What is the best difficulty to choose for Ironman?

[QuentinW]

Title says it all. I’m sure, I’m not playing on expert, but I cannot make my mind between beginner and veteran. Was the game designed with ironman in mind or is there just too much chance to play higher difficulties?

oldschool rpg blog (in czech language)
http://2k6goblinu.blogspot.cz/

[Sarissofoi]

How long did you play and on what difficulty?
Beginner is really easy as far as you grasp basic mechanics and have knowledge of enemies.
If you know how to play try veteran as expert have to tedious(trade) or luck dependent start(straight combat).

If you are fresh try to play some beginner, check wiki or look for advice on steam forum.

[QuentinW]

I’ve played 70 ingame days on beginner Ironman. Never encountered skeletons, vampires or ghosts. But I can reliably wipe the floor with bandits, goblins, wolves and small bands of orcs. Now I’m getting into the grindy part of the game – getting heavier armors, best weapons, looking for talented soldiers. So before I commit to this campaign, I’ll probably reroll for higher difficulty so it stays tense and dangerous.

My question really is; How likely it is to get wiped out on challenging difficulty without your own fault? Like unavoidable ambushes from powerful creatures, crazy autokilling crits etc.

oldschool rpg blog (in czech language)
http://2k6goblinu.blogspot.cz/

[Sarissofoi]

It can happen if you get reckless or decide to fight enemy without proper knowledge and strength.
But.
If you have at last one guy in reserve(outside battle formation) then your company will survive. So if you have also some gold and spare weapons and armors you should be fine with rebuilding it.
Just be aware that orc warriors can wipe low to mid level company and goblins are bane of low level ones.

[QuentinW]

Thanks for “encouragement” :)

I’ve already begun a new challenging campaign. It really is quite tense :) I’ve lost eight men in defense of a village; second wave with no time to heal or repair is brutal. But we couldn’t let them burn.

It’s going to take some time before I dare to rename troops after my real life friends.

Anyway, thanks again.

oldschool rpg blog (in czech language)
http://2k6goblinu.blogspot.cz/

[Sarissofoi]

You can contact me on steam. I can watch and comment your game or vice versa.

[Wargasm]

What exactly does Ironman mode prevent you from doing? Going by what I’ve heard, it doesn’t stop you from reloading to the moment before a battle for which you hadn’t selected the appropriate equipment or lineup, or in which the RNG gods entered into a conspiracy pact against you (and that’s the only “cheating” I do anyway) …

[Sarissofoi]

Well like you said.
It is preventing you from nothing actually.
You can still manually backup or split yours saves.
Reroll battles until RNG favors you.
Avoid most negative events.
Save scum and check recruit stats in cities.
ETC.
Its purely for bragging rights in current state.
But its that because its still early access.
There still some bugs happen – although it was really long time when anything bad happen to me – and believe me you don’t want to be locked in some battle because RNG battlefield cause enemy stuck loop in battle – imagine that happen for your 300+ days run and there is no way out. Re-rolling whole battle saves the day. So I assume until RNG factor gets perfected and bugs get eliminated we get this Ironman mode.
On the other hand game should be played without savescumming.
It isn’t that hard when you grasp how things work and after some point its mostly impossible to lose until you go full retarded.

[Namespace]

I would recommend veteran. Expert is very brutal and my playthroughs usually end abruptly within the first month. If veteran gets too easy go expert :). Personally I really enjoy rogue likes and the early game in BB so I don’t mind the low resources at the start and the lategame is pretty much the same. Crossbowmen can kill you in normal, veteran and expert if they get some lucky shots. In the end it’s completely up to you to decide how to play this game.
The only downside of expert for me is that rerolling maps takes forever. If my guys have garbage traits or the map is bad I reroll and since this happens a LOT I usually reroll for at least half an hour. Anyways, when you get to day 200 or so you will be swimming in crowns and at this point you mostly want to recruit very talented guys with good traits so recruiting and dismissing becomes a much needed gold-sink.

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