Rhye's and Fall of Civilization - Viking strategy
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Based on Monarch difficluty
by Amigov
So, as Vikings you have to complete 3 historical goals:
1. Have 5000 gold in 1500
2. Be the first European civ to found a city in America
3. Have sunk 25 ships
The tough part is actually the 1st goal. On Monarch, most European Civs fall behind in the Astronomy research race even with the slow tempo required by your 1st goal; and once you've accomplished these two, there will always be ships to sink!
1. Initial moves, settlement
I myself have always liked to settle in starting location but with Vikings, this is definitely a poor choice. 1 step SE, 1 step E - this is a much better place for your capital, Sundsvall. (Of course, this choice radically changes history, as you'll operate from Sweden rather than Norway). With your other 2 settlers, found Lullea (just S of copper resource - a great spot!) and Kalmar - beside the lake S, so that it has in its area the 2 fish resource and the pork. With your first move, before you have any cities yet, switch Civics to Hereditary Rule, Vassalage, and Serfdom. You definitely need the third, as you need resources improved, cottages built and forests chopped ASAP. Having said that, it would be wise to leave at least 1 forest in each city's parameter for health reasons. Kalmar is going to need workshops for proper production once you've chopped the forests. Build a Worker first in each city and then start Forges! In Kalmar, you might prefer to build a Library or Monument first so that the city expands and acquires all potential resources. After the Forge, I built The Colossus in Lullea but it's probably not essential, though it gives a good bonus. Markets are a must in all 3 cities early on! Later on, when you have enough population, hire Engineers and Merchants. A Golden Age will come handy.
2. Exploration
With 2 galleys and 3 axemen, you might help yourself at tribal villages. There is one on your path in Sweden, 1 in Denmark, 1 in Scotland and 1 in Ireland. The fourth especially sometimes gives a free tech and sometimes this is Compass! After you've checked these, it's time to make use of your unique power and do some pillage! Where though?
Medieval Europe does not have much to offer - not any single improvement north of the Alps. So, land with your Axemen somewhere in Poland and go straight for the Byzantine Empire. Near Athens, you have a Pasture, a Mine, and a Winery. Pikemen, too. If your units survive, go visit for similar reasons Italy.
3. Research and Diplomacy
You need to save for your treasury but you also need 3 vital techs: Compass, Civil Cervice, and Monotheism. The 1st two give you your unique building and unit. Go straight for them and then freeze your Research on 10 %, focused on Astronomy through Calendar and Optics. Don't worry, you'll be the first there, unless you make mistakes in other spheres.
Meanwhile, other medieval civs spawn. The Netherlands will offer you Open borders immediately; you've got to please France to do the same, and you really need those trade routes. Buy Monotheism from somebody: you'll get that gold back later. By that time, you'll most probably have Christianity in 1 of your cities, so say goodbye to good old pagan days and convert. Time to change civics too and better do it in 1 turn of Anarchy. Adopt Organized Religion and //Slavery// - you have improved most of your land and you have a lazy population that needs to be whipped!
When Russia spawns, I strongly recommend being on good terms with them. Later on, when you squeeze that Open Borders deal, its numerous cities will mean numerous trade routes enhanced by your Trading Posts in a period when France adopts Mercantilism and shuts the old routes.
4. 2 more cities
Whipping means unhappines, unhappines means trouble... You have 1 whale and 1 silver resource to the west. You can have them with a single city but better build two: Bergen and Oslo (in this turn). Insist on Windmills. Once it expands, Oslo will get you a 2nd pig resource in Denmark, and you'll already have a 2nd Deer resource in Lullea. Trade for wheat from France (or cow from Russia) and wine from Spain.
You should have at least 1 GP now, so trigger your Golden Age unless you've done it earlier to avoid anarchy when changing civis.
5. Time for war!
Once the Ottomans spawn, you know you don't have much time left to accumulate your gold. However, by now you should already have quite a lot, so a little pillage will do the rest. Again: where?
