The Davkul Cultists Ironman Run

The Bros are Back in Town

Two years ago, I wrote a fairly comprehensive breakdown of Battle Brothers. It was my first long form writing project about a game and it all stemmed from the passion I have for Battle Brothers. The strategy, the art design, the themes, the tactics, all of it drove me to put my thoughts and feelings in writing and this was the result:

Battle Brothers

The Ultimate Medieval Mercenary Company RPG

Sevastromo StationSevastromo

At the time, this project was pretty close to all-encompassing and looking back that aspect of it stands-out. Since, I have put out a few reviews that are more succinct and capture aspects of the game I like or dislike. On the other hand, I have put more effort into projects that showcase specific parts of games, like the cinematography of Resident Evil or the FTL challenge or the atmosphere of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.. The goal with this project is to showcase the specifics of a Battle Brothers campaign. Get more personal, get to know the brothers, feel the challenges, hit some milestones, suffer loses… This will serve as a companion piece to the previous project in many ways. Where the first was a somewhat impersonal breakdown of all the mechanics, this one will follow a band of brothers.

Report Structure and Campaign Goals

Like I said, I want this Battle Brothers project to be more focused on this particular campaign and not the game as a whole. With that in mind, I’ve recorded the entire campaign and will cut out videos clips and screenshots that I want to share and write about. The other major component I want to write about is the company and the brothers themselves. This will focus on the origin we start with, the brother’s builds, the composition of the company, and more.

Part of the motivation to return to Battle Brothers is to do some achievement hunting. There are two achievements I haven’t unlocked yet:

Now it might be foolhardy to go for both of these in one shot (I’ve heard the cultist events can be a little touch and go) but I’m someone with limited time these days. So, this should get interesting, Ironman mode is always stressful, and I’ve never tried the cultist origin before. One curve ball is that I’m not sure which crisis I have not beaten in Ironman mode. I have had a couple Ironman campaigns go 100+ days before, so I’m surprised I haven’t got Savior already. I’m starting with the first crisis setting on random so this one might be accomplished right away or we’re in for the long haul.

So, these will form the primary goals for this campaign:

1. Survive
2. Defeat some late game crises on Ironman mode
3. Bring forth the Davkul Prophet

I find setting goals really helps me for more open-ended type games like Battle Brothers. Next, I’ll cover details about how I setup this campaign and then we’ll get into the run.

Game Information

Battle Brothers has a few expansions and an awesome modding community so before getting into the campaign, I wanted to detail what version of the game I’m playing with which mods. In general though, I’ll say that the base game with no mods is an absolutely fine experience and probably best for newcomers. The expansions add a lot of variety and some new mechanics, but without them the core experience is still intact. As you’ll see, most of the mods are what I’d consider ‘quality of life’, so as you play you should be able to figure out what you want to get the most out of the experience. In general, I like mods that give me more information about the game and keep me from tabbing out to a wiki.

Expansions

Lindwurms - adds dragons.
Beasts and Exploration - adds new locations, beasts, crafting, plus new gear and events.
Warriors of the North - adds a new northern region with a new faction, plus new gear, events, champions, and origins.
Blazing Deserts - adds a new southern region with a new faction, plus the retinue, arena and of course new gear, events, origins, etc.
Of Flesh and Faith - adds new origins, gear, and events.

Modifications

Character Attribute Abbreviations

Melee Skill (MSK) - determines the base probability of hitting a target with a melee attack.
Ranged Skill (RSK) - determines the base probability of hitting a target with a ranged attack.
Melee Defense (MDF) - reduces the probability of being hit by melee attacks.
Ranged Defense (RDF) - reduces the probability of being hit with a ranged attack.
Fatigue (FAT) - determines how exhausted a character is. Using either skills or movement will not only use up Action Points but will also build up Fatigue.
Resolve (RES) - represents the willpower and bravery of characters. High Resolve makes it less likely that characters fall to lower morale states due to negative events and the more likely that characters gain confidence from positive events.
Initiative (INIT) - determines turn order of characters on the battlefield.

*Descriptions are from the Battle Brothers Wiki

Campaign Details

Origin: Davkul Cultists

Company Name: Davkul Rising
Banner: Dope Moon Ringwraith Guy
Late Game Crisis: Random
Permanent Destruction: Disabled

Economic Difficulty: Beginner
Combat Difficulty: Expert
Starting Funds: High
Map Seed: LWZTVWNOUI
Unexplored Map: Disabled

Disclosure: What follows was my sixth or seventh attempt at the Cultist Ironman run. The first couple attempts all saw their demise within the first 20 days, typically due to complications related to the cult’s sacrificial activities. This run was a little more successful. All I’ll say for now is that we made it past twenty days. The only setting that changed over these attempts was the randomly generated map seed.

Cultish Considerations

In light of some aforementioned failures, I decided to do some light research in order to better understand the Cult of Davkul. It’s a little frustrating when Davkul asks for a sacrifice and then half your company gets pissed off and leaves, especially when they’re still wearing all that nice raider gear you just shanked off some poor thug’s back…

Events

So, here’s a quick breakdown for those interested in the cult. First off, there’s a couple unique events that can trigger that are key to your mercenary company progressing.

