So, everyone knows that Denmark are commonly thought of as one of the worst civs on the game, in the bottom tier with the likes of the Iroquois and Byzantium.
I thought I'd try out my own game as Denmark to see if this is really the case, and I was thinking to myself 'How bad can they really be?'. I have to say, I really don't see why people call them under-powered and I think they are massively underrated.
Let's look at their unique stuff:
Unique Ability
Their ability is a very very nice fit for warfare. As people have pointed out, one of the saving graces of Denmark is the ability to move your catapult/trebuchet/whatever from the sea to a tile that it can fire from and then be able to unleash hell upon your opponents city. This is completely true and really really powerful. It's obviously much more of a benefit in the early game, where the units have 2 range rather than 3 range, and at that point in the game the borders of a civ are not too far extended into the water, making it easily accessible and easy to disembark onto land.
You've then also got the fact that their embarked units have 3 movement points, meaning they're able to traverse the map much quicker than anyone else. Not necessarily the most amazing thing in the world, but a fair few other civs have just a single UU that has an extra movement point - at least this is spread across the whole board. It's also pretty helpful when you're out scouting, looking for those random ruins on small islands in the middle of nowhere. I had it twice in my game where I saw another scout making a run towards a ruin but I was able to get there quicker than him thanks to 3 movement points/1 point to disembark.
The final area of their UA is that it costs no movement points to pillage. That's a free 25 health PLUS the 10/15 health it'd repair from just fortifying anyway. Pillaging would normally mean you get the 25 health but that you can't auto-heal that turn as you've used up a movement point. This is at least a third of your health back in one turn, really really useful if you're using trying to bait a cities bombardment away from your catapults for a couple of turns.
Berserker
The Berserker is the first of the Danish unique units, and it wasn't until a few days ago that I really read what the Berserker is. I just assumed that it had the extra movement point and the amphibious promotion, NEVER did I realise that you actually get the Berserker a tech early. It might not sound like much but oh my, you can get your Berserker's up while other civs are messing around somewhere between warriors and swordsmen! They're technically the longswordsman replacement, but the tech you get them at makes them more like the equivalent of a pikemen. That means that everyone else has a maximum of 16 strength while you're running around with 21 strength, 3 movement and amphibious units. Extremely powerful!
Even without the amphibious point, the Berserker is still an extremely strong unit just because of how early you get them compared to the longswordsman. It may only help you take down 2 or 3 civs before others are able to catch up and produce their own longswordsman, but that's an easy 2 or 3 civs that most others wouldn't be able to take down so easily.
Norwegian Ski Infantry
I didn't get much use out of my Norwegian Ski Infantry in my game, as my Berserkers had made sure I was already close to victory. However, I did take note of how powerful they are in hills. The extra 25% essentially makes them a UU that has a strength of 42.5 - the same as a Foreign Legion. Combine that with Drill 1 + 2 from Barracks/Armoury and you're unstoppable in the hills. The double movement is also a big help as you maneuver around your enemies and take them out from atop the hills. The snow/tundra boost isn't a huge help overall, but could be useful if you have a runaway Sweden/Russia in the game.
Overall the Ski Infantry isn't as amazing as the Berserker, but it's still much more powerful than anything else that comes in at riflemen, as long as you're in hills. I personally prefer the Swedish Carolean, but I'd say that if you can get the Carolean's into hills/snow/tundra, you'd definitely give them a run for their money, as well as overpower anything else at this time.
Neither of their units are pushovers then, in comparison to other civs that have 2 units where one of which tends to be not much better than the base unit. The Berserker is absolutely amazing, simply because of how early you get it, while the Ski Infantry is useful for half of the map (Assuming half of the map is hilly).
Overall (TL;DR), I think it makes Denmark one of the most powerful domination civs. They're not suited to anything else, but for pure domination, they're one of the easiest to use and you're able to greatly overpower everyone in the early-mid game, where the only other real competitor is Rome and her Legions (17 strength compared to 21). The boost you get from overpowering everyone at this stage should mean you're able to level up your units so that by the time they're Ski Infantry, they're unstoppable on hills and a force to be reckoned with on flat ground as well.
