Escape the News: Games to Distract You… Burning Banners: Rage of the Witch Queen
Many factions to choose from in Burning Banners
Photo © 2026 WargamesandWhisky.com
A monster of a dram indeed.
Photo © 2026 WargamesandWhisky.com
Welcome to part 2 of our series which encourages you to escape from the news with a bottle of amber elixir and a wargame. If you missed part 1, you can find it here. Channel your rage into something fun instead, like commanding the Army of the Night to defeat the Fjordlanders!
Burning Banners: Rage of the Witch Queen sounds dramatic, and it doesn’t disappoint. Trust us, we mean this in the best way possible.
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At once both a hex-and-counter fantasy wargame and a narrative treasure trove for those with the fortitude to play through all of the scenarios, Burning Banners is not just one game- it’s a new world to explore. Players command one of six kingdoms to wage a war that ultimately foretells the destiny of a narratively rich world presented in all the glory of the swords & sorcery aesthetic of yesteryear. Aiding them in their conquests are great armies that sprawl across the battlefield, with dragons and other great beasts thrown into the fray, and heroes to lead the charge or delve into dungeons in search of relics that can turn the tide of battle.
Of course, you do not have to immediately commit to the entirety of the narrative arc of the campaign on offer. Indeed, W&W highly recommends Burning Banners and we haven’t played through it all either! Depending on player count and the time you have to spare for the war effort, there are 29 scenarios to choose from at various player counts and game lengths. Among those 29 scenarios, designer Christopher Moeller provides a learning game that serves as a great introduction to the rules and takes two players barely 40 minutes to play.
Especially alluring is that where many hex-and-counter wargames offer large, towering, ‘doomstacks’ of small chits and piles of conditional tokens, Burning Banners takes the opposite approach with large chunky counters representing entire armies (or individual large monsters). At most you will find two tokens in a hex, and only if your hero is leading from the frontlines. Thus Burning Banners is an excellent entry point into the hex-and-counter genre, while sacrificing none of the complexity of more traditional doomstack fare. There’s a reason Burning Banners won the prestigious and conflict simulation-focused Charles S. Roberts Award for Best Strategic Game in 2024, so choose your kingdom, array your armies, and prepare some liquid courage as you wage war for the fate of civilization on the continent.
With a game like Burning Banners, we’d pair a generous and fortifying pour of Ardbeg Wee Beastie. This budget-friendly 5 year single malt is indeed, as the bottle says, a monster of a dram. Youthful but intensely smoky, this is the bottle you’ll turn to time and again, whenever you want deep flavor without a rage-inducing price. You can never go wrong with an Ardbeg, but Wee Beastie outshines even its older, more consonant heavy sibling-expressions, like Corryvreckan and Uigeadail, delicious as they may be.
