A very different start from most companies which can rely on a core of three capable men. This 'quantity over quality' approach however opens up new tactics such as kiting. See the Early game chapter for more information.


Other origins are limited to taking 12 brothers in battle. 4 extra pairs of arms can prove very useful. Additional slots in your roster will allow you to leave your wounded take some rest, keep your newbies available for some stat training, and ensure that you'll always have free slots to hire promising new brothers.


It sounds dramatic, and it is, but it's also not completely accurate. First your starting roster can include Minstrels and Gamblers, who aren't lowborn. Second, some mid tier and high tier backgrounds may join your company if you're lucky. See the Exotic recruitment chapter to find out more.


Peasant Militia companies also start with three secret traits:

• -100 Renown. You'll have to grind longer to gain access to Noble Houses contracts.
  
• +40 relation with the closest village (Very Friendly). Good to purchase cheap provisions and weapons.
  
• 108 instead of 99 inventory slots. Always convenient to store extra loot and trading goods.

You'll need to look long and hard for recruits blessed with a combination of semi-decent starting skills, good stars and traits. Fortunately hiring lowborns comes very cheap! To make it even easier, improve your relations with the villages and towns to get access to more recruits, consider hiring all the recruits available at a settlement to force it to generate new candidates, and hire a Recruiter retinue.

Now which lowborns are the best fits for the key roles in your company?


Thieves can boast excellent stats in Melee Defense and Ranged Defense. Combined with their high Initiative, they can become either Dodge + Nimble tanks, go with offensive Duelists or Twohanders builds, or both.

Farmhands and Lumberjacks may have the best Hitpoints and Fatigue stats you can get from standard recruits. They may become solid Battle Forged tanks.

Deserters, Houndmasters, Militias and Manhunters may also have a shot at decent defensive stats especially when supported by traits such as Sure Footing (+5 Melee Defense), Paranoid (+5 Melee Defense, +5 Ranged Defense, -30 Initiative) or Tiny (+5 Melee Defense, +5 Ranged Defense, -15% melee damage dealt).


With an average starting Melee skill at 57, your most reliable killers are Manhunters, Militias and Deserters, followed by Brawlers and Butchers. Of course you don't want to switch to two-handed weapons before getting first some decent armor and perks.


Fielding 16 men allows you to build a sizeable team of shooters able to outgun most enemies.
You can't hire Hunters or Bowyers though, so Poachers from forest villages represent your best candidates to build sharpshooters. Their Ranged Skill starts around 48, which is +7.5 over the average attribute. In addition they can gain +1 Ranged Skill from two events (Archery Stunt and Shooting Contest).

After Poachers, your second best shooters are Shepherds. Their average Ranged Skill starting at 43 isn't exactly impressive, but if you're lucky with their skill and stars they might give you the firepower you're looking for.


Lowborns don't exactly shine when it comes to Resolve. You really need one or maybe two sergeants to keep your men in line, especially your cowardly Deserters. Good candidates are rare though as the Peasant Militia lacks access to Monks or any other high resolve backgrounds. Its starting roster can include some Gamblers (47 average starting Resolve) and Minstrels (42.5 average starting Resolve) but they're not available from settlements.

If your starting party doesn't include a good bannerman candidate, you'll have to search among the Graverobbers, Butchers and Manhunters available for hire. Look for traits such as Fearless (+10 Resolve) and Brave (+5 Resolve). Remember that you can raise the Resolve of any brother by making him survive 5 fights (+5 Resolve) and 12 fights (+10 Resolve) in the arenas of the southern City-States.


This isn't a dedicated job but a nice little plus, especially in long campaigns. Some backgrounds are able to increase the stats of low-level lowborns through events. Objectively these events are too rare and too limited in effect to turn humble daytalers into war machines, but they feel like a welcome bonus when they decide to proc.

• Militias, Deserters and Brawlers, which you can all hire in castles, have the Combat affiliation which give them access to the Combat Drill event. At level 6 or higher, they can trigger this event which will benefit 3 or more brothers who are level 3 or lower and don't have the Combat affiliation themselves. They'll gain some points either in Melee Skill and Melee Defense, in Ranged Skill, or in Fatigue and Initiative, as you decide.
  
  
• A lvl 3+ Brawler can teach a lvl 1 or 2 brother who doesn't have the Combat affiliation. The pupil will gain some points either in Melee Skill and Melee Defense, in Hitpoints, or in Fatigue, as you decide. Each brawler can teach only once in his life, and each brother can receive such teaching only once in his life.
  
  
• Finally, lvl 1-2 Farmhands can get +2-4 Melee Skill by remembering how to bale hay. Consider keeping your most promising Farmhands on the bench until they benefit from this event. It has a 100-day cooldown though!

Peasant Militias may gain some non-lowborn members from Events. These random events are available to all origins, but are objectively much more useful to our Peasant Militia since top fighters are so rare among the lowborns.
All of these events require you to have a free slot in your roster. For the purpose of this guide we will only cover permanent additions to your company, excluding the backgrounds who will automatically leave you after the end of a crisis.


There are two events which can get you a lvl 2-4 Barbarian brother.
- Barbarian Survivor: this event has 10% chance to trigger after destroying a northern camp for the contract Drive Away Barbarians.
- Barbarian Volunteer: this event can trigger when your company is on a road, in the northernmost third of the global map where it's mostly snow or tundra terrain, and you have a free slot in your roster. Your new barbarian will be equipped with a Warhound.
Compared with the average stats, Barbarians have +7.5 Hitpoints, +7.5 Melee skill, +7.5 Fatigue, +7.5 Resolve and +7.5 Initiative.


