City-Building Auto-Battler Northgard Battlegrounds Enters Steam Early Access

After an exciting announcement and beta tests this past summer, city-building auto-battler Northgard Battlegrounds has launched into Steam Early Access.

Northgard creator Shiro Games (publisher) co-developed the spinoff with Funday Games in an attempt to transform the original game’s colony management and more traditional strategy into a fast-paced take on town-building and auto-battling gameplay. With a mix of single-player or online multiplayer that works at all times, “players lead a Viking clan, build a village, amass gold, and earn the favor of the Norse gods, then send their warriors and mythic beasts into asynchronous PvP auto-battler rounds.”

“Each turn, players use collected resources to expand their territory, construct and upgrade buildings, and assign workers. They must balance immediate military strength against long-term growth, harnessing adjacency bonuses to build a productive settlement and an effective army. More than 100 Fate cards shape each strategy, grant powerful blessings, and summon legendary creatures against rival clans.”

Northgard Battlegrounds is launching with a very reasonable price tag of $14.99 / €14.99 / £12.99, with the extra 10% launch discount lowering the price to $13.49 / €13.49 / £11.69 for the first two weeks. Owners of Northgard, Backpack Battles, or The King Is Watching also receive an additional 10% discount through Steam bundles.

The game is expected to spend at least six months in early access, but as you can see in the launch content overview image above, it’s already loaded with content. It now remains to be seen if Northgard veterans and newcomers respond well to its refreshing (at least on paper) pitch, though.