Starting With NOTHING! BRUTAL Difficulty // Part 1 // THEY ARE BILLIONS

[@talengel5011]

The emperor telling us to "retrieve new technologies from before the pandemic" rings kinda differently in 2024...

[@jaceclarke6139]

@@talengel5011 the “lost technology” is just 24/7 Walmart and McDonald’s

[@TheMock5000]

@@jaceclarke6139 nah it's affordable rent and reasonably priced food.

[@Awesomepotato310]

@@TheMock5000 or a normal life timeline and not the sped up version

[@ericswenson7504]

@@Awesomepotato310 what's a normal timeline life?

[@notyourusualsuspect6175]

@@ericswenson7504 ....eeeeeehhhhhmmmmm. Born in '79 and I have zero clue, bro

[@Ramcon3k]

I watched your campaign 4 years ago. Then a couple years later, I watched it again. It was just that good. When I saw this pop up on your playlist, I almost jumped out of my seat. Just please don't skip anything this time.

[@psychodeviant8903]

I watched over 100 videos from Odd when he played through this game years ago. Afterwards I was a little sad because I'd seen the whole game and figured there was no point to playing it myself. I had spent over 100 hours watching someone else play the game. Then one day, I saw it in the game store and said what the heck, I really want to play it myself. I proceeded to spend well over 100 hours playing through the game myself. And now, God help me, I'm afraid I'm about to spend another 100+ hours watching Odd play through this game again.

[@dennisuerling5900]

So wrong. There are 2 different characters. Each character has a number of viable interesting builds to play. There is also variability in the techs you choose that can change your game strategy quite a bit. Plus the more experience you have, the higher you can ramp the difficulty. This game is meant to be played at pucker factor 10. Fear of your colony collapsing to the next wave is what sparks the fun of the game. Also, outside of the campaign, the game has a series of challenges meant to aide your skill development as well. Basically, between campaign tech choices, choices of hero and hero development choices, you can play through the campaign a number of times. To be honest, all they would have to do is create another campaign with new heroes to release a game expansion or a new game.

[@ratt44]

@@psychodeviant8903 Embrace it :)

[@LoveBoat.HIAH.]

Hearing him pronounce Calliope as Cally-Ope hurts a little lol. Knowing the hero mission is next and its prerecorded means there is going to be a lot of KALLE OPE action 😅😂🤣

[@marcpaulus6291]

I prefer odds version, for my german ears the pronounciation sounds like "Cow lay down and pee"

[@Lykas_mitts]

You know what's really cruel about it? The Mispronunciation stemming from having not heard a word being spoken is termed "Calliope Syndrome"

[@CaspersGhost618]

​@@Lykas_mittshow ironic 😂

[@METALFREAK03]

I didn't hear it as mispronounced at all. It's Greek, they have strange phonics with words & letters.

[@Myomer104]

Amusingly, the place I first heard the word, and thus how to pronounce it, was in the game Mechwarrior 4, where a type of turret called the Calliope is a common enemy.

[@edibleapeman]

The first RTS since Starcraft 2 that I can enjoy spectating. Looking forward to the rest of this series!

[@Zett76]

KenseiTV? 🙂

[@JeredtheShy]

I appreciate the little metal clinking noises that you hear whenever the emperor gestures. They could have gotten away without doing that, but this game likes its little details too much to cheap out on you.

[@jorgmeltzer9234]

You did it! You heard our prayers! The campaign happens! I'm pumped!

[@StrategicPlanner13]

Also, you can select multiple structures and issue commands to all of them. Makes upgrading and queuing troops way easier.

[@DartNoobo]

To honor the title I pressed Like button exactly one billion times. Enjoy growth of the channel!

[@paulelderson934]

On average, I can tap the screen about 8.4 times per second. Not sustained, but also just with a single hand. Assuming perfect accuracy and no fatigue, you would need about 33 thousand hours of constant tapping to reach 1 billion taps. Now if you're actually giving the video 1 billion likes, you'd have to double that number. Minus one tap for the first like, but compared to a billion, that's only a 0.00000001% margin of error. I would say no biggie. This all means that you would need ~3.75 years for a billion taps and ~7.5 years for a billion likes. Mixing a steady 8 hours per day of sleeping and eating into this would increase this to a solid 10 years of effort, assuming you were fully dedicated to the task. Since this video has only come out about 2 days ago, I have no choice but to politely inform this comment section that you, sir, are lying.

