Northgard: Nidhogg, Clan of the Dragon Review (Celemin)
The Dragon Clan. One of my fav clans to play simply because of thier very unique style of playing compared to other clans. However this "uniqueness" doesn't necessary mean they are fun for other people, and most reviews here reflect on that. The Clan is very hard to play. like VERY HARD. and you will need to "look outside the box" to use them effectively.
But i still would recommend them, just because of thier playstyle.
If you want the exact details of what this clan has and performs. Keep reading this review.
To be honest, pointing at what the dragon is strong with, is even hard for me. This is due to their playstyle and what they offer. To summarize:
- They start with 3 wils and 2 Thralls.
- Thralls is a unique worker unit exclusive to the Dragon clan that gathers resources but lower then regular villigers. They takes no population space, but can only be obtained by purchating them from Docks or captured by killing enemy units with the "Capture" lore.
- Your villagers and Thralls can go into neutral territory.
- Has a Dragon Essence Gauge that grants unique bonuses. Requires units to be sacrificed. If the Gauge runs out, your happiness reaches very low.
- Has the Sarcrifical Pyre which is where you sacrifice your units for Dragon Essence.
- Has no access to Warriors, Axe Throwers or Shield Bearers. Instead your only Millitary unit, is the Dragonkin.
- The dragon Clan suffer no happiness panetly for too many wounded units.
I know i've called other Clans hard to play. but i think it's safe to say, that the Dragon clan is the hardest to play and master. There's so much going on that i'll have to write deeper details for what they have. Starting with how the Dragaon Essence Gauge works.
The Dragon Essence Gauge starts with a random bonus, either being food, wood, Krowns, or lore at the start of the game. This bonus immedially adds to your stockpile (so if it's food the Gauge is on. You gain 5+ food produced with no need for workers) The Gauge slowly drains over time. Each time you sacriface a worker or Dragonkin, you gain more Essence. Thralls give more Essence upon sacrificing, but keep in mind Thralls are more expensive to get.
The very complictad part, is that you can't get multiple bonuses from the Essence Gauge if you sacrifice alot of your units. Example, you have a wood bonus currenly on the Gauge, but you see there's also a lore bonus if you sacrifice a thrall for it, you sarcrifice it. But the bonus then goes off from wood, and then to lore instead. so you can't have both bonuses. The Key is to know which bonuses to get for the right time.
As mentioned before, you HAVE to sacrifice something. if the Dragon Essence Gauge runs out. you can't produce more Villigers, because the happiness has reaced like minus 10. This make Dragon Essence the 5th resource you have to keep track of, along with Food, wood, Krowns and Happiness.
Thralls are very important units for the Dragon Clan. They gather much needed resources to make up for your lower population. While you can sacriface them, it's sometimes best to hold onto them and sacriface Villigers instead. this all depends on your current situation. You can get more Thralls into the game, by building a dock and buy them with krowns. you buy 2 Thralls per purchate but each time you do, the price increases, but lowers down again for each month. Getting the "Thrall Trade" lore reduces the price overall. making it easier to buy more Thralls.
Another way to get more Thralls is the "Capture" lore. which lets you to caputure thralls wheen attacking enemy workers or Neutral enemies.
The only thing to note is Thralls will rebel and attack you, if you have more of them, then your current population. what happends is they turn into hostile "grey units," that will attack your base. but this will like never happen to you, cuz your population will always be way higher. but if this occurs, your economy is gonna be hit hard, and often result in a loss due to lack of rescources.
Finally we have the Dragonkins. which is the only millitary unit you can have in this clan. You need to build Dragonkin altars to get them, and they are pretty expensive, costing a little more krowns then a Warrior, and some of the dragon essence from your gauge. Dragon Altars also only provides 1 warband instead of other millitary camps 2 warband. so at the start you can only have one.
Dragonkins are demon hunters that- whoops sorry wrong game. they are a melee unit, with more health, more attack, slighty faster attack speed, and a projectile resistance. Newer players will immediately think they are two warriors in one unit, but this is wrong. Dragonkin are more like a warrior with weaponsmith already unlocked and the shield bearers projectile defense. Thier defence is only increased by 1, so they aren't tanky either.
Speaking of Weaponsmith, the Dragon clan does NOT have Access to that lore, or "millitary strategy" lore. Instead they have "Dragonic Frenzy" lore which doubles a millitary units attack, if it's only unit on a territory. So a dragonkin get + 12 attack and can do 24 damage which is insane, however this only works with one millitary unit, and not 2 unit on the same tile. making it only good for killing wildlife or early defense, but little thing else againts an army of vikings.
The only way you can upgrade thier attack, is to upgrade the Dragonkin Altar. which is gonna cost you alot of stone.
With only one warband, no easy lore attack bonus, and a very expensive price, Dragonkin are very hard to spam with. their price is so high, that fielding alot of them will hurt your wallet alot. Plus you'll have to sacrifice more of your people, to prevent the essence gauge from running out. Don't be surprised if your warchief is your second millitary unit you obtain.
Also Dragonkin are effected by "Dragon Slayer" lore from the enemy clans, taking 10% more damage, if they unlock it at their lore tree.
Listing all this, the Dragon clan Seems very underpowered. Your overall population is always lower compared to other clans in matches, They are a "lore heavy" Clan, has only one type of millitray unit, and you have to sacrifice your own people to gain bonuses, which can seem very overwhelming. however the Dragon clan, does have a few tricks. First they don't really suffer as much from "population happiness". since if your happiness is about to reach minus from a villiger spawning, simply toss a worker to the Sacrifacial pyre, and you delay the panelty.
Also imo, the dragon clan can archive every victory efficently but only if you work towards it. they can be really good for trade victory, because their Thralls help with lacked food income, so you can send workers to gather more krowns, and do bigger trade route. But the Dragon Clan can also make a deadly army, when your economy allows it. Wisdom is also a bit faster to reach, thanks to the Dragon Essense Gauge.
So overall. i really love thier unique playstyle, they really turn how you think you play Northgard, but it's very hard to get used to them. Pick this DLC if you want something different. But be prepared to learn from alot of mistakes.