Ive decided I just dont like it...

[Rizilliant]

I adored Banner Saga, and couldnt wait to playu this one.. But with the increased levels, the enemies just hit way too hard.. They have 15-22 armor, and I can, at best, chip away 5 of it per go(for my better breakers, while exerting 3).. Going against 10 or more of these things, it just takes way to much to bring ONE of these down, compared to what theyre doing to me..

Now Im only playing on normal, and these behemoths are prioritizing my heavy hitters, whether I send them in 1st second, or last, and completely ignoring my armor mechanics.. 12-16 armor, and they dont even try to reduce it.. Just go straight for strength dmg.. And several of them, efficiently take chunks of strength, with a wall of armor up! It has completely ruined the enjoyment for me..

Im up to chapter 10 or 11 or something, and its just no longer fun... I would have LOVED to seen this story, but this just sucks! I have no effective breakers on the Raven side of the story.. Dytch takes way too many turns to be effective, the Weaver is absolute trash, I have yet to find an effective Spearman, in either game, and the Shieldmaiden is not too bad.. I dont have too many complaints.. Her second ability is useless, and her first one is decent for reducing damage for one guy, but it usually take atleast 2 of your teammates to make that work effectively, which would be better suited for just bringing pure dmg, and breakers.. I dont have this problem on Allette side of the story, but damn! Oh, Oli... Hes probably the best Human in that camp.. I love that loadout! He is in every party, no matter what!

[Islandia]

I think that it does take a bit more work to play Bolverk's caravan, but one of the things that really helped me when playing that caravan is to take advantage of Dytch and Gudmundr to hold off those huge dredge while you break their armor. Dytch especially can be used in stealth to block off 3 or 4 of the large dredge and get them stuck in a corner.

You will always want to use Oli and Folka to armor break the dredge from 2 or more tiles away while using Dytch to block them from reaching you. I noticed from your other post that you don't like Bolverk too much and I tend to agree with you. He's a bit too weak by himself so I save him til the end after I've gotten all the enemies down to 1-3 armor and 3 or less health, then just use him to clean up the board.

[Rizilliant]

Yes, i have gotten much better with Bolvork, thanx to the moderators advice.. And now see why hes such a favorite.. The last 2 fights, where I finally got flustered, were where Oli spots a strange hole(ended up reloading an old save, and skipping the hole, which said I safely escaped, but in the very next sentence, Oli was bleeding from the nose.. A bug maybe?), and the very next was having to break ice behind you.. There are just SO many of the high armor guys, and I have like no one who does any real brk dmg.. Not a single break trinket on the Ravens group.. So, I can exhaust all my guys, to get some armor down, but those big guys are just completely avoiding my armor.. No attempt to break it.. Just going straight for my strength, and taking rather large chunks!

Immediately, I start doing the math in my head, and am seeing no way to break the armor, THEN start on strength, while losing strength of my own throughout.. My biggest Hitter, the red haired Varl in all red (one shots all small guys with full arm/str) only has 2 break.. 4 If I exert him, but he only has 4 or 6 stamina(cant recall which).. Very different from Alettes caravan indeed!

Admittedly, i posted this in haste,a nd frustration, and may come back to it.. But damn! I chose normal, and this was a rather huge spike.. I noticed earlier, that I needed to focus those gbig guys, but with several of them, im not left with much option.. Didnt help that the Stonesinger in that Ice break fight poisoned 3 of my damage dealers either.. That really sucked ontop of the already overwhelming odds..

Spoiler****

If it makes an y difference, I chose all the A-hole options on my Bolverk path, up until I started realizing what the dream was, and elected to bring the Stonesinger along.. From then on, some choices were a little less heartless, and am opting to skip combat, since an old survivor showed up, after we retreaved a lost banner, and stated that theyre fleeing something as well, and not all wish to fight) Bolvor is lvl 7, the rest are 6, 5, or 4 (not really using the 4s unless someones injured).. Ive done 9/10 training sessions (Bolvorks final is incomplete).

[Islandia]

I'll answer in more detail when I'm not on my phone, but that particular battle you can't win. You have to just break all the ice. The dredge are endless. when you kill the first wave, another one shows up. Just use a blocker or two and then use your two Varl with tempest to break the ice.

[Islandia]

If you are trying to kill some of the dredge before you break the ice, then make sure you at least keep one of them alive so that you don't spawn an additional wave. Since the map is really cramped, I usually start with Bolverk followed by Dytch and then Sigborn, Folka, Oli, and Zefr. Position on the side of the map that has fewer large dredge and where Bolverk can get an armor break attack against one of the large dredge. You will also want to position in such a way that Sigborn can tempest and hit that large dredge that you did an armor break with Bolverk on.

