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We already fought our way into one city only to turn right back around. A.
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Oct 4, 2018 22:05
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A.
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Oct 4, 2018 22:30
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A Let's focus on our Caravan.
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Oct 4, 2018 22:43
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Oh, it's come up a couple of times now - Pillage mode only activates when a side is reduced to one fighter. If a side only starts with one, Pillage won't activate and that one fighter will get every turn. You can do it any time you like by only bringing one hero to a battle, which will make that hero very powerful but your side as a whole rather fragile if you don't have the mobility to dodge every attack.
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Oct 4, 2018 23:18
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People still disrespecting Alette like she can't overwatch their entire army to death by herself.
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Oct 4, 2018 23:25
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A - we need to survive long enough to maybe possibly last long enough while Juno, Eyvind and Iver stop the darkness, and we probably have a better chance of that within the walls, with the varl definitely on our side.
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Oct 4, 2018 23:59
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A I have a feeling that the other option is going to result in a lot of death regardless.
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Oct 5, 2018 03:50
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A.
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Oct 5, 2018 04:12
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B Because Rugga is an rear end in a top hat, but he is actually a competent rear end in a top hat.
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Oct 5, 2018 04:17
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Save Everyone We will all go down fighting and die, but we will die together.
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Oct 5, 2018 04:19
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A Rugga is a competent rear end in a top hat, but he's also a power-hungry competent rear end in a top hat. We also tried to drop him thousands of feet to his death, so I can't imagine trusting him would go well.
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Oct 5, 2018 05:03
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A
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Oct 5, 2018 05:06
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wedgekree posted:Save Everyone Ogre Banner: Let Us Cling Together
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Oct 5, 2018 05:08
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B These people need help, and I'm sure Hakon will trust Alette.
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Oct 5, 2018 07:19
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A It's a bit out of character for Alette, but I don't trust Rugga at all. And sometimes you have to make the hard decisions.
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Oct 5, 2018 07:58
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A lot of characters are blue and yellow, come to think of it.
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Oct 5, 2018 08:46
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B
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Oct 5, 2018 10:01
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Doctor Reynolds posted:A lot of characters are blue and yellow, come to think of it. To me, Rugga seems to be the most Blue and Yellow. Unless blue and yellow is meant to be literally the color blue and yellow, and not as a metaphor.
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Oct 5, 2018 11:48
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Tryggvi could also have been talking total bollocks with that line. It's hard to tell with him. Better start building a dungpile.
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Oct 5, 2018 12:48
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Tenebrais posted:Oh, it's come up a couple of times now - Bellower in the final battle back in 1 was also functionally immune to pillage. E: by which I mean, pillage mode would activate but Bellower's passive would still grant him an immediate turn after taking damage Omobono fucked around with this message at 13:29 on Oct 5, 2018 |
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Oct 5, 2018 13:26
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Typos fixed in the last 2 posts; thanks again. VOTE CLOSED. We will side with King Meinolf.
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Oct 5, 2018 22:58
