Battle Brothers LP - Slayin' With the Boys

[Kalarion]

Title. Any interest? I'm thinking of either a vanilla Lone Wolf, or a blind Legends playthrough, with viewer participation (think of something like Grimmy's LPs).

[gerey]

Would the Let's Play be in video format, or in the form of a thread?

Either way I'm interested in following along.

[Kalarion]

It would be a thread, where participants can make limited decisions for a single bro who will be named after them.

[Irenaeus]

I'm all for it! <3 Just make sure you shop some legs on those ridiculous tokens!

[1998]

Nice, would follow

[boot]

I hate Battle Brothers everytime I try it, but maybe you can show me a way to make it seem actually fun.

[asf]

put my name on someone with a a big 2h axe

[Nemesis]

Do it.

[Acrux]

Put my name on someone who dies in the first fight!

(I was never very good at this game. )

[maidenhaver]

I just rolled an Oathtakers campaign about two days ago and died in my first battle. It was my first game since the desert dlc.

[maidenhaver]

Title. Any interest? I'm thinking of either a vanilla Lone Wolf, or a blind Legends playthrough, with viewer participation (think of something like Grimmy's LPs).

Please pick deserters, and choose undead as your midlife crisis.

[rusty_shackleford]

LP of a dice rolling simulator, interesting choice

[Shillitron]

It would be a thread, where participants can make limited decisions for a single bro who will be named after them.

That's a pretty good idea.

[Hauberk]

I've never played BB before but I say go for it! I want to be a dragon an archer if possible.

[Kalarion]

This is now the Battle Brothers LP thread.

Hello! Welcome to my Battle Brothers LP. This will be my first ever, inspired by the likes of our own excellent @Irenaeus, as well as Codex LP greats like Grimwulf, Lithium Flower, Reinhardt, and @DemoGraph.

This LP will be a hybrid of a watch-along and viewer participation. Viewers will have a chance to vote together on major company choices, as well as personally developing a member of the company.

BACKGROUND
Kalarion here, ready to guide you all through the wild and wonderful world of Battle Brothers, one of the best tactical combat simulators around. I have a smidgeon of experience with the game:


Playing a variety of companies and scenarios:


Ideally I would like to take on challenges I've never yet beaten (primarily the Kraken and the Black City) and just have fun slaying the Heretic, the Sorcerer, the Monster and the Undead with my bros!

SETUP
I will be playing a campaign of Battle Brothers until either (1) all three of the OG bros die, (2) the Lone Wolf dies in the case of a Lone Wolf scenario, (3) participants indicate they are no longer interested in playing, or (4) the Heat Death of the universe. This means that, so long as your honored Captain doesn't completely fuck anything up, we can expect to make it through multiple end-game scenarios. There will be no save-scumming except in cases of game bugs which materially affect the campaign, or when I make a decision that I didn't intend to make (so for instance, if I mistakenly take on a fight I intended to flee where it would have been possible, that's grounds for a save-scum. If I take on a fight I thought I could win and get us slaughtered, no save-scum).

I will have personal control of the OG bros (or the Lone Wolf). Every other hire is open to a participant. Hires that no participant is interested in will be used ruthlessly until death or being forced into retirement developed by yours truly.

I reserve the right to immediately take certain decisions without input. This will hopefully be rare. Right now the only things I can think of where I won't take others' opinions on-board are the initial difficulty settings (I'm not interested in adding a lot of extra grind from harsh economic settings), and taking the Battle Standard and Sergeant's Sash ambitions as soon as they pop up.

I will deal with the general flow of the campaign (moving from town to town, taking minor/moneymaking contracts, trade considerations etc). Most other decisions (deciding to take on major contracts, ambitions, general direction of our movement, major decision points in a big/high-stakes battle or contract etc) will be made by you. Where a group vote is called for, I will give approximately 1 day for vicious arguments, backstabbing and other underhanded diplomacy genteel discussion followed by a vote. Majority rules. In cases of ties or other forms of deadlock, I will be the deciding vote.

Participants may sign up to take personal control of the development of one (1) brother each. If more participants want to take a bro than exist in the party, I will create a first-come, first-serve queue pending new hirings. If your bro dies you are more than welcome to sign up again for a currently open/new bro. You will be placed back in the queue if appropriate.

