Your brothers' builds

[Danubian]

Yeah i dont take delivery contracts because i always thought they were awful money/time, so instead i just roam around and pick “kill bandits”, “kill graveyard” and “kill orcs” missions (well in my current ive been unable to take orcs because game insists on spawning orc warriors which is a no go as of now).

And im telling you nimble build is life, nimble build is love. And i love you for suggesting this to me. It works like a charm.

Its the most generic and most suitable build for most money paying contracts.

The stuff that might be difficult (goblins) is the stuff you can easily avoid; and even problematic stuff im pretty sure youll be able to take on later on (near max level).

[Meeky]

Well, I’m going to try out your army setup and see how it works for me. The third iteration of the Lucky Bastards is due for retirement anyway. Methinks the Black Vipers would be a good name for an army of nimble warriors.

[Danubian]

Meeky wrote:

Well, I’m going to try out your army setup and see how it works for me. The third iteration of the Lucky Bastards is due for retirement anyway. Methinks the Black Vipers would be a good name for an army of nimble warriors.

Yo meeky what one handed weapons do you prefer?

I recently kinda decided that maces are the best (not the lower tier stuff, but the military grade ones). I would give noble swords to archers vs like vampires and possibly other hard-to-hit stuff…

I used to think that this pick thingie whatever it was called, the one with 200 armor effectiveness was great, but i dont know any more, after having used it extensively i kinda get the feeling it may be just too specialized (sure id like to have a few vs orc warriors?).

[Meeky]

Yo meeky what one handed weapons do you prefer?

I recently kinda decided that maces are the best (not the lower tier stuff, but the military grade ones). I would give noble swords to archers vs like vampires and possibly other hard-to-hit stuff…

I used to think that this pick thingie whatever it was called, the one with 200 armor effectiveness was great, but i dont know any more, after having used it extensively i kinda get the feeling it may be just too specialized (sure id like to have a few vs orc warriors?).

Most weapons are pretty specialized, which is why I use Quick Hands + Bags and Belts on everyone. Having potentially 5 weapons on everyone changes the game.

With that said, most characters will have 4 or 5 different weapons on their person. Meatshields will use throwing weapons in one slot, two-handed dudes seem to benefit from carrying crossbows, and Nimble fighters ought to have a kite shield in their inventory (unequipped) and I’ve never liked giving them ranged weapons. So, in general: 4 weapons seems to be how many most characters carry.

Given that, I think it’s fair to figure out what the four best weapons are, not the very best. If I HAD to choose one weapon and one weapon alone with which to beat the game, and it had to be one-handed…?

Hm. I’d probably choose the Fighting Axe. It has high effectiveness vs. armor (125%), decent ability to ignore damage (30%), has a way to deal with shields (gang up and BREAK THEM), high weapon durability (40)… Its damage could be better (35-55), but it’s nevertheless a sort of swiss army knife. It’s not terrible great at any one job, but it’s a solid general weapon. The mace would be its runner up, or very possibly its equal in versatility: it has good damage, good penetration, and good effectiveness vs. armor just like the ace. Stunning Blow’s usefulness is limited, but… still, a very effective weapon. The Noble Sword gets an honorable mention at third place.

However, if I can choose 4 weapons instead of 1, chances are you won’t see the Fighting Axe as often as you’d expect. If all those weapons are one-handed, I’d choose…

A Warhammer (for breaking through armor – 200% damage effectiveness vs. armor ROCKS)
A Scramasax (for just ignoring armor with Puncture – useful when you want to recover a piece of equipment and can reliably surround the target; I.E., useful during the mop-up phase)
A Military Cleaver or Head Chopper (I always prefer to give my Wildmen the orcish versions of weapons; both the Cleaver and Chopper are amazing for dealing with enemies who’ve already lost their armor)
And a Noble Sword, Boar Spear, or Flail (mostly for the +10% / +20% chance to hit and defensive value for the sword / spear, but the flail – although I hate flails – admittedly has the useful ability to hit enemies despite them shielding up)

Notice that the first three weapons (warhammer/scramasax/cleaver) are all very, very specialized weapons. They have very specific purposes when I use them: the hammer to destroy armor, the cleaver to destroy flesh, and the scramasax to cut make sure I get the loot I want so badly. The noble sword, boar spear, and flail all have bonuses to their accuracy, which means they’re very useful when I need to hit something relatively hard but also need to make sure I can actually hit the darned thing. But the sword and spear aren’t situational while the flail is, and I honestly feel like the flail has a useless second ability, so I prefer the sword and spear over the flail.

