Ivar the Boneless

**amagi** · 07-10-2005, 11:32

Barocca's Beefy Vikings have two silver mines, as well as four more snekkjas, and an extra castle with additional buildings to match. Their behaviour is still set to 'Barbarian Raider', though, and they don't get more at start florins.

Ivar becomes 'Yngvar' in Viking Invasion. I have yet to work out the mysteries of the 'heroes' file, but one regret is that Constantine's uncle and predecessor didn't make it to 866. He was known as Donald 'the wanton son of the foreign woman'. Very regal. A modern translation might be 'deliberately unsupervised playground for technology'.

**antisocialmunky** · 07-10-2005, 14:10

I'd use the old translations to keep some immersion.

**amagi** · 07-11-2005, 19:35

The reverse isn't true though- you never lose immersion when you translate a modern style into an older one..

I've finished 'The Great Army' and I'm beginning a test campaign. One problem that I've still got is that I can't get Yngvar and his brother to appear with the Viking starting forces in York, and I can't get Alfred as Aethelred's heir. The heirs problem might be insoluble, as Viking Invasion follows primogeniture whereas the succession in the actual British kingdoms of the Dark Ages was more complicated and tended to the selection of the best available royal candidate. Alfred was actually Aethelred's younger brother.

**antisocialmunky** · 07-12-2005, 00:45

Well, TW is about changing history. And if you really really try, I bet you can suicide a royal Viking Huscarle unit into a bunch of kerns or something.

**amagi** · 07-13-2005, 19:19

It's possible to retain immersion when using a metaphor from the past but not one from the future, then?

I suppose if I wanted to have royal bodyguards overwhelmed by peasants I would leave them alone in a low loyalty province to fight large numbers of rebels, which would be quite easy to arrange, but I don't follow what antisocialmunky's analogy is about.

Enuff wid der philosophy. Apart from not having noticed any famous heroes appearing as generals, I'm happy with 'The Great Army'. I've left the Viking strategy as 'Barbarian_raider', as it's difficult for them to hold territory for long because of religious differences. Making them Christian two centuries early might work, if you were prepared to put up with references to the 'Salvation Army'.

The Vikings of 'The Great Army' often hold much of the east coast in the late ninth century and are a menace and a naval superpower until 1066, even without silver mines in Scandinavia. I've increased the amount of tradeable goods, which is to the advantage of the Vikings since their control of trade was the main reason for its general decline in the Dark Ages, and I've also added custom unit and building production, to help all the factions. The finished campaign shouldn't overwrite or affect the original, however.

**Satyr** · 07-14-2005, 20:10

I have been playing a Pict campaign with Beefy Vikings loaded. Here is what I think would really help the Vikings in addition to what has already been done. They never further develop their economic buildings so I would start those even higher than beefy does. I would also change them to be 'expansionists' instead of 'raiders'. They are indeed a serious pain in the a$$ in Beefy, but they never grow so eventually they get overwhelmed. If they took and held and developed just a few additional provinces it would help them a lot. If they could take over Ireland entirely, along with Manua and Domon then they would stay formidable until the end game and would actually have a chance to win. Getting them to do that is a whole nother issue though. Good luck, I look forward to playing your mod. If you need someone to test for you, just ask.

**amagi** · 07-15-2005, 00:46

Satyr, I've changed the Viking unit and building production and given them the highest level of farm improvements, since the success of raids led to migrations because of the lack of land in Scandinavia. Beefy uses silver mines to give the Vikings an economic advantage that I'm trying to get by trading, since they control the seas.

The faction behaviour setting doesn't seem to ensure that the Vikings hold territory. The problem is that the setting is affected by hardcoded factors, one of which seems to be the Viking conversion to Christianity. The 'expansionist' behaviours just puzzle the Great Army, until they start raiding again.

Thanks for offering to playtest. I should be ready to release a first version after the weekend.