Norse

Differences
The Norse is the third faction in Age of Mythology. The Norse are different from the other factions in many ways. The greatest of these differences is the way they build. Unlike the other factions their villagers can build only farms. All other buildings are built by infantry units.

They also get favour in an entirely different way. They don't pray like the Greeks or build some buildings like the Atlanteans and Egyptians, they have to fight for it. Literally, they gain favour for killing enemy units. Alternatively you can get hersir heroes who automatically generate favour slowly.

Their drop-off sites are also different, in a good way. They deposit all their resources into mobile drop-off sites known as ox carts. Ox carts can be trained from the town center and moved wherever you wish. Ox carts also research all economic upgrades.

Another economic difference is their villagers. They have two kinds, regular and dwarves. Dwarves gather gold faster than villagers but gather wood and food slower. They are also much better in a fight. Dwarves cost gold instead of food, which makes them more expensive (gold is worth more than food), especially since they cost more gold than villagers cost food.

The Norse is the only faction that doesn't have any archer units. They have ranged infantry instead. This can be both a blessing and a curse. They are resistant to counter-archers, but a smart opponent will know to only get counter-infantry and cavalry. This means that they will have fewer types of units to worry about getting. The Norse train all their classical age units from the longhouse.

Gods
The Norse major gods are Thor, Odin, and Loki. Thor starts with dwarves instead of regular villagers, and can buy more of them for a lower price. Thor also makes dwarves gather food and wood faster, about the same speed as regular villagers. He also gets a dwarven armoury which can be build in the archaic age and grants cheaper upgrades. It also has more upgrades. Thor can get the minor gods Forseti or Freyja, Bragi or Skadi, and Baldr or Tyr.

Odin causes human soldiers to regenerate slowly, gets free flying scouts, his hill forts have more HP, and his villagers hunt faster. The minor gods Odin gets are Freyja or Heimdall, Njord or Skadi, and Baldr or Tyr.

Loki's hersir heroes spawn myth units periodically when fighting for free. They can spawn any myth unit from the current or lower age level, even ones you couldn't usually get from your temple. Myth units also cost less favour to train normally. His ox carts are cheaper and faster but weaker. He also builds units from his longhouses faster. The minor gods Loki can get are Forseti or Heimdall, Bragi or Njord, and Hel or Tyr.

Soldiers
The human units the Norse can get are the ulfsark (your starting scout/builder, and your counter-cavalry. Can be trained from the town center or longhouse. They play the same role as the hoplite and murmillo), throwing axemen (your ranged counter-infantry infantry. They are a unique unit with no true factional equivalent. It can be built from the longhouse), the raiding cavalry (their basic cavalry unit, can be built from the longhouse), huskarl (a counter-archer infantry with extremely high pierce armour. It can be built from the hill fort), and the jarl (a cavalry unit good against myth units. It can be trained from the hill fort).

The siege weapons are the battering ram (melee siege weapon from the hill fort) and the ballista (extremely long range siege weapon that is almost as useful against units as against buildings).

in general the Norse's units have extremely high attack but low armour and health. The ulfsark and hersir hero both gain damage as you advance in age (the Norse is the only faction that has two). The Norse (like the Egyptians) have only two buildings for their military, a basic longhouse and an advanced hill fort. The Norse also have an advantage because of their infatnry's construction ability. This makes it easy to build forward bases or to build on top of a settlement you destroy.