[@DartNoobo]

@@paulelderson934 i don't have to double anything. Only one like can come from a single user. Odd number of taps gives one like, even number gives none.

[@juliano-nr-1]

@@paulelderson934 or.... you know... make a bot press the button

[@catfacecat.]

@@paulelderson934 congrats dude, you put him on fire and left like a chad

[@TheEcaporaso]

Christopher Odd playing They are Billions is peak content

[@ravipeiris4388]

This game wasn't even in my radar. Thank you Chris as I'll put this on my Steam wishlist ❤.

[@HmoobHer559]

@ravipeiris4388 this game is suuuper fun if you like this rts and civilization management games, but also super frustrating sometimes lol

[@Zett76]

It's my favourite game for 5 years now. 2000+ hours experience. It's VERY hard to master, especially on nightmare.

[@Zett76]

@@HmoobHer559 right? :) I currently try to survive the 3rd map on nightmare, without casualties. Trying that for weeks, now. It's consuming me. **g**

[@diegeticfridge9167]

I remember watching the og play-through, so much nostalgia right now!

[@davidvvn]

It's so nice to see someone not ignore the campaign in this game. But Chris, if you see this, please... It's Ca-LIE-Oh-pea, not Cally-ope. Yes I'm being that guy.

[@LordSaliss]

First time in my 40 years I have ever heard anyone pronounce it that way 😂 Probably because people with that name often get called "calli" or "callie" for short, and the "I" sounds like an "e" in that.

[@davidvvn]

@@LordSaliss In fairness it's not a common use word. I was an avid reader as a kid and ended up doing this a LOT, just because I encounter quite a few words that no one ever said to me.

[@LadyGrimnar]

i ended the video after that ngl

[@BobMcBobJr]

@@davidvvn I learned the word from Mechwarriors. The Calliope missile turrets hurt if you ignored them.

[@Dyanosis]

What's wrong with telling someone how to pronounce a word? Is it wrong to always be learning? Oh wait... it's the snowflake era. I forgot. Never mind, carry on and don't help anyone ever.

[@pluviasalutor1290]

Alright, I wasn't expecting the ASMR zombie sounds to travel from one side of my headphones to the other when you clicked on them odd, scared a bejeezus out of me lol.

[@eenayeah]

Your old TAB playthrough is one of the best playthroughs of *any* game on KZbin. I've watched it in its entirety 2 times by now. So entertaining.

[@FeyPrevesk]

I'm not sure this game even *had* a story last time I saw someone play it. This should be fun. :3

[@Zett76]

Nah. Campaign is nice, but survival is still the best the game has to offer. 🙂 Plus, the hero missions are annoying af. I play them with an activated trainer.

[@Jay-fy4zy]

I commented on the other video before i realized you started the campaign again. Beyond thrilled for this series! Thanks for doing it and being the inspiration for me buying and playing it myself. I will be following along on this one closely.

[@Thraith]

The infected never come from the train entrances or exits. They only come from the open areas on the map edge like the one you saw to the north. Just be on the lookout for an open area near a train entrance, though. You made short work of the first map so I think you chose the right difficulty. Until you do Cape Storm and the Lowlands, that is. :)

[@LMaloey]

Narrow Pass, easy peasy, Odd should go straight for that one

[@paulelderson934]

Ohh boy Cape Storm. I got absolutely blindsided by that one on my first playthrough

[@davidvvn]

@@paulelderson934 thing about cape storm is that it really only gets you once. Once you understand that the bridge will be a solid wall of zombies, you don't get fooled on thinking you have enough ever again.

[@paulelderson934]

@@davidvvn Nah, I got rekt again on high difficulty. Had to retry about 3 times to really get it right.

[@toplel9746]

u sure they don't come from the edges of the map from the train tracks? idk I think it happened to me once and from that then I put a lil wall just to be sure they attack it first lmao

[@JTGROT]

This is the first video of yours that I have seen and I am so stoked to watch this series!

[@0o0ification]

A fine vision for the campaign: "Always. Be. Rangerin'!" 24:00

[@DrownedInExile]

"Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen'!"

[@konradkurze1067]

Gotta say I loved this game so much back when you first played it that I bought it and played through myself. Getting that itch again now seeing you play this lol. This'll be a fun LP!

