We continue our sessions with Burning Banners, a great fantasy-themed wargame, set in illustrious world of Khalar. We are still focusing on smaller scenarios, ones which introduce players to the main game. Also, as what I report below was our second attempt, we still felt it is good to play with Basic Rules – which definitely make the game also shorter.

This title accommodates any number of players between 2 and 6 which is great, as if any of our regular companions drops out, we can still bring this to the table. It was exactly the situation this time, when only Adam and Kuba G. were available (Kuba J. unfortunately had other priorities). So we had to go with the three player set-up!

About the Game

Couple of words about Burning Banners for those who are not familiar with it. If you are familiar – feel free to skip to the next section. In essence, this is a fantasy wargame for two to six players. It is really fast playing and intuitive, and features a whopping 29 scenarios, of various size, length and complexity. They range from short campaigns with 2 Kingdoms and one map, to the entire 12-year war, in which 6 kingdoms battle over four maps. Possibility to play with Basic and Advanced Rules, as well as with one of the six featured factions (Goblins, Orcs, Army of the Night, Dwarfs, Fjordland and Eastern Empire) allows for endless hours of great joy!

Scenarios, Campaigns and Chapters

If you have not played Burning Banners yet, it is worthwhile to stop for a moment and analyze plethora of options to bring this title to the table. In essence, all possible set-ups are divided into two sections: Scrolls of Sandaria and The Chronicle of The War of Burning Banners.

My session reports / playthroughs from Burning Banners world:
The Scrolls of Sandria:
0 Invasion of Drefeld (565)
1 Fight to the Death (556)
2 The Jarl's War (572)
3 The Great Goblin Raid (581)
4 Orcs on the Deepwater (584)
5 Approaching Thunder (584)
6 The Spire of the Moon (588)
7 Fire in the Field of Ash (589)
8 Goblin Apocalypse (589)
9 Marauders in the Empire (593)
10 Last Stand in the East (593)
11 Across the Oskolton (593)
12 Goblin High Tide (593)
13 Orcs at the Gate (595)
14 Return of the Long Ships (596)
15 Against the Spire (599)
16 Assault in the North (599)
17 The Undead Empress (604)
The Chronicle of the War:
Book 1: Rage of the Witch Queen
1 Out of the Shadows (589)
2 With Fire and Steel (590)
3 In the Fangs of Beast (591)
4 Wolves of the North (592)

Book 2: Blood Tide Rising
5 The Sword is Broken (593)
6 World on Fire (594)
7 The Longest Night (595)

Book 3: Witch Queen at Bay
8 The Sword Reforged (596)
9 The Lion Rampant (597)
10 Twilight of a Goddess (598)
  • Scrolls of Sandaria – consists of an introductory battle, designed to help players learn the game, followed by seventeen self-contained scenarios from different periods in the Burning Banners timeline. We focus on this now.
  • The Chronicle of The War of Burning Banners – contains starting positions for ten of the twelve years of the war. This allows players to set-up a single 3-turn game from any year in the war, to the entire twelve-year war.

That way you can gradually get into the world of the Burning Banners, learning the rules step by step and familiarizing with the great and extensive lore of this title!

Scenario Description:

As there was only three of us, our choices were limited. And with odd number of players, it is always tricky to pick-up a proper scenario. Still, we had like three/four options for that number of players. In the end, our group decided to continue the journey in the world of Burning Banners with one of adventures, which present first Resistance counter-attacks against extended lines of the Invaders.

This will be Campaign 11 – do not be be surprised to see this is called like this. It is because introductory Campaign as well as the ones numbered 1-6 are quick, 2-player engagements, most of which happens long before the Great War – and the ones from 7 to 17 are a bit larger and already during the war.

So what is the main goal and aim of the game? Not surprisingly, the Invader (Army of the Night + Goblins) lays content with their already conquered or burned to the ground territories. They simply win by preventing victory by the other side.

It is the Resistance (Dwarfs) who are active in this scenario and will win if at the end of the game they control or occupy three or more settlements on the map (they start with only one, Barzirak plus two entry hexes). The special rule says they can rebuild razed settlements at no cost which definitely help in that effort.

Sides:

We decided it will be most just to simply roll for the sides and let the fate decide who takes which faction. In the end, we ended up with following split:

  • Army of the Night (Invader) – Michal
  • Goblins (Invader) – Kuba G
  • Oathborn (Resistance) – Adam

Well, poor Adam was supposed to face the two experienced wargame players. As you can see below, he did tremendously well despite our best efforts. But let us not get to much ahead of ourselves 🙂

One important note: as this was only our second session, we played with Basic Game Rules. That means we did not use Heroes, Magic, Monsters and several other, smaller mechanics.

Session Report:

Initial set-up of Campaign 11. Dwarfs (Adam) has only one settlement and two entry hexes, where the Oathborn can build units. Goblins and Army of the Night together control seven areas but this is pretty brittle possession. Also, you can see like six small towns which are razed.
Now, with all the units build and present on the map the ation immediately started to develop in top-left corner of the map. Adam slowly started to resettle the desolated settlements, establishing the perimeter quickly.
Soon, the first Fjordland ford (Oathborn allies) was liberated and despite the Giant Bats and Hill Trolls attempts, we could not take it back.
Adam also completely surprised us by sending via sea one of his Iron Legions. Good we had time to build the Swarm of Rats and kill with a strike a weakened unit.
Talking about surprises! My Army of the Night also had something hidden – the Vampire Knights – with range 5 – flew to Barzirak and burned it to the ground! All Dwarfs were fighting on the front lines and that opportunity moment was well used by my units!
When the Storm Giants came, I was pretty sure my Vampire Knights are done! But not, they survived till the end of the game, occupying that important stronghold!
The situation end of the game. Four settlements occupied bu Oathboardn, Goblins almost wiped our, Barzirak still in Invader hands.

Result:

The game finished in Resistance (that is Adam leading Oathborn) victory. It was a decisive but not crushing defeat of our forces – in the end the main outpost of Dwarfs was razed to the ground by my Vampire Knights. Still, the VPs were resoundingly against us – Adam was controlling / had units in four settlements while he needed only three to win. The result was historical and fully just.

Evaluation & Summary:

Scenario Fun Factor

Scenario Balance

Time to Play

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

That was our first scenario played with three players. It did not feel awkward nor somehow artificially distributed among three players. The weakened Goblins and a restrained Army of the Night were facing full strength Dwarfs. On paper it looked balanced, but one the map it was not.

And while the Invader had possibility to win in the field – at least from time to time, me and Kuba could not do anything against crushing economical advantage of Adam. And in the end, these are money which will tell who will win. If you add to this very easy to achieve victory conditions for Dwarfs, we deemed that scenario a bit imbalanced.

One more aspect which diminished fun from the game was fact that although theoretically we had whole map to play, the actual action took part in maximum half / one-quarter of this. No way for some long-range, outflanking maneuvers or raids. Just brutal force against brutal force. Not so much joy.

Still, the game was quick and deadly, and as a training scenario – should be ok. The following session which we played next week really sparked again the enthusiasm in us. But this is topic for next article!