Kings Journal: Northgard (Patreon)

 In this journal I will write about the strategy game Northgard.
I'll have a look at the story mode, the characters, the artstyle and if it is difficult, fair and fun.

The story – Rig's Saga
A big mysterious island has been discovered and the high king of the vikings intends to explore this new land called Northgard together with his fellowship.

But while he plans the journey the royal hall is attacked by mercenaries and a renegade clan leader. Unarmed the king and his people stand no chance and everyone is murdered except the king's son Rig who pretends to be dead. 

The renegades steal the regal horn, the sign and possession of all true kings and set their sails to Northgard.

Rig swears to revenge the dead, but alone he can't achieve anything. Fortunately he finds other survivors of his clan and together they follow the murderers to the unknown island.

The Chapters
The main story is divided into chapters. Each one has a main mission and secret side missions, that can be unlocked after completing the mission once.
At the beginning you learn the basics in a tutorial mission. You meet Brand, the warrior of the stag clan who is Rig's friend and a faithful comrade. He explains the menu:
How to build houses, how to get lumberjacks, explorers, warriors, hunters, farmers, traders and other units.

Each chapter you learn something new and the best thing is: It is easy to learn and easy to remember and never too much. 

You also meet other clans who become your friends and supporters. For example Halvard who is the leader of the clan of the goat. His clan is experienced with farming and regarding the tough winter you will need supplies to survive.

Later on you meet enemies like wolves, kobolds, Draugr (Undead), giants and more.
Thanks to trading you can befriend with kobolds and giants or you can defeat them.
Each progress rewards you with glory and glory unlocks special skills of each clan.

The Clans and characters
There are several viking clans in Northgard:
Stag, Goat, Raven, Boar, Bear and Wolf.
Rig and Brand are from the Stag clan.

Egil is the leader of the Wolf clan.

Halvard leads the clan of the Goat.

Svarn leads the Boar clan.

The Bear and Raven clan are lead by females called Liv and Borgild.

The villain is Hagen from the Raven clan.

The artstyle
The artstyle is beautiful and based on comic style. The colours are saturated and the evironment is well designed with trees, coasts, mountains, caves and ponds. The character models are lovely and you can watch the units move and follow their daily work.
Lumberjacks cut trees while their neighbours work at a brewery.
A very nice and big part of Northgard is the winter. Once it starts snowing the land is covered under a white blanket.

The difficulty
In story mode you can choose between normal, hard or extreme difficulty and believe me when I say, that normal is a challenge already. Some story missions are tricky and you must be fast and clever to win. But once you have a smart strategy or a clan, that has the best skills for your current mission you will be rewarded with success and the feeling, that you are a brilliant clan leader.
During winter the ressources are limited, wood and supplies decrease and soldiers loose their strength. To compensate natural influences you can unlock new talents with lore. Lore can be gathered by druids or sailers and it increases your clan's talents based on your choices. Soldiers can become immune to the cold, farmers can produce more supplies and everyone will be happy.

Well, Happyness is also a value of each clan. Happy people produce more supplies and your clan grows much faster. Unhappy clans do not grow at all.
So always check what building increases your happyness. For example the brewery.
And never forget to give your people a job, because empty buildings produce nothing.

In general the normal difficulty is very fair and I failed only once in a story mission and my second attempt was successful. I learned from my mistakes and the game rewarded me for my better strategy with a victory.

What I love about Northgard
I enjoy building villages and towns. Especially when the game is fair, challenging, but also fun and doesn't ask for too much background knowledge.
Understanding the world of Northgard is easy and fun. The bara characters are also a big plus and the nordic folklore is as fascinating as always.

I recommend playing Northgard, because it is not overloaded with menus and numerous options like Civilization 6. I hate Civilization 6 by the way. It is boring and the turorial took 45 minutes and I did not even finish it, but I paused the game and put it in some dark corner.
When games feel like hard, ungrateful work I lose interest within minutes.
I play videogames late night after a long day of work. I like challenges and hard games, but for me videogames are a way to relax so they should reward me with pleasure and entertainment and not with eternal dialogues or complicated manuals.

Northgard is easy to learn, but also challenging and once you complete the story or actually anytime you can create your own mission, by choosing a map, a clan, the difficulty, the enemies and if it is a solo game or an online multiplayer game.
My only critic of Northgard is the short story mode. I wish there would be more missions, but I hope for a sequel.
If you like vikings, nordic folklore and strategy games with player interaction you should try Northgard. The game is available for PC, PS4, Switch (I have the Switch version) and XBOX One.

Thank you for reading.
And have a look at the official trailers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mxp7UKCnUHU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDN8PHOYnKc