I won on Monarch by ransoming cities back to their previous owners.
The key is to only let your longboats travel on ocean, because enemy triremes cannot enter these squares, and thus sink your longboats before they reach their destination.
I went for optics (for the shipyard), feudalism (vassalage) and theology (theocracy). I then had Stavanger churning out longboats and all other cities producing beserkers. Whenever I reached the coasts of Britain, Ireland or Europe I made sure my longboats made a full stop on the adjacent ocean square so they wouldn't be sitting ducks for enemy triremes. After having sacked and ransomed the city, I usually loaded my berserkers onto the boats again and sailed them to the nearest ocean square for healing. This only worked in the first part of the game and mostly during my ravage of England, Ireland and The Netherlands. Later I would sent huge invasion forces of 10 ships loaded with 20 bloodthirsty Berserkers, often accompaigned with a great general. These massive forces were used to storm the great cities of Francia, e.g. Ghent, Chantres, Courtrai, Rouen (never reached Paris though, I came close on two large raids
) These large francish cities gave up to 2400 gold in ransom.
After having researched theocracy, I researched three treasures, but only found one. It was in Ireland, and I brought it home to Bergen for 5000 gold. At the end of the game, practically all of the british cities had been sacked by viking raids, and then ransomed back again. This was true for northen and central Ireland as well. In Europe West francia had been destroyed by East Francia (by the way, am I the only one who wonders why East Francia is located west of West Francia??), and several cities had ben visited by my raging armies.
I only held one enemy city, Canterbury, because the Channel Strait is "coast squares", so I needed a safe port in these waters. It also functioned as an attack base for a few raids on the European coast. It was later recaptured by Wessex and then I took it back and ransomed it to Wessex.
The only unit I ever built was the beserker, apart from longboats. One funny thing though: I did have one of my starting four swordsmen throughout the game. He ravaged Ireland, had insanely many upgrades, outlived several beserker warbuddies, and was the founder and protector of my only treasure
The key is to only let your longboats travel on ocean, because enemy triremes cannot enter these squares, and thus sink your longboats before they reach their destination.
I went for optics (for the shipyard), feudalism (vassalage) and theology (theocracy). I then had Stavanger churning out longboats and all other cities producing beserkers. Whenever I reached the coasts of Britain, Ireland or Europe I made sure my longboats made a full stop on the adjacent ocean square so they wouldn't be sitting ducks for enemy triremes. After having sacked and ransomed the city, I usually loaded my berserkers onto the boats again and sailed them to the nearest ocean square for healing. This only worked in the first part of the game and mostly during my ravage of England, Ireland and The Netherlands. Later I would sent huge invasion forces of 10 ships loaded with 20 bloodthirsty Berserkers, often accompaigned with a great general. These massive forces were used to storm the great cities of Francia, e.g. Ghent, Chantres, Courtrai, Rouen (never reached Paris though, I came close on two large raids
) These large francish cities gave up to 2400 gold in ransom. After having researched theocracy, I researched three treasures, but only found one. It was in Ireland, and I brought it home to Bergen for 5000 gold. At the end of the game, practically all of the british cities had been sacked by viking raids, and then ransomed back again. This was true for northen and central Ireland as well. In Europe West francia had been destroyed by East Francia (by the way, am I the only one who wonders why East Francia is located west of West Francia??), and several cities had ben visited by my raging armies.
I only held one enemy city, Canterbury, because the Channel Strait is "coast squares", so I needed a safe port in these waters. It also functioned as an attack base for a few raids on the European coast. It was later recaptured by Wessex and then I took it back and ransomed it to Wessex.
The only unit I ever built was the beserker, apart from longboats. One funny thing though: I did have one of my starting four swordsmen throughout the game. He ravaged Ireland, had insanely many upgrades, outlived several beserker warbuddies, and was the founder and protector of my only treasure
