New player, lost 6 times "Early Game" scenario

[Rootfort]

Hello,

just bought the game and played for 2 hours. I lost 6 times to undead in the “Early Game” scenario. I tried few strategies inter alia rushing for the necromancer.
What am I doing wrong? Do you have some advises for me?

Thanks.

"Remember, never loose the heads!" Sarissofoi, 28.11.2016

[Danubian]

Can you show us a screenshot of the battle so that we can see what kind of party you have and what kind of enemies you chose to fight?

[Rootfort]

Played again so I can upload screenshots – I lost two times :^)
*imgur*click*
EDIT: Two more screen shots
*imgur*click*part2*

"Remember, never loose the heads!" Sarissofoi, 28.11.2016

[McKing]

Sorry, but your screenshots didn’t help much – i couldn’t even see the ones in the second link.
It’s not clear how many men – and how well equipped – you have.

But, by the pictures i could see, you were completely overwhelmed. So, i will try to give general tips for a beginner, and how to deal with the undead.

1 – Equip all your men with the best armor avaliable, as long as it doesn’t hinder their fatigue too much. Your archers are wearing the worst armor in the game, you must have something better. And don’t let your archers be engaged at melee if you can! Massed Wiedergangers are great targets, you hit even when you miss!

2 – At the beginning, it’s crucial to estabilish a line of shield-bearing brothers (with spears to make a spearwall too, early on). It doesn’t work against all oponents, but it does against the undead, except… When there’s a necromancer present, you really should rush to kill him, as you’ve surmissed already. Still, you must do it smartly: kill him with your archers if they are any good; use your line to occupy the ‘gangers while you send a competent man to wipe out the necro; blitz with the entire line to make way for someone or to allow the archers a closer shot…

But that all depends if you simply have the manpower needed for such a task. If you have few and underequipped men, don’t bother, go search for some thugs.

3 – Besides the necromancer, focus on the polearm-wielding Wiedergangers with your archers, as they will probably do the biggest damage; then focus on the ones with the best weapons (though i’m not sure you can recognize them already).

4 – The Wiedergangers have low Action Points, and a spearwall may help on holding them off, and then focusing on the ones that make it to the line. Polearm-wielding brothers (pitchforks at the beginning, usually) provide a real good punch with their weapons, they are some of my best killers.

5 – Don’t advance your line haphazardly over fallen ‘gangers if you haven’t put them down for good – they will disrupt your formation, and may isolate a brother, who will be easily picked off.

6 – At the beginning, i usually hire a lot of cheap brothers and focus on giving them shields and the 30/35 armors.

7 – One of the biggest problem facing large numbers of undead is fatigue. Don’t push your men too hard, or they might be too tired when you need just one strike to save a wounded brother.

8 – Take care of your Companions (the 3 starters), they are amazing. Take care of your archers, it’s hard to get decent skilled ranged fighters.

9 – Remember that every fallen brother means a new Wiederganger for the enemy – shields up! But controlling the fatigue, of course.

[Rootfort]

McKing I am not playing a campaign. Could you please (or anybody else) go to the menu -> scenario -> Early Game. Thanks for the tips by the way, I will defiantly use them for my first campaign.
EDIT: Here is the link which didn’t worked in my previous post: *click*

"Remember, never loose the heads!" Sarissofoi, 28.11.2016

[Danubian]

From that screenshot, that doesnt look like a party i would take vs that many undead.

Thats the main problem.

People armed with 1 handed axes dont have shield, which defeats the purpose of 1 handed weapons.

