Battle Brothers

After 200+ hours, I still haven't even scratched the surface of all the different campaign styles available. I highly suggest Ironman mode, it provides an extremely intense hardcore experience. Every swing of a sword is saved on the spot, and many injuries are permanent. Your squads best archer catches a stray rock from a vagabond's sling and loses an eye after 40 hours deep in a campaign. Suck it up and deal with it instead of save scumming before the fight. This removes the temptation to load when RNG completely screws you over as well. Makes every swing and and projectile extremely intense in combat. 10/10 would recommend to anyone who enjoys a challenging experience with infinite replayability.

Battle Brothers

An excellent, low-fantasy medieval turn-based tactics title where you are the commander of a wandering mercenary company, set in a procedurally-generated world filled with the trappings of German medieval legends and mythos. This may very well be the best turn-based tactics game I've seen in nearly a decade.

Battle Brothers /is/ difficult. It's not impossible, and there's definitely plenty of players who've mastered the title and know every little trick there is to know, and how to constantly win back-to-back fights, but that is not going to be your first experience with this game.

No, your first experience will likely be finishing up your tutorial, heading into a nearby town, maybe recruiting a brand new merc, two, or even three; then taking a contract to fight some brigands in the woods. Maybe, you even win! But soon enough, you realize you're bring trickled down. Each fight leaves you with a little less, and the money you're making from contracts isn't really covering your costs, and isn't leaving you with anything to spend on new gear. Soon enough, you find yourself in a losing contract where you're summarily cut down man-by-man until it's game over.

And I say this with an absolute certainty that this game is fun as hell. The combat is deep and well thought-out. While RNG plays a role, you'll always be trying to claw every little advantage you can onto your side, and you'll learn that sometimes- running away and taking a loss on a contract might be a hell of a lot better than losing a few too many of your top guys. Or, perhaps; you'll realize that having a few low-level jobbers around who might be considered 'expendable' is a better way of running your operation.

Regardless, as you progress further into the game the little depths and nuances become more and more apparent, and the breadth of game that is available to you starts to reveal itself. Sure, in your first in-game week or two, you'll just be slogging it out with barely-equipped brigand thugs, but soon enough you'll find yourself stumbling into vile creatures, powerful human soldiers, and perhaps; you might even find yourself face-to-face with some of the grand bosses of the title.

While Battle Brothers might be low-fantasy; it isn't /no-fantasy/. This isn't a "medieval mercenary sim." Sure, your party might be all humans, but you'll find yourself starting to encounter direwolves, witches with mind control, necromancers with undying hordes of zombies he can revive, skeleton soldiers rising from their graves in full armor, giants, dragons- it's all there.

Sure, the game doesn't look as flashy as some big-budget titles like the XCOM remakes, but it makes up for it's... Simpler appearance with an absolutely enthralling gameplay loop and excellent depth. Fights are fun, feel brutal, and the world (while each map may be proc-genned), is filled with wonderful writing in it's occasional events and colorful dialogue, and it does an excellent job in constantly scaling itself. The further you go along; it always feels like there's even more, newer stuff to fight.

Buy it, run your company into the ground- or success, and start all over again!

Battle Brothers is a game about difficulty. You're going to have to embrace getting killed, losing important characters, and having game ending set backs. Without the mountains, the gameplay itself is shallow and quite dull.

Tl;Dr: 9/10

Honestly, it is hard to describe how good this game is. It has it's flaws, but oh boy does the good out-way them.
The main flaw that gave it's 9/10 that currently has no fix at the moment of this comment, not even a mod fix. Is you cannot bait your enemies outside of combat. I expected that if I would run up a hill, while being chased and turned to attack I'd start with the height advantage, but the terrain is pure RNG. So even if you're on a hill, and the enemy is still on plains. They can (and have a higher chance to) have the higher ground. Which for the strategic players out there who consider the preparation to battle as important as the combat itself — sometimes even more important — such as I do, this hurts. As this would make this game go WAY beyond any other of its kind, 'till then, for my ironman runs, it's ALT+F4 until I get what I baited the enemy into.

Fun Game! Challenging, with a learning curve to it. Not crazy though. On the surface seems simple, but takes some time to learn the depth. I am still getting the hang of it. If you like turn based games, with depth, then this is the game for you.

Get lvl 1 bros and fight for Tier 2 weapons. You'll lose some or most of them.

Get level 1 bros WITH Tier 2 weapons and fight them up to higher level.

Use Higher level bros WITH Tier 2 weapons to get even BETTER weapons and armor. You'll lose some or most of them.

