Utgård is a land of bitter winters and cool summers. It was once Jotunheim, the home of giants. But with the coming of man, their population has dwindled. After man ventured to the icy lands of Jotunheim, the giants of Jotun discovered the humans to be resourceful allies. With the Awakening God, all grudges have been cast aside and men and giants fight side by side. The alliance with the humans has estranged the Gygjas and their Vaetti servants, who no longer aid the giants. Instead, human seeresses have become influential. In the heart of Utgård lies the magical Well of Urd where the Norns gather and divine the future of the world. The giants of Utgård are immensely strong and resilient. They are born in the cold and do not suffer from cold climates. The people of Utgård prefer to live in cool provinces.

From Dominions 5 Manual note on the inspiration for Vanheim, Helheim, Niefelheim, Jotunheim, Midgård, Vaettiheim, and Utgård:

These are all nations sprung from old Norse myth. The Poetic Edda and some later tales, combined with general conceptions of Iron Age Scandinavia, are the main sources. Vanir, Aesir and Giants are ancient antagonists in these myths. The Aesir, being perceived as gods, have been made pretenders in Dominions. Not that Vanir weren't, but they seem less so than the Aesir in most instances. As with most nations of supernatural origin, it seems fitting that their magic fades with each passing age as humans become more and more numerous. Niefelheim, Jotunheim, and Utgård are part of the history of a single nation through the ages.

The witches and wolf-sorcerors of Utgård province-wide access to and Magic at every Laboratory Fort, although they have the low magic skills typical of the Late Age.

Utgård has a high hit point, high damage, capital-only sacred, but no out-of-capital sacred troops. This gives some incentive to have a bless focused on the early game if any blessing is desired. Sacred Jotun Jarl leaders lead troops and can even be geared up, but unlike many nations Utgård recruited mages are not sacred. Instead, Utgård can win fights using their numerous mages. Utgård witches can mass Communion Slave to their Norna Communion Master to power combat magic, and Utgård can bring to bear powerful spells fueled by excellent blood hunters like the Jotun Skratti, which can transform into a blood sniffing werewolf (the werewolf loses one point of but gains blood searcher).

On top of having good access to blood hunting, Utgård national spells include the Illwinter, which causes to spread around the world, bringing unrest and a new Niefel Giant recruitment option. Their special and Conjuration spells give their armies the flexibility to add animal and undead forces to shore up their numbers.

If a Pretender can manage the giant-sized appetite and upkeep of their forces, Utgård will be a force for their lesser neighbors to fear.

Being the descendants of Frost Giants, Utgård has a national preference for +1 Cold. Their longdead reanimation will mix in longdead Giant with normal undead.

Races	Troops	Magic	Priests	Buildings
Frost Giants: snow-move Cold Resistance (15) Shock Vulnerable (5) Unit Size 4 Humans and Hags: Normal Baseline Statistics	Giant Heavy Infantry Sacred Giant Berserkers Boulder-Throwing Siege Giants Human Support/Chaff	Blood 2 (uncommon 3) Astral 2 (uncommon 3, Rare 4) Death 2 (uncommon 3, Rare 4) Nature 1 (uncommon 2, Rare 3) Water 1 (uncommon 2) 25% chance to get level 3 for Death, Astral and Blood. 2.5% for 3 Nature. Water maxes at 2. Heroes: 4, 3, 4, 4, 4 Summoned Dwarf: 43: 2, or 2, or 2, or 2	One 2 Commander Best Leadership Commander is 1	Giant Fortresses hold extra food

Utgard's cold preference clearly shows in their giant troop lineup. Most recruitable big units come with a natural cold resistance and snow move, which gives a sizeable strategic advantage while fighting in cold. Worth noting is also the inherent weakness to shock for all giant troops. While utgard's mages and communions can mitigate this weakness with Elemental Fortitude, the lack of significant earth and air magic leaves troops vulnerable.

Their troops break down into two branches. On one hand,Utgard has access to hard-hitting, durable size 4 giants. On the other hand, there are the humans, who offer a more attack density, though are not as good as the Vaetti in the past ages. Both branches complement each other and in general give the best result when combined, as the giants can deliver damage even through tough protection, while the humans protect their shins. However, humans lack snow move or cold protection. This means that humans can significantly slow down Utgard's armies, at least in friendly territory.

