Medieval Viking Rampage

Before I get into this game description, I should mention that my real-life name (middle anyway) is Ragnar. I was raised on stories of the Vikings, and their ruthless raids which dominated coastal Europe for centuries. So, when BtS gave me an opportunity to play Ragnar Lodbrok, not to mention the powerful Berserker unit, I was thrilled to devise a strategy of play for him. Here’s what I came up with:

Key considerations: The UU is the Berserker, a powerful replacement for the Maceman. The added bonuses (gets all mace bonuses) are Amphibious (No penalty for attacking from sea or across rivers) and a 10% bonus on city attacks. This will be a massively powerful weapon if achieved early enough to never see a gun. So goal one is to achieve Civil Service and Machinery at an early date, and to have several cities with a sizeable economic and manufacturing base to produce and support a large deployed army. So the plan is to have hordes of Berserkers capturing what I want, and razing everything else to the ground during the middle ages. If possible, keep this up until victory is achieved by conquest, and if not, adopt a state property militaristic pose in the industrial era, completing the job.

Keys in achieving this will be a good REX, to maximize quality city sites, land development in the form of cottages, construction of trading posts (UB, replaces lighthouse, all naval units get Navigation 1), barracks and if possible, courthouses, libraries and markets. Another key is to build the Great Lighthouse. I will not be wonderspamming at all, but given the GLH’s power for civs which develop on the water (and we’ll be favoring coastal city sites heavily) and the fact that expansive military operations in the middle ages will be very expensive, the extra trade routes will be invaluable. If I have a chance to built it quick and late, I’ll make a run at the Oracle…other than that, resources will be spent in areas they are sure to generate returns at a high rate.

Another key is early game diplomacy. I do not wish to be any civilization’s mortal enemy…well not yet.

So the basics:
Build a sizeable, tech producing economy which can get to Maces with time to spare, and do it without making enemies. Then use Berserkers to win in a mass of medieval carnage. Let’s look at the starting setup and location:

The setup will exclude Barbarians, simply because I have more fun playing without them. I will play on a Large Terra map, with Random opponents at the Prince difficulty. I should mention I have played this strategy successfully once before, but on a small continents map at epic rather than Marathon speed. I’ve come to thinking that it’s almost a cheat to get an early peaking, aggressive neighbor at anything less than Marathon speed, so I play it almost exclusively at this point. And lo and behold, I would get Julius Caesar as my closest neighbor in this game.

The Game itself: My start location is almost entirely forest. This isn’t what I consider good for what I wish to do with that Fin trait…I’d rather have some open grassland or floodplains to work with. I am also not on the water, which I like for Nidarod. I would expose two more food resources (Corn, Grassland Cow) by moving my settler onto the hill SW of start. I would found there, on the hill, by the river. 1 W of my founding site would have been much better, as it would have garnered some rice, without losing any of the other 3. Didn’t see it until too late, and I am not one to waste production turns exploring with my settler. I got some very favorable geography for Ragnar. I decide early on that I will get one city between me and Caesar, put one in the West right on the cultural border with Madrid, and found one at the mouth of the river on which Nidarod rests. In the north is the most interesting geography – there is a one-tile isthmus connecting a peninsula which has two civs on it. (Saladin, Mansa). The mouth of the river makes a good site, and I settle behind a jungle hill, to have a spot where defense bonuses won’t be easily reduced by catapults. I also get a 3-city island to the NE. While I am not rolling in gold(1), silver(0) or gems(0), I don’t really need them if I am judicious and diligent about building/working cottages. My initial land grab goes so well that I won’t even have finished by back-filling before the time for war arrives. I succeed in building the GLH.

My dotmap gets revised when Caesar starts expansion in the N, with me settling inland to take maximum land. So the spacing S and W of Nidarod will be imperfect, but that is acceptable as a trade for pushing Caesar in another direction. The 550 BC image shows the point where I’ve got my borders established, and the internal city sites I have planned.

I get to Berserkers at 290 AD. I have just fought off a war with Caesar attacking with a smallish force of Praetorians, and me defending with a large stack of Axes. Because this was clearly coming, I deviate from one part of my strategy. I had been building a great merchant to bubble Civil Service. When it became apparent Caesar (probably wisely, if not well) was going to attack before I got there, I started building a stack of axes and researching civil service, planning to send my gm across the continent for cash to upgrade the axes when possible. In the end, I would finish off Machinery (after CS) two turns before my great merchant got me the money I’d need to turn my whole stack of Axes into Berserkers.

