[TLK 3.06] Vikingetid
"Thorkell why can't I come with you?" Einars' voice was high and uneven as he hurried after his brother. The boy was wiry but thin, he had grown taller this past winter but he was far from the height and strength needed to oar a longship or fight alongside seasoned men. Such were Thorkell's thoughts as he ignored his younger sibling and instead took to inspecting his belt and the strap that would hold his dagger and longaxe.
"I'm a man already! Please, tell Erikr to let me join the raid!"
Thorkell continued walking at a brisk pace trough the muddy street, making his way around the occasional hand cart or a fisherman's wife carrying a basket with the day's catch to market. He slowed at Ylfa's stall and grinned to the girl. She was as pretty as Freya herself - tall, slender, blond and with an ample blossom. Her hair was the colour of ripe wheat and now was tucked into a thick triple braid which reached down to her back.
"Tyr guide your Axe Thorkell, may you bring a fine haul this summer!" she yelled at him and tossed him one of her freshly baked buns. The man smiled as he caught and bit into the bread, steam still rising from beneath the golden crust. For a moment, Thorkell forgot about his brother's annoying buzzing that followed him incessantly and had now almost caught up with him.
"I'll bring you a pretty golden necklace and take you for my wife! HAR!" Thorkel laughed and banged his fist on his chest. Ylfa returned a coy smile but the blushing of her cheeks betrayed her innocence. She was already of age to be wed but she was the daughter of an old raider named Gunnar who could rip a man to pieces with his bare hands. Some had tried claiming her for a wife, but they had ended up with broken noses or worse. It was no easy task, stealing Gunnars' daughter. But that was for most men, and Thorkell was not most men. He was tall, fast, strong and deadly with axe and shield. His nose had been broken several times already so he had nothing to fear from that old badger. Sure Gunnar knew some tricks, but Thorkell was in the prime of his years and his blood boiled with the vigour of youth. Still, he'd rather bring enough gold and valuables to last him the winter and allow a proper joining with Ylfa, then to go and beat her father to a pulp. Not that he minded it over much, but Thorkell suspected his future wife might not be too happy about her father's face being smashed in. That might spoil the wedding night after all.
"Thorkell pleaaaaaase! Let me come with you!" His stupid little brother had caught up and already banished the pleasant image of Ylfa lying naked in a bed of furs and linen from Thorkell's mind. He clenched his jaw and turned around abruptly.
"You ain't big enough, boy! Eat more. Train more. Work the fields, row a fishing boat - grow and learn how to use the sword, spear and axe. You think you're ready? Last year I fought a celt - he was a blacksmith and lived on the coast off Iraland. He sundered me shield after the second blow from his axe, broke me left arm. I stabbed him in the gut and he still had the strength to shove a knife trough my mail and nearly made me bleed out like a pig right there. The year before I fought a huskarl in the service of Northumbria - man was a demon with sword and shield. He would have killed me after naught but five blows if he didn't slip in the blood and mud below. So shut up and leave me be!"
The boy sulked and clenched his fist.
"But I can still fight! I can watch your back! And I heard you're going to East Anglia first. East Anglians are spoiled and fat, that's what Canute says."
Thorkell snorted and took of his mail clad glove.
"Is that what Canute said, eh? And I suppose he's been raiding there before?"
Einar's face reddened but he replied.
"Well now, but his father..."
Thorkel's fist flew fast as lightning and punched the air out of his brother's gut. The boy collapsed in the mud and gasped for air silently, with his eyes round with shock. He gripped his belly and curled up, making silent expressions of pain.
"See? Ye ain't ready BOY! If I had a knife, you'd be gutted like a fish. Go, train, eat, work. Raiding is man's work, and just because you've gotten taller and some hair grows on your lip doesn't mean you're a man grown!" Thorkel growled and left his brother there.
***
"Is Asgeir doing the ceremony this year?" Thorkell asked his shield brother, a man named Bjorn. Big as an ox, but slow moving and slower in the head. But a good man nevertheless and his hits felt like a battering ram slamming into you.
"Aye, that he is. Want mead?" Bjorn offered his horn to Thorkell and he took it gladly. The crew was gathered, the boat was ready, loaded and waiting. Most of the village had gathered already and all was left was for the priest of Njord to bless their voyage. Thorkell gripped his axe and waited. It was about to begin, today he set on a journey that would make him rich and famous. Erikr was there too - a fierce man with a scarred face and arms thick as tree trunks. He wore a golden pedant taken from a chieftan of one of the Saxon tribes in Ingerlund. Erikr was a fine and seasoned raider and an excellent leader. His men would know riches and glory and his enemies would know death. And Thorkell would be a part of it, as he had been last year. Such was the life for men like them - vikingr, the scourge of the seas.
Vikngetid
Welcome! You can sign up for this game now and we can assign the teams. I'm posting the rules and they are open for discussion. I suggest downloading The Last Kingdom 3.05, patching it to 3.06, applying the hotfix and then checking the mod out in SP to get familiar with it.
Number of players: 3 or 6 or 9 and so on.
Victory Conditions: Found a new kingdom and become "King of Kings", eliminate all other human players, amass 60,000 gold while nobody else has more than 10,000 or eliminate the enemy human faction and claim allied victory.