The priests are only mediocre, as Utgard has no access to 3 priests and, while not expensive they come without any special properties, although they are quite durable compared to human priests. Similarly, their commanders do not stand out, as the highest leadership commanders only have 80. Notable though is the Jotun Jarl and Gode for being an 1 Priest as well as a decent leader, enabling him to lead smaller groups of sacred units early on.

Utgard's mages are more focused on sorcery paths, gaining good access to Death, Nature and Blood Magic, and some Astral, while the Jotun Skratti adds strong water magic. Skrattir is also the star unit when it comes to the commanders of Jotunheim, as they perform very well in different roles. They are shapeshifters and gain 10% regeneration in werewolf form, which makes them very good thugs with some equipment. This ability also enables turbo communions, which is one of the strong suits of Utgard, especially with how cheap Seithkona are.

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Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Scout 25 4 1	Stealthy(50) Mountain Survival Forest Survival	Good for foreign recruitment and while you have palisades and are building up to forts, they have niche strategic uses for sieging vs assassins but normally they are only made in provinces that have them natively.
	Herse 40 22 1		Cheap 60ld Commander
	Gode 45 11 1	1 sacred	Huamn priest in armour. Can lead Garmhirding expantion parties.
	Jotun Scout 55 7 1	sacred Stealthy(40) mountain survival forest survival snow-move resist cold(15) shock vulnerability(5)	replaced by normal scout as the nation's scout. What can't be taken away from him is that fact he is a stealthy Raider thug. Give him some blessed water to activate his blessings along with other gear, and he will steal provinces from enemy PD.
	Jotun Herse 75 41 1	sacred snow-move resist cold(15) shock vulnerability(5)	The giant version of the Herse. Less likely to die from ranged attacks and can benefit from always active blesses like Inspirational.
	Seithkona 85 1 2	111 11 supply bonus(10) Fortune Teller(5%) female	Your research monkeys and make up most of your communions. Don’t cast high-level rituals but Astral, Death, and Nature are Strong when in a communion. Your going to have a lot of Seithkona, so dumping is extra bless points. Once you get enough Skratti, you can have Seithkona be empowered by the turbo communion.
	Jotun Gode 110 19 2	2 sacred snow-move Forest Survival resist cold(15) shock vulnerability(5)	Simple, fairly priced H2 priest, some leadership capabilities. Can be used to lead medium sized parties of Sacreds or blast-up undead spam
	Jotun Jarl 130 41 2	1 sacred snow-move resist cold(15) shock vulnerability(5)	Decent Priest commander with 80ld.
	Norna 210 1 4 Capital Only	2211100% 10% 11 supply bonus(10) Death Curse spirit sight Fortune Teller(20%) female	She is one of your ritual and communion masters. Can be a 332 or get 1 in blood. They bring in big astral, Death, and nature to the battlefield. the 1 in Blood is useful as she has crosspath spells with the other magics she knows.
	Jotun Skratti 220 3 4	121100% snow-move Forest Survival resist cold(15) shock vulnerability(5) Shapechanger (Jotun Werewolf and Jotun Wolf)	The Star of Utgård commander lineup. Skratti are shapeshifters and gain 10% regeneration in werewolf form, which enables them to be good thugs with only minor investment on items. Also, they give you reliable access to 2 and 3 and the 1 randoms can be equipped with a Thistle Mace to cast Foul Vapors once you have access to Serpents Blessing or Purifying blood. On top of that they are extremely good communion slaves for turbo communions. with the baseline 10% in ww form + a master casting Personal Regeneration + potentially a shroud (if you happen to have a regen bless) can easily bring the skratti up to 30% regeneration. This way 4 Skratti can support an unholy amount of Seithkona spamming skeletons and casting other spells for an infinite amount of time. If you feel that´s still not enough you can add in Soul Vortex and put some trolls, or sacred giants(if you have regen bless) on guard commander around the skratti.

Utgård is a giant nation which fields giants with extreme cold resistance at the price of suffering susceptible to shock. The sole recruitable Sacred Troop, Garmhirding is a Berserker with high damage that can be the platform for a variety of combat blessings. These sacred troops can be supported by Jotun Javelinist and other excellent, if expensive, fortress recruited troops to expand with minimal losses against independent provinces. As size 4 giants, getting surrounded by high damage troops or hit by Lightning Bolt are the main dangers to early expansion forces, and like any giant nation the supply needs and growing upkeep of expansion armies can slow down what would otherwise be an unstoppable early advantage.

