Holmgard

Build a Viking village on a growing hex island and hold the shore against goblins, torchbearers and trolls, one round at a time.

The goblins are coming. You can see their boats.

Holmgard is a small tactical strategy game about a Viking village on a hex-tile island. Every round the sea brings another wave of raiders. You get a few calm seconds to build and position your squads, then you fight them on the beach, and afterwards you raise new land out of the sea. Every tile you add gives you more room to build, and more coastline for the goblins to land on.

Holmgard comes from Old Norse: a holm is a small island, a garðr an enclosed stronghold. An island fort, which is exactly what you are building.

▶ Play it right here in your browser, or download it for Windows or Linux.

How a round works

⚒ Preparation. A hammer at the top of the screen fills up while the goblin boats sail in. Their landing spots are marked in red, and badges above each spot show exactly who is on board: warriors, archers, shield goblins, torchbearers, or a troll. Build, repair, heal your squads and move them into position before the hammer is full.

⚔ Combat. The boats hit the beach and the raiders pour out. Select your squads and send them where they are needed. Squads and watchtowers pick the most dangerous goblin in range on their own. Protect the Village Hall: if it falls, the island falls with it.

🗺 Expansion. You survived. Now pick where your next land tiles go: out of the sea to grow the island, or on top of your own land to raise hills and plateaus.

Know your enemy

• Goblin warriors charge whatever is closest.
• Goblin archers pick your squads off from a distance.
• Torchbearers ignore your squads and run for your buildings with a burning torch. A burning building keeps losing health, even after the fight. Move a squad next to it to put the fire out.
• Shield goblins block arrows from the front. Hit them with your warriors, or shoot them from the side.
• Trolls can show up from round 6: slow, huge, and alone in their own boat. They take a lot of hits and smash fences and gates in a few blows.

Build your village

Every building has to fit the land. A Lumber Camp needs forest nearby, a Quarry needs rocks or a mountain, and a Farm needs flat ground. Your income at the end of each round depends on the terrain around each building, so where you build matters as much as what you build.

• Lumber Camp, Quarry, Farm: wood, stone and food, paid out after every round you survive
• Watchtower: shoots arrows at raiders in range
• Barracks: trains new warrior or archer squads over two rounds
• Blacksmith: sells upgrades for your squads
• Village Hall: the heart of the island, and the one building you can't lose

Arm your squads

Build a Blacksmith and buy upgrades for your whole army: sharper axes (your warriors carry a double axe and hit harder), shields (they take less damage) and fire arrows (your archers' arrows set goblins on fire). While your Blacksmith stands, every squad gets the upgrades it can use, including squads you train later, and you can see them at a glance on the badges above a selected squad.

Wall it in

Drag a fence along the tiles to close off a beach or a gap between mountains. Goblins can't walk through a fence, so they have to stop and break it down. That buys your squads time. Put a gate in the middle of a fence line: your own squads walk straight through it, and the raiders still have to smash it.

Raise new land

After each victory you get a stack of new tiles, and you can see which terrain comes next. Place a tile on the water and it bursts up out of the sea. Place it on your own island and it stacks on top: up to three height levels. Squads climb one level at a time, so a cliff of two levels is a wall. Archers and watchtowers on high ground shoot one tile further, and a tall ridge blocks shots behind it. The coast always stays low, so the goblins can still land.

Also on the island

• Reward cards: defeated goblins sometimes drop cards: a free building, a free squad, or a bundle of resources. Save up to five and use them when you need them.
• Bigger raids: every fifth round brings an extra boat and bigger crews
• Heal, repair and train with the buttons that appear right below a selected squad or building
• A guided tutorial that walks you through a full round, including the Blacksmith, fire and stacking tiles
• Save and load between fights (in the browser version your saves stay in that browser)

Controls

Move camera	W A S D
Zoom	Mouse wheel
Rotate camera	Q / E
Select squad or building	Left click
Move selected squad	Right click
Build	Choose a card at the bottom, then click a tile
Build a fence	Choose Fence, then click and drag over the tiles
Pause / Cancel	Esc

Status

Holmgard is in active development. Version 0.2 adds new enemies (torchbearers, shield goblins and trolls), the Blacksmith and its upgrades, three height levels for your island, and a version you can play in the browser. The balance is still changing, and there is a lot more on the list. Feedback is very welcome: leave a comment below and tell me what worked for you, what didn't, and how far you got.

Credits

Art and assets: Synty Studios POLYGON packs, Kevin Iglesias animations, the "Simple Fantasy UI" pack, the Metamorphous font (SIL Open Font License), and some sounds from Nathan Gibson.