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UPDATE 28: IN FEAR QUAKE ALL Per your vote, we're going to side with King Meinolf. The 2000 members of our caravan will find safety. The thousands more outside the walls, well...you can't save everyone.   : My banner, my people, are my only concern. Hey, that worked out well.  Sorry, Rugga. I tried to drop you in a ravine earlier, by the way.  Without warning, Rugga pulls his cloak pin dagger and lunges at King Meinolf who shifts slightly, the blade only piercing his side. We lose about 200 clansmen, fighters, and varl to Rugga's ambush. It's avoidable--if we'd set up defenses with Hakon instead of going to confront the people harassing our horseborn and varl. But I didn't know we were going to side with Rugga so I took the choice that'd get me something useful either way y'all voted. Before anyone can react, Rugga slinks behind his fighters who are charing you, Hakon, and King Meinolf. "Everyone to the walls!" you shout. "Protect the king and the varl!" Hakon nods his appreciation just before the clamor of war envelops you both. Also, had we sided with Rugga here, Hakon would've pulled his banner from ours. Alette did just get done telling Hakon "no matter, what, protect your people," and that means fighting Alette in order to get to the safety of Arberrang's walls. Then we'd have had to fight (I don't think kill, but we can experiment with that when we reach the end of the saga and start doing alternate choices) Hakon, Ludin, Yrsa, and so on. Worth noting: if Ludin is dead at this point in the game, Meinolf doesn't offer the varl safety behind his walls. In which case siding with Rugga is the choice that keeps Hakon on your side.  It's time to level Egil to 8 (we don't have the renown for it, but I at least want to get him started) so that he can use that awesome new item. We select "Guts" as his second ability, as shown here. It's Ekkill's special move, but Ekkill died a while ago and since we didn't recruit him you never got to see it.  Canary, meanwhile, joins at level 8. She has a max of 16 strength and can attack from range. That's, uh...really good. But her stat distribution is pretty crappy and until we can get her to 10 she's not going to be as strong as I would like.   : Just a flesh wound...though I feel...odd. Depths take Rugga! Rally the troops! Meinolf and his guards depart, leaving us to deal with Rugga's fighters. Note how other folks are already doing this on the sidelines. And some poor guardsman got impaled on a post.  Nothing of particular note here. The enemy is a bunch of kragsmen and raiders, with Dagr leading them. He has unspectacular stats.  The worst kragsmen units are their spearmen and archers. Neither of which are here; we're fine.  Hakon one-shots this backbiter. Crit on varl is pretty ridiculous.  Alette is overwatching anything that comes down the center, and Hakon is just regularly one-shotting anything that tries to come up the flanks.  Dagr dies trying to hit Aleo. Alette gives him a face full of overwatch for his trouble. We clean up the rest without much issue.  By the time your caravan is inside Arberrang's outer wall, the gate is mostly compromised. Rugga's forces are on your heels, and they brought bears. But Rugga had more than just that handful of fighters. He was serious about starting a war to get into Arberrang. And now that we're in Arberrang that means we have to repel an army.  Screw the tactics, obviously. Not letting anyone else get killed. : You heard him! Charge!The roar of battle swells to deafening levels. You focus on the drum beat that is your heart, ready your weapon, and push forward to deliver death.  At long last, Egil isn't just completely defensive. Since Guts does strength damage plus 1 tile per square moved, we'll max his ample strength out. We also maxed out his armor break and gave him the deflect talent--now in addition to his shield wall he can just ignore some armor attacks anyway.  The wall isn't holding.  It's really worth pointing out all the effort they went into for this background.  The drawn map is much larger than where we'll actually fight.  The outside of Arberrang is already a killing field of peasants, raiders, bears, kragsmen, horseborn...it's a mess.  It's like a Where's Waldo of of everything going to hell.  We've got peasants behind our barricades that we need to try and save. These are our bannermen.  The fight itself has 3 scary units: the 2 war bears and the spearman in the middle, "Urmas Bearlord." The bears are largely immune to Alette's overwatch, too. It only knocks back on strength attacks of 3 or more, and because bears have the ability to take armor damage before strength starts to decline, she can't knock them back. Meaning Egil's gonna have to do some work this battle.  Also we get King Meinolf and one of his guards as controllable. Meinolf is poisoned and will take 1 strength damage per turn. I don't know what happens if he goes down in this fight nor do I care to find out. He'll stay well out of the fray.  Given that you have a status called "Rugga's Poison," I'm gonna go with "yes." : Protect the king! Urmas has other ideas.  He tries to use pig sticker on Egil, but I mean...the kid tanked Bellower. You think he's gonna let some dumb kragsman do damage?  Unfortunately, Egil doesn't get the attention of the other bear, who goes for Ro'Ech instead. That's fine, though: Ro'Ech can move after attacking so he can do some hit and run.  A wounded Ro'Ech also makes a great target for Aleo's "tale worth telling" ability, and I move Ro'Ech out of harm's way. The bear will need to close ranks to hurt him, and with this much missing armor, an Alette overwatch shot will proc a large enough puncture bonus to nullify him.  Like so.  Alette has Lucky Shot, but it doesn't always work. The heavy-armored Urmas walks right past Egil, shrugs off Alette's overwatch, and puts a hurt on Hakon.  Hakon, wounded as he may be, returns the favor.   Guts does damage AND knockback. If the knockback moves someone through overwatch range, Alette will take a shot. Like so. So the young couple have their first teamkill.  Canary has the flank dealt with just fine. She poisons anything that gets too close.  