Berserkers

[Stefan the Berserker]

Many of you might have heard about Berserkers before, also Berserkers will appear in the Viking Invasion.

Berserkers were conscripted out of Men which had to suffer a lot under the People they should fight against (against Roman those who had probs with the Romans, against Slavs someguys who hated the Slavs).

After those Men who already had a "natural hate" against their future "Targets". They were then chucked together into groups and began FIRST the pyscic conditioning. They told each other their stories (which logically increased the hate) and did Uesetia Meditation on negative Runes every day. They were so heavyly conditioned, that you might think the were under Influence of the Drug "Speed" or something.

They were absolute Fanatics and chucked in Battle for the worst but oftenly most important Duties, Sucide Missions Breaking the Enemy Line, Kill a General, start Massacre http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/eek.gif ...

Also in English you still have "going on Berserk"...

I call myself Berserker, but... I DON'T WANT TO BE ONE
You can possibly now imgine how they were like... Viking-SS or something, but STRONG

[TheDanesZandy]

The accutal histrorical fackt about " beserkers " is quit simple . The Vikings are the inventers of the word and the action . When the vikings vent to battel they had acording to the sagas ( our old viking books)a habbit off drinking a lot of " mjød " (beer) and in the beer they put a certain mushroom ( red amanita ) wich containded LSD , this made the vikings very violent also among them self .

Imangine a hord og vikings on beer and LSD leaving a longboat with nothing but murder and rape on thier minds , along the french coast is plenty og decribitons about the furious vild vikings who was imposible to beat evnen if they where hard wounded they still fought on , as they belived that being killed in battel was a sure space in walhalla next to our gods Thor and Odin .

The word Beskerk is danish and real beserkers where the vikings , this has then been adapted by many others over the world since that and a a good sign that even now allmost a 1000 years later thier names and habbits still lives on .

The Danes Zandy

The Danes Clan (http://www.foxypro.dk/danes/thedanes1.htm)

[ShadeFlanders]

Let's not the forget the celts/gauls had berserkers of their own that went to battle NAKED.

[rasoforos]

i d love to see a hoard of beserkers having an after battle hangover , it sounds really funny http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Stephen Hummell]

the berserkers i believe werent used that much by the norse. only by this one king to gain power of the throne and then they were dibanded. but i wouldnt want to face drunken and high 300 pound men with beards ever

[rasoforos]

well i guess their only weakness was their achilles' liver http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Leet Eriksson]

Berserkers(called Bareskins)are shirtless warriors(they prefered mobility over heavy armor)and they carry pretty large double bladed axes(think abyssinian guard but with steroids).

[Brother Derfel]

Quote[/b] (TheDanesZandy @ Jan. 12 2003,08:55)]The word Beskerk is danish and real beserkers where the vikings , this has then been adapted by many others over the world since that and a a good sign that even now allmost a 1000 years later thier names and habbits still lives on .

The Danes Zandy

The Danes Clan (http://www.foxypro.dk/danes/thedanes1.htm)
Actualy the work Berserkir derived from the Danish for 'Bear- Shirt' as the one of the two cults of Beserkir often wore Bear Skins, the others, the 'Ulfendar'(Sp) wore Wolf Skins/.
They did indeed get themselves entoxicated before battle and psyched themselves up into a blood lust, caring not for their own safety and instead launching themselves at their foe. This made them very dangerous to badly led/disciplined troops or those with little moral, but an experienced veteran who kept cool could easily deal with one as they had no concern for defending themselves.
Often the beserkers would acompney ordinary Viking Hird, and as the unit was about to enter combat with the enemy they would launch their Beserkir at the enemy hoping for them to do as much damage to the opposing sheild wall before their own closed with it.

I think therefor that the Beserkirs should be a very feared unit, perhaps causing fear in poor troops, but when faced with hardened veterans they should not be so strong, as after all tey were only frenzied mad men that could be dealt with if you kept your head.

[Vrashk]

I think scientits are not sure actually whether they worse bearskins or nothing..

reasons I've heard:

Bär-särk (in swedish) Särk is a kind of undershirt if I remember correctly..

"bare-särk" means they went to battle in only their särk, not wearing much
Or it could be "bear-serk" wearing a bearskin as the shirt.

[Hakonarson]

There should be no units of berserkers at all - true berserkers were few and far between, often with a fmily history of the behaviour, and quite popular with Viking Lords as tax collectors - who's going to refuse one??

