Norse

This article is about the civilization in Age of Mythology. For the civilization in Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, see Vikings (Age of Empires II).

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 before Retold

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 Houses, Farms, and Ox Carts.
Infantry construct all other buildings. Only infantry (and Freyr workers) 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, have 150 hit points, a movement speed of 5.75, and 65% pierce armor.
Several buildings are cheaper, but have less hit points.
Start with a Berserk, an Ox Cart, and three Gatherers (three Dwarves for Thor worshipers).
Start with 200 food, 150 wood, 100 gold.

Major gods[]

Odin[]

Gatherers and Dwarves gather 10% faster from natural food sources.
Great Hall units generate +25% favor in battle.
Human units and heroes regenerate 0.5 hit points per second.
2 Raven scouts spawn once the first Temple is built, and respawn a short time after being killed.

Thor[]

Start with three Dwarves instead of three Gatherers.
Dwarves cost -10 gold, and gather food and wood nearly as fast as Gatherers.
Builds Dwarven Armory instead of Armory. Dwarven Armory can be built and research upgrades in any age, and can research three additional technologies.
Receive a free Dwarf for each Dwarven Armory upgrade researched.

Loki[]

Damaging enemy units can spawn myth units. (Human soldiers contribute 10%; Hersirs 50% of damage dealt.)
Human soldiers and heroes +25% counter damage.
Buildings are constructed 25% faster.
Ox Carts are 50% cheaper.
Transforming Gatherers and Dwarves into Berserks is free.

Freyr[]

Has a potent defensive god power that gets more powerful with each Age advancement.
Technologies cost -50% food, wood, and gold, but take 150% longer to research.
Hill Fort and Hill Fort units +10% damage.
Repairing buildings is free.
Gatherers and Dwarves can repair.

Minor gods[]

Classical Age[]

Freyja (Odin, Thor, and Freyr) - Cavalry
Forseti (Loki and Thor) - Berserks and Hersirs
Heimdall (Loki and Odin) - Towers and navy
Ullr (Freyr) - Defenses and Longhouse units

Heroic Age[]

Skadi (Odin and Thor) - Throwing Axemen
Bragi (Loki, Thor, and Freyr) - Berserks
Njord (Loki and Odin) - Ships and Hill Forts
Aegir (Freyr) - Myth units and siege weapons

Mythic Age[]

Baldr (Odin and Thor) - Siege and cavalry
Tyr (Odin, Thor, and Loki) - Infantry
Hel (Loki and Freyr) - Myth units
Vidar (Freyr) - Human soldiers and heroes

Units[]

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

Civilians[]

Gatherer: Gathers all resources (except favor) but cannot construct buildings (other than Farms).
Dwarf: Works like a Gatherer but is faster at mining gold and slower at gathering other resources.
Ox Cart: Mobile drop site.

Human soldiers[]

Town Center and Longhouse:
- Berserk: 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
- Throwing Axeman: Classical Age infantry good only against other infantry.
- Hirdman: Classical Age infantry good only against cavalry.
Great Hall
- Raiding Cavalry: Classical Age cavalry good only against archers.
- Jarl: Heroic Age cavalry good against human soldiers.
Hill Fort
- Huskarl: Heroic Age infantry good against archers.

Siege weapons[]

Hill Fort
- Portable Ram: Heroic Age siege unit good against buildings.
- Ballista: Mythic Age siege unit good against units and ships.

Heroes[]

Temple and Great Hall:
- 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.
Great Hall
- Godi: Heroic Age ranged hero.

Myth units[]

Main article: Myth unit#Norse

Ships[]

Longboat: Greater attack than other arrow ships and has transport capacity of 5, but is slower.
Dreki: Same as Greek and Egyptian close-combat ships.
Dragon Ship: Same as Chinese and Greek siege ships.

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 while engaging in combat. The generation system in Retold is very different from the original game. Instead of favor bounties depending on each individual target, the favor generation rate depends on the attacker and the amount of damage they have dealt, as well as multipliers of the combat favor rate for certain targets.

Like in the original, the trainable Norse heroes, i.e. Hersir and Godi, also trickle 0.01 favor per second simply by existing. The myth technology Hammer of Thunder granted by Thor doubles Hersir's passive regeneration to 0.02 favor per second.

Attacks from different unit types generate favor at different rates:

Human soldiers, Heroes, Gatherers, and Dwarves: 1 per 80 damage dealt.
Ships: 1 per 160 damage dealt.
Odin's Great Hall units (Hersir, Jarls, Godi, Raiding Cavalry): 1 per 64 damage dealt.
Norse myth units that are trained from Temples and Docks, as well as the Nidhogg: 1 per 160 damage dealt.

Buildings, unmentioned units (Walking Woods, Fimbulwinter Wolves), and damage dealt by god powers do not generate any favor.

Certain target types also have their own multipliers when damaged:

Huntables - animals that contain food (does not include Anubis Serpents, even though villagers use bows against them): 2x
Herdable animals: 10x
Chickens ("NonConvertableHerdable"): 10x
Buildings that shoot (Sentry Towers do not count until upgraded): 0.5x
Wall pieces and Gates: 0x
Other buildings: 0.1x

Additionally, once 100 total favor from combat has been gathered, the rate of gain begins to slow down. This reduction increases linearly between 100 and 300 total favor gathered, reducing the rate to 0.5x upon gathering 300 favor from combat. This reduction happens regardless of whether the gained favor was spent or left in the stockpile. This reduction applies only to favor gain from combat.