Egil uses Guts to finish off the last combatant.  : Brave fighting out there, but...you should...King Meinolf is panting and bracing himself on a knee while grabbing his side where Rugga stabbed him.  His hand gestures to a great many things before he gasps and falls to the ground. Menders arrive and take him away. WELP.   : I'm...I'm glad we're still alive through all of this, but...: I know.: We fought so hard to get here. For what?: Even making it inside Arberrang's walls feels hollow now.: It wasn't supposed to be like this. We were going to save everybody.: At least Hakon and the varl are still with us.Oddleif's eyes look as empty as you feel as she slowly glances around. : What now?: Now? I'd really like to find some place to fall asleep and wake up to discover this was all a bad dream.Oddleif nods her agreement. : But we've got to prepare for Rugga's retaliation. He'll keep trying to get in. And then there's the Darkness. Juno said we have to hold out until they finish what they set out to do. : She said to hold on until the Darkness breaks.: Until the...they are going to stop that Darkness themselves? Oddleif seems to take strength from your resolve. She takes a deep breath and her eyes focus on a man running toward you.  Tolir was where Alette (and Rugga) both sent scouts to in order to resupply after the disaster in the Old Wood. Now we know what happened to them.  And who in particular was responsible.  But we'll have to deal with Canary's likely betrayal later, because it's time for a POV switch!  The darkness has crept even closer. Now half the Old Wood is in it.  Wait, Iver? What happened to Bolverk? Bolverk and Zefr were going to Manaharr. Iver was supposed to be stopping the Darkness with Eyvind and Juno...  Outside the tower of Manaharr, purple lightning is streaking everywhere.  Inside the tower of Manaharr, it's mostly streaking all over this poor Valka.  Eyvind has a new staff. It seems, uh...a lot more powerful than his last one.  And Eyvind seems a LOT angrier than we've ever seen him.  There's another dead Valka over there in the corner. What has Eyvind done?   : We hoped Valka Dusi wouldn't be foolish enough to attack us. : We hoped you would see reason. : Reason, yes. What was your reason...for breaking the world?  : You didn't tell me all of this was your fault.Juno looks at you but says nothing. : You've recruited Yngvar, yet...kept him ignorant of your actions? : Even you have no idea what you're talking about, Dusi.: Call it...call it a hunch, but whatever is breaking this world...stems from the source of our weaving. You, Juno, were sentenced to death for...for manipulating minds. You knew it was forbidden.Valka Dusi coughs and small flecks of blood hit the stone floor. : But you were helping Eyvind to...what? Become a god?Juno says nothing, her anger apparent. : Become a god? This doesn't make any sense.: And now this...Darkness. Eyvind...what did you unleash to bring her back?Eyvind gasps and looks strained. A few stones drop from the walls. : Our cause broke Council laws, but that does not make it wrong. You could have realized the importance of our work. You should have.: And you two should have stopped...stopped your curiosities when the council warned you. You'd still have your life. Have each other. Do you even see what you've become?Juno's confidence vanishes at the question. You have never seen a Valka's tears before now. : And the varl - are you threatening to control his mind too? If I were you, Yngvar, I'd--The large door to the Valka's Hall shakes from a great impact, then shatters.  What's this, then? BGM: THREADS UNWEAVE  Oh, hell. There's Bolverk. And at the worst possible time. The floor and walls are now glowing, floating, and breaking apart. Another Valka enters the room. She looks concerned for the barely conscious Dusi and mortified by Juno.  Bolverk's rage is consuming him and he is spitting more than speaking. : Is that Bellower's faen body?: Not just his body, I fear. Bolverk's mind is...not his own.Bolverk looks at you and his eyes go wide before a cold hatred settles into his stare.  : And I know you've lost your drat mind. : I've seen things from the other side. The dredge lives warped and ruined by the two you stand with. They lay waste to everything they're near!: Bolverk, I can exp-- : No!The fear in her voice is infinite. Eyvind reacts to her by screaming, and the whole tower pulses with crackling energy, shaking violently. : Iver, I'll help Eyvind and hold off Dusi. Kill Bolverk! You're the only one who can!Bolverk growls deeply and stands to his full height, brandishing his axes. He looks stronger than ever.  You step forward, but feel the air thicken around you for a moment, stopping you. Then, it suddenly releases its grip. : No, Zefr! Now, you will do as I say!The Valka Zefr looks shocked by Juno's control, but you waste no time in charging Bolverk. You slam your head into him with tremendous force, sending him reeling across the room.  This is the final battle of The Banner Saga 2: a 1v1 duel between Iver and Bolverk. Both characters have whatever stats and items that they ended their previous chapters with. Iver, thanks to Juno being a mind-controlling crazy, has a passive assist from Zefr. Zefr will cast Breeze on Iver so that he can freely move around the battlefield. If we hadn't gotten Zefr to level 6, she'd cast Runic Gale instead--which is not nearly as helpful--and in fact is actively detrimental if Bolverk gets to the tiles first. If you failed to level up Iver, or had a monstrously powerful Bolverk, this fight can be nearly unwinnable. We did not fail to level up Iver, and Bolverk is merely regular levels of powerful because we lost enough fights that I could never comfortably get him to level 10 and put a Clasp of Kyn on him. He's dangerous with the Gem of Vez'nan: if he gets in the first strike he's very likely to crit. But because Iver has Breeze, there is a 0% chance of Bolverk getting in the first strike. We are going to kill him.  