Neustria

# Overview

## Kingdom

The Lion Kingdom, or Neustria, is the first of what is likely to be several "Kingdoms" added to Northgard in successive DLCs. These factions represent the southerly, continental powers that existed during the viking age, and based on several cultural cues, it's likely the Lion kingdom was inspired by various Franco-Norman groups from the early medieval age.

As a "Kingdom", rather than following the template established by the existing Viking "Clans", this faction overturns a large number of the core assumptions about how city/unit mechanics in Northgard work, particularly with regards to how civilians are assigned to buildings.

## Livability

The lynchpin mechanic for Kingdoms is a concept called "livability", which is a stat associated with a zone (similarly to building limit, which Kingdoms continue to have). Kingdoms abolish the fixed "2, 3 when upgraded" assignment limit that generic Viking Clans have for their buildings. Livability, rather, establishes the upper limit for specialist workers of any type in a zone; they can be freely divided between any specialist buildings in a zone, including assigning all of them to one building, but can't exceed the livability cap.

For example, a zone with 3 livability, a Foraging Post, and a Lumber Camp could have 3 specialists; all 3 could be Lumberjacks, with no Peasants, vice-versa, or you could have 2 of one job, and 1 of the other.

With small amounts of livability, this doesn't cause a dramatic gameplay difference compared to Viking Clans, but as livability gets boosted past the 4-6 mark, it means a huge number of people can be assigned to a very particular job, giving you flexibility to focus on a certain resource — for example, it can allow you to rapidly finish mining deposits, by assigning a full 5-6 miners. In general, this allows a Kingdom to thrive on relatively small parcels of land, since once they exceed 5-6 livability, they're able to assign more specialists to a zone than most viking clans can.

### Boosting

Livability can be boosted by several mechanics. Developing a zone adds +1 livability. One of the 3 lore "blessings from the gods", for a Kingdom, is replaced by a "Vow" which adds +1 livability to all zones. Erecting a Sentry Camp will add +1 livability (but upgrades provide no further boost). A House on its own adds no livability, but will add +1 if upgraded. The Tavern likely is your primary source of livability, as it provides +1 on its own, but both of its upgrades help dramatically; upgrading to a Barroom adds a further +1 (for a total of +2 on that zone), and upgrading to a Hostelry instead, causes every adjacent zone to get +1 livability (the current zone is not upgraded further). Overlapping Hostelries are the most effective way to boost livability across the board.

### Abundance

Besides simply boosting the number of specialist workers available to be used, the greatest value of boosting livability is to unlock a special state called "Abundance". Once a zone reaches 8 livability, it will unlock a special bonus. The zone, itself, will gain a +15% production bonus, and the global recruitment rate of new Subjects will be boosted by 7.5%; critically, the recruitment rate bonus stacks with multiple instances of Abundance, so boosting several zones into this state can *dramatically* increase the rate at which the Lion Kingdom gains new people.

## Faith

Faith replaces Lore as a primary resource for Kingdoms. For unlocking the knowledge tree, it functions almost identically; the main difference is that it is produced by very different units, making your strategy for producing it very different from most Viking Clans. The three "blessings of the gods" for Viking Clans are replaced, instead, by 3 "Vows" which give rather different effects, and a Knowledge victory is similarly possible by unlocking 4 Vows.

The Lion Kingdom can also choose to freely toggle between using Kröwns to hire their troops, like most clans, to instead using Faith. This gives them a lot of economic flexibility.

## Jobs

Kingdoms reskin and rename all of the specialist jobs available to citizens.

### Civilian

Many of the civilian roles function similarly to prior clans, having only slight stat changes, and a reskin.

