Battle Brothers Weapons Guide
Tiers separate all weapons, and for most of them, there are 3. Example is:
Knife-Dagger-Roundel Dagger
Each tier is a straight upgrade of a lower one, and there’s no reason to use lower-tier weapons when you get your hands on a better one. I’ll post my opinion about the weapons I frequently use here:
Let’s start with daggers: it’s a very niche weapon. Its primary use is to spam skill that ignores enemy armor completely but has a -15% hit chance. A very high melee skill is required to use it effectively, but you can easily kill even the strongest opponents when used correctly. I use daggers in the midgame to obtain some high-level armor and helmets from bandit leaders, and I must say I love this weapon.
Swords: Great against elusive opponents since basic slash gives you a +10% hit chance, and with mastery, you can make a viable riposte build. But I believe for each hit you dodge, you gain some fatigue now, so I’m not sure if you should dedicate that much to swordsmen. Overall, a good weapon for your low melee skill guys, great against unarmored opponents.
Spears: Just as swords, a very useful tool against opponents with high melee defense. But spears also allow you to use a special skill called “spear wall.” If an opponent tries to enter your zone of control with spear wall on, he triggers a free attack. On a hit, your opponent is pushed back to the tile he tried to advance to you from. Against zombies and ghouls and, in some cases, dire wolves, this weapon can be amazing, and there are even dedicated spear builds. I don’t use them that often (maybe because I fight with orcs too much), but they’re great.
Axes: During the campaigns I played, I stuck to this weapon from the early game up until the late game. This weapon is your jack-of-all-trades: it has reasonable damage, is decent against armor, and can destroy shields if necessary. But for that versatility, you pay with fatigue, especially on high-tier variants.
Hammers: This is your primary tool to deal with armored opponents because of the special attack that is devastating against armor. Even low-tier variants are good and late-game; you should dedicate some guys to use this weapon as a primary against all these orc warriors and knights.
Maces: This weapon is great for fatiguing your opponents, and it is your weapon of choice if you want to use stun ability. Since you can even stun the undead, it’s a fun weapon to use.
Flails: Not only is there’s an extra chance to hit the head, but you also get the special attack that only targets the head (which is fatiguing, though). An interesting weapon for sure and is reliable on all stages of the game. Mastery perk makes it ignore the bonus of shields which makes this weapon amazing. And, of course, there’s the berserk chain – one of the most interesting 2-handed weapons to use.
Cleavers: Not only do you get the highest damage potential with cleavers (especially with orc ones), but there’s also additional bleeding damage applied overturns. Plus, you get a special decapitation attack which is great against zombies. This is one of my favorite weapons.
2-handed Weapons:
Greatswords: Right now, they dominate in the game, mainly because you get three types of attacks: a normal single-target, an attack that targets the target next to you and the target behind your enemy, and a sweeping attack that can hit up to 3 opponents. Some people even make entire companies armed with this weapon.
Greataxes: If you compare a Man Splitter (orc greataxe and that is the weapon you should aim for if you go for those) to a Greatsword, you get better damage and better effectiveness against armor. But its rounds swing is difficult to use and is unreliable. And as I mentioned before, long axes are one of the best (if not the best) 2-tile weapons.
Two h Hammers: I haven’t tried them yet, but I once fought against an opponent who had a hedge knight in his group armed with this weapon. It has some amazing damage potential and is devastating to armor. A solid choice if you wish to go for it.
Polearms: Here, it’s mainly a rivalry between a pike and a billhook. Even though the pike has less damage, the secondary ability – repel – is much better.
Ranged weapons: Bows are great against unarmored targets and are great to spam arrows; crossbows are for armored opponents. I think you should get at least two archers in your group and use one with a bow and one with a crossbow since the latter gets less range but is easier to use. Top-tier weapons allow you to deal with any threat (and a special goblin crossbow called spiked impaler can push your enemies back on a hit).