Use level 1 bros WITH EVEN BETTER weapons and armor to level up.

Use HIGHER LEVEL BROS WITH EVEN BETTER weapons and armor to get NAMED ITEMS.

Cycle repeat until you are challenging the biggest baddest enemies in the game.

The mod scene is awesome. The Legends overhaul greatly enhances the already thrilling experience, and the community is overall very welcoming.

One of the best games of all time IMO. If you like strategy and "your dudes" kind of games it's just the best.

This game is the equivalent of your abusive uncle that somehow always comes back to the family gathering. An average game looks like this:
-Start a new company with a cool name, a dope banner, and even some backstory in mind
-Go into the first town that has strangled trade routes, has been raided recently, and is somehow inhabited by exclusively anti-sellsword activists
-Get your first contract
-Get decapitated by a graverobber high on hyena acid

10/10 would visit the abusive uncle again.

The game is fun but often times it feels unfair and way to difficult. Just when you think you are starting to get the hang of the game a twist on a contract or a random bout of bad luck ruins your playthrough. Miss 50% chance attacks 8 times in a row? get good I guess while you watch any connection you have with your brothers in this game get crushed over and over again. At this point if I could refund the game I would. I know what the outcome of me playing it will be. An afternoon spent feeling like im doing relatively well just to have one bad encounter completely ruin my playthrough.

Kind of a cool concept except your dudes just die nonstop and then you run out of food and gold and get a game over screen. Neato.

Great game! Deceptively complex. It's taken me three runs and ~50-80 hours to really grasp the intricacies. Also, get all the DLC.

Amazing game with an amazing modding community! You can dump countless hours into the base game, and still come back!

pretty difficult and hardcore little game good for older computers and impossible iron man mode

A very fun and equally frustrating game. I cannot stress enough how much I recommend starting on the beginner difficulty, otherwise there is a high chance you will rage quit and conclude that the game is poorly balanced. Even on beginner, there will be times where it feels like the RNG is legitimately out to get you, but other times it feels like a miracle how much it seems to be in your favor.

It's a hard game and you will likely find yourself reloading saves but its also a quite well made and in depth turn based combat game. It feels very rewarding as you evolve from a group of losers barely scraping by to a small army full of hardened combatants.

I can't believe I haven't written a review yet for this gem! This is one of those games I keep coming back to replay every year or two. It's difficult and gritty, absorbing and engaging, and always enjoyable to play. I love turn based tactics and this is a brilliant take on it. Even the flavor text is surprisingly well written! When I first saw it I was unsure about the graphics, but now I just cannot get enough of the style. It's beautifully grim, with a feel like Game of Thrones /ASOIAF. Love love love it.

The game is definitely long enough to be completely satisfying. But my only recs to the devs are to expand more end-game content after "beating" the game. I always find myself continuing to play long after beating it rather than restarting - and there IS much more content now than there was when I first played it! But it wouldn't take adding much in order to extend the game substantially.

Amazing game. It feels a lot like tactical rpgs games like xcom/xcom2/banner saga but with a really engaging world, lore, creatures and challenges.

It brings as well the economic aspect to it to another level, the survival in this game is pretty tough and unforgiving, you have to manage your squad very well. But it's not that annoying to the point of micromanaging every single thing.

10/10 - Xcom in medieval era + crafting + undead + mithological beasts.

Also get the legends mod, it's another whole game. Never have I ever played a mod so well done.

This game is addictive. There is not much I dislike. I watched you tube to see if I would like it, you should do the same. Love this game.

Great tactical rpg. Game is tough if you are very new player. Would recommend grabbing the mods as well after you play the original.

Incredible, addictive, tactical strategy/RPG. The most hours I've ever put into any game on steam at the time of writing. Great variety of ways to play. Huge replay-ability.

Battle Brothers is surprisingly engaging. The art style may seem simple but holds impressive detail. Battles are both tense and relaxing, making the game enjoyable after the initial difficulty wall. I’m excited to see what lies beyond the early gameplay loop.

have over 200 hours on console too! game is really hard to learn but when you get the hang of it you get immersed .would highly recommend if your looking for a challenging strategy game

It's a pretty brutal and unforgiving game. Your Bros are going to get injured, crippled, and die. You'll get extremely frustrated at times, like when you miss hits with 66%, 76, 82, 95, 95, and 95, all in a row. And then the guy that you missed, one hits your favorite bro and he's dead, for good. I highly recommend mods.

I have an obscene amount of hours clocked in this game and an itch to put in more that I have to suppress otherwise I wouldn't get much experience playing other games.