Details: The mod in question covers the era of the Dark Ages when Europe was tormented by the raids of the Vikingr - the men of Scandinavia. The Eastern Frankish Empire is a great power on continental Europe, Normandy is a fledgling state with a strong host of determined warriors, and England is divided between it's native Celts and recently settled Anglo-Saxons in what are powerful but separate kingdoms.
The players start with an army of their own choosing, comprised in the battle screen when complying with a set limit of gold. For instance, if we have a 12,000 gold limit, you can go into the custom battle screen and see how many Huscarls you can fit into that budget, or purchase longobwmen, cavalry, or a balanced combination. Money wise the armies will be the same, though the composition will vary as per the player's preference. These units are the player's sworn men, his band of vikings. He is their jarl, and he has full controll over them. Each player gets one ship per four units purchased for free, to make a truly mobile and formidable raiding force.
The players start with different faction allegiance - there are three Scandinavian factions: Hordaland, Vestfold and Denmark. If we have 3 players, each one starts owing allegience to one faction. If we have 6, they will be divided two by two per faction. The actual provinces and armies of the home faction are not to be used, only the band of vikings each player has. The players who start from the same faction are supposedly allied, though this may change as the game progresses. Once everyone has their armies and ships, the game may begin. The other factions are left to the AI. The ways to win are such:
Found a new kingdom and become "King of Kings"
With your band of Vikings, you claim a piece of land far from your homeland shores and carve out a Kingdom via bloody conquest. You dominate the region in such a way that you become a King of Kings there, and all the other landchiefs pay you homage. In game terms, you must own at least 40% of the total regions in either England + Scotland + Ireland OR mainland Europe up until the original Danish border. This way you can win solo without any alliance. Players are not allowed to team up their provinces or gift them for this victory - all regions must be won trough conquest for this victory condition.
Eliminate all other human players
This simply means eliminating all armies and capturing all provinces that belong to other human players. The homeland regions do not count towards this as they do not belong to the players per say. There will be a 5 turn forced non aggression pact between players at the start, to prevent a massacre for those who start later in the turn order. Once everyone's moved out and started on their path, player versus player aggression is allowed.
Amass 60,000 gold while nobody else has more than 10,000
Simply put, when you have 60,000 gold you can claim economic victory. Your kingdom is so prosperous it becomes impossible for your neighbours to compete. Once you make the claim, the admin will check if anyone of the remaining human players has more than 10,000 gold. If not, you win. If they do have more, you are told who these factions are (but not how much gold they have). A thing to note is that if you save up your gold from raids you can amass it quite easily. Though getting this much will mean you are either impossibly efficient or you started conquering and keeping your lands.
Eliminate the enemy human factions and claim allied victory.
Similar to rule two, but this one is for an allied victory and has no territorial requirements. You must simply remove the two other viking factions from the map to become the sole harrier of Europe's shores to win. Naturally, you and your allied Jarl need to wipe out the enemy teams, but more importantly, you must also conquer their homeland regions. The problem with that, is that each homeland region will be garrisoned with elite stacks created by the admin, that cannot move past the faction's borders. Invading the enemy homeland region means you have to face that stack, which the other human team will be allowed to control as a "police" unit within he borders. These stacks will be several times better than the starting player armies, so beating them will take teamwork and also off-sea conquests to improve your own armies or to amass more of the lesser units.
During your conquests, you will be allowed the following interaction with your homeland regions:
- Retraining of units (at your own expense)
- Building of buildings (this is to allow you to retrain higher tier armies or to gain smithy upgrades, also at your own expense)
- Building of forts and watchtowers (at your own expense)
You will NOT be allowed to recruit new units or ships, or move the starting "police" stack outside the borders of your faction. You may not use any of the gold that the starting towns generate in any way. You may not conquer any territories in Scandinavia unless those belong to an opposing human faction.
If you conquer any settlements in Egnland or Europe, you may keep them and develop them as you wish. Your starting stack is free from upkeep. Any gold you make via sacking (this mod gives extra gold simply for conquering a province, in addition to the sacking option. This is a lot - 5-15 thousand per city), or via keeping a settlement, is your own and you may use it as you see fit. The finances will be kept by the administrator, so in-game gold will not be used. You will report your income per turn and all the actions you wish to do which take gold, such as building, recruiting or retraining.
Things to note: There is an AI faction called simply "Vikings" which is not player-lead. It is heavily scripted, similar to the rebels in M2W. It spawns huge stacks out of thin air and constantly raids territories which you as players will also need in order to win. Getting around them is up to each player's discretion. The Admin will not control any AI forces. Ships grant a huge movement point increase compared to walking. Archers in the game are currently too powerful because of the way the defence stat works (to make battles longer). There may be an imposed limit on archer spam.
Rules:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
I have not set the gold limit for starting armies in stone, I'll have to test at home to see what is appropriate.
Factions:
Hordaland:
Cecil XIX
Nigel
Vestfold:
Nightbringer
Thanatos Eclipse
Denmark:
Ignoramus
Mithridate
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Originally Posted by Myth
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