This is a random encounter against human enemies that you can get any time in chapter 4 or 6. It's great to see it now since it's quite easy and we have two new units that we want to train up- both of these characters will be mainstays for not just the rest of BS1, but the rest of the series.
Krumr is a second varl for Rook's caravan, which automatically makes him valuable. Krumr gets Heavy Impact like Hakon and Gunnulf but he has 1 more armor and 1 less strength than them when at stat caps- this is a great trade-off. Krumr's skill Forge Ahead is fairly situational- there aren't many circumstances in BS1 where it's worth using a turn just to bump a unit forward in the turn count- but it's great to have in those situations. It also becomes much stronger in BS3 due to a particular interaction.
Ekkill has great stats for a human, capping at 14A/12S, and an exceptional special that deals a lot of direct strength damage to ALL adjacent targets. Being able to weaken high-armor enemies without wasting time breaking their armor is a big help. It does need to knock back to do the extra damage, so it can be a bit clumsy if enemies are getting stuck on each other- but even in those situations you can generally find an angle to pull it off.
Both of these units also gain value in the sequels because when the caravan splits they join the weaker team. The early maps with this team can be very difficult if they don't get any trained units from BS1- having Ekkill or Krumr to carry them is a huge leg up. Overall these guys are a great investment and that's why I slow down near the end here to help spoonfeed them kills.
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