Now, I still use the Fighting Axe and Mace in my army composition. I have, after all, usually several different guys in my army. I can equip them differently not only for variety but for different sort of situational usefulness. The Fighting Axe has seen use in all my games, as has the Mace, even though they’re not listed as one of my four “best case scenario” weapons. Why? They’re still Swiss army knives. They’re darned useful.

Named weapons also change how I play the game. I’ve got a Honed Oathkeeper (Noble Longsword) which deals 54-60 damage in my present iteration of the Lucky Bastards. I’ve also got a Well Crafted Maul (39-61 damage mace), Orc Warrior’s Ripper (45-78 damage Head Chopper), Deadly Whip (flail with +10% chance to hit head), a Deadly Axe (greataxe with 177% effectiveness vs. armor and only -12 fatigue), a couple more unique maces, a unique kite shield… Etc. What I find and when I find it changes how I play.

[Hairyskinback]

Danubian wrote:

One half of my team are nimble melee fighters (they basically hold the line) – i start with defense and then switch to utility (to pick that perk that halves fatigue for armors).

and second half of my team are archers/crossbowmen who start off with utility and then switch into offense
What you get that way are superb nimble tanks that are super hard to hit – i like to arm them with maces – and you get crossbowmen that confuse the AI into thinking they are weak so it attacks them – and when they do attack i simply switch to 2 handed weapons (and later one handed once i got nimble on them as well) and slaughter everything.

This way you have everything covered – you can fill the normal enemies with bolts from crossbows (really good for picking off orc bersekers for example) and when you run into enemies that are mostly resistant to arrows/bolts (skeletons?) you can still switch to two handed weapons and help your first line.

New player to the game. Read a lot and your build seems to be the way I would like to go. Could you add a bit more detail for example what type of recruits you go for to fill the roles and early to late weapon / armor layouts. Many thanks either way.

[Wargasm]

I’ve had so, so many “builds”. I’m addicted to using them experimentally and concurrently, but I tend to get bored of each after a while of having a full band and a full inventory and spending ever more time on loot management and item assignation.

It almost embarrasses me to admit that I’ve NEVER had a single mercenary go all the way through the Perk Tree. I had one (from before the World Map re-working broke old saves) who was just a few points away from the final level up, but I never resumed it before the update. I guess this wasn’t a mean feat, since I played the game for aeons before I even discovered the existence of Level-Ups accompanying each perk.

Part of the reason for the above is that I’m very attracted to the idea of a gritty, low-power early medieval (Dark Age) world centred on shieldwalls and slaughterous melees, as opposed to a high medieval fantasy world featuring full plate armour and mystical beings.

My builds tend to be based, not only on Perk and Level-Up strategies, but also on imaginative “themes” based around particular weapons and/or items and/or environments. For example, one of my favourite bands is based around areas of woodland and awkward terrain, and never does work for noble houses, and features characters all named after figures from the Robin Hood legends, all of them dressed only in green/brown leather/cloth, and most of them armed with ranged weapons in addition to axes and/or spears and/or pikes and usually a shield (never a heater). I recruited a cocky minstrel and named him Alan a’Dale, and he has since become a captain and is also close to tier 2 on the defence tree. Robin Hood, Little John and Adam Bell are all weaponmasters who are also close to tier 2 on the defence tree. Robin Hood has high initiative and often uses two crossbows and a pike at the very start of a battle. Friar Tuck is (counter-intuitively) a nimble dodger, as is Maid Marion. Marion was originally a gambler with a massive, misshapen skull and a gnarly black beard, but she turned into a delicate red-head after a trip to the barber’s.

