How to play
BANNERFALL is a 3D medieval strategy game where you build your defences and then command your army in real time. The title screen gives you three ways in: Quick War on a generated map, Millbrook Ford, a single battle that teaches the basics, and The Long War, a whole realm fought over for years.
Every war starts with Founding, while time is stopped. You get a free keep, your Marshal, two squads of builders and three gifted squads, plus a royal grant of 50,000 gold. Spend it on the build tools on the left (trenches, stakes, palisades, gates, watchtowers, stone walls, gatehouses and stone towers) and on the recruit cards at the bottom. Everything refunds in full until you press Raise the Banners, so you can try things out.
Then the war runs in real time. Left click or drag a box to select squads, right click to move or attack, and right drag to draw a battle line: its length sets how wide the line is. Space pauses at any moment, and you can still give orders while paused. W A S D or the arrow keys pan the camera, Q and E rotate it, and the mouse wheel zooms from 14 metres to 1,400 metres up. Z X C set Line, Wedge or Loose formation, H G K set Hold, Aggressive or Skirmish, F uses the squad's ability and R retreats. F1 shows every control.
Tips and strategy
- Pause often. Battles move fast. Press Space, line everyone up, then let time run again.
- Villages pay twice. Clear a village's militia and hold its square for 15 seconds, then choose: pillage it for 6,000 to 16,000 gold now, or protect and tax it for 150 to 400 gold every minute for as long as you hold it. Taxing pays more over a long war.
- Bring siege engines to a castle. Rival capitals have stone walls, towers and garrisons with archers on the walls. Rams break gates and mangonels knock down towers. Once you are inside, hold the courtyard for 30 seconds to take the vault and every wall.
- Spears stop horses. Spearmen in Hold stance brace automatically, and charging cavalry breaks on them.
- Builders work mid-war. Select a builder squad and the build palette appears. Draw a trench or a wall in your land, or near your soldiers, and the builders walk over and raise it.
- Keep a castle. You lose if you hold no castle or fort for 60 seconds, so never send every squad away from home.
What's in it
Quick War generates a fresh map 2, 3 or 4 kilometres across, against 1 to 3 rival kingdoms that also fight each other. The map has rivers, forests, villages, forts, castles and a walled capital for every rival. Take villages, raid forts by holding their treasury tent, storm castles, and claim land by holding its waystone. A fog of war hides what your men cannot see. Recruit at your keep and castles from 25 kinds of troops, from militia, spearmen and longbowmen to knights, heavy cavalry, siege towers and trebuchets. The Banners panel lets you offer truces, demand tribute or pay one rival to attack another. You win when every rival kingdom has fallen. A kingdom falls when its capital is taken or its ruler is slain, or when it is beaten badly enough to accept a demand to surrender.
Millbrook Ford is a single defensive battle on a 256 metre field. Varkhal's raiders cross a river in five waves over five and a half minutes, ending with knights. Earn up to three stars: win, lose less than 40 per cent of your men, and keep every enemy off the windmill.
The Long War is a realm map of provinces shared by four great kingdoms, one or two lesser ones and the landless Black Hounds. A day passes every 2 seconds, seasons change what armies can do, and you raise hosts, march them between provinces, besiege castles and make treaties. When armies meet, you can fight the battle yourself on a 3D field.
Questions
Is there blood?
No. Soldiers fall when beaten, and hits show as small sparks and dust.
Can I play on a phone or tablet?
Yes. Tap to select, tap the ground to move, drag from a selected squad to draw its line, pinch to zoom and twist to rotate. Turn the phone sideways.
Does it save?
Yes, in your own browser: your best results, difficulty, Quick War settings and sound settings. The Long War has its own save slots and a Continue button on the title screen. Clearing your browser's site data clears the save.