Oh, Bolverk has the "Bellower's Dream" passive: which restores 4 strength and 4 armor per round. That's...extremely dangerous. But we can get around it.   : For all of my people who fell to your schemes, you will pay! He roars, and we see the ghost of Bellower. : All YOUR people?: Zefr is under my control, but Bolverk is possessed by Bellower!: Bellower? Seems I'll get payback for my arm after all!: Raze and thousands of others will be avenged! As Bolverk and Iver close the distance, little lightning square appear. Eyvind can't control his powers--the field is going to have stray lightning strikes every turn.  This really does make the difference.  Because Iver can walk wherever he wants, he is at zero risk of hitting lightning. If you can knock Bolverk into lightning (using Battering Ram), it'll cause him to take damage and remove the Bellower passive. He'll still want to kill us, but he won't be doing it with 4/4 regen. If we didn't have that degree of mobility, we'd be in a lot of trouble and the fight would be a coinflip. Or perhaps favor Bellower.  Iver headbuts Bolverk into a lightning strike.  It does very little damage, but it removes his monstrously powerful buff.  He crits Iver for 2 damage--no matter.  Iver uses 3 exertion points, crits, and one-shots Bolverk, killing him.  I don't know if he actually dropped the Gem of Vez'Nan or if it's a weird artifact from Survival Mode. If it's in our party next game I guess we'll know one way or the other.  Beating Bolverk/Bellower is something of a pyrrhic victory, though.  Well, at least we're rid of Bellower. He can go have not-dead dreams at the bottom of the ocean.  Meanwhile, Eyvind has completely lost control.  Going for the Bilbo Baggins crazy eyes.  He's really angry, has a powerful new staff, and is completely out of control.  In a powerful scream that'd make a saiyan jealous, Eyvind glows with purple light.  And the Tower of Manaharr, a magical wonder of construction akin to the bridge of Einartoft...  Is no more.  Alette begins narrating. : In a flash, threads unwind. : Our intentions gone, our fates laid bare. : We are forced to change, pulled in new directions.  : For good or ill, we cannot know. : How far do the echoes of our struggles reach? What can we expect from our efforts in this breaking world? : Our answers... : ...the reasons for our journey... : ...lay just beyond these walls. ...and that's a wrap for the middle chapter. We've reached the finale of the trilogy. A lot happened in that last update: 1.) No wonder Iver wandered to the easternmost point of the map. Every damned Valka recognizes him by sight. 2.) We have confirmation that this is all Eyvind and Juno's fault. Well, mostly Eyvind's. Juno was just doing something shady when it came to mind control. Eyvind brought her back to life, and that's when all hell broke loose. 3.) Juno and Eyvind got something (maybe that staff?) from the Tower of Manaharr, and now Juno is interacting with the expanding globe of Darkness that is surely going to kill everything if left unchecked. 4.) Juno is strong enough to mind control another Valka with ease. 5.) Bolverk's alive again. Sorta. The maimed Serpent brought him back to some form of life. Whether he's himself, controlled by Bellower, controlled by the Serpent, or some combination of the three is unknown. 6.) King Meinolf is poisoned and never had a plan to deal with any of this anyway. 7.) Rugga is very much alive and will likely try to breach Arberrang with the tens of thousands outside the city. 8.) I think Canary is "yellow and blue" and lied to us. She almost certainly is responsible for killing all our scouts before we met her. In conclusion, everything is bad! But not as bad as it could have been. The game doesn't end if Iver loses his duel to Bellower/Bolverk. It just means that you have to flee the Tower of Manaharr in a hurry--and don't get a chance to throw Bellower into the ocean. So when Bolverk awakens in the rubble, he yanks out Bellower's arrow and revives the immortal Sundr. FairGame fucked around with this message at 13:24 on Oct 6, 2018 |
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Oct 6, 2018 01:54
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FairGame posted:In conclusion, everything is bad! But not as bad as it could have been. The game doesn't end if Iver loses his duel to Bellower/Bolverk. It just means that you have to flee the Tower of Manaharr in a hurry--and don't get a chance to throw Bellower into the ocean. So when Bolverk awakens in the rubble, he yanks out Bellower's arrow and revives the immortal Sundr. That seems like a pretty major difference. Are things going to be bad enough now that whether Bellower is up and about doesn't really matter much?
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Oct 6, 2018 02:35
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They probably could've spent a couple more boxes on that twist with Tolir and Canary. I had no idea what Tolir was when I got here, and I saw plenty of confusion online at the time. Would've been a better cliffhanger for the Aberrang caravan for me if I knew what they were talking about.
