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At last It’s here. I talked about this bit of DLC in my first thoughts about Armello in the piece “Armello – A Game of Animals & Thrones”. I missed it long ago when it was available to kickstarters but it has been released for sometime and it has added a bit of mischievous spice to an already well put together game. The Bandit Clan adds 4 new characters named Scarlet, Sylas, Horace and Twiss.

Scarlet is a close competitor for attack power that just comes under the Wolf Clan in terms of damage and health. I’ve leveled her up successfully between quest and equipment to have 10+ fight in some campaigns to the point she could attack any character without too much fear of failure. Combined with her Revolutionary ability my strategy I’ve developed is a mid to late game attack on all Bane’s terrorizing settlements to gain prestige and a follower. So far it’s been a great way to try and go for the prestige victory condition but with enough attack and a full party of followers taking the king can be a challenging but easy task when playing as Scarlet.

Sylas is a mixed back for me. His ability is called Butcher which gives +1 Attack per wanted level he gains. Sword dice pierce defenses when attacking the King’s Guard but outside of slaying any guard that try and hunt you down you can run into situations as demonstrated in the picture provided to the right here with just massive amounts of hit dice landing. But the trade off is with a high wanted level every guard on the map will chase after you. In multiplayer you can easily become the decoy keeping the guard off other players as they try and make for the king or some other end game goal. So Sylas requires some careful planning to play but if you absolutely despise guards and want a healthy challenge then make this old otter your top pick.

Horace sadly is my least favorite of the bandits. He’s a strong character with an interesting back story but compared to the other bandits he’s just at the bottom of the list when it comes to the amount of time and fun I have playing with them. His ability is an interesting one called 9th Knight where if you move him into a tile occupied with a guard Horace will politely swap spaces with the guard instead of attacking him. This ability doesn’t work if Horace has a bounty but not having to worry about attacking guards to move them out of the way gives you an extra amount of movement if and when you need it. I’ve played with him a few times and twice I’ve earned a Spirit Stone Victory by being able to go right through guards blocking tiles, avoiding traps, mountains and beating most to Spirit Stone spawns.

Last but not least, my favorite character Twiss, the little squirrel thief. 

Twiss is a fast little rodent that will often make little chittering sounds and leave a burst of nuts behind when he jumps in victory. His ability is quite strong called Pickpocket which gives him Evade everywhere and when he successfully evades he steals one card from the attacker. When the evade condition is in effect every Shield, Sword, Wyld Tree and depending on the time of day Sun and Moon dice counts as a evade point. With a little luck you can end up in a situation like in the picture to the right with 13 evade dice which far outweighs the standard attack any character can muster. In my play through I boosted his Wit which gives lots of cards to play with. So a strategy I have been experimenting with is placing down a onslaught of traps to annoy characters and provoke them into attacking me. Works well with AI but veteran players in multiplayer can see through my ruse, most of the time. For much love I give Twiss he does have some downsides. His attack power is awful so if you accidentally attack a foe or get a challenge that requires attack power you’re going to have a bad time. It’s possible but I have not be able to gain the Kingslayer victory with Twiss but I have faith in the little squirrel, he can do it!

Final thoughts on Armello

I’ve written a lot about this game since I have been following years ago on Kickstarter. After playing, writing and thinking on Armello it certainly has it’s faults and I think it’s fair to point them out and offer my own hopes on it’s future. As far as I am concerned I will support and enjoy this game but I truly believe the game needs to cut the DLC prices down and it would absolutely benefit from a sizable expansion. The Usurpers and Bandit Clan DLC prices should be cut to help elevate some of the concerns and criticisms about characters being locked behind pay walls for new players. The Seasons DLC honestly should’ve been free or at worse 99 cents. I picked up the Seasons DLC on a sale to show support for the game and it’s devs but it’s a great of example of a great game, great developer’s but an odd DLC choice.

This where the idea and hopes for future DLC comes to mind but like I stated before Armello could use a serious expansion. The dev’s are constantly supporting and tweaking the game (currently version 1.9 is out as of this post) so in the hopes someday, somehow someone at League of Geeks reads this. Here is a quick wish list for future Armello content;

• More characters!
• New Faction! like a King’s Guard Loyalist Faction
• Bigger more diverse maps
• More tile capture points such as Forts, Chapels, Graveyards or even a Skeeve Shop in game to buy equipment that you want for a price.

Regardless of what happens Armello will remain a favorite in my games library and I wish nothing but success for all those that work at League of Geeks. Soon I’ll be taking a break and leaving Armello to give another game a try. To keep up this theme of violent animal games I’m hearing good things about Tooth and Tail so it’s time to dive into that one very soon.

Read more about League of Geeks and check out Armello for yourself.

Thanks for reading, until next time.