Work is progressing well on the late game crises – all new contracts and twists are in the game now, and next up is implementing events and some remaining mechanics. So while we’re busy doing that, let’s take a look at some of the new weapons and tools that the upcoming update will bring to the table. Read on!

The upcoming update will bring a total of at least 13 new weapons to the game. While some are unique to the Ancient Dead and come with unique skills, others are there to fill the remaining gaps in progression.

Hooked Blade

An agricultural tool adapted for use in battle, the Hooked Blade is a mid-tier variant of the Billhook. We’re handing it out to bandit raiders as we speak, for two purposes: first, to smoothen the difficulty spike experienced when meeting them in the early game, and second, to smoothen the power spike when looting these in the early game. The Billhook is still sometimes wielded by your enemies, of course, but it’s more rare now, and more often found on well-equipped noble troops or other mercenaries.

Rondel Dagger

A long, quadrangular spike designed to pierce through weak points in armor, the Rondel Dagger is a high-tier variant of the existing dagger. It’s there to make daggers more viable as niche weapons later on, and it’s what named daggers are now based on in terms of stats. Note that the upcoming update will also bring a minor change to how the Puncture skill works!

Military Pick

An evolution of the classic pickaxe, the Military Pick has been adapted for use in combat to puncture the sturdiest of armors. It fills the gap between the low-tier Pickaxe and the high-tier Warhammer, and by being both more affordable and common than the latter, will give you the means to successfully engage heavily armored opponents, such as Orc Warriors, earlier in the game.

Heavy Crossbow

The heavy crossbow is the new high tier variant of the crossbow, and is effective even against heavily armored targets. It’s roughly equivalent to the high-tier Warbow, and should make the use of crossbows more viable later on in the game if you favor armor-piercing qualities and ease of use over range and rate of fire. Named crossbows are now also based on the Heavy Crossbow in terms of stats.

The update won’t just add new weapons, but also several new tools and accessories. Some of these can be unlocked as rewards for fulfilling ambitions, while others can simply be bought at the right place.

Falcon

A trained falcon can be taken into battle similar to wardogs. It doesn’t fight, but can at any time be let loose to lift the fog of war in an area around you for the remainder of the current round. Useful, for example, when you’re ambushed in deep forest, or looking for that necromancer that keeps evading you.

Sergeant’s Sash

The Sergeant’s Sash can be earned by fulfilling a specific ambition, and it’s to be worn by your second-in-command in the accessory slot. Not only does it make him visually stand out, it also grants a bonus to the Resolve stat, which in turn synergizes with the ability to rally the men and raise their morale.

Work is progressing well on the late game crises – all new contracts and twists are in the game now, and next up is implementing events and some remaining mechanics. So while we’re busy doing that, let’s take a look at some of the new weapons and tools that the upcoming update will bring to the table. Read on!

The upcoming update will bring a total of at least 13 new weapons to the game. While some are unique to the Ancient Dead and come with unique skills, others are there to fill the remaining gaps in progression.

Hooked Blade

An agricultural tool adapted for use in battle, the Hooked Blade is a mid-tier variant of the Billhook. We’re handing it out to bandit raiders as we speak, for two purposes: first, to smoothen the difficulty spike experienced when meeting them in the early game, and second, to smoothen the power spike when looting these in the early game. The Billhook is still sometimes wielded by your enemies, of course, but it’s more rare now, and more often found on well-equipped noble troops or other mercenaries.

Rondel Dagger

A long, quadrangular spike designed to pierce through weak points in armor, the Rondel Dagger is a high-tier variant of the existing dagger. It’s there to make daggers more viable as niche weapons later on, and it’s what named daggers are now based on in terms of stats. Note that the upcoming update will also bring a minor change to how the Puncture skill works!

Military Pick

An evolution of the classic pickaxe, the Military Pick has been adapted for use in combat to puncture the sturdiest of armors. It fills the gap between the low-tier Pickaxe and the high-tier Warhammer, and by being both more affordable and common than the latter, will give you the means to successfully engage heavily armored opponents, such as Orc Warriors, earlier in the game.

Heavy Crossbow

The heavy crossbow is the new high tier variant of the crossbow, and is effective even against heavily armored targets. It’s roughly equivalent to the high-tier Warbow, and should make the use of crossbows more viable later on in the game if you favor armor-piercing qualities and ease of use over range and rate of fire. Named crossbows are now also based on the Heavy Crossbow in terms of stats.

The update won’t just add new weapons, but also several new tools and accessories. Some of these can be unlocked as rewards for fulfilling ambitions, while others can simply be bought at the right place.

