[Kickstarter] Banner Saga: Warbands by Megacon Games - final 48 hours -last chance

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**yamato**

Launched on 11/12/15 - joint venture between Megacon Games, Stoic, and Versus Evil

Kicstarter Page is here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/megacongames/the-banner-saga-warbands

Fashioned after Stoics PC game Banner Saga; this miniatures board game uses diceless tactical combat mixed with boardgame adventure.

**Mymearan**

Maybe they should focus on delivering Mercs first?
EDIT: seems that is happening as we speak. Good on them!

**highlord tamburlaine**

Recon is supposed to be getting ready to ship out... someday?

I think it would be sad and amusing to receive my Myth 2.0 materials before Recon ever shows up.

On topic I read somewhere it was the developers of Banner Saga that wanted to get this campaign up and rolling.

**PsychoticStorm**

I understand the need for using the creative studio when it is idle, but in their last video they were still playtesting the kraken, so the creative studio has work ahead.

**Alpharius**

It will be interesting to see what effect, if any, the ongoing MERCS and MYTH issues have on this one.

It looks interesting enough for me to check out and keep an eye on at launch though.

I'm a sucker for co-op games!

**Aeneades**

They haven't really said much about this one yet except that it's a dice less system (the video game it's based upon seems to be the same way with every attacking hitting and causing a fixed amount of damage).

**yamato**

Their video game combat reminds me of the old Ultima III and IV turn based combat. Though, the interesting part to me is the adventure map and how the story will be told. That really reminds me of Ultima. While traveling from one town to another, you could be interrupted by a combat event,.... It looks like you can do board game like stuff,.... And then every so often be pulled into an encounter,... Slap out a tile and swing swords for a bit,... Then back to the adventure.

To the points on MERCS Recon,... I think they had BSW ready to launch at Gencon, but they held it due to the Recon mini material issues and the associated delay that those were causing with Recon. (and I think that was the right thing to do). Now that they have shown the final production copy of the game,... Backers seem extremely pleased. I could see where their partners are anxious to get this thing rolling.

I'm very interested to see how this goes. They have very often gone head to head with other higher profile KS campaigns,... And they have still done well. My understanding is that there is Arcadia Quest sequel and a couple of other things launching too around this same time. Get you holiday wallets ready.

**PsychoticStorm**

It is interesting for sure.

time will tell of course.

**yamato**

Campaign starts today @ 2pm Eastern US time:

Spoiler:

I don't like early bird stuff,.... and not really interested in the digital portions of this game,.... but I guess we will see where it goes.

Interesting three way collaboration between MCG, Stoic, and Vs. Evil:

- MCG will run the KS (and are producing the game)
- Stoic are the IP owners and produce the computer game side of things
-Vs. Evil is said to be handling advertising and PR

FWIW - here is the Early Bird Special:

LIMITED EARLY BIRD DEAL FOR KICKSTARTER BACKERS

Thank you for signing up to receive information about The Banner Saga: Warbands. We are excited to begin our Kickstarter campaign tomorrow and wanted YOU to be the first to know about a limited EARLY BIRD offer.

Most of our customers will simply “want it all” so we made it easy for you: The Bannerman pledge level. If you pledge at the Bannerman – EARLY BIRD level, you can get the complete package of rewards for the discounted price of $190. Your rewards at this level are all inclusive:

The Banner Saga: Warbands Miniatures Board Game
Kickstarter Exclusive Warbands Miniature
All digital & physical add ons ($145 value) which include
10 additional miniatures
Additional battle tile board
16 Colored Base Sleeves
20 Willpower Crystals
The Banner Saga and The Banner Saga 2 (when released) video games on PC for digital download
Both Official Soundtracks for The Banner Saga video games
A digital copy of ‘The Gift of Hadrborg’ novel
All stretch goal rewards (if achieved)

Thank you for all your support so far and we look forward to bringing you The Banner Saga: Warbands sometime early next year!

Visit https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/megacongames/thebannersagawarbands or search on Kickstarter for The Banner Saga:Warbands tomorrow afternoon to check out the full Kickstarter campaign details!

