The Biggest Threat Isn't the Enemy—It's the “Blizzard”! The Appeal of “Northgard,” a Survival RTS of Overcoming Nature [Feature]

"Northgard" is an RTS that incorporates 4X elements familiar from the "Civilization" series and other games. Players scout and secure land, expand their territory, and develop it while competing against enemy factions; victory is achieved by fulfilling one of several available victory conditions.

The term “RTS” might conjure images of grand, fast-paced battles—gathering abundant resources, producing massive armies, and waging war against enemy factions. However, enemy clans aren’t the only challenges awaiting you in this game.

In this article, we’ll introduce this game—which is both an RTS and features intense survival elements—while also explaining its game systems.

Explore Uncharted Territories

At the start of the game, areas the player hasn’t explored are shrouded in black mist, so you won’t know what resources lie hidden there. The first thing you should do is build a scout hut, turn villagers into scouts, and send them out to reconnoiter the surrounding area.

One of the game’s key features is that the map is divided into individual tiles. Explored tiles can generally be claimed as your own territory by spending food (though some clans can claim them using other resources, such as coins).If you acquire fertile land, you can till the fields to secure more food; if it’s a forest, you can build a logging hut to efficiently harvest wood.

However, some tiles may be inhabited by pests such as foxes or wolves. In such cases, you must send warriors to exterminate them before you can secure the tile. You’ll also need coins to retrain villagers as warriors.

Since it costs coins to create warriors and there’s also a cost to claim tiles, it’s difficult to adopt a strategy of “conquering and claiming every single surrounding area one by one.” It’s important to check the type of resource on each tile and carefully consider which resources you need on a case-by-case basis as you gradually expand your territory.

Securing resources doesn’t guarantee safety...

The resources in this game can be broadly categorized into three types: food, wood, and coins. However, unlike in other RTS games, resources aren’t consumed solely when creating units.Resources such as food and wood are continuously consumed—even after they’ve been secured—as villagers use them to satisfy their hunger and stay warm. If food runs out, villagers will starve; their health will begin to decline, and eventually, they will die.

Furthermore, the rate at which food is consumed increases as the village population grows. While a larger population contributes to the village’s development and expansion, it also makes the food situation increasingly dire. You want more workers, but if the population grows too much, it will strain food supplies. Struggling to strike this balance is one of the game’s key appeals.

The game features a calendar system, with the year broadly divided into winter and the other seasons.During winter, the efficiency of food procurement—such as farming and gathering nuts—decreases, making the already dire food situation even worse. The rate at which you consume wood to stay warm also increases, leaving you caught between a shortage of food and a shortage of wood. Therefore, the key is to stockpile resources in advance during the warmer seasons before winter arrives.

A Blizzard That Silences Even Crying Children

The most grueling and challenging moments in this game are undoubtedly the periods you must endure from the moment a blizzard strikes until it passes. Blizzards occur during winter, after the game has progressed to a certain point. During a blizzard, food and wood consumption increases dramatically, and your stockpiled resources will be depleted in the blink of an eye.

In *Northgard*, there are multiple victory conditions, and a military victory is one of them. However, due to the blizzard, you can’t rest easy even if you’ve defeated an enemy clan through military might. Military units will starve to death if they run out of food, and if they run out of wood, they’ll freeze and become unable to fight effectively.

Imagine this scenario: you’ve overwhelmed your enemy with military might and are just one step away from their main camp when a blizzard strikes, causing your warriors to run out of food and fall one after another in a flash.In contrast, it’s not uncommon for an enemy clan that has scaled back its military buildup to focus on domestic affairs to barely scrape by, only to see the tide of battle turn solely due to the blizzard.

Since the threat of a blizzard affects all players on the map equally, it’s not uncommon to find, after somehow weathering the storm yourself and scouting the enemy clan’s territory, that their settlement has already been half-destroyed by the blizzard.In this way, one of the defining features of this game is that clans can be pushed to the brink of destruction by natural disasters or neutral factions, even without direct player intervention.

Wild Animals, Undead, and Neutral Factions Standing in Your Way

While disaster events include blizzards, earthquakes, and rat infestations, these are not the only obstacles you’ll face. Wolves and the undead, for example, periodically attack nearby player tiles. If left unchecked, the tiles controlled by players will be rendered invalid, preventing them from gathering resources and gradually leading to a state of financial ruin.

The neutral Kobold tribe gradually expands its territory of its own accord; if a player’s territory is nearby, they will invade to seize the land.As a countermeasure, you can choose to annihilate and eliminate these neutral factions through military force, but there’s also the option to coexist by trading to earn coins and keep them on your good side.

A Wealth of Clans, Victory Conditions, and Strategies

True to the RTS genre, *Northgard* features distinctive clans (civilizations). There are over 10 clans, including the Wolf Clan, which converts hunted wildlife into food; the Bear Clan, whose combat strength increases only during winter; and the Rat Clan, which forces villagers into overwork at the expense of their health... and more.Among the victory conditions are options like Trade Victory and Knowledge Victory—achievements that can be attained without fighting—offering a path to success even for clans with low military strength. The resource tiles and terrain on the map aren’t fixed; they’re set somewhat randomly for each game, requiring different strategies every time you play and keeping the experience fresh.

Controls aren’t as hectic as you’d expect for an RTS

In many other RTS games, players must manage tens to hundreds of units from the mid-game onward, which inevitably requires a high volume of micromanagement. However, this is not the case with this title. The rate at which villagers increase is relatively slow, and the number of military units you need to control rarely exceeds 20 to 30, so the micromanagement load remains relatively light.I’d recommend this game to anyone who wants to play an RTS but finds the hectic micromanagement exhausting.

As mentioned earlier, in this game, nature itself poses a greater threat than enemy clans. Consequently, even in AI battles, you’ll enjoy nail-biting moments every time—wondering, “Will we make it through the next winter safely?” “Let’s trade and live peacefully without causing a stir,” or “We need to stockpile supplies, but we also have to deal with pests.”The game offers a variety of modes, from 1-on-1 to team battles and deathmatches, and has the potential to keep you hooked for hundreds of hours once you get into it.

Overall Impression

It’s an RTS with strong survival elements. You spend more time managing daily life than fighting. Natural disasters rage, and resource management is demanding. The controls aren’t hectic, but there’s a lot to think about. It’s a slightly unconventional RTS. Recommended for those who prefer domestic management over warfare—and who enjoy freezing in the winter.

*Northgard* is currently available onSteamwith a “Very Positive” rating.