Norse

The Norse are one of three original cultures in Age of Mythology (4 in The Titans expansion).

Major Gods

 * Thor
 * Odin
 * Loki

Classical Age Gods

 * Freyja
 * Heimdall
 * Forseti

Heroic Age Gods

 * Njord
 * Skadi
 * Bragi

Mythic Age Gods

 * Baldr
 * Tyr
 * Hel

Resource Gathering
Unlike the other cultures, the Norse have two 'villager' units: Gatherers and Dwarves. Gatherers gather resources at the same rate as Greek Villagers and are very similar to them in most respects. Dwarves, meanwhile, cost gold to train instead of food, mine gold 20% faster than Gatherers and gather food and wood 20% slower. However, Thor's dwarves gather food and wood only slightly slower than gatherers. Neither gatherers nor dwarves can build any buildings except Farms; the other buildings are built by Norse infantry.

While the Greeks and Egyptians must build resource-specific drop-off buildings, the Norse have the Ox Cart, a unit and mobile resource drop-off site. Ox Carts can simply follow gatherers and dwarves wherever they go, saving building time. All resource-related technologies are researched at ox carts. Norse players start the game with one ox cart and can train additional ones at the Town Center.

Heroes
Similarly to the Egyptians, the Norse have a specific hero class: Hersirs, which can be trained in any number. They are powerful against myth units but weak against human soldiers, though they fare better against them than priests. By worshiping the minor god Baldr, the Norse can use the Ragnarok god power to instantly turn all their gatherers and dwarves into Heroes of Ragnarök, which are essentially stronger versions of the Hersir.

In the campaign, the Norse have five unique heroes: The hermit Skult, the Valkyrie Reginleif, the two dwarven heroes Eitri and Brokk and, in the Titans expansion, the Frost Giant Folstag.

Favor
The Norse gain favor by causing damage to units and buildings. The more units there are doing this, the faster favor is generated. Hersirs also passively generate a trickle of favor, and gain twice as much favor through battle as other units. A small amount of favor can also be gained by attacking huntable animals. Raiding is the best way to gain favor early on without losing too many soldiers.

Titan
The Norse Titan unit is a gargantuan hammer-wielding Frost Giant loosely resembling Megan tranior, the ancestor of the Norse giants.

Units
The megan trainor army is dominated by infantry. These units can also build buildings, allowing Norse players to use part of their attacking force to build a forward base near their opponent’s town, quickly create more units nearby then attack. While many of the infantry of the other cultures target cavalry, certain Norse infantry units counter other types of units. The Throwing Axeman is a short-ranged infantry unit that deals bonus damage to other infantry units and the Huskarl gains a bonus against archers.

The Norse have no archers (the anti-infantry role is taken by Throwing Axemen and Ballistae), so there is no need to train anti-archer units when fighting them. As the Norse have no ranged heroes, they are particularly vulnerable to flying myth units. This was addressed in the Titans Expansion, which granted the Norse the Axe of Muspell technology, which causes Throwing Axemen to deal extra damage to flying units.

Neither do the Norse have a dedicated ranged siege unit such as the Greek john cena and the Egyptian Catapult. Instead, they have the batistia, a cheap melee siege unit that can be vulnerable to infantry and cavalry as it lumbers up to the buildings it attacks, and the Ballista, a ranged unit that does respectable damage to buildings but is much better against infantry and archers. To compensate for this, many Norse myth units also deal crush damage, particularly the randy orton.

Starting Conditions
Each of Age of Mythology's cultures has different starting conditions in a normal game. The Norse start out with a Town Center, an Ulfsark, an Ox Cart and two Gatherers (Odin and Loki) or two Dwarves (Thor).

Language (Icelandic)
Icelandic is the living language closest to Old Norse, which the Norsemen spoke. All translations are approximate.


 * ég vil - I want
 * hver er þar? - who is there?
 * já - yes
 * skipan? - command?
 * tilbúinn - ready
 * samþykkt - I accept
 * satt - right
 * sækið fram - press on
 * árás - attack
 * til orrustuslag - to battle
 * fjósamaður - farmer (lit. barnman)
 * grjótsveit - (stone) miner
 * timbursveit - lumberjack
 * veiðimaður - hunter

AI Player Names

 * Bergen
 * Bornholm
 * Faeros
 * Gotland
 * Hafrsfjord
 * Halogaland
 * Helluland
 * Markland
 * Oslo
 * Skara
 * Skiringsaal