• Starting with the most minor, there’s an event where a cultist will randomly join your company. This is very nice in the early going and will assist in you building up your numbers. At a minimum, they’re low-cost bros you can throw on the battlefield as fodder, don’t worry Davkul won’t mind.
• Next there’s a conversion event where your cultist brothers will convince one of your non-cultist brothers to see the light, excuse me, I mean the darkness. This one is instrumental for getting decent bros in your roster. The one big caveat being that your brothers won’t be able to convince any backgrounds with any amount of intelligence to join the cause. So that means lowborns only. The two exceptions to that are brothers who have the Dumb trait or who are brain damaged. And neither of those exceptions are particularly helpful in the early, vulnerable stages of your company.
• Lastly and most importantly, there’s the sacrifice to Davkul himself. Here, two out of four of your lowest level brothers will be presented as a choice to sacrifice to Davkul. You get to choose, and the outcome is glorious and/or infuriating. Following the sacrifice, any cultist in your company has a chance to gain a trait that can then in future sacrifices improve further. I’ll explain this further in a minute, but this is how your lowborns can become godly. On the flip side, your non-cultist brothers will become furious and most likely leave the company. Unless you can get them drunk enough so that they don’t remember the horrors they just witnessed.

Initial Thoughts on the Cult’s Events:

Big picture, navigating the sacrifice event is the most important early game concern. A couple of my initial attempts were lost because brothers got angry and left after seeing a friend get decapitated, which is understandable, but we have a mercenary company to run. So, the top priority early is finding more cultists so that we can comfortably field 7-10 guys to take on early thugs and raiders. Next to that is always having a lowborn brother ready to be converted. After that, it’s important to keep in mind the cadence of the sacrifice event. With the Cultist Event Frequency mod, sacrifices can trigger every ~10 days. Considering this, when the time comes, we can hangout around a town with a tavern, with the plan to get blackout drunk after offing a brother. Getting drunk will raise any non-cultist brother’s moods just enough so they do not abandon ship. The sacrifice event will always pick your brothers with the least experience. So, long term it can make a lot of sense to keep a couple indebted brothers in your reserve as they cannot leave the company and they cannot be converted. Davkul won’t mind.

Tiers of the Cult

Through the ritualistic sacrifice of your brothers, your cultist brothers will deepen their faith in Davkul.

+5 RES
No morale check triggered upon allies dying

↓

All previous buffs
+10 RES
No morale check triggered upon losing HP

↓

All previous buffs
Recovers an extra 2 FAT every turn

↓

All previous buffs
+20 HP

↓

All previous buffs
+5 MDF
+5 RDF
Is not affected by fresh injuries sustained during the current battle

↓

All previous buffs
Grants access to the Voice of Davkul (costs 6 AP, 35 FAT) skill - lowers the Fatigue of every cultist in battle, friend or foe, by -10

Initial Thoughts on the Cult’s Tiers

My thoughts on the cultist tiers are that they can really compensate for only having lowborns in the company. Lowborns are cheap to hire, affordable to pay, and easy to find but with the sometimes-substantial downside that they simply have fewer overall stats to go around. Luckily in the Cult of Davkul, very important stats like RES, HP, FAT, and MDF get significant boosts as long as the brother survives long enough. The clear gap that exists is MSK. Lowborns kind of stink in that category already and Davkul doesn’t help, so talent stars are going to be almost required.

An exciting roleplay-ish idea I want to play around with is “the big scary cultists”. I want to build a company of brothers that strike fear into their opponents through their sheer size and unflinching resolve. Perks like Fearsome and Colossus compliment this idea and the Davkul buffs they receive. They don’t feel pain, don’t wince when a brother falls on the battlefield, and intimidate their enemies in the process. Don’t get me wrong, these perks are excellent regardless of the context but it’s fun to connect these things thematically, nonetheless.

Regarding RES, it was already a stat that was easy to fix, but now with the arena trait, a necklace, the banner buff, and the Davkul trait, using level-ups on it can be an afterthought. With less morale checks in battle too, these cultists don’t have much to worry about.

The HP buff makes it really tough not to at least get close to 100 HP with just base stats, the buff, and Colossus. On a Nimble brother you could probably push towards 150 HP with good rolls. On a Battle-Forged brother you can put more level-ups into FAT or RES without dipping too low on HP. It’s a win-win whichever way you go

The FAT recovery buff is a really interesting one. +2 FAT recovery is kind of huge when you think about where weapon specialization and famed weapons can take you. I don’t have too much to speculate on here, I want to see how this plays out. Obviously, in general, I can worry a little less about FAT buildup on my brothers.

MDF is arguably the most important stat in the game. So, getting +5 MDF is huge, and the +5 RDF is just a nice little boost on the side. In practice, what this buff means is that there’s more leeway with a brother who low rolls MDF or doesn’t have any talent stars. For instance, a thief who rolls on average an 8 for initial MDF and has no stars is now almost guaranteed to have 30+ after the Chosen buff. This can turn the guy who got triple stars in MSK but none in MDF into a frontliner.

The Prophet’s ability, Voice of Davkul, is the final Davkul-related trait, but this one has me a little lost. At a cost of 6 AP and 35 FAT, the Voice of Davkul is the Prophet’s whole turn when used. The skill is powerful, -10 FAT for your entire company is really nice, but at the same time you lose a brother doing damage for the whole turn. The obvious answer to this dilemma is to have your Prophet be your bannerman, that way he can fill multiple rolls while not hindering the teams damage output too much. The only problem there, which is really a problem overall, is how do you plan for the Prophet? It seems you can’t really choose, it’s just whoever reaches that tier first. I don’t know if I care too much honestly. I’m more excited for building around the +2 FAT recovery per turn and all the RES buffs. If the Prophet falls to someone interesting, I guess I’ll have to think about it then.