Falcon

A trained falcon can be taken into battle similar to wardogs. It doesn’t fight, but can at any time be let loose to lift the fog of war in an area around you for the remainder of the current round. Useful, for example, when you’re ambushed in deep forest, or looking for that necromancer that keeps evading you.

Sergeant’s Sash

The Sergeant’s Sash can be earned by fulfilling a specific ambition, and it’s to be worn by your second-in-command in the accessory slot. Not only does it make him visually stand out, it also grants a bonus to the Resolve stat, which in turn synergizes with the ability to rally the men and raise their morale.

We return from the holidays with our first dev blog this year. As announced in our roadmap to the finish line, Battle Brothers is about to receive Steam achievements and trading cards. Let’s take a look at both this week while we continue to work hard on the late game crises we’ve talked about last time. Onwards!

You may have already spotted some Steam achievements for Battle Brothers popping up over the last few weeks – that’s because we’ve been testing them. There’s currently a total of 70 achievements in the game, although that number may still change slightly in either direction. We wanted the achievements to be a good mix between short and long term challenges, some more serious and some more fun, as well as some rewarding the natural progression as you play the game. Here’s a few examples of different achievements you’ll be able to unlock once the next update is live.

Swingin’
Kill 3 enemies with one AoE attack.

Who Let The Dogs Out?
Kill an enemy with a wardog.

How To Berserk
Kill an Orc Berserker in melee while high on mushrooms.

Outgunned
Kill a Goblin Overseer with a ranged weapon.

King Of The Hill
Defeat another mercenary company.

Explorer
Uncover 2/3 of the map.

Campaigner
Reach day 100 on veteran difficulty or higher.

Never Give Up
Lose 10 campaigns in Ironman mode.

Bane Of The Undead
Defeat the Undead Scourge at any difficulty level.


Battle Brothers is also about to receive some Steam trading cards with the upcoming update. Each trading card is for one of the different types of factions currently in the game – the Mercenaries, the Noble Houses, the Bandits, the Ancient Dead, the Undead, the Goblins and the Orcs.



The full-sized trading cards show the faction with their selection of banners and a variety of units with different gear in wallpaper format. Of course, you’ll also be able to unlock badges, profile backgrounds and emoticons.

We return from the holidays with our first dev blog this year. As announced in our roadmap to the finish line, Battle Brothers is about to receive Steam achievements and trading cards. Let’s take a look at both this week while we continue to work hard on the late game crises we’ve talked about last time. Onwards!

You may have already spotted some Steam achievements for Battle Brothers popping up over the last few weeks – that’s because we’ve been testing them. There’s currently a total of 70 achievements in the game, although that number may still change slightly in either direction. We wanted the achievements to be a good mix between short and long term challenges, some more serious and some more fun, as well as some rewarding the natural progression as you play the game. Here’s a few examples of different achievements you’ll be able to unlock once the next update is live.

Swingin’
Kill 3 enemies with one AoE attack.

Who Let The Dogs Out?
Kill an enemy with a wardog.

How To Berserk
Kill an Orc Berserker in melee while high on mushrooms.

Outgunned
Kill a Goblin Overseer with a ranged weapon.

King Of The Hill
Defeat another mercenary company.

Explorer
Uncover 2/3 of the map.

Campaigner
Reach day 100 on veteran difficulty or higher.

Never Give Up
Lose 10 campaigns in Ironman mode.

Bane Of The Undead
Defeat the Undead Scourge at any difficulty level.


Battle Brothers is also about to receive some Steam trading cards with the upcoming update. Each trading card is for one of the different types of factions currently in the game – the Mercenaries, the Noble Houses, the Bandits, the Ancient Dead, the Undead, the Goblins and the Orcs.



The full-sized trading cards show the faction with their selection of banners and a variety of units with different gear in wallpaper format. Of course, you’ll also be able to unlock badges, profile backgrounds and emoticons.

Here we go with a dev blog many of you have been waiting for. After ambitions and retirement, late game crises, also known as the ‘Greater Evil’, are the third aspect of adding more purpose and challenge to the game that we’re going to introduce with the upcoming update. Let’s find out what it’s all about!

Older players may remember that when Battle Brothers first entered Early Access, enemy factions would keep on growing and eventually overpower the world of man, if not kept in check by the player. For all the many balancing issues this raised, it certainly had a cool thing about it: the world was changing around you, and what you did had a tangible impact on the world. As we’re nearing the point now where all of the game mechanics are done, we’re going to re-introduce the ability of enemy factions to start an invasion and overrun the world. Only this time, it will be part of one of three different late game crises, and it will be supported by unique contracts, events and gameplay mechanics.