For Dytch, you need to stealth him on round 1 such that he blocks the path towards the side of the map where all your other characters are. This should be fairly easy to do on such a tight map. Have Folka and Oli follow up with armor breaks on any of the nearby troops that you can and Zefr mend armor the whole time. Do not kill any of the dredge. Just maim them by first destroying armor and then knocking down their health to 5 or below. The only exception is if there are stonesingers, kill them. Every time you attack a stonesinger, if there is a gloomwarden nearby they will end up skipping their turn.

[Aleonymous]

Yes, the Ravens caravan is much harder to play than the Skogr caravan. In my opinion, the main reason is the lack of archers/ranged-attackers: you only got Oli (range=4) and Folka/Bak (range=2), none of whom have puncture. It's still manageable, but definitely harder.

Sound generic advice given by Islandia, but I think he missed two heroes that can make a huge difference with the Ravens: Krumr (if he didn't die in Ch7) and Ekkill (if you he joined in Ch4/6). Krumr is hands down my varl MVH (most valuable hero ) in Survival Mode and is super-cool in regular campaign once he gets Tempest ability at Rank 6. Ekkill is a very strong raider (high ARM) and giving him Stonewall ability at Rank 6 can make him even stronger.

[Rizilliant]

Originally posted by Aleonymous:

Yes, the Ravens caravan is much harder to play than the Skogr caravan. In my opinion, the main reason is the lack of archers/ranged-attackers: you only got Oli (range=4) and Folka/Bak (range=2), none of whom have puncture. It's still manageable, but definitely harder.

Sound generic advice given by Islandia, but I think he missed two heroes that can make a huge difference with the Ravens: Krumr (if he didn't die in Ch7) and Ekkill (if you he joined in Ch4/6). Krumr is hands down my varl MVH (most valuable hero ) in Survival Mode and is super-cool in regular campaign once he gets Tempest ability at Rank 6. Ekkill is a very strong raider (high ARM) and giving him Stonewall ability at Rank 6 can make him even stronger.

I didnt really use Krumr in the first game, and havent had much success with him here, either.. My goto Varl is big Red, and Bolverk.. And now I finally have a shielded Varl, who returned with a big scar on his face.. Ohh, Ekkil is the twin brother? I killed him...I was playing the "a-hole..(I have trouble remembering names)

Originally posted by Islandia:

If you are trying to kill some of the dredge before you break the ice, then make sure you at least keep one of them alive so that you don't spawn an additional wave. Since the map is really cramped, I usually start with Bolverk followed by Dytch and then Sigborn, Folka, Oli, and Zefr. Position on the side of the map that has fewer large dredge and where Bolverk can get an armor break attack against one of the large dredge. You will also want to position in such a way that Sigborn can tempest and hit that large dredge that you did an armor break with Bolverk on.

For Dytch, you need to stealth him on round 1 such that he blocks the path towards the side of the map where all your other characters are. This should be fairly easy to do on such a tight map. Have Folka and Oli follow up with armor breaks on any of the nearby troops that you can and Zefr mend armor the whole time. Do not kill any of the dredge. Just maim them by first destroying armor and then knocking down their health to 5 or below. The only exception is if there are stonesingers, kill them. Every time you attack a stonesinger, if there is a gloomwarden nearby they will end up skipping their turn.

Ill give these tips a try.. I havent had success with positioning so much... Or perhaps Im just terible at the game, Idk..

thanx again guys!

[Aleonymous]

No, Ekkill is a black-clad raider. The twin you are referring to is Mogun.

https://bannersaga.gamepedia.com/Ekkill

I recommend you give Krumr another chance. His stats are much better than Sigbjorn's (the big Red). He really shines at Rank 6+, when he can have Tempest ability, to hit two enemies.

[Khârn the Betrayer]

what? You play in normal and you lose, it is not the game you are, the Ravens are difficult but not impossible, if you can not with the story mode because you do not know to use their characters and the op Bolverk, I do not recommend survival mode.

[Rizilliant]

Originally posted by Khârn the Betrayer:

what? You play in normal and you lose, it is not the game you are, the Ravens are difficult but not impossible, if you can not with the story mode because you do not know to use their characters and the op Bolverk, I do not recommend survival mode.

Thank you.. You are a very helpful individual.. News flash, brace yourself... Other people have differing opinions than your own... GASP* Wierd, right?

