Survival strategy games are known for their depth and complexity, and Norland is no exception. Long Jaunt has just released their first colony sim, where you take on the role of a noble family striving to survive and build a strong kingdom.
Norland is set in a dynamic world filled with diverse cultures, complex relationships, conspiracies, and wars. With the Empire fallen, successor kingdoms are struggling for power, each with its own unique resources and challenges. Depending on where you start, you’ll have specific strengths to leverage and particular obstacles to overcome. Effectively managing and keeping your kingdom alive depends on your strategic skills.
Society is the strength of your kingdom, and you can build it by using skills and traits. Through skills, you can assign specific tasks to your society members and decide how many warriors, workers, negotiators, and clerks you need. Each family member also has a unique personality and capabilities, which affect their relationships with other members and can lead to dissent, disloyalty, and riots if you do not manage them properly. Family traits can be inherited by their children, making it important for you to keep these traits positive.

To ensure the prosperity of your city, you must equip your members with skills for new technologies to construct buildings, create tools, and unlock additional talents. This can be done by purchasing ancient books, translating them into the language your peasants speak, and reading them. Knowledge will be lost when a family member dies, so you should ensure that it is passed on to scholars or kept in libraries.
Economy is the key to the thriving of a country. Production chains, construction of buildings, and resource gathering are done by lower-ranking citizens. The right number of motivated workers should be organized to keep things running smoothly and ensure the growth of wealth. To avoid increasing the number of workers at the expense of warriors due to the limited population size, the game offers an option to attract migrants to work for you. You can also build local markets to sell or purchase goods and use caravans to engage in trade.

In Norland, you have to deal with internal and external threats. No kingdom has ever escaped intrigue. You can expect backstabbing from your noble family members and revolts from your citizens influenced by foreign kings if you don’t keep an eye on public order and enemies inside your city.
To defend your kingdom from raids by foreign armies, build an army. The game features seven weapon types, three different types of armor, and specific combat skills for soldiers. Developer Long Jaunt leaves plenty of room for you to practice your tactical skills. Wars can be avoided by bribing your enemies, forming alliances with other kingdoms, recruiting spies to overthrow foreign kings and queens, and more.
The developers plan to stay in early access for two years. During this time, they will develop new buildings, fortifications, unique social and cultural mechanics, changing seasons, and other enhancements.
Norland is available in Early Access on Steam with a 20% discount until August 1st.
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