Norway Should = Explore, Raid, Trade

[Draehl]

I personally find Norway to be one of the most interesting civs in the game, however despite being weak it more than anything lacks a strong identity beyond "powerful early navy", especially when I can play England or Japan similarly with benefits that can be used in more interesting ways and scale far better into the lategame. I'm not going to say "This is exactly what the % bonuses should be" but rather suggest a framework for how they might play in an interesting and cohesive way. Maybe it's completely OP or weak, but it's the idea I'm presenting for engaging gameplay, not the exact implementation.

Ditch the Stave Church: As awesome as these buildings are aesthetically, it doesn't effectively represent the importance of Norway in history. Religiously, they didn't have a large impact on the world compared to other civilizations, aside from the Norse pantheon. Better to roll this into a broader set of bonuses to encourage raiding, exploration, and the pantheon directly.
Odin's Will: Receives a free pantheon immediately after the first civilization discovers one. Earns bonus gold for discovering city states and other civilizations during your turn. This allows you to get a pantheon quicker in many cases, also without using the religion card. The bonus gold is there to reward further exploration and kickstart either your early economy or military depending on how you choose to use the gold.
Thunderbolt of the North: Allows coastal raiding for all naval melee units. May coastal raid city states, Chiefdoms, and tier 1 government civs without declaring war. +X% pillage yields. No surprise here. This makes Harald the raid-focused leader, to leverage resources to prop up your ultimate victory condition, which could remain fluid, beyond the fact that you'll get there by raiding. The rest of the bonuses sync up well enough to allow for a future trade focused leader.
Global Game Changes: All civs may now innately coastal raid. Goodie huts now have a higher chance to spawn on the coast. Perhaps some kind of trade war casus belli so Norway (though everyone, ultimately) can pillage one another's land later in the game, but with certain restrictions.
The other bonuses remain as-is. Viking Longship could even get a small nerf to combat strength if warranted.

Thoughts? Criticisms?

 

[Siptah]

Hm, interesting ideas. But all civs can already coastal raid - with submarines. I like it that Norway can do it first and when others may not be able to cross and send troops.

 

[dragon653]

Hm, interesting ideas. But all civs can already coastal raid - with submarines. I like it that Norway can do it first and when others may not be able to cross and send troops.

And privateer's

 

[Olleus]

Submarines being able to coastal raid is one of the more inexplicable things in this game.

All melee naval units should be able to coastal raid, and only naval melee units. Amongst other things it would enable galleys to pop goody huts which would actually make them useful for early game exploration.

As for your other ideas, sure, could work. Until the AI learns how to build and use a fleet I don't think any naval orientated civ will be interesting though - there simply wont be any opposition to actually fight again.