For mountain, you can at least be sure that your commander can fight alone for longer. For popular, i think it would be better if it gives one extra troop for each upgrade to veteran.
Iron skin is an A. I mean, for non-infrantry squad it is good against archers and ballistas, and for ifrantry, it is good against Ballistas, Assasins aka dual wielders and maybe Brutes. But the problem with the last ones is that they usually send your units flying into the water. they don't really care about it
pikes can still be broken into like normally, its only really useful for putting them in front of landing boats, and even then only when is a low amount of enemies otherwise is too risky
Sure footed infantry with Jabena as a start squad promoted to elites with priority is arguably the best set up to get through early to mid very hard game with least amount of stressing about brutes - you dont have to rely so much on pikemen.
Fearless has another effect in that your troops and commander becomes more aggressive at attacking. Since when fighting brute, the troops tend to distance themselves away from the brute because they're scared
@@roguebrothers Além do fato de que, quando equipado nos lanceiros, eles quase nunca levantam suas lanças e ficam vulneráveis se um inimigo chegar perto demais, o que pra mim é a melhor trait para os lanceiros.
Here's a fun fact: the brute commander can knock back enemy brutes the same way as a regular enemy, meaning enemy brutes gets knocked back like regular small enemies, really helpful if you want to use your brute commander to knock BIG BOYS! into the water (do note that you need to have an army with the mountain trait for you to have a brute commander)
Very nice Tierlist! One of my favorite starting combinations is heavy load with mines, then you immediately get 3 mines, which often enables this character to solo islands. Also 5 powerful mines are fun :) What I like about the speed trait is that it even is kinda similar to rousing speeches. This may not be true on small maps, but very much so on bigger ones. If you think about it, it doesn´t really matter whether the character spends more time running towards a house, or replenishing inside a house, and if you save a lot of time running towards the houses, then it`s just rousing speeches with a little bonus. (again, not true for all maps) love your videos
Your Bad North videos are awesome. I still haven't beaten the game on NORMAL even a single time after like 15 hours+ of play. I keep dying RIGHT before checkpoint two, but am reloading back to checkpoint one because I have an archer with heavy weapons and the item that gives you extra guys in your squad, which is very OP. Anyways, very entertaining watching your stuff.
Hey! I'm an avid Bad North player myself, if you're not already I'd recommend joining the server for the publisher Raw Fury. Diehard fans like us regularly debate stuff there :)
Having collector and philly stone at the start of a run can really give you an edge for the entire run because your making that 3 extra gold constantly, I would def bump it up myself
Popular + ring of command on archers is really strong. Also popular on pike men make them able to take on one more brute along the climbing kill zone’s because 4 pike men line up along the end instead of 3. Effectively adding 25% damage to the kill zone
Sharp weapon pikes are very useful to me. They kill and pierce shields easier which helps them reposition faster in multi-boat waves so it's just a better fast foot trait. Sharp weapons also help pike hold against big waves of basic enemies since they just need 1 tip impact( pikes don't poke when they are overwhelmed and try to hold formation) to be killed and normal pike often need 2 which lets some enemy break formation S in my book because it helps archers and swordsmen too
Tho the Main strength of pikes are their knock back and sharp weapons trait takes away their strength because sharp weapons reduces knock back but increases damage
@JonazSantos-n8r The knockback is the most useful if you put pikes in an open field but in choke points or hills damage becomes more useful since knocking enemies back without killing them would drag the fight longer. Enemies hesitate to approach pikes in open fields too and they only attack if they think they can overwhelm which can be true and leaves your pikes defenceless
you did the fearless trait wrong, from my experience the fearless trait makes the squad much more aggressive, this is particularly useful when fighting sword brutes since normal infantry do not immediately attack brutes head on unless the brute has been knocked down by a mine or bomb, their attack speed is also a bit faster because of their aggressiveness. i always have a squad with the fearless trait the only problem obviously is that you cannot flee with that squad so you need to be good or else your dead. love your vids 👍❤
I mean positioning in this game is a good thing. Fleet of foot is incerdibly good on bug islands or islands with 3 or 4 levels, or tons of stairs. Pretty solid on archers when you need to step away after you failed to clear brute boats or thined out infrantry/axe throwers ships. And it is a viable option for pikemen squad, since sometimes you don't have time to reach the chokepoint and need valuably positioned infrentry to deal with the enemy, whereas if you had that perk, you would reach it in time
Actually surefooted is my favourite offensive trait on pikes! Place pikes on the square a boat will land and they can kill everyone on board when they arrive. This depends on the type of unit and the amount, but you'd be surprised how effective it is. This is like creating your own chokepoints and makes pikes really good even on flat terrain. It takes some gameknowledge to know which unit sizes they can take on and at which level. There is a lot you can do with this combo :)
Might makes right. XP Seriously though, a very interesting tier list, indeed. You make a lot of good points on where you placed them and why you placed them there. I can't wait for your next Bad North series. I wonder what you have in store for us. It'll be epic, I'm sure.