So, where to start? A late game crisis happening is not optional, but you do have some options on customizing them for your campaign. As you start a new campaign, you’ll be able to choose between a random late game crisis (the default), a war between noble houses, a greenskin invasion or the undead arising. A random crisis is probably slightly harder, because you can’t prepare for a specific enemy right from the start, but if you prefer fighting any particular enemy, or just want to see them in action, you can determine the flavor of your future challenge here.



As the name implies, a late game crisis only really kicks in until after some time into your campaign, allowing you to build up your company to a respectable level first. Once the crisis starts, it occurs in two phases.

The first phase is the buildup where you’ll encounter warning signs – like events about more greenskin sightings, greenskin camps creeping up closer to settlements, and more contracts that deal with their presence – and can choose to prepare accordingly. Not that long after the first phase, the second phase will start, and this is where the crisis really begins. What happens exactly depends on the type of crisis;

In the event of a greenskin invasion, orcs and goblins will combine forces and no longer fight each other, even sometimes attack in mixed units, which will challenge even experienced companies. They will aggressively expand into human territory with new camps, send raiding parties to pillage any attached locations (e.g. wheat farms, mines, watchtowers) and ultimately burn settlements to the ground. Attached locations act as hitpoints for settlements – only after every single such location has been destroyed, can the settlement itself be destroyed. Burned-down locations will eventually be rebuilt, if you defend a settlement for long enough, but settlements destroyed entirely will remain so permanently. Contracts against greenskins will be more frequent, and there’ll be several new contracts in the game specifically for the greenskin invasion, as well as around a dozen new events.



In the event of the undead arising, the ancient dead will combine forces with necromancers and wiedergängers, which otherwise are independent factions. The air will be filled with dark magic, and there’s a chance that anyone, no matter how they died, will return as a wiedergänger. Like with the greenskin invasion, there’s several new contracts in the game specifically for dealing with the undead, as well as around a dozen new events that focus on them. The undead, too, seek to destroy the world of man and will burn down locations attached to settlements. Unlike greenskins, however, they won’t destroy settlements entirely but rather turn them into an undead necropolis – a heavily fortified base from which the walking dead pour down to sow dread and despair.



In the event of a war between noble houses, regiments will be sent forth from fortifications not to destroy settlements, but to capture them in the name of their lords. Contracts and events will allow you to partake in the assault on fortifications and large battles, but siding with one of the warring factions will make enemies of the other. You’ll more frequently have to face other mercenary companies on the battlefield, and bandits and deserters, too, will thrive. All three late game crises will introduce new mechanics and objectives with their contracts – such as the greenskin siege engine shown below.



The late game crises tie into both ambitions and retirement; you’ll be able to choose the ambition to repel a greenskin invasion, for example, and doing so will make sure that the name of your mercenary company will live on for a long time, unlocking a new step on the retirement ladder. Ending one of the crises is a ‘soft end’ to the game – you’ve basically won and will be asked if you want to retire from the company at this point, but you can also choose to keep on playing if you want. If you do choose to keep on playing with your company, a new and different late game crisis will eventually start, and you’ll be tested in a different way, and so on.

There’s a lot of work going into these late game crises, so we’ll be working for several weeks exclusively on those.

With the Christmas holidays rapidly approaching, this has been this year’s last dev blog. We’ll resume our schedule of weekly dev blogs starting with a new one on January 6th, 2017. Take care and see you next year!

Here we go with a dev blog many of you have been waiting for. After ambitions and retirement, late game crises, also known as the ‘Greater Evil’, are the third aspect of adding more purpose and challenge to the game that we’re going to introduce with the upcoming update. Let’s find out what it’s all about!

Older players may remember that when Battle Brothers first entered Early Access, enemy factions would keep on growing and eventually overpower the world of man, if not kept in check by the player. For all the many balancing issues this raised, it certainly had a cool thing about it: the world was changing around you, and what you did had a tangible impact on the world. As we’re nearing the point now where all of the game mechanics are done, we’re going to re-introduce the ability of enemy factions to start an invasion and overrun the world. Only this time, it will be part of one of three different late game crises, and it will be supported by unique contracts, events and gameplay mechanics.

So, where to start? A late game crisis happening is not optional, but you do have some options on customizing them for your campaign. As you start a new campaign, you’ll be able to choose between a random late game crisis (the default), a war between noble houses, a greenskin invasion or the undead arising. A random crisis is probably slightly harder, because you can’t prepare for a specific enemy right from the start, but if you prefer fighting any particular enemy, or just want to see them in action, you can determine the flavor of your future challenge here.



