Northgard: Ratatoskr, Clan of the Squirrel Review (Angelo)
Probably the most versatile clan so far. Great for economy but can also really well go into military or helping allies. And for all of you that wanted a great expansionist clan but focused on economy and bonuses, this is it.
Pros
+ New resource added to the game, cooking ingredients which provide many different buffs.
+ Great for stockpiling resources. So far there is a tech that gives you a not at all negligible bonus of +1 Wood or Food per every 100 stockpiled.
+ Can quickly recruit its war chief for free, who is also a cook.
+ Can support huge population and has specific victory for gaining fame which you can increase based on your population.
+ Interesting synergies for early and late game.
Cons
- The extra ingredient resource, cooking and seasonal changes need to be micromanaged in a game chock full of micromanagement already. Besides this, you also need to watch out for winter and use the months ahead which, with so much already happening might be a nuisance to some players.
- The fact that it's an expansionist clan can work against it since you will need a lot of land to get lots of ingredients, which might not be very feasible for small, competitive maps.
About
So the Squirrel Clan came out of nowhere and is pretty amazing. It's based on cooking. A new resource type is added (ingredients) spread into 4 categories. You get these ingredients from every tile you own, based on specifics. For example, shore tiles give you extra fish, deer tiles extra meat and forest tiles extra mushrooms. These food ingredients do not mix with your base food but have a resource pool of their own.
This resource pool is increased by building cooking houses and with some technologies. The cooks replace the brewers and add happiness and, from a Cook button that replaces the Feast button, you can now pick between 6 recipes to cook different dishes. Cooks also each collect ingredients and your War chief is also a cook.
The dishes that you can make have a lot of interesting effects (some of which are really powerful). You can increase your food, wood and lore production; increase attack and experience; increase scouting speed and reduce winter penalties; reduce damage from projectiles; increase mining and forging speeds and lastly, increase population growth speed. All these bonuses act as temporary buffs, the strength and duration of which you can increase with a lore piece and extra ingredients.
As you can probably tell by now if you are experienced with the game, all these buffs cover pretty much all the important areas of the games. Besides that some are really powerful and if you want to enjoy them in full glory, might as well buy now before the clan is nerfed. Bonuses such as +7 extra Lore, +30% mining speed and others are really strong.
Besides these, the clan comes with its own unique lore pieces which are well made and it gets a bonus to resource gathering before winter and a higher consumption penalty during winter. It's the only clan so far which has 3 seasons: normal, squirrel autumn (more resources) and a harsher winter. Of course, you can make a synergy between the autumn season and bonus productivity soup just to name one approach. And they have a dish that reduces the winter penalty so unlike other clans, it can really normalize itself out of its weaknesses.
The new relic so far isn't really much. It's based on you getting (Eldritch) improved zones every 4 months, which help with defense and extra productivity. I assume this is great if you like to play solo on huge maps and take over the whole island but I don's see it being very useful in small competitive games.
Verdict
All in all, I believe this is the best clan they put out in a while. It's close to a 10 in my opinion and I recommend this if you want to play a strong economic clan along Stag, Goat or Horse. Or if you want to play with friends online. I bet it would be interesting to see what happens if a large team all plays Squirrel and keep cooking for themselves and each other since recipes can also affect your allies.
^ If you've enjoyed this review, please consider a donation. Writing inspiration works best when also cultivated: PayPal account: angel011201128@gmail.com