The game has a pretty steep learning curve, does not hold your hand, or offer much in the form of guidance. But it is oh so rewarding when you do get the hang of it and are able to take on the more challenging battles the game has to offer.

My favorite Turn-Based Strategy game ever. If you're on the fence, play this and profit.

Great game. Probably my favorite all time for strategy/turn based. Only other one that comes close is XCOM 2. CSGO being my FPS favorite

I don't know why developers rely on RNG as a game "mechanic". Then theres the fact that theres little to no information on enemies, enemy types, or combat tips. "Trial and error" ah yes in a game that could ruin a three hour session because someone couldn't even be assed to add any relevant information. Looking forward to Menace (but not holding much hope), wish i could refund this game after trying so hard to enjoy it.

Goated game. Love playing it while doing homework or just listening to a podcast 10/10 would recommend its one of my favorite games.

Tough game to beat. Finally getting the hand of it. Lots of game play in this one.

The fat-ass in my company ate a poisoned apple and got sick. I stripped him naked and forced him to throw it back in a circle when Alps attacked us.

Game for masochists. It is not balances and doesn't even tries to pretend it is balanced. I tried 2 times and every time my first crisis is holy war. There is something masochistic fighting southern armies. I play on veteran. My company on 80 day doesn't have any famed weapons or armor. Still growing. 2 star contract only 2000 gold and I have to fight 17 men companies with top gear? One after another? Nah.

I had hoped it would be more like Wartales but on a larger scale and more open world. Instead it is extremely repetitive, traveling from city to city and picking up the same generic contracts over and over and over again... Nothing else seems to happen for long stretches of the game, no interaction with traveling folks, no interaction with anyone in the villages except buying/selling things and the aforementioned generic contracts.
And worse, it is designed to screw you over. Winning a battle does not feel rewarding when a moment later an enemy group comes around a corner that is impossible to beat or an unavoidable, scripted event just completely screws you over and nullifys anything you have achieved. Thoroughly disappointing...

It's okay. My main issue with the game is that the game is designed to screw you during gameplay.

You play an excellent battle, and you will have a five vs. one with the enemy injured and suddenly miss every swing until the enemy kills a guy. Now, the game will allow you to finish the fight and win.

The recruiting economy is whack. Level 3/4 guys cost 3-4k, so you never " replace" your losses. I just constantly have to recruit someone at level 1 and attempt to level him again, as the game refuses to reward clever play during the battles.

The ranged combat is wonky. I have yet to figure out the logic behind when the enemy is not in my line of sight. How in the world does it make sense that if I am one hex away, I *may* shoot my soldier in the back, but if I'm right up on him, it's no longer an issue?

I had it on my wish list for quite a while and purchased it on sale as it reminded me of some old NES/SNES games.

Travel is a bit mundane. Wish I could attack the towns and play as a bandit (it probably is a DLC for more money, haven't looked). The money rewards on contacts haven't really felt worth it in some cases

It's not terrible. It's a game that tries to punish you because of its complexity; instead, it's just programmed to punish you with no real rhyme or reason.

I have played a lot of games similar to this such as Xcom and Battletech and as much as I want to recommend it, I simply can't. The RNG in this game is simply incorrect or bugged to the point where attacks with 70%+ chance to hit are hitting almost never and the mechanics of most enemies are not explained in any detail anywhere unless you open a wiki.

A very difficult but addicting game. I still haven't reached the endgame content but already Have gotten hours of fun out of this. Building up your units in different specialisations is great fun and every fight feels like it matters. I've tried both ironman runs (which ended early) but now I'm going for a regular southern mercenary run to see as much of the game as possible.

The game takes some getting used to and you have to try to mitigate the RNG as much as possible but that's the fun of the game. Put your soldiers in the best possible positions and hope they come through. It's also a great storyline generator with some brothers saving others and stuff like that. Really makes you feel connected to your team. The satisfaction of getting a kill on a tough enemy is really great. Seeing your shield wall be an immovable block in front of the enemy while you flank will never not be fun!

Highly Recommended!

Battle Brothers is a great tactical skirmish game with permadeath, but it’s a bit too dark and open-ended for me. I’d prefer more direction and hand-holding.

Since I don’t play with keyboard and mouse anymore, I’ve stopped playing, and the UI feels too small for the Steam Deck.

