The Vanishing Vikings

[C Chulainn]

The last time I was talking seriously here I was working on a scenario based on Irish history (it's taken a year to become a "chieftain"...) and so I want the Vikings to be basically inactive until quite late on - about turn 765. I did this by giving them a Size 0 city on a glacier on an impossible to find island, so they couldn't do anything. Then I used the events editor to create Viking units on the Irish mainland. Trouble is, the moment they are meant to appear, instead of doing so the viking civilisation vanishes! Could it be because some are settlers and use up food, even though I assign them to no city? Or is there a time limit on how long a Civ can last without growing before the AI just kills it off? Something is going wrong, anyway...

[Michael Daumen]

You could give the vikings an immobile settler unit and stick it in the corner of the map where no one should go. Then when the units start coming they will be alright. I would make the Viking units die after attacking unless you want them to take cities over (if they do get a city however, you could knock them out of the game be retaking it).

[Captain Nemo]

You can also give them one city, located somewhere on the map with an indestructible, unbuildable, immobile defense unit so the city can't be taken... Don't give them any technology required to build units until you give them a technology by event "Viking Raids" that allows them to build ships, warriors etc... They will remain dormant building city improvements for the entire game until you choose to activate them... I use a similar approach with the Americans in Red Front.

[C Chulainn]

Both good suggestions - I'll try the settler one. BTW, I do want them to take cities, and found their own as well.

[C Chulainn]

Failure.
I tried putting the settlers on a single square mountain island, and later in the game changing the terrain so they could build a city shortly before the Viking raids begin. As soon as turn 2 starts they all commit suicide and the message appears "... destroyed by Barbarians" (the one you get when settlers die without founding any cities) and a new Civ starts. I need some other solution altogether.

[Sten Sture]

Try using a hill or tundra square instead of a mtn or glacier. A size one city requires two food to stay alive, with ocean providing one food, you will need one additional food in the city center to keep it from evaporating.

[C Chulainn]

The problem here is that I don't want other Civs contacting them, trading techs, allying with them and thereby integrating them into "mainstream Irish culture" before they arrive as invaders. To do that I'll need to isolate them or prevent them ever getting any techs that could be traded by stopping them founding cities at all.