Northgard – General Extreme Mode Tips

by Falagar / Articles, Misc. Guides / 25 Jun 2018

Efficiency

1. Be a save-scrub champion. Whenever you’re on a tricky mission, save every other month. Since Northgard implements semi-random events and world hostility, going back to an earlier save may change where / when Wolves and Draugr invade, which bad event (Rats, Blizzard, Earthquake) comes up, etc. On some levels, you need to do as well as you possibly can throughout the mission to beat it. The idea is to save as soon as you’ve done a perfect iteration of gameplay; that way, if something happens in the next couple of months, you have a ‘near-perfect” save to go back to.

2. Time is of the essence. You are allowed to relax in Skirmish, but in Extreme, you should always micromanage your military or villagers to be as efficient as possible. Pay attention to notifications, especially idle villagers. Turn scouts and warriors into villagers when you can; don’t retain an army unless necessary, or you can’t afford to disband them.

3. Maximize efficiency. Make sure you leave room for silos on food tiles, place Markets and Trading posts on the same tile, and leave room for a Mine when Stone / Iron is on the tile. Pay attention to each clan’s Lore when planning out what to colonize.

4. You should almost never need to develop land (paying 100 Krowns) unless you are Goat and can do it for 20. Instead, push food production and expand to a new tile.

Resource Management

1. Expand until you can have a steady supply of everything you need. On Extreme, you rarely need to take more than 5-6 territories besides your home province.

2. Make sure you store nothing but the bare minimum of resources! Food is good for colonization and not starving; nothing else. Wood should be used immediately; if you can’t use that 150 wood immediately because you don’t have building space, you need more food to colonize another tile. If you have over 300 food or 200 wood and Winter isn’t coming, you’re not spending your resources in a timely fashion. Pretend you’re a project manager, and your boss will take your budget away if you don’t spend it.

3. Krowns are nice, but you only need enough to upgrade buildings and hire a few military units unless you are playing Raven. Try to keep about 100-150 in reserve with at least +2 production and only push Krowns if you need them for Upgrades or Military.

4. Mine Stone and Iron as early as possible on most maps. Upgrading buildings is vital.

5. Trading Posts are the Great Equalizer. If you have a map rich in forests, or food, you can sell off the excess from your efficient, upgraded buildings instead of posting villagers as Merchants. Depending on the map, you can get 2-6 trade routes going at once, though you rarely need more than 2.

6. Don’t buy resources from the Market! It’s almost a guaranteed sign you haven’t expanded properly or in the right order. The campaign ensures that you are near all vital resources, so don’t buy from the Market unless absolutely necessary!

Upgrades

1. Upgrade buildings relative to what you need as quickly as possible. If you’re running low on Food, upgrade a Food building.

2. There are three essential tools to upgrade with Iron at every level: Woodcutters, your biggest group of Food Gatherers, and Axe Throwers.

Other Tips

1. Never fall below 0 on happiness. If you notice you’re getting close, build a brewery immediately! Low happiness means no new villagers, which puts an end to your dream of expansion.

2. Never hit your population cap! If you’re at 10/11, 15/16, etc., it’s time to build a house. That said, there are times when excess population creates “drag” if you don’t have an efficient use for them. So unless you are intentionally limiting your population, make sure you never hit those unmagical red numbers.

3. Generally, turn Villagers into Healers when you have wounded since Villagers are less efficient in Winter.

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Falagar

He is the founder and editor of Magic Game World. He loved gaming from the moment he got a PlayStation 1 with Gran Turismo on his 7th birthday.
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