Late last month, developer Shiro Games’ Viking strategy game Northgard released onto PC via Steam Early Access for $19.99 USD (it has been received quite well). Now, the game received it's first major content update.

The update most notably adds a new clan to play as, The Clan of Raven. According to Shiro Games, the addition of the clan took a bit longer than it expected due to the team devoting more time than it anticipated to bug fixing during the first few weeks after launch.

The following overview of The Clan of the Raven is provided:

Great explorers and merchants, their mighty fleet allowed them to be the first to land on Northgard. They are strong trade partners if you don’t mind their constant scheming. Brash and swift, they will often be found roaming where you least expect them.

The Ravens can Colonize new tiles with either or Kröwns. This is said to play to their strengths as merchants, as you can take advantage of their buffs and optimize your production of Kröwns then expand rapidly, or just work towards an economic victory.

The update also includes the following changes to other clans:

The Stag Clan:

  • They can now build the Hall of Skalds without upgrading their Town Hall.
  • Their Thane fame bonus has been replaced with additional Supplies.

The Goat Clan:

  • knowledge "Healthy Food" has been replaced by "Barricades" which increase civilians resistance by 10% per building in the area.

All Clans:

  • The Happiness bonus for Wealth (Kröwns stocks) has been removed, it is now a Raven-specific knowledge.

The following gameplay changes come with the update as well:

Gameplay changes:
  • Forgot to build a Mine? You can now increase the maximum number of buildings by 1 if you’re willing to part with some Kröwns... This can only be done once per area.
  • The price of recruiting warriors now varies: the first warrior will cost 20K, the second 25K, the third 30K and so on. If one or several of your warriors are killed, the price will revert to the corresponding level. This change is designed to balance the cost/power ratio of larger armies.
  • We have improved the ability to micro-manage combat and fixed several bugs related to fight handling. Feedback wanted!
  • By popular demand, we’ve added Ctrl+1-9 shortcuts to allow creating groups of units or memorizing buildings!
  • We have increased the time it takes to colonize the Yggdrasil. This will allow the AI (and other players) to contest your claim!
  • Sailors’ tools can now be improved.
  • More Fish can be found in new maps.
  • The Great Explorers achievement has been fixed!
  • The AI has been significantly improved.
  • Version number v0.1.4202.

Looking ahead, Shiro Games has said it will be focusing a lot of its energy on multiplayer over the next few months. This will likely mean that less major updates or mechanic changes will be pumped out, but it will mean that you won't have to wait as long as to play, well, multiplayer.

Additionally, some shield maidens are in the pipleline, as well as another clan and a slab of other more important game elements.

Northgard  is available on PC via Steam Early Access for $19.99 USD.