go for! Taking the Northern Raiders origin starts you out as a rather merciless band of Barbarian warriors. After looting a village, your men come across a Monk who convinces you to become a mercenary rather than purely torching villages for a living.

As the saying associated withof Millwall Football Club goes: “No one likes us, we don’t care.” This is very much the Barbarian attitude too and as you’d expect, everyone hates you at the start of this origin. Most Noble Houses and sSettlements on the map will be extremely hostile to you, precluding the usual path to success of taking contracts at villages. You’ll also struggle to recruit men, unless you can find some large cities which are not so angry with you.

Instead, you’ll want to make your way South to work for the City States or alternatively hang around raiding caravans to make money and obtain loot. Since almost everyone dislikes you already, there’s nothing to stop you from murdering anyone you encounter on the road. In fact, this start almost necessitates attacking Noble House patrols and other mercenary groups to obtain gear and riches.

To help you on your rampage towards blood and gold, you gain a significant bonus chance to successfully loot objects off enemies you kill when taking this origin.

A very fun origin for when you want to throw the usual rules of being a “moral” mercenary company out of the window.

Strengths:

You start with three capable Barbarian warriors and a Monk.
Bonus to loot obtained after battles.
Your starting gear is quite good.
Raiding caravans and attacking small groups of soldiers allows you to obtain excellent equipment very quickly.

Weaknesses:

It’s very easy to attack a group of soldiers who will absolutely slaughter you early in the game.
You can’t take missions or recruit easily.
You’ll have to avoid a lot of fights to safely get to the South of the map.
You’re pretty much straight-up villains in this origin, at least to start with. Therefore, it’s not very practical if you’re looking to play the role of a heroic good guy as is encouraged in some origins.

10. Anatomists

Scientists or madmen?

Difficulty: Medium.

Who doesn’t like the idea of playing as intelligent men of science with flexible ethics? This is what the Anatomists origin promises, giving you control over three recruits with a high level of funds at the start of the game.

The Anatomists can brew potions from any non-human enemy they kill. This can be done once per type of beast that is slain. Characters consuming the potions will gain permanent stat boosts of differing kinds. If the potion is lost for whatever reason or characters who have used the potions die, the potions become available to craft again.

This gives a great incentive to go out and hunt down beasts for the different special potions that can be created.

Additionally, the Anatomists gain access to many different events that allow for removing negative traits from your men amongst other things.

Strengths:

Start with three recruits.
Good funds to begin with.
Access to many unique and interesting random events.
You can create unique potions to enhance your men after killing different types of beasts.

Weaknesses:

No advantages in combat outside of the potions that can be brewed.
Starting equipment is not amazing.
A more late-game focused origin that rewards a long campaign.

11. Davkul Cultists

Madmen or...nope, definitely madmen

Difficulty: Hard to Very Hard.

You’ve played Northern Raiders and you’ve played the Anatomists. Now you want a mix between the insanity of the Raiders and the strange logic of the Anatomists…the Davkul Cultists are here to answer your prayers.

This origin starts you out with four weirdo fanatics under your command and bad equipment. However, you gain access to some unique gear, such as leather hoods and leather armour that is better than you’d usually encounter early in the game.

When on your travels, you may attract free Cultist recruits. Your Cultists may also convert men of other backgrounds into Cultists in random events.

Over time, you may be expected to perform sinister rituals and even sacrifices, and these unlock the ability to get a fantastic suit of armour that is unique to this origin.

Strengths:

Start with four mediocre recruits and low/medium funds.
Free Cultist recruits periodically.
Can recruit from any other background at villages and towns too.
Interesting and unique gear and equipment.
Access to many strange and unique random events.
Can gain a very useful suit of armour.
Can get unique abilities (“Prophet of Davkul”).

Weaknesses:

Early combat is quite challenging and so this start is not recommended for new players.
Your early recruits are not particularly talented.
You may have to sacrifice some of your best men in order to access this origin’s unique content.

12. Manhunters (Blazing Deserts DLC)

And you thought your boss was a slave driver...