I will be playing through a scenario of HQser participants' choice. We can choose from any of the vanilla scenarios, or you may all elect to have me play (completely blind) the Legends mod. I have never played anything but vanilla, so be warned that a Legends playthrough will probably result in a lot more mortality and/or game restarts (as a result of early TPKs).

BRO DEVELOPMENT
Participants with a bro will generally be considered in sole charge of that bro's development. That means, you will be choosing: stats and perks on level up, general build path, kit (or desired kit if it's not available yet), whether your bro participates in a scenario when available, and personal decisions in combat when they are made available.

Any bros that hire on with a surname or title will immediately have it wiped. Instead, at the level you choose your weapon specialty (typically level 5), you may choose a title or surname to be granted. If you don't choose one, I'll come up with one myself. You may change my decision at any time, but once you pick something that's final.

You may also request a change of face/hair from the Barber. Post a pic of how you'd like your bro to look and I will oblige. If it's just "I want to look different", with no further input, I'll make whatever decision I think best.

In the event a bro faces a major decision in combat, I will pause the fight to ask for input. You are the sole arbiter of the decision, unless you take longer than a day or so to let me know what you want to do. In that case, I will make a decision for you.

You may at any time decide to retire your bro (or suicide him ). If you retire your bro I will pay full compensation as long as the funds are available (including beggaring the company if necessary). If he dies he will be given a shallow grave and a gallows joke a proper burial with full honors.

Further rules as the situation warrants. For now, let's get started!

[Kalarion]

FIXED SCENARIO ATTRIBUTES
- Veteran combat difficulty, Beginner's Economy, Beginner's Starting Funds: Economy means that contracts pay more, and goods sell for more. Starting Funds means we start with a war-chest of 2,000 gold. Veteran combat difficulty is the standard difficulty. However note that it's old-school "normal", which means tough but fair. NPCs behave in understandable ways, follow tactics appropriate to their strengths and have full stats. There is also true RNG. Expect to be enraged frequently by bad miss streaks, and to feel a rush of euphoria as a bro with 2 hp miraculously dodges 5 swings in a row. I have zero interest in grinding 3x the battles to work up enough gold to achieve successful launch. I'm open to increasing combat difficulty but it will take a hefty proportion of bros to change my mind.

- Iron Man disabled: I reserve the right to save-scum where appropriate (see my last post). If this LP turns out to be a hit we could try a future run with Iron Man enabled. Not this one.

- Permanent Destruction disabled: with permanent destruction, cities and towns can be wiped off the map, never to return. Small bad decisions could find us quickly hemmed into a tiny portion of the world. Again, maybe on a future playthrough.

- Unexplored Map disabled: just the thought of playing through a random map seed without knowing what the map looks like makes me nauseated. Might be fun to enable if someone can suggest a VERY good seed (I'd be taking your word of honor on it).

INITIAL SETUP VOTES

Mood:


LEGENDS: decide whether play a scenario using the Legends total conversion mod. Legends overhauls equipment and perks, and adds "classes" to the game, as well as the use of magic (the standard game never allows you access to magic; only enemies use it). This comes highly recommended by a variety of trusted HQ bros, but I've never played it before. Be warned, mortality is likely to skyrocket.

Company Origin
Pick from the following:

