Journey to Ridgehorn | Chapter 3 The Banner Saga Guide
Last update: 12 August 2016
Most important moments of the journey
The first key moment in the journey to Ridgehorn refers to encountering a large group of monsters and here you'll get familiarized with a new mechanism of waging the war. War starts always when the caravan encounters larger group of monsters which can be defeated by the active team. It can consist with several hundreds or even several thousands of monsters. In such situations all decisions and fights directly influence the entire caravan. For example, if you win the fight only with the active team, the rest of your army will also win this battle.
Each time you can act in 5 ways and the choice of the tactics should depend mainly on amount of enemies (you see numbers of both sides of the conflict, so you can easily determine who has advantage):
1) Charge! - Aggressive charge is a good idea only if you have clear advantage over the enemy.
2) Formations! - Formation is a good idea if numbers of your warriors and enemies are almost the same.
3) Hold Them Off! - Trying to stop the enemy is a good idea if he has advantage.
4) Retreat! - Fleeing from the battlefield is a good idea if the enemy has clear advantage. This variant allows you to avoid the battle but you have to reckon the fact that because of the retreat more warriors (Fighters) and giants (Varl) from your caravan will die.
5) Oversee! - Passive participation in the battle. I strongly do not recommend this solution because although you do not have to participate in the battle personally, you have to reckon with the fact that your subordinates will achieve much worse outcome in the battle than you could get.
In summary, you should participate actively in all bigger battles, choosing options 1, 2 or 3 depending on the difference in the numbers of both armies. Use 4th option only as a last resort, when the enemy outnumbers you greatly.
If you decided to choose option 1, 2 and 3 when it comes to commanding the army, then you'll have to fight one battle where you'll face smaller or larger group of already known monsters (mainly Dredge Grunts). During the fights watch out for monsters which are able to call reinforcements (Dredge Scourge), stopping them when possible. It is worth mentioning that in the described battle you'll see for the first time Bersi and Yrsa. I recommend interesting mainly in the archer, because Yrsa has very useful ability named Slag and Burn, which can set some ground elements in fire. This action can be used to stop enemies from marching towards you as well as burning tiles with fighting monsters (explosion and fire deal damage both to strength points and armor points and can weaken more than one enemy at the time).
After each battle connected with war actions you'll be asked if you want to resume the journey immediately (Pull back before they regroup) or to attack additional monsters (Kill a few more as they flee). If you choose the second option, the caravan morale will increase and you'll be able to obtain more Renown points. But this is also risky, because you could encounter elite units on the battlefield. So I recommend doing this only if you've won the main battle without bigger problems and your subordinates weren't seriously injured.
Regardless of whether you won, ignored or lost the first big battle, the caravan will continue its journey. The peace won't last long because scouts will soon spot another large group of monsters. If you decide to attack them immediately (Draw some of them forward and split them), then you'll start military actions again, so choose a proper tactics depending in current amount of your fighters. The attack is a good idea, because it will allow you to split enemy forces into two parts (it mean of course that you'll have to fight two battles). But you can also make decision to get closer to the enemy (Get closer before making a move) and then fight one big battle in the village (Take the fight to them!). The least aggressive variant is to pass by the enemy forces without engaging them and risking losing more and more warriors (I don't like this. We'll skirt the village).
If you've decided to attack enemy forces in the Village, you'll be able to visit it now. You should activate a new event here. It would be good to open the hatch (Open the hatch) in order to find peasants hiding there. You can send those people to Strand without any guards (Go to Strand. We've cleared the way) or with some escort (Go to Strand. We'll send escorts with you) or propose them to stay in the village (Stay here if you'd like). If you plan to send peasants away, Eirik would like to accompany them and you can agree to it (Go if you wish) or forbid it (We need you here). If you allow Eirik to go with the refugees, you will be rewarded with 10 points of Renown.
Before leaving the village I suggest to talk to Bersi and Yrsa (try to use all available topics). In addition you can Rest, advance Heroes and but supplies on Market.