[@dwmarch]

Glad to see you doing another campaign! I think for the research tree it's probably best to get anything that boosts supplies and logistics early in the game but I certainly understand wanting more firepower too.

[@jonathanyoung6397]

Loved it! Just bought the game in the sale because of you and am having a blast with it. It’s got a great old school feel but is also refreshingly different at the same time. Subbed!

[@trlongwell]

For the beginners: First, don't spend tech points until you've completed any available hero mission. You get more choices. Second, make a beeline on the tech tree for Lucifers, then for shock towers. Lucifers trivialize horde encounters until quite late.

[@plectro3332]

I'm super excited for this playthrough. Quick tip for you: You can select multiple soldiers centres at once (e.g. with double click) and then produce rangers in all of them at once with a single click (I noticed you were clicking them individually for each soldiers centre)

[@Zett76]

Hehe. I have almost 3000 hours of experience, mastered all the maps on nightmare (some without pausing, some without casualties)... but THAT I only figured out a few weeks ago. **g**

[@peteE35]

Only just found you. Love they are billions. Would love to see a campaign run.

[@spewmuffin]

First time finding your channel was the original They Are Billions playthrough. I'm very excited to see you revisit this since I absolutely loved how you talked your way through the strategies while playing the game.

[@davidwhitfield6025]

I just finished watching your first playthrough of the campaign. Happy to see how you do it different this time.

[@DJwasHere66]

I've been around since your first run of Xcom. You helped me learn thay game when I was playing it on the Xbox 360! Haha

[@kvt1842]

Hell yeah, pack your stuff for Mayor Odd's settlements. We can also set control group for buildings such as the Soldiers Centre, etc. it does save a lot of clicks.

[@Ajjaxe]

I started watching your last campaign just to fill the time but now that we’ve got a new one I’m psyched to see how this one goes. Also congrats on the holiday hope you have a good time.

[@spazbog123]

Difficulty changes the number of zombies on the map (Including hero missions) and the number of zombies in each swarm (including the swarm only missions) and reduces the number of days to complete the mission objective and reduces the number of days in between swarms (on maps that have them). So it basically works the same as skirmish except the maps and resources don't change and you are limited to tech you have unlocked (and tech can exceed the normal skirmish mode tech - for example you can make soldiers so OP you forgo snipers).

[@Zett76]

Actually, difficulty only changes the number of zombies. Number of days is a different setting.

[@frankquist9601]

@@Zett76 For campaign or skirmish mode? Because I tested it yesterday and in campaign mode the difficulty setting does have an effect on the number of days

[@Zett76]

@@frankquist9601 I meant survival, and I was slightly wrong. There is number of enemies, and there is number of days, and together they produce a procentage of difficulty. I played survival for 1000s of hours. (currently trying to beat map 3 on nightmare&80days without casualties) Campaign only three times, or so. And yes, you're right. Higher difficulty changes the timespan in which the swarms appear.

[@andypmith5496]

I think I found the channel from when you first started They Are Billions years ago. It's pretty epic to see you return to it and relearn everything. The game is so unique and fun, but it's also chaotic and stressful at times.

[@ismaelledesma6467]

Been watching your let’s play series for years. Always happy to watch your uploads!

[@H2yprboy]

Never watched you before. Watched your skirmish of this game. Like the look of it. Started the campaign myself on the first mission. Ass handed to me at 100% three times. Dropped to 50% and was ok. Started hunters meadow at 50%. Creased me 3 times within the first 5 days. Huge attack force. Genuinely confused. So I’ll watch yours!!

[@R.J.Perry8641]

Yayy for campaign!! 🎉🥳👏🏾👏🏾

[@erictred4529]

Thank you Mr Odd! Easy thumbs up!

[@spoonlfc1784]

Never heard of this game but I loved this fair play. Guess my binge for the night is sorted haha

[@nick_4972]

This has to be in my top 10 favorite games ever. I love it so much. Damn shame they don't update it or make a sequel though.

[@Zett76]

Same here. It's to a point I think I might be addicted. 2000+ hours. 🙂

[@jakewilson5418]

excellent, well done. Looking forward to the next 50 episodes! I trust you to make the judgment on fast forwarding what you think :)

[@c.j.garner9772]

Such a good game! Can’t wait to see how difficult this campaign mode is!

[@AhmedAmineHomman]

Yes ! So glad to start this playlist !!

