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This article is about the civilization in Age of Mythology. For the civilization in Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, see Vikings.
Civilization Technology tree Strategy

Norse have no dedicated scouts, so must use an Ulfsark or other infantry. Norse infantry also build buildings; their Villagers, called Gatherers, only gather. The Norse also have a Dwarf to gather at Gold Mines. Norse can have as many Heroes as they can afford. They gain Favor by fighting, particularly with Heroes.
—In-game description

The Norse are a civilization in Age of Mythology. They are based on the old Norse religion and mythology.

Overview[]

  • Civilian unit: Gatherer (standard), Dwarf.
  • Resource drop-off site: Ox Cart - all.
  • Civilians cannot construct buildings other than Farms.
  • Infantry construct all other buildings. Only infantry can repair buildings.
  • Favor is generated by human units and heroes causing damage to units and buildings.
    • Hersirs generate equal favor passively as well (so double while in combat).
  • Transport Ships cost 105 wood but have 150 hit points.
  • Start with an Ulfsark, an Ox Cart, and two Gatherers (two Dwarves for Thor worshippers).
  • Start with 250 food, 200 wood, 150 gold.

Major gods[]

  • OdinPortrait Odin: Hunters gather 20% faster. Gives the player two ravens once a Temple is built. When idle, human units slowly regenerate health. Benefits Hill Fort units.
  • ThorPortrait Thor: Start with two dwarves instead of two Gatherers. The Dwarven Foundry replaces the Armory, which provide upgrades at a cheaper cost, as well as an extra level of upgrades. Benefits dwarves.
  • LokiPortrait Loki: Hersirs summon myth units after fighting long enough. Ox Carts move 50% faster and can be spawned at half the cost, but have -45% hit points. Benefits myth units.

Minor gods[]

The minor gods available to the civilization, their focuses, and the major gods through which they can be accessed are:

Classical Age[]

  • FreyjaIcon Freyja (Odin and Thor) - Cavalry
  • ForsetiIcon Forseti (Loki and Thor) - Ulfsarks and Hersirs
  • HeimdallIcon Heimdall (Loki and Odin) - Towers and navy

Heroic Age[]

  • SkadiIcon Skadi (Odin and Thor) - Throwing Axemen
  • BragiIcon Bragi (Loki and Thor) - Ulfsarks
  • NjordIcon Njord (Loki and Odin) - Ships and Hill Forts

Mythic Age[]

  • BaldrIcon Baldr (Odin and Thor) - Siege and cavalry
  • TyrIcon Tyr (All) - Infantry
  • HelIcon Hel (Loki) - Myth units

Units[]

The generic units unique to all Norse (and not just cosmetically unique) are:

Human soldiers[]

  • TownCenterAOMNorse Town Center and Longhouse icon Longhouse:
    • Ulfsarkicon Ulfsark: Infantry which is good against cavalry. Can be trained from the Town Center, upgraded from Gatherers as well as Dwarves, Archaic Age onwards. Can also be trained at the Longhouse, Classical Age onwards.
  • Longhouse icon Longhouse
  • HillFort Hill Fort
    • Aomhuskarlicon Huskarl: Heroic Age infantry good against archers.
    • Jarlicon Jarl: Heroic Age cavalry good against myth units.
    • Bogsveigir icon Bogsveigir: Heroic Age archer good against myth units.

Siege weapons[]

Heroes[]

  • TempleAOMIcon Temple and Longhouse icon Longhouse:
    • Hersiricon Hersir: Infantry Hero unit which can be trained from the Temple, Archaic Age onwards, as well as from the Longhouse, Classical Age onwards. Passively generates favor, collects Relics.

Myth units[]

Main article: Myth unit#Norse

Ships[]

  • Longboaticon Longboat: Greater attack than other arrow ships, has transport capacity of 5.
  • Drakkaricon Drakkar: Same as Greek and Egyptian hammer ships.
  • AoMDragonshipIcon Dragon Ship: Same as Chinese and Norse siege ships.

