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Miss Lonelyhearts posted:I kinda loved BS1 and even played the multiplayer battle game for a little bit. BS2's combat is more enjoyable and there's a bunch of new units w/ new abilities, some are even fun. I'm haven't finished yet but I like sneak guy and horse archer w/ poison a lot. I also really like the art design. This game's combat is much more polished than the first's. Also they realized that the turn order thing is tedious and gave every protagonist an ability that breaks the paradigm, while you still can't blindly focus fire you do have incentives to actually kill enemies outright this time around. The caravan mechanics have also been rethought for the better, clansmen are actually something other than a drag on your resources and you can freely convert them into fighters if you want to. Personally, I'm finding promotions way less critical this time around. Most units will be at or very near the caps on their primary stats at level 5, getting to 6-8 for the second ability and item access generally seems to be enough to set them up for the whole game. Some people want to get the level 10 items, and I think that some of them are worth buying; like the one that gives +3 to all talents, +1 break & armor+will/turn is pretty much great on anyone, especially Rook or Iver. FairGame posted:I can't decide if it's better with a knockback item or with a STR boost/Critical Hit item. Interrupting turns is cool, but so is bringing anything foolish enough to attack to critical HP or dying outright. If you don't go knockback you will have to go to much greater lengths to make it work. Though Alette herself would need less willpower and so could be lower level. Knockback allows Alette to be the front line of your team, or to lock down a whole segment of the map on her own, if you want to inflict damage then you will need people to stand in front of Alette. Probably buff her with your skald as well, since that will let her crit the big dredge for enough damage to cripple them.
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May 2, 2016 03:25
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akulanization posted:This game's combat is much more polished than the first's. Also they realized that the turn order thing is tedious and gave every protagonist an ability that breaks the paradigm, while you still can't blindly focus fire you do have incentives to actually kill enemies outright this time around. The caravan mechanics have also been rethought for the better, clansmen are actually something other than a drag on your resources and you can freely convert them into fighters if you want to. Egil is alive in my game and has so much loving armor and aggro that he just marches out a few steps ahead of Alette, puts up a wall, and waits for dummies to come up and get slaughtered. I could probably beat entire maps with just him, Alette, and Eirik. (Eirik with a +will/turn item basically allows him to make Alette into a turret forever.)
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May 2, 2016 04:01
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I don't know how people keep saying Bolverk sucks when he's literally the best unit in the entire game. He gets to attack twice, for free, every turn. How can you look at that and go "Hmm, that seems bad, the guy who is literally as good as any two other guys in the game combined is not a good unit"? Give him crits and watch him do like 30 damage to some poor fucker in one hit. Give him armor break and strip a dude's armor off and then gently caress his poo poo up in the same move. what are you guys doing with bolverk that he's not King poo poo of gently caress Mountain?
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May 2, 2016 15:02
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Well that ended kind of abruptly. Not terrible but not exactly triumphant or particularly satisfying either. It felt like there should have been a couple of choices to set up the status quo in Arberrang, have a little quiet moment with some of your crew, or at least make the thing with Canary clearer? Has she turned on us? And I made sure to kill Bolverk with lighting not hacking him apart, is that why he's still alive or would that have happened anyway? So many questions. There was one really badly done, massive choice towards the end, for the only time in both games I actually reloaded because it was not clear at all. When you are having the summit outside Arberrang, there's the choice to say 'gently caress all the other refugees, only my clan matters' or 'gently caress the king, he shouldn't be the gatekeeper of Arberrang'. Except apparently the second choice means an instant race war against my varl bros. FairGame posted:Egil is alive in my game Egil is the only character I really regret dying. Sometimes Alette will randomly remember him and its  every time.FairGame posted:He even took the guys from Banner Saga 1 that I didn't like, which I thought was pretty impressive. I can barely win a fight with that group of scrubs. He took Mogun, who was kind of my favourite character from the first game. Very low key but dependable and I liked his whole it's the end of the world, gonna bang some chicks attitude. I really liked getting the chance to let Hogun be with his family. I liked both those brothers, and both of them are getting what they want. Plus Krumr joins the Ravens, he's a cool dude. My favourite character at this point is probably Gunnulf. I know he can die pretty easily in the first game but that just makes him being my go to guy now even more satisfying. Just like Egil would probably be Highlight of the game was probably the death march. The Darkness was such a cool background, everyone's dying, the Dredge are just as desperate but gently caress it's them or us, the world is breaking, Bolverk is going insane. Only annoyed that I stupidly let Krumr die, I should have remembered the first game, bet if I'd send him with some soldiers he'd have got the job done and come back alive. Can't wait til the next game, Eywind is my boy but pretty sure he broke the world in half to bring his lover back from the dead, that kind of deserves a shanking.