I also have builds centred around (e.g.): using bludgeons/maces and giving everyone Push the Advantage to start; using axes and giving everyone Crusher to start; trying (and mostly failing) to make throwing weapons effective; picking recruits, weapons, equipment, environments and perks in accordance with the idea of being a shadowy band of outcasts (i.e. thieves, gamblers, vagabonds, beggars, refugees, peddlers).

As a general rule, I like the Utility Tree the best, since it (a) allows you to use a greater variety of equipment and skills, so that battles are more interesting, and (b) over-compensates for most of the perks that you are sacrificing from the other trees. With Battle Forged from the Defence Tree you can get an extra 20% out of your armour, but with Brawny from the Utility Tree you can wear 100% as much without any more fatigue. Colossus from the Defence Tree is highly desirable, but the Utility Tree allows you to wear more armour, carry bigger shields and form more shieldwalls, so that you get hit less and lose fewer hit points when you do. Deflect from the Defence Tree makes it much less likely that you’ll be left without a shield, but with Bags&Belts + Quick Hands you can arm with a replacement in no time. Perks from the Offence Tree allow you to hit more often and/or do more damage, but with Bags&Belts + Quick Hands you can choose one weapon to smash shields, another to smash armour, and another to reliably rip through naked flesh. Pathfinder allows the band to take better terrain and trap the enemy on bad terrain, so that the hit chances are all skewed to your advantage.

In the earlier parts of the game, I usually take almost all recruits through the Utility Tree until one or two perks are gained from tier 2, but I mostly focus Level-Ups (where luck allows) on defensive stats, such as hit points and resolve and (if it was high basally) initiative. Then I start to add in Perks from the Defence Tree that fit with the theme of the band and/or with the traits of the individual. Colossus is always desired. Dodge is very handy if they had high basal initiative and have now regained (and/or are able to retain) a good amount of it thanks to Brawny and/or Weaponmaster. Shield Expert is a rather modest perk, but I sometimes add it in if the band is one that has lots of weaponmasters with heater shields.

In antediluvian game builds, I used to get one or two Inspiring Presences and then give all new recruits Hold Out as their first perk (i.e. starting at confident morale because of presence, and now getting +10 for all melee and ranged stats) – something that has not been possible since Hold Out was switched to tier 2. In the current game build, I don’t bother about tier 3 perks and, once I’ve got quite a few weaponmasters and one or two captains, I start to focus a higher number of recruits on the defence tree, and deliberately recruit thieves, gamblers etc. that will be good for this (i.e. Dodge, Colossus, Battle Forged, Nimble, Hold Out … not sure after that, but probably over to the Utility Tree to regain/retain stamina/initiative and morale).

For the Utility Tree, I like to: (a) compensate for not taking Colossus straightaway, by recruiting people (e.g. Farmhands, Lumberjacks, Wild Men) who have high basal hit points; (b) compensate for Hold Out now being a tier 2 defence perk, by recruiting people (e.g. Cultists, Gamblers, Squires) who have high basal resolve and who can become captains. Ideally they shouldn’t have a low basal max fatigue, or else they won’t be able to take full advantage of the tree.

For the Defence Tree, I like to recruit people who have high basal initiative and high basal defence skills, such as Thieves and Gamblers.

Messengers often have a decent bit of ranged defence to start with, and also have a high max fatigue that allows them to wear heavy armour, so that (whatever tree you take them down) they usually make good pikemen.

Although I rarely make use of the Offence Tree, one benefit from doing so would be that you’d do more damage and thus accumulate experience points (and perks) more rapidly.

[Alexander]

I typically have a build, with variations, that follows these basics:

1) Bowman: I have at least two or three archers who carry two-handers or spears as back-up weapons. I also have two crossbowmen who carry halberds (pikes or billhooks) in the same fashion; this allows them to support the front line once the bows aren’t viable.