Titan[]

AoM Ymir view

The Norse TitanNorseIcon Titan

The Norse Titan unit is a gargantuan hammer-wielding Frost Giant loosely resembling Ymir, the ancestor of the Norse Giants.

Resource gathering[]

Unlike the other civilizations, 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 other civilizations 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.

Norse favor generation is elaborated on the favor page.

Norse 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 only modestly effective against human soldiers. 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 Ragnarok, 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, the Frost Giant King 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.

Units[]

NorseRaid2

Norse units

The Norse military 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 civilizations 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.

Originally, the Norse had no archers (the anti-infantry role was taken by Throwing Axemen and Ballistae), so there was no need to train anti-archer units when fighting them. As the Norse have no ranged heroes, they were particularly vulnerable to flying myth units. This was addressed in The Titans, which granted the Norse the Axe of Muspell technology, which causes Throwing Axemen to deal extra damage to flying units. In Tale of the Dragon, the Norse gained the Bogsveigir, an archer good against flying myth units.

The Norse also don't have a dedicated ranged anti-building siege unit such as the Greek Petrobolos and the Egyptian Catapult. Instead, they have the Portable Ram, 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 Mountain Giant.

Starting conditions[]

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

Changelog[]

AoM The Titans icon The Titans[]

AoM Extended icon Tale of the Dragon[]

In-game dialogue[]

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

Villager
  • Select 1 Já? (yow) - Yes?
  • Select 2 Tilbúinn! (til-pwin) - Ready!
  • Select 3 Skipan? (skeepan?) - Orders / commands?
  • Select 4 Hver er þar? (kwer-air-thar) - Who is there?
  • Move 1 Samþykkt (samm-thickt) - Agreed.
  • Move 2 (f) Satt (saht) - Right. (literally "truly")
  • Move 3 (yeg veer/yeh veyr)
  • Move 4 (m) (yow) - Yes
  • Hunt Veiðimaður (vey-thee-mathur) - Hunter.
  • Farm Fjósamaður (fyoh-sa-mathur) - Farmer. (literally "Barn man")
  • Chop wood Timbursveinn (timber-svait-n) - Woodcutter. (literally "timber-lad")
  • Mine Grjótsveinn (groht-svait-n) - Miner. (literally "rock-lad")
  • Attack Atrás! (art-trouse) - Attack! (it may be a combination of two words, literally "at" (fight) + "árás" (battle))
Military
  • Select 1 Já? (yow) - Yes?
  • Select 2 Tilbúinn! (til-pwin) - Ready!
  • Select 3 Skipan? (skeepan?) - Orders / commands?
  • Select 4 (Hersirs only) Hver er þar? (kwer-air-thar) - Who is there?
  • Move 1 Samþykkt (samm-thickt) - Agreed.
  • Move 2 (Hersirs only) Satt (saht) - Right. (literally "truly")
  • Move 3 Ég vil (yer vil) - I will. (I want to)
  • Move 4 (yow) - Yes
  • Attack 1 Til orrustuslag! (till-orr-ustu-slah) - To battle!
  • Attack 2 (yow) - Yes
  • Attack 3 Atrás! (art-trouse) - Attack!
  • Attack 4 (non-Hersirs only) Sækið fram! (sigh-keeth-framm) - Advance forward! / Ride forth!

AI player names[]

All versions[]

  • Bergen - A city in Norway founded by the son of Harald Hardrada in 1070 AD.
  • Bornholm - An island in the Baltic Sea, east of Denmark. First recorded as Burgendaland, it was possibly the original home of the Germanic Burgundians.
  • Faeros - An island group north of the British isles. Settled by Norsemen and Gaelic thralls in the early 9th Century, shortly before the settlement of Iceland.
  • Gotland - An island south of Sweden, its name is related to the Geats and the Goths.
  • Hafrsfjord - A fjord in Norway. It was the site of a battle c. 872-900 between the forces of King Harald Fairhair and other Norse chiefs, which led to the Unification of Norway.
  • Halogaland - The northernmost province in the Norse sagas, and formerly a petty kingdom in Norway.
  • Helluland - One of the lands encountered by Leif Erikson during his voyage to Vinland.
  • Markland - One of the lands encountered by Leif Erikson during his voyage to Vinland, located south of Helluland and north of Vinland.
  • Oslo - The capital of Norway, founded in 1040 AD with the name Ánslo.
  • Skara - A city in Sweden claimed to be founded in 988 AD.
  • Skiringsaal - A Viking Age hall in Norway, from around mid 8th Century to 900.