Favorite Moments from the Campaign

Day 1 - The Founding Members

Here’s the founding members of Davkul Rising: Sigbold, Hilderich, Helmer, and Einar. Who will be the first to meet Davkul? Will any become Chosen or even a Prophet? Only time will tell. As for the outlook on these brothers, overall they’re ok. I’m pretty happy with their defensive stats, several talent stars and the Sure Footing/Paranoid traits will help a lot. Melee skill leaves a lot to be desired, so we’ll need to get our hands on some spears as soon as possible. The starting resolve on cultists is impressive so at least we don’t have to worry so much about that. Sigbold could’ve made a nice bannerman, but we’ll need him on the frontlines with that melee defense. Einar should turn out to be an absolute tank with the Tough trait, the obvious Colossus perk, two talent stars, and the eventual Disciple HP buff. Hilderich will actually reach decent levels of melee skill which is going to be in short supply. Lastly, Helmer looks entirely average but that’s ok for now, we just need more cult members at this point.

Day 9 - Huge Pickups

This is what early brigand fights are all about, getting decent armor. Picking up three like this on day 9 is really nice. The nice helmet and two shields are excellent too. All these things significantly increase the durability of our brothers in combat. The billhook is the cherry on top.

Day 10 - Drinking to Cope

Wigmar was really pissed off about our first sacrifice ritual. We’re six rounds of drinks deep and he’s still absolutely livid about it. The whole company is drunk off their asses, but Wigmar remembers…

Day 20 - Furry Friends

Running into beast early on is not always great, but I do like to get Hyena and Direwolf pelts. They make fine early game armor attachments; both add a little durability without any cost to FAT.

Day 29 - Nachzehrers Thwarted by Pointy Sticks

An example of a super clean fight with Nachzehrers. They’re a fun early game opponent because spears work well against them, and the reward is a nice crafting ingredient that gives you a RES boost. Here we see the spearwall do devasting work and then it’s just mop up duty once their morale starts breaking.

Day 30 - Pushed to the Brink

These kinds of moments are what Battle Brothers is all about. Right when the company was starting to get comfortable handling brigands, some wrinkles make the battle all that much more dangerous. The brigand camp being both on a hill and with fortifications made this a grueling affair. While we only lost one brother, a few more were on their last legs. This could’ve been where it all ended.

Day 61- I’m Feeling Reaalllyyy Sleepy

I don’t usually seek out Alps, but I was ambushed by a group a couple days earlier and wanted more of their crafting items. The Alp trophy necklace is a nice little RES boost and not too hard to get if you know how to handle these ghastly creatures. What seems to work for me is to be patient. Wait your turn and it’s likely an Alp with come within your reach. Do not overextend by moving out to attack one. Stay close and swing when the enemy is within reach.

Day 63 - A Fearsome Orc Camp

What I love about this example is how blatantly Fearsome both saved lives and won me the battle. Going into this fight, I had yet to encounter Orc Warriors and due to some rust with the game I forgot how much armor these guys have! One in the video has 300 head armor, 400 body armor, 200 HP! Half of my guys still have spears haha. This is where stacking the backline in the early game I think really helps. The long-axes and undead polearms were huge. Around 18:00 into the video, Fearsome’s power kicks in. Two Orc Warriors have just broken down the weaker side of my formation and are on top of some of my backliners. That’s when Hilderich hits an extremely clutch headshot which inflicts 2 HP damage, enough for Fearsome to knock the Warrior down to wavering… That’s HUGE. And I love the idea of a massive Orc Warrior decked out in thick armor getting nicked by one of my cultists and instantly wanting to retreat. Then again, one minute later Wigmar hits a Warrior, who’s up in his face, breaking their morale. Only did 8 HP damage, but that’s enough to scare them off.

Day 70 - Bullying Undead

Without any fallen heroes, the cult turns these undead camps into complete pushovers. We aren’t fazed by geists, more on that later, and weidergangers are not a serious threat once you have decent armor. Who needs archers when you can just force your way to the necromancer. The strategy here was to essentially overload the side with the necromancer and bully our way to him.

Day 76 - Markward, the First Prophet

Markward speedran the Davkul tiers in less than 75 days with the company, what a devoted cultist. He had me questioning if it was actually a 50/50 chance to deepen your devotion. Don’t worry, it all comes back later when Strider spends over 150 days in the company and remains simply a Fanatic through it all.

The dilemma now is what to do with Markward, he’s already a fleshed-out dodge tank, is it worth using the Voice of Davkul skill with him?

Day 88 - Ghost Busters

Davkul Rising is not afraid of no ghosts…

Not a scratch on us.

Day 95 - Markward in the Middle

A valiant performance by Markward that unfortunately marked the end of our first prophet. These big noble battles are a whole lot of fun once or twice in a campaign. They’re grueling, too long, chaotic, kind of game-breaking, and dangerous early on. The biggest danger often is your allies. Have fun being put on an island when an idiotic footman rotates into the enemy’s hedge knight. Move in groups, be smart about where you place your men, even if you're around allies, and don’t get gridlocked with footman who have polearms behind them. I went to fairly extreme lengths to avoid that gridlock by swooping almost my whole company around the bottom of the map, leaving Markward to hold it down up top.

A turn into the battle I realized Markward could snag some high ground and put two arbalesters into melee combat. He smacked a dog out of his way and dodged his way up to the position. Locking down two arbalesters was too tempting. They’re dangerous opponents at this point in a campaign, often injuring a brother in one shot. Markward then went on to dodge or absorb 44 enemy attacks! What a legend.

