Norland Beginner's Guide

A beginner's guide on the very basics of Norland, from user interface to mechanics, and early gameplay/helpful tips!

Gameplay Overview

Welcome, Sovereign! Your noble family is ready to transform this small village into a proper kingdom, and as your counselor, it is my duty to help you grasp the different concepts of rule.

In addition to the information below, playing the in-game tutorial is highly recommended to better understand the game, and feel free to check out our Norland Wiki page: Norland Official Wiki [hoodedhorse.com]

Norland puts you in command of a kingdom, managing your noble family as you transform a small village into a city full of people with their own needs, characteristics, and behaviors that evolve as they gain traits, change social status, and react to the world around them.

Lead your armies in combat, arrange for the assassinations and kidnappings of rival nobles, court princesses to secure alliances, and stoke or calm the flames of rebellion as best fit your grand designs. Your noble family must survive at all costs, and there are more significant dangers lurking on the outer edges of the fallen empire…

Starting Your Kingdom

Before you can have your own kingdom, you have to start your family!

1. Family Members - Starting with a range of family options, choose the scenario that fits your desired family structure.
   
   • 1a. Character Customization - You can customize all three starting members to look precisely as you want them, noting that starting skills and traits can also be modified.
     
   • 1b. Overall Skills - This is your starting family’s total combined skill stats.
   
   
   
2. Game Customization
   
   1. Kingdom Customization - You can customize your kingdom, from its name to a combination of flag settings and a list of resources.
      
   2. Neighboring Kingdom Customization - You can customize the neighboring kingdoms to fit your playthrough, including military strength, starting city size, and their attitude towards you.
   
   
   
3. Game Parameters - Set parameters to make your playthrough unique. Choose from starting scenarios that affect your family’s way of life, modifiers to increase difficulty, toggle the eventual Unholy Horde crisis, or create a generally more difficult start!

Once you have completed all of these steps, you are ready to start your kingdom!

The Basics - User Interface

All the elements of this section are found on both the town and world map screens, so you must understand their use. Norland has nested tooltips; additional information will pop up when hovering over a highlighted word. Hovering over these tooltips will lock them in place so you can look at them even when your mouse isn’t on it.

1. Resources - This is a comprehensive list of your current resources, from raw to refined products, weapons, gold, holy rings, and everything in between. Hovering over any resource describes its use.
   
2. Population Overview - This gives you a list of the different types of people currently in your settlement. Hovering over each category gives you more information about those types of people.
   
3. Matriarch’s Relationship - Your current standing with the Holy Church, and their involvement in your affairs.
   
4. Problems - This tab notes some issues within your village, giving you ideas on what to prioritize.
   
5. Noble Overview - A glance at all nobles within your family, lead family member, satisfaction, and current status (i.e., currently a prisoner)
   
6. Help Menu - Provides a dropdown menu of information about various subjects in the game by hovering over the subject text. Hold over the text to lock the tooltip.
   
7. Kingdom Events - Notifications about your kingdom and the kingdoms around you.
   
8. Day/Time & Speed - The current day and time in the game, the current season, and manual control over the game’s speed.
   
9. Management Tools - A range of options to manage your kingdom with, from left to right:
   
   • 9a. Construction - Opens a submenu of all categories of buildings available to you.
     
   • 9b. Production - Allows you to assign limits to the production of goods.
     
   • 9c. Finance - An expanded view of the local market & tavern prices, as well as daily wages provided to everyone in your kingdom.
     
   • 9d. Statistics - An overview of your resources, their supply/demand, and their value.
     
   • 9e. Army - This is the assembly area for enlisting warriors and creating armies.
     
   • 9f. Dynasty - Provides an in-depth overview of your dynasty members, past and present, with options to interact with their lives.
10. Knowledge - Lists all currently owned books and their owners, as well as the requirements for learning new buildings and processes.
    
11. Trade Agreements - any trade contracts you have with your neighbors are displayed here.
    
12. World Map - This brings you to the world map, where you can engage in various actions with other lords and factions.
    

Town Operations

Daily life in Norland follows a routine you must know to manage your settlement effectively, from a set schedule to assignments and other operations to consider.


Daily Schedule:

• 12am - 8am: Rest in houses or on the ground, should there be a lack of housing. Nobles and your
• army can be woken up to fight during the night if ordered to.
  
• 8am - 9am: If a temple is present, villagers will attend the morning service.
  
• 8am - 6pm: Working hours, including construction and nobles giving instructions.
  
• 6pm - 12am - Recreation hours, where villagers are paid, buy food or alcohol, and engage in village activities.
  
  
  
  Assignments - Villagers need assignments every three days to continue working, with assignments issued by a manager. Managers are noble characters, and you must balance their management skills with how many buildings they are tasked with.
  
  
  
  World Summary - On the world map, you can interact with various events, from trade to marriage and intrigues against other rulers; plot to assassinate, hire thieves to steal gold or books, and plot with their heirs to weaken their king.
  
  
  
  Economic Report - At the end of the day, an economic summary showing monetary exchanges in your settlement, and any inefficiencies that might be occurring.
  

Character Management

Your people are generally self-sufficient and will operate within their traits and moods. However, you can affect them in many different ways.



Basic Profile - Selecting any character will open their profile, where you can get a glimpse of who they are, starting with their social class, name, age, mood, combat level, and current status. This window also notes any inventory the character carries, their desires, and any “states” or effects currently impacting them. Note that noble characters also have a loyalty and knowledge icon.



Needs - This is the level of satisfaction the selected character has, affected by mood and thoughts.



