Raiding with Ragnar

[Ecofarm]

Amphibious can work on a land map. Set up camp across a river from the city you are taking. The city's cats will do almost no direct damage to you. Promote cats to collateral and hit. I don't think collateral damage is affected by crossing a river, as it is not based on damage to target, but unit strength. I could be wrong. Unfortunately, the AI is so inept at war, you could probably just move across the river to hit 1 turn later.

 

[Yakk]

I don't play him all of the time, because he's too good.

 

[Kark]

Amphibious can work on a land map.

Well, I wrote "Inland Viking cities are of little use in the early game". The berserker is a nice unit attacking or defending near a river, but an inland city don't give you a trading post and the extra movement point for naval units.

 

[Ecofarm]

The amphibious promotion is map specific (it can be great, it can be useless)

Sorry, I should have quoted what I was refering to. Although, some maps could be without even rivers. I think Great Plains has very few.

 

[Harald500]

Background
According to the Danish chronicler Saxo Grammaticus, the pagan Ragnar didn't belong in the Swedish Yngling Dynasty, because his father was Danish, but tricked his way in by claiming to be a direct descendant of the god Odin.[citation needed] Both Saxon and Icelandic sources describe him as the son of Sigurd Ring, a Danish king of Gotland who conquered Zealand, Ragnar mainly resided in Danish Skaneland and Zealand.

The historic Ragnar Lodbrok was an Earl at the court of the Danish king Hårek who participated in the Viking plunderings of Paris in 845. The warriors belonging to the army of Charles the Bald, were placed to guard the monastery in St Denis, but fled when the Danish Vikings executed their prisoners ferociously in front of their eyes. After the "danegeld" which contained 7000 pounds of silver, Ragnar went back to Denmark. By mysterious circumstances, many men in Ragnar´s army died during the journey and Ragnar died soon after his arrival in Denmark. In later traditions, Ragnar is the king of Denmark and he meets with fabulous adventures all around the world. Among others, he met the wonderful Kraka in Norway, who became Ragnar´s wife and the mother of his four sons.

Although he is something of a hero in his native Scandinavia, reliable accounts of his life are very sketchy and heavily based on ancient Viking sagas. Even the dating of his reign is not certain; there are sources that date it from 750–794, and others from 860–865. Neither really matches with what is known of him, though he may perhaps have held power as a warlord from approximately 835 to his death in 865, perhaps only being recognized as king in the last five years of his life.


Raids
Ragnar apparently spent most of his life as a pirate and raider, invading one country after another. One of his favorite strategies was to attack Christian cities on holy feast days, knowing that many soldiers would be in church. He would generally accept a huge payment to leave his victims alone, only to come back later and demand more riches in exchange for leaving. But as the extent of his supposed realm shows, he was also a gifted military leader. By 845, he was a powerful man and most likely a contemporary of the first ruler of Russia, the Viking Rurik. It is said he was always seeking new adventures because he was worried that his freebooting sons would do things that outshone his own achievements.


France
It was in 845 that he is said to have sailed southward, looking for new worlds to conquer. With 120 ships and 5,000 Viking warriors, he landed in modern France, probably at the Seine estuary, and ravaged West Francia, as the westernmost part of the Frankish empire was then known. Paris was also captured in this year and held ransom by a Viking raider, whom the sagas say was Ragnar Lodbrok. The traditional date for this is March 28, which is today referred to as Ragnar Lodbrok Day by certain followers of the Asatru religion. The King of West Francia, Charlemagne's grandson Charles the Bald, paid him a fantastic amount of money not to destroy the city. Ragnar Lodbrok, according to Viking sources, was satisfied with no less than 7,000 pounds of silver in exchange for sparing the city. However, that did not stop Ragnar from attacking other parts of France, and it took a long time for the Franks to drive him out. Later Ragnar's sons were to return for more booty. Among their feats was destroying the city of Rouen several times. Ultimately, many of them settled there permanently, in a land that became known as Normandy (for "Northmen", as the Franks called the Scandinavians).


England
After he was done with France, he turned his attention to England. In 865, he landed in Northumbria on the north-east coast of England. It is claimed that here he was defeated in battle for the only time, by King Aelle II of Northumbria. Aelle's men captured Ragnar, and the King ordered him thrown into a pit filled with poisonous snakes. As he was slowly being bitten to death, he was alleged to have exclaimed "How the little pigs would grunt if they knew the situation of the old boar!" Alternative versions of the story say that he landed by accident in East Anglia and there befriended King Edmund before being killed by a jealous courtier. The murderer escaped to Denmark and blamed Edmund for Lodbrok's demise.


Legacy
One Viking saga states that when his four sons heard the manner of his death, they all reacted in great sorrow. Hvitserk, who was playing tafl, gripped the piece so hard that he bled from his fingernails. Björn Ironside grabbed a spear so tightly that he left an impression in it, and Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye, who was trimming his nails, cut straight through to the bone.

Although these stories may not be accurate, like virtually all tales concerning Ragnar Lodbrok, his death had serious consequences. His other sons, Ivar the Boneless (alias Hingwar) and Ubbe soon learned the details of their father's death and swore that they would avenge his killing, in time-honoured Viking tradition. In 866, Ivar and Ubbe crossed the North Sea with a large army (The Great Heathen Army), sacked York, met King Aelle in battle, and captured him. He sentenced him to die according to the custom of Rista Blodörn, an exceedingly painful death. They then moved south to East Anglia, on the way attacking the monasteries of Bardney, Croyland and Medeshampstede where, according to tradition, their army slew 80 monks. Eventually they captured King Edmund and had him shot by archers and beheaded. These wars were a prelude to the long struggle of the Saxons of Alfred the Great against the Danes a generation later.