Difficulty: Hard to Very Hard.

Time for another morally ambiguous origin story! The Manhunters origin puts you in charge of some Southern slavedrivers and their hapless Indebted underlings.

There are some hefty restrictions on this origin that make it one of the most challenging to play. You must always have more Indebted troops than non-Indebted troops in order toto keep your men happy. This encourages you to only take the most elite possible troops for your non-Indebted cohort. These “manhunters” level up 10% slower, butslower but can also whip your poor Indebted in order to boost their stats and make them fight better.

On the other hand, your Indebted level up 10% faster but are capped at Level 7 and always die if struck down in battle.

You’ll find it hard to maintain a stable mercenary company with this origin, but it’s a fun and hefty challenge for experienced Battle Brothers veterans.

Strengths:

Start with four poorly equipped Indebted and two Manhunters.
10% faster experience gain for Indebted; they suffer no morale penalty for the deaths of other slaves and demand no daily wage.
Can field 16 men in battle instead of 12.
Can whip Indebted to boost their stats significantly.
A good origin for exploring the Southern part of the map.

Weaknesses:

Indebted usually have very poor Resolve.
Your manhunters/non-Indebted level up 10% slower and you must have less of them than the total number of Indebted.
Your company is vulnerable to sudden instability if a number of Indebted or their masters are killed.
Early combat is quite challenging and so this start is not recommended for new players.
Your early recruits are not particularly talented.
You may have to sacrifice some of your best men in order to access this origin’s unique content.

13. Beast Slayers (Beasts and Exploration DLC)

They don't need silver swords.

Difficulty: Hard to Very Hard.

The Beast Slayers origin is most certainly designed for experienced Battle Brothers players who are looking for an extra challenge.

You begin with three beast slayer mercenaries with decent equipment and have two special bonuses. First, you gain a 50% chance per beast you slay to gain an additional “trophy” item such as furs and pelts. Secondly, you can see tracks from a greater distance, potentially easing your ability to track beasts and other enemies.

However, this comes with a significant trade off; all prices for goods you sell are lowered by 10%. Given much of your income will be from selling loot, this is one of the more challenging origins as your budget will be a lot tighter.

It can still be fun, however, to go out of your way to hunt beasts and gain more trophies doing so. This allows you to make custom armour modifications and get other goodies with more regularity.

Strengths:

Start with three well equipped Beast Slayers.
50% chance per beast killed for an extra trophy loot drop.
Spot tracks from further away.

Weaknesses:

You get 10% worse prices when buying or selling things, which makes it far harder to trade for expensive weapons and items.
No specific advantages in combat with this origin.
Beasts can be hard to find reliably.
Every time you are fighting a battle against non-beasts, you have no bonuses.

14. Gladiators (Blazing Deserts DLC)

Everyone's favourite entertainers

Difficulty: Hard to Very Hard.

When starting a new game with the Gladiators origin, you are given three very powerful and unique characters: The Viper, The Bear and the Lion. These guys not only start at Level 3 rather than Level 1, but each comes with a unique trait.

The Bear possesses “Glorious Endurance”, which grants +5% reduction to damage taken per hit endured, up to 5 hits for a reduction of 25% in enemy damage.

The Lion is blessed with “Glorious Resolve”, allowing a morale check to be re-rolled if it fails. Finally, The Viper gets “Glorious Quickness”, which allows him to gain one Action Point every time he kills an enemy during his turn.

These abilities can allow The Bear to become a formidable defensive fighter, the Lion makes a great bannerman or “sergeant” with the Rally ability. Finally, The Viper can turn into a lethal damage dealer with Killing Frenzy and Berserk.

There are trade-offs for this amazing starting line-up; each man demands 50 crowns in wages a day, which is very expensive for the start of the game. You are also limited to only 12 men in your roster and the game will end in failure if all three starting Gladiators are killed.

Losing a Gladiator also permanently loses that special trait that they start with, so it’s a big loss.

No doubt this is a challenging origin story, but it also gives you a really fast and unique start to the game and allows you to build some extremely powerful characters. Definitely very fun for experienced players.