Vanilla and Extended Edition[]

These names only appear on AI players following the big boomer or the aggressive rusher AI.

  • Arhus - A city in Denmark dating back to the 8th Century.
  • Birka - Founded around 750 AD, it was the most important commercial center of Viking Age Sweden. Generally considered the oldest town in the country.
  • Greenland - The world's largest island, currently part of Denmark.
  • Novgorod - A city in Russia dating to the 9th Century, originally a trade station between the Varangians and the Byzantines. Mentioned in the Norse sagas with the name Holmgard.
  • Ringsted - One of Denmark's oldest towns, it was the site of Zealand's Thing (tribal assembly).
  • Skane - Southernmost province of Sweden, historically part of the Kingdom of Denmark.
  • Slesvig - Founded in the Middle Ages near the earlier site of Hedeby, one of the most important commercial centers of Viking Age Denmark.

Vanilla only[]

These names only appear on AI players following the balanced or the vanilla random AI.

  • Blekinge - One of the historical provinces of Sweden.
  • Nidaros - Historical name of Trondheim. Founded in 997 AD by Olaf Tryggvason, grandson of Harald Fairhair and one of the first Christian kings of Norway.
  • Odense - One of the largest and oldest cities of Denmark, with the first settlement dating back 4,000 years.
  • Viborg - Another of Denmark's oldest cities, with settlements dating to the 8th Century.

Cut content[]

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it.
  • Bondi Icon Bondi - Anti-cavalry infantry unit.
  • AlVsEb1 Hirdman - Heavy infantry good against infantry.
  • CyclopsIcon Trollkarien - A cut myth unit, possible antlered early design of the Troll.

Trivia[]

  • While primarily influenced from the namesake Norsemen, there are also references to other Germanic peoples too:
    • The Throwing Axeman's history files refer to the Franks, Germanic peoples who would go on to conquer the bulk of Roman Gaul and eventually become Kingdom of France as their culture adopted more Roman customs.
    • The Jarl's history files refer to the Saxons, a tribe from northern Germania who were influenced by Norse culture since their tribe lived near the Jutland Peninsula (in modern-day Denmark) prior to migrating to and conquering Roman Britannia along with the Angles, their Low German cousins, and the Jutes, who were the Norsemen living in the Jutland peninsula. Huskarls (or "Housecarls" after the Battle of Hastings in 1066) were also present as a warrior class in Anglo-Saxon England, serving as the elite guards for the Jarls.
    • Hill Forts, which resemble motte-and-bailey castles, were introduced into most of Northern Europe by the Normans, who were Danish and Norwegian Vikings who settled in France and adopted French culture and customs in exchange for land, wealth, and an end to raids against the Kingdom of France.
    • The shields of several upgrade unit lines are kite shields, which spread in Europe around 1000 AD and were popularised by the Normans during their conquest of England and Sicily.
    • The name of the Thurisaz Rune technology also derives from Proto-Germanic, rather than Old Norse.
  • Some of the AI players' names are related to Norse colonies: Faeros, Greenland, Helluland, Markland, and Novgorod. The first four are/were in North America, and the fifth is a major city in modern-day Russia; it was also one of the two major Viking settlements settled near the Volga River in Eurasia, the other being Kiev, which is the capital of modern-day Ukraine.

Gallery[]

Civilizations in Age of Mythology
Aom original icon Age of Mythology AoM The Titans icon The Titans AoM Extended icon Tale of the Dragon
Greeks
Greeks
Egyptians
Egyptians
NorsePortrait
Norse
AtlanteanPortrait
Atlanteans
Chinese
Chinese
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