Banner Lords

Overview

Banner Lords is a compact turn-based war game on a hex grid, inspired by the handheld tactics games where cities are both the economy and the battlefield. Each of the eight maps puts your blue keep on the left and the red keep on the right, with neutral cities, forests, mountain ridges, and lakes between them. Both sides start with infantry posted on their holdings. You start each map with 300 gold, and at the end of every turn each city and keep you hold pays 100 more. Gold buys five unit types: Infantry for 100, the AA Gun for 200, the Tank for 300, Artillery for 400, and the Copter for 500. Every attack reads from a fixed damage table, so matchups matter more than numbers. Tanks maul infantry and artillery but cannot touch a Copter, the AA Gun exists to swat Copters, and Artillery lobs shells from two or three hexes away. Every unit has 10 hit points, the number printed under its letter. Wipe out the red army to advance; lose your whole army and the campaign ends.

How to Play

Click or tap one of your blue units to see its reachable hexes, then tap a highlighted hex to march. After moving, most units can still attack an enemy in range; Artillery cannot. On keyboard, arrows move the hex cursor and Space performs the same select, move, or attack action, while E ends the turn. To buy, press a unit button, then tap an empty city you own. Press Strike, then tap any hex to deal 3 damage to every enemy on and around it; it recharges for three turns. End Turn hands control to the enemy. P pauses and R restarts.

Tips & Strategy

Grab the neutral cities with your opening infantry on turn one: each one is another 100 gold every turn, and the enemy's foot soldiers will flip any city they step on. Fight from cover. A unit standing in forest, a city, or a keep takes 2 less damage per hit, which often decides who survives the counterattack. Remember that a defender which survives hits back if you are inside its range, so soften a target with Artillery or the Strike before sending an infantry unit adjacent. Artillery is the safest damage dealer because every other unit has a range of one and cannot counterattack from two or three hexes away, but it is helpless up close, so screen it with a Tank. Mountains only let Infantry and Copters through, and water is Copter-only, so a Copter can cross a lake and pick off isolated units. Save the Strike for a moment when two red units stand next to each other; a seven-hex blast that hits both is worth far more than one finishing blow.

What Makes It Distinct

Banner Lords strips the city-funded hex war game down to one screen per map and a single damage table you can learn in a few battles. There is no fog and no randomness in combat: every hit deals exactly the listed damage minus cover, so each turn is a solvable puzzle about positioning, counterattacks, and when to spend the rechargeable Strike.