Boersgard - the siege | Chapter 7 The Banner Saga Guide
Last update: 12 August 2016
Day one
In Boersgard, you will spend several days and, on each day, you will be able to perform only one of the many suggested activities. Some of the actions (like e.g. fighting monsters), will bee available every day, whereas the other ones (e.g. defending the ships in the shipyard) only once. Start by talking to Iver who is guarding the walls (the dialogue options that you select during this conversation will not influence the course, nor the ending) After this meeting ends, the game will display a list of six groups of actions available on the first day in Boersgard. The descriptions of the individual actions have been provided below.
The first option is to ensure a safe place to stay for the caravan (Find a safe place for a caravan to stay). This will allow you to avoid the necessity to fight monsters but, it includes losing some fighters and varl towards the end of the day.
There are many branches to this variant. You can take a decision of gathering in one of the public houses (Gather in the public rest house), make a camp (Make camp in an open space, keeping everyone together), find abandoned houses (Look for abandoned houses) or choose leaders (Put some people in charge and let them deal with it). It's good to pick option 3. Taking shelter in abandoned houses will save a lot of your people from your caravan.
The second option is joining Iver at the defense of the city walls (Join Iver in defending the walls). This requires you to fight but, as a reward for winning it, the caravan will lose no fighters nor Varl.
As it has been mentioned above, Sigbjorn will not be able to take part in the fights. Select the best characters possible, because it will not be easy to win. Right after the battle starts, focus on the bigger monsters in the first place (Scourge Destroyer, Stoneguard Colossus etc.) and watch Eyvind's and your archers' health, try not to let the situation, in which they lose their entire health bars, happen (this will weaken them in the forthcoming fights, if you select them again).
The third option is to find a source for supplies. This allows you to avoid the necessity to fight a battle with monsters, but it involves losing a group of Fighters and Varl towards the end of the day.
This variant has many branches. You can locate the giants from the Raven group and ask them questions (Track down the ravens and see what they know), explore the city in search of people interested in selling supplies (Scour the city for anyone willing to sell supplies), check out the places where supplies may be found (Shake down the places that seem to be holding out) or order the rationing of supplies (Tell the caravan to start rationing tighter).
I recommend that you decide on one of the two variants of behavior. If, earlier in the game, you have visited Reynivik and helped Sigbjorn you will now have plenty of mead. In such a situation, it is best to contact the Ravens (Track down the ravens and see what they know) and Offer the mead you picked up in Reynivik; the above screenshot. This will give you as many as 70 units of supplies. If you have not visited the town, the best idea is to start rationing supplies (Tell the caravan to start rationing tighter), thanks to which you will gain 30 units of supplies.
The fourth option is to lend a hand to the people who build ships at the docks (Help down at the docks). This allows you to avoid the necessity to fight monsters but, includes losing the group of fighters and Varl towards the end of the day.
There are multiple possibilities to this variant. You can assign people to work at the construction of the ships (Get volunteers involved in building the ships), make everybody work in shifts (Force everybody to work, taking shifts), not get the others involved to keep the right working conditions (Don't get the others involved for safety reasons) or help by keeping the onlookers away. In general, the choice of a variant does not play a key role here, because no unpredictable events will occur.
The fifth option is to delegate Krumr to command fighters (Put Krumr in charge of leading the warriors). It is available only if Krumr has reached Boersgard with the rest of the caravan. This allows you to avoid fighting monsters and, unlike the above variants, allows you to limit your losses of Fighters and Varl towards the end of the day. The downside of this variant is that Krumr may die on the fourth day of fighting and you will not be able to prevent it.
The final, sixth option is to go to rest (Try to get some rest). This allows you to avoid fighting the monsters but it involves losing a group of Fighters and Varl towards the end of the day.
SUMMARY: The only variant that allows you to avoid any losses is fighting with monsters. You need to, in such a situation, make sure that as little people of the active party, as possible lose consciousness because, otherwise, they will be too strained in the next fights. If you don't want to fight (a good idea if you want to save your teammates for later), you can exchange honey for 70 supplies or look fora a safe place for your caravan (abandoned hoses are the best available option).
Day two
On the second day you will have to make the same choices as earlier. The only difference is that the options that you have selected earlier, will not be available this time, which makes you take a different action There are two exceptions though - it is possible to fight a battle, in which Iver participates, and take rest.
SUMMARY: The best idea would be to enter another fight but, achieving victory may prove even more difficult. If you do not feel like fighting, you should select any of the "better" options which you have not used earlier, i.e. one that guarantees limiting your losses in men or is connected with receiving supplies.
Day three
On the third day, you will be informed of the increased activity of monsters and of the appearance of the Stonesinger in the area. Apart from the options that you know from the previous days (fight, searching for supplies, resting, etc.) there will appear one more, connected with looking into the riots in the docks (Investigate the riots down by the docks). You can join the Ravens that are defending the ships (Fight alongside the Ravens), make it over to the rooftops of the buildings and attacking villagers with the bows (Get up on a roof and fire arrows into the crowds), try to calm down the people (Try to calm people down) or leave the fight with the villagers in the hands of the Ravens (Leave the fighting to the Ravens). Selection of the action will not play a vital role here.
If you decide to fight, you will have to defeat, among others, the abovementioned Stonesinger, which you have already dealt with earlier throughout the campaign. Try to eliminate this monster at the very beginning of the battle, before it manages to use the Umbrage skill and reinforce the remaining monsters. If you, however, did not manage to prevent this from happening, take advantage of the fact that this skill has weakened the armors of the enemies.
SUMMARY: Again, I recommend that you take part in the fights, unless some of the characters in your party are already weakened and you do not want to make it additionally difficult for yourself during the skirmishes to come.
Day four
On day four, things will change radically. If you have been helping Iver achieve victories, during the previous days, the perfectly known list of actions will appear on the screen so, you will be able to select the one that is not connected with fighting (acquiring supplies, investigating the docks meeting Krumr, resting) or enter another battle with Iver. In the last case, the new battle will be nothing different than the previous ones, apart from the fact that there will be more monsters to eliminate.
If you, on the previous days, have not been helping Iver enough, a situation in which the monsters cut through the main gates, may occur. In such a situation, you will have to make a choice from among four options and each one of them results in a different fight. The available actions are:
- Try to stop them at the gate - the fight will play out at the gate and, after you win t, you will learn that you have lost a lot of Clansmen.
- Protect your Clansmen above all else - the battle will be fought inside one of the buildings and, after you win, you will learn that you have lost several Clansmen only.
- Alert the Ravens of the monster attack - the battle will be fought in the city and, after you win it, you will learn that you lost, relatively, few Clansmen.
- Ambush them as they enter - the battle will be fought in the city and, after you win it, you will learn that you have lost quite a few Clansmen.
Day five
Regardless of the course of day four, and the decisions that you have taken, the events that occur next are common to all of the abovementioned variants of behavior. Eyvind will point out that there appeared an army of giants in this area, commanded by Hakon, and he will set out to meet them. Unfortunately, before you will be able to meet up with the ally, you will have to fight a quite standard battle with monsters.
After the fights end, the game will automatically display a cutscene of the meeting, during which you will learn that, apart from Hakon, Mogr and prince Ludin, also Juno arrived in Boersgard. The good news is that , after the meeting ends, your caravan will be joined by 280 Varl. Apart from that, you will receive 315 units of supplies.
The next conversation will be participated by Rook and Juno. Rook will be asked by Juno to take his last journey, as a result of which, he will have to leave the caravan. It is worth adding now, that choosing any of the dialogue options will have no bearing on the meeting with Juno.