Beginner's Guide

In Norland you are in charge of helping a noble family of lords who own a province achieve prosperity, security, and personal ambitions. Your lords obey your commands, but they also have their own will.

Beginner tips

• Every game will start with a king and a heir and a queen who is captured in a forest bandits' camp. The first actual objective is to attack the camp to rescue her. If the starting two lords have moderate or high Combat skill together use them to attack. Otherwise hire 4 or 5 mercenaries.
• The first buildings that should be constructed are Lumbermill (for construction materials), Rutabaga Field (for food), Tavern (for selling alcohol), Altar (for satisfying the Piety need) and Library (for gaining knowledge).
• By creating a strong army you can force neighbors into vassalage and use their tribute for further development.
• Always assign lords to tasks best matching their skills:
  • Lords with high Command skill can effectively destroy forest bandit camps, gaining rich loot.
  • Lords with high Management skill can produce a lot of extra goods - the more complex the goods and the higher the level of production building, the more profitable it is.
  • Lords with high Trade skill will help you make a profit when trading with neighbors or the Holy Caravan.
  • Lords with high Persuasion skill are useful for effective convert actions on the world map and later improving relations with neighbors.
  • Lords with high Manners skill can seduce foreign lords to your side.
  • Lords with high Teaching skill can quickly train peasants to use in place of expensive mercenaries.
  • Lords with high Intellect skill will gain knowledge quicker.

Defeating stronger enemies

If a neighbor becomes your enemy but their army is more powerful there are a couple of ways to weaken them:

• Reid their villages. This will slow down population growth and therefore Gold income, which will limit their ability to hire mercenaries.
• In the province menu use shadow operations - hire bandits to rob the hall, which will also reduce their hiring capabilities.
• Neutralize their lords with the highest Command skill using intrigues.
• Try to bribe the heir - he will start rebellion, which will greatly reduce the province's army and number of lords.
• Finally, you can sit out the dangerous time and gather strength by becoming someone's vassal, which will protect you from enemies.

Building management

The production menu

Some buildings require workers and instructions to function and will display an icon above if they do not currently have any. Instructions are given by assigning a lord as a manager. The same lord can be appointed as manager to multiple buildings and will try to visit each building every day, starting with the buildings that require instructions the most. Failing that, the instructions given by them are valid for three days. Each lord gives a production bonus that scales with its Management skill. On average one lord can manage between 7 and 10 buildings.

Once the workers receive instructions from managers they will begin working. At 6 PM workers will carry the produced resources to the warehouse. After work they receive their salaries.

Buildings that produce basic resources will produce them continuously without any input from the player. But buildings that produce resources that require other resources need direct orders from the player in the Production menu, where you can either place a one-time order to produce a certain amount or set a continuous production until a set amount is reached.

Hovering over the Economic Summary will list buildings that do not have instructions, that have insufficient workers, that are broken or non-functioning, as well as fields on the verge of depletion.

Finance

The finance menu

The Finance menu is is where wages and the sale of resources can be adjusted. On the left side you can adjust the maximum amount of a certain resource that can be sold every day, as well as its cost. On the right side you can adjust the wages for the population. Peasants, Warriors and Unemployed are paid with Gold while slaves are paid with food and alcohol resources.

Every character consumes 1 food per day, so the amount of food produced should be at least equal to the population and the food price per unit should be lower than the workers' salary. Characters who work also need alcohol every few days and their mood can be regulated with the quantity and price of the sold alcohol. Slaves receive food (and alcohol if allowed) for free but require a functioning Slave Barns building for that. Markets open after 6 PM.

Peasants will buy food from the Holy Caravan if prices are set too high.

Holy Caravan

The Holy Caravan arrives every 2-3 days and is the primary source of Gold and Holy Rings. It's also a great source of books and slaves. Prices may randomly change but they also depend on a lesser extent on the Trade skill of the lord trading with the Holy Caravan. Slaves sold by the Holy Caravan do not have any Combat skill.