[Islandia]

Krumr is pretty awesome once he gets past level 6. I have not used him much lately because I haven't leveled up any of the characters in my recent playthroughs so he hasn't been as useful as Sigborn with his default level 4 versus 5 and no tempest.

Rizilliant - give the battle another try. Definitely do not rush into battle. I lot of the times I end up just sitting back and letting the dredge walk up to me so they are spread out a bit (especially if Dytch ends up blocking some of them in stealth). If you need more help don't hesitate to ask.

[Rizilliant]

Originally posted by Islandia:

Krumr is pretty awesome once he gets past level 6. I have not used him much lately because I haven't leveled up any of the characters in my recent playthroughs so he hasn't been as useful as Sigborn with his default level 4 versus 5 and no tempest.

Rizilliant - give the battle another try. Definitely do not rush into battle. I lot of the times I end up just sitting back and letting the dredge walk up to me so they are spread out a bit (especially if Dytch ends up blocking some of them in stealth). If you need more help don't hesitate to ask.

I noticed some strange goings on with breaking the ice also.. Oli, doesnt seem to be able to hit it, unless he is doing so in melee (throwing, or his special do not connect).. Bolvork also had a wierdness where it seemed only one of his primary attacks connected.. That, and I wasnt able to tell exactly what to do.. I had Krumr (Sigjborn was holding the enemies at bay) trying to attack the ice, and he got into it two rows deep, and I guess its only two thick, so I started trying to attack it sideways.. It didnt seem to let me do so!?

At that point, I was already frustrated from reloading an old save (because I followed Oli while he threw an axe ata strange hole, resulting in a ridiculously overwhelming battle), when I got back to it, I decided to continue on, and not bother with the hole.. The texts stated we moved past without incident.. Then a second text box popped up, saying Oli was bleeding from mouth and nose, and was barely able to break the grasp of enemy Dredge?!... Which then went right into the Ice breaking fight.. Two very conflicting texts...

But yes. Ive had soem time to cool off, and am sure Ill be seeing it through.. I REALLY enjoy the story in this series! And again, thank you all for the help (most of you) :)

PS: I will start giving Krumr a chance.. I didnt like his "Move Forward" ability very much , so didnt bother with him.. Especially with Sigjborn hitting so hard on strength dmg!

[Rizilliant]

Originally posted by Aleonymous:

No, Ekkill is a black-clad raider. The twin you are referring to is Mogun.

https://bannersaga.gamepedia.com/Ekkill

I recommend you give Krumr another chance. His stats are much better than Sigbjorn's (the big Red). He really shines at Rank 6+, when he can have Tempest ability, to hit two enemies.

Ohhh.. I killed Ekkil in BS! He tried to backstab the group, and I made an example of him, if I recall correctly..

Does Tempest only hit two? I assumed it hit all in range... That explains alot, lol... I find most of the abilities rather underwhelming tbh.. Often I feel like straight brk, or dmg is better used.. Not that i dont use any.. I just feel like some of them dont outweigh what they cost to use..

[Aleonymous]

You can start with Krumr as an armor-breaker, until he gets Tempest.

Tempest rank 1/2/3 hits 2/3/4 _consecutive_ units (be they allies or foes), in a clock-wise manner, starting from the first target you select. It can be devastating if used at the right time!

Yes, most people skip Ekkill because getting him means getting that mutiny event in Chapter 6 that kills off Egil (the lad), who is more adorable (and OP).

[Rizilliant]

Originally posted by Aleonymous:

You can start with Krumr as an armor-breaker, until he gets Tempest.

Tempest rank 1/2/3 hits 2/3/4 _consecutive_ units (be they allies or foes), in a clock-wise manner, starting from the first target you select. It can be devastating if used at the right time!

Yes, most people skip Ekkill because getting him means getting that mutiny event in Chapter 6 that kills off Egil (the lad), who is more adorable (and OP).

Yea, I lost Egil too... I try to play my games as if I were there, and I would have killed that sob too... Cant recall how I lost Egil... My first attempt, I didnt even know he was a possible companion, as he kept dying saving Alette at the start..

Edit: nope, I guess thats not the right kid... I dont think I ever got this guy? If I did, I certainly dont remember him.. (I can barely remember names of the ones I like, and use constantly)

[Aleonymous]

Hehe, yes. Egil can die in 3-4 occasions in Saga1, the first time is right after you meet him in Skogr (the village of Rook), in the start of Chapter 2.