Day 112 - “Direwolf” Ambush

This was just a cool quest/event we encountered. A town contracted us to hunt down a pack of direwolves and instead we ran into these cosplayers!

Day 130 - Finally Some Big Barbarian Camps

My favorite camps in the game. The music, the snow, the barbarian aesthetics are just too much fun. Chosen are dangerous too and these are the first battles of the campaign with them so there’s a bit of a figuring out process.

Day 140 - Unholds Galore

Another reason I enjoy coming up north is for the frost unholds and their thick white fur. They do create havoc in barbarian fights but sometimes you can find a roving pack. I was lucky enough to find a pack of eight and scavenged three furs. They can be used to craft Additional Fur Padding, an armor attachment that reduces damage that ignores armor, perfect for our Battle-Forged bros.

Day 155 - Back to Back Barbs

So, if the previous video was the figuring out process, this is the culmination of what the company has been building towards: The Barbarian King plus a roaming party back to back with a Barbarian camp which included a champion, armored unholds, and some Chosen. Both battles are nearly flawlessly executed. The stars of the show are my two spearmen, they absolutely control the battle and allow my damage dealers to do what they do best without being overwhelmed. Special shoutout to Hugo for demolishing Barbarians on the flank with his hammer round swings, just a thing of pure beauty. This is it; the company has hit their stride.

Day 157 - A Brother Serves His Purpose

A bittersweet moment as we turn one of our cherished brothers into a fine piece of armor. Eberold will be missed, he was a helluva spearman. But he will live on for as long as one as the Davkul Rising can don his armor. RIP, if that’s even possible.

Day 158 - The Greenskin Invasion Begins

While the Noble War was a challenging period for the company by the time of the Greenskin Invasion we had really rounded into form. This crisis wasn’t close. Goblins in small numbers, without terrain advantages do not matter and Orcs become much easier once everyone is past their swords and spears phase.

Day 170 - Nomads Swinging at Air

I just found this hilarious and had to include it. I’m sure it’s happened before but noticing this many whiffs in a row had me dying. No shields needed too, that extra 5 MDF really is nice.

Day 185 - Greenskin Clusterfuck

Look at this shit! Greenskins are running rampant in these parts! Better take them all at once, easier that way.

Oh boy…

30 minutes later…

Welp, that should just about do it for the Greenskin Invasion.

Day 208 - The End of Wigmar

It’s day 200, the Davkul Rising has just smoked the greenskin invasion late game crisis, we have 15ish fully leveled Davkul Chosen, I’m sorry Wigmar, it’s time to meet your maker.

What spurred this choice was finding this guy:

A dumb gladiator has never looked so good. I was about to retire Wigmar to make room for the new hire but then realized that was completely out of character for the company, I had to think of something else, something more fitting. Brothers don’t retire from the Davkul Rising, brothers rejoice as they see one of their own felled in battle. Since we happened to be in the south and we happened to be in Azim Shab, home of the gladiator arena, I thought it would be appropriate for Wigmar to go out on his shield. So, it was decided, Wigmar would fight in the arena until Davkul greets him with open arms. I gave him a gladiator harness, a famed goblin sword, a sipar shield, and a throwing net, backed him up with two of our finest frontliners and sent him into the arena. Here’s Wigmar’s final flurry:

Day 212 - Orc Champ & Warlord vs. a Couple of Big Fellas

Jus a funny situation. Pulled a dozen Unholds into a large Orc camp, hadn’t done that before.

Day 215 - A Glimpse

Phew! Thank goodness we didn’t have to sacrifice another brother. Glad to finally have the full Davkul armor kit.

Day 228 - Black Monolith

A goal of this campaign was to clear a couple late game crises but no battle brothers playthrough would feel complete without taking on the Black Monolith. Legendary locations are a bit of a tossup for me, but Black Monolith hits the spot in a couple ways. It's challenging, rewarding, thematic, and most importantly, fun to play.

The Black Monolith is a massive showdown with the Ancient Undead. It's your twelve brothers against nearly 50 of them. It's a whole lot of Legionaries and Honor Guards with Ancient Priests and Necrosavants scattered around on top of that. Fortunately, we've built a special brother just for this occasion: Meinrad, the Monolith tank. Since there's nearly 50 enemies, their forces are split between the right and top sides of the battlefield. Meinrad's sole purpose is to move to meet the enemy forces at the top of the map and hold his ground for as long as possible. Meinrad is not only a physical specimen but has exceptional MDF skills and if we're lucky the surgeon can fix him up if he happens to be struck down. The other eleven brother’s objective is to shred through the rest of the undead forces as fast as possible, preferably before Meinrad falls. It's the ancient undead, so we're bringing all of our big guns, no ranged units or piercing weapons. Let’s get into it.

The battle started out pretty favorably, as I found a well-placed boulder Meinrad could cozy up to. This would help him against the overwhelming undead forces and limit some of their surround bonuses. Other than that, the rest of the bros took a single step back, a classic maneuver against Ancient Undead. This means the undead step into the range after you pass on your second turn, giving you two full turns of actions against them. This went off without a hitch, only that we had to start dealing with Necrosavants on the backline and flanks. This is where the flexible frontliner and whip builds work wonders. Necrosavants are no big deal if you can chip them down without having to reposition.

