Antiochus VII said:
That sounds good except (if possible I haven't tested this to see if it works in practice) have it transport only foot units (space was limited) and drop the defense to 1 (the Vikings lost at sea to the English and Muslims frequently when those groups were ready for them) and also not cross ocean safely (the Vikings explored around the northern edge of the Atlantic and raided as far as Italy for sure but never ventured all that far out to sea in these craft.
This is not at all correct.
The vikings lost at sea next to never. As far as I can recall their only significant defeats at sea where against other vikings. Their ships were simply too fast, agile and seaworthy. According to recent tests in Danemark, they were more then 50% faster then the 2nd fastest ship of the day. They raced a modern "americas cup" racing yacht and almsot beat it with a replica viking ship. This ship was handicapped by having the sail rigging not be as good as the vikings (since they don't yet know how to reproduce it) and a inexperianecd crew going against a seasoned crew in the racing yacht.
It was recently learned that these longboat hulls would hydroplane as speeds got over 12 knots, and they had a top speed somewhere in excess of 17 knots.
Additionally, they would unstep the mast before coming within sight of shore reducing the abiltity to see these ships from very low to all but nil.
These ships could also take far rougher seas then their contemporaries. The hull construction was such that the longboat would "swim" through the waves rather then fight them, and so rough seas were less of a threat.
As for crossing the sea. They did so frequently. They colonized the far reaches of the world. Iceland, Greenland, America. They sailed across the north sea on an all too frequent basis. This is a deep ocean with very rough waters.
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Yeah Buddy!
