Progress Update - Bandits, Militia, Rivers and more - Dev Blog #38: news

We’ve been busy this past week adding a whole bunch of smaller features and new assets to the game. Bandits are now available for you to fight in tactical combat - our first opposing faction that consists almost entirely of humans. Also, militia is now desperately defending their homes in tactical combat as well. But that’s not all.

Bandit Faction

The first almost entirely human enemy faction is now in the game to cause mischief and terrorize the poor civilians until they cry out for help to the Battle Brothers. The Bandit faction consists of society’s dropouts, reckless outlaws, desperate refugees, wanted criminals and all those that want to make a quick crown by taking what is not theirs.

They usually hide somewhere in the woods, be it abandoned huts, old ruins or makeshift encampments. When they head out they look for trade caravans und unaware travellers to rob them of their belongings. If they’re strong enough, they may even raid whole villages for valuables, supplies and prisoners.

In combat they have access to the same equipment, weapons and perks that Battle Brothers do, so be prepared for a match at eye-level. They usually rally behind an exceptionally strong, skilled or brutal leader and have some really experienced archers in their ranks. Their melee combatants range from poorly armed and malnourished thugs to battle-hardened raiders.

Bandits will usually be among the first enemies you encounter on the worldmap as they tend to stick close to settlements and trade roads.

Militia

Militia is the makeshift fighting force of civilian settlements like villages and cities. These are basically citizens that arm themselves with whatever weapons and tools available to them as soon as danger approaches. That is why they will only show up on the worldmap when there is an enemy party closing in on a settlement.

As these are not professional soldiers they lack in equipment and experience compared to other forces - but do not underestimate their determination to defend their homes and their loved ones against whatever enemy.

In combat, militia are usually led by an experienced militia captain, perhaps a professional soldier or sellsword when he was younger, that coordinates all the fighters and distributes weapons and armor among them. The militia captain boosts the morale of all others by some margin, and if he falls, it can spell disaster.

Cities and Trading Caravans

Besides the small villages we’ve shown before, we’ve now implemented cities into the game. The city is a civilian settlement like the village and has a militia force defending it. However, the city is much bigger and presents better opportunities for a mercenary commander. More potential recruits are available for hiring, more and different contracts are on offer, and a larger variety of weapons, armor and supplies can be found. As prices in general tend to be higher in larger settlements, everything may be a little more expensive here, though.

Cities are important hubs for trading caravans and for your mercenary company to restock supplies. Speaking of trading caravans, we’ve replaced our placeholder caravan with an actual asset of a little wagon pulled by a donkey also pictured above.

Worldmap Additions

The worldmap has seen some other additions, as well. Rivers have made it into the game, snaking through the lands and creating some natural borders, much like mountains do. Rivers can not be crossed unless at bridges or natural crossings. They still need a polishing pass but look like this now in the game:

Also, the orc faction got new assets for their hideout and warcamp - finally they won’t have to share the sprite with the bandits anymore and have a style of their own.

Tradeable and Lootable Supplies

Mercenaries are a needy bunch. You need to feed them so that they don’t starve or desert you, their armor needs repair after battle and their quivers need to be refilled. The supplies necessary for this can now be bought at allied locations - villages, cities, watchtowers and strongholds. Of course, food is more readily available at villages that live off of farming, and tools to repair armor with are easier to find at a military stronghold or larger city than at a small and peaceful village.

These supplies can also be looted after combat, both from locations you raided and from enemy parties you engaged. What supplies exactly and how many depends on what your opponent was doing. An orc or bandit hunting party will have more food for you to loot than a scouting party does - the more, the longer they’ve been out and hunting animals, in fact.