Wow! I have so much to say about this game, it is insane.
Well let`s begin from the fact that i hated that game when i started to play it. It was random, extremely unfair and confusing as there are little to none tutorial, so entry level is quite hard.(still is tbh). BUT! I gave it a shot and that was my best desicion.
Game does not disappoint as game offers you truly interesting experience that would never have in any other game.
1. Gameplay: Biggest proud of the developers of this masterpiece is gameplay, turnbased combat, RTS on the world map. You lead a band of people who will risk their life for a coin and in the world of BB they often end up dead. In this harsh, cruel world where magic exists, you are nothing more but a peasants, daytalors, nobleman, but a simple human whos task is to survive and if good enough prosper in this dark fantasy medieval world. Depending on your origin you are present with a few starting BBs with whom you will have to hire new BBs, find yourself suitable job, make money and renown. First time you play this game each battle will be life and death situation. One of the strongest aspects of the game its replay ability, as maps are randomly generated and everything on it (cities, brothers, ancient wonders, contracts and etc.) that leads to always unique walkthrough, top that with different origins that also spice game up and you have almost infinite amount of replay ability.
2. Lore: This world have some already established story. Undead who rise are a dark magic of necromancers who found this power from ancient empire long gone and forgotten. Orcs are a bloodthirsty, man eating warmongers who raid defensless villages. Goblins, small yet lethal who use range advanrage and poison to weaken their enemies. Powerful, sometime mindblowing beasts who are after you and attack on first sigh. Last, but not least (if not the scariest) Ancient Undead who rise again to scourge this world.
3. Music: Wonderful music created by Breakdown Epiphanies. You will be singing, humming and having that music in your head for a loooong time, it is that good. They managed to depict a faction with their music, which is no small task.
4. Graphics: That is the aspect that might push away many players, making it even more niche than it already is. But simplicity of graphics allows players with old potato computers (me included) to enjoy magical dark fantasy world.
If i had to rate this game from 1 to 10, it would be 8.5~9/10. I would love to give it 10/10, but some aspects of the game are raw and undeveloped, nothing crucial, but if you replay it you would start noticing those small details.
I hope fans and DEVs forgive me if i forgot something, game is big or to be more precise it gets bigger the more you play.

Excellent medieval low fantasy turn-based strategy roguelike. Adjustable difficulty, satisfying progression, interesting decisions to make.

the best tactical game for now, glorious mods, full imersion... just glorious!

After nearly 50 days since leaving Niewekai, the home to Balduin our resident fisherman.
The band of men walked upon the streets of Niewekai once again. Balduin reuniting with his wife and son Bertwein, who took over his fathers fishing role for the village. When suddenly the chief of the village approaches our Boss in a plea for help...Brigands.
A large gang of men approaching the village and they need our protection. We look around, several men still sick and hurt from our previous raids. Too many women and children to evacuate in time. Bertwein steps up, "I'll help". You could hear his mothers heart break. The boss looked to Balduin with a nod of approval and with that the crew cheers!
We march to the north, prepared for the Brigands to approach...and we wait...time passes....and soon we find ourselves under the light of the moon.
The men shift in their boots, eager to see battle. When a hooded man stumbles along the road towards us...chanting. Suddenly he's surrounded by 16 Zombies and they're ready for battle.
Not the battle we expected, but a job none the less.

The battle rages on...Sigurd, after 57Days, and 11 battles evens his KD to 1-1 as he perishes on the front lines. Bertwein having to kill him over and over as the necromancer brings him back again and again, but we persevere. The men push on, relishing in victory as they end the necromancer. Saving the village.

The men hear rumors in the north of a mighty weapon and quickly move on after the battle. Traveling for days, wandering the wastelands from thick forests to vast meadows. When they're ambushed. A goblin Captain stands wielding the Legendary Goblin Skewer. Protected by his armed guards and wolf riders there is no doubt they plan to finish us right here.

The men take their positions, Bertwein and Balduin side by side, holding the right flank. When the Goblin Captain steps up himself. The two men exchange blows with the captain who evades with ease. When the captain strikes again! Quickly passing Balduins shield and sinking into his head. Bertwein stands in horror. His father dropped dead before him, the goblin snickering with joy.

Balduin evens his KD at 1-1 after 50days and 4battles. His legacy lives on with his son, who stands strong on the right flank where Balduin once had.....nobody liked SIgurd the Beggar.

A ruthless bastard of a game, but extremely rewarding once you get good at it.

Nice game. Even better with mods

Its a fun game if you're willing to spend hours reading wikis and guides before even getting into the game. Hidden mechanics and horrendous ui/ux choices that grossly misrepresent a monsters true strength plague an otherwise really well crafted game. Its hard in the sense that you'll be happily playing overcoming challenges and then suddenly die because you didnt know something beforehand.

