Low-Fantasy Hardcore Tactics Game Battle Brothers Blazes On With Announcement of New DLC
As a genre, tactics games exist to infuriate you. You think it’s rough when you get snipped from across the map by some kid with 1000 hours of playtime? Try missing on a 95% hit chance and dying to a 1% crit chance on the backswing. It’s all part of the game. Victory wouldn’t be so sweet if the potential for crushing defeat wasn’t always around every corner. Still, the compulsion is always strong to spam quicksave and just retry until you get a “perfect” run. Why accept defeat when you can cheat? As glib as I’m being, I do the same shit. I don’t have time to restart a campaign because I lost my level 7 sniper to some bad rolls. To date, there’s only one game that’s ever managed to break me of that habit: Battle Brothers.
Battle Brothers is a tactics RPG where you play as the leader of a band of mercenaries. You roam from town to town, picking up new recruits and taking contracts from the locals. There’s a wide variety of missions, ranging from escorting a caravan to hunting down marauding bandits. You soon find that even the lowliest of bandits can put up a fight. It’s not uncommon to lose half your guys in your first real fight. And it only gets tougher from there. Armor is key. A single hit can cripple you. A few unguarded blows and you’re dead. And you will die. A lot. Not to worry, there’s always more peasants looking for their shot at glory in the next village.
If you thought that Game of Thrones was grounded “low-fantasy,” then let me introduce you to Battle Brothers. It takes low-fantasy, then puts you into the shoes of common folk. The world is full of necromancers, trolls, orcs, undead, ents, and noble houses vying for control. But you? You’re nothing. You’re just a group of guys. The best you can hope for is a lordless Hedge Knight or some disowned nobleman. You’re the magicless, titleless, landless dregs of the world. And you’re here to scrape your way to fame and fortune.
If you’re already a fan, then good news. Even more Battle Brothers content is on the horizon. Despite announcing several times that they were done with development and moving onto new things, it seems the team at Overhype Studios just can’t leave their fans wanting. They recently announced the newest DLC for Battle Brothers, titled Blazing Deserts. While the Warriors of the North DLC focused on the barbaric tribes of the frozen north, Blazing Deserts opens up the southern deserts and jungles. Inspired by medieval Arabian and Persian culture, the southern realm has its own culture, equipment, and monsters. It all caps off with a late-game crisis involving a religious war.
Overhype Studios states that this will be the biggest DLC yet, listing a number of other key features:
- A realm of independent southern city-states with their own lore, equipment, and services, as well as entirely new character backgrounds to recruit
- A new late-game crisis that tests the mettle of your company in the fires of religious turmoil
- A gallery of company feats that grant permanent boons with which to customize your company to your playstyle as you progress throughout your campaign
- A variety of new opponents with their own fighting styles – from exotic beasts to desert raiders and southern armies quite unlike those in the north
- New environments both on the world map and in tactical combat
- Several new origins to pick for your company for a different campaign experience
- New banners, weapons, armors and helmets inspired by historic Arabian and Persian cultures of the medieval ages
- New legendary locations and legendary rewards
- New contracts and events
- New crafting recipes for owners of the ‘Beasts & Exploration’ DLC
- Several new music tracks by Breakdown Epiphanies to accompany you on your travels south
The new DLC is still a ways off, with the only release date being Q2 2020. If you haven’t played it yet, you should definitely check it by clicking the link here. It might seem pricey at $30, but if you’re like me you’ll find it’s worth far more than the asking price.
