Battle Brothers
Overhype Studios · RPG, Simulation, Strategy, Indie
Overview
Battle Brothers is a turn based strategy RPG mix which has you leading a mercenary company in a gritty, low-power, medieval fantasy world. You decide where to go, whom to hire or to fight, what contracts to take and how to train and equip your men in a procedurally generated open world campaign. Do you have what it takes to lead them through bloody battles and to victory? The game consists of a strategic worldmap and a tactical combat layer. On the worldmap you can freely travel in order to take contracts that earn you good coin, find places worth looting, enemies worth pursuing or towns to resupply and hire men at. This is also where you manage, level up and equip your Battle Brothers. Once you engage a hostile party the game will switch to a tactical map where the actual fighting takes place as detailed turn based combat.
THE GAMEQ VERDICT9,998 reviews analyzed
What players are actually saying
1. Summary
Battle Brothers is a turn-based mercenary game where you hire a band of peasants and sellswords, take contracts across a randomly generated low-fantasy map, and fight on hex grids where anyone can die for good. About a third of the longer reviews (32%) call it brutal, punishing, unforgiving or very hard, and for its fans that harshness is the point. Players praise the tactical combat (shield walls, spear walls, weapon-specific skills, enemies that each demand a different plan), the replayability of new maps and starting origins, the writing, the soundtrack, and the way named mercenaries pick up injuries, quirks and stories before they die. XCOM comes up in 9.2% of the longer reviews and Mount & Blade in 8.0%, often in the same sentence, with the game described as a cross of the two.
Luck and learning are where the complaints gather. 22.5% of the longer reviews discuss hit chances, and 44% of the negative ones do. Critics describe missed 80% and 90% swings that cost hours of progress; defenders say the numbers are fair and the game is about managing risk. Another complaint is that the game teaches very little itself, so players learn enemy abilities, recruit quality and core mechanics from the wiki and YouTube. Others find the contracts repetitive once the early struggle is over, or say a single bad fight starts a money and morale spiral that is hard to climb out of.
2. What keeps coming up
What players praise
A brutal challenge that rewards learningHigh
Fans treat the difficulty as the reason to play. They describe losing several companies before one survives, learning which fights to walk away from, and valuing a victory more because it was hard to earn. One reviewer put it as "Battle Brothers respects you enough to let you struggle and earn the enjoyment of slowly overcoming greater and greater challenges." The phrase "losing is fun", which reviewers say appears among the game's own tips, turns up in fans' and critics' reviews alike, sometimes as a joke and sometimes as an accusation.
Where the floor sits is the open question. A smaller group says the game is too hard even on the easiest settings, often describing a wipe in the first contract or the first ambush; "Beginner-mode means what, exactly?" asked one player who still recommended it. Fans answer that the beginner setting, save reloading and a few guides are enough to get through the opening weeks.
Deep tactical combat and varied enemiesHigh
Formations, shield walls, spear walls, flanking, high ground, fatigue and morale come up in 28.8% of the longer reviews. Players like that weapons are more than numbers ("Each weapon, rather than to be just a front for stats, has it's unique advantages and disadvantages") and that equipment shows on the figures, so armour damage and injuries are visible at a glance. Orcs, goblins, undead, barbarians, beasts and noble armies each fight differently, and one player noted that "every enemy type has its own AI!" Some reviewers also single out the morale system, where an enemy line can break and run once its leaders fall.
A smaller group of critics finds the fights narrow: a line of shields and spears against another line, a few viable perk builds, and big late battles that drag. Against that, some long-time players write that they are still learning new tactics after hundreds of hours.
Random worlds and origins that keep runs freshHigh
Map seeds, randomly generated worlds, starting origins and the different end-game crises come up in 16.3% of the longer reviews. Players describe each company as a different run, and some name the expansions' origins (cultists, raiders, gladiators, a lone wolf start) as the reason they came back. A minority say runs converge by the mid game, with the same hedge knights and the same builds whatever the start.
Writing, music and soundMedium
12.5% of the longer reviews bring up the writing, the soundtrack or the sound effects, mostly to praise them. The event text and recruit backgrounds are liked for their dark humour, and several players mention the tie-in novels by the game's writer, Casey Hollingshead. One wrote that "The writing is excellent, better than a lot of books". The combat audio gets its own praise: the crunch of a mace on a helmet, the gurgle of a felled enemy. A few reviewers find the music repetitive after many hours, and a handful dislike the grim or crude tone of some events.
Mercenaries with their own storiesMedium
7.5% of the longer reviews talk about getting attached to mercenaries and the stories that come out of play. Players tell long anecdotes about a cripple who outlived the veterans, a founding member lost to a goblin net, or an obituary list that runs to dozens of names. "Through these little bits and pieces of events and gameplay, your company develops a really distinct character and story, and at the end of the day that's the heart of Battle Brothers." Some critics say the opposite: death is so frequent and recruits so interchangeable that they never got attached at all.