The obvious choice should be Germany. It's nearest, it has a lot of improvements stretched on a wide territory difficult to protect, unlike Amsterdam, and it's definitely weaker than England and your trading partner France; you don't want to mess with Russian winter either and remember you've got to keep the Russians happy. Actually, if you're lucky, Hamburg will be in Dutch hands by then and the Germans might have fallen into civil war. All the better for you! An army of about 7-8 Berserkers, 2-3 catapults and the necessary Galleys guarded by Triremes, should do it. You might want to actually capture German cities: you'll need more units, esp. Catapults. I got Berlin pretty easy but Krakau was a really hard nut to crack with a Castle and 100 % defence.
6. Accomplishing the 1st 2 goals
After you've accumulated 5000 gold (I had it in 1425) focus on Research. Meanwhile build an Explorer and send him to America with a Caravel to get your free Adventurers and some goody huts. For the sake of pillaging, you might declare war on Aztecs. Once 1500 has passed, trade some of your gold for important techs and insist on signing Open Borders with Russia. I built the first European colony in America in 1560 - the year when the first Dutch caravel tentatively approached the American shore. With more focus, though, it could have been built some earlier.
Here is where I've paused for now to do some work :) However, with 8 cities, strong economy and galleons dominating the seas, I don't think I'll have much trouble sinking those 25 ships, I only need to pick them up :)
Peaceful UHV
by Virdrago
Not being a warmonger normally, I didn't attack anyone. I founded seven cities early (Nidaros, Lulea, Kalmar, Oslo, Bergen, one on the coast W of Saint-Petersburg, and one farthur S in Latvia, to get the cows). Bergen was only for the whale, and as a jumping off point in the race to America.
Those last two cities outside Scandinavia are great for production and gold. Build them early. Russia and Germany are right there. They also should get all extra military units. I was lucky, Peter and Otto kept attacking each other and left me alone. Still, better safe...
Take Inverness. Let it go later, but you want the gold, the early science boost, and all huts in the British Isles. Then, bring those troops home. Don't worry about Inverness going to Lizzy later. You won't need it by that point.
I built libraries first, in all my cities. Afterward, I used the scientists. Alternately, change to Caste System. The scientists helped get me to Astronomy when my slider was at 100% Wealth. After the libraries, built markets, for Merchants, or research. Alternate between which cities build what; if it has a market, build research for a while. As you get closer to finishing Astronomy, if you're not building military, build Wealth. Make sure you have an extra settler and a ship ready to be upgraded to a galleon.
I let the cities grow slowly, using as many Scientists as I dared. Kalmar and the two non-Scandinavian cities grew fastest. Around 1150, I was finishing Optics, and Astronomy was going to be 30 turns at 0% science.
As I got closer to Astronmy, I switched some cities to Merchants. I ended up with one GS, and later, one GM. The Merchant's trade mission helped me to 5000 earlier than expected, though I would have done it anyway without him.
I founded Vinland in 1470, one turn before the Dutch started Nieuw Amsterdam. Thank goodness for Tromso.
After the money is made, up the research and go for Chemistry. I had privateers before anyone else, and picked off a few caravels and galleys before the rest of Europe got smart. Then I had to contend with Frigates and Ships of the Line. Send your privateers in twos and threes. You'll lose a few, but keep building them. Tip: they are safe in foreign ports. Use them to stalk, hide and heal.
I sank two Celtic galleys to start, and a barb galley from Carthage later, otherwise, my privateers did the trick, including taking down a Ship of the Line, 6 Frigates, and 3 East Indiamen. The rest were caravels, galleys, and unescorted galleons. The Germans and English like to send their ships near your coast. French, Dutch, Portuguese, and Spanish ships have to be taken out in the open mid-Atlantic. Two words: Ponta Delgada. Stalk, hide, and heal.
