Berserkers!!!

[Shoot To Thrill]

I just finished ravishing the Mayans with my Berserkers. They are a good freaking unit!!! I kept my tech percentage at 100% through this whole game so by the time I was able to build Berserkers, they were going up against spearmen. I had a small set back, because I basically sent mini SOD into enemy territory, when they AI got longbowmen. But I just threw a few MI into the mix to take the hits and it was fine. I destroyed an entire empire, 12 cities, in maybe 20 turns. I just thought that since I have never really played as the Vikings before, probably alot of other people underestimate their UU. Six attack versus spearmen... CAn you say rape?

 

[Tomoyo]

The Berserks are really good, and I think they're my favourite UU, but...

They're fricking expensive, and they don't do any good on land. They are very vulnerable without Pikemen, and I hate building defensive units.

20 turns? That's nothing. You should have seen me run over a civ in two turns with cavalry.

 

[LLXerxes]

The Berserks are really good, and I think they're my favourite UU, but...

they do kick friggin butt, but they're probably not the best. They are one of the best, but there are alot of good ones.

But they, seriously, kick cookie. 6 attack, against, around 4 (pikemen+fortified+on a city+hill+river ect ect blah blah blah) defence, totally kills.

 

[Tomoyo]

Favourite doesn't mean best. I think the best UU is the Immortal, but it's no fun. The Berserker is just so cool, but the thing that kills it is that it is just an overpriced souped up MDI when you get to land-slog.

 

[Durkz]

my favorite UU is the rider

 

[kmad]

My fav UU SO FAR is the hoplite. It's so cheap and helps me dominate the ancient age.

 

[Roxlimn]

12 cities in 20 turns?!?

Weak!!!

With Berserks, you should be able to do much, much more.

The thing to do isn't to 100% your Science. That leaves you with advanced unit tech but little to implement them with.

A variation of the Warrior-Swordsman mass upgrade strat is the Archer-Berserk mass upgrade strat, and I can tell you the results are much, much more rewarding. You should almost never send your Berserks on overland campaigns if you can help it. It hurts them. They're sailors, not landlubbers.

The fastest I've ever conquered a civ with Berserks is one turn. Yep. One turn, no railroads, no artillery. 2 Galleys worth of Berserks per city, all cities on the coast. Not the AI's fault, the civ was Byzantine, so it was to their advantage to build coastal cities preferentially. On land, a force of 2 SOD consisting of Knights, Crusaders, Berserks, Pikes, and Catapults. Conquered all but one city with the Berserks, took out the last city with Knights. Poor Catapults and Crusaders felt underused.

Of course, with such a massive military and a GA going on, it was only natural that I keep attacking. The Incans, with their UU obsolete and GA way past were a natural target. Waited for Galleons, though. Using Galleons, you can actually attack from one coastal city directly to another nearby coastal city (with Seafaring + Great Lighthouse) and virtually never expose your Berserks to attack. Land Based Force meets up en route to the capital in a classic Hammer and Anvil move. Beauty itself.

Berserks are the only reason I play Scandanavia.

 

[Theoden]

Berserks are good but nothing will beat Mounted Warriors for me

 

[Bagatur]

I'm just finishing Deity game with Scandinavia. I have 5 Berserk armies, with 3 units each - no Combustion yet. Having a stack of 30 Frigates to bombard and Berserk attack afterwards. The enemy has infantries in his metropolises. The worst result was Berserk army lost half of its hitpoints in its second attack vs infantry in metropolis. Stack of bombard frigates is key for using them up to later game. I'm punching out one city per turn, bcs frigates are way to weak for bombarding such strong defenders. But i just take it, sell everything inside and gift it ot some weak civ on next turn if there are some artys in city(lifted automatically to my capitol) or just abandon it, then board armies and go on. Frankly, Enemy has no horses, so I dont worry of being attacked in same turn when I take city. Such naval invasion can be prepared of course far more better, with some spare galleons to take slaves and artileries captured, but I'm about to win, so its not already time to dig that deep into planning

 

[Tomoyo]

Bagatur, the stack bombard of Frigates has been copyrighted by Sirian under the name of BOSOF (Big Ole Stack O' Frigates) in his Monarch infantry Always War game.

 

[Bagatur]

I'm not pretending of being inventor. Doubtfull how certain tactics can be copyrighted, maybe he shared it with us first than anyone. Btw, I was enlighted for this tactic by man, who never read any civ related forums or strategy guides and never played online. I used it myself before also, but with dromons bombarding before land troops attack. Frigates are neglected units in game but berserks combined with them are hard to be stopped hurricane. Nothing more I said?!?!?!
Dont know what u mean, but your post sounds like I stole something....

 

[Tomoyo]

I was just making a (not) humourous comment on the tactic. I'm sorry for the misunderstanding...

I meant that the phrase "Big Ole Stack O' Frigates" was copyrighted, and it may be used by anyone who does not profit off of it. (Fair use )

 

[Bagatur]

Thank u. I'm glad to know there is no offence! Sorry for offtopic guys, just wanted to clear the situation. Respect, T.