The addition to Humans in the LA, let you build cheaper, more reliable army chaff, and if mixed with giants, reduce the penalty that enemy harassment inflicts.

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Huskarl 10 12 9		light Human chaff that pepper the rare lightly armour enemy with javelins. Axes deal more damages while Spears repel and ignore the repel of shorter weapons. Get better on mass if you add fire to your communions. Overall has a poor match-up with most other late-age units and indies, the best use is being the cheapest shinguards for your giants.
	Huskarl 10 12 9
	Human Godihuskarl 10 20 9		Medium Human Chaff. Wear more armour than Huskarls for 10 more but have no javelins. Better at line holding and do slightly better against crossbows.
	Human Godihuskarl 10 20 9
	Human Hirdman 13 22 16		More elite version of the Human Godihuskarl. Holds the line better with their higher defense Skill. Make for better giant shin guards
	Jotun Bondi 20 15 11	snow-move resist cold(15) shock vulnerability(5)	Cheap hard-hitting frontline option, with mediocre protection and combat skills
	Jotun Javelinist 30 17 17	snow-move resist cold(15) shock vulnerability(5)	Good unit for early expansion and decent throughout the game. Their high damage Javelins are capable of thinning out the enemy frontline before the melee engagement. Besides that, they are similar to the Jotun Bondi with slightly better stats
	Jotun Spearman 30 39 17	snow-move resist cold(15) shock vulnerability(5)	good line holders with decently high protection, Often enough to only take a minor chips or no damage from most human chaff of the age. but with fairly high resource costs and mediocre combat skills Spearmen better repel chance due to their length, who can still put out some damage. Axeman is similar to the spearman but sacrificing the spear repel for higher damage with their axe, with human armor being usually high enough in the late age for this to not be overkill.
	Jotun Axeman 30 39 17	snow-move resist cold(15) shock vulnerability(5)
	Jotun Hurler 30 11 17	snow-move resist cold(15) shock vulnerability(5) siege bonus(5)	If they hit with their stones they likely get a kill, but the range is fairly low and they only have two shots. After this, they can somewhat hold their own in melee but are strictly worse than other options for this purpose with only 6 Defence Skill and no shield, which also makes them vulnerable to opposing missile fire. The main use is as siege chaff, where they truly shine.
	Jotun Huskarl 35 21 20	snow-move resist cold(15) shock vulnerability(5) bodyguard(1)	The cheapest of the Giant bodyguards, with slightly better stats than the linemen. They are sum-what spamable but their light armour resigned them to protecting mages.
	Godihuskarl 40 31 24	snow-move resist cold(15) shock vulnerability(5) bodyguard(1)	The more expensive Huskarl has a Spear for Repels and a javelin. Better at bodyguard work since assassins don't expect ranged attacks.
	Jotun Hirdman 50 41 31	snow-move resist cold(15) shock vulnerability(5) bodyguard(1)	Expensive, but have good stats. If you have the gold you can make a small and elite giant army that is easy to point buff.
	Garmhirding 55 9 28 Capital Only	sacred snow-move Forest Survival resist cold(15) shock vulnerability(5) berserker(2)	The werewolf finally drained out of them leaving them an angry giant with big axes. In the Crossbow age, they serve the role of armor destroyers in addition to gaining a blessing. Relatively Cheap giving its HP and single model killing power. Need to be used as specialists as they don't do well against high defense skills or with good attack density enemies that can hit hard back.

This section is the longer version of the 'Magic Access' column in National Features. List which paths the nation has access to, what level in each path and the maximum level attainable with common boosters. Avoid discussing in too much depth as much of the information is already covered in MelficeBelmont's Boosting and Access Guide. The length of this section will vary greatly depending on the nation, and does not have to be formatted in the same way as the example below. Some explanation may be required for more complicated boosting methods (e.g. commanderifying a unit with hidden paths). What exactly these paths can be used for can largely be explained in later sections, but pointing out good crosspaths works well in this section too. Mention communion access if applicable.

Combat

Niefelheim does not have any national combat spells.

Rituals

Sloth of Bears: Conj3 8 2 ( Great Bearx10+) Large balls of HP for nature gems and you already have plenty of that.

