Game:

The Banner Saga (2014)

Duration: 7:20

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The Stonesinger is the most dangerous dredge unit. Umbrage takes one round to cast but when it resolves it decreases the armor of all the Stonesinger's allies and sharply increases their strength- this makes enemies much more dangerous. Getting up to the Stonesinger and knocking them back with Iver's Battering Ram or Ekkill's Guts will interrupt the cast, but Stonesingers usually hide in the back of enemy lines and run further back to cast Umbrage- it's dangerous to rush the Stonesinger, but also dangerous to let them cast in peace. Also annoying is their melee attack, which causes a disease that deals 1STR damage at the start of the unit's turn; the disease spreads if any other unit touches the target, so if you have a tight formation you can instantly get everyone diseased from one attack.

Fortunately, our new recruit, Eyvind, is another transformatively strong unit. Up until now Banner Saga has been a game of attrition- there's been no way to restore lost armor or health, so the team inevitably gets worn down over the course of a fight. Even weak blows on armor will eventually stack up. Eyvind can restore lost armor (but not health)- this changes the game completely. He is limited by his willpower, but he has 12 to start with since he joins at max level and we'll very soon get an item that regenerates his will every turn. The formula for Mend is very odd- it's quite uncommon for a rank 2 or 3 Mend to actually heal more than rank 1- so his willpower tends to last a long time. Eyvind can also do very nice ranged strength damage with Arc Lightning; setting up chains with Arc Lightning is typically too much hassle but even hitting one enemy for 4 damage is a good move this early in the series.

Eyvind cheating the attrition game also means that Egil's usefulness has reached it's limit, for now- there's not much call for an immovable inert object when we can have Iver, Krumr and Ekkill go on the offense and simply heal them up. We've not seen the last of Stone Wall, and we'll resort to it later in the series- but last map was the last time Egil is deployed.

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