Meinrad, to the north, effectively tanked the Ancient Undead forces, crucially keeping all the Ancient Priests out of range of the rest of our brothers. Unfortunately, I discovered a grave error at this point, Meinrad had not yet reached the Acolyte of Davkul tier and therefore did not have the FAT recovery bonus. I had given Meinrad a specific famed shield with FAT reduction on skills so that he could shieldwall every turn regardless of how much FAT he had accumulated. I was just so used to everyone being Chosen at this point that Meinrad caught me off guard. This is the kind of mistake that costs lives in Battle Brothers. Shieldwall doubles the MDF stat given by the shield and when combined with the Shield Expert perk is a huge boost to MDF easily lowering the enemy’s hit chance to the minimum. Sorry Meinrad…

Back with our main contingent, by the end of turn 3, our bros had cut through most of the annoying, shield-bearing Legionaries and could start going to work on the more dangerous pikeman and Honor Guards. End of turn 3, 35 foes remained out of the initial 47.

Turn 4 started off with Necrosavants getting distracted by my wardog, excellent! And then the Conqueror engaged Hugo, just as planned. Hugo, I honored with the Aspect and Glimpse of Davkul armor, so now he goes head-to-head with the Conqueror. The Conqueror wears legendary armor too and his reflects damage while our Davkul armor repairs durability. Unfortunately, the lack of a shieldwall really hurt Meinrad, halfway into turn 4 and his armor was already shredded. That’s what happens when you give fifteen enemies a 25% chance to hit.

After the start of turn 5, all the Necrosavants were dispatched and pretty much the entire bottom half of the undead forces were eliminated with relative ease. And then we saw what should’ve happen prior, with a shieldwall up, Meinrad absorbed a multitude of enemy shots. But when his turn came, he didn’t recover enough FAT to go again and was struck down by the next enemy attack… hopefully his injury isn’t too debilitating. And now it’s a race to the finish. The horde from the north will descend upon Hugo and the company. It’s now our 11 versus 25 undead.

Turn 6 Till took down the Conqueror and then the Ancient Priests began their bullshit. Miasma eating away at our HP and RES attacks to horrify and stun our bros, there’s a reason Meinrad was holding the line. From here on out it’s a fairly by the books, Ancient Undead fight, albeit that our bros are a bit banged up already, so I won’t bother commentating. Enjoy the finale :)

The Cult

Here’s the gang:

15 brothers were in my primary rotation most of the game. We’ll go through most of them in detail in this section. With three sacrificial brothers taking up roster spots I floated between 15 and 16 legitimate, battle-ready brothers. This left me one or two spots to experiment with and tryout new brothers. The eight frontliners above plus our bannerman were the core of our company, fighting in nearly every battle. Then the tanks, rangers, and polearms would rotate in and out as needed. In the last 100ish days, those frontliners were fairly untouchable, with their really high MDF, copious amount of HP, and famed Battle-Forged armor. The tanks are two opposite sides of the same coin, an early game Nimble/Dodge bro and a late game Monolith tank. The rangers were late to the game and still needed lots of development as the campaign waned. The polearms were mostly just holdovers from the early days where they were far more of a necessity. We’ll get into each of them in more detail in a moment, but first, let’s talk about the company as a whole.

If you’re asking yourself, what is the Davkul Cult like? Here’s the main tradeoff I see. While you have to constantly remember to have a couple sacrificial brothers on hand, limiting the depth of your company, the cult has a couple substantial benefits that made this campaign much easier than I anticipated. First off, daily wages. You'll see in the following screenshots but to summarize, wow what a deal! Past day 20, I never really worried about gold and the cultist wages were a huge reason why. Simply put a level 17 sellsword might have comparable stats with Werner, only difference is that the sellsword could cost 4x the daily wage! That difference spread across 15 brothers over the course of 200 days adds up. And since the cultist conversion event exists, everyone is cheap regardless of their initial starting background since they all end up being cultists anyway. At first, I was wondering why I had so much gold, thinking I should’ve up the difficulty. But no, that’s just how powerful the Davkul Cultists are. It’s not that my performance was that much better, it’s just that my overhead costs were that much less.

Next there’s the fact that these guys are more than likely going to have that +10% stat boost from being confident. This is the one part of the cultist event frequency mod that I felt was a bit overpowered. Since it’s not guaranteed that a cultist will advance a tier, I think it’s a 50/50 chance, progression on that front felt reasonably paced. However, a side effect of the sacrifice ritual is that your cultist brothers get a mood boost. More often than not my company was walking about absolutely euphoric thanks to this. And as result started most battles confident and with that glorious stat boost. This plus all the RES buffs meant my brothers never broke, even giests didn’t faze them for goodness’ sake.

So, while the cult adds a couple things you have to monitor, it at the same time subtracts some out. Major concerns like gold and morale/RES are sidelined in importance because the cult kind of just takes care of those things themselves. It’s cool, it really varies the feel of a Battle Brothers campaign, this is what I want from the Origins system. Enough about the company as a whole, let’s review the stars of the show, the battle brothers themselves:

The Last of the Founding Members

Einar - Dodge Tank

Einar, the last of the founding members, the 2nd Prophet of Davkul, the dodge tank master. Einar was a rock through the early days of the campaign, occupying the right flank opposite Markward, when the frontline was tighter, and the backline was weaker. During the 2nd half of the campaign, after the death of Markward, he became the 2nd Prophet, not because he wanted to be or was good at it, but because he believed. In the later days, Einar was a tank specialist, only being called upon when the going would get tough. Holding the line against Unholds and Orc Warriors was what Einar was born to do.

Einar’s build is a pretty standard dodge tank. Even without famed armor, this guy’s HP/armor pool is massive thanks to the Nimble, Colossus, and Tough perks, along with the Disciple buff. That’s what makes Einar special. The rest is fairly standard.

