Northgard

I can't believe I keep finding RTS games in my backlog. When am I going to learn that I am inclined against RTS games. Still, I'll try to give Northgard a fair opinion, as an RTS.

The first thing to note is that it's not an entirely typical RTS. I suppose it could be considered a sort of casual or at least a slow-paced RTS. Mainly due to the fact that you can't just outright recruit units - they spawn one at a time with about a ~1 minute timer, circumstances permitting, and then you can choose who they're gonna be. Another big aspect is that the focus isn't very much on combat. In a traditional RTS, you put a few units on production, and the rest goes into defenses and your army. In Northgard, it's sort of the opposite - most of your units will have to hold your economy up, make sure you have enough food and firewood to survive (especially through the winter), and keep your people happy enough.
I can't objectively think of any reason why the high economy focus would be a good or a bad thing. I guess it's just a different kind of game and you shouldn't go in expecting Starcraft. It's more like if you start moving from Starcraft towards Age of Empires, and then keep moving past that for a while longer, you'll reach what Northgard is.

However, that's all well executed and while I don't personally enjoy the distraction from combat that much, I do enjoy the slower pace it enforces, so it's kind of neutral. However, what doesn't sit with me is the relative lack of things to do. There's not a lot of different troops or military buildings, and the economy ones aren't really some sort of puzzle. It's mostly the same each game, where you just build what you need, not what you want, and you almost always need the same stuff. Wood for building -> food for survival -> military for fighting, sprinkle in some happiness and coin for when those start to run low, and that's that. So while the premise and execution of the game was fine, I found the content lacking. That and I just generally don't enjoy RTSes.

Overall, it wasn't that bad. I would still incline towards not recommending it, but I also couldn't recommend a similar game like it. Age of Empires is the closest well-made game that comes to mind, but if you feel like playing something even more economy focused... maybe you'll like Northgard? I will admit, it's not the easiest to judge a game you're biased against, but I do feel Northgard has its non-minor flaws.