Not pictured: Gladiators and Lone Wolf.
- New Company: standard start, with three bros, minimal equipment and 2,000 starting funds. The 3 bros have random traits, but are guaranteed above-average stats. Each bro is also guaranteed to have talent stars in appropriate stats to make one good fighter, one good bannerman, and one good shield bro.
- Southern Mercenaries: same as a standard start, but with southern equipment and starting in one of the southern city-states.
- Trading Caravan: start with an additional two bros with the Caravan Hand background (slightly better initial background and some good starting equipment), and gain 10% extra gold from selling trade goods. Start with no renown (affects contract availability and your ability to negotiate contract prices), and we gain renown more slowly than normal.
- Peasant Militia: start with a full party of 12 bros, and the ability to bring 16 bros to a fight (the standard is 12). Our bros have shit starting equipment and the lowest tier backgrounds, and we can never hire anything other than peasants. WARNING: this is deceptively harsh later. 16 bros is powerful, but they will never be really excellent fighters of any kind individually.
- Band of Poachers: starting bros are Woodsmen (a good starting background with the potential for either good fighter or archer stats). The company moves faster and gets detailed scouting reports at all times. We have a permanent party inventory space penalty.
- Oathtakers: start with 2 bros (rather than 3) with good backgrounds and excellent equipment. Must take Oaths (confer advantages and disadvantages until fulfilled) along with the standard Ambitions.
- Deserters: bros have decent equipment and stats, and the ability to act first in every combat no matter their initiative (useful for running away ). One of the starting Noble Houses wants us dead and we lose some starting funds.
- Northern Raiders: bros are barbarians (have excellent fighter stats including sky-high fatigue) and a higher chance to salvage enemy equipment from a fight. We'll have low reputation worldwide, which will take awhile to repair.
- Anatomists: start with increased funds. We can research different monster types for permanent bonuses. Our bros can never gain Confident morale (WARNING: also deceptively harsh, high morale is very helpful in tough fights and as a protection against certain enemies).
- Davkul Cultists: start with 4 bros with the Cultist background. Cultists are... they're interesting. They give a lot of good bonuses and are able to obtain the best non-legendary equipment in the game, but they also occasionally demand human sacrifice. Cultists also slowly convert the entire party to the Cultist background.
- Manhunters: start with 2 bros with excellent background, and 4 bros with the Indebted background (one of the worst stats-wise in the game). 16 bros can be brought to a fight. Indebted can be whipped by non-Indebted to reset their morale and give them a buff in combat. If there are ever less Indebted in the party than non-Indebted, suffer a mood penalty. Indebted cap at level 7 (rather than the standard 11) and earn experience faster.
- Beast Slayers: start with three Beast Slayer bros (a very good background) and some trophies (can be used for crafting or sold for high prices). Tracks can be seen from farther away. Beasts have a 50% chance to drop an additional trophy on kill. Suffer a 10% penalty to all contract payouts and selling prices (ouch).
- Gladiators: start with 3 Gladiator bros (one of the best backgrounds available) and excellent equipment. Each bro has his own unique trait (cannot be obtained in any other way). Each starting bro demands much higher daily wages, and the total roster can never have more than 12 men (rather than the standard 36). If all three starting bros die, the campaign ends.
- Lone Wolf: start with a single bro with the Hedge Knight background. This bro is a god of war, with excellent fighter talent stars, 4 free levels, and great equipment and funds. We can never have more than 12 men in the roster, and if the Lone Wolf dies, the campaign ends.

Company Name
The standard is Battle Brothers. Feel free to suggest anything, I'll go with group consensus. If there's no consensus I'll come up with something myself.

Late Game Crisis
Pick from the following:

Pretty self-explanatory, some notes.
- Nobles at War: noble soldiery have good equipment and stats, they generally fight in packs of 10+, and massive battles are deadly. But this is by far the best opportunity to get amazing equipment. Named Knights can drop famed equipment on death, and high quality drops means good sell price as well. We'll get rich, but probably lose a bunch of bros in the process.
- Greenskin Invasion: very very tough to participate in if we haven't developed our bros properly. Orcs and Goblins will team up during this crisis, which means the possibility of durable shock troopers combined with nets, absolutely enragingly good snippers, and poison. Lots and lots and lots of poison.
- Undead Scourge: the undead in the crisis make full use of formation tactics, with shielded skellingtons in the front, supported by pikemen and undead priests in the rear. EZ mode if we can build up a stash of Holy Waters.
- Holy War: the Great Crusades, the game. Southern armies are nasty. They have rudimentary hand-cannons (high damage to an area) and make extensive use of grenades of various type. Assassins have to be the absolute nastiest combatants in the game.

Banner
I'm showing here a selection of 5 that I think are good, but if anyone wants to suggest a different banner, I'm all ears.






Map Seed
Battle Brothers allows the use of seeds to call up maps. If you have a map seed you'd prefer we play on, post it here, with a quick write-up on strengths and weaknesses. Otherwise, I'll be choosing a seed with an eye to (1) good traits for the starting bros, and (2) a decent trade circle.

