This game is schizophrenic. It has no idea what it wants to be. You are presented with so many false choices that don't matter. Gear doesn't matter. It's all strict upgrades. Half the weapons are essentially non-viable or only have niche utility. You are totally at the mercy of RNG for everything. It never really feels like the success or failure is based off of your decisions. Instead it's the random number generator or stat stacking your troops.

Combat has a number of headscratching decisions. Why do you get at most 2 attacks around, but infinite opportunity attacks? Why do they root enemies? Why do enemies randomly have double your HP? Why do some enemies just ignore game systems? Why do anything other than make a shield wall?

I love this game. it is so good.
No other game has made my brain fire on all cylinders as hard as this one. it is addicting af.
There is just so much to think about here, what bro to pick, what role they can fill, what perks, stats, gear to choose, there is so much variety.
I played mostly on Legends mod and a bit Reforged, because i love that you can get random perks which make every brother absolutely unique. Vanilla doesen't offer that much variety. It is just so much fun when you think of a synergy, how to combine your perks in a way that let you get exactly that much extra action points which let you get one more hit each turn, or recover just enough fatigue to be able to stun every single turn with a mace. And there is so much more of this min maxxing that you can do.
And remember, that you have an entire team of bros each with completely unique stats, traits, perks and gear. Your brother is not a lone agent. you need to combine all of their builds together in ways that best complement each other, so that there isn't a team full of dudes doing the same thing.
then there is tactical positioning in fights and exploiting what the game offers to give you the greatest advantage against the enemies. And there are many many different enemies, and a lot of them require completely different tactics and playstyle to fight against.
My mind is blown about it and i cannot stop playing it. it is addicting, it takes over your life.
BUT.
Today i am forced to quit.
There is a major problem which makes me absolutely hate the game as much as i say i love it.
Yeah it is hard. super hard. ruthlesss. it doesen't care about you whatsoever. i know. That is what it is about. Your bros die, everything sucks, big whoop. that's not the problem.
Okay you can grind through the early-mid game, reach day 100-150 and then you start to feel like damn, my team is actually becoming damn good, my bros are coming online, i'm getting wins, i'm getting gear, the builds are nice, my bros complement each other well and you feel proud that you've done some pretty good planning to get this far in the game.
You can quite reliably beat most medium level fights just fine, But here is where the problem shows up. You decide you wanna start to try to take some harder fights, maybe you wanna get some legendary gear. You try one place, you are stomped to the ground. you take a load, you try another place, the same thing happens. and another.
Then you realise that there are only certain fights that the game has designed for you to be able to win without using some absolute ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cheese tactics, which often also don't even work, because the RNG just says no.
The game puts up an impassable wall in front of you just when you start to think that you are actually doing good and could become legendary.
Because the scaling of these fights is just so insanely over powered. Like the camps are there, you technically can go and fight them, but the game knows that you cannot ever beat them, no matter how strong you become, no matter how good you are. Like why even make fights like that when it's literally not possible to beat them?
Sometimes it's the RNG that laughs in your face. Sometimes the game puts up 20+ orc warriors or barbarian chosen in front of your 12-16 bros, who literally overwhelm you just by their mass alone, and no ammount of tactics or dirty tricks is enough to win that. Sometimes you think okay, i'm similiar level to these enemies, my gear is on the same level as them, and i've got 16 dudes against their 10. Why are they even attacking me? Who the hell do they think they are? This is what happened in my last playthrough which made me just delete the game after. You are doing fine, playing everyting correctly and for the first 5-6 turns you think okay its fine, i'm taking good shots on them, i could maybe win. i mean, we are similiar level after all. and then the game says "Alright, you've had your fun, but it ends here". And then they start blasting, hitting you with such strong blows that almost one shot your biggest strongest tank bro in the heaviest armor that you could find. and it just cascades into the absolute ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ from there.
It's just a spit in your face.
Like there is late game content, but it is behind such an absolutely high ceiling that you cannot ever get there really. So the game stops just before you could really become legendary and that hurts, because i've spent the last week or two building this company up, pouring my life, my heart, my soul into my brothers and all that awaits you is a brick wall and a big NO from the game.
Okay i did play with a lot of mods so i don't remember that much how it was in Vanilla, but most setups that i tired had this exact same problem.
That is my biggest gripe with the game and that is the reason why i cannot reccomend people play it, because it can be a very big disappointment and i don't want other people to go through that.
Other than that, i think this is my favorite game in the world and i probably will come back every once in a while when i get the itch. But right now i need to quit and leave this review so i can get this ♥♥♥♥ off my chest.

Boo. Not fun. Game is Clunky. Battle is a large part of the game but the combat system is unbalanced, asymmetrical and at times appears to cheat. Too bad because I was looking forward to this one, but after a few plays through the Tutorial it seems to me that this game is just not worth the money.