The MegaCon Games & Stoic Teams

**Dark Severance**

Although I love co-op games, I won't be backing since I'm still waiting for Myth and Recon. I don't necessarily mind a company running two Kickstarters, but I definitely put a limit on how much one company gets without fulfilling existing Kickstarters.

**yamato**

As they have stated; MERCS Recon is done - in Chinese customs waiting to go onto the container ships.

They've show the unboxing of the completed games.

I thing it would be best if it was in peoples hands before they started this,.... but they also already delayed this project because of the reprinting issue with Recon; and they have said that the other partners in this want to move it forward.

**highlord tamburlaine**

I'm alright with the Recon issue at this point.

I'll wait and see how this game looks to play out.

Not being familiar with the PC game, is there anything besides bearded viking dudes? Monsters? Dragons? Weird stuff?

Gonna take more than burly bearded fat guys with hammers to get me to part with my money.

At least one guy looks like he's got horns growing off his head, so there may be more to it that's up my alley.

**yamato**

I am not familiar with the game (PC game), but if you look in the main picture,.. the lighter colored models (including the big dudes with horns) appear to be the hero characters.

the darker ones (just like in MYTH) are the monsters. We'll just have to see what materializes. I'm also afraid that there my be some crossover material available through this. If even just some cards that make monsters playable within MYTH.

I hope they don't try to tightly integrate KS exclusive stuff for MYTH into this as the did with the Hunter hero available only through Recon.

**He2etic**

highlord tamburlaine wrote:
I'm alright with the Recon issue at this point.

I'll wait and see how this game looks to play out.

Not being familiar with the PC game, is there anything besides bearded viking dudes? Monsters? Dragons? Weird stuff?

Gonna take more than burly bearded fat guys with hammers to get me to part with my money.

At least one guy looks like he's got horns growing off his head, so there may be more to it that's up my alley.

To provide some background information:

The large, horned men are varl, ice giants who are allied with humans against the dredge, stone men from the far north. The story goes that two major wars happened, originally pitting man against varl until the appearance of the dredge united them. As of the first PC game, the gods have died generations ago, the sun has literally stopped in the sky and the dredge are marching south in unbelievable large numbers. There's a tremendous amount of back story that's rife with mysteries and every side suffers from tremendous amounts of internal strife.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
PS I want to say this now so you can take anything I say with a grain of salt. I'm the guy who wrote the novel add-on. Naturally I'm excited about the release but want to be upfront about that fact.

If I may make a recommendation, check out The Banner Saga: Factions on Steam. It's the free multi-player version of the combat portion of the games and gives a pretty decent idea of how battles play out. It doesn't have crazy PC requirements either. If you enjoy that, you'll probably enjoy The Banner Saga series.

**ced1106**

*waits for the SGs*

Could also be that Stoic is using KS for marketing (to boardgamers and miniatures players) for an upcoming release of Banner Saga. In that case, it doesn't matter how much funding the project makes.

*also waits for AQ:I*

**MLaw**

In the camp of "not ok with Recon's issues" and avoiding anything with MCG anywhere near it. Good luck to those who are choosing to back anyway.

**Lukez**

Can we get a non biased summary of the issues with MCG's previous kick starters?

**MLaw**

They ran into issues, didn't adequately communicate those issues, allowed those issues to drag down the timeline and are just now back online with what they claim is a 100% ready to ship product.. very.. very... late.

**Triple9**

Their messaging is a bit unpolished and a certain percentage of folks take it very personally. They're pretty small, but what they really need on board is a marketing specialist to handle the communication channels.

**ced1106**

Lukez wrote:
Can we get a non biased summary of the issues with MCG's previous kick starters?

Just browse the BoardGameGeek Myth and Recon forums.

In the end, they deliver (hi, Mantic!), but it's certainly a trial getting there. I'm waiting to see if BS delivers a bucket-o-mini's like Myth did.

Good luck!

**Bioptic**

Myth 1 is their only released product to date, and the initially released version was extremely poorly explained in the rules, and ultimately did not enjoy the best reputation for rules. They revised the rules with a second Kickstarter, which also included a lot of expansion content.