[@spacebumpkin1565]

So happy you’re playing this

[@nagashtheundyingking4404]

man i remember watching thru your entire playthru thru my summer job it saved me from so much boredom can't wait to see it again.

[@Ally2_]

What a pallet of colours ! Make my eyes shiny 😃

[@kingboomi2395]

Nice! I'm so pumped for story mode! I keep wanting to start a new one, but it's quite the investment! I don't think you can do the harder solo missions with the female character, she cant deal with the business men zombies! Looking forward to seeing how you build her up to make it possible!!

[@MrSticks42]

Very hyped for this series! Good luck on travel to Mexico, hope you enjoy your vacation

[@mattipaarni8594]

Great little start. Been following you for a while. I was looking for some more information about darkest dungeon, when that was released and stumbled upon your first playthrough. Been a subscriber ever since.

[@Sortoflegend]

"Laser beams, dudes, laser beams!" You might say that things are going to get lit.

[@miroz0181]

I clicked this video so hard, my phone went flying 😂

[@Drizz1717]

I'll rewatch this fron the start again 😅 Let's go

[@nicktart]

Woot Woot 🎉🙌🎉

[@CaptAoife]

This was a lot of fun. I hope you have a great vacation.

[@Valcorian]

Keep it going got Me hooked!!!

[@Kookamungaah]

"Can't always be concerned about resale..." LOL

[@SaveTheHiro]

Absolutely obliterated that poor woman's name! Callyope😂😂

[@Fazut]

This is going to be great. Have a great day!

[@allyrkj]

Stoked to see some of those later levels on brutal difficulty 😁

[@voiceovreason8690]

To this day, still my most played game on Steam! Wish they added more content or a TAB 2.

[@Zett76]

I love to see that I'm not alone. 😀 2-3000 hours, here... I would love to see an update. The game is perfectly balanced, the map creation too, I just want slightly more intelligent forces. Like them walking through infested area instead of walking through the colony, if it's shorter (I know, I kow, it can be easily avoided by setting waypoints, but every now and then it happens)... or assigning them to a group that stays together on chase mode. (and new units set to join the group, no matter where it is) Things like that.

[@TheLordSarek]

Oh yes...campaign. Let's go!!!!! Hehe stones 😂

[@oracleTan]

I started watching your videos years back when you played xcom

[@JellyWaltzov]

The algorithm be praised for popping this into my recommendations

[@tiagomarques9822]

It’s cull-EYE-oh-pea ;-) Love your channel, been a fan for several years now, and I love They Are Billions.

[@christianwest6635]

You should look at the patrol command cause all I could keep thinking about was one little zombie potentially sneaking over by the tracks

[@jaffapug9666]

That new campaign feeling, time to binge..!

[@solobg]

Nice selection of difficulty, 300% will be just right. We'll have plenty of drama. 500% will need particular choices in tech tree, knowing exactly what to do in missions up front, troop micromanage with animation cancel and so on. Speaking of animation cancel, definitely do it on hero missions. 'Q' - click, wait for first shot to go off and then keep holding Q and click-click-click - can wipe out whole train of runners running at you at straight line. Will make hero missions less tedious.

[@paulelderson934]

You don't need animation cancels on 500%, but it will be hard. The aggro radius is just insane. Definitely a lot more micro and Ctrl groups necessary than he's showing here. Hero missions are just plain annoying on 500% and higher imo.

[@commanderpower79]

Woooooooo!!! Thanks Odd!

[@gustaove]

26:05 at moments like these, you should grab a single ranger and start kiting so the others can shoot. works like a charm and you rarely will be sacrificing the kiting ranger

[@belfegorsv7570]

Dude I want see all missions, then find channel, hmmm good question, probably then been young and get the phone Great vidoe, keep it up

[@lostinbkk555]

Great you are playing this again

[@TTThedarkknight]

Hell YEAHH!!!! Campaign baby!

[@ojgfhuebsrnvn2781]

Love this game. I wish there were some DLC or second game. I've never played any difficulty than Apocalypse (so i saw how easier difficulties look like only from this video) and i really felt like game is intended to play that way, even though those hero missions were super long and super boring, and those crossroads missions (where you have to survive without building anything) were too difficult on apocalypse, first few basically required some luck. But main gameplay was awesome. After watching it, i might download it again. p.s. To other people who want to try it. I suggest playing 800% but play missions above on easiest one.