Strengths:

Start with three well equipped and very skilled Gladiators.
These Gladiators have unique traits that allow them to be built into extremely powerful soldiers.
You can take many fights early in the game that you would usually avoid.
You have the ability to quickly get into Arena fights in the Southern City States.

Weaknesses:

Your Gladiators demand very high wages.
Losing all three Gladiators ends the game.
Losing any of your Gladiators is a permanent loss of their unique abilities.
Difficult to manage your finances and recruitment choices in the early game.
Limited to only 12 men, so you must pick only the very best and may struggle with a lack of reserves.

15. Lone Wolf

Friends? Who needs friends?

Difficulty: Hard to Very Hard.

You’ve played all these different origins, starting with anywhere from two to four men…so now, why not start with just one?!

It’s time, then, for you to start a Lone Wolf game.

As the name implies, in this start you have only one soldier. In fact, unlike the other origins, where you roleplay as the manager of the company behind the scenes, this character is you. As a lone, mighty Hedge Knight, you roam the world in search of adventure.

You will start the game with excellent stats and fantastic late-game equipment, but you have low funds and absolutely no-one else in your mercenary company. Additionally, if your starting Hedge Knight dies, you have died, so your game ends.

The final restriction is the “Elite Few” campaign condition. Much like the Gladiator origin, this means you may only have 12 men in your entire roster. You’ll want to pick only the very best recruits for your company and build them into a formidable fighting force.

Overall, this is a very challenging origin, as you must not only keep your starting character alive through the whole game, but losing any of your men will be also be a very severe blow due to the reduced roster size.

The trade-off is the pleasure to be had starting the game with advanced equipment and an extremely competent soldier under your command.

Strengths:

Start with one fantastic recruit with heavy armour and a good weapon.
You can easily win many early-game fights.
A fun and unique start to the game which throws you straight into the action.

Weaknesses:

If your starting character dies, the game ends.
You will need to quickly start earning money, as you start with very low funds.
No other men in your company at the beginning.
The roster size of 12 is very limiting, and you will need to hire only the best and most capable possible recruits to succeed.

[Top 5] Battle Brothers Best 2H Weapons (And How To Get Them)

SerMattzio — Tue, 17 May 2022 09:42:56 +0000

What two-handed weapons do your Battle Brothers need to be most effective?

In Battle Brothers, success in many combat scenarios comes down to doing as much damage to your enemies as possible as quickly as possible.

Two-handed weapons, often referred to as “2H weapons”, are crucial in achieving this.

In this guide we’ll be giving you a quick run-down of some of the most useful two-handed weapons in the game and how you can get hold of them.

5. Bardiche (Warriors of the North DLC)

Sometimes you just need a huge axe on a pole.

If you’ve got the Warriors of the North DLC, the Bardiche is a particularly useful weapon for several types of battle.

It combines the “Split Man” ability of a two-handed axe with the “Split” ability of two-handed swords.

“Split Man” is an attack that hits a single target, buttarget but has a chance to hit both the head and body of the target for extra damage, making it a very devastating blow if it lands on both areas. On the other hand, “Split” is an attack that can hit two enemies at once in a straight line. This allows the Bardiche to heavily damage enemies hiding in the back row with pikes or ranged weapons, making it effective against Noble House armies and Southern City State armies.

As a two-handed axe, the Bardiche also offers the ability to destroy an enemy’s shield, if you so desire.

Strengths:

A two-handed axe with the ability to strike the back row of enemies like a two-handed sword.
Combines reasonable armour penetration with high damage.

Weaknesses:

Requires the Warriors of the North DLC.
Not always reliably found on your adventures.
Not as specialised as some other two-handed weapons.

Acquiring the Bardiche:

The Bardiche is occasionally found on enemy Brigand Leaders and Champion-level enemies, as well as Hedge Knights (which will spawn with Brigand groups later in the game).

