Viking Destiny (1066) scenario on Emperor

Morningcalm

Morningcalm

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Halp! This is so hard! The enemies on Emperor have so many troops and they never seem to run out. As Harold Godwinson I was promptly invaded from the northeast, east, and south, and conquered soundly every time. The huscarls are good units, but can't stand up to crossbows, catapults, and those ridiculously fast berserkers.

Does anyone have suggestions on how to win? :(
 
I beat it pretty easily in about 40 turns on emp as the English - those first couple turns were exhilarating! I had no idea what was coming:p. Lost York but garrisoned the city south of it and held the northern invasion off there, was able to hold off the eastern invasion with almost all of my troops so the southern (French) attack took three cities in as many turns. Eventually the eastern Vikings took a couple cities, but I was able to hold them off for the duration after that.

My advice:

1. Get those CS allies asap! I was dumb and spent the starting money on workers; would have been much easier to defend if I had some longbows or other extra units from the CSs. Seriously, get as many as you can.
2. Micro your pop! It's tough with almost no terrain improvements and minimal production tiles, so any city with a workshop should have the engineer specialist going asap; once I did that it got much more manageable. Use those cities, as well as the ones with decent hammer tiles to the north and east to keep up with units and build the UB.
3. Housecarls are great, but swords take half as much time: build them and upgrade! Oh, and horsemen just get eaten alive, don't bother with too many of those.
4. Play defensively! Don't bother trying to regain the cities taken in the first few turns (unless you see an easy opportunity). You only need 6 of the UBs, and it will be more costly in terms of units to make an offensive, so it's not with it IMO.

Hope this helps:)
 
Just played on Prince as Harold Godwinson and won, the first few turns were quite exhilarating on even that difficulty level (though towards the end the enemy virtually never attacked, and I amassed a huge army of ally-CS units, winning easily).

Thanks for the tips! :) I guess it might help to know which cities are eligible to build the Shire Courts, framing a strategy for each leader around the locations seems key since the entire British peninsula will be fought over. I completely didn't see the upgrade strat for swordsmen, I will try that. XD

I find the main problem for me is I can't kill off the huge starting armies that invade, and I end up losing lots and lots of cities. I've been spending Great Generals on Citadels as well as for the combat bonus so hopefully I get better. I got pummelled on my recent try about 20 turns from the end. All my Shire Court cities were taken--the NW ones by Blue, South by William (Red), east by Brown (Sveyn). Sigh. :(

Also, what about Deity? Have you beaten it on Deity yet? And which leader do you think is the best to win the scenario?
 
It was my first scenario ever and I took the challenge on Deity. Ended up with Denmark (spawning far east) and I found it to be rather easy and I'm definitely not a Deity all-star. Finished in 53 turns. On the other hand, I snagged London as the english AI had already built it's 6 UB and it was probably 2-3 turns ahead of a loss to england making me think it's quite possible as england as well :P.

Seeing how my game turned out positionning-wise, I would suggest you to consider defending one primary flank in which you will build your 6 buildings and then rush building the doomsday book in London. The doomsday book can be built in 3 turns if you buy forest tiles and spam cut wood with 4-5 workers so the biggest challenge is building the 6 doomsday w/e building in other cities.

The NW flank of London seems to have the best production lands (and some valueable iron for defense units) and the most cities that are at 8+ tiles from london so I would likely concentrate my building production there, using every other city to make crossbows or LS/catapults as iron allows. Make sure watch your iron use so that you don't end up with the resource penalty at a bad moment.

Focusing building production there means having your most defense there, even if it means losing a couple cities to the south and east. On offense, I didn't discover any CS so I used my gold to either purchase workshop (to increase the production of doomsday building) and once to rush a berserker on the island rather than having to wait for it to travel 7 turns.

I might try and respawn it over and over 'till I get to play as Harold. As far as offense goes, I would think that the one to the east (denmark) and the one to the south are probably the best 2 contenders to a Deity win because the progression from the north has so many cities on the way to london that chances are you will have lost to a Deity Harold well before you make it to snag london. In my game, the guy to the north had the biggest army and lands throughout all of the game yet we first met when I stopped my progression towards the NW (had picked my 6th city atr 8+ tiles) and I have already had london for a solid 25 turns at the time.

I'm guessing the defense is probably much more stressful though :s, still Deity felt pretty easy as Denmark. Much easier than any Deity game I've played since patch.

