Reply To: Real Value of Ranged Brothers
>> After that they can switch to billhooks or other distance weapons to help out in melee combat. They are less efficient against armored enemies, but with crossbows they can help out a lot, so they stay relevant even in late game.
Why everyone is suggesting my ranged brothers to use melee weapons? Just what stats have you increased for your archers!? щ(ºДºщ)
Hmmm….
Out of 3 stats growth, range skill and max fatigue is a must, so the remaining stat left for archers is probably a choice between defense (ranged/melee def) and melee skill. Archers are ranged units so they don’t need melee def, but they probably need ranged def as means to fight enemy archers or protect themselves from enemy archers. You can choose melee skill and wear armor instead. I never try the latter style before, I always have a misconception about hybrid brother serves less purpose than melee and ranged brother. I think it’s time I put down my biased views and give hybrid brother a try.
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I assume all ranged brothers are damage dealers. If you have a ranged brother with Rally, you won’t call him archer. I have a brother like this and he never fire an arrow/bolt, and rarely moves at all. All he does is rally.
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>> In short – they range from being the most important members of the group to being useful enough to not consider not having them. Melee brothers range from being near useless meatshields to being valuable members, but not to that extent and they are always taking higher risk when in combat (so you’re much more likely to lose them).
Can you fire arrow without meatshields to protect you!? щ(ºДºщ) (Geez, kids these days just take meatshields for granted)
When enemy comes in front of you, can you still fire arrow or reload? (you will exhaust all pre-loaded crossbows in your belt inventory in a second) For this reason, I think melee brother is actually INEVITABLE member for any team.
Also, I suspect you can win various fights with pure melee team but strongly doubt you can win several fights with pure ranged team.
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To further study relationship between melee and ranged brothers, let’s take a look at their battle results.
The two images above was when I fought some orc youngs, warriors, berserkers (they are 2 different enemy factions, but not two attempts on same enemy group). I didn’t bother to fire an arrow with ranged brother because I know it’s a sure win. The assassins are melee brothers, and those with level up sign are just filler brothers until I’ve decided what to do with them.
The two images above was when I raided bases with 3 bandits leaders (they are 2 different enemy factions, but not two attempts on same enemy group). At this point of time I finally have rally brothers. Rally greatly enhances the potential of my archers, I’ve never face the problem of running out of ammo until I have two Rally brothers. I start the fight being surrounded by enemy archers in circle or pincer. 3 bandit leaders didn’t make me frown a tiny bit, but the enemy archers surrounded me are really disturbing and a real threat. The furies are ranged brothers, they are dealing moderate damage to light armor enemies(bandits), because there are melee brothers who tank for them. Now I’m thinking…… would it be even better if I switch all ranged brothers to melee brothers? Still, I have to try the hybrid brothers first.
P.S.
You can’t mess around when being surrounded by enemy archers, especially if you have 4 filler brothers.
Also, please pardon my seemingly rude attitude despite I’m the one who asks for guidance and discussion m(_ _)m
And I still welcome all input regarding ranged brothers m(_ _)m
On a less relevant note, I found out it is very useful to screenshot your battle results, if you want to perform team analysis. You can gradually fine tune your team, making everyone productive and spread damage taken evenly among brothers.