Viking Scenario

[grizlob]

I just finished the viking scenario and had great fun as norway. During the game, I noticed the following:

- the amphibious promotion seems broken, I got it with almost all berserkers and the -10 is still listed when attacking from embarked. Or maybe it is working and the negative modifier is only listed as a bug? anybody experienced the same?

- naval units are way to weak against embarked land units! once entering the mediterrenian, all longships are blocked by knights and get useless, as they cannot destroy a unit in less turns it takes for the unit to level up. This is both bad game design and unlogic, since every land unit should be way weaker when in transport boats, regardless of the age. All naval units should cut through embarked land units like a hot knife through butter or at least sink them in 2 turns regardless of the land units' strength.

- the cenario is way too easy! I played on emperor and finished with almost triple the score then the highest AI. Raiding, 30+ trade routes and religion grant so many VP, even if you don't get the admirals you still run away in all disciplines without thinking twice. The AI also never found Iceland or Greenland, I left one spot open for them to settle intentionally until the end of the game. Is it any better on Immortal/Deity?

In the end, I still liked the scenario more then your average playthrough, since the unsatisfactory diplomatic system is not used, which leaves you to focus on war (without the dreaded war weariness and warmonger penalty) and competition for VPs, knowing your friends and enemies.
Also, I like the limitation to 100 turns which gives you the feeling of urgency for everything that you decide, since it has to pay off in the remaining time. This would be even better, if the AI would give a harder challenge competing for VPs. Last, I think the three viking nations should have more differences, giving other uniques maybe. Still, I fancy the better immersion, since all the units stay in the same age and you can have epic battles with all sorts of medival units, where in normal games I seldom use a battering ram.
So thats my thoughts on the scenario, what about yours? RAGNAR LOTHBROK 4 pres!

 

[AppleDumplingHead]

I agree disembarked land units are too powerful defensively at sea. I saw the AI floating them around the second day after release and started using them myself to create choke points on island map. Ever tried to kill a floating infantry with battleships and a destroyer? ugh. They should be decidedly weak, unless a leader has a UA to make them a little stronger. So, yeh, not like civilians that just get run over, but not competitive with a water-specific unit.

 

[VicRatlhead5199]

Played Sweden myself. Settled a lot of eastern Europe and earned a ton of VP that way. Felt like barbarians held me back more than AI civs anrd I still tripled the second place score on emperor.

I noticed the same thing about embarked units. I like that they have defense but they should get slaughtered by ships. Funny thing is my longships had aa easier time killing Byzantine quadremes than embarked knights. Something way off about that.

The AI was also able to shoot my embarked units when they were stacked with ships. I'm assuming its set up to hit the strongest target in the stack? Just weird.

Still a fun scenario. Wouldn't mind playing Denmark or Norway and spend more time conquering the west. There'd be less nuisance barbs that way. Felt like half my army was tied up with barb hunting most of the game.

 

[Gamewizard]

It is fun, but like the base game, there are problems. You mentioned the problem longships have with embarked units. 5 or 6 hits to kill one unit just makes it too tedious to sail through the narrow passages.

Playing as Denmark is hard mode since you have hostile borders. You can't really go on the offensive until you have siege because of rough terrain and good encampment placement for the French. Playing as Sweden was most fun for me because it challenges you to settle barbarian lands.

My biggest gripe, however, is the lack of interesting promotions for the berserkers. Being able to ignore cliffs is great, except there are 0 cliffs on the map.

 

[VicRatlhead5199]

Maybe as Denmark work east a bit and conquer the two CSs over there then work on sacking France and Britain?

Good encampment placement slowed me down big time with Preslev in the Sweden game. Byzantium had conquered them and spammed knights like mad. I had a rough time invading by land because of the encampment in the mountain choke point and he had knights carpeting the Black Sea.

 

[grizlob]

Played Sweden myself. Settled a lot of eastern Europe and earned a ton of VP that way. Felt like barbarians held me back more than AI civs anrd I still tripled the second place score on emperor.

I noticed the same thing about embarked units. I like that they have defense but they should get slaughtered by ships. Funny thing is my longships had aa easier time killing Byzantine quadremes than embarked knights. Something way off about that.

The AI was also able to shoot my embarked units when they were stacked with ships. I'm assuming its set up to hit the strongest target in the stack? Just weird.

Still a fun scenario. Wouldn't mind playing Denmark or Norway and spend more time conquering the west. There'd be less nuisance barbs that way. Felt like half my army was tied up with barb hunting most of the game.

I also noticed that as very weird. The naval units should work as a protection to the embarked land units when sieging a city by sea. All naval aspects of the game feel somehow unfinished, which is sad since exploring and conquering by sea allways was the best part of civ for me.

Maybe I'll try Sweden and conquer east by land the next time. Still some place left to see in the scenario then!

 

[stallheim]

I was very confused by the religious options in this viking scenario, at some point I wanted to convert to Christianity (2 cities had it) so I could unlock the rest of the civics tree, but I was unable too. Has anyone been able to convert to christianity to unlock the civics tree or is this not possible without founding a real religion?

 

[DWilson]

I think you convert by pillaging holy sites (maybe monasteries as well).

Also, my favorite part of this pack is the map.

 

[chazzycat]

I was very confused by the religious options in this viking scenario, at some point I wanted to convert to Christianity (2 cities had it) so I could unlock the rest of the civics tree, but I was unable too. Has anyone been able to convert to christianity to unlock the civics tree or is this not possible without founding a real religion?

yes just keep pillaging monasteries & holy sites and eventually it will happen

I am finding this scenario pretty enjoyable, but would agree with the criticisms above re: boats vs embarked units. I am playing as Sweden and settled Russia, now conquering southward towards Constantinople and having fun. Should have good replayability as well...the three viking factions have pretty unique paths to victory due to the geography of europe.

 

[Siptah]

Yes, the re playability of the scenario is quite good. And really not because of the abilities of the leaders - it's just for geographical reason and the thus different challenges that you face. As Sweden (which I found the be the middle difficulty) you mostly settle the east, fight barbarians and conquer parts of the byzantine empire. As Norway (which I found to be the easiest), you build a large navy and conquer Britain and go for south from there on. I actually conquered the Iberian peninsula next and then went northwards. This was my round in which I pillaged the most. Denmark felt much harder and less freedom of doing what you want to do. I felt pressured to invade Francia as soon as possible and wipe it out. Really like this scenario (the Poland one less, but it's still lots of fun). I hope future civ 6 DLC will include a scenario when introducing new leaders/civs and they are of the same quality and replayability.

 

[Bowman in a Bad Mood]

You'll be surprised as Denmark that you're already in a good position to conquer Britain on turn 1 with your three berserkers (supported by the two in your cities following up) and boat.