Summon Glosos Conj 3 13 2 ( Glosox9). Trampling sacred poisonous stealthy boars with a heat aura. Trampling can circumvent some very high prot values like from Ulm, plus heat aura can help expand into Hot nations that thought they could counter with scales.
A Skratti can lead some in a small stealth raider squad.

Awaken Jotun Draugar: Conj4 15 2 ( Jotun Draugx3) summon undead giants with fear and chill aura and hit harder when at half heath. Situational pick over summoning 5 Wights, with Jotun Draug better at the grind game.

Brood of Garm: Conj4 10 2 ( Jotun Wolfx5) Damage Dealing Wolfs with fear. Useful to supplement your numbers during an early war.

Summon Dwarf of the Four Directions: Conj8 62 43. Summon Dwarf of the Four Directions. Shared between the Jotun and Vanir nations. Summon one of the four Dwarf smiths. You would have to get a pretender to cast it, but you get a strong 432200% caster and forger for your troubles at the cost (or benefit) of some hurricanes ravaging the world. You’re unlikely to summon all four, but having them all missing benefits only the Vanir line the most.

Seith Curse: Thaum5 3 11.Inflict a Curse on a target and the caster. Situational but is a way to better deal with a thug by increasing its chances to pile up affliction.

Illwinter: Blood6 120 53. Cheap for what a blood global. Something to end a game with. Cause the world grows colder, increases unrest slowly, and enemies get raided by Niefel Giants and Jotun Wolfes.

Discuss the top few generic spells that most increase a nation's combat power or synergize with national strategies. These will generally be early-to-mid game spells since individual spells matter much more during those periods of the game. Some examples are Foul Vapors for MA C'tis, Horde of Skeletons + Sabbath Master/Sabbath Slave for the Niefelheim line of nations, Mother Oak for the Pangaeas, Wailing Winds access, etc. For broader advice on magic use, link to Not-Lola's Basic Magic Use Guide.

This is also a good place to point out notable magic weaknesses, such as a lack of nature access making a nation vulnerable to Foul Vapors.

Combat

Shadow Blast

Ritual Magic

List and describe any unique national items or discounts in this section, discuss and compare with similar generic items. Also discuss generic items that are useful and accessible for the nation. These may include:

• Thug gear (if the nation has good thugs)
• Research boosters (particularly if the nation needs help researching or is already very good at researching)
• Other items that synergize with the nation (e.g. Dwarven Hammers for MA Ulm)

This is probably the most difficult section to get consensus for. Describe how strong the nation is during expansion, the early, mid and late game, and what makes it strong/weak at each of those points. This should give readers an idea of where the weaknesses of a nation lie (if they have not been shown already) and when to take advantage of a nation's strengths.

List some example expansion strategies here. If a strong bless or pretender is required then leave the specifics for the pretender section.

List some example pretender builds. Try to use the following format to keep authorship and pretender design rationale clear.

Dominions 5 Nation Intro - LA Utgard by Perun (2021)

Nations
Early Ages	Arcoscephale • Ermor • Ulm • Marverni • Sauromatia • T'ien Ch'i • Machaka • Mictlan • Abysia • Caelum • C'tis • Pangaea • Agartha • Tir na n'Og • Fomoria • Vanheim • Helheim • Niefelheim • Rus • Kailasa • Lanka • Yomi • Hinnom • Ur • Berytos • Xibalba • Mekone • Ubar • Atlantis • R'lyeh • Pelagia • Oceania • Therodos
Middle Ages	Arcoscephale • Ermor • Sceleria • Pythium • Man • Eriu • Ulm • Marignon • Mictlan • T'ien Ch'i • Machaka • Agartha • Abysia • Caelum • C'tis • Pangaea • Asphodel • Vanheim • Jotunheim • Vanarus • Bandar Log • Shinuyama • Ashdod • Uruk • Nazca • Xibalba • Phlegra • Phaeacia • Ind • Na'ba • Atlantis • R'lyeh • Pelagia • Oceania • Ys
Late Ages	Arcoscephale • Pythium • Lemuria • Man • Ulm • Marignon • Mictlan • T'ien Ch'i • Jomon • Agartha • Abysia • Caelum • C'tis • Pangaea • Midgård • Utgård • Bogarus • Patala • Gath • Ragha • Xibalba • Phlegra • Vaettiheim • Atlantis • R'lyeh • Erytheia