The First Additions

Werner - The Flexible Frontliner

This is my go-to build and one I found meshes really well with the cultist origin, it’s the “flexible frontliner”. Like we’ve talked about, the cult can only hire lowborns, but all you really need for this build to work is MSK talent stars. Colossus plus the Disciple tier take care of HP. The Zealot tier, necklaces, plus the arena trait takes care of RES. You then put all level-ups into MSK, MDF, and FAT plus take Gifted. With the Acolyte and Chosen tiers and MDF and FAT are helped quite a bit. Now at this point your lowborn isn’t feeling lowborn anymore… If you take away perks, traits, and veteran levels. at level 11 Werner would’ve had 87 MSK and 30 MDF, not bad. But fortunately for him he’s been a part of the cult for 233 days, so now he can boast 97 MSK and 50 MDF, not too shabby.

As for the perks I haven’t mentioned yet, nothing too surprising there. This playthrough was rich with Battle-Forged famed armors, so that’s the direction a lot of my guys went. The utility/flexibility perks Quick Hands and Pathfinder are so nice. I can’t imagine playing without them. Anyone who doesn’t have them I feel often waste Action Points or can’t get to where I need them. Underdog is always nice for frontliners. Then of course the killer combo of Berserk and Killing Frenzy, I don’t think I need to explain myself there. And last but not least there’s Fearsome, I’ve already highlighted this perk enough in this campaign, but here I’ll add that I think it fits in nicely to this build. In previous campaigns, this build has always had one or two flexible perk points. I’ve tried a variety of alternatives like Brawny or Recover for more FAT, Reach Advantage or Steel Brow for more defensive reliability, and Crippling Strikes/Executioner for more damage. Those options are all fine, but I feel like Fearsome had the most tangible impact out of the bunch. The amount of times Werner, with his 79 RES, used his greataxe “split man” attack to hit both the head and body and cause two failed morale checks was just insane. Knocking an Orc Warrior from Steady to Breaking with one swing is a beautiful thing, what can I say.

Torvald - An Early Backliner

Torvald got a little messed up in the Monolith fight… The broken elbow is hiding a decent MSK. Torvald is an early game backliner that lasted until the end game. He did a lot of work early on but fell out of the lineup towards the later days. As for his build, it’s lackluster, I don’t know what I was thinking. I’ll get into it later, but I much prefer the utility of having quick hands, whip then whatever is going on here.

Thank you, Torvald, for your service, most of your recruiting class like Ulrich, Eberold, and Gottfried didn’t make it this far.

The Right Men for the Job

Bodo - My Right Flank Greatsword Bro

Once we got over the initial early game hump, the cult started swimming in gold and I was able to hire The Recruiter retinue member. Over the next 50ish days we scoured settlements and found the best and brightest of the lowborns, Bodo was the first. An absolute stud defensively, it was love at first sight. The MSK came with time, but he ended up with famed greatsword and the corresponding weapon mastery to help out his accuracy a bit. The greatsword is super versatile with its chop, split, and round swing attacks, plus I added in the goblin pike for added reach. The perks follow the “flexible frontliner” build and I saw no reason to deviate. Bodo held down the right flank for most of the campaign with ease. It was only until late that he was awarded the legendary Ijork armor which pushes him into the realm of indestructible.

Hugo - My Left Flank Hammer Bro

Hugo is a testament to how you can stretch MDF to the next level with your cultists. I don’t remember precisely his initial MDF but I can bet it was in the single digits. Without talent stars Hugo may have been destined for the backline, but with the Paranoid trait and the Chosen buff in his future I thought we could make him work on the frontlines.

First things first, Hugo high-rolled +3s on MDF like a champ. He got close to 30 MDF, just base stats alone! With his high MSK, I opted to make him my left flank hammer man with Reach Advantage to supplement his MDF. Otherwise, Hugo uses the flexible frontliner build. The only thing that held him back was my inability to find a famed two-handed hammer. It was kind of frustrating getting 5 different famed axes but no hammers or even maces until very late... I like a little diversity with my two-handers.

Ralf - Polearm/Whip Master

Ralf was in a similar spot to Hugo, just without the good traits and high FAT. So, Ralf ended up being a backliner and unlike Torvald I didn’t screw up his build. This is probably my favorite way to utilize a brother with high MSK and low MDF, it’s the polearm/whip backliner. Polearms are deadly in the early to mid-game and the whip is incredible damage mitigation in the late game.

Versatility is this build’s strong suit. The polearm is a strong, single target attack that does decent armor damage too. The whip’s 4 AP bleed attack combos well with the polearm and the three-tile range means you can often find a fleshy target. The whip disarm attack is incredible against high-threat enemies, think Orc Warlords, Barbarian Chosen, and Hedge Knights. Lastly, the sword lance is great AOE against low armor opponents especially when combined with Fearsome.

A variant I’ve liked in the past even more takes Bags and Belts instead of Gifted. Having a couple nets or bombs on a versatile backliner is nice and this build isn’t super stat hungry anyway.

Henrik - Dodgy Cleaver Duelist

When I hired Henrik his FAT was in a rough spot. His MDF was alright though, so I wanted him on the frontline. I ended up building him around this really great famed Nimble armor I found, 207 durability for -10 FAT. Unfortunately, it turned out to be the only famed Nimble armor I found the whole campaign… Regardless, Henrik thrived with it, but the next question was, what will his weapon of choice be? Initially I was leaning two-handed because of the FAT concerns, but then I found this famed cleaver. It’s definitely not optimal, being one-handed with no armor ignore boost, but the damage boost plus FAT reduction was nice enough. I had been striking out with other famed weapons, so I decided to commit to the cleaver duelist.