Alternatively, you can try attacking other Mercenaries (Ctrl+Click them to force a fight when not on a contract yourself). It should be noted that this will anger any town that has hired the Mercenaries and you will also have quite a tough fight on your hands if you’re early in the game.

In general, it’s probably easiest to visit Weaponsmiths you’re on friendly terms with to simply buy the weapon if you’re specifically looking to acquire one.

4. Two-Handed Hammer

Turn armour into scrap metal.

Sometimes when you’re facing enemies like Orc Warriors or Barbarians and you need a weapon that hits like a truck and goes through armour like it’s paper. An excellent weapon for this very purpose is the Two-Handed Hammer.

As a Hammer class weapon, this club staggers enemies upon hitting them, forcing them to act last in the turn order. This can be very useful indeed for killing enemies before they get to act, ganging up on them and using the hammer blows to slow down their turn.

Perhaps the biggest disadvantage of the Two-Handed Hammer is that you will rarely be able to salvage your opponent’s armour after the battle, since the hammer will usually destroy it completely. It also lacks pure Health point damage compared to bladed weapons.

However, two handed hammers and maces are easily some of the most effective tools against large, armoured enemies in the game.

Strengths:

Extremely powerful against heavily armoured enemies.
Will destroy armour very quickly.
The stagger effect forces enemies to act last in the turn queue.
Can alternatively bbe used to hit three enemies in an “arc” shape.

Weaknesses:

Not as damaging to health hit points as some other weapons.
Expensive to buy from the Weaponsmith.
Unless you are fighting Noble Houses or Mercenaries, it’s rare to see it on the battlefield.

Acquiring the Two-Handed Hammer:

You can get this weapon by defeating Hedge Knights in the late game, or or by attacking Noble House armies containing Knights. Finally, you can also acquire this weapon from some groups of Mercenaries.

As with the Bardiche, you can also get friendly with a city that has a Weaponsmith and purchase a War Hammer. It will typically cost you around 3000-4000 crowns.

3. Two-Handed Flanged Mace

A mighty forged steel club.

Two-handed maces are an incredibly useful weapon in Battle Brothers. They offer armour piercing damage comparable to hammers and inflict devastating blunt injuries in similar fashion. However, instead of Staggering enemies, they inflict the “Dazed” status on anyone hit with the primary attack. Two handed maces also offer a secondary stunning attack which can take an opponent out of action for one turn.

The Dazed status effect penalises the enemy’s Fatigue and Initiative stats, but most handily it causes them to do a whopping 25% less damage while the effect persists. This can make very hard-hitting enemies significantly less dangerous to your men.

The Two-Handed Flanged Mace is a particularly decent mid-late game mace, and and can be obtained through fighting or purchased.

Strengths:

Good against armour, with slightly more health damage than the hammer.
Effective against most enemies.
Can be used to Stun foes for a turn.
Dazed inflicts a -25% damage penalty on the enemy, very good for weakening dangerous high-damage opponents.

Weaknesses:

Can only attack one enemy at a time.
Some enemies are immune to being Stunned (you can check this when mousing-over them with the Stun attack selected).
Quite expensive to buy early game.

Acquiring the Two-Handed Flanged Mace:

Once again, the easiest way to obtain the Two-Handed Flanged Mace in battle is to fight Hedge Knights, Brigand Champions, Noble House Knights and Mercenaries.

If you have the Warriors of the North DLCyou can get a similar weapon, the Two-Handed Spiked Mace, from Barbarian Reavers and Barbarian Chosen. This similar weapon is more reliably carried by these enemies (although you’re still in for a tough fight).

You can reliably buy the Two-Handed Flanged Mace from Citadel Weaponsmiths if you keep an eye out every time you travel through the area.

If you plan on recruiting a Hedge Knight to your cause, it’s also possible for him to be carrying this weapon when you recruit him. Typically, the price for such a recruit is very high, but the weapon is included in the cost.

2. Man Splitter

It does exactly what it says on the tin.

The Man Splitter is a fantastic two-handed weapon for two reasons; firstly, it is relatively easy to obtain through slaying Orc Berserkers. Secondly, the amount of damage it puts out is almost unparalleled amongst the other “normal” weapons below “Legendary” level.