Got 3 achievements from that one alone -_-

*edit* after 15 resets I still didn't spawn on defense yet so I just give up and wish you the best of luck~. On the other hand though, I will retract about the offensive positions. The one that spawns further north has troops starting off on the continent right away so it can definitely compensate for the fact that london is sightly further. Plus he can spend 500g to CSs and get like 8 free units instantly. That's pretty solid. So it is definitely Deity doable on any of the offensive civs.

*edit* ok I feel stupid now I found how you can actually select your civ so I might try Deity as defending harold later tonight.
Ok the Deity defense is definitely way harder. You begin w 4 units and all 3 AIs are starting right beside your lands rather than having to travel for ~6 turns like I had to when playing on offense. I settled a GG into a citadel and it really cleared a pack by itself, it was definitely more than I could've gotten out of a GG with these few units spread. But I'm definitely not to the point of doing this perfectly. This is very damn rough
 
Tried it again on Immortal. Though it went worse at the opening (there's a fourth flank) I won at turn 33 by following my own advice above. Some observations:

Agree with Deau, the northern flank is the most important: they can get the UBs out in ~10 turns, concentrate your workers up there.
The third and fourth CSs in the north aren't that useful because of the difficulty getting the units past York, so I wouldn't bother with them.
The eastern flank can be held pretty easily with a couple units and the first GG - other units should go toward the other flanks.

Maybe I'll try Deity next time, this scenario is fun.:)
 
I've been messing around with this today as Norway.

The first thing I noticed was that the 4 move catapults sitting beside the land in the water could land, move 1 tile, set up, attack. very fun.

You get the biggest army by far as Norway, since you have cities all around the island. first turn ally with Scotland nets you a sizable CS army right away. float a scout over to Ireland and you can grab the CS's over there. Of course, I'm still trying to get my gpt above 20... Very slow to grow the cash and barbs are only worth 16g.

It seems easy enough to grab the first 6 cities. getting a few workers onto the english area seems to be key for a few cities that have forests and/or iron.

After that, try not to lose any units and plow straight to London. 6 or so crossbows, 3-4 cat's 5-6 Berserkers and 10 or so pike will make it easy to walk into London. You get a few horses as well, but menh.

I did figure out that England can't see most of the CSs, so letting them ally Nothumberland and then pillaging the horses/cows/etc there was too easy. (they only have a few horses) I mulched the CS ally Longbows fairly easily given they try to keep them in the cities. Berserkers rushed the distance when needed.
 
Tried this as France, king. Left hook, ignoring Vikings until London. No problem engineering the final wonder.
 
After taking your advice, I'm doing well as Hardrada on Emperor. The problem is, the Shire Court counter is bugged. I have 5 Shire courts right now, but the counter only says 2/6. Any idea what causes this bug and how to fix it? Otherwise I just have to hope it doesn't impact the victory at all. :(

EDIT: Looks like it went back up to 6/6 when I captured London. Odd. They should fix the bugged counter, but it doesn't impact victory, it seems. :) Won on Emperor! Wheee!
 
This is really easy as England on king, 23 turns while pushing France back into sea. The third attackers, Vikings, don't arrive until ~turn 12. I got a little lucky when they took some city near London and then ran toward the seamingly undefended capitol without waiting to heal. Murder bows were just arriving from CS along with xbows ... Slaughter. Defended north and played cat and mouse with France. Never lost Dover or Winchester. This could be done sooner, about the time it takes to produce an engineer.
Edit: As the Vikings, a person can go and take York off the Norwegians ...
 
How on earth did you make all 6 Shire Courts and the Domesday book in 23 turns? It takes about 9 turns to make the book itself, let alone fend off all those attacks while making an army. O_o

Me want to know! I finished my Emperor win very late, about 15 turns from the end.
 
England seems to be really easy, even for Deity. I won in 35 turns. I actually made 7 shires in that attempt, due to losing one book city partway through.

Though, I don't think the AI was smart enough to handle the 'where can a book be made' question. I built the 7th shire (6th for the win) in the city down in the south west. The Normans never bothered taking that city, even though it was one of a few cities near them that they needed to make the shire.

The Norwegians took York right away as expected, same for the Danes and Ipswitch/etc. If I had been able to shift the muderbows over in time, I might have saved the big forested city by there. Or at the very least gotten a swordsman out of it in time.

