Banner Saga: A Bed of Enemies

[Part of my Banner Saga play through]

Much like the old tower, the relationship between the refugees and Ludin's father, King Meinolf, is also collapsing as they found their new leader in governor Rugga - who manages to stab the old king with a poisoned dagger just before getting his allies to attack the walls, desperate to get away from the growing darkness. So many are slain in the conflict that with the King's dying breath, he allows everyone inside the walls. Rook makes sure Rugga isn't one of them, which gains the approval of royal guard Petrus. Nid has the opposite reaction, and takes the first boat out of there to continue fleeing with a number of other cowards. As for Ludin - he's happy to pass all the responsibility to Rook.

One of the best parts of the game.

After a few days of quelling riots, Fasolt (the unkillable) arrives with the dredge army hot on his heels, rallied around a new leader called Ruin who uses a massive black anchor grappling hook to tear at the outer walls of Arberrang. Fasolt and Hakon aren't keen on Oddlief's cowardly plan to weaken Ruin with explosives so that's exactly what Rook opts to do and it works. They then drive a wedge right through the attacking dredge and its old Ubin who finally brings Ruin down, causing the remaining dredge back off and basically weep for they too fear the oncoming darkness.

"Let them rot," Rook decides, but is quickly countered by the arrival of Zefr who somehow survived the tower collapse. The old mender explains that the darkness will warp them into fiercer foes if left out there, so Rook and Oddlief make the bold move of opening the gates and inviting them in - and seeing Oddlief carrying a baby dredge she had kidnapped from the battlefield just earlier encourages them to do so peacefully.

Rugga's loyalists are having none of it though, and are quick to spear Oddlief to death upon returning into the city - causing further rioting and panic. Eventually with the help of a massive dredge guard called Bastion, Rook and Petrus round up all these rebels and burn the lot of them alive as a lesson for the others. That's how good rulers do it.

Insight: At the start of Banner Saga 3, everyone's gained level so make sure to spend all those points when you can! Petrus is especially handy since once per combat he can summon another guardsman into battle! On the Raven's side, you might also get Eirik who can do similar by summoning a bear!

Banner Saga: Split the Party

[Part of my Banner Saga play through]

Trapped between the dredge and a waterfall, Rook, Ludin, Hakon and Bolverk hold off the dredge while Eyvind and Juno construct a floating land bridge for them to flee across. While it works, the chasm is huge and the menders can only maintain part of the bridge at a time resulting in many - mainly the slow, injured, old or unlucky - falling to their deaths (no named characters though).

As a result, when they do get to solid ground once more - Bolverk decides to go his own way with his Ravens and much of the supplies. Mogun tries to stop him but is beheaded for his trouble and seeing this, his twin Hogun retires from axe swinging and returns to being mundane clansman. Rook lets them go and pushes on to Arberrang via the plains where they encounter a trio of injured horseborn (centaurs): Scathach, Ro'Ech and Derdriu. The menders heal them and the trio join Rook's "herd". Hakon doesn't like them which means they must be ok.

"Peekaboo!"

Out of nowhere a massive serpent suddenly appears and swallows Juno but Eyvind tears open its side with lightning to get her out, causing the snake to retreat. Since this monster yet poses a threat to the caravan, Juno, Eyvind and Iver depart to lure it away while urging Rook to make haste to the capital of Arberrang.

Before he can do so, governor Rugga attempts a coup against Rook but fails and gets all his allies killed while he himself runs off to safety. This fight gets the attention of another horseborn herd but luckily they only need to beat down a few of them before their leader, Canary, decides she wants to be part of Rook's herd too. There's not much he can do about it so they just push on until finally they reach the capital which already has scores of refugees outside the walls. Lucky for them, the returning Prince Ludin is the golden ticket which grants them all passage inside the city. Much like the people they lead, Rook and Oddlief celebrate this momentous occasion.

Insight: Horseborn are very fun - they move fast and can move again after a melee attack. Derdriu and Canary also have poisonous javelins which are handy against heavily armored foes. Scathach (the blue painted one) is the best of them mobility wise. As enemies, using spear wielders like Ludin and Trygvvi to bleed them is good since they can't help running around all over the place.

Banner Saga: The Fleet of Boersgard

[Part of my Banner Saga play through]

Having waited for weeks to no avail, Rook finally orders the party to move on - much to Eyvind's disapproval. They eventually reach Boersgard city which is defended by Bolverk the broken-horn varl along with his "Raven" mercenaries who let them in after seeing what Rook's team can do to the dredge (besides, there's only twenty or so of them). Agreeing to flee onward to Arberrang, the Boersgard governor Rugga begins dismantling his own people's homes to build a fleet of ships to escape down river while the fighters are tasked with defending against the dredge, and rioting civilians.

Old Ubin shows up a few days later bringing news about the fall of Einartoft to an immortal giant dredge called Bellower, but he also brings the answer to that problem in the form of Eyvind's master and love interest, Juno - who has delayed from meeting him earlier as she was preparing a magic arrow to take down this cretin. Wanting to play hero, Alette volunteers to take this shot as "she is much better than her father".

Sure enough, Bellower and his dredge army follows close behind - giving no time for the "escape ship" plan to work. While the fighters hold back his army Alette takes the shot and misses, leading to Bellower crushing her to death and chopping off an arm from Iver while Rook retrieves the arrow and tags the monstrous dredge in the back. This weakens him enough for the twins, Hogun and Mogun, to chop him down. Seeing their leader fall, the remaining dredge flee buying enough time to turn the housing of Boersgard into the Boersgard fleet and everyone sets sail down the river.

That's taking twins a bit extreme.

During the voyage Eyvind uses his magic to save Iver's life, while Rook meets other thankful survivors like Aleo the poet and Tryggvi the crazy spear man. For days things seem to go their way, until the river ends in a waterfall and they are forced to dock right into another army of dredge!

Insight: The stupid magic arrow is a new ability you need to select. Would have been handy if there was a tool tip or something to clue me into that.