Strategies for making use of overly restrictive perks?

[Wargasm]

Push the Advantage:
— Start with a small number of skilled mercs, with accurate/lethal weapons and decent armour, who will be the core of your band
— Give them Push the Advantage as their first perk (regardless of whether they have a stun weapon) and Quick Hands as their second perk (and do the same with all/most subsequent recruits)
— Fill your ranks by hiring lots of cheap mercs (their likely skills/attributes are not that important), and arm them all with cheap, durable bludgeons and basic shields
— In battle, use your expendables to overwhelm the enemy, and use the Knock Out skill all/most of the time
— Whenever an enemy is stunned, your skilled core can instantly arm with an appropriate weapon (if not already armed with one) and will have a very good chance to hit for plenty of damage (which means that they’ll get most of the experience points)
— If expendables survive and start becoming skilled and gaining perks, give them some better protection etc. and build them up as per your core
— Over time, the growing core of your band should be armed with maces and flails, so that they can stun opponents and then have a very good chance to hit the head for extra damage
— There should also be some quick-handed crossbow/pike-men
— Mostly give your band perks from the Utility tree to reduce fatigue, and increase their melee skill and max fatigue, but maybe take some of them (e.g. ones without enough max fatigue to wear heavy armour and/or bear heavy shields) through the Defence tree to become nimble dodgers with high initiative

Crusher:
— Similar to above but for the Crusher perk (Quick Hands not so important but still useful for arming with a lighter, more accurate weapon once the shield is smashed)
— Almost everyone is armed with an axe (small, cheapish ones at first) and uses the Split Shield skill (significant communal effect) whenever possible to break enemy defences
— Once the shield is gone, they can keep the axe (more damage to armour) or arm with a lighter, more accurate weapon
— The core mercs have the biggest axes (and/or best protection and alternate weapons) and will do the most damage to armour and flesh and get the most experience points
— Some of the core should be quick-handed crossbow/pike-men who can impale shield-less adversaries

[Timotheus]

My thoughts for “Push the advantage”

– If you plan to stun a lot, you might want to give it to your billhook-fighters. They can concentrate their attacks on a single stunned target (while your frontline combatants are locked into place and can’t)
– If you use the perk, consider giving the battlebrother a lot of initiative, so he has more control on when to attack
– If you feel really experimental, use “Push the advantage” to set off the accuracy penalty of the “puncture” skill. Have one battlebrother use the “Rally” skill all the time, so you can “puncture” and “knock out” more often. For your stabbers, aim for perks from the offensive tree like “Fast Adaption” and “Full force” or fatigue perks from the utility tree. Destroying enemy armour is bothersome and cuts into your profits, doesn’t it? :)

[Wargasm]

On the plus side, though, destroying armour does result in a more rapid gain of experience points … so possibly a strategy combining Knock Out, Puncture and Destroy Armour (and decapitate)?

Actually, when I first thought of the stun strategy, my aim was to win with just the cheapest and/or lightest equipment, and indeed I tried to combine Knock Out with Puncture (which didn’t seem to work that well for long, since the overall increased chance to hit was just 5%, so that enemies with good defence skills couldn’t be hit often enough before we were fatigued and injured). Also, you don’t gain experience points and perks as rapidly with this “Smash and Stab” strategy.

When I thought of all the perks and skills needed to optimize the strategy, I thought that they’d need lots of max fatigue to keep using Knock Out, and lots of melee skill to be sure of getting in some hits against tough opponents, and lots of melee and ranged defence skills to compensate for the excessive cost of forming a shieldwall …

Obviously Push the Advantage and Fast Adaptation (on Tier 1 of the Offensive Tree at the time) were ideal perks, but Fast Adaptation is now on Tier 2, and there are perks on Tier 2 of all the trees that would optimize the strategy:

— Brawny and Weaponmaster and Battle Flow from Tier 2 the Utility Tree (in addition to Bags & Belts, Quick Hands, Pathfinder and Shield Bash from Tier 1)
— Ideally you’d also want a Rallier and an Inspiring Presence from Tier 3 to replenish everyone’s energy and give everyone an attack and defence bonus at the start of battle
— Nimble from Tier 2 of the Defence Tree, as well as Hold Out (now moved to Tier 2) so that the Confident bonus is increased to 10 for all skills
— Dodge from Tier 1 of the Defence Tree (along with Hold Out) can massively increase the doubled melee defence score from Nimble, so that you then have less need of armour and defensive movements
— Berserk (and now also Fast Adaptation) from Tier 2 of the Offensive Tree

I have noticed the utility of high initiative for making sure you get the chance to knock out opponents before they have the chance to hit you, and for getting more opportunities to strike a stunned foe. However, max fatigue is also very important for the strategy, and making use of it with skills, weapons and armour takes initiative down and causes it to drop more rapidly.

So, my current thinking is that, if a recruit has high max fatigue but average/low initiative, concentrate them mainly on the Utility Tree (in addition to the necessary Offensive Perk) and then gradually the initiative will go back up (and be more sustained in battle) thanks to the Tier 2 Utility perks. Or, if a recruit has high initiative but average/low max fatigue, concentrate them mainly on the Defence Tree to make them into nimble dodgers that don’t need lots of heavy/costly defensive equipment/moves and that therefore have enough energy to use Knock Out on a regular basis (or these could be the ones armed with pikes).

[Author]

Posts