But it does have mods that will probably fix the game and make it enjoyable to play. So I might change my recommendation later.

Phenomenal. 10/10. Would lose again. The sounds are immaculate. The graphics are simple yet elegant. The hats are fancy. The fights are good. I keep coming back to this time and time again, my ONLY nitpick is I think a UI mod for numbers is essentially mandatory.

Don't be deceived by the weird graphics (you'll get used to it in no time). That's just the result of a dev team with limited resources that made all the right decisions in prioritization to dish out a phenomenally addictive title no worse than any AAA title out there. This is what you'd get if Mount & Blade and X-COM made love, but the game has more of a rogue-like feel than either of the two. The gameplay loop consists mostly of going from town to town on the strategy layer, searching for contracts/quests, buying and selling trade goods on the side and maybe hiring an extra mercenary into your band of brothers every once in a while. You have to make sure that you don't run out of money to pay your mercenary group, food to feed them, and various other supplies. Any time you get ambushed by bandits or decide to venture into a dangerous (but possibly treasure-laden) location on the map, the fight will play out in a turn-based tactical layer, which is the heart of the game. While the setting has some monsters and very minimal amounts of magic, the fights feel very down-to-earth and realistic. Relative positioning of units is highly important - units can protect each other in a shield wall, will have a hard time defending themselves if they get surrounded, and can lock down the movement of other units in their "zone of control". Factors like fatigue, armor and weapon type, terrain, elevation and morale play a significant role. Different types of enemies have very different tactics and require different approaches to counter them. As your mercenaries gain experience you'll be able to level them up, improving their capabilities significantly, though they'll always remain quite human and mortal. It can be really painful to lose a guy. Due to the large amount of different stats with significant randomness in both starting values and potential for improvement during level-ups (talent) as well as special traits each mercenary feels unique, like a real person. Just like the mercenaries you can hire, the world map is randomly generated for each campaign. Overall the game has great replayability with a selection of different starting conditions, but at the same time you can play any given campaign for as long as you want, with a lot of freedom to do what you want (fight in arenas, do mostly trading, rob caravans or protect them, pillage monster lairs in the wilderness, etc)

I think it's outrageous that these devs are releasing DLC and calling the base game a finished project when there has been issues of people crashing constantly (No mods, just vanilla)

Seriously, one of them just copies and pastes this response:

rapsdjff (developer) Aug 29, 2022 @ 3:32am wrote:

Random crashes and freezes are usually compatibility issues specific to your PC. Here's a list of things to try that have helped others;

• Update your video drivers.
  
• Open up the Nvidia control panel. Go to "Power Management", change it to "Highest Performance" instead of "Adaptive" (this can also be set specifically for Battle Brothers instead of using the global setting).
  
• Disconnect any devices you don't immediately need for playing the game such as joysticks, controllers, headphones and additional monitors. If you usually play without headphones, try playing with headphones plugged in instead.
  
• Disable any streaming software and close all browser windows playing videos.
  
[*] Reboot before starting the game.

Hope it helps!

A serious time sink once the hook is set. The planning and growth is in for the long haul. I hope you like strategy.

A game that sounds great on paper, but ends up being very slow paced, repetitive, grindy and generally unsatisfying to play. It gets some points for good music and neat visuals, but that's not enough for me.

It also does a very bad job at teaching the player its mechanics and likes to actively hide useful information from the player, like enemy stats, which does not go well with the challenging nature of the game.

I really tried to like this game. It is well crafted, but horribly calibrated. Even with many hours watching YouTube "how-to" videos we are constantly wrecked. Massive losses or (another) save-scum our only options. Ultimately, BB turns out to be a relentless battle vs frustration.

Slow paced, bordering on boredom. Constant save scumming. Would take many hundreds of hours to learn this game. Until then, we're just getting wrecked by mobs we don't fully understand.

My biggest gripe: there's never any "awesome" moments. ("Wow, that fight was awesome!") Nope. The best we get is postponing the inevitable frustration of getting wiped. Again. And again. And Again.

Even though there are similar games with better graphics, I love this game and keep coming back to it year after year. The music is great, and it's really fun to scrounge up armor and weapons for your group to use. Since the map is generated new each time, it as great replay value. I recommend all the DLCs, they definitely add more to the game.

listen this game has consumed countless hours of my life and is hands down has the best tactical rpg mechanics out there. Get it already.

And for those curious, its completely playable with a cheap logitech keyboard and trackpad while you listen to podcasts stoned out of your mind on gummies. I've checked personally.