DISCLAIMER: this guide was created long time ago and is a way outdated. Thank you.

The aim is to create a band of mercenaries with great survivability who are ready for any situation on the battlefield and are really hard to kill. And, by staying alive, they will win any battle.

A situation when you high level damage dealer with twohanded axe is killed by random chain of enemies' attacks is impossible with Steel Cohort tactics. "No random casualties" is a main motto and "No casualties at all" is a goal.

This guide is rather for mid and late game, when you can afford to choose your equipment and don't struggling to find at least one decent weapon per brother.

There are two absolutely musthave perks for every brother in your band: Quick Hands and Bags and Belts, both are tier 1 utility perks. These perks make possible to have 5 weapon slots and quickly change your weapons according to the battlefield situation.

To be effective in the battle you need fatigue as much as possible and to have better chances to survive you need armor as heavy as possible. Thus, you need Brawny - Utility tier 2 (grab Pathfinder to get there). Weaponmaster and Battle Flow are good too to manage fatigue, I prefer Weaponmaster, it's more reliable and more durability of your weapons can save your life sometimes.

In Defensive perks you need tier 2 perk Rotation - this is your emergency button. When one of your brothers is focused and his armor is failing Rotation will save him. I highly recommend to have at least half of your brothers with this perk. In Defensive perks tier 1 I always take Battle Forged (more armor is always good) and Shield Expert (every brother is a shieldbearer).

I personally find myself never using tier 3 Offensive and Defensive perks. I can sacrifice any offensive perk for more survivability and fatigue (which gives your survivability) and never have problem with killing stuff.

So my regular brother has following perks:
Utility tier 1: Quick Hands, Bags and Belts, Pathfinder
Utility tier 2: Brawny, Weaponmaster
Defensive tier 1: Battle Forged, Shield Expert, Hold Out/Colossus
Defensive tier 2: Rotation
and last perk is variable.

Main attributes upgrades are Fatigue, Melee Attack, Melee Defense.

Also I have three high resolve brothers - they have upgraded resolve with every level and instead of Weaponmaster they get Captain perk in Utility tier 2 and Utility tier 3 perk Rally the Troops. These brothers are boosting resolve for a whole band and helps with fatigue when it's needed.

Of course, you are free to experiment with perks. As long as you have Quick Hands and Bags and Belts on every brother, and Rotation here and there, because these are foundations of Steel Cohort, these perks and equipment.

Armor and helmet are as heavy as possible for every brother. Steel Cohort doesn't have light infantry.

So every brother has 5 weapon slots. And equipment are same for everyone;

1) Shield - shield is good. Every brother has a shield. You do not go in the battle without shield. If you think you will be attacked by several enemies or you're low on armor you use shieldwall and you survive.

2) Warhammer or Fighting Axe - warhammer is ideal for breaking enemies' armor while axe is more balanced and you can split the shields. If you prefer to split the shields - take axes, I rarely bother with shields so I have 8 warhammers / 4 axes in my band.

3) Great Sword or Great Axe - big damage dealers. I prefer Great Swords because I rarely split shields and you can use AoE attacks of Swords more often then Axe's. Use it only if 1) you're high on armor 2) you have high chance to hit / you can hit several enemies 3) enemy's armor or helmet is broken or almost broken. Don't forget to equip your shield back after attack if you can.

4) Billhook - every brother with billhook makes your formation much more flexible, you can surround and focus targets much better.

5) Crossbow - crossbow is good against armor and has good bonus to hit, so even without investing in Range Attack you still can hit the targets. So even if you make like 10 shots with 50% chance to hit it's still better then two snipers' shots with 80% accuracy,

The main idea of this tactics is you do not have weak spots. Wherever enemy strikes - you have a solid line, and any brother can withstand for some turns against several enemies with shieldwall. Every brother with billhook allows you to always have more attacks then enemy and to focus fire much better. You don't have this situation when a forest battle starts and you say "oh damn it my archers and nifty billhookers spawned in the first line, I'm screwed". Any brother can defend, any brother can attack from both lines, any brother can land a crossbow bolt in charging enemy, and when opportunity arises any brother can grab a twohander and unleash AoE attack.

It doesn't matter: enemies flank, orcs break your lines or vampires teleport behind - any brother can become first line fighter with the shield and second line finisher with the billhook. When enemy tries to flank it's actually even good because you have more time to focus enemies' first line. And whatever formation's changes the battle brings - you're ready for it.



I start with 7 brothers with shield and 5 brothers with billhooks and crossbows (my resolve guys are always among them), so I have 7 in the first line and 5 in the second. When enemy approaches my first line swap weapon to crossbow, fire the shot and swap it back to the shield.

Then first line uses shieldwall if it's necessary and tries to strip down enemies' armor while second line is picking enemies with the billhooks (don't forget to focus fire, enemies without shields are best option of course). First line brothers use Great Swords when opportunity arises and switch to billhooks when it's needed.

That's basically it. With this tactics I kill without casualties 15-20 orks (including warriors and warlords) and same amount of vampires with fallen heroes.

As for the Lost Souls you have to adapt. Lost Souls do direct damage to your health so you go in battle naked like some Celtic warriors, this way you boost your Initiative and Fatigue. Also you equip Boarspear instead of Warhammer/Fighthing Axe for its +20% hit chance (so yeah, have 12 Boarspears in your inventory just for the Lost Souls). You have to attack Lost Souls with every opportunity by stepping forward to them.