Drunken warriors are a common feature of almost every army in history and should not be mistaken for berserkers - booze helps dull the sense of self preservation that would make a sane man flee from imminent slaughter

Viking armies should only haev a few troop types -

1/ Leidang, in seperate units with and without bows but otherwise all armed and armoured the same - shield, sword helmet, spear, the richer ones with metal body armour.

2/ Huscarles - all the various grades of kings servant and soldier. all with body armour - only these guys would use 2-handed axes in any numbers, but all would also have sword, shield and spear.

3/ a few scouts - mounted or on foot.

And that's about it - after 1100 the Hucarles would include a number of cavalry essentially the equivalent of European knights.

There might also be allies from German cities in eth baltic, or Slavic tribes. Vikings in the British Isles might include local allies - Scots, English, Irish as appropriate.

Islemen - Vikings from the Hebrides after breeding with the locals would all be slightly lunatic according to the histories, but are divided into only 2 troop types - those with body armour and those without - better adn worser respectively - both were armed with sword and shield.

Any other troops in a Viking army are nonsense, yet I get the impressin there's going to be all sorts of things included - perhaps the title should be "Fantasy: total war"? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/frown.gif

[Leet Eriksson]

Quote[/b] (Brother Derfel @ Jan. 12 2003,14:02)]
Quote[/b] (TheDanesZandy @ Jan. 12 2003,08:55)]The word Beskerk is danish and real beserkers where the vikings , this has then been adapted by many others over the world since that and a a good sign that even now allmost a 1000 years later thier names and habbits still lives on .

The Danes Zandy

The Danes Clan (http://www.foxypro.dk/danes/thedanes1.htm)
Actualy the work Berserkir derived from the Danish for 'Bear- Shirt' as the one of the two cults of Beserkir often wore Bear Skins, the others, the 'Ulfendar'(Sp) wore Wolf Skins/.
They did indeed get themselves entoxicated before battle and psyched themselves up into a blood lust, caring not for their own safety and instead launching themselves at their foe. This made them very dangerous to badly led/disciplined troops or those with little moral, but an experienced veteran who kept cool could easily deal with one as they had no concern for defending themselves.
Often the beserkers would acompney ordinary Viking Hird, and as the unit was about to enter combat with the enemy they would launch their Beserkir at the enemy hoping for them to do as much damage to the opposing sheild wall before their own closed with it.

I think therefor that the Beserkirs should be a very feared unit, perhaps causing fear in poor troops, but when faced with hardened veterans they should not be so strong, as after all tey were only frenzied mad men that could be dealt with if you kept your head.
I thought wolf skins were called "Ulfsarks"or was that in another language?

also vikings were originally norwegian if i'm not mistaken.

[Brother Derfel]

Quote[/b] (Hakonarson @ Jan. 12 2003,19:43)]Viking armies should only haev a few troop types -

1/ Leidang, in seperate units with and without bows but otherwise all armed and armoured the same - shield, sword helmet, spear, the richer ones with metal body armour.

2/ Huscarles - all the various grades of kings servant and soldier. all with body armour - only these guys would use 2-handed axes in any numbers, but all would also have sword, shield and spear.

3/ a few scouts - mounted or on foot.

And that's about it - after 1100 the Hucarles would include a number of cavalry essentially the equivalent of European knights.

There might also be allies from German cities in eth baltic, or Slavic tribes. Vikings in the British Isles might include local allies - Scots, English, Irish as appropriate.

Islemen - Vikings from the Hebrides after breeding with the locals would all be slightly lunatic according to the histories, but are divided into only 2 troop types - those with body armour and those without - better adn worser respectively - both were armed with sword and shield.

Any other troops in a Viking army are nonsense, yet I get the impressin there's going to be all sorts of things included - perhaps the title should be "Fantasy: total war"? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/frown.gif
If i am not mistaken, the Leidang were not Vikings at all, but another kingdom that ran contemporary with the Vikings. Perhaps you meat Hird, as they were the common foot soldier of the Vikings, led by their thegn.

Huscarls would be in no great number, being the equivalent of Knights regarding their cost and training in cmparison to the average soldier.

Since the scouts were in such small numbers, i can;t see a unit of them being justified in TW terms as it would have to be very small and almost completely uneffective.


I also don;t think there were enough true Beserkir to justify a unit, and indeed as I have already mentioned they were not cowded together in a group, but dispersed amoung the rank and file.

I too am getting worried that Viking Invasion may be stepping into the realms of Fantacy. Especialy when i saw the viking in a horned helmet on the viking invasion site.........not promising.......