The Banner Saga 2

Full disclosure: I did this on a full hard mode play through with an imported BS1 save and barely had enough renown. I got my last character to rank 10 at the very last training tent available due to a random +20 renown from a story choice.

The achievement description is pretty straightforward, but this will likely be the most difficult achievement for most people. Winning the training battle itself is actually pretty easy - it's just a standard fight. Ensuring that you have enough renown to get 6 characters to rank 10 is the tricky part.

I recommend doing this during your first play through as I noticed that you get small renown bonuses when you unlock achievements. I'm assuming that these bonuses only apply during the first play through as you can't unlock achievements "again". You'll also have an easier time if you're importing a BS1 savegame with leveled up characters or extra renown.

In Rook/Allette's caravan you'll want to pick a party of 6 characters and only spend renown on them. You'll also want to do some research prior to picking your party to ensure that these characters will stick around the entire game. For reference, the characters that I used were Egil, Mogr, Gunnulf, Aleo, Allette and Oddleif. Due to my BS1 savegame Allette, Egil and Gunnulf were already rank 5 at the start. Aleo, Mogr and Oddleif were ranks 3/4.

Do not spend any renown on items or supplies. Again, having an imported BS1 save adds extra supplies and makes this a bit easier. Without it you may lose people due to starvation which would void a different achievement.

You'll obviously want to prioritize story choices that lead to battles as each battle will likely reward you with 20+ renown. When given the chance, always fight. After that, choices that add renown are preferred, followed by supplies/morale. If you don't mind spoilers consult a walk through that lists all possible choices/outcomes such as http://www.arrpeegeez.com/2016/04/the-banner-saga-2-walkthro...

Lastly, complete all of the training challenges that are offered in the tent. These give nice renown bonuses. I believe the last one rewarded 40+ renown on it's own.

Random battle tip: This party was easily able to make it through hard mode without losing a single fight. Once Allette gets access to Overwatch equip her with a knockback causing item and park Aleo near her in battle. This pretty much breaks the game - she's almost unstoppable. The knockback ends the enemies turn so as they walk towards your party to attack them Allette damages them and essentially cancels their turn. So, damage mitigation and STR damage. I would hold my forces back until it came time to mop up the low STR enemies for the kills. Oddleif would break the shield of high STR enemies during Allettes overwatch.

Note: I am unsure if the Raven's caravan has access to enough renown to secure this achievement. They may - I had in excess of 200+ renown leftover with them when I finished because they didn't have enough kills to rank up. This was after using 40 renown to buy an additional 2 rank 10 items. Only Bolverk and Folka made it to rank 10. The rest stayed around 6-8 and I didn't want to spending time in the training tent farming kills. If anyone achieves it with them let me know.

If people could confirm any of the following in the comments I would appreciate it so that I can add it to the guide:

Has anyone achieved this in the Raven's caravan?
Has any achieved this during a game without importing a BS1 save?
Lastly, can you play through on normal and switch the game to hard before doing the training tent battle and still unlock the achievement (it worked this way in BS1 apparently)?

I just unlocked this painfully annoying achievement and did so essentially on easy difficulty. Here’s how:

1. Imported a BS1 save and played through on easy difficulty from the outset
2. I aimed to get the achievement through Rook/Alette caravan
3. Only spend renown on the 6 heros you intend to use for the achievement. I strongly suggest you use any characters that start the game at rank 5 and, if you only have less than 3 heros starting at rank 5, focus on the 3 horseborn you get later, who join the roster at rank 5 each. For reference I used Rook, Hakon, Gunnulf and the 3 horseborn for this achievement
4. Maximise renown in every battle. So when I fought the dredge with a fork like weapon, I’d bring its strength down to 1-3 points and let it summon more dredge. More dredge = more renown. In chapter 12, during the battle against infinitely spawning horseborn I followed the strategy described in this guide which got me about 40 renown https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=67536...
5. Do all the training sequences in the training tent. Successful completion of them gives large amounts of renown
6. During random events choose the options with large renown boosts or battles
7. In chapter 10, when you arrive in Lundar, split up and fight as many battles as you can, again this increases renown
8. Break the alliance with Rugga. This gets you another battle at the start of chapter 14 and more precious renown
9. When approaching Arberrang in chapter 14, choose to stick together until “we’re behind Arberrang’s walls!’ for 20 renown and then join Oddleif in a battle as soon as you reach the city.
10. Important and very cheesy exploit: once you have 6 heros at rank 10, start a sparring battle in the training tent. Your game should be set to easy difficulty. As soon as the battlefield loads on screen but before you press Y to start the battle, switch to hard, win the battle against the weaker opponents but unlock an achievement for winning against hard opponents. Cheap but effective.

I got this achievement using this method before the final meeting tent sequence in chapter 14.

Finally, if this is your first playthrough I suggest going for this achievement using this method and getting the bonus renown to help get you across the line sooner. Play on easy, get easy wins, unlock as many achievements as you can to obtain renown boosts, get your 6 heros to rank 10, go to the training tent and ask to spar, then switch to hard after the sparring battle screen loads and get an easy win.

Good luck and I hope this advice helps you get this highly annoying achievement.