1.18 Norse UHV strategy

[Rafaelito]

Playing Monarch/Epic, 600 AD scenario.

Start working on culture in your capital to reach the fish quicker. Begin building a settler and send it to Iceland. Once you settle Reykjavik, build a trading post and a harbor there. Build trading posts in the other two cities as it helps with culture as well and focus on the hammer tiles in Denmark.

Send your two crossbows to raid France and the Celts. Steal as many workers as you can and attempt to destroy the Celts (luck-based). Meanwhile, beeline for compass, keeping your research at 100%, which should be manageable with constant raiding.

Build a road to the copper southeast of your capital to mine it as soon as your culture reaches the tile. Train four militias in your cities before the copper mine is ready so you can upgrade them all to huscarls (ensure you have enough gold). Once upgraded, raid England and aim for UHV1.

Important note: Hire a merchant in Oslo or Denmark, as you'll need one to bulb compass. Ensure the fish tile is worked before hiring a merchant.

Send a work boat from Dublin (if conquered) and another ship with two workers to mine the hills near Reykjavik. Afterwards, focus solely on building culture in Reykjavik.

Once Reykjavik is established, switch to 100% culture to expedite its growth. If you've continued raiding and had enough gold to fund your science and culture, Reykjavik should have enough culture to give you access to Greenland and by now you should be close to research compass. Have two settlers ready in a ship to settle Greenland and then head to America.


After that, UHV 3 is pretty straight forward

 

[SPB87559]

Cottages or farms?

 

[Rafaelito]

Farm is probably better since you don't have enough food at Scandinavia but you have to switch to manorialism after you captured enough workers.

 

[mingming99]

What do you think about conquering Italy with your starting huscarls and building army up from there to raid Egypt/Mesopotamia/Byzantium?

 

[Rafaelito]

What do you think about conquering Italy with your starting huscarls and building army up from there to raid Egypt/Mesopotamia/Byzantium?

It might be worth on a 3000bc run but if you start on 600AD all you have is 2 crossbownmen, which I find more challenging

 

[GoneFishingX]

600 ad start is really weak compared to 3000bc start. It's night and day. Was able to win 3000 bc start by claiming italy. I feel the 600 AD start needs some help.

 

[Apple111111]

I made France my foreign core when I played as Norse. I did 550ad start (doubt it’s possible on 600), and also struggled a bit with stability (mostly recession tbh). Ultimately, it’s pretty worth it though, as it gives you a base in mainland Europe to start pillaging, rather than having to ship your units from England.

 

[SPB87559]

I made France my foreign core when I played as Norse. I did 550ad start (doubt it’s possible on 600), and also struggled a bit with stability (mostly recession tbh). Ultimately, it’s pretty worth it though, as it gives you a base in mainland Europe to start pillaging, rather than having to ship your units from England.

How many huscarls did you need to take France? I don’t know how you could raid France with crossbows as mentioned in the original strategy posted.

 

[Apple111111]

How many huscarls did you need to take France? I don’t know how you could raid France with crossbows as mentioned in the original strategy posted.

Idk how many, 4-6 I think. That said, this is the 3000Bc start, and I struck France before they had the chance to get crossbows. In the 600AD start, I believe they start with crossbows so it’s not really feasible.

 

[DpInt]

France in the current version can greet you with crossbows both in the 3000BC and the 600AD scenario starts. In the 3000BC start though you can take your initial huscarls on a trip to Italy, take a lot of gold and come back to the North Sea before England spawns. I delayed connecting the initial copper so that I had more time to build militias. By the time I was allowed to attack England, I had 6 huscarls, 2 spearmen and 2 archers.

As for Reykjavik: Have a fishing boat ready when you settle, and also go Trading Post -> Monument -> Culture, with Syncretism (which also saves you one turn to convert to Christianity) and a missionary sent from Norway gives you an extremely comfortable frame to reach the culture map to reach Greenland. I'll warn people to be extremely wary of barbarian viking boats though. They're longboats (just like yours) which gives them extreme advantage when attacking, so don't send the boats carrying settlers without additional boats to protect them, or else you risk losing enough turns to lose the UHV.