Gudadantza: Is it like civilization or more like King's Bounty? I mean, more focused in wandering and missions based or more focused in construct cities, expand etc?
toxicTom: There is no city construction. As a Viking hero you fulfill quests (in a tree structure) for the Nordic Gods, usually by exploring and defeating settlements and cities (plundering or razing them). For that you get rewards like special units or upgrades. You compete against three other heroes to become the namesake "Hammer of the Gods". There's also diplomacy (between the four heroes) and an honor system.
And that's about it. It's not a very complex game, but pretty compelling and it has a good flow.
I also really like the exploration of the game world which is cloaked in a "fog of war" until you move units around. Sailing ships, capturing ships from the other hero teams rather than using limited coin to purchase them, playing it safe taking the long route by sticking to the coastline or risking sea monsters and storm encounters in the open sea which may result in death and ship loss for faster travel are factors to consider.
Choosing which units to use for exploration to locate new neutral settlements to conquer, and locate your opposing teams settlements, depending on their movement rates and racial bonuses to traverse mountains or forests when you have limited units available especially early on is important.
Deciding where and when to build roads and castles to both quicken movement and protect your settlements with limited coin available is also important.
Deciding which units to add to the eight limit stack whether archers or melee fighters and movement and placement within combat mode for optimum success is important.
Picking which quest to pursue next for rapid completion in order to reap the reward benefits of units and coin or magic items is crucial as you don't want to get stuck on an unsolved task for turns on end since you can't opt out once chosen.
The strategy is deep for such a basic game design and a lot of fun. Add to that good music and sound effects, decent graphics for a 1994 release, and endless repeat playability since there are thousands of random customizable seed maps to play on with four heroes to choose as your race, Viking or Troll or Elf or Dwarf, each with their own benefits and some differing quest tree lines and rewards.
You can choose the quickest path to victory by completing your quest tree line before your opponents, or play a much longer game by exploring and conquering the entire world map by saving an unfinished quest until you are ready to finish.