Mythology
Bragi Boddason is said to have composed the Ragnarsdrápa for the Swedish king Björn at Hauge. However, this does not correspond to what we know about the historical Ragnar. It is consequently said that in the Norse sagas, he was identified with a Swedish king Ragnar (770-785), the son of Sigurd Ring. According to legend, he married Aslaug and became the son-in-law of Sigurd the Völsung.

 

[Idlenessss]

I dont have warlords. But im very shocked at what im hearing. They pick Ragnar as the leader of viking, instead of the genuinely legendary Haraald Haraldra? huh?

 

[Harald500]

Harald III Sigurdsson (1015 – September 25, 1066), later surnamed Harald Hardråde (Old Norse: Haraldr harðráði, roughly translated as "Harald stern council" or "hard ruler") was the king of Norway from 1047[1] until 1066. Many details of his life were chronicled in the Heimskringla. Among English-speakers, he is generally known as "Harald Hardrada" and remembered for his invasion of England in 1066. The death of Hardrada is often recorded as the end of the Viking era.


Early life
Born in 1015, Harald was the youngest of King Olaf II's three half-brothers born to Åsta Gudbrandsdatter. When Harald was 15, King Olaf was killed defending his throne from Canute the Great in 1030 at the Battle of Stiklestad. Harald took part in the battle and although wounded managed to escape before leaving Norway in exile. He was able to form a band of warriors out of men who had also been exiled as a result of Olaf's death. In 1031 Harald and his men reached the land of the Kievan Rus where they served the armies of Yaroslav I the Wise, the King of the Rus. Harald is thought to have taken part in King Yaroslav's campaign against the Poles and was appointed joint commander of defense forces.


Time in the Byzantine Empire
Some years after Harald and his men had entered the land of the Rus, they packed up and left for the heart of the Byzantine Empire, the city of Constantinople. At the time, the Byzantine Empire was the wealthiest empire in Medieval Europe and the Near East. Harald and his men pledged themselves to the service of the armies of the empire. Harald's forces joined the elite mercenary unit known as the Varangian Guard. It was not long until Harald had proven himself in battle and gained the respect of his fellow guardsmen. Harald became the leader of the entire force and used this power to undertake his own missions. Harald's forces won a great many victories in North Africa, Syria and Sicily. Through ingenuity, he and his men were able to besiege and defeat a number of castles. A contemporary source reports such tactics as attaching burning resin to birds, setting the castle ablaze, and feigning reluctance to fight, only to launch an attack at the most advantageous moment. Harald was able to build a large fortune in plunder from his victories.



Return to Norway
Using the wealth he had built during his service to the Byzantine Empire, Harald returned to Norway in 1045. Harald brought with him a number of men who served with him, and, as a result, became an immediate threat to the sitting king, Magnus I, who was the son of Olaf II and nephew of Harald and had returned from exile in 1035 to reclaim his father's throne after the death of Canute the Great.

Magnus I agreed to share power with his uncle Harald and the two became co-rulers. However, it was only a year later that Magnus would die. The circumstances surrounding his death were never truly explained. Speculation led to the widespread belief that Magnus was killed by Harald so that he alone would control Norway.


Invasion of England
Harald was killed at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, outside the city of York, England. The battle took place on 25 September 1066. Harald died fighting against the forces of King Harold Godwinson of England. He had come to England with the idea of claiming the English Throne as his own. He based this claim on a supposed agreement between Magnus and Harthacanute whereby if either died without heir, the other would inherit both England and Norway.

He landed in Northern England with a force of around 15,000 men and 300 longships (50 men in each boat), and had won a great victory on 20 September against the first English forces he met at the Battle of Fulford two miles south of York. Some speculate that Harald's defeat at the Battle of Stamford Bridge was the result of his belief that King Harold Godwinson was prepared to surrender. This was not the case, and Harald's army was destroyed at Stamford Bridge. His army was so heavily beaten that less than 25 of the 300 recorded longboats Harald used to transport his forces to England were used to carry the survivors back to Norway. Not long after his victory over King Harald, Harold Godwinson was defeated by William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings. The fact that Harold had to make a forced march against Hardrada, fight at Stamford Bridge and then move at utmost speed back south to meet the Norman invasion, all in a matter of days, is widely seen as a primary factor in William's hard-fought victory at Hastings.


Legacy
Harald was the last great Viking king of Norway and his invasion of England and death at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066 proved a true watershed moment. It marked the end of the Viking age. In Norway, Harald's death also marked the beginning of the Christian era: the Middle Ages. His body was taken to Trondheim in 1067 and buried in the Church of St. Mary. About 100 years later his body was reinterred in Helgeseter monastery which was demolished sometime in the 1600s.

On September 25, 2006, the 940th anniversary of Harald's death, the newspaper Aftenposten published an article on the poor state of Norway's ancient royal burial sites, including that of Harald Hardrada, which is reportedly located underneath a road built across the monastery site. In a follow-up article on September 26, the Municipality of Trondheim revealed they would be examining the possibility of exhuming the king and reinterring him in the Nidaros Cathedral. The cathedral is currently the burial place of nine Norwegian kings, among them Magnus I and Magnus II, Harald's predecessor and successor respectively.