Ivar the Boneless

**amagi** · 07-06-2005, 18:27

I'm considering making a new campaign for Viking invasion, and I'm trying to locate references.

The problem with the original VI campaign is that the AI Vikings are poor at raiding and have difficulty controlling the seas. The new campaign would correct that by having a large Viking force- Ivar's Great Army of 866- start the game in East Anglia. I wasn't going to mod the units or map at all, just the date and setup.

What I want is a map of England in 866, or a text description of the state of the 'heptarchy' when Ivar landed.

The war of 866, rather than the raid of 793, was when the Vikings almost conquered England. Ivar went north and captured York from the Northumbrians, who were fighting a civil war, then attacked Mercia, overrunning the east and north. Northumbria survived and the rest of Mercia was annexed by Wessex rather than by the Vikings, but Alfred of Wessex was very nearly defeated before England settled down to Anglo-Viking rule. Ivar died in Dublin in 872.

When the Vikings captured King Ella of Northumbria, who had executed Ivar's father Ragnar Lodbrok by having him thrown into a snake pit, they made a ritual 'blood eagle' sacrifice of him. Total War isn't offensive enough, we should have this, or the ability to display the heads of defeated family members (like the Romans made use of Hadsrubal after his death), as the equivalent of a 'diplomatic snub'.

**antisocialmunky** · 07-06-2005, 18:38

VI would be better with a bigger map.

**CountMRVHS** · 07-06-2005, 20:14

Don't know where you'll find a map that details the kind of thing you're looking for, as nobody really knows exactly what areas were under whose control at the time. Fortunately there are a lot of good sources out there which give a rough idea of how things may have looked. Just have a look on amazon or the library; I do all my research in book form (as opposed to internet) so all I can do is recommend these books:

The Anglo-Saxons, James Campbell, Ed.
Mercia and the Making of England
Osprey books like: Anglo-Saxon Thegn; and Arthur and the Anglo-Saxon Wars

On another note, one thing you might consider is a very simple change in the startpos file of the Viking campaign. There's an area where you can set the Faction Behaviour. The Vikings are set to BARBARIAN_RAIDER, and thus are always bombarding other factions with tiny armies that will never hold the lands they conquer. Maybe, in combination with other changes, try changing their behavior to CATHOLIC_EXPANSIONIST or ORTHODOX_EXPANSIONIST (AFAIK the religion doesn't matter here; you can, for example, change the Welsh to BARBARIAN_RAIDER even though they're Catholic.... it actually makes for a rather interesting first few years if you're Mercia!). Maybe one of those possibilities will lead to them building more logical empires and thus getting stronger.

Also, just giving the Vikings some extra buildings might help. Once I tried this and gave them a trader building in Jutland and Hordaland, as well as a total of 12 Snekkjas and 10000 florins to start.

Good luck!

CountMRVHS

**antisocialmunky** · 07-07-2005, 00:53

Well, I just liked to think that taking two armies and cutting England in half is kinda... well... unrealistic.

**Grey_Fox** · 07-07-2005, 01:31

How can it be unrealistic when it happened in real life?

**Eternal Champion** · 07-07-2005, 13:03

LOL - That's a great sig

**antisocialmunky** · 07-07-2005, 13:52

Originally Posted by Grey_Fox

How can it be unrealistic when it happened in real life?

Well... let me rephrase that as I was thinking more specifically aobut the Vikings. I just don't like the idea that a few hundred vikings can effectively hold about 120 km long strip of land and stop everyone who comes.

Though, I'm not well versed in the Viking era so I'll defer to you Foxy.

That is a nice sig.

Oh, and here's a chunk of post 866(I don't know how much it'll help you)map fo you:

http://www.maisonstclaire.org/maps/e...after_866.html