$34.99Ymir A civilization that runs itself
Grow a pigman society from stone tools to the post-iron age, where your economy, cities and real-time battles all connect.
Is Ymir worth it?
Ymir is worth it if…
- you want a strategy game with real depth, where every system touches every other
- you enjoy long multiplayer games where empires rise and alliances shift over weeks
- you like city builders that trust you to figure things out on your own
- you prefer games shaped by one stubborn vision over polished blockbusters
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From flint tools to a post-iron age empire
You start with a tribe of hunter-gatherer pigmen and a long road ahead. Research runs through hundreds of technologies, from knapping flint to metallurgy, coal production and beyond the iron age. Ideas do not appear on demand: they need catalysts, like a water shortage before anyone thinks of digging a well. That makes technology itself a resource, one you can trade with other players. Progress is slow and earned, and reaching a new age after hours of building feels like it should.
An economy that runs itself
You never directly control your population. Pigmen breed, age, work and buy things according to the simulation, divided into social classes with their own incomes and purchasing power. Prices move with supply, demand, rarity and production costs, and even your own building materials are bought at market prices, paying the producers. The catch: producing too much of something can hurt as much as producing too little. Handing out a new resource can destabilize your economy if you are careless. It is a simulator, not a set of separate rules, and it is frustratingly challenging on purpose.
Battles fought in your streets
Battles are not instant and not tucked away in a separate screen: they happen in your cities, in real time. You shape the ground first, raising walls, towers, gates and battlements, and using terrain tools to build on cliffs and hilltops. Water matters: troops cross it on slow, vulnerable rafts, so you can dig canals around a fort, guard your bridges, or put a citadel on a river island. The strategic tool lets you draw defensive zones and set where troops start and how they behave, so your cities can defend themselves even while you are offline. Reinforcements arrive mid-battle, and any number of teams can pile in at once.
A city builder with teeth
If you like founding settlements and watching them grow, there is a full city builder here, and it does not hold your hand. You place work buildings, from miners and farmers to teachers and philosophers, and each job has its own wealth and needs. Every world tile is a unique procedurally generated isometric region to explore, settle and build on, with resources that depend on climate, relief and vegetation. Since no region has everything, the seven biomes push you toward trading with other players, through treaties covering passage, taxes and trade routes. Your city can look as good as you are willing to spend on it.
Can you play Ymir solo?
Can you play Ymir solo?
Yes, there is a solo mode with a faster game speed, and barbarian attacks keep it lively. But the game says it plainly: the main focus is multiplayer, and solo is best treated as a place to learn the mechanics before joining a server.
How long does a game last?
It depends on the mode. Real-time games with friends can be paused and continued over several sessions. Persistent servers run around the clock, actions take much longer, and a single game can last weeks, with your civilization growing even while you sleep.
What is the difference between the world map and the regional view?
The game runs on two interfaces. The world map is where you explore, claim territory and deal with other civilizations. Each tile on it opens into a unique procedurally generated isometric region, where you settle, build and manage a city down to its individual buildings and defenses.
Is the game finished?
No, and the developer says so honestly. Ymir is a one-man project that is expected to remain an experimental work in progress, slower and rougher than a finished product. The advice is to buy it only if it looks worth playing now, not for what it might become. In exchange there are no pay-to-win elements and never will be.