Prepare for very important encounter with group of several hundreds of giants travelling from Schild and commanded by Fasolt. During the conversation you can be rude and disrespectful towards prince Ludin or to use a balanced vocabulary. Time to decide traditionally comes at the end of the meeting:
- Selecting the "Walk away" option will make prince Ludin stay in the caravan. The Varl, commanded by Fasolt, will join your army, and there are 300 of them! I recommend that you select this variant because, regardless of whether you keep prince Ludin or send him away, his life is not going to be in danger. With him on the caravan (and also with Yrsa and Bersi, i.e. his two helpers) it is going to be easier to win battles.
- If you select the "Lay the prince flat and send him off to Grofheim" or the "Knock him out cold and send him away" option, will result in the stunning of prince Ludin and he will be sent to Grofheim against his will, where he is going to be safe. As a result of this decision, prince Ludin, Yrsa, Bersi and a group of 45 Fighters will leave the caravan. You do not need to worry about Fasolt and the 300 Varl, because just like in the variant described above, he will stay in the caravan.
In a few moments a new battle with monsters will start and since you can't avoid it, you have to decide how you'll react on it. If you have joined giant to your caravan, you should outnumber the enemy. Otherwise monsters can have more units, so make sure to choose a good tactics. During the fight you'll encounter for the first time new type of monsters (Dredge Slag Slinger, Slag Slinger Marksman, Slag Slinger Veteran), who use slings to attack from distance. Same as with archers from the previous chapter, try to quickly reduce your distance to enemies so you could attack them in melee and stop them from using the slings.
Regardless of the battle result, you'll see one more event. This is the conversation about just encountered monsters. Same as in one of previous chapters you have to be very careful when choosing dialog options, because otherwise you can lead to death of Gunnulf. If you want to keep him alive, choose the 1st dialog option twice (Tell Gunnulf to let go and then Order him to let go with authority). At the end of the event you have to decide what you will do with treasure cart, which has fallen down. You can:
- Ignore the cart and continue the journey (Nothing for it. There's no time to stop now.)
- Try to get some of treasure (Try to recover what you can quickly)
- Leave the decision up to Ubin (Your call, Ubin)
- Cover the cart and leave it for later (Try to cover it up and come back later)
- Leave group of giants at the cart to pick up treasure and go back to Strand (Leave some varl to gather and return to Strand). Choosing this variant means of course that a small group of giant (Varl) will leave the caravan.
Soon, the caravan will reach Denglr and you will have to make another decision here. You can:
- Leave the dead and their offerings alone You will gain nothing this way, but the caravan's morale will improve.
- Leave the offerings alone but check for the merchant's brother - There is another decision to make after this one: Variant one assumes that you take the necklace necklace with intent to return it. You will not be able to use this artifact, but you will gain 10 renown points and the caravan's morale will go up. The second variant assumes that you keep the Five Ring Necklace for yourself. You will neither gain renown nor improve on the caravan's morale this way, although the necklace is a powerful artifact, which will be of use to one of the Varl in the party (they need to reach the fifth experience level first).
- Gather whatever you can - Examining the corpses will not let you obtain any additional, or unique, items. You will be presented with a choice identical with the one in the variant above, i.e. you will be able to take the necklace, to return it later on, or keep for yourself.
Regardless of how you behaved, it is a good idea to examine the godstone towards the end of your visit, especially that you will lose no time this way.
Mogr should tell the caravan after some time that they are being followed by monsters. If you choose 1st (No, stop everyone and get ready to fight) or 3rd dialog option (Good, more slags to kill) then you'll start the battle counted in military operations, so choose a proper tactics. If you select 2nd option (We'll lose them) then you'll avoid fights. I personally recommend fighting monsters, because the number of monsters in the next army you'll encounter will be now decreased.
Before you get to Ridgehorn you'll encounter one more large group of monsters. If you didn't send prince Ludin previously, you should have 5 options now:
- Fighting the standard battle (Fight your way as usual) - This battle, same as previous ones, is counted into military operations.
