Scenarios from the Community: The Viking Age

[La Fayette]

Decisive victory in 967AD (35 objectives conquered).
This scenario, created by Harlan Thompson, is very enjoyable to play IMO. Many new units and a modified techtree require some thinking, but the special fun is due to the fact that the Vikings are strong in attack, but very weak in defence (= no Viking unit has a defence factor higher than 1 ).

I give some details about my strategical choices and my mistakes in the next post.

Attention please: don't read the next post if you intend to play this scenario soon

[La Fayette]

SPOILER POST
(don't read if you intend to play 'The Viking Age' soon).

1) Early game:

Canute, leader of the Vikings, is a Despot and the Vikings are so greedy that most cities are starving.
Luckily the Vikings are researching Monarchy,... but 7000 beakers are required, which means more than 300 turns at the current rate of research .

I made 3 strategical choices:
- Concentrate on building caravans rather than military units (I guess that one would be everyone's choice, given the circumstances ).
- Deliver ALL caravans in Constantinople (the city is very far away from Scandinavia , but Viking ships are able to move quickly along the rivers in Eastern Europe).
- Conquer the 'British Isles' (in order to get the intercontinental bonus later on)

2) Midgame:

I managed to switch to Monarchy 2 turns before my weakest city would have begun losing size.

2 strategical choices:
- Send 7-8 caravans to Trondheim (in order to finish building 'Magellan', in fact the Viking equivalent 'Leif Eriksson's Voyage')
- Concentrate conquest on coastal cities (the strong land unit, called 'Bezerkr' - equivalent to the Norwegian 'Berserker', I suppose - is costly and killed after attacking).

3) Late game:

I had a double shipchain between London and Constantinople, allowing 4 deliveries/turn (best caravan = Gold demanded = 1512g ), and was researching Espionage.

With spies and lots of gold, it went quickly .

4) My main mistake:

A detail, but costly: I failed to notice that the Karv, the bigger ship I used for transportation of my caravans, had 2 HP and was in fact about as strong in attack as the Drakkars.
(this is due to the fact that I read the Readme file as usual, and the Drakkars also have 2HP, alas only in the Readme file, not in the game )

[Scouse Gits]

Hail LaFayette - King of the Scenarios!

Well done, again, Stu

[Bloody Monk]

La Fayette,

I agree with Stu, King of Scenarios!!

I love reading your exploits in these scens. Of all the folk who post here, my sense of you is that you have the most genuine interest and curiosity about discovering new and varied ways to enjoy our favorite game.

Thanks for sharing and 'keep on civing'.

Monk

[La Fayette]

blushing like a new bride (which seems very far away, I must say )