A wise man once wrote that ‘sometimes love just ain’t enough.’ Tragic, but true.

I looked forward to playing Northgard for a long time since I got the complete game at a deep discount a few months ago (there have been several DLCs dropped since it’s release). A city builder set at the beginning of the Viking Age (around 800 AD), Northgard gives the player a dozen different clans to choose from in sandbox mode, along with options for a story mode (sort of a long tutorial) and multiplayer.

By: Lloyd Sabin

Tons of Viking flavor await for the stalwart, wannabe clan chieftain.

Once playing, there are building options up the wazoo, a colorful variety of unit types, all kinds of Scandinavian-flavored dangers to avoid and obstacles to overcome. The graphics are excellent, if a bit too cutesy for my taste – I like my Scandinavian scourges to be a bit more frightening – but I really can’t complain about the visuals.

Different structures train different units, after the player sends a villager to them to get trained. Little subtleties like that make the game interesting – some mechanics were easier to remember for me than others.

Proof that I wasn’t totally incompetent playing Northgard…I was able to advance from the first story mode chapter to the second.

So – what’s my frickin’ problem with Northgard?

Well, like another great man once said – it’s not the game, it’s me.  Northgard does nothing wrong at all from a gaming or technical point of view. My issue is my brain – I just don’t think it’s wired for slightly more complex, economically-involved city builder type games. The relationships between resources and results for my tribe or city or nation never really become clear to me, and I wind up losing, a lot…even after turning down the difficulty sometimes.

Simple yet attractive graphics for the clan tech tree.

Similar to my experience with Anno 1800, which is another great game that I just happen to be not so good at, Northgard is clearly a winner. I’m just a loser when it comes to this type of game. I can slam my head against my monitor repeatedly and I just don’t get it, fundamentally. I want to, especially considering the Viking setting, the units, the history – they are all in my wheelhouse. But my wiring is just getting in the way.

Brand is your in game advisor and also a hero unit, guiding you through building options as well as expansion of your territory on a wider scale.

Northgard is one of those games I will return to at some point in the future. It is well made, runs like a champ and offers tons of replayability. I just have to train my brain to be more economically sound so I can succeed in playing it.

Sailing the seas in story mode, advancing your clan’s holdings from island to island.

Small territories can get crowded quickly, at which point the player must annex more territory – which must be cleared of predators, supernatural Nordic freaks or other clans first. Northgard can grow to become pretty complex – difficulty that is easy to underestimate under is adorable graphics. Be careful!

It’s not you Northgard, it’s me. But I will revisit you again at some point. Maybe tomorrow! In just the action of doing this brief writeup, I have begun to think about the game again…certainly a good sign and clear evidence that Northgard is worthy of any strategy gamer’s time. Just don’t underestimate it!

The base game is available on Steam for

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