Collector: best with philosopher stone but still helpful anyway C for all Energetic: good for all skills but only good for warhammer and war horn items, best with warhammer Infantry-A Pikes-A Archers-B Fearless: less hesitant around brutes and can’t board ships, a fun gimmick Infantry-C Pikes-D Archers-D Fleet of foot: great for large islands or complex map layout Infantry-B Pikes-A Archers-B Heavy load: +1 only for war horn, mines, or bomb (unnecessary for horn/mines imo) Infantry-B Pikes-C Archers-C Heavy weapons: increased knockback good for shields/brutes Infantry-B Pikes-D Archers-S Iron skin: best for units expecting a lot of damage Infantry-S Pikes-B Archers-C Mountain: leader can become a brute, mainly a gimmick though Infantry-B Pikes-C Archers-D Popular: only adds 1 to the unit, makes squad only a tad better C for all Rousing speeches: best for high casualty units Infantry-A Pikes-C Archers-D Sharp weapons: best for shields and brutes Infantry-B Pikes-S Archers-A Skillful: just okay, saved a few coins C for all Sure footed: pushed around less by enemies Infantry-B Pikes-S Archers-D Let me know your thoughts/questions on my rankings
The one time I used the bad 'Fearless'' trait was on my initial Jabena unit. I knew the Jabena unit was only for the early game (island grabbing pikeman) and didn't need a lot of upgrades. By giving it Fearless, I removed that trait from the pool so that I would have better odds of finding units with good traits as I progressed through the game.
Surefooted freaking amazing put that on infentry and brute are a joke brute relies on knock back but beside that your soldier will also survive a bit long not as long as if you had iron skin BUT you survive a bit longer because some other ennemis relies on knock back like the dual weilded blade OVERALL thay are just more resistant to knockback i core aspect of the game
Sharp Weapons : is A tier with Archer/Pike : Pike obliterates shield units and brutes having the quickest DPS. Problem with knockback is that you would have to play in open ground instead of choke points as pushing and stunning other brutes or shields slows them down but they extend the live longer, slowing down the process of killing the enemy in chokepoints. Archer being able to Kite brutes or defeat them as they arrive via the boats is another plus. Infantry has been better using all the defensive options while using all offensive on pikes and archers at least concerning traits.
In my opinion abilities are useless, and items to. The ultimate meta is to just go for 2-3 Archers and upgrade them as fast as possible. They are op, they can kill anything before it even touches the island, exept those fat archers, therefore the trait that makes items cheaper is S+ tier, cause together with the money stone you can make so much money which you then put into archers and win easily.
I used to leave this on for my old attempts because I was new to streaming and I wanted to have the ability to re-record an island in case the recording went wrong. As I got more confident in the recording process I stopped doing this as you will see on my latest runs!
