Northgard

Overall, nothgard is a decent game. However, there are a few shortcomings that might be dealbreakers for some people. In short, I can recommend playing the game with your friends but especially in conquest mode you might be up for a few bad surprises.
on the pro side:
- the game offers great art design and soundtrack
- multiplayer and conquest provide a variety of content through different map types/ victory modes
-northgard is easily accessible even if you dont have much experience with RTS but its hard to master and doesn't get boring, at least for me
- the story mode might be a little short considering the price but you can hunt achievements and there are different levels of difficulty which I personally like
- there are regular patches and sometimes additional content (clans) and the online community is still pretty active
on the con side (multiplayer/conquest mode):
- sometimes you have to reroll the maps because they are simply not playable (eg. you have no exit or you are surrounded by aggressive enemies that attack you from all sides when you have managed to get 2 soldiers^^)
-when playing with a friend, you can't rejoin the conquest after connection is lost, so you have to start over or finish the game alone. In situations like these it might feel like a waste of time.
- Northgard does not always provide a good amount of challenge to make it enjoyable. Especially the conquest is not really balanced. In normal difficulty, some games are way too easy while in other levels AI has too many unfair adavantages and is increadibly hard to beat. There is not much you can do about that other than trying to choose the best buffs as you can't pick the number of opponents like you can in regular multiplayer mode.

As a novice to RTS games and a poor min/maxer, Northgard is the first RTS I have not rage quit. Not only that, I love it.
Pros:
- Games generally last between 1.5-2 hours, so you can actually finish it before the heat death of the universe.
- Looks beautiful! Both stylized and well-executed environments and characters make Northgard shine.
- Distilled essence of RTS means a low entry barrier.
- Never too much clutter on screen.
- While the campaign plot tutorial isn't memorable, it is a good intro to each clan.
- I did not have to read a 200-page Steam guide to win.
- No problems with unranked/invited friends for multiplayer.
Cons:
- The game is simple for an RTS. What makes matches shorter and the game less intimidating also make for less mastery satisfaction. If you are an RTS veteran, or enjoy more complex TBS like Civ, Northgard may not be for you.
- Not all clans are created equal. Particularly some of the DLC clans (Lynx and Dragon, I'm looking at you) are handicapped.
- Explicitly the Dragon's thralls could use more indication as to what they're assigned to.
- It'd be nice to preview each clan's information while in the mutiplayer lobby.

Northgard is a good RTS game with a friendly gameplay for rookie gamers. Maybe we miss more fighters at the screen, but It's not a problem when you're fighting with Odin in a cartoon style.

Northgard captured the feeling I had playing Warcraft II and Warcraft III when they were new. It is not mechanically like either of these games; but the quality of the game experience itself is the same.
What makes Northgard so wonderful in the RTS genre is the economic and environmental layers it adds. You are not merely building armies to fight other armies; you are trying to survive the winter, keep people happy, and stay out of debt. You don't just win by killing everyone else, you can economically dominate your opponents, become the most famous clan, or discover the most lore. Some maps even bring their own unique victory conditions. There's a mix of aggressive and defensive playstyles for everyone, though it's important to remember that you are vikings; you can't be too passive or you will lose.
Northgard is a great case study in what good game design looks like. The player is given several easy to understand interdependent systems to manage and then is thrown into an environment that forces you to adapt your strategy to what you have available. Games feel shorter than they are because all of these systems are engaging and keep you struggling against time as the yearly in-game cycle keeps you adapting and reacting to the changing conditions while enemies expand, monsters and wildlife attack, events trigger, and objectives trade hands.
This is a fantastic game; an absolute gem. I recommend it to anyone with any interest in RTS, 4X, grand strategy, or simulation games - as this game borrows ideas from across the spectrum and uses them to create a really well thought out and always engaging to play experience.

A fine, relaxing RTS/board game hybrid with some interesting tile acquisition mechanics. In some ways the game solves the micromanagement problems found in other RTS games, in other ways it creates some micromanagement problems, but on the balance overall the micromanagement issues that you get with other 4X style RTS games are mostly avoided here. There is a little bit of a learning curve as a result of the uniqueness of the gameplay mechanics, but it's pretty easy to get over and the campaign does a good job of introducing you to the mechanics.
Combat is simple, even though each clan has their own flavor. Don't expect complex strategy here... once you've played a few games it can become a simple matter of balancing your growth with your military capabilities, but there's also some flavor strategy between the clans that comes into play when thinking about your strategy.
These are pretty minor things, though. It's not like RTS strategy has ever been complex for any other title, and if what you've been looking for is a relaxing game that you can play to destress but still be actively engaged, this is a very rewarding purchase. What it aims to do it does well and does with style and consistency.
+ Excellent music.
+ Very good and scalable performance, even in endgame.
+ Interesting and dynamic build decisions that reflect tile bonuses.
+ Unique clan playstyles, for the most part.
+ Unique mechanics and a seasonal planning consideration factor.
- A bit repetitive, mostly simple mechanics with some artificial gating.
Overall, it's a fun game with a solid design that has the same weaknesses as many other RTS/4X style games. I recommend it and look forward to what the developer will do in the future.

Like Age of Empires, but on a very intimate and small level. You take control of one of many clans to fight for dominance on the new continent of Northgard.
The map is split up into small areas that you can claim for yourself, given you have the resources for it. If you can't defend it however, someone else can, and will take it by force and claim it for themselves.
Your amount of units is around 10-20, less or more depending on time, going out to pillage and burn your opponents land.
The game requres a good amount of resource management, making every area you own count, and every area you loose problematic. Every nine months of summer are followed by three months of winter, where your resouce gathereing skills are put to the test. If you can't stay fed and warm during winter, it could spell your death. But so for the others as well. Taking away one of their precious sources of food just before winter is the most diabolic thing you can do.
Matches last between 30 minutes and an hour, usually, and are both challenging on a resource level, and a combat level.
Military engagements are usually fought on one front, but more experienced players can attack with two different forces, and while your enemy tries to fight off your main army, you can destroy one of their precious defense towers.
The game never has a dull moment, and every engagement has to be economically justified, making this a game less about who got the most units, but who can afford to feed them.

The game works like a normal rts kind of like age of empires but the catch here is that you can't spam villagers as soon as you obtain some food to snowball, instead villagers spawn periodically from your town center as long as your happiness is above 0. You need to colonize regions like civilizations V to open up space in order to build new buildings which slows down the game overall to give you a better experience and lessen the need to micro manage everything.
This was the explanation I was given when I just bought the game but seriously some people can still micro manage the fucking oxygen coming into their villagers lungs and develop 3 times faster than me in ranked games. Doesn't change the fact that it is an amazing game worth the money for strategy fans.