A studio still adding contentLow
4.2% of the longer reviews praise the developers for supporting the game years after release with paid expansions and free updates, rising to 7.4% among reviews written in 2026. Reviewers mention free expansions alongside the paid ones, and reviews from June 2026 thank the studio for a free update that, they say, added new weapons, a new tier of brigand enemies and a faster speed setting. One wrote "Still releasing updates and FREE DLC after 7 years since release". A few players disagree: one says the support email bounced while the game would not launch, and another that emails went unanswered.
Runs on modest hardwareLow
A small group says the game runs on old laptops and low-end PCs. Some play it on Steam Deck, though a few find the controls awkward there without a community layout.
Where players are split
Hit chances and luckHigh
22.5% of the longer reviews discuss hit chances, dice or RNG, rising to 44% among the negative ones. The complaint is consistent: veterans miss several high-percentage swings in a row while a low-level enemy lands a lucky blow that kills a man worth hours of work. A smaller group goes further and calls the displayed odds rigged; one reviewer wrote that "The predictions line up improbably (mathetmatically) poorly."
Defenders push back. Some say the numbers have been tested ("RNG has been thoroughly and extensively tested and is NOT biased") and that the game is about stacking the odds by wearing armour, using shields and picking fights. Other critics accept the dice are fair but say the game gives too few ways to rescue a wounded man or recover from a bad turn: "RNG itself is not the problem, but the lack of tools to fight bad outcomes." Some fans say luck matters most in the early game, when men are lightly armoured, and less once the company has heavy armour. "If it had less RNG overall, this game would have been a masterpiece," wrote one positive reviewer.
The expansionsHigh
17.4% of the longer reviews mention the DLC, and 3.9% call the expansions worth buying, great or essential. New regions, origins, enemies, crafting and the southern arena are described as substantial, and players tell newcomers to buy the full bundle on sale. One wrote that they are "not the shamelessly ripped off features that should have been in the base game". A smaller group argues the base game feels thin without the expansions, that popular mods require all of them, and that the total price is high: "Meaning you have to buy the DLC in order to get the actual full game."
The art styleHigh
15.9% of the longer reviews mention the art or graphics. The legless, board-game-piece look is a common first hurdle, and some players say they avoided the game for years because of it before it grew on them. "I put off playing Battle Brothers for years because of the art style. Don't do that." Others praise the art outright, pointing to the hand-painted detail and to how armour damage and injuries show on each piece. A minority never got past it, calling the figures cheap or the battle maps bland ("Also, the characters don't have legs.").
Mods as a fix or a crutchMedium
Mods come up in 14.8% of the longer reviews. The Legends overhaul is usually named as the next step once the base game is learned ("I would say legends is harder, but a better version of the game."), and quality-of-life mods for speed, auto-pause and recruit information come up often. Others turn the same fact into criticism: the game should not need mods to be comfortable, there is no Steam Workshop, and installing mods by hand is awkward.
Save-scumming versus IronmanMedium
10.2% of the longer reviews discuss reloading saves or Ironman mode. One camp says Ironman is how the game is meant to be played and that reloading strips the stakes: "if you save scum everytime a character dies you'll never feel the same attachment". The other says the swings are too large for that, so reloading before risky fights becomes close to required, and some of them resent it: "why bother playing a strategy game where cheating the system is almost mandatory?" Several positive reviews recommend reloading while learning and switching to Ironman later.
Whether it is worth the priceMedium
9.7% of the longer reviews talk about price. Fans describe the game as good value for the hours it gives, and 3.1% of the longer reviews advise buying it on sale. A smaller group calls the base game or the full bundle overpriced for its content: "It has the game-play value of a 20 dollar game max when all the dlc is included."
What frustrates players
Learning the game outside the gameMedium
Tutorials, missing explanations, the wiki, guides and YouTube come up in 14.9% of the longer reviews and in 24% of the negative ones. A few players say the tutorial campaign teaches almost nothing, or that they died in its first battle. Players say they had to look up what each enemy does, how hit chances are calculated, which recruit backgrounds are worth hiring and how the economy works. "The main problem with battle brothers is the ABSOLUTE opaqueness in terms of conveying information to the player about its systems." The gaps they name: enemy stats and abilities are not shown, recruit stats are hidden until hired ("You can't check the stats of brothers you are recruiting. That's bollocks."), status icons go unexplained, and contract targets can be hard to find on the map. Fans reply that discovering the rules is part of the appeal, and some positive reviews also tell newcomers to watch guides first.
Repetitive contracts and a thin worldMedium
9.2% of the longer reviews call the game repetitive or say it lacks a goal. Players describe a handful of contract types (escort, deliver, find a place, kill a camp) repeated across the map, a world that reacts little to what the company does, and no story or end beyond the next crisis: "You walk from town to town doing the same 3 quests over and over again". Some late-game players add that crises can end abruptly and that legendary locations feel like a wall rather than a reward. Wishes that come up include a base or fort of the company's own, more ways to deal with nobles, and more varied contracts.