Caesar offered token resistance, and I razed two cities, captured two and offered him vassal status when Saladin DoWed. Saldin’s attack was a joke…a few catapults and a bunch of chariots easily held off by a single longbowman, one berserker and three spearmen on the jungle hill N of Haithabu. At this point, Mansa voluntarily becomes my vassal. I then turned my eyes to my ally, Isabella. While I like to keep friends as friends, I am guessing she’ll forgive me if I just take the one shirine city capital. And if not, well, she’s got tech parity but nothing like the army I do. So I take Madrid in an amphibious assault paired with the use of a spy to reduce city defenses. After pillaging some improvements in the surrounding area, she capitulates. The Shrine should fuel my assault on Byzantium and England. My prediction…If I can take Constantinople and London with Berserkers and Catapults, I will win by conquest before the development of Rifling. We shall have peace for the time it takes me to build the SoD.

A brief detour occurs, while I take 5 turns to bring the Arabians to Capitulation by sacking one city, and taking another. All of the East, with the exception of tiny, low producing Korea is now part of my kingdom. Time to move west, but first to build the SoD. I begin to whip berserkers off at a frenetic pace, generating a stack of about a dozen which I put on ships with a couple of catapults and head westward. Justinian proves to be the longest, most difficult conquest of the game more from sheer stubbornness than anything else. I even give him quarter for ten turns before coming back to finish him off, just because I had significant reinforcements coming, but a ways off, when his resistance stiffened. It was also while fighting Justinian that I first set out to subdue Korea, and failed. This would be the only complete failure my military would suffer in the game, razing one city and having half the invasion force killed before getting peace. Korea would be easy to finish when I turned real attention to it, but they were too tough to kill simply as an afterthought. In the end, I only captured one city before Wang Kon became a vassal.


Betty laid down quickly, after razing one and capturing two cities. The same was necessary, though under much stiffer resistance to kill off Peter. And in 1315, Peter Capitulated and I won a conquest victory, having turned every other civ into my vassal.


Strategy/execution assessment: Clearly, the strategy came off exactly as planned. A large army of Berserkers (aided a little in the end with muskets) was able to conquer the entire continent, laying waste to huge numbers of Archers, Axes, Swords, Praetorians, Maces, Chariots, Horse Archers, Crossbows and Longbows. Maces and Longbows would be the most common targets, with only the backwards Arabians trying to defend with Archers. As for execution, I am wholly convinced I could have done better had I more skill with early game expansion and with maximizing the power of the whip. All in all though, this was probably one of the best games I’ve played. If nothing else, it is a pretty clear demonstration that I can dominate the prince level with a reasonably strong leader/start location. I should probably give up on Prince level games, but I did want to write this up, and a devastating defeat would not speak well of my strategy (which is quite separate from execution).

I firmly believe this approach could generate success at Monarch or higher levels with a player skilled at early game development (I am mediocre at this). The real thing about this approach is how much fun it is. Massive frontal assaults with a powerful UU destroying everything that would be threatening if left to the Renaissance…there are worse ways to spend an afternoon. This strategy also should work better on smaller maps, and be fine at any speed up to Normal. Enjoy.

Good job Ragnar! I would not mind play against you though(just to save the civilization from those raging vikings)

I'm not sure how well this would do against a human player with the sense to whip up a crossbow army. While Berserkers flat out own Longbows, crossbows are a pain, and if they are in a hilled city, 4-1 casualties is what can be expected (from experience).

I guess I would use some navy too as it probably easier to kill those berserkers loaded in galleys...

Oh, it's certainly easier. Remember though, the galleys will be protected with Triremes, and they will outrun your navy. Trading Posts are a very strong, complimentary UB for the Berserkers. And of course, depending on topography, there may be no need to put them on galleys in the first place. Most of my troop movements in Viking games tend to be by foot (Though by a much lower ratio than with other civs).

Good. I have actualy never played as Viking ever(even though I have lived in Norway more than a year and have a last name comon over there. I always play random civilizations so next time I may give it a go. thx

It's a very fun civ to play, if you like medieval warfare and/or chaos. It can be hard to shift from developing the economy to outright military production, particularly just when that Fin trait starts to pay big dividends...so remember, if you could be making more berserkers, you probably should be making more berserkers. (but don't whip yourself into a position where you can't afford to have them rampaging the land) At least, that's the most difficult part of this approach for me.

Very nice game! Congratulations on conquering the world so quickly. Did you use siege at all?