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May 2, 2016 19:56
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Vitamin P posted:There was one really badly done, massive choice towards the end, for the only time in both games I actually reloaded because it was not clear at all. When you are having the summit outside Arberrang, there's the choice to say 'gently caress all the other refugees, only my clan matters' or 'gently caress the king, he shouldn't be the gatekeeper of Arberrang'. Except apparently the second choice means an instant race war against my varl bros. If Ludin survives to Arberrang, the alliance between the king of men and the king of varl is maintained, so if you then attack the King, Hakon will defend him, yes.
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May 2, 2016 20:08
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Vitamin P posted:
Did you know that Krumr can die in TBS1? I sure as poo poo didn't until he died at the very end of the game, and I wasn't about to replay it. I bet I'd like Bolverk's team a lot more if he were there; his skillset would've complimented Bolverk really nicely. cock hero flux posted:I don't know how people keep saying Bolverk sucks when he's literally the best unit in the entire game. He gets to attack twice, for free, every turn. How can you look at that and go "Hmm, that seems bad, the guy who is literally as good as any two other guys in the game combined is not a good unit"? Give him crits and watch him do like 30 damage to some poor fucker in one hit. Give him armor break and strip a dude's armor off and then gently caress his poo poo up in the same move. He's too fragile to trot him off on his lonesome (most characters are, in fairness), and if you leave him next to dudes he's liable to murder the poo poo out of allies with his randomized second attack. I probably had a TERRIBLE thing happen to my game last night when I got my stonesinger ally killed when Bolverk went down early in battle and I couldn't bring it back with the scrub team.. That definitely wouldn't have happened with Alette+Egil. When Bolverk works, holy poo poo does he ever work. But for a giant loving berserker who cut off his own horns to make axes out of them, he kind of goes down like a chump.
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May 2, 2016 23:32
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Apeshit Sixfingers posted:I wish the combat favored taking out enemy combatants out instead of letting them linger. I love the art style, the story, and many other things... but the drat combat drives me insane. Yeah, I'd love TBS 1 if it had more conventional combat, but I can't wrap my head around how it works. I understand it and all, but after years of 'kill this guy, this guy, this guy and finally these guys' type combat, it just doesn't feel natural to go 'okay, leave this guy alive, and this guy and this guy and okay now hit this guy and ah dammit, he died and his friend went super saiyan.'
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May 3, 2016 09:52
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OK, the last boss (I assume) of Bolverk's scenario is complete bullshit. I'm fine having an obscenely strong unit on the field--there are ways to counter that (Insult, Malice, Shield Wall). I'm not fine with an obscenely strong unit having the ability to teleport anywhere on the field it pleases and one-shot my valka. Especially because my valka gives me the ability to teleport anywhere on the field I please. I lost that battle with the final boss reduced to 1 HP but also sitting there all the way across the battlefield. And that's a hard game over 
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May 3, 2016 19:32
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Just finished the game. Honestly, I'd say that around 90% of the game is a vast improvement over the first game, which I also enjoyed. The last ten percent are the final bits which are sort of wet-farty in comparison to the rest.