[Lufos]

i assume, the first pic represents your available equipment? given only that, i would probably use the following set up:

– 3 front liners with shields and 1h weapons
– 3 back liners with 2h long range weapons
– 2 archers with bows and 1h weapons (knife, dagger,…) + extra ammunition in bag

tactic:

– stay as close together as possible and put up a shield wall
– dont let your archers or back liners get attacked in close combat
– avoid the swamp like the pest
– watch out for flanking maneuvers
– move carefully so you dont run out of fatigue (zombie fights last long due to sheer numbers + revive)

Formation could look like that:

A_BL_FL
__BL_FL
A_BL_FL

cheers
Lufos

[Rootfort]

Lufos wrote:

– stay as close together as possible and put up a shield wall
– dont let your archers or back liners get attacked in close combat
– avoid the swamp like the pest
– watch out for flanking maneuvers
– move carefully so you dont run out of fatigue (zombie fights last long due to sheer numbers + revive)

Thank you Lufos but it didn’t worked out, because like you said last long due to sheer numbers and revives. However I lasted way longer thanks to your formation but I could came closer to the necromancer.
I think the scenario is unbalanced. Maybe I will find some videos on youtube.

"Remember, never loose the heads!" Sarissofoi, 28.11.2016

[Lufos]

it is unrealistic and not suited for beginners (as you have proven). outnumbered 2:1, badly equiped in a swamp against reviving enemies…

i suggest, you stay away from scenarios and just start a campaign on easy. your men will die like flies and you will fail a lot, but thats how battle brothers is designed. once you get the hang of it, it gets easier, i promise. :-)

[Sarissofoi]

Rootfort wrote:

Lufos wrote:

– stay as close together as possible and put up a shield wall
– dont let your archers or back liners get attacked in close combat
– avoid the swamp like the pest
– watch out for flanking maneuvers
– move carefully so you dont run out of fatigue (zombie fights last long due to sheer numbers + revive)

Thank you Lufos but it didn’t worked out, because like you said last long due to sheer numbers and revives. However I lasted way longer thanks to your formation but I could came closer to the necromancer.
I think the scenario is unbalanced. Maybe I will find some videos on youtube.

Watch this and acquire proficiency.
https://youtu.be/JR9fuZtiakA

[McKing]

Oh, sorry about that, i love the campaign so much i even forgot there were such Scenarios.

[Marsdreamer]

I just completed it and it was a little tricky, but overall fairly simple to deal with. I didn’t lose any men.

Some tips.

You’ve got two bullhooks to equip your men with, these are pretty OP weapons and are going to be the meat of your damage dealing.

Use your shielded brothers and equip them with spears. Spears are very accurate and deal decent damage. They fail against armor, but most of the Undead in this encounter are unarmored or already half armor, so spears are naturally good against them. Really you just want reliable damage.

I don’t know if the map is the same every time, but for me I started on a small strip of land behind several murky water terrain tiles. Use this to your advantage as any units inside the murky water take significant combat penalties. I set up my shield brothers in a row along there and my bullhooks behind (bullhooks can attack from range 2). I had one sword brother and an archer set to the south. I simply passed turns for several turns waiting for the enemies to come to me, I used all my ammunition dealing the first stragglers that came at me. I DID NOT ADVANCE as I knew the enemies would come to me and I had terrain advantage.

I just waited until the zombies came into my wall and then singled them out, burning them down. The bullhooks can frequently kill one outright or do 80-90% of it’s HP, depending on your damage roll. I prioritized low HP enemies and then enemies with actual weapons. It’s mainly important in the beginning to try and even out the number of attacks you are recieving Vs. dishing out. You always want to try and position yourself such that you can attack and eliminate a threat before it has a chance to attack you back. I think in the entire fight I was attacked about a dozen times and only hit half that.

Once I had the zombies down to more manageable numbers, I transitioned a Bullhook, and the archer + spear brother at the southern flank in towards the necromancer. They made their way there while the necromancer raised and possessed zombies that my main force was dealing with. This southern flank circled around, got into melee with the necromancer and killed him, then moved back towards my main force and flanked the remaining zombies, eliminating them.

Hope this helps!

[Rootfort]

Thank you @Sarissofoi and @Marsdreamer I did it! I lost one man but I did it.

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"Remember, never loose the heads!" Sarissofoi, 28.11.2016

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