Yes, but mostly I used espionage to disable city defenses. I never had more than 4 catapults/trebuchets in one spot, until the final destruction of Peter. Focus on turning hammers to Berserkers, and use the financial strength to target each opponent successively with a low espionage (10-20) rate on the slider.

xarthaz said:

Dude.. Ragnar is the best leader in MP

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Depends on map settings. While excellent on water maps allowing surprise assaults, they don't offer much special on pangaea: amphibious raids are easily blocked via slower triremes parking in your way, and astronomy is a long way off. A deep astro beeline can get you into trouble from land targets with such settings.

His trait set and UU do allow him to be pretty good for a lot of settings though. I rate vikings ahead of dutch for MP water maps generally, although the dutch UU can allow for some nice preemptive blockades at least.

xarthaz said:

Dude.. Ragnar is the best leader in MP

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I won't say he isn't potentially great in any kind of game that has lots of water, but many of the things that make him so dominant vs the AI can be mitigated, if not altogether countered by a clever opponent. After the medieval period, Ragnar becomes just another FIN leader (albeit with fast boats). Sure, those things (along with whatever material gains are made with Berserkers) make for a strong late game experience, but it's hardly easy or without risk to achieve late game dominance by use of melee units as a primary offensive weapon in the middle ages.

TMIT - While what you say about the potential of triremes to slow/stop an amphibious assault is true, it's usually not necessary to take a deep beeline for astronomy. Berserkers require civil service and Machinery. This puts you three techs from Astronomy, one of which (compass) can be bubbled, and calendar is something I almost always pick up early by trade (assuming I have plantation resources). Civil service gives bureacracy, which often allows a FIN leader to move the slider. And because it takes some scientific muscle to get to berserkers in the first place, Optics/Astronomy is usually not too long a process should Ragnar go into tech mode. And of course, optics alone is a good answer (not as good as astronomy) to triremes...caravels can take triremes at a 1:1 ratio.

Congratulations on your victory. You planned this out and won it like a master. If I were undertaking this strategy, though, I might have tried to wipe everyone out completely instead. If you manage to dominate militarily anyway, why share the world with other nations when you could simply exterminate them?

By the way, how well were you able to promote your military? I would imagine that you would have acquired several great generals and a great many military unit promotions for your army in such an excursion.

mariogreymist said:

I won't say he isn't potentially great in any kind of game that has lots of water, but many of the things that make him so dominant vs the AI can be mitigated, if not altogether countered by a clever opponent. After the medieval period, Ragnar becomes just another FIN leader (albeit with fast boats). Sure, those things (along with whatever material gains are made with Berserkers) make for a strong late game experience, but it's hardly easy or without risk to achieve late game dominance by use of melee units as a primary offensive weapon in the middle ages.

TMIT - While what you say about the potential of triremes to slow/stop an amphibious assault is true, it's usually not necessary to take a deep beeline for astronomy. Berserkers require civil service and Machinery. This puts you three techs from Astronomy, one of which (compass) can be bubbled, and calendar is something I almost always pick up early by trade (assuming I have plantation resources). Civil service gives bureacracy, which often allows a FIN leader to move the slider. And because it takes some scientific muscle to get to berserkers in the first place, Optics/Astronomy is usually not too long a process should Ragnar go into tech mode. And of course, optics alone is a good answer (not as good as astronomy) to triremes...caravels can take triremes at a 1:1 ratio.

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Going tech mode is the whole issue. It's not like good players are going to wait for you do do that...

Chokers, pillaging, or even just a conventional DoW can slow you down, and if you skimp on military to get first bersekers and then try to continue to astro, you're leaving a window a lot of players will notice.

Just so you know...this wouldn't be my top pick for a strategy in a multiplayer game. AIs can often be neutralized as threats (by diplomacy) early in the game much more easily than can humans. If I were playing any other leader, and I saw someone playing the vikings the way I did early in the game, I might claim to be friends, but the dagger would be poised at their back, ready to plunge at about the machinery was being researched.

Moreover, playing the vikings vs humans I would certainly be less inclined to neglect the military early (as I did here), instead prefering to keep strong, and have a shorter window for berserker madness. The berserkers can still help gain a late game edge in production (by increasing land) and science (by pillaging every cottage in my most dangerous rival's land, and razing a few big cities). I think the odds of beating a group of competent human players entirely with berserkers is extremely unlikely, assuming any map bigger than small. I imagine they could be an integral step in beating human opponents with tanks, infantry, artillery etc. (Which is the failsafe for when the berserker hordes fail to win on their own against the AI as well)

Julius_ Caesar said:

Congratulations on your victory. You planned this out and won it like a master. If I were undertaking this strategy, though, I might have tried to wipe everyone out completely instead. If you manage to dominate militarily anyway, why share the world with other nations when you could simply exterminate them?