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May 9, 2016 22:13
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Really love both of these games and wish they got a little more attention. I also really like the battle system, especially with 2's refinements, and it'd be cool if there was like an endless combat option or something thrown in somewhere so I could just chill and play with all the characters and watch my numbers go up. All that said wasn't a huge fan of the ending....but it might be that I now have to wait several more years for the conclusion.
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May 9, 2016 23:48
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Yea I finished it last week and enjoyed it so much I'm playing through BS1 for like the 3rd or 4th time just to play through BS2 w/ a different team. This time I'm keeping the weirdos around like Ekkil, which unfortunately means Egil's not gonna make it, he was a superstar in my first BS2 play-through. Anyway, the game is great and ppl should give it a chance if they're on the fence. Although the critiques of the ending being underwhelming are appropriate imo.
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May 10, 2016 01:48
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From reading "How to stop Egil dying" guides the Egil/Ekkil binary choice is kind of frustrating, they are both top tier. Imagine the travelling system was robust enough that they could have a multiplayer system using that, what a world that would be.
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May 14, 2016 22:31
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Exercu posted:Just finished the game. Honestly, I'd say that around 90% of the game is a vast improvement over the first game, which I also enjoyed. The last ten percent are the final bits which are sort of wet-farty in comparison to the rest. I'm sure it depends on the choices you make, but I found the final Alette/Rook fight if you charge down the King to be a suitably strong finale battle, probably better than Bellower from the first game. Don't know what the other choices give you. (The actual final fight seems much more a cutscene battle to me) Unfortunately the ending doesn't segue too well from that particular choice, it's not at all clear what your position within the city is. Tenebrais fucked around with this message at 23:03 on May 14, 2016 |
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May 14, 2016 22:43
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FairGame posted:Egil is alive in my game and has so much loving armor and aggro that he just marches out a few steps ahead of Alette, puts up a wall, and waits for dummies to come up and get slaughtered. I'm glad Eirik is back, because he was my favorite guy in the first game. I know he's a small part, but I liked him in the intro and his ability to multiply willpower for other units like the crazy red-witch archer lady was invaluable to me.
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May 15, 2016 00:00
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I'm really torn if I should import my Banner Saga 1's "flawed" playthrough or the near perfect playthrough I did later. Does this one have an ending or is it going for the trilogy? Rookersh posted:Yes. The plotlines also seem to diverge a bit based on how you ended the first game.
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May 15, 2016 00:05
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Vitamin P posted:From reading "How to stop Egil dying" guides the Egil/Ekkil binary choice is kind of frustrating, they are both top tier. Ekkill's better and in 2 he ends up going with the party that's shorter on good heroes. Rascyc posted:Does this one have an ending or is it going for the trilogy? Definitely a trilogy. The ending of this game is one of the very few ways that I would say it's worse than the first one. It feels like they had a big Boersgard-style ending sequence ready for it but then cut it so they could kick off the final installment with it instead, so this one just kinda ends abruptly. cock hero flux fucked around with this message at 20:27 on May 16, 2016 |
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May 16, 2016 20:25
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Not enjoying Bolverk's first challenge in the Training tent.
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May 17, 2016 00:44
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So there's now an opt-in beta for Survival Mode. It's a succession of 40 battles, in which you can use any hero from the game, spending renown to recruit more than your initial 6. In these battles, turn order is fixed rather than alternating teams, and any character that falls in battle is dead for good. This could be a lot of fun.
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Jun 5, 2016 14:00
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I got the +5 break item for Bolverk early on and it lets him basically one-shot any unit in the game with boosted 10-armor rends followed by a strength attack, but I didn't use Iver much so this makes the last battle in the tower against him basically completely impossible, he kills me in two attacks also, this game is really good the bitcoin of weed fucked around with this message at 20:50 on Jun 5, 2016 |
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Jun 5, 2016 20:47
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Holy gently caress, how did I miss this announcement?! I loved the crap out of Banner Saga 1 (or, as I called it, 'Viking Fantasy Tactics'), I loved the crap out of ProfessorProf's LP of Banner Saga 1... I gotta fuckin' play this game. ...why did I have to learn this when I'm trying desperately to submit my thesis before the end of the term?!
