GWJ Strategy Gaming Group: Now Playing Cities: Skylines

I voted for Fell Seal in the JRPG group, so I'll be joining in playing it. I'm open to doing a cross club or seeing what else wins here. If my nomination for Phoenix Point wins it would be easier for me to manage, as I've already started it. Otherwise, I'd be looking for something short and on the lighter side.

An $8 game that ticks 3 clubs! Most folks seem to have a little less gaming time over summer, so having 1 game to bind them all sounds like a summer treat

Battle Brothers

Pavlov's House - an area-movement abstraction game of fighting in a critical area of Stalingrad, with resource allocation. Solitaire. Plays in, I guess, between one and two hours. Lots of fun, inexpensive highly replayable.

Lock'n'Load Tactical Digital - One or two player game of tactical warfare in WW2 and later settings. Starts with a base game plus 4 scenarios for 1 or 2 players. Currently on sale for 99 cents in the US Steam store. 17 DLCs, including a scenario generator, available for purchase, mostly at $6 on sale from $10.

I didn't realize about the 1 year old rule. Sorry 'bout that.

So: Phoenix Point

There's a lot of interlocking systems which makes it hard to master or indeed grasp the basics. As the game is highly stat driven, with recruits rolling varying stats based on their backgrounds, every playthrough will be different.

Key stats to get to mid-late game are melee attack (matk), melee defence (mdef), followed by health, resolve, fatigue and initiative.

Not all brothers from the same background (eg militia) will be equal; nor does coming from a more illustrious background automatically yield a superpower brother (a farmer with good stat rolls can outperform a noble adventurer). Aside from random events tied to specific backgrounds all a background does is determine the range of stats a recruit may roll, with more illustrious backgrounds statistically having a higher (but not necessarily guaranteed) chance to roll with good stats.

Also, every brother has a role they can play even if they don't roll optimum stats. A trash brother can be used as a (crap) meat shield / AI magnet to kite a few enemies while you thin out the enemy ranks and so on.

Assuming you are playing vanilla - don't pick the tutorial start and use the other starting background - it gives you a strong ranged attack brother, a strong 2H axe brother and a solid 1H brother. Try to keep them alive as they tend to roll good enough stats to keep into the late game. Set all the options to beginner and pick the nobles war as the endgame crisis.

Ok with that said, head to your nearest town and recruit some cheap brothers. Farmers, fishermen, caravan hands, miners, brawlers and militia are pretty good backgrounds to pick from. Buy shields and 1-2 spears. Spears get innate + accuracy and shields increase mdef making your men harder to hit. The 2H axe is useless early game as you won't have the gear or stats to pull off the build. Ranged attack is similarly unreliable early game but can become versatile and powerful mid to late game.

Take missions with priority on those that involve hunting brigands or delivering packages or escorting a caravan. Avoid undead and beast slaying missions at the start as you'll often lose more men and equipment than the rewards. Brigands are your ticket to the mid-game because equipment is so expensive you mostly loot it.

Turning to tactics - don't rush forward and let yourself get surrounded or fight the enemy having high ground - both you and your enemies get 5-10% chance to hit per flanking unit. Thus you can position your brothers to increase their chances to hit, wait until everyone is in position, then attack with any remaining action points. Ganging up on enemies while not being ganged up on is the trick - and if unavoidable, use your tankiest brothers playing defensively (equip shields and use shield wall) to hold a position while you crush an enemy flank and rotate back to help them out.

This takes me to the next point re farming equipment efficiently - surround your target and equip daggers and use the Puncture weapon skill - it bypasses armor and chances to loot gear is higher with less armor damage inflicted on the target. Or if you don't care about getting new helms - use flails and go for the head shots which hopefully leave the body armor intact.

As you get more funds and recruit brothers with good stats - buy them polearms (it can start with the humble farmer's pitchfork, moving to billets, pikes and billhooks) and put them in your second row. They hit hard but are generally vulnerable engaging adjacent targets. Thus you use your experienced men to raise a new recruit in the rear row and once they're powerful enough you can equip them to become front rowers.

There's a lot more to the game than that, including perk selection based on brother stat rolls and builds but that's more of an intermediate to advanced consideration. If you make it past the early game (eg you have survived long enough to field 8-12 men) then more attention should be paid into how you level up your recruits.

Hope this helps! There's so many things to keep track of in Battle Brothers but that's part of the charm; often modern games oversimplify mechanics to the point everything becomes generic.

That's some list

Fell Seal
Old World
Northgard

Fell Seal
Pavlov’s House
Lock’n’Load

Fell Seal
Old World
Invisible Inc

Dungeons III
Company of Heroes 2
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak

Phoenix Point
Old World
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak

feeling like some RTS