The Scandinavian way, or: The Saga of King Erik the Great

[Saint-Louis]

This thread contains the Saga of Erik the Great which was found in the city of Lund some years ago. It tells us all about the wars he waged and deeds he did.

The game was played using the 1100 AD scenario and the Medieval Europe Mod v.1.1.

I played the lowest level since I'm new to CIV III.

 

[Saint-Louis]

Here is an overview of the Saga.

Chapter I: The rise of Erik (1100 - 1138)
Chapter II: The first scandinavian war (1138 - 1170)

 

[Saint-Louis]

This is only a placeholder where I will post suggestions about the scenario and the mod, be it as a reminder for a personal change for another game or as inspiration for the great designer of MEM.

1. The Knaar was a Viking transport ship, very stable and used for overseas expeditions. It would be nice to have it in the game, as 0/1/4 with transport capacities of four. The longship could be reduced then to transport capacity one.
2. An important export good of the Viking ages were Whale ivory and Whale train oil. Maybe this could be made a luxury resource. Having a naval luxury resource would be nice.

 

[Saint-Louis]

Chapter I: The rise of King Erik

This is the Saga of King Erik IX. Jedvardsson.

In 1100, the year of Our birth(1), the kingdom of Sweden was just another kingdom in Northern Europe. Our father Jedvard was of kingly blood, born and baptized on the British Isles(2), and he taught Us a lot about the new religion which replaced the old Gods whose time were gone forever. We saw the death pictures of Thor and Odin and thought about the new times to come.(3) We began to follow the path of God from my very young age.

By 1130 We were in full bloom and became, after the death of my father, a potent lagsman.(4) Then news arrived at Our "Gard" that the king had died and several lagsmen claimed the crown. We were one of them but We knew that God had chosen Us to bring the gospel and the unity in Our land. God acts through his king and there should not be any more quarrelling about succession. (5)

So We went to council and presented Our case. With the help of some priests from Skara We were chosen king. All the other lagsmen helped me mounting Our horse.(6)

In Our first speech to my people We made clear that all the quarrelling should come to an end now. Unity had to be achieved.

It grieved Us that Scandinavia was - although we spoke almost the same tongue - was not united under one crown. So We rode through the country (7) to recruit free men. After eight years We had Our army positioned in the forest of Skane near the city of Lund. We asked the King of Denmark if he would be my vassall what he unfortunately declined.

Footnotes:

Spoiler :

(1) While we know that Saint Erik, patron saint of Sweden, died in 1160 we don't know when he was born.
(2) Only from the name Jedvard or Edward, historians derive Erik's cultural background. Many Scandinavian dwelled in England and were baptized there at that time. Nevertheless, there are no sources about Erik's father.
(3) Regardless of some historical novels, Christianity was a religion for innovative people at the time in Scandinavia. Conservative-minded people stayed pagan. Christianity was never forced from the outside but chosen from the inside, though often by bloody means.
(4) Lags were regional entities in Sweden and the lagsman were a kind of judges and leader of the Things (the council of the free farmers).
(5) Most historians agree today that without Christianity the Scandinavian kingdoms never could have been established. Christianity brought the justification for throne, by anointment and crowning.
(6) Which was a common symbol in the medieval to show the lawfulness of one's reign.
(7) The early kings in Scandinavia didn't have a stable seat somewhere but went around the country quite a lot. It was their duty to speak law in the country.

 

[Saint-Louis]

Chapter II: The first scandinavian war

We are aware that some of Our audience don't know much about the nature of us Swedes. We are a fighting people. Because We stopped all the fights and feuds in Our reign the men had become war-thirsty. When We came back from Roskilde and Our visit to the king, We told the army what had happened. A roar rose and Our finest men packed their weapons and went to the outskirts of the city of Lund. The Danes were not amused about that because - as we all know - an army is always hungry. And which farmer will decline the soldier - who will never lay down his weapons - some food.

So the Danes declared war on Us in 1138. Personally leading the attack We brought Our four catapults in line and cut the enemy into pieces. Then Our mounted knights moved behind and cleared the enemies out.