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Oct 6, 2018 02:44
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ultrafilter posted:That seems like a pretty major difference. Are things going to be bad enough now that whether Bellower is up and about doesn't really matter much? It matters. Not to the extent that it locks us out from certain endings, but enough that I am REALLY glad not to have to deal with Bellower next game. In my Rook game I didn’t really use Iver and he was like level 5. Bolverk was 10 with the clasp of kyn. And I didn’t have Breeze on Zefr. Bolverk made quick work of Iver and things were NOT GREAT for me.
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Oct 6, 2018 02:51
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aegof posted:They probably could've spent a couple more boxes on that twist with Tolir and Canary. I had no idea what Tolir was when I got here, and I saw plenty of confusion online at the time. Would've been a better cliffhanger for the Aberrang caravan for me if I knew what they were talking about. Yeah, same. I honestly only recognized the name because I’ve had to type out all the dialogue. Definitely didn’t recognize it when I played the first time. Given that Canary has an animated cutscene and I’m guessing Triggacanthae was part of her herd, I think the horseborn were supposed to play a larger role in the game than they actually did.
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Oct 6, 2018 02:55
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"Let's possess" and this LP is eerily apropos
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Oct 6, 2018 03:44
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Kind of a less... impressive ending than the first one? I get they were probably more interested in setting up the third game with a cliffhanger but the Rook/Alette funeral was way more effective to me.
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Oct 6, 2018 05:35
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I'm very glad that we won that fight against Bolverk! What was Eyvind doing the whole time? Trying to hold back the Darkness? I really hope Juno and Eyvind don't get off scot free, just because they (presumably) help fix the mess they cause. Also, that's a lot more of a cliffhanger than BS1. Which kind of makes sense, you want your first game to be relatively self contained in case you don't make a second one, but they must have planned to make BS3 before they finished BS2.
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Oct 6, 2018 05:37
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Great job! Looking forward to Banner Saga 3, I know nothing about it!
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Oct 6, 2018 05:43
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FairGame posted:Because Iver can walk wherever he wants, he is at zero risk of hitting lightning. If you can knock Bolverk into lightning (using Battering Ram), it'll cause him to take damage and remove the Bellower passive. He'll still want to kill us, but he won't be doing it with 4/4 regen. oh son of a bitch
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Oct 6, 2018 08:43
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Scaramouche posted:Kind of a less... impressive ending than the first one? I get they were probably more interested in setting up the third game with a cliffhanger but the Rook/Alette funeral was way more effective to me. The second part of a trilogy never has as good an ending as the first, but in the particular case of the Banner Saga the first game easily has the best ending. I think it's the big swell of music that really makes it. So, my theory at this point was that Eyvind had bodily pulled Juno out of the afterlife and left a hole through which it was leaking into the real world. The darkness has a similar colour profile to the shots of the afterlife at the end of the first game.
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Oct 6, 2018 11:47
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FairGame posted:
Yeah, looking forward to BS3. Xander77 fucked around with this message at 12:24 on Oct 6, 2018 |
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Oct 6, 2018 12:20
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Motherfuckers the dead should stay dead 
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Oct 6, 2018 12:56
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What did you do Eyvind and Juno? Were they trying to bring the gods back, or replace them?
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Oct 6, 2018 13:45
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Astroclassicist posted:What did you do Eyvind and Juno? Were they trying to bring the gods back, or replace them? Better question is, what didn't they do that hosed things up? How much power do these wizards have?