But, I want to know your opinions. Do you think that Denmark is really that under-powered, or like me do you think they're actually massively underrated? Either way, I'd like to hear your reasoning as it tends to be a civ that people look over and don't really mention!
I thought I'd try out my own game as Denmark to see if this is really the case, and I was thinking to myself 'How bad can they really be?'. I have to say, I really don't see why people call them under-powered and I think they are massively underrated.
Spoiler :
My game; I picked archipelago, Emperor difficulty, Epic speed (1.5x standard), and started off on a small island with no one around me. I had 3 gold and a dye within range of Copenhagen. I rushed to the Great Library and got it by turn 58 (Turn 39 equivalent on standard), so got pretty lucky, but having the gold nearby helped with hammers.
I got sailing/optics pretty quickly after this, while building the NC (Philosophy free from GL), and started exploring with a trireme, quickly finding Theodora, Gandhi, Enrico Dandolo and an abundance of city states.
I managed to get my NC up by turn 80 (Turn 54 equivalent on standard) so I knew that I'd be technologically superior to everyone else, and started to tech towards the first Danish unique unit.
I got metal casting and was the first into the Medieval era as a result, and switched my science focus to move up the tree towards Education instead, while buying iron from Gandhi so I could make some Berserkers. I managed to get a reasonable force of 4 Berserkers, 2 catapults and 2 composite bowmen and started sailing off towards Theodora. Constantinople fell within 2 turns of being opened up on and I realised the strength of the Berserkers - it doesn't fall with their ability to move more, it's when they become available on the tech tree. Theodora had 4 warriors and 2 composite bowmen as her defence, which my 21 strength Berserkers quickly flattened, forcing her to peace out and give me her remaining cities.
I move on to the next civ; Enrico Dandolo and his mega capital. He is the closest to me in terms of 'Pointiest Sticks', so it's convenient that he's the next closest to me physically as well. I again sail towards my next opponent and realise that the bulk of his army is 3 pikemen, who stood no chance against my Berserkers. I take Venice just as quickly as I took Constantinople and peace out for his remaining luxuries to temporarily keep my happiness up while I rush some Colosseums.
10 turns later (Now around 450AD, can't remember what turn) and I'm able to upgrade my composite bows to crossbowmen and my catapults to trebuchets.
I start sailing towards the next civ - Nebuchadnezzar. I've now found everyone on the map and can see their capitals, Babylon being not only the most populous, but also having those lovely Walls Of Babylon meaning it's by far the strongest. I decide to test it out and declare war on him as soon as my units are in position. I notice that his army is a lot stronger than the last two. He has 4 swordsmen, 3 composite bows and a galeass. The Berserkers really showed off their strength again as I was able to inflict 38 points of damage to a FORTIFIED swordsman, while only taking 16 damage myself (It was around that anyway). I took Babylon down within 3 turns again, thanks to the trebuchets, and started sailing towards Gandhi in the north, now that I no longer need his iron to fund my armies.
At this point, I'm working the top of the science tree, bulbing a GS to finish Astronomy and then teching Navigation. I pump out a couple of frigates and a couple more Berserkers to join my forces, and I attack Dehli from the sea. He's roughly the same strength as Babylon so I'm easily able to flatten him, leaving 2 civs left.
Polynesia and the Shoshone are battling it out on their own small continent, with Kamehameha approaching Moson Kahni. I found the World Congress and propose an embargo on the Shoshone, just to ensure that Polynesia can overpower them and hopefully I'd have a real fight on my hand. I decide to stay peaceful and tech up to Ski Infantry, so that I can see how they're used, and I manage to get them around the year 1250. By this point, Moson Kahni has fallen to Kamehameha, so I just straight declare on Polynesia, rather than worrying about the Shoshone. My army now consists of 3 cannons, 6 Ski Infantry, 2 Frigates and 3 Crossbowmen.