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Aug 5, 2016 17:11
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cock hero flux posted:I don't know how people keep saying Bolverk sucks when he's literally the best unit in the entire game. He gets to attack twice, for free, every turn. How can you look at that and go "Hmm, that seems bad, the guy who is literally as good as any two other guys in the game combined is not a good unit"? Give him crits and watch him do like 30 damage to some poor fucker in one hit. Give him armor break and strip a dude's armor off and then gently caress his poo poo up in the same move. I have no idea, Bolverk fights are super easy and satisfying. You just have to mind your positioning (and turn order) so that you don't hit allies. Other than that just have Folka follow him every round and shield him with her Champion ability. Now people can't strength damage him and he can just steadily chew through all the enemies. There was even a specific Bolverk and Folka only battle where you HAVE to do this win! Also its totally fine to eliminate enemies before the end of the round especially when enemies are spread out. I have no problem gibbing archers early on when I have squishy people like Eyvind in my party. Then the enemy infantry units get more turns which they will probably use to run towards my shieldwall in a big pile and then get hit by a big ol Chain Lightning wombo combo 
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Aug 29, 2016 20:25
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Milky Moor posted:And here I was hoping to have someone to discuss the lore and story with - did I miss another thread or is no one playing this? I really like the lore and the setting but it was grating on me a little that most of this lore is delivered through the same "godstone" visit formula, visit-> inspect -> side character appears and gives exposition -> one out of three choices leads to unique event, collect your unique godstone item, repeat. Like how many freaking gods are there in this pantheon? Do all the stones have to be for gods? how about a monument for a specific hero/battle/event. Maybe some that are more mysterious and it just gives different characters impressions of it instead of getting a lecture every time you roll past one.
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Aug 29, 2016 20:33
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I'm playing through the first game and it's pretty great but Chapter 5 where Dredge are throwing themselves and Einartoft is super difficult. I'm trying to bring down the bridge and can reliably beat the wave of Dredge but keep falling with two or three Varl left to take down. Any tips on how to beat them? Fo the rest of the game I let my losses and choices stand but the game seems adamant that if I don't take this bridge down all Varl will die. e: Most people are injured from beating the Dredge on the bridge in the Bellower fight and also the previous Dredge wave plus Iver is unavailable and all my best dudes are in the Hakon party. Mogun and Fogun are goddamn awful. e2: Just managed it there. Basically clumped everyone intro a murder block and used the useless twins to block Varl movement. EmmyOk fucked around with this message at 14:18 on Sep 1, 2016 |
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Sep 1, 2016 14:06
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EmmyOk posted:I'm playing through the first game and it's pretty great but Chapter 5 where Dredge are throwing themselves and Einartoft is super difficult. I'm trying to bring down the bridge and can reliably beat the wave of Dredge but keep falling with two or three Varl left to take down. Any tips on how to beat them? Fo the rest of the game I let my losses and choices stand but the game seems adamant that if I don't take this bridge down all Varl will die. You can also convince the Varl King to let you take down the bridge if you fight to defend it 3 times.
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Sep 1, 2016 14:52
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Ah that's cool, though realistically I could barely beat two waves nevermind three. I waited 20 days in Sigholm for Juno so thanks for that developers. I did save scum there because I am awful but it had obliterated my caravan and I didn't get a radical mender in exchange. I was wondering why Eyvind sucked so much when he was Level 5 but the game hadn't spent those points, I had to. Whoops! e: I suspected whoever I chose at the end would die. Sorry, Alette, but Rook is much more useful EmmyOk fucked around with this message at 17:07 on Sep 1, 2016 |
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Sep 1, 2016 15:34
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A very rude double post because I just finished up and immediately began to download The Banner Saga 2. I'm working through my backlog and only on the Bs but the first part was quite short so I figure this still counts as one game. Does the second one improve the combat at all? I actually really like the combat but think the main thing it could change is varying the arenas. When I was fighting in the tower there was a hole in the centre and it made things much trickier to deal with so more stuff like that would be great. Is hard mode fun? I kind of want to try and get the few remaining achievments, though I think the ones about never losing battles or getting low morale would have to be on easy mode. e: Also I assume all my upgraded people etc. transfer over? EmmyOk fucked around with this message at 17:49 on Sep 1, 2016 |
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Sep 1, 2016 17:44
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The combat in 2 has more depth to it, yeah. Your characters do carry over if you load your old save. Hard mode is fun if you like the combat, which not everyone does. I enjoyed it.