@@roguebrothers cool! Thanks for the reply. I am trying to do Pike's only on Very hard without restarts. After quite a few failed attempts, I found your play to seem almost impossibly good! But as we speak i'm finally on a great run, island 10 with 4 commanders, a holy grail for back-up, jabenna, and currently 3 full waves ahead of the turn curve. I think i'm finally getting the hang of facing the archers with pikes, but i'm scared for the archer brutes and axe men. Any tips?! Thanks for the helpful videos!
@@r.p.larose6844 It is def one of the most difficult challenge runs! My tip would be to try to line up Pike charges because if you get those right they can be super powerful! But I agree it is a very 'glass cannon' run which is very unforgiving! I think on Pike only I had a few practice runs before I achieved the completed run btw
For mountain, you can at least be sure that your commander can fight alone for longer. For popular, i think it would be better if it gives one extra troop for each upgrade to veteran.
Yeah I agree with that for popular
I think it's better to buff popular trait from 1 soldier to 3 just like the traits picture or something
Fleet of foot can be really helpful for pikes as they need to get to their designated position fast so they can set up and get ready to fight.
Yes this is a very good point!
Iron skin is an A. I mean, for non-infrantry squad it is good against archers and ballistas, and for ifrantry, it is good against Ballistas, Assasins aka dual wielders and maybe Brutes. But the problem with the last ones is that they usually send your units flying into the water. they don't really care about it
Sure footed is definitely an S in my book pikes become just unbreakable and infantry stomp Brute archers. I HATE brute archers.
Yeah, anything that helps against Brute Archers is good!
Maybe try to put the sure footed traits unto a knight to counter brute archers and brute.
pikes can still be broken into like normally, its only really useful for putting them in front of landing boats, and even then only when is a low amount of enemies otherwise is too risky
Sure footed infantry with Jabena as a start squad promoted to elites with priority is arguably the best set up to get through early to mid very hard game with least amount of stressing about brutes - you dont have to rely so much on pikemen.
Fearless has another effect in that your troops and commander becomes more aggressive at attacking. Since when fighting brute, the troops tend to distance themselves away from the brute because they're scared
Did not know that! Makes it more interesting to me
Really!? That's cool! I think a Bad North 2 and/or more DLC and/or Steam Workshop would be epic.
@@corporaljay6165definitely needs an endless mode too
Ohh that should help with my pike men moving when viking charge at em
@@roguebrothers Além do fato de que, quando equipado nos lanceiros, eles quase nunca levantam suas lanças e ficam vulneráveis se um inimigo chegar perto demais, o que pra mim é a melhor trait para os lanceiros.
Here's a fun fact: the brute commander can knock back enemy brutes the same way as a regular enemy, meaning enemy brutes gets knocked back like regular small enemies, really helpful if you want to use your brute commander to knock BIG BOYS! into the water (do note that you need to have an army with the mountain trait for you to have a brute commander)
Very nice Tierlist!
One of my favorite starting combinations is heavy load with mines, then you immediately get 3 mines, which often enables this character to solo islands. Also 5 powerful mines are fun :)
What I like about the speed trait is that it even is kinda similar to rousing speeches. This may not be true on small maps, but very much so on bigger ones. If you think about it, it doesn´t really matter whether the character spends more time running towards a house, or replenishing inside a house, and if you save a lot of time running towards the houses, then it`s just rousing speeches with a little bonus. (again, not true for all maps)
love your videos
You make a good point with the Fleet of Foot trait! - I hadn't considered that positive
Here, have some beans for the effort you put into this video :p
Your Bad North videos are awesome. I still haven't beaten the game on NORMAL even a single time after like 15 hours+ of play. I keep dying RIGHT before checkpoint two, but am reloading back to checkpoint one because I have an archer with heavy weapons and the item that gives you extra guys in your squad, which is very OP. Anyways, very entertaining watching your stuff.
Nice one! Keep going - you'll get there!
Energetic and War Hammer is such a BIG OP combo!