The Norse please their gods by proving their prowess and honor in battle. They gain favor by causing damage to all units and all buildings except Walls. Each unit and building has a set total amount of favor that it can earn, and each blow dealt by a human or hero unit earns a fraction of this total amount, proportional to the percentage of damage dealt. The following bounties are for standard game units, as of the latest version of the Extended Edition:

100 - Wonders, Titans, and Titan Gates
4.32 - All buildings not listed
2.5 - Centimanus
2.16 - House, Drop-off buildings, Farm, myth units, heroes, Sentinel.
1.44 - Predators and huntable animals which fight back, strong Animals of Set (Hyena, Hippo, Rhino, Crocodile), Golden Lions.
1.08 - Obelisk. Human units, Siege weapons, Ships, various minor Myth Units.
0.48 - Weak Animals of Set (Gazelle, Ape, Giraffe), other animals, Dryad, Militia, Relic Monkeys.
0 - Serpent (only land Serpents), Walls, Gates, Chicken, and Ducks.

Various Norse units have bounty multipliers which leads to earning different amounts of total favor from the stated bounty amount of the same target:

Longboat - 2.5×
Hersir - 2×
All human units (including Gatherer and Dwarf), Hero of Ragnarok, siege weapons (Portable Ram and Ballista) - 1.1×
Other warships (Dragon Ship and Dreki) - 1.0×

Hersirs also passively generate a trickle of favor from the Classical Age onwards – 0.6 favor per minute per Hersir – just by existing. Additionally, animals are worth favor, so workers gain a small amount of favor from doing damage to them, i.e. hunting. The player's myth units can never earn favor.

To generate the most total favor, it is ideal to use Longboats (on water) and Hersirs (on land) rather than other units. To gain favor faster, it is better to use Hersirs and target enemy units or buildings with the highest favor to hit points ratio. The armor ratings of the target should also be taken into account, as the faster the player's units damage it, the faster its bounty is realized. Buildings should be attacked with siege units to gain favor from them faster, and with Hersirs to gain more total favor, but at a much slower rate.

Like with the Atlanteans, earning favor for the Norse is tied to strategy. If they do not fight, it is very difficult for the Norse to gain favor. This means that an attacking strategy that starts with raiding is practically imperative for Norse players. Fortunately, their bonuses and options are oriented towards aggression, and the more favor-generating units there are engaging the enemy, the faster favor is generated. Norse favor soars in a pitched battle.

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, a Berserk, an Ox Cart, and two Gatherers (Odin and Loki) or two Dwarves (Thor).

Changelog[]

Age of Mythology[]

Start with 250 food, 200 wood, 150 gold, and two Gatherers (two Dwarves for Thor).
Gatherers and Dwarves can construct only Farms.
Ox Carts are trained from the Town Center.

The Titans[]

With patch 1.02, the Norse favor trickle is reduced in Deathmatches.

Tale of the Dragon[]

Bogsveigir introduced.

Retold[]

Start with 200 food, 150 wood, 100 gold, and three Gatherers (three Dwarves for Thor).
Gatherers and Dwarves can construct Farms, Houses, and Ox Carts. The latter is no longer trained at the Town Center.
Great Hall added as a new military building for training cavalry units (moved from the Hill Fort) and Heroes (the Hersir moved from the Longhouse)
New units added: Hirdman, Godi

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 Ég vil (yer vil) - I will. (I want to)
Move 4 (m) Já (yow) - Yes
Hunt Veiðimaður (vey-thee-mathur) - Hunter.
Farm
- Fjósamaður (fyoh-sa-mathur) - Farmer. (literally "Barn man") (before Retold)
- Poo karrtl (since Retold)
Forage Fjósamaður
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 Já (yow) - Yes
Attack 1 Til orrustuslag! (till-orr-ustu-slah) - To battle!
Attack 2 Já (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.
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.

Vanilla and Retold[]

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.

Retold only[]

Reykjavík - A settlement in Iceland established in 874 AD and current day capital.
Torshavn - Capital of the Faroe Islands since 850 AD.
Uppsala - A city in Sweden, serving as its ecclesiastical center since 1164 AD.

Cut content[]

Bondi - Anti-cavalry infantry unit
Hirdman - Heavy infantry good against infantry
Trollkarien - A cut myth unit, possible antlered early design of the Troll
Knarr
Light Cavalry
Heavy Cavalry

Trivia[]

The names of the three Norse warships all refer to the exact same ship. Longboat is another name for Longship, which is the English name for the typical Norse exploration and warship, while the Norse name for such a ship is Drakkar. Dragon Ship is the literal English translation of the word Drakkar. Thus, all three Norse ship names refer to a typical-length Longship.
- A more suitable name for the current Drakkar would have been Snekke, which was used for smaller longships. A more suitable name for the current Dragon Ship would have been Skeid (skeið), which referred to a large or splendid oceangoing warship. Skeid is currently used as a prefix for upgraded Dragon Ships.
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.