As the name implies, a late game crisis only really kicks in until after some time into your campaign, allowing you to build up your company to a respectable level first. Once the crisis starts, it occurs in two phases.

The first phase is the buildup where you’ll encounter warning signs – like events about more greenskin sightings, greenskin camps creeping up closer to settlements, and more contracts that deal with their presence – and can choose to prepare accordingly. Not that long after the first phase, the second phase will start, and this is where the crisis really begins. What happens exactly depends on the type of crisis;

In the event of a greenskin invasion, orcs and goblins will combine forces and no longer fight each other, even sometimes attack in mixed units, which will challenge even experienced companies. They will aggressively expand into human territory with new camps, send raiding parties to pillage any attached locations (e.g. wheat farms, mines, watchtowers) and ultimately burn settlements to the ground. Attached locations act as hitpoints for settlements – only after every single such location has been destroyed, can the settlement itself be destroyed. Burned-down locations will eventually be rebuilt, if you defend a settlement for long enough, but settlements destroyed entirely will remain so permanently. Contracts against greenskins will be more frequent, and there’ll be several new contracts in the game specifically for the greenskin invasion, as well as around a dozen new events.



In the event of the undead arising, the ancient dead will combine forces with necromancers and wiedergängers, which otherwise are independent factions. The air will be filled with dark magic, and there’s a chance that anyone, no matter how they died, will return as a wiedergänger. Like with the greenskin invasion, there’s several new contracts in the game specifically for dealing with the undead, as well as around a dozen new events that focus on them. The undead, too, seek to destroy the world of man and will burn down locations attached to settlements. Unlike greenskins, however, they won’t destroy settlements entirely but rather turn them into an undead necropolis – a heavily fortified base from which the walking dead pour down to sow dread and despair.



In the event of a war between noble houses, regiments will be sent forth from fortifications not to destroy settlements, but to capture them in the name of their lords. Contracts and events will allow you to partake in the assault on fortifications and large battles, but siding with one of the warring factions will make enemies of the other. You’ll more frequently have to face other mercenary companies on the battlefield, and bandits and deserters, too, will thrive. All three late game crises will introduce new mechanics and objectives with their contracts – such as the greenskin siege engine shown below.



The late game crises tie into both ambitions and retirement; you’ll be able to choose the ambition to repel a greenskin invasion, for example, and doing so will make sure that the name of your mercenary company will live on for a long time, unlocking a new step on the retirement ladder. Ending one of the crises is a ‘soft end’ to the game – you’ve basically won and will be asked if you want to retire from the company at this point, but you can also choose to keep on playing if you want. If you do choose to keep on playing with your company, a new and different late game crisis will eventually start, and you’ll be tested in a different way, and so on.

There’s a lot of work going into these late game crises, so we’ll be working for several weeks exclusively on those.

With the Christmas holidays rapidly approaching, this has been this year’s last dev blog. We’ll resume our schedule of weekly dev blogs starting with a new one on January 6th, 2017. Take care and see you next year!

Work has shifted to the upcoming late game crises, the ‘Greater Evil’. It’s not quite ready yet to present it to you this week, so instead we’re taking you on a tour throughout the numerous smaller improvements we’ve made to the game for the next update – many of them based on your feedback. Let’s go!

Playing Battle Brothers at a high resolution and finding the UI to be too tiny? The next update is about to solve things, with two additional sliders in the game’s video options, allowing you both to scale the size of the UI and the size of the scene (i.e. everything that isn’t the UI) independently.



The worldmap has received a lot of minor improvements over the last couple of weeks. Ever wondered how it is that your company can apparently swim across the water, or what straits can be crossed and what straits can’t? With the next update, any crossings across water now have additional visuals to clearly identify them as such, so that you’ll always know where you can go and where you’ll have to find another way across the water.



Regions controlled by noble houses are now much more coherent, and also often larger than before, which makes patrolling between settlements less of a hassle. What’s also less of a hassle now is pursuing enemy parties – clicking them outside the radius to immediately engage in combat now results in your company automatically following them and trying to get in range, no matter what turns they make to shake you, for as long as they remain in sight. No more frantic clicking all over them in an attempt to catch up!

A common request is for the introduction of a ‘camera lock’ feature – having the map always show your mercenary company at the center of the screen and scroll the map as the company moves. The next update introduces just that as an option you can enable or disable at any time via a button in the top bar or hotkey.



