Northgard Battlegrounds/Dev boards

Northgard Battlegrounds Dev Boards: Tutorial Opponents

The tutorial's opponents are not other players: the game files hold 14 settlements the developers built for it. They are the only complete layouts that come from the developers, with every structure's tile, level and villagers. This page draws all of them, in the order the game files number them, so you can study a finished board before you build your own.

Three warchiefs take turns: Liv (Raven), Egil (Wolf) and Brand (Stag). Each one grows from four or five structures to twelve across the run. Under every board you will find what changed since that warchief's last one and what the layout shows about placement.

How to read a board

Each hex is one tile of the 46-tile board. Its colour is the ground: Plains, Fertile, Rocky or Wildlands. Bright tiles are colonised, the only tiles where a structure can stand; dim ones are not. The small number is the structure's level. Mountains, Forests and Circles of Stone come with the board: they take a tile and count as neighbours. Tap any structure to open its card, with its full effect at every level.

Plains
Fertile
Rocky
Wildlands
Not colonised
3Level

Board 1: Liv

Raven clan · first board

4 structures
2 villagers
7 colonised tiles

What to learn from board 1

The smallest board in the files: the Banner Hall, one Axe Thrower Camp with two villagers, a Mine and a Watch Tower. The Mine stands on the one Rocky tile Liv has colonised, the only ground where a Mine pays, for 2 Krowns at level 1.

The Watch Tower touches the Banner Hall, so Liv, a melee warchief, starts with +35 Health. The Axe Throwers are ranged and get nothing from it.

Board 2: Egil

Wolf clan · first board

4 structures
2 villagers
7 colonised tiles

What to learn from board 2

Egil's first board puts the Brewery next to the Berserker Camp. That one contact pays twice: 1 Lore of income for a Warband neighbour, and +1 Regen for the Berserkers.

The Farm stands on Fertile ground but has no unit beside it, so here it is a 1 Krown income piece and nothing more. The Banner Hall sits on its own.

Board 3: Brand

Stag clan · first board

5 structures
3 villagers
7 colonised tiles

What to learn from board 3

Brand opens with an economy pair: the Mine on Rocky ground and a Marketplace touching it. They yield 2 and 3 Krowns at level 1; the Marketplace's extra Krown comes from having the Mine, an Economy structure, as a neighbour.

The Shield Bearer Camp sits between the Banner Hall and the Hall of Skalds, so both get its +20 Armor. The Hall of Skalds also touches the Circle of Stone, a Knowledge piece, for 1 Lore.

Board 4: Liv

Raven clan · after board 1

7 structures
5 villagers
9 colonised tiles

What to learn from board 4

Liv's Banner Hall is now closed in on all six sides, and that is the idea: Liv is a unit, so every bonus for neighbouring units reaches her. The Ceremonial Bonfire stands on Wildlands, where it gives +3 Burn instead of +1, to Liv and to the Axe Thrower Camp.

The level 2 Farm on Fertile ground gives its Health to Liv and to the Shield Bearers, plus a little more at the start of every round.

Board 5: Egil

Wolf clan · after board 2

7 structures
9 villagers
8 colonised tiles

What to learn from board 5

This board is built around the Brewery. It touches two Warrior Camps, the Berserker Camp and the Banner Hall: three Warbands, so 3 Lore of income, and +1 Regen for four units.

The Farm is level 2 now and touches the Berserker Camp. Every camp runs with three villagers, the most a camp holds, so each one sends three units.

Board 6: Brand

Stag clan · after board 3

8 structures
9 villagers
9 colonised tiles

What to learn from board 6

Brand now runs two Shield Bearer Camps side by side. At level 2 each gives +40 Armor to its neighbours, so the two camps armour each other, and the first one also covers the Banner Hall, the Hall of Skalds and the new Healer's Hut.

The Farm on Fertile ground touches the Hall of Skalds and both camps: three units fed by one Common piece.

Board 7: Liv

Raven clan · after board 4

8 structures
9 villagers
9 colonised tiles

What to learn from board 7

The second Axe Thrower Camp goes in next to the first. Each camp gives +4 Damage to neighbouring ranged units at level 2, so the pair raise each other.

Both camps also touch the Ceremonial Bonfire, now level 2 on Wildlands: +6 Burn for each camp and for Liv. The Farm has reached level 3.

Board 8: Egil

Wolf clan · after board 5

9 structures
9 villagers
10 colonised tiles

What to learn from board 8

A Mine on Rocky ground joins Egil's economy straight at level 3, worth 6 Krowns. The Brewery is level 2 and still touches the three Warbands, so it yields 6 Lore.