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Oct 6, 2018 15:56
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UPDATE 29: THE TRUE HERO COMES RELUCTANTLY BGM: STEPS, INTO MEMORY Well, we're here. We've reached the end of the world. The Banner Saga 3 was backed on Kickstarter, and even though it seems like it did pretty well, I've seen an interview where they said they had to scrap 7 months of work. I think they didn't get a chance to do quite as much as they wanted to. It's still an incredibly solid game, and in my opinion a satisfying conclusion to the Saga. The music and art and story are still top-notch. Just...some places feel a little short. In terms of text, this is by far the biggest game of the series. In terms of playtime, it's the shortest--a lot of that text is contingent upon a branching storyline. I suspect that's part of the problem here: their actually making choices matter means that by the time you're two games deep into the series, you're doing a lot of development work for things that only a small segment of your players will ever see. They just released Survival Mode (I'll show it off for both 2 and 3 when we get done with all of this) so I'm hoping they maybe do a little DLC or something. I'm going to do a bit of save editing to make sure we see as much as we can in our playthrough. There's a design decision here that I really don't agree with, and I'll elaborate more when we get to it. Still, if ever you wanted to play a game where you dread every decision and fear for your characters, this is the game for you. They nailed it with the drama, and every death here is even more gutting than before. But maybe we can do this without anyone dying! It's...possible...I suppose. As with the previous game, there's a recap video for anyone interested. I suggest watching it. PREVIOUSLY, ON THE BANNER SAGA...  Our title card. Eyvind, you look like hell. I guess going crazy and destroying the Tower of Manaharr took a lot out of you.  As with before, we can start a new game. But why would we do that? This is Alette's journey.  I apologize that I can't link you to the opening video. The only place I've found it is in a "all videos in The Banner Saga" clip, and you'll blow straight into spoilertown if I link there. : We were as far from safety as we could have been; me, Rook, and Alette, in our small town of Skogr. : So much has changed since then. : We travelled the length of the world to escape serpents and dredge, and still it was not enough. : What I do now is madness.  : Somewhere in the darkness, I've been told, lurks an answer to all our desperate questions. : I will make sure it sees the light of day. All I care about now is that the friends - no, the family I fought to deliver to Arberrang - live to see the sun move again.Since it's not totally obvious from the screenshots: looks like Iver, Juno, and Eyvind caught up with the surviving Ravens at the Old Ford. Juno did something to the globe of darkness, which opened up a passage. She cast some sort of light spell that allowed the small band into the darkness. If you've ever played Mass Effect 2's suicide mission, it's a lot like the part where Samara/Jack/A STUPID CHOICE does the biotic bubble to keep you safe from the seeker swarms.  As always, though, we're not going to get to see the journey immediately. It's time to see what Alette's up to. BGM: THE TRUE HERO COMES RELUCTANTLY  The darkness creeps ever closer to Arberrang.   : Already? How?You're exhausted. Though the King has given you sanctuary in Arberrang, it came with a condition: do your part to repel the siege at the walls. A siege being waged not by dredge, but a man you helped escape from Boersgard: Rugga. : Rugga's loyalists are already back, and they've got a battering ram! Alette? ...we don't need the "I've never played this game before" choice. : If we were still out there, we'd be fighting the same war they are.: There have to be other ways. Attacking the city you want protection from makes no sense! There's thousands of refugees out there, but these's only one reason they're waging a war.: Rugga. : And he watches safely from a war tent while his bannermen assault the gates.: That man poisons everything he touches. He's tried to take the throne in Arberrang before, the rumor goes. I almost can't blame the king for leaving him to the crows.: But the rest of them don't deserve to suffer for it.You hear a chorus of shouts from the gates, and a resounding creaking of wood. Arberrang's guards rush to their stations. : They've broken through the front gate!: Hurry! We can't let them get a foothold. And so immediately, we're thrown into the fray. Except...holy crap everyone is level 8 if they weren't there before. The level cap for The Banner Saga 3 is 15. Anyone that was lower than level 8 gets promoted to level 8 (though their stat points are unallocated). Unfortunately, anyone who had a CHOICE of abilities at level 6 has their ability chosen for them. This is why I leveled Gunnulf and Hakon to 6 last game: it gives Hakon forge ahead (instead of tempest) and Gunnult sundering impact (instead of forge ahead). We want as many people capable of spinning and giving extra turns as possible. So our Hakon and Gunnulf are properly statted. Mogr got kind of a rubbish skill, but with Egil still alive we don't really need him tanking. The archers leveled weirdly; only Yrsa is particularly good now with her normal Slag and Burn + Bird of Prey (attack from distance). Oh, and the bug with horseborn is resolved so we can bring any horseborn we want into battle and not worry about them missing abilities.  Also, now Ludin has a full beard. And pretty darn good stats to be honest. We give him the dodge armor and dodge strength talents--if he's going to stay alive he's going to need to just get some lucky misses here and there.  