This event can trigger when you're in or near a Southern City-State with an allied relation, in day-time, with at least 750 crowns available. You'll need to pay 1 crown, then 500 more crowns to have 100% chances to gain a lvl 1 belly dancer with the Dexterous trait.
Compared with the average stats, Belly Dancers have -5 Hitpoints, +10 Melee skill (for a total of +15 with Dexterous), +5 Ranged skill, -5 Fatigue, -5 Resolve and +10 Initiative.


This event can trigger when you're on desert, desert hills or oasis terrain, and at least six tiles away from the closest town. You'll gain a lvl 2-4 Converted Crusader with the Deathwish trait. Note that most of your non-southern brothers will get a bad mood from this event.
Compared with the average stats, Converted Crusaders have +13.5 Melee skill, +12 Ranged skill, +6.5 Melee defense, +6.5 Ranged defense and +5 Resolve. A superb statline.


The first part of this event can trigger when you're on the road in snow terrain. You'll gain a lvl 3 Cripple with +15 Resolve, 2 stars in Melee skill, 3 stars in Melee Defense and 3 stars in Ranged Defense.
The second part of this event can only trigger if the said Cripple is still with you at least 30 days after you've found him. He'll heal and turn into a proper King's Guard, keeping the excellent stars and gaining multiple stat boosts to become a very solid frontliner.


The Veteran backgrounds are: Adventurous Noble, Bastard, Disowned Noble, Raider and Sellsword. These backgrounds all have high combat stats, and there seems to be two events which can get you a Veteran brother.
- Orc Prisoner: this event has 10% chance to trigger after destroying an orc camp for the contract Destroy Orc Camp. Noble houses will offer this contract when one of their settlements is affected by the Marauding greenskins situation. Look for it!
- Orc Survivor: this event has 5% chance to trigger when you search the target location of the contract Free Greenskin Prisoners. Noble houses will offer this contract during the Greenskin Invasion, so you may want to select it as your first late game crisis.


Settlements with the disappearing villagers situation may offer the contract Hunting Webknechts. After defeating the webknechts in the woods, there's 10% chance that the event Lone Survivor will trigger and grant you a free lvl 2-3 Retired Soldier. These brothers typically have below average Hitpoints, Fatigue and Initiative but above-average Melee Skill, Melee Defense, Range Defense and Resolve. In addition they belong to the Combat affiliation, which means they can trigger the Combat Drill (see Trainers in the previous chapter).

The start of a Peasant Militia is noticeably harder than most origins. You don't start with three capable brothers able to carry the day against low level opponents: your men all have low-to-average stats. Keep things simple and straighforward: get shields, spears and swords for the frontline, and all the polearms you can find for the backline.

Hit the taverns often in the early game for cheap morale boosts: your brothers are more effective in combat with a Confident morale.

Frequent casualties are unavoidable during the first days, especially if you need to face beasts or barbarians. You'll be safer against thugs, wiedergangers, nomad cutthroats and caravans.

When the first levelups come in, focus on perks which will immediately improve your combat prowess such as Colossus, Gifted and Shield Expert.


It doesn't pair well with frequent casualties. As mentioned in the standard recruitement chapter, you'll really need to build one or two sergeants to prevent or contain waves of panic in your ranks. Nachzehrer Trophy Necklaces (+4 Resolve) are relatively cheap to craft and distribute in mass to your brothers.


Every brother moving into contact with an enemy will improve his allies' chances to hit the adjacent enemies, and trigger a morale check for said enemies if they were already in contact with a brother. Know and use these mechanics wisely in conjunction with Shieldwall.
Backstabber is the obvious perk to pick if you'd like to increase further your swarming advantage.


Your cheap lowborns aren't all meant to die by running straight at the enemy like foolish Thugs. A braver, more useful (if not less dangerous) job is the human kite. The goal is to leave your battleline and pull as many enemies as possible away from the main engagement, for as long as possible. Any brother may do it providing he doesn't suffer from the Clubfooted trait.
Pathfinder, Lone Wolf and Footwork will help your baits do a better job.

While the Peasant Militia can have a challenging start, it has the potential to become a powerhouse in the mid and late game thanks to how the difficulty scales - or doesn't.


How does it work? Battle Brothers scales the challenge of the contracts, essentially the size and composition of the enemy troops facing the player, to the size and level of the player's company. It starts at 6 brothers and goes up to 12 brothers for most origins or 14 brothers for the Peasant Militia.

What does it means for the Peasant Militia?
- your starting party of 12 men will face a higher challenge than the starting parties of other origins. To lower this challenge, you can and should fire the weakest men of your company and keep only the 6 to 9 best brothers. Less than 6 won't decrease the challenge, so there's no point having less than 6 unless of course you don't want to pay them.
- Since the challenge level doesn't scale beyond 14 brothers, your 15th and 16th best brothers won't be taken into account by the formula. Other companies can recruit superior backgrounds, but the Peasant Militia can field two men who represent a free advantage in terms of balance.


Unlike contracts, the size and composition of the patrols and camps scale only with time and distance to civilization. They are mostly meant to be fought with 12 brothers. The Peasant Militia can bring 4 'free' brothers into these fights.
The fact that they aren't high tier backgrounds doesn't matter much, especially in the mid game where other origins are also likely still fielding mostly cheap backgrounds.

This guide has been built using my personal experience and the experience shared by other BB players on the Steam forum and the subreddit of the game.

Most of the factual content of this guide, such as stats and events, has been verified on the excellent and comprehensive Battle Brothers Wiki[battlebrothers.fandom.com] which has also supplied most of the illustrations.


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