The first Wolf Den slots into the middle of the cluster, against the Brewery, the Berserkers, a Warrior Camp and the level 3 Farm, so it collects Regen and Health from both support pieces.

Board 9: Brand

Stag clan · after board 6

9 structures
12 villagers
11 colonised tiles

What to learn from board 9

Brand's healers grow: the Hall of Skalds reaches level 3 with two villagers, and the Healer's Hut fills its third villager slot. Both still sit inside the Shield Bearers' armour, and the Hall's Lore from the Circle of Stone next door rises to 3.

The new Defense Tower is the weak spot. It gains Damage for every Civilian next to it, and its neighbours are the Banner Hall, terrain and empty ground. On your own board, put it against your Farms and Mines.

Board 10: Liv

Raven clan · after board 7

11 structures
12 villagers
13 colonised tiles

What to learn from board 10

Liv's late board makes use of the Forest. A Woodcutter touches it, so it yields 1 Krown, and it also touches an Axe Thrower Camp, which gets +5 Damage. The new Tracker Camp sits on the Forest's other side for +2 Burn.

The Ceremonial Bonfire is level 3: +9 Burn for both Axe Thrower Camps and for Liv. The new Gjallarhorn touches the Circle of Stone, which counts as Divine, so it gets +10% Action Speed from the start.

Board 11: Egil

Wolf clan · after board 8

11 structures
9 villagers
11 colonised tiles

What to learn from board 11

The Jötunn Camp goes where it can count Warbands: between the two Warrior Camps, for +80 Health at level 1. The Brewery reaches level 3, and its three Warband neighbours now yield 9 Lore.

The second Wolf Den stands against the Banner Hall, away from the first, so neither Den gets the Damage it earns for each neighbouring Beast.

Board 12: Brand

Stag clan · after board 9

12 structures
15 villagers
14 colonised tiles

What to learn from board 12

The Defense Tower stays where it was, and the empty tiles around it fill with a Farm and the new Mender's Hut: two Civilians, worth +16 Damage at level 2.

That second level 3 Farm on Fertile ground backs the Banner Hall and the Healer's Hut. The Marketplace, level 2 on a new tile, counts the Farm as an Economy neighbour and yields 6 Krowns.

Board 13: Liv

Raven clan · after board 10

12 structures
12 villagers
15 colonised tiles

What to learn from board 13

The only Epic structure on any dev board shows up here: Gates of Helheim at level 2, sending two Fallen Valkyries. It takes the Scout Camp's old tile next to Liv, and the Scout Camp moves beside both Axe Thrower Camps.

Gates of Helheim has no Divine neighbour, so its Damage bonus stays at zero. On your own board it belongs next to the Bonfire, the Gjallarhorn or the Circle of Stone.

Board 14: Egil

Wolf clan · after board 11

12 structures
9 villagers
15 colonised tiles

What to learn from board 14

Egil ends with three Wolf Dens, two of them at level 3, and none touches another. A Den gets +5/10/15 Damage per neighbouring Beast, and the Den is the only Beast on these boards, so the files leave that bonus unused.

The rest is finished: the Jötunn Camp at level 2 for +160 Health from its two Warrior Camp neighbours, the Brewery at level 3 between three Warbands, and the Berserkers at level 3.

What the dev boards teach

The warchief goes in the middle. On the late boards every Banner Hall touches six pieces. The warchief is a unit, so it collects every bonus that reaches neighbouring units: Armor from Shield Bearers, Health from Farms, Burn from the Bonfire.

Ground is never wasted. Every Mine on every board stands on Rocky ground, every Farm on Fertile, and every Ceremonial Bonfire on Wildlands. Each of those effects only works, or works better, on that ground, and the developers never gave one up.

The board's own pieces count. The Mountain, Forest and Circle of Stone are neighbours like any structure. The Circle of Stone is Divine and Knowledge, so it feeds the Hall of Skalds' Lore on every one of Brand's boards and the Gjallarhorn's Action Speed on Liv's.

Pieces come in pairs that feed each other. Mine and Marketplace for Krowns, two Axe Thrower Camps or two Shield Bearer Camps side by side, and a Brewery inside a ring of Warbands for Lore. When you buy a second copy, place it against the first.

They are not perfect. These boards are scripted tutorial opponents, not winning player builds. Some bonuses go unused: Wolf Dens that never touch, Gates of Helheim with no Divine neighbour, a Defense Tower with no Civilian beside it. Spotting those gaps is good practice for your own board. For layouts that win, see the builds, and theplacement guide explains each rule in depth.