Beginner's Guide

Norland begins with you arriving in a small village with the intention of turning it into the thriving capital of your future kingdom.

In the Production menu you can manage all building production. You can either place a one-time order to produce a certain amount or set a continuous production until a set amount is reached. At the end of each working day the workers will bring the produced resources to the warehouse.

Building management

Some buildings require 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. Failing that, the instructions given by them are valid for three days. Each lord gives a production bonus that scales with its Management skill.

Once the workers receive instructions from managers they will begin working. During day they work and after 6 PM they attend their personal matters: receiving salaries, purchasing goods and drinking beer.

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.

Finances

Prices and salaries can be managed from the Finance menu, which will display sales and expenses per day. 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. People also need alcohol every few days and their mood can be regulated with the quantity and price of the sold alcohol. Markets open after 6 PM.

Army

Each army is made up of a commander and warriors. Only lords can be commanders. The higher the commander's Command skill, the higher the unit's morale will be and the lower the chances of warriors fleeing when taking damage.

In the Army menu you can recruit warriors. The menu will display the Combat skill underneath each character. There are three ways of recruiting warriors:

1. From peasants, which will not cost anything.
2. From slaves, which will give them freedom.
3. From mercenaries, which will cost Gold and need one to two days to arrive.

Warriors are more effective if they have weapons, armor and shields. If they have any in the inventory they will use them, otherwise you can give them equipment.

Armies can be selected either by selective their commander or their banner on the map. They can be ordered to move or attack manually with the right mouse button.

Each character has a pain threshold, which is 50, or 100 if the army's commander has the "Defender of the city" personality trait active. Units hit during combat will accumulate injuries, which cause pain. Injuries are displayed in the States list when a character is selected. Alternatively the Thoughts list will display a "Pain from injury" thought that shows the total pain. If pain becomes greater than the pain threshold the character will fall unconscious. If pain becomes double the pain threshold the character will die. There are various types of injuries, each with its own pain and time it takes to go away.

Each character has a Courage value that is equal to half of its Mood, or equal to its Mood if the army's commander has the "Defender of the city" personality trait active. If the value of the "Pain from injury" and "Pain from sickness" thought exceed the Courage value the warrior will flee. Mood is also increased by enemies being killed, unconscious or running away, especially the commander, and decreased by the same happening to allies.

Once an army begin fighting it cannot be given new orders until is victorious or defeated. After a battle the victorious army will take the enemy survivors as prisoners and peasants will later bring them to the settlement.

Battle calculation

In battle, characters take turns attacking each other. Depending on the attacker's weapon and the defender's armor, different-sized packets of "tickets" are thrown into a figurative "bag" and one ticket is drawn from this bag with each attack - this is the result of the attack.

For example, a dagger adds 10 "cut" tickets into the bag, while light armor adds 10 "blocked by armor" tickets. Thus, there will be a 50% (10:10) chance that the attack will hit the target and the defender will receive a "cut". Heavy armor adds a packet of 30 "blocked by armor" tickets, so the chance of a cut in this case will be 25% (10:30).

The bag will also have a number of "dodged attack" tickets for the character with higher Combat skill, equal to the difference in skill between the opponents.

Tickets can include not only wounds or parrying attacks but also weapon damage, armor damage and stun.

Global map

On the global map you can see your city and neighbors with whom you can interact.

When two armies meet on the global map a battle icon will appear above them. Clicking on it will display a comparison between the two armies, and in the middle a balance of power bar that shows which army is more powerful and by how much. You can then choose to play out the battle automatically, fight it manually, or retreat.

Certain actions on the global map require either a lord that is at least 13 years old or a messenger. Sending a messenger costs 1 Paper.

Diplomacy

There are multiple kings you can interact with on the global map by clicking on their cities.

You can interact with specific lords in another city by choosing "Lords" from the action menu.

Dark Deeds are actions that will negatively affect the targeted city. Most of them requires cutthroats to be present in the city. The number of cutthroats is updated every few days. There are 4 Dark Deeds:

• Lord's Assassination requires cutthroats
• Kidnapping a Lord requires cutthroats
• Library Robbery requires books in the city's library
• Hall Robbery requires cutthroats

Politics are actions that will change the diplomatic relationships between two cities.

• Offering to the King requires 10 Holy Rings.
• Peace Treaty requires an army that is not several times smaller than that of the city's king's.
• Withdrawal from vassalage is only available towards the Suzerain lord. If the Suzerain is significantly weaker they will grant independence. Otherwise they will attack the city in a few days. If you defeat their army you will become independent, otherwise you will remain a Vassal.

Send the guest will make the selected lord go to the selected city and interact with the lords present.

Trading with another city is only possible when the desired city makes a trade offer, which will be displayed above the city in question, and also requires positive relationships and a lord or messenger. The prices are always better than those of the Holy Caravan. The prices will be adjusted by a further 3% for every point of Trade skill difference between the two kings. Trading will increase relations by 5.

Bandit camps

Sometimes bandit camps will be present on the map. Unless they are destroyed or bribed they will periodically attack the city. There are two ways of handling bandit camps:

1. Attack: if victorious the camp will be destroyed and you will gain loot, +5 relations with neighbors and +7 relations with the Bishop. If there are prisoners in the camp they will be freed. Hovering over the Attack button will show the possible Gold loot.
2. Bribe: prevents attacks on your city and the growth of the bandit camp for a week. This action requires a lord or messenger.