Megacon’s The Banner Saga: Warbands Kickstarter Launches
November 12, 2015 by brennon
Megacon Games have now launched their The Banner Saga: Warbands Board Game Kickstarter. This follows on from the amazing PC game by Stoic Studios and continues the thrill of exciting skill based battles and hard decisions as you try to survive in this Viking inspired Fantasy world...
I love the PC game and so it's wonderful to see the artwork and world that was created there bought back to the tabletop. The game itself was developed as a tabletop game originally, especially surrounding the way close combat is worked out, so it's great to see it back to its roots.
The Game
The game sees you playing as both the Humans and Varls (giants) that inhabit this Viking world. Driven out of their homes by the marauding and relentless forces of the Dredge you will have to make sure that as well as being great warriors you also keep your Warband alive on the dangerous roads travelled in this harsh landscape.
Inside the game you have everything that you see below include some amazing plastic miniatures and so many incredibly high detail and well designed cards.
During the game you will each be assigned a role which has its own abilities, strengths and weaknesses. You will have to balance your own progress with that of the others in your Warband so that you keep everyone on an even keel. If one member of the warband becomes more powerful then that means others will begin to weaken as all your resources are spent elsewhere.
As well as that you will also be dealing with narrative driven choices throughout the game. When you draw these cards you will have to decide on the best course of action and you won't know what the outcome will be until you flip over the card and realise the consequences of your actions. This is very much like the original PC game.
Of course not everything is going to be solved by diplomacy. Sometimes you will have to fight and when you do you play out the battles atop a small additional board packed with miniatures for both sides. The combats are diceless and have no random element to them so they are just down to the guile and tactics of your placements and choice of attacks.
This is, again, just like with the PC game where you have to make a choice as to the type of strikes you make and what special rules you use. The miniatures are, as you fantastic looking and come in plastic. Hopefully the final miniatures are going to look this superb when the final game comes out.
If you're interested in finding out some more about the rules then you can download them HERE.
The Pledges
If you're looking to focus in on the different pledge levels for the game then we have them here below. There are three right now which include the special Warband Cart which you can use for the game.
I think this is a fantastic looking game and the actual Kickstarter seems like very good value for money as well which is great. I urge you to pick up the PC game as well if you can because it is well worth the money and just the start of the epic saga.
Are you interested in this?
"The game sees you playing as both the Humans and Varls (giants) that inhabit this Viking world..."
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Count me in
Personally i’d rather they finish with their other 2 kickstarters first.
Same here but the viking miniatures are tempting…
Had I not known Megacon was fronting this, I would have already put in a pledge.
Warbands and Vikings…
I would play SAGA instead!
If its Megacon count me out.
Their games arent great and the way they manage their Kickstarters is poor. They are nice guys but the company has a rather poor track record.
The damage has been done… skipping this one for reasons already mentioned by others.
A big shame in more ways than one!.
Of course there is still the chance something good will come out of this, but I will wait until it hits retail, no money upfront.
Well, I really, really love.megacon games. But they still haven’t delivered recon (and it has been a disaster of a ks) and just yesterday they started charging shipping for myth 2.0 printed material. Basically cards, mind you. Still they are charging ppl in the USA over 30 bucks.
Like I said I really like their games, I love myth, but I guess that’s it – goodbye megacon, I’ll stick with sword and sorcery.
Not to jump in, but to correct your post – within 24 hours they did send out a post acknowledging the shipping issues and fixing shipping pledges; anything that was overpaid will be used in your next shipping for the physical box (you also could choose to have them reimburse it, or ship everything at once).
US shipping was ~$8.99
Disclaimer: Yes, I have backed most if not all of Megacon’s Kickstarters; yes, I am also waiting for Recon; no, I don’t care if it takes a few more months – I have way to much to paint/play already 🙂
As per the last update on the myth cards; There has been a screw up. They are working on correcting it and even forking shipment for the cards themselves now.
Mistakes where made and the are dealing with it in a correct manner in my eyes.
They did, and I’m satisfied to the point I’ll back the next myth.
That said, its important to point out that a) they said last night it was correct, you had the pay the amount asked for the cards, b) they only decided to talk with the backers, after we went to banner saga ks and told people to watch out.
Well, they solved the problem in a manner I’m more than satisfied, but Mercs has this behavior to see if it sticks that really gets in my nerves.
Ah, I am afraid that given my experience with both Recon and Myth I could not justify backing this company again on KS.
As someone mentioned above they seem like good folks but advertising this KS when they still have one outstanding and a year over the estimated date.
No thanks.