I bought the upper murderbow CS ally on the first turn. I was able to sink an invader and hurt others before they even moved to attack. After that, it was easy pickings and I saved the whole north west. The Norwegians sent berserkers over the hills, but I kept them back. The eventually got the city below York, but that was my mistake rather than their ability. It worked out though, since the Danes kept fighting them for it.

In the south, I focused on killing the Norman knights. Blitz? here's a hundred arrows. I lost most of the south west cities below London eventually, but they couldn't get by the Oxford/London line. I did repel their invasion of Dover pretty easy. the starting units by London is all you need (plus a crossbow). Though, eventually the Danes blitzed it and therefore the Normans/Danes fought over it.

One thing the game doesn't tell you is that as the english, you get taxes every 10 turns. So I saved my cash the whole time and on turns 0, 10, 20, 30, 31 got a new CS ally. I went Murder bows first, then one from Ireland and two in the north. (got Knights from the north, but the game was already over)

Not all CSs are the same. In the english Game, Northumberland gave me 3 knights. in the norway game, they only had 2 horsemen. That might be a timing thing, but I'm wondering if it's meant to be that way.

Scotland is the best CS after the murder bow CSs. You get a big army from them, so it's worth it to send a scout north through the hills to find them. (right north of Northumberland. You just haven't met them as England; but the Norwegians have them at the start)

For the Irish CSs, Meath then Dublin seem to be best. You have to watch out for the weak ones. They might have a few more units, but you'll have to upgrade them. (bows and spears) Dublin/Meath seemed to have 2 bows and one pike each.

One thing you might try as the English is to get Scotland early, then send their units north and invade the Norwegians. They have cities all over that area.

I'm thinking the Danes have the absolute worst start potential in the scenario. I haven't tried them yet, but given the Norwegians get a tonne of starting cities to generate gold + have easy access to cities you can actually build the shires in; the Normans get Blitz Knights + easy access to London/core production cities; Danemark is looking like the real challenge.
 
How on earth did you make all 6 Shire Courts and the Domesday book in 23 turns? It takes about 9 turns to make the book itself, let alone fend off all those attacks while making an army.
Click to expand...
A workshop will produce an engineer ~turn 19. Some cities produced a unit before the court. Plenty of time if third attacker is slow. (Maybe the Vikings went for CS first?) The Book can also be engineered while London is still in resistance. (If not playing England. Or maybe you sac London and retake it.)

There are three CSs far north. Two have wads of iron. Its nice fighting HCs/long-swords with resource penalty.

Edit:
I'm thinking the Danes have the absolute worst start potential in the scenario. I haven't tried them yet, but given the Norwegians get a tonne of starting cities to generate gold + have easy access to cities you can actually build the shires in; the Normans get Blitz Knights + easy access to London/core production cities; Danemark is looking like the real challenge.
Click to expand...
At king I just swooped up York and killed the Norskis by turn 10. Knocked off a couple CSs north.
 
MadDjinn said:
I'm thinking the Danes have the absolute worst start potential in the scenario. I haven't tried them yet, but given the Norwegians get a tonne of starting cities to generate gold + have easy access to cities you can actually build the shires in; the Normans get Blitz Knights + easy access to London/core production cities; Danemark is looking like the real challenge.
Click to expand...

My first Deity spawn was as Danemark and I found it much, much easier than the english/defense setup. That being said, I didn't take the proper CS allies on my defense attempt and it was much too costful on the opening.
 
Deau said:
My first Deity spawn was as Danemark and I found it much, much easier than the english/defense setup. That beeing said, I didn't take the proper CS allies on my defense attempt and it was much too costful on the opening.
Click to expand...

yeah, I'm playing a denmark game right now, and ever though you start further away with your forces, I had a straight shot at London and took it by turn 13. Now the game is more about keeping the normans away from London and slowly eating up the further English cities for the shires.

The Norwegians seem to be more putzy when you aren't playing them or as the English. They take 1-2 cities and then wander north to fight the CSs. Not sure they understand the scenario rules.

I still think the english side is easier than the Danes, but not by much right now. It's really easy to blitz into London and you can get the Ironworks/National Treasury up faster than the others. (just delay the attacks until you finish them)

Of course, you're never getting a CS ally with them. The Normans can get over to ireland eventually (30g/CS makes it worth sending the trireme) but I think a rushed Knight is more useful.