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Sep 1, 2016 18:20
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I enjoy the combat quite a bit at the moment though a bit more variation would be nice so that sounds great. I just need to finish my Forced March on easy mode before doing Hard Mode and picking up the remaining achievements. I'd like to start the second game on Hard Mode but use my original Medium save with my genuine choices, can I use that save and immediately change difficulty to Hard?
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Sep 2, 2016 16:54
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Well, I finally picked this up, and man am I glad I ran with Rook as the arrow-shooter at the end of the first game, because Overwatch is batshit insane and kind of demonstrates why it normally only activates once per turn in XCOM. A sufficiently armour-broken flank can be held by Alette alone - she'll either nerf anything that moves into oblivion or outright kill it as soon as it tries to do anything. The most satisfying skill in Banner Saga thus far, that's for sure. I am on the 'how i shot bolverk' train, though; positioning him hasn't quite clicked with me yet.
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Nov 14, 2016 15:31
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Overall Banner Saga has definitely has some of the most frantic death marches ever, especially the Bolver / Ravens section with the darkness in the background and the dredge swarming forward, You sending troops off to make suicide stands, Grizzled Fasolt coming out of nowhere, on to frantically trying to hack your way through the ice before you all die, down to a desperate last stand on some lovely stone bridge. The only other Fantasy medium that even felt that insane and desperate was the Malazan books in the Chain of Dogs section of Deadhouse Gates. I beat this game first try on hard, but lost a ton of battles and lost alot of people along the way, which honestly made sense. The only battle I replayed was the final one because I forgot Iver had a shield bash. I actually really liked the Ravens Squad and thought they were p. cool and good, especially with Ekkil, Mogun and Krumr who are awesome. (Also how can Krumr die in Banner Saga, on three playthroughs never had that happen?) Jack2142 fucked around with this message at 08:51 on Nov 21, 2016 |
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Nov 21, 2016 08:48
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Jack2142 posted:I actually really liked the Ravens Squad and thought they were p. cool and good, especially with Ekkil, Mogun and Krumr who are awesome. (Also how can Krumr die in Banner Saga, on three playthroughs never had that happen?) I wasn't sure if he could, but there's a moment on the road to Boersgard where he asks to bring a handful of Varl to go harry the dredge. If you let him go they'll all come back victorious, and while I've never seen what happens if you don't, I could imagine him going off anyway and not returning.
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Nov 21, 2016 12:54
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Tenebrais posted:I wasn't sure if he could, but there's a moment on the road to Boersgard where he asks to bring a handful of Varl to go harry the dredge. If you let him go they'll all come back victorious, and while I've never seen what happens if you don't, I could imagine him going off anyway and not returning. Went back and checked last night, Krumr dies if you never go fight the dredge at the Boersgard gates.
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Nov 22, 2016 01:47
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vdate posted:Well, I finally picked this up, and man am I glad I ran with Rook as the arrow-shooter at the end of the first game, because Overwatch is batshit insane and kind of demonstrates why it normally only activates once per turn in XCOM. A sufficiently armour-broken flank can be held by Alette alone - she'll either nerf anything that moves into oblivion or outright kill it as soon as it tries to do anything. The most satisfying skill in Banner Saga thus far, that's for sure. Literally all you have to do is move Bolverk to where only enemies are around, attack, make sure Folka is next in the turn queue and then have her move next to him and use her Champion ability to block strength damage on him. You should be able to get a kill every turn just with that duo, and if the rest of your time is killing and/or maiming enemies then you'll most likely finish well before Folka runs out of armor.