2) Shieldwall: I insist on having at least three hoplites (spears with shields), using any secondary variation that suits them. It basically forces the enemy line to take damage repeatedly or expose themselves to more arrow fire if they choose go the “long way” around my own front line.

3) Between spearmen: I keep “men-at-arms” who can swap between hand-weapons — swords, maces, axes, or hammers, depending on if the enemy has shields or heavy mail — to charge out once the shield wall is compromised. This provides the additional raw damage that assists my bowman and primary spearman. Also, I give them throwing weapons — javelins and nets — to cover mid-range fighting.

4) Heavy-handers: At least two of my men should have great axes or greatswords on the group’s flanks. This way, if the enemy makes it en masse around the spearwall, they will be weakened by arrow fire, and I can have the two-handers clear out the weakened troops. This is opposed to early builds that had two-handers in the middle — I find it’s actually better to have them on the flanks.

5) Finally, the minutia: usually one of my billmen is a hound-master and I’ll pick one other character who has high fatigue to have a hound as well. At least one “man-at-arms” will have a myriad of secondary weapons and another will keep nets and more “specialist” weapons. This allows me to keep a balanced group that can improvise against unusual attackers. The archers focus on utility and offense while the two-handers on offense and max fatigue. The frontlines emphasize defense, naturally. So far the build has worked well for me.

[Greed]

Thank you men

[Wargasm]

I noted above that I’ve NEVER had any mercenary get to Level 11. That has now changed with my current build, which has 3 people at Level 11 and a full band who all have at least 8 perks and level-ups. To achieve this, I guess I “sold out” (or at least the local armourers all sold out – of heavy armour). Basically, if you take everyone through the utility tree to take Brawny and Weaponmaster from tier 2, they can all be decked from head to toe in heavy armour and carry a heavy shield, and still have a max fatigue of around 80 or more (which, thanks to Weaponmaster, will not get eaten into too much).

Here is my first ever merc to reach Level 11 – a baby-faced assassin in all his war-glory:

Since shields are (a) useful to start with and (b) look cool, I decided to choose some perks to make use of them and gave all melee fighters Shield Bash instead of Quick Hands. I haven’t missed Quick Hands much, since they only ever really change items to replace a smashed shield, and then they can just form a shield wall (only 1 fatigue point more than they recover each turn) and wait patiently for the next turn while their enemies wear themselves out. Also, Shield Bash (especially combined with Pathfinder) is excellent for controlling the “line of scrimmage”, and later on (combined with Weaponmaster) it costs only 12 fatigue points to use (and has a +25% chance to hit) and can wear your enemies down and/or put them in perilous positions.

After gaining the energy-efficient tier 2 utility perks, I started giving everyone defensive perks (Colossus and Battle Forged for all, and then Dodge for the pikemen/crossbowmen who also had Quick Hands, and Deflect for the melee fighters whose precious looted shields were being imperilled by orcish axes). Since I have one Captain who I’ve also made an Inspiring Presence, I’ve started giving people Hold Out from tier 2 of the defence tree, so that all skills are +10 to start each battle. It’s only at this point (everyone in heavy armour, with high max fatigue, starting at confident morale and getting to tier 2 on the defence tree) that I’m starting to regret not being able to make use of Nimble against a background of Dodge and Hold Out. Still, most of my level-ups offered only +1 melee defence anyway, so that it probably wouldn’t have worked … plus, I wouldn’t want to part with my expanding collection of precious looted shields with (e.g.) +27 melee defence or +31 ranged defence (hence Deflect). With Weaponmaster and Brawny, you can form a shield wall on a regular basis and at least double those defence bonuses.

As more large one-handed axes are looted in battle, I’ve started arming melee fighters with these and giving them the Crusher perk. With the ability to smash shields in a single strike, melee skill isn’t an amazing priority, since the hit chance will always be at least okay against a shieldless enemy, and there’s always a spear or sword in reserve. Level-ups can instead be focussed on hit points, max fatigue and resolve and/or defence skills.

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