Setbacks that snowballMedium
Money and difficulty scaling come up in 7.1% of the longer reviews. Wages, food, repairs and replacement recruits drain money fast, and players say a single lost fight can leave too few men to earn the wages of the men who are left. Several point to difficulty that rises with time rather than with the company's strength, so a company that loses its veterans cannot rebuild against the same weak enemies: "You should be able to rebuild after a disaster, the difficulty ramping mechanics are garbage." Defenders say careful contract choice and trading keep a company afloat once the opening weeks are past.
Crashes, launch errors and save corruptionLow
Under 4% of the longer reviews report crashes or technical faults. Reported problems include OpenGL 3.3 launch errors, AMD graphics crashes, a memory limit that corrupted textures and saves in long or modded runs, and Steam Cloud wiping Ironman saves. One player wrote "The game has crashed 3 times in around 3h of playtime." Several reviewers say the memory problem ended with an official update ("As of 7 Jan 2026, that 4GB patch has finally been added as an official update of the game."), though a few report new crashes after later patches.
Slow pace and missing comfortsLow
3.5% of the longer reviews complain about pace and quality of life. Map travel is slow, large battles of 30 or more units mean long waits between turns, and the map does not pause reliably when enemies appear: "The biggest problem for me is that the game is too slow." Key rebinding, item comparison, a confirmation on sales, and pathing that walks the company into enemies are other gaps players list. Reviewers note the June 2026 update added a faster speed setting.
No Steam Workshop or controller supportLow
1.7% of the longer reviews ask for Steam Workshop or controller support. Workshop requests come from players who find manual mod installs fiddly; controller requests mostly come from Steam Deck and couch players.
No female mercenariesLow
1.3% of the longer reviews mention the absence of women in the company, from mild puzzlement to a firm complaint ("My only serious critique is the COMPLETE LACK OF FEMALE CHARACTERS."). Others reply that the setting and title explain it, and some point to mods that add them.
Enemy numbers and the 12-man capLow
1.2% of the longer reviews object that the player can field only 12 men while enemy groups can be twice that or more, which they say turns some late fights into attrition the player cannot win.
Specific enemies that feel unfairLow
A small group singles out enemy designs as frustrating rather than hard: necromancers that keep raising the dead ("Necromancers continually bring back the same dead pawns over and over again."), teleporting Alps, mind-controlling Hexen, Geists that rout a line, and some desert enemies from the expansions.
English-only textLow
A handful of reviews ask for translations, most often Chinese, Japanese and Korean, and a few non-native readers find the dense event text hard going.
3. The player conversation
The tone is affectionate exasperation. Positive reviews are full of jokes about decapitated favourites and rage quits followed by "one more contract". Negative reviews are fewer and tend to list specific complaints, and "I wanted to like this game" or a close variant recurs in them. Much of the argument is over whether the swings of luck and the lack of in-game teaching are part of the design or a flaw in it.
Who raises what shifts with experience. Reviewers with under 10 hours bring up hit chances (27.4%, against 20.0% for those with 100 hours or more) and learning from outside sources (22.5%, against 11.3%) more often. Reviewers with 100 hours or more talk more about the late game (12.5%, against 2.1% for the under-10-hour group), about mods and about the expansions. Reviews written in 2026 mention the developers' continued support more often (7.4%, against about 3% in reviews written from 2021 to 2025), and 5.4% of them mention Menace, which reviewers describe as the studio's newer game, usually to compare the two or to say they arrived from it. A few older reviews carry later edits that switch from negative to positive, after a fix arrived or after the writer got the hang of the mechanics.
4. What the developers could do
- Teach the game inside the game. Learning from the wiki and YouTube is raised by 14.9% of the longer reviews and nearly a quarter of the negative ones, and players name enemy abilities, hit-chance modifiers, recruit stats and status icons as the gaps.
- Show how each hit chance is built and log every roll. 22.5% of the longer reviews argue about hit chances and some believe the odds are rigged, so a visible breakdown and a combat log would let players check the odds for themselves.
- Give players more ways to recover a bad turn or a bad fight. Critics who accept the dice still say there are too few tools to pull a wounded man out or rebuild after losing veterans while difficulty keeps rising with time.
- Add more contract types and a reason to play past the mid game. 9.2% of the longer reviews call the contracts repetitive or the world goalless, and players ask for crisis progress, more varied work and a home base for the company.
- Build mod comforts into the base game as options. Players install mods for faster speeds, auto-pause when enemies are sighted, key rebinding and recruit information, and several say these should be settings rather than downloads.
- Support the Steam Workshop. Workshop requests recur among players who find manual mod installs and version breakage frustrating.
- Keep working on launch and stability problems. OpenGL errors, AMD crashes and Steam Cloud Ironman wipes recur in the reviews, though players credit the January 2026 memory update with fixing the corrupted textures.