Overall, I was pretty pleased with the results, Henrik was a killing machine and never ran out of FAT. The big connotation I’ll attach here is that Henrik really benefitted from sharing the frontline with greataxe and hammer brothers. I rarely attacked fully armor foes with Henrik. I’d pass his turn, wait for the greataxe to smash some armor, and then slice and dice. The damage buff, plus Duelist, plus the bleed inflicted would shred HP and often inflict injuries. Henrik was definitely a strong finisher as he has the best kills to battles fought ratio in the company.

Torsten - Another Flexible Frontliner

Torsten is Werner’s protege, another flexible frontline axeman. Not much to say here, these types of brothers are just a staple of my companies, they fight nearly every battle and get kills, simple as that.

Giselher - Whip/Bannerman

I had an early bannerman that had great RES but awful MSK. He was replaced by Giselher well into the mid game. I was getting a little desperate to find a better banner when Giselher came along. He happened to be a random cultist we picked up along the roadside. I had hopes to have a banner/prophet which were fading as the day’s past. I think that’s probably an ideal setup for the cult, it’s just hard to bring to fruition. Giselher never became a Prophet, but he still was an excellent bannerman, not that the cult’s brothers really needed the RES boost. I still ran him out there quite frequently because I figured he’d still help trigger Fearsome more regularly. For the same reasons as Ralf, the whip combo adds so much versatility to backliners that they can always find something to contribute.

Strider - Crossbow/Thrower Expert

It took me way too long to find a decent ranged brother, but I also didn’t really need one… Still, I really enjoy throwers and the occasional crossbow bro. Having a ranged bro does add some versatility to the company if you have the room. I find them the most useful against scary enemies like Chosen and Orc Berserkers because you can pick them off from a distance. However, once you throw some of their counterparts into the mix, Unholds with Chosen or Orc Warriors with Berserkers, ranged bros become a liability. So that’s why I say they are a nice option, not necessarily a necessity.

Till The Blade - Big Cleaver Boy

Till’s special, he’s the only non-lowborn background in the company. Till started out as sellsword, a dumb one at that. While being dumb isn’t great, paying 18 gold for a level 14 sellsword is pretty slick. Till has a pretty interesting story within the company though. While he rolled really well on most of his stats, HP was not his strong suit. At 50 HP he was a liability and therefore hung out in the backline for a while. On top of that, in the first big noble battle he got struck down, fortunately only sustaining a pierced ear. While leveling up, I only took high rolls in HP and ended up sub 80 by level 11, not great for a frontliner. Till then proceeded to dodge cult level ups for at least 50 days when I was really banking on the Disciple tier HP buff to round him out.

Till eventually got there and by that time I found this big, two-handed famed cleaver. The damage on these things is nuts and absolutely dice up fleshy enemies. In retrospect, I think I should have taken Quick Hands for the whip instead of Steel Brow. I just miss the versatility that my other two-handers have. One cleaver slice for 4 AP, Quick Hands to the whip, and then the 5 AP disarm is a nice little offense/defense combo for when you don’t have a bunch of adjacent targets.

Overall, I like Till though, in the right battles his damage total is astronomical. His overall stats don’t reflect it, but I imagine his kills per battle over the last 50 days is kind of ridiculous.

Reinhardt - Another Flexible Frontliner (this time with a mace)

For most of his time with the company, Reinhardt was a Bodo twin, a greatsword user with excellent defensive capabilities. As he put on some veteran levels, he crept towards 90 MSK and then I finally found a cool famed Mace. Oh boy do famed Maces hit hard, I wish I had this thing all along…

In retrospect, I didn’t get the most out of Reinhardt putting him in the ‘flexible frontliner’ mold. I found I don’t love going with the greatsword to supplement sub 90 MSK bros. They’re just slightly too inconsistent for my taste. And the upside isn’t there, with the greatsword’s primary being the only skill that gets the MSK bonus. The AOE greatsword skills are the fun ones anyway. I think Bodo’s current state of using a famed version with low 90s MSK is where I’ll use greatswords going forward. The route I should’ve gone with Reinhardt is the spear utility man, but maybe a Battle-Forged variant without Dodge. More to come on that.

Randolf - The Spear Duelist Utility Man

This build is a new favorite of mine, and it’s not even refined yet. The idea behind Randolf’s spear utility build is to utilize semi-skilled brothers in a versatile way. Randolf has ok stats and talents but nothing special, so giving him a spear and keeping enemies away works in his favor. Spearwall is a powerful, yet circumstantial ability, as are spears in general. This necessitates the build being versatile if you want the brother to participate in most battles. In a larger company you can definitely commit a couple brothers to fulltime spear duty, but with the cults restrictions I like to have the versatility. This is where the polehammer comes into play. I got this idea to have a pocketed polehammer from DeducterSc, a really fantastic Battle Brothers player on YouTube, and I must say it really works. The weakness of the spear is armor, so why not accept this and pull out a hammer when necessary. This tweak makes this build so much fun to play because you’re always prepared, ready to adapt to many different situations.

