Reply To: Strategies for making use of overly restrictive perks?

[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).