Hey! I'm an avid Bad North player myself, if you're not already I'd recommend joining the server for the publisher Raw Fury. Diehard fans like us regularly debate stuff there :)
Having collector and philly stone at the start of a run can really give you an edge for the entire run because your making that 3 extra gold constantly, I would def bump it up myself
I need to try this to understand how powerful it is! Thanks
Popular + ring of command on archers is really strong. Also popular on pike men make them able to take on one more brute along the climbing kill zone’s because 4 pike men line up along the end instead of 3. Effectively adding 25% damage to the kill zone
Sharp weapon pikes are very useful to me. They kill and pierce shields easier which helps them reposition faster in multi-boat waves so it's just a better fast foot trait. Sharp weapons also help pike hold against big waves of basic enemies since they just need 1 tip impact( pikes don't poke when they are overwhelmed and try to hold formation) to be killed and normal pike often need 2 which lets some enemy break formation
S in my book because it helps archers and swordsmen too
Tho the Main strength of pikes are their knock back and sharp weapons trait takes away their strength because sharp weapons reduces knock back but increases damage
@JonazSantos-n8r The knockback is the most useful if you put pikes in an open field but in choke points or hills damage becomes more useful since knocking enemies back without killing them would drag the fight longer. Enemies hesitate to approach pikes in open fields too and they only attack if they think they can overwhelm which can be true and leaves your pikes defenceless
@@loadingscreen8888 K i respect your opinion
you did the fearless trait wrong, from my experience the fearless trait makes the squad much more aggressive, this is particularly useful when fighting sword brutes since normal infantry do not immediately attack brutes head on unless the brute has been knocked down by a mine or bomb, their attack speed is also a bit faster because of their aggressiveness.
i always have a squad with the fearless trait the only problem obviously is that you cannot flee with that squad so you need to be good or else your dead.
love your vids 👍❤
Fair enough - I will try to utilize fearless at some point
@@roguebrothers its pretty good especially at the later islands where you could get overrun by enemies.
love your vids ❤
I mean positioning in this game is a good thing. Fleet of foot is incerdibly good on bug islands or islands with 3 or 4 levels, or tons of stairs. Pretty solid on archers when you need to step away after you failed to clear brute boats or thined out infrantry/axe throwers ships. And it is a viable option for pikemen squad, since sometimes you don't have time to reach the chokepoint and need valuably positioned infrentry to deal with the enemy, whereas if you had that perk, you would reach it in time
Actually surefooted is my favourite offensive trait on pikes! Place pikes on the square a boat will land and they can kill everyone on board when they arrive. This depends on the type of unit and the amount, but you'd be surprised how effective it is. This is like creating your own chokepoints and makes pikes really good even on flat terrain. It takes some gameknowledge to know which unit sizes they can take on and at which level. There is a lot you can do with this combo :)
Might makes right. XP Seriously though, a very interesting tier list, indeed. You make a lot of good points on where you placed them and why you placed them there. I can't wait for your next Bad North series. I wonder what you have in store for us. It'll be epic, I'm sure.
Thanks to your videos and guides, I completed the game on my second run.
Well done! What difficulty?
Collector: best with philosopher stone but still helpful anyway
C for all
Energetic: good for all skills but only good for warhammer and war horn items, best with warhammer
Infantry-A
Pikes-A
Archers-B
Fearless: less hesitant around brutes and can’t board ships, a fun gimmick
Infantry-C
Pikes-D
Archers-D
Fleet of foot: great for large islands or complex map layout
Infantry-B
Pikes-A
Archers-B
Heavy load: +1 only for war horn, mines, or bomb (unnecessary for horn/mines imo)
Infantry-B
Pikes-C
Archers-C
Heavy weapons: increased knockback good for shields/brutes
Infantry-B
Pikes-D
Archers-S
Iron skin: best for units expecting a lot of damage
Infantry-S
Pikes-B
Archers-C
Mountain: leader can become a brute, mainly a gimmick though
Infantry-B
Pikes-C
Archers-D
Popular: only adds 1 to the unit, makes squad only a tad better
C for all
Rousing speeches: best for high casualty units
Infantry-A
Pikes-C
Archers-D
Sharp weapons: best for shields and brutes
Infantry-B
Pikes-S
Archers-A
Skillful: just okay, saved a few coins
C for all
Sure footed: pushed around less by enemies
Infantry-B
Pikes-S
Archers-D
Let me know your thoughts/questions on my rankings
The one time I used the bad 'Fearless'' trait was on my initial Jabena unit. I knew the Jabena unit was only for the early game (island grabbing pikeman) and didn't need a lot of upgrades. By giving it Fearless, I removed that trait from the pool so that I would have better odds of finding units with good traits as I progressed through the game.