* Subjects replace the Villager, but produce Faith rather than Food. They also can have multiple subjects assigned to build a building, speeding up the process. Subjects also heal when working the same zone as your Town Hall equivalent, the Chapel which you can evolve into a Cathedral for more population space and expands house population space or a Citadel for maximum warband increase and capacity from other camps.
* Pathfinders replace the Scout, but are otherwise identical. The same is true with the Pathfinder Pavilion being a reskin of the Scout Camp. Note that there is an unusual rule here: the Pathfinder Pavilion seems to be exempt to the Kingdom-driven livability limits, and works exactly like a Viking Clan building, providing only two (or 3 with the upgrade) job slots, and requiring a Chapel (Town Hall equivalent) upgrade to be upgraded.
* Peasants replace the food gathering capability of the Villager, but require an actual building to assume the job. Like a Villager, they provide meager yields, which become quite bad during the winter. If their Foraging Post is upgraded to a Farmstead, they remain identified as "Peasants", but have considerably better, Farmer-like yields.
* Deerstalker are nearly identical to Hunters, given by upgrading a Foraging Post to a Venery.
* Anglers are nearly identical to Fishermen, given by upgrading a Foraging Post to a Fishery.
* Lumberjacks are nearly identical to Woodcutters.
* Miners don't even have a rename/reskin.
* Monks at first glance, are a bit like Menders, but have a far greater Faith output, rivaling Loremasters, which Kingdoms cannot hire (Carved Stones and their equivalents are not workable for Kingdoms). Like Menders, Monks provide healing. One of the upgrades for their Monastery building, the Reliquary, allows Monks assigned there to forge a relic. The other upgrade, the Abbey, serves as an equivalent of the Altar of Kings, providing the same benefits, unlocking the Fame Victory, and also allowing Monks assigned there to generate Fame.
* Merchants have a reskin, but otherwise are identical. The same is true with their upgraded buildings; the Retail Outlet is a reskinned Marketplace and the Fairground is a reskinned Trading Post.
* Seafarers replace Sailors, and work somewhat differently in practice; they're unable to generate Lore or Fame as they do for Viking Clans, but one of their upgraded buildings, the Seaport, allows them to generate Food, Wood, or even Stone and Iron as a secondary resource, which prevents the clan from being starved of these resources under duress. Their other upgraded building, the Merchant Port, enables Great Trade Routes and the Trade Victory, as well as providing a +20% bonus to any Seafarers in the zone.
* Taverners are merely a reskin of Brewers, but their building itself provides major livability bonuses, and will be commonly built for these, even without anyone working it.
* Smiths share the same name/skin, but ironically work completely differently for Kingdoms — they forge neither tools nor relics. They're assigned to a Smithy, which costs 5 Iron to build (a Dwarven Operative can also be assigned to this building, instead). A smithy provides a production bonus to the zone, doesn't cost a unit of livability to have someone work it, and with the Steelwork lore, gives all units with a training camp in that zone a stacking defensive bonus.

### Military

The Kingdoms replace the 3 core combat units with something rather different. Note that the Lion Clan can choose to toggle between Faith and Kröwns as a hiring currency for most units, giving them a very flexible economy.

* The Sentry has no real analogue amongst Viking Clans. It's like a Warrior, but with half the cost, and half the attack power. Because Subjects automatically heal on your initial zone, and produce enough Faith to easily hire Sentries, it's fairly easy for the Lion Kingdom to field the cost to hire them, use them to clear nearby zones, and then eat the financial loss of turning them back to Subjects.
* The Fantassin is a clear analog for the Shield Bearer, having very similar abilities and strengths.
* The Champion is very different from the Warrior; it attacks much more slowly, but each strike will (if any suitable victim is nearby) hit two victims rather than one, with full force.
* The Archer fits the same role as the Axe Thrower or Tracker; a long-range attacker with decent, single-target damage.
* Only hirable after earning 500 Fame, the Paladin is a close analogue to the Warrior, but has slightly better health, and much better defense.

The Lion Kingdom cannot build Defense Towers, instead building Forts. These have no attack, but allow them to hire the odd-but-powerful Lord unit, or, if they take the Guardian path, the even stronger Leude unit.

The Warchief equivalent of the Lion Kingdom is Hildegard, a powerful knight armed with mace and shield. Her stats somewhat resemble the Shield Maiden in terms of being biased towards a higher defense stat, than attack.

### Tools

Whilst the Lion Kingdom eliminates the concept of forging and improving civilian tools, this concept is retained for miliary units, with a twist: There are four upgrades available. Each type of upgraded camp (associated with a particular unit type) can forge one of these four, permanently choosing that upgrade for that unit type. However, they can freely pick any of the four.

* Fury: Rolls a chance that on hit, a burst of AoE damage will be dealt around the target
* Hauberk: Rolls a chance to cause a unit that strikes this unit, to receive some of the damage it inflicted.
* Rearguard: Causes this unit, and nearby units, to have a temporary defense boost (for 2 seconds) when hit.
* Obstruction: Causes this unit to have a chance to slow enemy units (for 3 seconds) upon hitting them.