This huge Orc-crafted axe offers you good armour damage (160% effective against armour), medium armour penetration and huge amounts of Health damage (90-120 per hit). Additionally, since it uses the Split Man attack by default, it can inflict even more damage if it manages to hit both the head and body of the target.

Unfortunately, all this power comes with a cost. The weapon is very fatiguing to equip, subtracting 34 Fatigue from your character’s stats just for wielding it. Without Axe Mastery it also builds up an additional 25% stamina use per swing, making it unviable for many characters to use without the Mastery perk point. Axe Mastery is also arguably one of the weaker Mastery Perks, so it can be a shame to lock a perk point to that skill purely to use the Man Splitter effectively.

However, if you do have Axe Mastery, the Fatigue penalties are usually not too bad. This is because all you have tomust do is swing the axe once per turn and this is “stamina neutral”. You will recover the 15 stamina needed to swing the axe every turn, so your total Fatigue level is not important.

An overall excellent weapon for inflicting heavy damage on a large variety of opponents, and a weapon to be feared if your enemy is wielding it!

Strengths:

Very damaging, quite effective against heavy armour and also useful against lightly armoured opponents.
Can inflict a lot of damage to many opponents with the “Round Swing” attack, which can be handy when surrounded by Wiedergangers or other enemies that attack in large numbers.
The high damage allows this weapon to inflict very nasty injuries.

Weaknesses:

Very tiring to equip, requires high Fatigue stats to remain effective.
Exhausting to swing each turn unless you have Axe Mastery.
Can only be looted from Orc enemies.
Not a specialised weapon as such. Offers no other advantage except very high damage.

Acquiring the Man Splitter:

Man Splitters are carried by Orc Berserkers or Orc Warlords. Berserkers are the easiest enemy to obtain this weapon from, but they are still extremely dangerous, especially early in the game. Even late in the game, it is best to always treat Berserkers as primary targets and not to underestimate them. As they land hits on your men, they gain a “Rage” ability, which makes them harder and harder to kill.

Combined with the massive damage potential of the Man Splitter, Berserkers with this weapon should be killed as quickly as possible.

Orc Warlords often carry this weapon (or a Legendary equivalent) and are also high priority targets to remove their morale-boosting effect, which can allow their minions to fight for much longer without fleeing. However, attacking Warlords merely to obtain this weapon is not a good idea earlier in the game.

1. Legendary Two-Handed Weapons

A Legendary weapon you don't want to be on the wrong end of.

As with any class of items in Battle Brothers, Legendary weapons are generally the best possible loot you can get your hands on, though their stats vary.

Legendary weapons can be obtained from enemy camps or structures around the map at random locations as well as dropped by Champions and other “boss” enemies such as Knights and Orc Warlords.

In addition to being quite hard to find (especially early in the game), Legendary weapons have randomised statistics. This means they can be incredibly powerful, especially if they have a lowered AP requirement (and so allow you to make more attacks) or increased Armour Ignoring Damage.

Particularly good are Two-Handed Cleavers, Axes and Maces which have increased Armour Ignoring Damage. These can very quickly kill or incapacitate even the toughest enemies in the game, and the best examples of Legendary weapons may be worth specifically developing a character around.

However, some Legendary weapons may even be disappointing compared to their non-Legendary counterparts. For example, it is possible to get a very high durability Legendary weapon, but the damage stats are not particularly impressive. In this case it’s worth selling the weapon at a large city for a profit, then going out to try your luck at getting something else!

Of course, one of the big disadvantages of trying to loot these weapons is that you must often kill their owner to acquire them. Fighting a very highly skilled opponent who has a Two-Handed Cleaver that ignores 50-60% of your armour can be extremely dangerous, but the risk is worth it.

An example of a Legendary two-handed weapon you can get early on is the Legendary Two-Handed Barbarian Cleaver. This can be obtained by finding the Ice Cave at a random Northern location of the map and defeating the Mad Barbarian in a 1v1 duel. You will want a man equipped with a two-handed mace or hammer for this fight. The mace is perhaps more useful, as Dazing the Barbarian will reduce his damage.