[@coolvery3018]

Have a settal vacation, ODD!! Well deserved, sir.

[@Sam-xd5oy]

having just done 800% here, the wave is sooner, number on map is higher and the trickle in is more of a constant stream. i wouldnt recommend it, im going to drop the difficulty

[@ChristopherOdd]

Okay maybe I'll try to meet you in the middle at 500% ;)

[@Sam-xd5oy]

@@ChristopherOdd you are much better then me at this game so im sure you have got it. and ill enjoy watching

[@donkeysunited]

Yes, the game says there is no difference in difficulties but there is - you get a shorter number of days to complete and higher population requirements, the swarms come quicker and there are more enemies, including extra giants and mutants when they eventually appear. And giants have more HP.

[@philiprioux7767]

Found the channel 6 years ago. I suggest you put the tactical missions and road swarms on easy. For difficulty, zombies have more health, attack strength, agro range, and numbers.

[@Wolfsheim23]

I really want to see him do the Swarms on this difficulty level. Like the one to the mines. I can't seem to do it on Challenging with only 970 resources. All the videos that show it done are with nearly 1400 resources.

[@Tokanya]

I forget how hard this game was when I quite it long ago. so I start a new campaign after you reboot this series. Damn, the game is hard.

[@paulelderson934]

Always Be Clearing, don't get cocky and food is power. And you can never have a big enough soldier ball.

[@laverdieremath]

Calliope = Kuh lai un pee Loved the earlier video, want wait to see the campaign!

[@marcpaulus6291]

lay and pee? then i prefer Odds version.

[@dinoking6338]

This is what we needed!

[@theaspomer5089]

Yes! So happy for this

[@TitaniumLegman]

Oh man this is gonna be so good.

[@julien116]

Great Game, THX odd!

[@AtomicJohn]

A single city is the entire "Empire"? Where does it get the food that people eat and water that people drink? Where does it get the resources it needs to repair buildings, make clothing, etc?

[@alexletiny5155]

I think its designed to be fully self suataining with very little expeditions cuz YA know THEY ARE STUCK IN A CRATER

[@michaelray3865]

Remember, train logistics comes in handy, wasps are very useful, soldier upgrades make life even possible until you start acquiring snipers and later units, and mutants and not worth it, at least the way you play them (those need SUCH a large amount of micro-management).

[@miketogwell1000]

Recently did the campaign, prioritised getting eye of beholder on the tech free asap You can double click a recruitment building to select all of them for bulk recruitment Also check/read the little signposts as you explore the map

[@KitsuneOfKamis]

I remember fucking up on this map by clearing it...but not going over the bridge where the swarm came from and ate my colony.

[@alexstauffer3359]

They really missed a trick with the campaign. Tactical missions should have awarded tech rather than just points like normal. And it feels like that was going to be the case: unlock soldiers and snipers by completing the weapons factory, tesla turrets and power plants from the power research facility, etc. But then they didn't.

[@SenjaiYT]

Hey! We successfully peer pressured you! WOOO PEEER PRESSUREEEEEEE

[@rodmarker2071]

Always a 👍👍 from me

[@lewandowski1313]

I will end up playing this thanks to you haha

[@zachlundvall3550]

It's back baby

[@bsherder]

I remember the story. I had hoped at some point the emperor would be killed. Treated the hero like he was a pos.

[@roymclaughlin7048]

I tried this on apocalypse difficulty and barely lasted to the wave. Was getting overrun behind my walls by the railroad with almost 40 rangers and I was constantly drawing swarms to me.

[@ohmyfaceify]

Campaign! Hell yeah! 😎👍

[@senditall152]

I am suprised I did not know the campaign has this much in it. Hero perks, research a lot of cool stuff.

[@DariusSinclair]

The voice for the ranger sounds like Dora 2’s Phantom Assassin.

[@Daniel-Lonsdale]

Hey Odd Gears Of War Tactics has new difficulties and enemy's and allies if you liked that game also.

[@alejandromoguel5739]

Im not sure how long ago you uploaded this video, but we have a huracan right now on cancun lol

[@delphidelion]

The campaign progression you described is standard for most rts?

[@purcelash1]

I know you love TaB But you should check Age of Darkness too and there was a another game in a future/vs aliens setting but i forgot the name :(