- Waiting for monsters to split up (Wait and see if they disperse and We're going to wait them out) - I do not recommend this option because new monsters will join the hostile army and as a result it will be harder to defeat the main group.
- Set fire on the part of the forest to distract monsters (Create a forest fire as a distraction) - This is definitely the best option because some part of monsters will die in the fire and as a result it will be easier to defeat the main group.
- Set fire on monsters after luring them into forest (Draw them into the woods and set them on fire) - This is not the recommended variant because you would lose Yrsa and some warriors (Fighters) and giants as well (Varl).
- Luring monsters into forest without setting it one fire (Lure them into the woods without the fire) - This is not the recommended variant because you would lose Yrsa and some warriors (Fighters) and giants as well (Varl).
Additional events
Soon after leaving the Verdfell village the caravan should notice a new group of monsters heading towards Strand town and since it is not too large, Mogr will suggest attacking them by a surprise. You can:
- Give up the attack (It'd be a waste of time. Strand can handle that). The caravan will immediately resume the journey.
- Send some warriors to fight monsters (Mogr, send some warriors to take care of it). A group of giants (Varl) will leave the caravan and caravan will continue its journey. As a reward you'll gain 5 Renown points.
- Attack monsters (We'll deal with it ourselves). If you choose this variant, you'll have to fight the battle, but unfortunately without prince Ludin nor his guards. You'll have to deal with the group of monsters consisting of standard creatures (Dredge Grunt) as well as with more demanding ones (Vicious Grunt). As a reward you'll get up to 12 Renown points.
The next event is a conversation between Hakon and prince Ludin, but you do not have to think too much which dialog options you have to choose. Soon after the conversation is over, another event will be activated - you'll learn that one of giants (Varl) in the caravan doesn't respect Hakon as he should do. It would be best to solve this problem by challenging him to a duel (Challenge the varl to a fight) or hitting him by surprise (Blindside him) - this will result in 5 Renown points.
The next random event is more important and it is presented on the above screen. It refers to meeting a group of merchants and at the beginning you can act in two ways:
- Send merchants to Strand, assuring them that the road is safe (Assure them the way to Strand is clear and see them off).
- Ask them if they have anything to sell (Ask if they have anything to trade).
If you have chosen the second option then you'll have opportunity to gain large amount of Supplies for free (We'll take them. How much?). I DO NOT RECOMMEND this solution because later on it will turn out that supplies are poisoned. Morale will then decrease and it will be very likely that you have to get rid of a large part of your own supplies because plague gets also to them. Overall, this situation is very bad for you.
Soon after leaving Denglr the members of the caravan should notice a smoke in a distance. You can act here in several ways:
- Ignore the smoke (Not worth the risk. Keep moving) - The caravan will continue the journey.
- Send group of giants to examine the situation (Send some varl to take a look and then Go yourself, get ready for a fight) - Scouts will encounter a group of 215 giants (varl) who will join the caravan.
- Send a team to examine the situation (Check it out yourself) - his choice will result in fighting a battle with monsters. If you win the battle you'll gain Renown points and in addition 280 giants (varl) will join the caravan.
If you have let prince Ludin stay on the caravan and you have left alone the supply wagon that the caravan encountered after leaving Denglr, still before you reach Ridgehorn, Rook may be contacted by Mogr, and inform him of Fighters and Varl that disappear in unclear cuircumstances. You can react aggressively to the problem of desertion and punish several random characters on the caravan (Make an example of a few), where nearly all the remaining options point to Ludin as the one responsible for this. As a result, it is a good idea to meet with the prince, because you will learn that he has been sending more and more people for gold from the abovementioned wagon. You can react to this in four different ways:
- Threaten him if he doesn't stop.
- Demand he turn over the loot. You can then tone down what you say, or resort to fisticuffs.
- Insist he explains his actions. You can then threaten him or make him hand over the gold.
- Resort to violence (Pummel him in his stupid face).