The Ski Infantry are extremely useful on this continent as it seems to be the perfect hilly terrain for them, and they're able to absolutely demolish the Polynesian musketmen. It takes me roughly 15 turns to sweep through 5 cities, largely thanks to the double movement from the Ski Infantry, and I quickly find myself next to Honolulu. I've already demolished his army (Which consisted of 7 musketmen, 3 knights, 3 crossbowmen and a hell of a lot of boats), so taking Honolulu is really quite easy, given I've got +1 range on 2 of my cannons by this point. It was quite an anticlimactic end to the game, but it really did show the power of the Danes. The early-mid game push they get from Berserkers just puts you so far ahead of everyone else at that point in the game that it's laughable.
I got sailing/optics pretty quickly after this, while building the NC (Philosophy free from GL), and started exploring with a trireme, quickly finding Theodora, Gandhi, Enrico Dandolo and an abundance of city states.
I managed to get my NC up by turn 80 (Turn 54 equivalent on standard) so I knew that I'd be technologically superior to everyone else, and started to tech towards the first Danish unique unit.
I got metal casting and was the first into the Medieval era as a result, and switched my science focus to move up the tree towards Education instead, while buying iron from Gandhi so I could make some Berserkers. I managed to get a reasonable force of 4 Berserkers, 2 catapults and 2 composite bowmen and started sailing off towards Theodora. Constantinople fell within 2 turns of being opened up on and I realised the strength of the Berserkers - it doesn't fall with their ability to move more, it's when they become available on the tech tree. Theodora had 4 warriors and 2 composite bowmen as her defence, which my 21 strength Berserkers quickly flattened, forcing her to peace out and give me her remaining cities.
I move on to the next civ; Enrico Dandolo and his mega capital. He is the closest to me in terms of 'Pointiest Sticks', so it's convenient that he's the next closest to me physically as well. I again sail towards my next opponent and realise that the bulk of his army is 3 pikemen, who stood no chance against my Berserkers. I take Venice just as quickly as I took Constantinople and peace out for his remaining luxuries to temporarily keep my happiness up while I rush some Colosseums.
10 turns later (Now around 450AD, can't remember what turn) and I'm able to upgrade my composite bows to crossbowmen and my catapults to trebuchets.
I start sailing towards the next civ - Nebuchadnezzar. I've now found everyone on the map and can see their capitals, Babylon being not only the most populous, but also having those lovely Walls Of Babylon meaning it's by far the strongest. I decide to test it out and declare war on him as soon as my units are in position. I notice that his army is a lot stronger than the last two. He has 4 swordsmen, 3 composite bows and a galeass. The Berserkers really showed off their strength again as I was able to inflict 38 points of damage to a FORTIFIED swordsman, while only taking 16 damage myself (It was around that anyway). I took Babylon down within 3 turns again, thanks to the trebuchets, and started sailing towards Gandhi in the north, now that I no longer need his iron to fund my armies.
At this point, I'm working the top of the science tree, bulbing a GS to finish Astronomy and then teching Navigation. I pump out a couple of frigates and a couple more Berserkers to join my forces, and I attack Dehli from the sea. He's roughly the same strength as Babylon so I'm easily able to flatten him, leaving 2 civs left.
Polynesia and the Shoshone are battling it out on their own small continent, with Kamehameha approaching Moson Kahni. I found the World Congress and propose an embargo on the Shoshone, just to ensure that Polynesia can overpower them and hopefully I'd have a real fight on my hand. I decide to stay peaceful and tech up to Ski Infantry, so that I can see how they're used, and I manage to get them around the year 1250. By this point, Moson Kahni has fallen to Kamehameha, so I just straight declare on Polynesia, rather than worrying about the Shoshone. My army now consists of 3 cannons, 6 Ski Infantry, 2 Frigates and 3 Crossbowmen.
The Ski Infantry are extremely useful on this continent as it seems to be the perfect hilly terrain for them, and they're able to absolutely demolish the Polynesian musketmen. It takes me roughly 15 turns to sweep through 5 cities, largely thanks to the double movement from the Ski Infantry, and I quickly find myself next to Honolulu. I've already demolished his army (Which consisted of 7 musketmen, 3 knights, 3 crossbowmen and a hell of a lot of boats), so taking Honolulu is really quite easy, given I've got +1 range on 2 of my cannons by this point. It was quite an anticlimactic end to the game, but it really did show the power of the Danes. The early-mid game push they get from Berserkers just puts you so far ahead of everyone else at that point in the game that it's laughable.
