Sato's Enemy Balance

A mod for the game Battle Brothers (Steam, GOG, Developer Site).

Table of contents

• Features
• Requirements
• Installation
• Uninstallation
• Compatibility
• Building

Features

Rebalances a number of enemy factions and units that I felt were out of sync with the game's overall difficulty curve. Any balance change in a game as tightly balanced as Battle Brothers will likely be controversial, so I've attempted to capture my thoughts on each change in a separate document. I don't expect it to satisfy anyone, but you can judge for yourself.

This mod only changes enemies themselves - for more holistic balance changes, look at my balance mod.

• Serpent Resolve reduced to 80 (down from 100)
• Serpent's Bite skill now does 40-60 damage (down from 50-70)
• Serpents Bite skill now has 90% armor effectiveness (up from 75%)
• Serpents now have the Executioner perk

• Lindwurms' Gorge skill now has 25% armor ignore (down from 35%)
• Lindwurm unit cost increased to 105 (up from 90)

• Nomad Cutthroats and Outlaws have the Dodge perk starting from day 1
• Nomad Cutthroat Melee and Ranged Defense reduced to -5 (down from 5)
• Nomad Outlaw Melee and Ranged Defense reduced to 5 (down from 15)
• At day 35 Cutthroats and Outlaws gain +5 Melee and Ranged Defense, and another +5 at day 70
• Nomads no longer ignore morale checks for the deaths of friendly Indebted units

• Polearm Conscripts no longer have the Nimble perk
• Indebted now have the Nine Lives perk

• Barbarian Thralls, Reavers, Chosen, and Drummers no longer have the Brawny perk
• Beastmasters and Drummers no longer have the Dodge perk
• Drummers no longer have the Recover perk
• Reaver and Chosen Fatigue Recovery per turn reduced to 17 (down from 20)
• Reaver Resolve reduced to 60 (down from 80), Chosen Resolve reduced to 75 (down from 90)
• Chosen unit cost increased to 45 (up from 35)
• Drummers now spawn closer to the frontline, and will move forward with the rest of the group like Beastmasters do
• The Drums of War skill no longer reduces Fatigue directly; instead, it applies an effect that lasts for 2 turns and gives +3 Fatigue Recovery per turn and +15 Resolve

• If the late game crisis is active, Footman can spawn with the "Closed Mail" and "Faceguard" versions of their helmets and with Reinforced Mail Hauberks - if Beasts & Exploration is installed, they can additionally spawn with Footmen's Armor and Three Headed Flails
• If the late game crisis is active, Footmen will no longer spawn with Mail Coifs or Basic Mail Shirts (their worst armor options)
• Billmen Ranged Defense increased to 15 (up from 5)
• Standard Bearer Resolve increased to 130 (up from 80)
• Knights can, depending on their faction's traits, now spawn with Scale Armor, Lamellar Harnesses, Heavy Lamellar Armor, Greatswords, Greataxes, and Two Handed Hammers - if Beasts & Exploration is installed, Two Handed Flanged Maces, Two Handed Flails, and Three Headed Flails also become options, and if Warriors of the North is installed, Bardiches also become an option
• Knights will, depending on their faction's traits, have one of Backstabber, Duelist, Fortified Mind, Fearsome, Lone Wolf, Head Hunter, or Anticipation, in addition to their normal perks
• If Beasts & Exploration is installed, Zweihanders can spawn with Noble Mail

If Equipment Variants is installed, Zweihanders who spawn with Noble Mail will do so in faction-appropriate colors.

If Additional Equipment is installed, Footmen who normally spawn with nasal helmets can spawn with the "Faceguard" nasal helmet added by that mod when a late game crisis is active.

Requirements

1. Modding Script Hooks (v20 or later)

Installation

1. Download the mod from the releases page
2. Without extracting, put the sato_enemy_balance_*.zip file in your game's data directory
   1. For Steam installations, this is typically: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Battle Brothers\data
   2. For GOG installations, this is typically: C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Battle Brothers\data

Uninstallation

1. Remove the relevant sato_enemy_balance_*.zip file from your game's data directory

Compatibility

This should be fully save game compatible, i.e. you can make a save with it active and remove it without corrupting that save. Scaling on Barbarian camps may take some time to readjust.

Building

To build, run the appropriate build.bat script. This will automatically compile and zip up the mod and put it in the dist/ directory, as well as print out compile errors if there are any. The zip behavior requires Powershell / .NET to work - no reason you couldn't sub in 7-zip or another compression utility if you know how, though.

Note that the build script references the modkit directory, so you'll need to edit it to point to that before you can use it. In general, the modkit doesn't play super nicely with spaces in path names, and I'm anything but a batch expert - if you run into issues, try to run things from a directory that doesn't include spaces in its path.

After building, you can easily install the mod with the appropriate install.bat script. This will take any existing versions of the mod already in your data directory, append a timestamp to the filename, and move them to an old_versions/ directory in the mod folder; then it will take the built .zip in dist/ and move it to the data directory.

Note that the install script references your data directory, so you'll need to edit it to point to that before you can use it.