It takes two or three attacks to reduce armour to the point where serious Strength damage will start to bleed through to the character it is protecting, but if this happens you have a serious problem because it can only take one attack focused fully on Strength to render somebody more-or-less useless for the rest of the battle. Games start with each side carefully jockeying for position, attempting to focus fire somebody’s armour down whilst trying to avoid the same being done to them. It’s this Armour/Strength dichotomy which is the beating heart of Factions’ tactical combat. All characters – even Archers – start out with reasonably high Armour scores, so before you can do serious damage to somebody’s Strength stat you have to wear down their Armour first by attacking it directly. If a character with eleven Strength attempts to make a Strength attack on a character with nine Armour, the armour value is subtracted from the attack value and the attack will only end up doing two points of damage. The only thing preventing Strength loss is the Armour stat, which functions as a buffer to soak up Strength damage. When one of your fighters gets hit for five damage, they also lose five attack power and are that much weaker in subsequent combat. Factions pleases me immensely by taking a leaf out of Darklands’ book and adopting a combat system where health and attack power have been combined into a single Strength stat. Sounds simple enough.Įxcept it isn’t simple. First person to kill all of the enemy fighters wins. You take this squad and you enter the matchmaking system, which will automatically find an opponent for you to slug it out with over a small battlefield composed of square tiles. There are two of the horned giant-types - a Shield-Banger and a Warrior - two Archers, one Raider, and another Raider who has been upgraded into one of Factions’ prestige classes, the Thrasher. When you first load it up Factions shows you a gorgeous animated intro (more on this later), rushes you through a tutorial teaching the fundamental concepts of the game, and then dumps you into the menu masquerading as a city screen with a low level squad of six fighters. While I’m waiting for it, though, I figured I’d dip my toe into Factions now that it’s out of beta to see if this much-vaunted tactical combat is all it’s cracked up to be. The release of Chapter One of Banner Saga proper has been set (rather optimistically, in my opinion) for this summer, so it’s not going to be arriving for quite some time. For those who don’t know, Factions is the free-to-play multiplayer component to the Banner Saga that Stoic developed first to make sure their combat system for single-player Banner Saga worked properly. 2012-2013 All rights reserved.Banner Saga: Factions had a soft release to Kickstarter backers on Monday. The Banner Saga™ and The Banner Saga: Factions™ content is used by permission. The journey is as important as battle – your role in building and managing your caravan as you travel the vast frozen landscape is critical to not only your own survival but the survival of an entire civilization.Strategic combat with consequences - victory or defeat and even the permanent loss of a character depends on which characters you choose to take into battle and what decisions you make afterwards.Over 25 playable characters from 2 different races, human and varl, the horned giants – embark on your epic journey with a variety of characters from 7 different classes, each with unique abilities and upgrade options to fit your play style.An epic Viking saga brought to life in 2D glory – beautifully hand drawn combat sequences and animations, accompanied by an evocative score from Grammy-nominated composer Austin Wintory, will immerse you into a fantasy realm inspired by Norse mythology.Not everyone will survive, but they will be remembered. Every decision you make in travel, conversation and combat has a meaningful effect on the outcome as your story unfolds. Carefully choose those who will help fight a new threat that jeopardizes an entire civilization. Make allies as you travel with your caravan across this stunning yet harsh landscape. Live through an epic role-playing Viking saga where your strategic choices directly affect your personal journey.
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