Let's look at their unique stuff:
Unique Ability
Their ability is a very very nice fit for warfare. As people have pointed out, one of the saving graces of Denmark is the ability to move your catapult/trebuchet/whatever from the sea to a tile that it can fire from and then be able to unleash hell upon your opponents city. This is completely true and really really powerful. It's obviously much more of a benefit in the early game, where the units have 2 range rather than 3 range, and at that point in the game the borders of a civ are not too far extended into the water, making it easily accessible and easy to disembark onto land.
You've then also got the fact that their embarked units have 3 movement points, meaning they're able to traverse the map much quicker than anyone else. Not necessarily the most amazing thing in the world, but a fair few other civs have just a single UU that has an extra movement point - at least this is spread across the whole board. It's also pretty helpful when you're out scouting, looking for those random ruins on small islands in the middle of nowhere. I had it twice in my game where I saw another scout making a run towards a ruin but I was able to get there quicker than him thanks to 3 movement points/1 point to disembark.
The final area of their UA is that it costs no movement points to pillage. That's a free 25 health PLUS the 10/15 health it'd repair from just fortifying anyway. Pillaging would normally mean you get the 25 health but that you can't auto-heal that turn as you've used up a movement point. This is at least a third of your health back in one turn, really really useful if you're using trying to bait a cities bombardment away from your catapults for a couple of turns.
Berserker
The Berserker is the first of the Danish unique units, and it wasn't until a few days ago that I really read what the Berserker is. I just assumed that it had the extra movement point and the amphibious promotion, NEVER did I realise that you actually get the Berserker a tech early. It might not sound like much but oh my, you can get your Berserker's up while other civs are messing around somewhere between warriors and swordsmen! They're technically the longswordsman replacement, but the tech you get them at makes them more like the equivalent of a pikemen. That means that everyone else has a maximum of 16 strength while you're running around with 21 strength, 3 movement and amphibious units. Extremely powerful!
Even without the amphibious point, the Berserker is still an extremely strong unit just because of how early you get them compared to the longswordsman. It may only help you take down 2 or 3 civs before others are able to catch up and produce their own longswordsman, but that's an easy 2 or 3 civs that most others wouldn't be able to take down so easily.
Norwegian Ski Infantry
I didn't get much use out of my Norwegian Ski Infantry in my game, as my Berserkers had made sure I was already close to victory. However, I did take note of how powerful they are in hills. The extra 25% essentially makes them a UU that has a strength of 42.5 - the same as a Foreign Legion. Combine that with Drill 1 + 2 from Barracks/Armoury and you're unstoppable in the hills. The double movement is also a big help as you maneuver around your enemies and take them out from atop the hills. The snow/tundra boost isn't a huge help overall, but could be useful if you have a runaway Sweden/Russia in the game.
Overall the Ski Infantry isn't as amazing as the Berserker, but it's still much more powerful than anything else that comes in at riflemen, as long as you're in hills. I personally prefer the Swedish Carolean, but I'd say that if you can get the Carolean's into hills/snow/tundra, you'd definitely give them a run for their money, as well as overpower anything else at this time.
Neither of their units are pushovers then, in comparison to other civs that have 2 units where one of which tends to be not much better than the base unit. The Berserker is absolutely amazing, simply because of how early you get it, while the Ski Infantry is useful for half of the map (Assuming half of the map is hilly).
Overall (TL;DR), I think it makes Denmark one of the most powerful domination civs. They're not suited to anything else, but for pure domination, they're one of the easiest to use and you're able to greatly overpower everyone in the early-mid game, where the only other real competitor is Rome and her Legions (17 strength compared to 21). The boost you get from overpowering everyone at this stage should mean you're able to level up your units so that by the time they're Ski Infantry, they're unstoppable on hills and a force to be reckoned with on flat ground as well.
But, I want to know your opinions. Do you think that Denmark is really that under-powered, or like me do you think they're actually massively underrated? Either way, I'd like to hear your reasoning as it tends to be a civ that people look over and don't really mention!