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Nov 22, 2016 22:23
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Hey, I was about to start Banner Saga 2 when I realized I barely remembered Banner Saga 1. So I'm looking for a halfway decent guide right now and there's surprisingly few to begin with. Really I just want to change a few choices I made in the story, like having the Varl destroy their own bridge and such, which isn't something I did my first time through and I have no idea how to get that choice. That and the combat kicked my rear end a lot so really, a general walkthrough telling you what your choices do would be great.
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Dec 16, 2016 11:15
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SatansBestBuddy posted:Hey, I was about to start Banner Saga 2 when I realized I barely remembered Banner Saga 1. So I'm looking for a halfway decent guide right now and there's surprisingly few to begin with. For that spoilered choice, I think you have to hold off the Dredge for three days and then you can meet with the people in charge and make them see that there's no other option.
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Dec 16, 2016 11:34
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You just keep fighting on the bridge until eventually Iver recovers from his wounds and marches up to the Varl King to tell him to unfuck himself. It doesn't matter though because the Dredge just go around anyway and you might as well just leave and let them keep their bridge.
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Dec 21, 2016 02:13
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Banner Saga 3 kickstarter...started https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stoic/banner-saga-3
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Jan 25, 2017 02:01
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Dylan McKay posted:Banner Saga 3 kickstarter...started I read an article the other day that they did TBS2 with their own money and it wasn't exactly a financial success. With that in mind, I can't say it surprises me that they've gone back to Kickstarter but, at the same time, it doesn't fill me with much confidence.
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Jan 25, 2017 02:12
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I'm curious, what doesn't fill you with confidence? Backers are not really investors, so whether the game sells well or not is sorta meaningless for you. All reviews and player feedback for The Banner Saga 2 I've heard was pretty good (haven't played it yet myself), it mostly just seems like a mixture of a lack of marketing, heightened competition, and lack of community engagement might have hurt the sequels' sales.
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Jan 25, 2017 12:58
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Fair Bear Maiden posted:I'm curious, what doesn't fill you with confidence? Backers are not really investors, so whether the game sells well or not is sorta meaningless for you. All reviews and player feedback for The Banner Saga 2 I've heard was pretty good (haven't played it yet myself), it mostly just seems like a mixture of a lack of marketing, heightened competition, and lack of community engagement might have hurt the sequels' sales. I loved TBS2, much more than the first one, at any rate. If I remember the article right, the developers spent a lot on marketing which kind of surprised me because, yeah, it doesn't feel like it had any exposure at all. Suddenly, one day, it was just out. Overall, I think those three points are right. My thought process was basically: - TBS3 needs to do a lot given that TBS2 didn't exactly advance the story or answer many questions. Expectations among committed fans are already high and I think a lot of people were annoyed by the ending of TBS2. - Going back to Kickstarter feels like they're trying to recapture the serendipity of TBS1. TBS1, however, was one of the first titles to get really big on Kickstarter, back in the boom. However, I have no doubt TBS3 will be funded (had I the money, I would have already backed it). - Like it or not, TBS1 is a great game in spite of its combat system (every battle tends to be same-y), not because of it, for a lot of people. TBS2 fixes a lot of issues but also - among people I know - doesn't fix the underlying issues there and no one came back to the sequel. I don't know how accurate SteamSpy numbers are but comparing TBS1 (795k owners) and TBS2 (100k) is surprising (the percentage holds up for my personal friends list on Steam, at least). This thread didn't exactly do well, either. - The surprise patch to make Bellower easier felt like an attempt to get more people finishing TBS1 so they would go and buy TBS2. It rubbed me the wrong way.
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Jan 25, 2017 13:46
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