PLAYER ROSTER SETUP
Post the following:
- desired background
- desired talent stars (be warned, this can mean a very long wait to get an appropriate bro)
- desired combat role
- desired kit (weapons, armor, handbag items etc)
- desired name (otherwise I'll just give the bro your forum nick)

I'll also accept things like, "first available", "anyone with good starting [melee/ranged/defense/morale]", etc.

I will be generally taking every opportunity to take bros from events (yes, including Mr. Horsefucker), and I'll post their stats when we get them for any interested participants.

BATTLE BROS ROSTER AND QUEUE
Roster
Will be updated as appropriate.

Queue
@Oyster Sauce : "first useless retard you find."
@Hauberk : "an archer."
@OnTilt : first available
@1998 : "a bro throwing javs."
@WhiteShark : first available
@Acrux : "a beggar or have a lame leg or something like that."
@maidenhaver : "a bro with net and mace. If you find a barber, make him fat and stupid-looking."
@gerey : "ugliest bro you can get your hands on."
@Irenaeus : "javeliner, skirmisher, scared of melee type."
@Boontaker : "a halbardier or a support/leadership unit."
@Nemesis : "a high-damage sword-and-board swordsman."
@Eyestabber : "a frontline 2H Sword user wearing heavy armor."
@asf : "where's my axe-wielding barbarian"
@Gregz : "a Wildman of any stripe."
@Cogemeister : "perhaps the first person you come across who is decent with spears (never played this game) and a shield"

[Oyster Sauce]

I want to be the first useless retard you find

[asf]

did i get this right, you will wait for people input for each move in a combat? this will take forever

[OnTilt]

I would like a Bro to have my forum name. I don't want to manage it or anything, but it will be fun to see what becomes of him anyhow.

[1998]

Sign me up for a bro throwing javs

[WhiteShark]

I'd like you to make a WhiteShark bro, but I remand all further decisions concerning his appearance, actions, and fate to your discretion @Kalarion.

[Acrux]

Maybe Acrux could be a beggar or have a lame leg or something like that.

[maidenhaver]

@Kalarion I'd like to be a bro with net and mace. If you find a barber, make him fat and stupid-looking.

[gerey]

I call dibs on the ugliest bro you can get your hands on. If they are overly zealous/bigoted, all the better.

[Irenaeus]

I want my bro to be a javeliner, skirmisher, scared of melee type. A great chap with his bros, loves gold, ale and rape. You can take the combat actions based on all that.

[Boontaker]

I'll be a halbardier or a support/leadership unit if the game has any. I might pick this up. Recommended?

[Nemesis]

I'll be a nimble, high-damage swordsman.

[Kalarion]

did i get this right, you will wait for people input for each move in a combat? this will take forever

No. I'll run combat myself. Bros are free to tell me how they'd like me to run them overall (see for instance Irenaeus's post). The only time I'll pause a combat is if there's a crazy situation going on that I think deserves a chance for participant input ("major decision points in a big/high-stakes battle or contract"). If a bro is going to get slaughtered mercilessly on some nameless field, the train keeps rolling. If we're in the middle of a siege break contract and a bro faces three Orc Warriors with nothing but a polearm, I might pause combat to ask for input. The idea is to lean into the whole, "make our own story". Sorry if I was unclear about that.

[Kalarion]

I'll be a nimble, high-damage swordsman.

You're on the list, but be aware that nimble, high damage swordsmen are very difficult to come by. That basically means a very well-rolled noble background, a good sellsword or hedge knight, or a swordmaster. All of which are expensive as hell and not guaranteed to have the right talent stars (although the swordmaster has such incredible melee skill, melee defense and initiative that he can be built that way even without appropriate talent).

We've got 11 sign ups so far, I think that's enough to get rolling. Any input on the setup decisions? In particular if anyone has any good map seeds I'd love to see them.

Also paging @Eyestabber because I want him to watch and yell at me for my shit decisions.

[Irenaeus]

Any input on the setup decisions?

From my lack of almost any knowledge of how this game works other than vague genre awereness, here are my humble suggestions:

LEGENDS: Your call

Company Origin: Lone Wolf (you)

Company Name: Battle HeadQuarters

Late Game Crisis: Nobles at War

Banner: Sun with gauntlet