Looking at what other folks do in their games have been very helpful – thank you all for that. I think I’m improving my game, bit by bit. I’ll probably be happy restarting yet another time trying to get my own battle line combinations right, haha. I’m even more surprised that someone was able to make spearwalls work in the late game!
So an update: Looks like I’ve reached the point in the game where I can stop relying on patrols to do the heavy lifting on behalf of my Battle Bait… I mean Battle Brothers. *cough* I do occasionally pull the odd deadly orc group to town militia and patrols for support, but my party has grown strong enough that I can even raid the occasional bandit hideout. I’ve even started investing in high grade troops since I have the finances to pull it off. I guess when the party grows in
I kind of wish towns always had quests waiting to be completed. I running around from town to town hoping for a worthy task but drawing absolute blanks is just a little frustrating. Not a big problem, but just mehhhhhh.