They ended up shipping Myth 1 very late, and although they did "wave shipping" for the US, they did not for Europe. This lead to the slightly heartbreaking scenario of your Kickstarted boardgame being on retail shelves for months, and not being able to play it.

I find their communication can be 'blunt' verging on 'rude' at times.

Their games are extremely add-on heavy. They tend to put together pretty attractive "all-in" bundles on the Add-ons, but you will be spending $200 minimum for the game + expansions in each case.

**Triple9**

ced1106 wrote:
Lukez wrote:
Can we get a non biased summary of the issues with MCG's previous kick starters?

Just browse the BoardGameGeek Myth and Recon forums.

Unfortunately, both of those are an echo chamber; confirmation bias; giggle loop if you will. My ears start to bleed reading the same 10 people writing the same thing over and over...and over...the shrillness, it's painful..

**ced1106**

Triple9 wrote:
Unfortunately, both of those are an echo chamber; confirmation bias; giggle loop if you will. My ears start to bleed reading the same 10 people writing the same thing over and over...and over...the shrillness, it's painful..

If you can find a better site to answer Lukez's question, post.

Nikki, their customer service representative (and only CSR considering MCG has a total staff of four), is exceptional (hi, CMON!), but everything else is giggle loop.

**highlord tamburlaine**

Actually Mercs: Conflict, the dice game, was released already. That was part of the Recon Kickstarter.

Reading into things, it really looks like this game was designed to have 4 people at all times, in order to really have each Warband role really push to have their decisions heard.

I guess with a smaller amount of players you could just take one of the sides and see how things play out from there.

**Triple9**

Neither of those sites is going to give an unbiased summary. I'll do my best to analyze.

4 things with MCG that people put various levels of importance on:

1, Original MYTH rulebook was a mess.
2. Original MYTH core game was very delayed for overseas backers
3. Current Recon core games are very delayed
4. Messaging from MCG explaining all this rubs people the wrong way. Not the best bearers of bad news (ie people skills).

There may be others, but that's my best take. Full disclosure, I've backed all their stuff up to this point and although get annoyed with them at times, I think their hearts are in the right place.

Edit for Gripe number 5, which is the one that drives me up a wall; they won't release a low-rez rules PDF, so good luck viewing any rules on a tablet without waiting 30 seconds between pages.

**Lukez**

Early stretch goals are big gap and kinda lame, basically just 3-d tokens..

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also thanks for all the summaries. I'm tentatively in regardless of delays. It sounds like the end product should be good?

the rules are currently available to read so I can judge those now. http://assets.megacongames.com.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/2015/11/Warbands-Full-Box.jpg

Were the models from the first myth were good?

**highlord tamburlaine**

Like most 3d tokens though, they're all Kickstarter exclusives as well.

I much prefer having piles of figures over tokens, but it's not a major deal breaker.

With a 200 all in pledge that includes ALL of the add-ons, it gets me curious just how much more stuff they're going to chuck at this.

I'll also admit that I want to see a Myth card for spawning Dredge, and some of those Sundr as bosses or mini-bosses.

**ced1106**

Can you own too many crates? Hmm.

Well, at least my snotlings will have token-sized tents!

**Triple9**

Lukez wrote:
Early stretch goals are big gap and kinda lame, basically just 3-d tokens..

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also thanks for all the summaries. I'm tentatively in regardless of delays. It sounds like the end product should be good?

the rules are currently available to read so I can judge those now. http://assets.megacongames.com.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/2015/11/Warbands-Full-Box.jpg

Were the models from the first myth were good?

My best guess is what would usually be the early stretch goals was the add-on list that is already part of the Bannerman pledge. They put enough in to make the high dollar pledge a good deal right up front, to the detriment of the early stretch goals.

The models in the original MYTH were pretty good given the material (PVC). They are good miniatures and paint up nicely, but they won't be your display pieces. A few bendy parts, but the vast majority reacted well to the hot water treatment. One thing that is impressive about MCG is how close the miniatures are to the concept art (Mantic, are you listening?). they're straightforward and cartoonish, but translate very well to the medium.

**yamato**

Gameplay Video:

Skirmish Video: