Battle Brothers. A turn-based Tactical RPG.

Today I want to talk about one of my favorite turn-based RPG games out on the market. This game puts you in charge of your own Medieval Mercenary Company. It's your job and duty to see that company prospers, while you're being surrounded by chaos. Without further delays, let's get into it!

(Please do take into account that "Battle Brother" is a game term, thus it shouldn't be considered grammar mistake.)


Also, I'm resubmitting this article since for some reason it has been rejected, due to "spam" or "plagiarism". 1. Main objectives
2. Battle Brothers
3. Backgrounds and Traits
4. Attributes and Perks
5. Injuries
6. Mood system
7. Weapon Types and Armor
8. Combat system


1. Main Objectives
   Your main objective is to... well... survive for as long as you can. With every passing day in the game, your enemies will become stronger and more numerous. In order to survive, you will have to level up your Battle Brothers and find better gear for them to use in battle.

2. Battle Brothers
   Battle Brother is the official game term for every one of your mercenaries. You need to pay them daily. With every level they gain, they will also increase their paycheck. Every Battle Brother has a background that may help or hamper your company. They may also come with certain Traits. (I'll explain about these later in the article.)

(An example of a Mercenary company)

3. Backgrounds and Traits
   Backgrounds are what your Battle Brothers used to be, before joining your party. As I’ve said above, they may either help you or hamper you. For example, having 1 “Monk” in your company may result in a random chance for a wound to be treated or even a random morale boost. An example of a bad scenario is having 2 “Hedge Knight”. This may result in them fighting each other and possibly one of them dying. (And trust me… you DON’T want that.) Another thing to consider is their Traits. Some traits have a positive effect on your Battle Brother, some of them have a negative effect and finally, some of them have mixed effects (both positive and negative).

(Some examples of character Backgrounds)

4. Attributes and Perks
   

Your Battle Brothers have 16 attributes:

(For short I’ll refer to the Battle Brother as “BB” for this part)

1. Head Armor (This is determined by their equipment.)

2. Body Armor (This is also determined by their equipment.)

3. Hit Points (They can be raised by leveling up or having certain traits.)

4. Action Points (They determine what your BB can do in his turn.)

5. Fatigue (This affects how long your BB can fight on, without resting. The more he has, the better.)

6. Morale (This can affect how well your BB fights, like his “To Hit Chance”, Resolve and so on. It is determined by his Mood or by what’s happening in the battle.)

7. Resolve (This effects for how long your BB will continue to fight, before deciding that it’s time to run.)

8. Initiative (This decides who will act first in the fight. Initiative can be raised with leveling up, or reduced by equipping heavier armor.)

9. Melee Skill (This affects “To Hit Chance”. The more your BB has, the more often he will hit his enemies with Melee Weapons. It can be raised with leveling up.)

10. Ranged Skill (Does the same as “Melee Skill”, but with Ranged Weapons.)

11. Melee Defense (This determines how often your BB will dodge an incoming Melee Attack. The more he has, the better the chance for a dodge.)

12. Ranged Defense (Does the same as “Melee Defense”, but with Ranged Attacks.)

13. Damage (This is determined by the weapon your Brother is holding and by some Perks.)

14. Effectiveness vs Armor (That attribute will help you to decide what weapon would be better suited for a fight against an armored opponent.)

15.  "Chance to Hit Head" (Your BB may hit his opponent’s head. This does extra damage and has a chance to injure his enemy, thus reducing his combat capacity.)

16. Vision (Determines how far your BB can spot enemies. Vision might be reduced/increased by Traits and/or Helmets.)

(Please excuse the wall of text here. There was no shorter way to explain this.)

Perks are skills or passive bonuses your Battle Brothers can get by leveling up. When a BB levels up, he gets 1 Perk point. You may choose to assign whatever Perk you want to each individual Battle Brother. Be careful what you choose, since one Battle Brother can only have 12 Perks at the same time, thus making it impossible to have every Perk on a single Battle Brother.

(Examples of Traits)

5. Injuries
   Injuries are divided into two kinds:
- Temporary
- Permanent
With each successful hit your opponent scores against your Battle Brothers, they might inflict a Temporary Injury on your Battle Brother. This could go both ways since your Battle Brothers can inflict Injuries on your enemies as well. Such injuries can be healed over time if you have Healing Herbs. However, when a Battle Brother has been struck down (rather than killed) he has a chance to survive the battle with a Permanent Injury. Such injuries (as the name implies) cannot be treated and they shall remain with your Battle Brother forever (or until he is killed).

6. Mood System
   Mood can be a very important factor to consider, before going into a fight. Mood does effect fighting, since it may either help or kill your Battle Brothers while they’re fighting. If your Battle Brothers have a good Mood, they will be more likely to score a hit against their enemy and dodge enemy attacks more often. On the other hand, if they have a bad Mood they might miss most of their attacks and get hit more often by the enemy.

7. Weapon Types and Armor

Weapons can be split into 2 categories:
- Melee
- Ranged

Melee Weapons can be split into multiple classes, each one of them has their advantages and disadvantages in certain situations. They can also be split into One Handed and Two Handed weapon subclasses. Here are the classes of Melee Weapons:

Daggers - They can completely ignore armor with a certain attack type.

Swords - They have one of the lowest Fatigue cost to use and can be called “Jack of all trades”.

Maces - Effective at crushing armor and adding more fatigue to your opponents, if they get hit.

Spears - They do low amounts of damage, but they have a higher “To Hit chance” than every other weapon class.

Axes - Other than delivering extra damage to unarmored opponents, they also deal extra damage against Shields.

Flails - They have a higher chance to hit the head and can also completely bypass Shields.

Cleavers - They can inflict bleeding wounds and can also decapitate targets if using a certain attack type.

Hammers - Specifically made to destroy armor.

Polearms - They can be used from 2 hexes away from your target.

Ranged Weapons can also be split into multiple classes. Here they are:

Thrown Weapons - They can be used on your “non-ranged Battle Brothers” as a way to give them a way to fight at longer distances.

Bows - With the right Perks they can shoot 2 or even 3 times, depending on the scenario. They have much longer range than Thrown Weapons.

Crossbows - They are more effective against armor than Bows, but also can only shoot once for each turn. The also outrange the Thrown Weapons.

Armor in this game reduces the damage your Battle Brothers take while being hit by an opponent. Heavier armors provide better defense, at the expense of reduced Fatigue and Initiative.

(Example of different types of armor.)

8. Combat System
   Combat is initiated when your party and an enemy party meet on the World Map. The game makes use of a hex-tiled grid in which the characters take place. Every character takes one hexagon (with some exceptions). If a Battle Brother and an enemy unit are right next to each other, they can start fighting, by using Action Points. They limit how many attacks your Battle Brothers can make per turn, or how far they can move. The game also utilizes a “Zone of Control” mechanic. Melee using characters have a permanent zone of control around them which is active for every hex adjacent to them. If a unit tries to leave that zone of control every enemy that is adjacent to them will attack them “for free”. If the unit was hit by such attack, it won’t leave the hex and the said unit will have to try to leave again.

(This is an example of an ongoing fight.)


This article barely covers the main elements of that game, but I don’t want to give you everything on a silver plate. If you want to know more, feel free to get the game for yourself and try it out.