By the way, how well were you able to promote your military? I would imagine that you would have acquired several great generals and a great many military unit promotions for your army in such an excursion.

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First, thank you very much.

To answer your first question - it's a matter of time. Even with a good fleet of fast moving galleys, moving large quantities of troops around a large map takes time. (Even on Marathon) If I had taken the time to finish off Saladin, Wang Kon, and Justinian, Elizabeth would have been advanced enough to require more modern weaponry to take out. I probably should have finished off the Romans, and certainly would have if I'd known how weak the Arabian attack would be.

To the second question: yes, all my major cities had great generals settled in them by the end. I had several units get level 6, and many level five. The standard, out of the box double promotion was City Raider1, Cover. Longbows in hill cities require this promotion scheme, even after reducing defenses with espionage or siege (unless you are willing to take 3-1 or worse casualties).

mariogreymist said:

First, thank you very much.

To answer your first question - it's a matter of time. Even with a good fleet of fast moving galleys, moving large quantities of troops around a large map takes time. (Even on Marathon) If I had taken the time to finish off Saladin, Wang Kon, and Justinian, Elizabeth would have been advanced enough to require more modern weaponry to take out. I probably should have finished off the Romans, and certainly would have if I'd known how weak the Arabian attack would be.

To the second question: yes, all my major cities had great generals settled in them by the end. I had several units get level 6, and many level five. The standard, out of the box double promotion was City Raider1, Cover. Longbows in hill cities require this promotion scheme, even after reducing defenses with espionage or siege (unless you are willing to take 3-1 or worse casualties).

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Regarding combat tactics, here's a strategy I sort of learned from the AI. Defensive units with defensive promotions can also be useful in city raids if a hill or jungle is adjacent to the enemy city in question. If you fortify your defensive units in that spot, they can be very difficult to defeat, and, if you brought catapults and offensive units with them, it would be only a matter of time until the enemy city is weak enough for you to capture it. Of course, this would only help with taking major cities, as it would obviously be a waste of time and resources to use this tactic against smaller cities. Still, it's an interesting strategy (especially since I learned it from the AI).

I've always thought the biggest issue with berserkers raids was not so much getting them there, but the fact that you can't make amphibious seige units. If the city you attack has 60% culture defense and longbows, you're gonna take some very heavy losses capturing it.

pi-r8 said:

I've always thought the biggest issue with berserkers raids was not so much getting them there, but the fact that you can't make amphibious seige units. If the city you attack has 60% culture defense and longbows, you're gonna take some very heavy losses capturing it.

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Actually, some ships function as artillery. Many ships that have no unit capacity can bombard coastal cities (like the battleship, for instance). Just like siege units, if you park them next to a city, they will gradually decrease the city's defense. This only works on coastal cities, though.

pi-r8 said:

I've always thought the biggest issue with berserkers raids was not so much getting them there, but the fact that you can't make amphibious seige units. If the city you attack has 60% culture defense and longbows, you're gonna take some very heavy losses capturing it.

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I prefer the use of espionage to siege engines while playing Ragnar. With 10% espionage focused on the current target, it's generally enough to reduce defenses where necessary. And even with siege engines, longbows can't make outbound attacks so long as you have fortified berserkers guarding them. Few AIs bother trying, and those who do have my gratitude for giving up their defensive bonuses to attack a stronger troop in a fortified position. The only losses in terms of siege engines I had in that game were from unguarded moving units and from assaults to generate just a little collateral damage. Even the toughest targets got a max of 2 trebouchet attacks (after defenses =0%) before the berserker charge began.

This is bloody as hell, but effective in its result. The objective is twofold in these attacks: kill/subjugate the enemy, and if that fails, destroy their capacity to compete militarily or scientifically with your economic base. The core cities are producing/supporting berserkers for now, but are also effective scientific and economic centers when the war ends. So even if you can't defeat an opponent, if you can bleed him enough in the middle ages (making sure the carnage is all happening on his soil) you will be able to pull away during the renaissance and coast to an easy industrial win. I like strategies that have a plan B.

xarthaz said:

FInancial + aggressive is just the best trait combo in the typical small quick pangea maps.

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Small Panagea is anything but a typical map for me...but I can see your point.