I think we can try to make a stand at Haithabu. They key will be to keep the three main stacks of Cyruss troops from attacking one of the major Viking cities simultaneously while they are at full strength. To do this I would propose that:
Withdraw all troops from Bjorgvin and send them to Haithabu except for the pikeman. I would promote our pikeman and leave him behind just so Saladin cant march in with his lone camel archer and take the city. Given Cyruss troops are wounded, the hope is that when they take the city from pikeman they will stop to heal and will leave some of the troops in this stack behind for defense.
Withdraw all troops possible from Roskilde. First, move all troops located on the outside of Roskilde into the city. Next, load the two Galleons with the war elephant, the maceman with 4 XP, the double city raider maceman, 1 regular macemen, and 2 full-strength trebs. 1 Mace and the rest of the trebs will have to stay behind and take their chances. Take these two loaded galleons directly into Haithabu, unload them, and then move out of the city (there is just enough movement points to do this).
Move the archer in Nidaros toward Haithabu. It would be good to upgrade him to a LB if possible.
There are 2 empty galleons and 1 loaded galleon just southwest of Uppsala. Send 1 of the empty galleons home. Next, drop off a pikeman into the city (without moving) from the loaded galleon then walk on both maceman (1 to the already loaded, 1 to the empty galleon). One the next turn these units can be unloaded directly into Haithabu and the galleons will have one remaining movement point to exit the city.
Move up all troops near Haithabu into the city and promote them.
Sacrifice the cat in Haithabu against the stack next to the city. The cat will have a 25% chance of withdrawal. The idea is to put some collateral damage on that stack while there is time. I have found that the AI tends to lose some aggressiveness if its stacks have taken some collateral damage.
With all of these moves you would have 10 macemen, 1 axeman (that you may want to consider paying the 179 gold to upgrade to another mace), 1 war elephant (4 star) and 2 trebs. The next turn 2 maceman, 1 pikeman and 1 treb will arrive from Uppsala galleons, 4 trebs and 2 cats will arrive from Bjorgvin, the archer (which could be an LB for 134 gold)from Nidaros, and, depending on where Cyrus hits, maybe the maceman and the remaining three trebs from Roskilde via galleon transport.
Assuming Cyrus doesnt crush Haithabu on the next turn, we should then harass his stack or stacks near the city with cats and trebs. If we can weaken them enough then we should go on the offensive. The key is to try to trade 1 mace for 1 rifleman, with the idea that we lose the first mace on the attack but the second mace finishes the rifleman off.
Of course all of this will be heavily dependent on whether more Cyrus or Saladin troops show up.
As far as back in the homeland, I few suggestions/comments:
Khosian has a workboat that is setting on fish, but not working the fish. This one has been missed for a while.
Take a quick look at general tile management for optimal usage.
Need to get missionaries out to Dover and Brighton. The latter will allow culture expansion to get deer.
Anyway, thats the suggestions. Thoughts?