Skills - This option is only available to nobles. It shows the character’s skills and any personality traits they may possess.



Relationships - Shows the currently selected noble’s relationship with other nobles.



History - Shows a history of actions from the character.



Action - Any available actions for the character, from direct interactions with the Sovereign to various punishment, education, and social options.

The World Map

The World Map is where you will interact with your neighboring kingdoms and their various elements.


Basic Kingdom Elements

1. Your Kingdom - Noted by the house symbol, you control all areas within your borders.
   
2. Villages - Villages will provide tribute, and you can affect migration or even raid them. Click on a village to interact with it.
   
3. Bandit camps - Camps of outlaws that you can attack for loot and prisoners, hire as mercenaries, or trade prisoners with.

Advanced Kingdom Elements - Selecting any neighboring kingdom capitals will present helpful information about your neighbor.

1. Current States - Should a kingdom have any world-related states, i.e., resources for trade, low-loyalty members, or members who can be married off, they will show above the settlement and in this tab.
   
2. Kingdom Stats - Reveals the amount of gold, population stats, number of books, and characteristics of the ruler.
   
3. Ruling Family and Opinion - Hovering over any ruling family member or opinion will provide their skill stats and a breakdown of their opinion of you.
   
4. Army - Shows the size and value of the army.
   
5. Lords - All noble characters that reside within this realm.
   
6. Detailed Information - provides more detailed information about the selected kingdom, including migration factors, economy, and army stats.
   
7. Assign - List all currently available interactions with that kingdom, including talking to lords, kidnapping, assassination, marriage, trade, and even invasion.
   

Armies & Battles

You must build an army to project your influence on the world map, engage with bandits, and eventually fight off the Unholy Horde should the crisis be enabled in your game.

Creating an army

• Click on the Army Tab at the bottom of your screen.
  
• Select an available lord to lead the army, paying attention to their Combat skill, which increases attack evasion, and Command skill, which determines the magnitude of morale bonus in the squad.
  
• Fill your army with peasants, prisoners, or mercenaries from the Warriors section, choosing what weapons you can equip them with. Hiring mercenaries costs gold and will take a full day to arrive in your town. You can also recruit additional lords into your army.
  
• Equip them with any weapons, armor, and shields you have available.
  
• Click Create.
  
  Using Your Army
  
• Ground Level Map - Select your army by left-clicking on their banner. Move your army by right-clicking anywhere on the map. To attack, right-click directly on an opposing army and initiate a direct attack order.
  
• World Map - You can send your armies to raid villages or attack bandit camps, neighbors, or enemy armies if you can catch them on the road. In all cases, once an army arrives at its destination, you can choose to fight the battle manually or auto-resolve.

Early Gameplay & Helpful Tips

• Spread out management tasks among your nobles. While certain nobles may provide higher bonuses, having any one noble with fewer assignments will result in reduced effectiveness of the noble and cause discontent. Fewer assignments also ensure that those assignments are given when necessary to increase productivity.
  
• Prisoners provide free labor but have a higher chance of leading a revolt. You can capture prisoners during battles or purchase them from the Holy Caravan.
  
• Your nobles should always be working on knowledge, as books unlock new buildings and production methods. Conversely, on the death of a noble, any knowledge they acquire will be lost unless another noble has acquired that knowledge.
  
• Reduce the cost of local market goods to allow your peasants to buy beyond the absolute basics. This will increase their mood.
  
• Hire mercenaries early to provide a primary army; you’ll need them quickly, and they will take 24 hours between being hired to arriving at your town.
  
• Remember to trade goods when the Holy Caravan arrives. This is a great source of gold income and allows you to purchase precious books and acquire knowledge.
  
• Start beer production early, as villagers will use their wages to pay for a drink, offsetting the labor cost and reducing the harmful effects of being tired.
  
• Destroying bandit camps will have a positive attitude effect on neighbors who like you and a negative attitude effect on neighbors who do not. The loot rewards may be worth any negatives you may face, though.
  
• Keep a regular eye on the world map, as your neighbors will provide you with opportunities to interact with them, be it in positive or negative ways. You can also view their army’s strength and opinion of you.

[JG | zbv_grenadier]

hmm, why my worldmap is different from one on the screenshots o_O?

[Ahnrie]

This was fabulous, thank you! My lingering question: how do I request assistance? The prompt says "now would be the time to request assistance " but I can't for the life of me find the button!

[☀Wizroff☀]

Why are some of my people green?

[Bl4Me]

@Dulo you need to pay them more money, so they can buy food and have still some money to buy 2-3 beer

[Dulo]

I need some help with understanding price adjustment for wages and goods. I can't seem to figure out how to balance my daily income. Once I get 40ish people for some reason my returns become negative. I tried lowering the price of moonshine and rutabaga to fit the whole salary for a peasant but that doesn't seem to work. I even tried increasing the value or moonshine and rutabaga. Should I increase the wages?

[Xavante Maldito]

Arcturion, the truth is that you're lazy.
You got to be patient and try to understand the game mechanics while playing or watching some tutorials.
I took like 5 days to understand how the basic mechanics truly work, sometimes it's a little confuse but you got it, just play, be patient and learn.

[vendar82]

Can anyone tell me how many days a year is? I didn't find it here or in in-game tutorial. Pregnancy lasts three days, so I guess four days a year?

[Arcturion]

Really trying to like this game but it's so complex. Or maybe I'm just too dumb. Idk, I am struggling a lot.

[blue.james.r]

Anyone else having the text disappear within the in-game menus?

[P͉̺̦e͖̺͜r̢͓͜e̢͍a͕̟]

How do I prove someone is guilty?