Yeah that's a good idea!
for me my traits are
infantry: ironskin
infantry (second group): rousing speeches
pikes: sure footed
archers: no trait
Ironskin is a really strong trait on Infantry
Surefooted freaking amazing put that on infentry and brute are a joke brute relies on knock back but beside that your soldier will also survive a bit long not as long as if you had iron skin BUT you survive a bit longer because some other ennemis relies on knock back like the dual weilded blade OVERALL thay are just more resistant to knockback i core aspect of the game
Nice point - I honestly need to test this trait more!
If I get the chance, I often go for archers with popular and ring of command. 😁
Collector trait and philosopher stone. Story of practically infinite money strating from mid game to the very end
Iron skin, jabana at the beginning is pretty op lol
You should do no items and traits on very hard as a challenge.
That's a good idea - I'll keep it in mind (although you don't have access to many commanders with NO traits)
That’s part of the challenge.
Sharp Weapons : is A tier with Archer/Pike : Pike obliterates shield units and brutes having the quickest DPS. Problem with knockback is that you would have to play in open ground instead of choke points as pushing and stunning other brutes or shields slows them down but they extend the live longer, slowing down the process of killing the enemy in chokepoints. Archer being able to Kite brutes or defeat them as they arrive via the boats is another plus. Infantry has been better using all the defensive options while using all offensive on pikes and archers at least concerning traits.
btw, any chances of you doing some guides on age of wonders planetfall? it's basically civ with xcom combat
I'll check it out
mountain can be especially helpful against brute enemies as you commander can go toe to toe when fighting them
Bro for me i mainly use mountain for fun instead of strength, it's just funny seeing your own brute knocking enemies in the water 😂
Elite archers with fleet of foot and ring of command just KILL EVERYTHING
I should try this
Do you think there will ever be a second Bad North? I really hope there is 👍
In my opinion abilities are useless, and items to. The ultimate meta is to just go for 2-3 Archers and upgrade them as fast as possible. They are op, they can kill anything before it even touches the island, exept those fat archers, therefore the trait that makes items cheaper is S+ tier, cause together with the money stone you can make so much money which you then put into archers and win easily.
I’d use collector on ring of command, those upgrades are not cheap
Great video! :D
this game was a banger
I noticed you have "level restart" clicked on during your pike only videos, do you edit out your failed attempts later?
I used to leave this on for my old attempts because I was new to streaming and I wanted to have the ability to re-record an island in case the recording went wrong. As I got more confident in the recording process I stopped doing this as you will see on my latest runs!
@@roguebrothers cool! Thanks for the reply. I am trying to do Pike's only on Very hard without restarts. After quite a few failed attempts, I found your play to seem almost impossibly good! But as we speak i'm finally on a great run, island 10 with 4 commanders, a holy grail for back-up, jabenna, and currently 3 full waves ahead of the turn curve. I think i'm finally getting the hang of facing the archers with pikes, but i'm scared for the archer brutes and axe men. Any tips?! Thanks for the helpful videos!
@@r.p.larose6844 It is def one of the most difficult challenge runs! My tip would be to try to line up Pike charges because if you get those right they can be super powerful! But I agree it is a very 'glass cannon' run which is very unforgiving!
I think on Pike only I had a few practice runs before I achieved the completed run btw
How do you get traits?
Certain characters have traits (randomly), and some of those characters will unlock traits as 'starting traits'
@@roguebrothers thanks
Mountain is an A tier easy🤫🤫