I didn't try a London Blitz when I tried them, so failed hard at turn 28 when the English won. Of course, the AI is doing massive stacking of units in the scenario. they really need to fix that.
 
What about playing as Normandy? Those southern cities have sucky production for the Shire Courts, and capturing London as them is rather tough since you don't get longswordsmen.

Also, at the start of the scenario, money is limited, esp. as England (despite the shire courts' money rolling in periodically). Do you spend the money on CSes or workshops right away for the Engineer in 19 turns? And do you need to set the cities with workshops to a Great Person focus to generate an Engineer, or does the engineer just pop up of its own accord?
 
MadDjinn said:
Of course, you're never getting a CS ally with them. The Normans can get over to ireland eventually (30g/CS makes it worth sending the trireme) but I think a rushed Knight is more useful.

I didn't try a London Blitz when I tried them, so failed hard at turn 28 when the English won. Of course, the AI is doing massive stacking of units in the scenario. they really need to fix that.
Click to expand...

Yeah the Deity game as any of the vikings kinda imply that you rush the crap out of london or else you will lose to the english completing the book within 20 to 30 turns from the start.

Seeing how the UU of the Normans have blitz though it should be rather easy to rush london as the normans, for so long as you know where it's at. Playing on defense, I watched a Norman knight take a city w/ defense 12 by itself -_- like 3 attacks in the same turn and done.
 
Deau said:
Yeah the Deity game as any of the vikings kinda imply that you rush the crap out of london or else you will lose to the english completing the book within 20 to 30 turns from the start.

Seeing how the UU of the Normans have blitz though it should be rather easy to rush london as the normans, for so long as you know where it's at. Playing on defense, I watched a Norman knight take a city w/ defense 12 by itself -_- like 3 attacks in the same turn and done.
Click to expand...

yeah, pretty much on the rush. Just finished the game as Denmark... I still had ~18 turns left and was trying to decide if I wanted to take the last few cities or just keep All of them and end the game. I had every city except the 2 in the SW. (and of course excepting the Norman and Norwegian starting cities) It was really easy to blitz down to london then straight across (for blocking the Normans) then back up and finally off to York to ensure there was no one behind me. Constant pick up of new iron == constant berserkers. (One every 2-3 turns from the capital)
 
What about playing as Normandy? Those southern cities have sucky production for the Shire Courts, and capturing London as them is rather tough since you don't get longswordsmen.

Also, at the start of the scenario, money is limited, esp. as England (despite the shire courts' money rolling in periodically). Do you spend the money on CSes or workshops right away for the Engineer in 19 turns? And do you need to set the cities with workshops to a Great Person focus to generate an Engineer, or does the engineer just pop up of its own accord?
Click to expand...
Normandy is a little slower. There are two viable strategies to stopping England. One, capture London early where the Domesday Book is built. Two, capturing enough cities so that the Domesday book can't be built. IIRC there are 10 shire locations. So capturing 5 early is necessary. Normandy is not well placed to do either. Norway, on king, is really fast. ~34 turns or so. IMHO, Denmark is slower than Norway if only since shires must be built before controlling London is necessary. (The wonder can be engineered on capture of London.)

As England money->CSs. The 2 west are nice, both give murders bows.
 
Tried Normandy Immortal today, got trashed.

I captured London early, and moved upward to Stafford, but Brown took Dover (Southeast), one of my most productive cities. Turns out the only city I had that could produce a Domesday Shire book at that point was one of the northwestern ones, I got it made, but at 27 turns to the end I realized I wouldn't win. I had to constantly defend against huscarl/horseman/murder bow attacks by England from the west (Bristol city and Powyn CS), and they took one of my cities. Barbarians spawned in the SE of my easternmost French city and destroyed my horsies etc. Brown then took 2 of my eastern cities. I called it a day.

For me, I just found I couldn't produce troops fast enough, or survive long enough, to stem the tide of invasion, so my offensive got cut short and turned into a defensive (losing me the game). Also, Norman knights' Blitz simply cannot destroy the Berserkers, who with tons of strength and speed are far too deadly to counter. Motte and Bailies for defensive purposes would stem them more, but it takes too long to make them I find, and the swordsmen making them often got killed. :(

Anyone able to offer help? I wanted to ally with Powyn for murder bows, but England allied with them before I got to them. T_T
 
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