UHV without war at around 1810. Also, thanks to Oslo, I had Denmark's land area within my cultural borders, so my final map looked like a real 1800's Union of Kalmar.
Emperor UHV in 1500
by Pacifist with thanks to Usi who did it first
You don't have to do exactly as I did, but some details do matter:
1. Switch to HR, vassalage and serfdom (you need the extra stability in feudal age with vassalage later when you capture Rome...) before you found any cities
2. Workers build roads and chop forests
3. Found Sundsvall, Lulea and Kalmar. Build forges, libraries, markets and trading posts.
4. Send all 3 axemen and an archer (just for safety) on your 2 galleys straight to Rome. (Do not go by land since once you declare war they'll pump out troops). You may have to avoid that independent trireme by some reloading and experimenting with different locations at the Straits of Gibraltar: if it doesn't see you, it won't attack.
5. Capture Rome while it still only has 2 pikemen and maybe an archer. If you seen longbowmen, you need to reload. Rome builds a Christian Temple straight away, recruit a priest, and whip out the Christian holy shrine with your great priest for money! You can either leave Mediolanum alone or do some pillaging, but don't capture it (it'll bug your stability). Rome builds a courthouse for stability too. Convert to Christianity after you capture Rome and you'll get Christianity much sooner.
6. Research: compass, optics and maybe calendar to guide you. Never, ever trade these away to anybody. Then set research to 0% for the money. The rest doesn't really matter (you won't have time for nor do you need theology, monotheism, civil service, engineering, guilds, astronomy, all that good stuff, although you can trade for some of these from Mali in the late 1300's when everybody starts to have compass and optics).
7. Build some more cities like Oslo or Abo early (Russia likes to build Novgorod right on your doorstep, so make sure you fortify Abo with lots of troops and walls)
8. Kalmar needs a market ASAP and make 2 merchants work there to get a great merchant. Rome DOES NOT get another great person after the great priest because even if you set 2 merchants there you'll never avoid another great priest, and all you need is 1 great merchant.
9. Some time in the 1200's switch to slavery and whip the rest of your infrastructure out.
10. Your first 2 caravels go south to circumnavigate. Your westbound caravel needs to avoid the Incan workboat, and your first sight of them should be Cuzcu so your troops will land there. Declare war right away and capture Cuzcu (you'll only have 2 pikemen, a crossbowmen and 2 catapults, but you should be able to do it by 1350 or so). The other troops in Aztec land make them sit outside their borders west of Tikal. Aztecs are too strong with all their dog soldiers. Once their borders expand, the magic of teleportation (since you've haven't declared war and all around is jungle, and your troops cannot be in jungle), your Aztec adventurers will appear in South America! This was enough to force a vassalization of Inca, which expands Cuzcu's cultural borders. Cuzcu needs to whip out a settler by mid 1450 at the latest. (If you remembered to bring a Christian missionary with your caravel now's the time to convert Cuzcu because you need that fish right outside its borders)
11. Rome builds tons of caravels and even before you see Astronomy in France or Spain, declare war and sink their galleys and triremes. (It helps if France and Spain are at war with each other: declare war on Spain first since it's the one likely to build settlers first). Portugal sees war from you as soon as they have optics (since their carracks can go to South America with settlers). The other ships you can sink are Byzantine (just send them 2 at a time and sit outside Athens). Your initial caravels can also go to Japan and Khmer to sink their initial galleys and triremes, but they learn fairly quickly to switch to Optics. You'll get 25 ships this way by 1450 at the latest.
12. By now you should have your great merchant and about 4000 gold. Send him to Amsterdam and get 900 to 1100 gold and you're done.
Shaka Zulu in 1500!
Cultural/historical win for Ragnar, AKA the Viking Diaspora
This is born out of the fact that capitals will not flip to other civs spawning. Hence the takeover of London by the Vikings. Your score will be much higher. Here's what I did and the reasons I did it.
