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I love writing about games like Battle Brothers. It’s refreshing to see what else is out there besides the typical AAA titles we usually hear about.
For those unfamiliar (probably not many), Battle Brothers is a tactical turn-based strategy game where you lead a band of mercenaries.
You roam across a procedurally generated open world map, recruiting new warriors and taking on contracts for various towns as you go along.
Think XCOM, except with a medieval fantasy theme.
With two DLC’s already out and a Switch release, there’s no better time to jump in on the fun.
Plus this game is fully mod capable, so there’s already tons of community content to explore out there. Here I’ll share some of the best to get you started:
As with most strategy games, you’re going to want to speed things up from time to time.
Whether you’re grinding through battles or traveling over long distances, sometimes you just want to get things moving quicker.
With the base game allowing for up to 2x normal speed, it’s still not enough. Especially when there’s a large amount of map to cover before your next destination.
The Faster mod adds keybinds to buttons “3” and “4”, letting you speed the game up to 4x and 8x respectively.
Not only that, but you can speed up combat animations as well.
A huge time-saver for sure, this allows you to reduce time spent between actions made by enemies & push through the more generic moments.
We know all too well that in any tactical strategy, information is king.
The only way you can plan out your moves is to have the information necessary to make the best possible decisions.
These next few mods will help you with that, especially since in certain aspects, Battle Brothers can be quite unforgiving.
With the possibility of permadeath in Battle Brothers, you’re going to want to know what’s going on in each of your battles.
The Better Combat Log helps with that by adding helpful information in the form of morale checks.
Not only will it help you stay on top of things, but there are a few quality of life upgrades here as well. The battle log no longer starts out collapsed, which is a nice change, so it’s easier to monitor too.
Starting off with three men, you’re bound to hire more as you explore the world and encounter new characters along the way.
Given that hiring and maintaining men in your group has costs, strategy plays a big part in how you decide who gets to come along.
The Tryout Talents mod makes it much easier to weigh possible benefits, as you’ll have more information to go by.
For a percentage of hiring cost, you’ll now be able to see how stars are distributed between skills before hiring a new brother. Give this one a try and see whether you like it, you’ll know pretty quickly.
Armor levels are also important to monitor, as once a brother dies, he’s basically gone forever.
The Armor Indicators mod gives that information in easy-to-read color-coded icons that represent both head and body damage for each of your characters.
I think this mod would be great paired with the Craft Armor and Shields mod, as you’ll be able to quickly tell if any of your brothers needs new equipment & can craft it up for them.
With Boneplating Indicator, monitoring brothers wearing boneplating is much easier with the added UI icons showing whether boneplating has been damaged or not.
If it could mean the difference between life and permadeath, well, this is just smart then.
I’d want to know these things – and I’m sure you would too.
Better Hit Information adds a whole new list of details that are just not available in vanilla.
To have a much better idea of what’s going on in each of your combat encounters, Better Hit Information gives you a weapon/skill hit bonus, surrounded bonus, height advantage bonus, fast adaption bonus, and too close penalty at a quick glance.
You’ll be able to make more calculated decisions with each move, ultimately helping your brothers survive each hostile encounter.
A very useful tool when exploring the world, Scoutable Locations gives a bit more to go on when hovering over locations.
It doesn’t give everything away, though.
But you’ll now be able to see what types of enemies are in any given location.
If you’ve ever prepared for a battle up against, say, orcs, and felt unequipped because you’re apparently fighting undead – well this is exactly what you need.
In addition to enemy types, the mod also gives you % chances for named items in each location.
This is especially helpful when hunting for those rarer items in the game.
It’s always smart to make sure you’re managing your resources well.
When heading out into different villages, it’s unavoidable that you’re going to end up selling or buying equipment to help your mercs survive the wilds.
A cool feature of the game is that villages differ in terms of market situations. However for the most part, we’re given pretty vague descriptions and left on our own to figure out what they actually mean.
Like really, who knew that a recently-raided village would actually mean they have 50% less items for sale? And 50% less recruits available?
Well now you do, because the Settlement Situation Tooltips will tell you exactly that information!
No more guessing and walking around blind.
You’ll now have a better idea of trading circumstances before even setting foot in a nearby town.
Last of the information mods in my list: Cut To The Chase for Rumors.
As with settlement information, rumors tend to be cryptic and vague as well.
Maybe you’ve spent days grinding through battles in search of that named item you really want, and haven’t got the energy to decipher that next rumor.
Well this mod solves that problem.
Avoid having to trudge through dialogue. Instead you can just… well, cut to the chase – with the important information already extracted and given to you right at the beginning.
More play time, less weird talking. Win-win I say.
It could be that you were preparing to fight a completely different enemy type, but whatever the case, you’ve probably found yourself wishing you could shuffle around some brothers or weapons to better suit the battle.
Battle Preparation makes this possible, as you’re given the opportunity to pull up the inventory screen and make changes before each battle takes place.
This one’s sure to keep you alive on more than one occasion.
Some may not like it, but this feature could almost be part of vanilla and still feel completely normal.
Now this particular mod makes the game much more interesting, but focuses more towards the later stages.
If you’ve reached the point where your main focus is to grind for named weapons, you may find it repetitive to go through endless battles just to get some measly shields.
Increased Champion Spawn Rate makes it more likely to encounter champions, up to 50%, increasing the chances you’ll find some of those named weapons as well.
Call it cheating if you want, I call it enjoying my time in the game.
Finally we hit the Legends Mod, which is widely considered a favorite among Battle Brothers fans.
The Legends Mod is pretty much the only overhaul mod that adds tons of content to the game, making for a completely fresh BB experience.
The aim here is to add replayability and variety to Battle Brothers, and it does that very well by adding new starts, mechanics, weapons, effects, and so much more.
There are now 25 scenarios to choose from too, with the vanilla scenarios enhanced with new perks and equipment.
There’s a ton to discover in this mod, so if you feel like you’ve gotten all that you can out of the game, here’s the best way to rediscover it.