As a result, this build is super perk-hungry, you kind of want close to 14 or 15 perks at the end of the day. I experimented with the options some this playthrough, but unfortunately/fortunately my alternate spear utility bro is now being worn by Hugo… Regardless, the perks in question are Fearsome, Dodge, Gifted, and Nimble, which I’d perhaps replace with Bags and Belts, Underdog, Hammer Mastery, and Battle-Forged. The choices are going to obviously be brother dependent, but some like Bags and Belts would be a really nice addition. A couple times Randolf broke his spear from all the spearwalling, so a backup would be nice. Having both a one-handed and pole-hammer could be cool. Nets are always nice to have too. Indominable might be stretching this build too much, but I needed more guys with it. It makes it to where this build dominates Chosen, even if unholds are around, Orcs are no big deal because you have the hammer too, and then anything aggressive and fleshy gets torn up by the spearwall. I love this build.

Rounding Out the Crew

Ranger - Another Crossbow/Thrower Expert

Not much to say here, this is a copy paste of Strider’s build besides swapping Gifted for Crossbow Mastery. If you have enough RSK, this is the way to go. Crossbow bolts hit hard with Mastery.

Meinrad - My Monolith Tank

Meinrad is an absolute unit and fit the tank build at first sight. After my early game fodder units and dodge tanks wore out, I didn’t really invest in a dedicated tank until Meinrad. Einar hung around and came in when necessary and then my two spear utility bros took Indominable to make them flexible enough to fill the “tank” role. Meinrad was special though and destined for the Monolith. His physical and defensive stats are impressive especially because he hasn’t even received his HP, FAT, or MDF Davkul buffs yet. He’s going to be a monster. Plus, despite the related oversight I noted in the Monolith battle, Meinrad only came out stronger. He was struck down only to come out on the other side brain damaged… a +25% RES buff, not so bad.

As for perks, I opted for a couple utility skills like Rotation and Taunt. These are perks I very rarely pick but thought I would experiment with them this time. Other options like Fortified Mind, Gifted, and Resilient didn’t seem necessary with Meinrad.

Honorable Mentions (The Obituary)

Twenty-two souls sacrificed to Davkul, hope you’re happy buddy. Outside of Eberold, who was sacrificed for the Davkul armor, I was never forced to off any of my more talented brothers.

Outside of the sacrifices, a good number of men were lost in battle, especially in the first 100 days. This shows how strong the Surgeon retinue member can be. After losing Markward, I think I dropped several of the early game retinue members for the Surgeon. I then proceeded to not have a brother die in battle until Wigmar, which was itself a special circumstance.

But wait, where’s Hilderich, one of the founding members of Davkul Rising? Good question… he’s not in the company and he’s not in the obituary, did I retire him? In fact, I did not. I actually do not know if he’s alive or not. What happened to Hilderich was peculiar. In the wilderness, around day 75ish, the company was ambushed by Hexen. It was a particularly nasty group of three hex, a few unholds, and a bunch of direwolves. Not a fight that my company was going to come out on the right side of, so we retreated. I had manually retreated everyone to the edge of the map, then hit waved the white flagged, formally retreating. As my men fled the battle, before Hilderich had a chance to move, he was charmed by a hex! The turn ended, then the battle ended, and Hilderich was just gone! No Hilderich on the post-battle stats screen, no HIlderich in the company management screen, no Hilderich in the obituary, he’s just gone. Maybe he’s still out there, charmed by a hex, but hopefully not for his sake.

The Retinue

My End Game Lineup

The Bounty Hunter - Increases chances of finding champions and pays out gold when you defeat them. Really a no-brainer for the mid to late game. Champions are a fun a challenge that reward you with famed items, what’s not to like.

The Lookout - Increases your party’s sight radius on the world map and reveals information about tracks. The Lookout is ok, definitely one member I’m willing to swap out. I like them for exploring the wilderness, that’s about it.

The Scout - Increases your travel speed on the world map. A must have in my opinion. I get them earlier and keep them for the whole campaign.

The Blacksmith - Increases your armor repair speed and saves equipment from being destroyed. The Blacksmith I like late game for all your Battle-Forged armor. It’s also really nice to not have to worry about an Orc permanently shattering a really cool famed shield.

The Surgeon - If a brother does not have a permanent injury and gets struck down, they survive. Also decreases injury duration. Great for Ironman mode, enough said.

Others Used Along the Way

The Recruiter - Increases number of recruits available in towns and makes hiring and trying out brothers cheaper. This guy was an absolute necessity in this cultist playthrough. Finding good lowborn brothers is tough but the Recruiter goes a long way to remedying that problem. Nice for the early and mid-game.

The Drill Sargent - Increases experience gain, more so at lower level, and being in reserve doesn’t affect a brother’s mood. Again, a really nice early to mid-game member to boost your brother’s power level.

The Cook - Increases HP healing rate and food lasts longer. Again, another nice early game member for when your brothers are taking more HP damage and it’s important to get back into battle again.

Not this Campaign but Worth a Mention

The Paymaster - Reduces daily wages and prevents wage increasing events. Really nice money saver in other origins. The cult is already a bargain, so I didn’t bother this time around.

Thank You for Reading!

Davkul Rising will live on! After defeating the Black Monolith, we ventured back to civilization the rest and recuperate. I’m taking a sabbatical from leading the company for some time. With my current life schedule, I’ve been slowly playing and writing about Battle Brothers since April, so I’m a little burnt out. I didn’t officially retire, so who knows, I may make a return to the company in the future.

So that concludes my Davkul Cult Ironman run! Thanks for sticking with me until the end. I had fun revisiting Battle Brothers once again, there’s a reason it’s an all-time favorite of mine. I also had fun writing more about Battle Brothers, as if I hadn’t said enough the first time around.