1. I did not break any rules (e.g. by opening WB).
2. Vikings have been known to raid England and even Ireland in the Dark Ages (in fact Dublin was originally a Viking town). What if (and RFC is all about what ifs in history) the Vikings settled in Angle-land before the Angles made it their own? Then London is called Thetford (in Norfolk. "Northmen", get it?). The only problem is that you have to delay founding your first city (capital) for 4-5 turns.
3. England is so much more productive than even Lulea or Umea with lots of resources.
4. you get to contact France and Netherlands earlier for the trade routes.
5. Plus a jumping point for America with Birka.
6. If you prebuild another settler and send it right after England spawns you'll even deny them the iron and crush them in a few decades. I felt generous and left Lizzy her Scottish and Irish lands.
7. People have been complaining about the lack of Scotland in RFC's. Lizzy becomes the Queen of Scots (ironies of history, eh) when she flips Inverness (Inbhir Nis in Scottish Gaelic). Then we'll truly have some war to unify Great Britain under the Vikings!
Potentially if you move your palace to Amsterdam you can deny the Netherlands their capital. You need 4 cities to build a palace (costs 6 population so no time to grow even with a harbor), so you need to whip a settler out from Lulea ASAP (chop/whip it), and sending him to Helsingfors will guarantee that the Russians won't encroach on your space later. All settlers should converge on Amsterdam to help chop the palace out before the Dutch appear. You will have to declare war on Otto who wants Amsterdam (Dorestad) which is fine as long as you have 2-3 longbowmen stacked there. And Willem has no galleys or other settlers that can sail away, thank God, if I squat on their territory. Winston Churchill in 1500!
The Saga of Leif Ericson (of how to colonize the new world by 1000 AD)
by sedna17
The first Viking UHV is easy enough to accomplish, either by focusing on researching Astronomy or by using the Conqueror event to capture a city and build a new settler. But neither method properly captures the majesty of longboats plying the unforgiving puffin-infested northern waters.
It is possible to reach and colonize the new world from the 600 AD start with galleys, without cheating or popping any techs from huts. I made it over by 1030 in this game, but could shave off at least a couple more turns and found by 1000 AD.
1) I founded Birka (Manchester) as my capitol, destroyed Inverness (so I didn't have to defend it from an English flip) then settled a city on the north coast of Ireland. I ran caste system to get a quick culture pop in Ireland and sailed my galley across to Iceland with my final settler.
2) My experience leads me to believe that the only good jumping off point is the ocean square right next to the Greenland ice (see screenshot). This is accessible if Husavik's culture expands a lot. The only plausible way to do this quickly is to generate a great artist in Birka or Ireland and make a masterpiece in Husavik -- this would plausibly be the Saga of Lief Ericson.
3) Now I can place a galley with Settler + crossbow on this ocean square, and a few more troops on the deer in Iceland. The key is now to get the English culture to behave.
4) If Husavik is size 3, the English, who generally adopt Caste System, will run an artist to pop the city's culture once. Thus, I make sure Husavik grows to size 3 (easy after the great artist pop), then gift it to the English shortly after they rise. The first border pop sends our scout over to the Greenland ice, where he walks south to scout the open coast. Our galley is left stranded in the ocean.
5) Next, we get open borders with the English and produce a second great artist. This artist is gifted to the English in Husavik. They invariably use this artist to make another masterpiece (the Saga of Loki, on account of its trickiness). We cancel our open borders immediately after gifting the artist (i.e. before the end of the turn). This requires a wait of 10 turns between the scout getting over to Greenland because you must peacefully cancel open borders -- declaring war leaves your galley in their territory.
6) If all works out, you pop over to the new world and can found a city, which (at least in this game) gets immediately attacked by hordes of Skraelings. Good thing you have a crossbow (and in our case, an extra axe who came with the scout onto Greenland) -- a crossbow really has an easy enough time of it.
