I am finding Battle Brothers’ combat to be a superb experience – fun, cerebral, challenging, rewarding – in short, everything I want in a turn-based strategy title. I’ll have no trouble recommending it based on those merits alone.
What I feel the game’s roleplay side would benefit from most though, is depth to the Mercenary Company itself: literally, the organization you’re in charge of, rather than the individual mercenaries. Three areas that could expand this might include:
1) Headquarters (A third tab in the roster screen)
A Mercenary Company’s base of operations (or lack thereof) says a great deal about what the group values and how its members conduct themselves. Perhaps when the player amasses a certain amount of wealth, or a certain number of high-level mercenaries, they could select what sort of HQ they operate from. Then, as more wealth/experienced mercs are gained, the player could purchase a few upgraded tiers of that HQ, which could provide resources or combat bonuses.
Examples:
Headquarters Bonus Unique Facility
Stronghold (Power) +% Exp gain Arena
Guild Office (Profit) +% Gold earned/contract Bank
Mobile Camp (Freedom) +Food gain/day Livestock Herd
2) Officers (Distributable traits)
Implementing a form of leadership layer would add more character to the Company. When not part of the active squad, these mercs could be “assigned to the headquarters” and provide company bonuses. When on the battlefield, the traits could act like the “Captain” perk, or similar. These bonuses could scale with the merc’s level, forcing the player to choose between using a powerful character in the field or sending them to the HQ for the bonus.
Examples:
Officer HQ Bonus Combat Bonus
Paymaster +Gold gain/contract +% Morale
Quartermaster +Food gain/day, +Medicine gain/day +% Resolve
Master-at-Arms +Tools gain/day, +Ammunition gain/day +% Repair Rate
Drillmaster +% Exp gain +% Initiative
3) Reputation
As others have suggested previously, how your Company is perceived by society affects who will deal with them and how. More than contract completion though, this could be based off of averaging any number of factors, to add flavor to the Company’s status. These averages, if tracked over the last X days, or the last X contracts accepted, could be expressed as a trend, so that a Company could be identified as “on the rise” or “has seen better days.” etc.
Examples:
Dimension Factors Effects
Appearance Average equipment cost or condition at contract acceptance Contract Reward
Training Average Merc level at contract acceptance Contract Availability, Contract Reward
Morality Guards/Caravans attacked, eliminated over time Contract Availability, Town Hostility
.