Axe-Com

Battle Brothers is a bloody medieval twist on the X-COM formula.

- Ian Birnbaum

Around our campfire, the men eat and sleep and sharpen their axes. I’m worrying about our profit margin. Our contract pays 400 crowns for taking out these bandits, but the fat little nobleman who hired our mercenary company didn’t mention that we’d have to charter a boat and march for a week just to find the job. Watching the miles tick by, I keep thinking the same thing: we’re barely going to break even.

This is the kind of commander that medieval strategy RPG Battle Brothers has turned me into. In combat, I’m aggressive and decisive. But when the fighting stops, I turn into a miser. Every coin, every bandage is money we need to stay alive and equipped in this wonderful game of tactics and sellswords.

My options are pretty much unlimited. Villages and castles sit all around the quaint German countryside. On the roads and near the towns, army patrols and trade caravans do business. In between are mountains, bandits, and things that go grrrr in the dark.

You can march anywhere as long as you’ve got enough food to get there. You can hire anyone as long as you’ve got the coin. It’s the same feeling that I get from playing