Strengths:

Random stats can make Two-Handed Legendary weapons better than anything else you can get in the game.
Any type of Two-Handed weapon can be Legendary, potentially giving you a lot of variety in your powerful weapon types.
Some Legendary Two-Handed Weapons, such as a variant of the Warlord’s Cleaver, can be found as part of scripted events.

Weaknesses:

Difficult to get specific weapons due to their random nature of acquisition.
Can only be purchased from Citadel Weaponsmiths on rare occasions, for enormous amounts of crowns.
You must take on difficult battles to get these weapons.
Random stats can make these weapons either fantastic or underwhelming.

Acquiring Legendary Weapons:

As noted above, raiding enemy camps and killing the toughest enemies you can find increases your chances of finding Legendary Two-Handed weapons. Example enemies to hunt include Knights, Hedge Knights and Champion variants of Brigand Leaders and similar enemies. Taking the Bounty Hunter in your Retinue can help you find these enemies.

When raiding camps, stock up on supplies and try to attack camps that are as far away from civilised areas with towns as possible. These camps have the best chances for finding Legendary weapons and armour.

You can also try paying for rumour information in Taverns. Sometimes you will be informed a great treasure, heirloom or rare artifact is in a ruin nearby. This is a good way of finding Legendary items.

Another route is taking Caravan missions that will restock a town with a Weaponsmith with the "Well Supplied" status. This can cause Legendary weapons to spawn at the Weaponsmith.

Be aware that you will normally want to look for these items late in the game unless you are extremely experienced with Battle Brothers, as you will have to fight some of the hardest possible battles to obtain this sort of gear.

GAMERS DECIDE - Battle Brothers

[Top 10] Battle Brothers Best Perks That Are Great

Which Perks should I pick in Battle Brothers and why?

10. Student

9. Indomitable

8. Gifted

7. Quick Hands

6. Rotation

5. Nimble

4. Battleforged

3. Killing Frenzy

2. Berserk

1. Duellist

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[Top 10] Battle Brothers Best Backgrounds That Are Great

Which backgrounds should I recruit from to get decent troops in Battle Brothers?

10. Farmhand

9. Fisherman

8. Poacher

7. Brawler/Militia

6. Bastards/Adventurous Nobles/Disowned Nobles

5. Monk

4. Hunter

3. Sellsword

2. Swordmaster/Retired Soldier

1. Hedge Knight

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Battle Brothers Best Origins – Which to Choose?

Which Battle Brothers origin story should you start your game with?

1. Rebuilding A Company

Difficulty: Easier.

2. A New Company

Difficulty: Easier.

3. Southern Mercenaries (Blazing Deserts DLC)

Difficulty: Average.

4. Trading Caravan

Difficulty: Medium.

5. Peasant Militia

Difficulty: Medium.

6. Band of Poachers

Difficulty: Medium to Hard.

7. Oathtakers

Difficulty: Medium.

8. Deserters

Difficulty: Hard.

9. Northern Raiders (Warriors of the North DLC)

Difficulty: Hard.

10. Anatomists

Difficulty: Medium.

11. Davkul Cultists

Difficulty: Hard to Very Hard.

12. Manhunters (Blazing Deserts DLC)

Difficulty: Hard to Very Hard.

13. Beast Slayers (Beasts and Exploration DLC)

Difficulty: Hard to Very Hard.

14. Gladiators (Blazing Deserts DLC)

Difficulty: Hard to Very Hard.

15. Lone Wolf

Difficulty: Hard to Very Hard.

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[Top 5] Battle Brothers Best 2H Weapons (And How To Get Them)

What two-handed weapons do your Battle Brothers need to be most effective?

5. Bardiche (Warriors of the North DLC)

4. Two-Handed Hammer

3. Two-Handed Flanged Mace

2. Man Splitter

1. Legendary Two-Handed Weapons

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