But in the meantime there was trouble in the north. Some of the Vikings had returned from their yearly journey to the British Isles and marched now to Orebro, the great Swedish mining city. So We fortified Lund and asked the Bishop of Lund to build a wooden cathedral (some call it a temple). Our main army marched north to face the Norwegian threat.

The war in Norway was hard. One moves very slowly in that rough mountains. We contemplated making use of some of Our newly built longships but decided against it. They are just too small and We still hadn't any knorres built.(9) So We kept Our armies together and marched to Oslo and from there to Kaupang and Stavanger. As we all know the Norwegian are hard-nosed fellows and so there was a lot of unrest on the way. But due to Our mounted knights, a novelty in Scandinavia at that time, there was not so much serious resistance.

In 1168 Norway was conquered and We had Our invasion force ready to conquer the small isle of Bornholm. The main city of that isle Gamleburg is built on top of a hill and thus highly defended. We attacked with two of my experienced beserk units and saw the blood of many good men and even friends shed. So We thought again and sent an envoy to Roskilde asking for peace.

But peace has his price and in 1170 after hard negotiations, We acquired Bornholm, the city of Lindholm in the north of Jütland as well as the Scottish Isles from Denmark. The king agreed reluctantly wanting to secure his now reduced kingdom. He should have kissed my ring instead of being pride and standing in my way.

But peace was there and it gave Us some time to re-collect. Some monks of the new Cistercian order had arrived in our realm and suggested the founding of monasteries throughout the land. The first one was built in Skara until 1190 and it gave Our people a lot of inspiration.(10)

We also began to trade finest furs to Venice and Poland and received quite a sum of gold and wheat in return which was not only needed for the holy sacrament(11) but also stored in huge granaries for the bad times. We constructed Our personal library and gave some of Our finest Wise men access to it.

So Sweden prospered and in the meantime We transferred Our army to the city of Lindholm from where Roskilde, the seat of the Danish king, can be reached easily...

Footnotes:

Spoiler :

(8) Lund was one of the first episcopal sees in Scandinavia. In 1156 it became a metropolitan see thereby being the most important church.
(9) The Knorre was the Viking transport ship which also found Newfoundland. It would be nice to have it in the mod. ;-)
(10) In fact the Cistercians were very active in Sweden. Since their monastic rule prescribes eating of fish, and bread, and fish, and still more fish, they always need lakes in their domain. So Sweden was optimal for them. They also brought cultural knowledge and agricultural methods to Scandinavia through their centralised structure which required all the monasteries to be dependents of the mother monastery in Clairvaux.
(11) Historians argue that the Sacrament of the Eucharist which requires wheat and wine everywhere Christianity went had a big cultural impact in the Medievals. Both resources are originally mediteranean but were produced to their northern limits. They gave Europe a feeling of being a economic unity something which the muslim or other regions lacked of. (cf. Mitterauer, Warum Europa?, München 2003)

A map made at the beginning of the second Scandinavian war (coming in chapter III):

Spoiler :

 

[Yoda Power]

This is only a placeholder where I will post suggestions about the scenario and the mod, be it as a reminder for a personal change for another game or as inspiration for the great designer of MEM.

1. The Knaar was a Viking transport ship, very stable and used for overseas expeditions. It would be nice to have it in the game, as 0/1/4 with transport capacities of four. The longship could be reduced then to transport capacity one.
2. An important export good of the Viking ages were Whale ivory and Whale train oil. Maybe this could be made a luxury resource. Having a naval luxury resource would be nice.

It's always best that you post any suggestions in the mod thread. That way both myself and ED sees it sooner, and other people can give their thoughts too.

Anyway.

1) You can always add more units if you want to, but we had to draw a line at some point. One of the strenths of this mod is it's use of few but very high quality flavour units. The naval warfare is also very balanced at the moment, and I fear such an addition would weaken the balance.

2) You can't have naval lux or strategical resources in CivIII, since you can't build roads on water.

Good luck with your story.

 

[Saint-Louis]

Thanks for the reply.

Didn't know about the limitations of naval ressources. It's logical, though.

I don't think to continue this story. Serf level is just too easy so the story would be boring. It's now 1320 in the game and 4 or 5 Kingdoms declared war (probably due to my past aggressions) but I can hold them off easily.