Medieval strategy game Norland has unleashed a seriously hefty new update giving multiple core mechanics a polish. The Long Jaunt and Hooded Horse colony sim merges all the period drama of Crusader Kings with the settlement and people management of Rimworld, and its “damn big update” marks another good moment to try the early-access indie game. With changes to city interactions, migration, crime, alcohol, and more, there’s a whole lot to dig through.
We’re approaching the one-year anniversary of Norland’s early-access launch on Steam, and developer Long Jaunt has been hard at work preparing some major improvements for the strategy game, which have now been released to all players after an initial beta test. Migration has been reworked and now directly depends on the average mood of your peasants throughout the day. Tweaks have been made to reduce unexpected population surges in the early game, and new issues relating to overcrowding and stench can pop up as your city grows in size.
Crime has a greater impact on your city’s mood, but criminals caught in the act can now surrender and be subdued. These prisoners can then be sent to the scaffolds for execution, or kept alive and used as a workforce. Scaffolds will automatically function without requiring instructions, and have been revamped to focus solely on prisoner executions, with each dealing out one per day and using their remaining time to intimidate nearby vagrants.
A fresh threat called Ragged Bands can appear, giving you just 12 hours of warning before they assault your settlement from multiple directions, raiding peasant homes, taking prisoners, and starting fires. You’ll want to make careful use of walls to hold them off. The algorithm for surprise attacks has been adjusted, so that only ‘deadly enemies’ (those that have a relationship below -50 with you) will launch such assaults.
The old fatigue mechanic that demanded alcohol to relieve it has been removed; instead, booze will simply provide a lasting mood boost to those that consume it. There’s no longer a mandatory morning church service, and instead sermons are held in the evening. A new action gives you the ability to bribe bishops. A Chancellery revamp makes it more streamlined, while Lord interactions have been made more deterministic along with the introduction of ‘small talk’ events.
There are improvements to recruiting peasants, controlling puppets, and making use of seduction as a political weapon. In accordance with this, you’ll encounter corresponding new roles for guests: puppet masters, seducers, and schemers. Production speed across most buildings has been slowed down, and initial trade contracts now provide larger quantities of goods.
Beyond that comes an overhaul to game balance and the balance of power on the global map. Every map has four points of entry, and there are new diplomatic options and scheming changes to add further considerations. Combat has also been improved, with a particular focus on archery that means your ranged units will only switch to melee when they are directly attacked. You can intercept these attempts to disrupt your archers by using melee units to block the attacker.
The Norland Damn Big Update is out now. You can read through the full list of changes and additions in the patch notes courtesy of Long Jaunt. There’s a lot – the name is certainly well earned – so be sure to take a look before you start playing.
Alternatively, we’ve rounded up more of the best medieval games on PC right now, along with the best management games if you like to be in control.
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