Yrsa's whole thing is just slagging and burning everything, which means she needs a lot of willpower. This'll do. Nothing really else to report on the existing characters. So let's check out Alette...  Alette can now level to 11. And "choose a heroic title." This is the new leveling stuff of BS3. Just as 2 brought "talents," now we have heroic titles.  Heroic titles are incredibly powerful bonuses that you can only give to one hero in the campaign. If that hero dies, so too does the title. Our choices:  I'll let you all vote on some of these, but with Alette's Overwatch we are taking Bloodletter on her. It's a no brainer. Now she'll not only attack anything that comes into range, but she'll put a bleed effect on it.  Death's Messenger: works great on things that attack multiple times per turn. Oddleif's Rain of Arrows, Oli's Axe Storm, and either thrasher brother's Bloody Flail are perhaps the best choices here.  Monster Killer should go on someone who gets a lot of kills. Unwritten, but VERY IMPORTANT: the strength bonus here can go over your normal cap. It's entirely possible to have a Monster Killer get stronger and stronger the longer a battle goes.  Oath-Maker: good for anyone that does fighting AND relies on willpower. A spearman or archer might be a good choice here.  The Foolish: Good for anyone who wades into the fray AND can somehow avoid being hit. We could possibly make this work on Folka. Or we could give it to one of our Tempest varl and just pray that they can dodge retaliatory strikes.  The Forsaken: This one's good for someone who attacks from distance with a lot of willpower. Seems like a good archer or female horseborn title.  The Hopeful: This one doesn't do much for the unit itself, but anyone standing next to it gets some powerful bonuses. Seems like a natural fit for Egil.  The Last Standing: Good for anyone who falls in battle a lot so we can avoid the injury penalty. But honestly, this is not a great title.  The Mountain: Good for anyone on the front lines. Strength resist is always good, and the additional strength and armor is helpful too.  The Unbent: Great for anyone on the front lines. No additional stats, but also has nothing to fear from poison, fire, drumfire, warped dredge willpower strikes, and so on. Likely best used for someone who needs to stay alive for a LONG time.  The Unmoved: A more combat-oriented version of The Unbent.  The Whisper: Great for avoiding attacks (if even you get attacked). Most useful on a unit that needs to not get attacked. You'd think that'd mean "put this on your soft archers," but you can keep archers from being attacked by just putting them in the back lines. As ridiculous as it sounds, The Whisper is best deployed on a tempest varl so he can start putting the hurt on enemies without worrying about retaliation.  The Wolf: Trades a bit more damage for the dodge chance of The Whisper. Largely the same best use case applies though.  Twice Born: Gives you a get out of death free card. Best used for someone who doesn't need stats to be effective. A thrasher with high dodge or a mender is a good choice here.  Behold, Alette the Bloodletter. All who face her shall despair. (I only put 1 point into the title for now. I don't need to spend the renown for Rank 5 and you'll see why in a moment.)  Back to the walls so we can repel this attack. Canary's still in our party, so whatever happened at the end of The Banner Saga 2 doesn't seem to've been a betrayal.  Worth noting that not all the varl were following Hakon. Things have gone enough to hell that stragglers to Arberrang never got through the walls and they want in. Desperately.  And they have a siege engine.  The enemies are pretty threatening, but nothing is really threatening thanks to Alette. I picked some bad units, though. I'm going to keep them behind the barricades thanks to Overwatch knockback, meaning all my melee units will be kind of bored.  I eventually get tired of waiting and send Ludin and Aleo out to finish things off.  It almost worked, if not for you. The enemy pulls back, leaving you amongst the groans of wounded and dying.  "No more," she swears, dashing off toward Rugga's war tent across the battlefield. The retreating and tired enemy are slow to respond. "Odd, stop!" you shout, to deaf ears. The others give you a quick look before chasing after her, expecting the worst.  Oddleif is forced into our war party. No matter. We'll drop Canary for her. BGM: ENCIRCLED WOLVES   : If you wanted to talk, you could have asked. The enemy backbiter knocks over the brazier, starting a fire.  Egil dashes forward--we need to get away from that fire.  Because it spreads REALLY quickly--quick enough that Hakon can't even get out of the way before his turn starts.  Ludin impales a raider and kicks him back into the flames.  Egil, though? With his new item that gives aggro AND strength resist, he can stand in fire all day and not take damage. He uses Guts to knock more raiders through flame. Screw his stone wall. He can tank without the ability now.  Unfortunately, Hakon is taking things badly this fight. That fire damage really put him off on the wrong foot.  Hakon goes down a moment before Ludin impales the last raider. All with Rugga watching calmly.  Well, at least nobody died.  Come on, this isn't even a choice. His nose crumples beneath your fist like a dry leaf, and he falls to a knee, groaning. Oddleif keeps an arrow pointed at his bristling clansmen, who move aside as you lead a bloodied, gasping Rugga to the guards at the gate. Rugga is clapped in chains, and you wait. You spend a long, silent period with Oddleif. "I'd do it again," she finally whispers, referring to her reckless attack on Rugga's tent. Hours later, a message arrives. The gates are slowly drawn open, to your great surprise.  : Welcomes? After all this killing?  : You have my attention, for dealing with Rugga. It seems your reputation has some truth to it. King Meinolf has personally asked for you to be his honored guest. I've been ordered to escort you to a gathering at the great hall, along with this cur.  : Good to see you too, Petrus. A captain, now? You've been busy. : What made the king decide to open the gates to everyone?: I can't speak for King Meinolf, but if these people had never joined banners with this snake, they'd have found safety a lot sooner.: Another of Meinolf's lies.: That reminds me, I need to find a gag. King Meinolf will speak to you...both...when we reach the great hall. And do me a favor: I've got enough to deal with, ushering in all these new refugees... And so after all that, Rugga is back inside the walls of the city he once tried to take control of. In chains, and with a broken nose. But inside. (Had we sided with Rugga, we'd have led the charge on the gates instead of repelled one.) Either way, we end up outside the gates and Petrus has to let us in because Meinolf has a change of heart when it comes to the refugees.  Arberrang's outer ring is...crowded. : Look at how many people there are already!: There's about to be a whole lot more.: I don't care for how many looks we're getting. His mother grabs him by the arm, blurting apologies. A man with a short banner of his own approaches. "Excuse my wife and son," he says. "There isn't anyone in Arberrang who hasn't heard of you."  : Any allies are welcome in these times.The man claps you on the shoulder, and many other clans promise to sew their banners to yours as you travel towards the great hall. This gets us 100 more clansmen and 10 more fighters. Also: all the portraits in this section are from kickstarter backers that threw a TON of money at the game.   It's looting, but heck. We're the only thing standing between this city and complete chaos. Might as well try to make ourselves stronger. Here and there a piece of someone's old life catches your eye.  Good lord, what luck. All 3 of these items are incredibly good. You've seen the Clasp of Kyn and The Blackfish before. Yrsa's gonna use The Blackfish, we'll put the Clasp of Kyn on our first non-Alette level 10 (+3 talent ranks is REALLY strong), and the Miniature Carving gives a ton of break and strength resist.  We're probably not going to get a chance to resupply anymore, so we burn out all our renown at the store. There will be chances for more renown.  : Keep your eyes open. Some of these people were ready to kill us just hours ago. Ahead, more horseborn rear up at spear-point. Canary and her companions thrust weapons and words back at their accusers, unintimidated.  Crap. I guess Canary is still a problem?  Wait, no. It's people that are still pissed off over what we learned at the end of The Banner Saga 2.  Let's deal with this then. Canary caused this mess. She can help resolve it.   : Kill the rabble rousers in blue and the rest may flee. You can do this fight in a couple of ways. You can kill everyone. Or you can listen to Ludin's advice and take out the 2 backbiters that are leading the riot. It's not that hard--they're melee units and will come to you.  Egil's gonna be completely unkillable soon. Well, in battle, anyway.  With The Blackfish, Yrsa can break 10 armor per turn. It's nuts.  Egil downs one agitator.  Alette sees to the other. We get a TON of renown for doing this the "peaceful" way.   : Why men attack? Why so much shout?: Everyone thinks your horseborn pillaged Tolir.: This is important, Canary. Is it true?: City to east? Yes, kill many man, take many thing. You need more?Oddleif's mouth opens but finds no words.  : Many food, many weapons. Bring to you. You eat. You take.: You slaughtered them and gave their things to us?Canary looks from Oddleif to you, puzzled, then back to Oddleif. Her front hooves pound the dirt and she gestures in the air. : You kill at walls. You kill on road. Man. Horseborn. Every.: No, that's...drat. It's not the same thing. She doesn't get the difference. They must have done this even before we met them. How are we going to explain this away?: There's nothing to explain. We either defend them or we don't.   VOTE TIME!Horseborn ways are not our ways, but that doesn't change the fact she slaughtered innocents. Do we: A.) Look past it. She and her people are part of our clan now, and we have bigger things to worry about than previous grievances. B.) Banish her (and possibly other horseborn). Juno says we're responsible for holding civilization together in Arberrang. Surely this won't go over well if we let Canary off for it. FairGame fucked around with this message at 13:16 on Oct 9, 2018 |
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Oct 6, 2018 15:57
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Welp, that's not complete betrayal. Actually, Canary had the Banner's full interest when doing her raiding.
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Oct 6, 2018 16:02
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I'm not sure why this really comes as a surprise. She started off attacking our caravan too, after all. Let her off with a warning. If we want to save all we can we can't just look out for humanity.
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Oct 6, 2018 17:05
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FairGame posted:
This seems like an error. I feel like for this game, B is the correct answer. But I think Alette would not think so. So it's A. Also, one question: How can there be any snow left when the sun stopped overhead for months now?? How is there not so much more ecological devastation, instead of nearly all environmental damage seemingly being caused by the snake and the darkness? Good to know that Folka survived and that we can give items to her. I guess she's with Iver, Juno and Eyvind? What's the serpent doing with Bolverk? 
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Oct 6, 2018 17:18
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