Different settlements offer different services, which is a good thing, because it makes them more unique. Currently, it also means that you, as the player, are required to either memorize or write down what services are on offer in what settlement, however. The next update makes things easier by showing in a settlement’s tooltip every specialized building present in that settlement – all that’s required is that you visit the settlement at least once. Speaking of buildings, every newly generated map is now guaranteed to have at least one of every type of building present.



The tactical combat also has seen some improvements, of course. Of note is that allied units – militia, noble house troops or even wardogs – no longer block movement for your men, and you can hop over them just as you can with your own men, which makes maneuvering in larger battles quite a bit easier.



And finally, hovering over a brother in the roster view will reveal a few combat-related statistics once the next update hits – how many battles the man has seen, how many kills he’s made and the most fearsome opponent he’s slain. If there’s more stats you’d like to see, let us know in the comments below!

Work has shifted to the upcoming late game crises, the ‘Greater Evil’. It’s not quite ready yet to present it to you this week, so instead we’re taking you on a tour throughout the numerous smaller improvements we’ve made to the game for the next update – many of them based on your feedback. Let’s go!

Playing Battle Brothers at a high resolution and finding the UI to be too tiny? The next update is about to solve things, with two additional sliders in the game’s video options, allowing you both to scale the size of the UI and the size of the scene (i.e. everything that isn’t the UI) independently.



The worldmap has received a lot of minor improvements over the last couple of weeks. Ever wondered how it is that your company can apparently swim across the water, or what straits can be crossed and what straits can’t? With the next update, any crossings across water now have additional visuals to clearly identify them as such, so that you’ll always know where you can go and where you’ll have to find another way across the water.



Regions controlled by noble houses are now much more coherent, and also often larger than before, which makes patrolling between settlements less of a hassle. What’s also less of a hassle now is pursuing enemy parties – clicking them outside the radius to immediately engage in combat now results in your company automatically following them and trying to get in range, no matter what turns they make to shake you, for as long as they remain in sight. No more frantic clicking all over them in an attempt to catch up!

A common request is for the introduction of a ‘camera lock’ feature – having the map always show your mercenary company at the center of the screen and scroll the map as the company moves. The next update introduces just that as an option you can enable or disable at any time via a button in the top bar or hotkey.



Different settlements offer different services, which is a good thing, because it makes them more unique. Currently, it also means that you, as the player, are required to either memorize or write down what services are on offer in what settlement, however. The next update makes things easier by showing in a settlement’s tooltip every specialized building present in that settlement – all that’s required is that you visit the settlement at least once. Speaking of buildings, every newly generated map is now guaranteed to have at least one of every type of building present.



The tactical combat also has seen some improvements, of course. Of note is that allied units – militia, noble house troops or even wardogs – no longer block movement for your men, and you can hop over them just as you can with your own men, which makes maneuvering in larger battles quite a bit easier.



And finally, hovering over a brother in the roster view will reveal a few combat-related statistics once the next update hits – how many battles the man has seen, how many kills he’s made and the most fearsome opponent he’s slain. If there’s more stats you’d like to see, let us know in the comments below!

Following up to last week’s dev blog about ambitions, this week we’re taking a look at the second upcoming feature that’s there to give your campaigns more purpose and in this case also closure: retirement. Let’s find out what that’s about!

As mentioned last time, different players approach the game differently. For some, the journey is the reward, and the game doesn’t ever have to end. Others want to work towards a goal and then have definite closure to their game. We’re introducing the ability to retire from your company so that you can end your campaign, and have that closure, at any time of your choosing. The game won’t ever just end as you defeat an end game crisis, like the Greenskin Invasion, but it will only end when you choose to end it, or everyone is dead. Depending on the state you leave your company and the world in, and the ambitions you have or have not fulfilled, you’ll be presented with one of five different outcomes to your retirement. If you’ve already played Battle Brothers, you can probably imagine that not all of them are happy ends.



The image above is the illustration for one of those five endings, and it’s accompanied by a short bit of text recounting your exploits and telling you how the company continued to fare without your leadership. Does the company still exist? Who is their new captain? How is the company doing? All these depend on the state you leave your company in as you retire, and the more successful your campaign, the better the ending you get when you finally finish it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWxBtm7m24M
Take a look at the video to see the painting process of the illustration in a time-lapse video of a few minutes, accompanied by an entirely new music track we’ll be adding to the game with the next update. It’s the second track that plays when fighting against a noble house in tactical combat – which may be happening more often now that a feud between nobles can escalate to open war as one of the three late game crises. If you want to listen to more music of Battle Brothers, you can do so on the SoundCloud page of Breakdown Epiphanies here.