Ragnar Lothbrook lies dead in the Northumbrian dirt.
Veins choked with Anglo-Saxon wrath and vipers venom.
Revenge was swift.
His sons laid waste to the British Isles, splintering the land and slaughtering all who opposed them.
The Viking horde swept west.
An insatiable force that brought Alfred the Great to his knees.
But some men can only be pushed so far.
The year is now 878 AD.
Whilst Norsemen settle land they once purged, Alfred of Wessex seeks to unite the isles under one banner.
But here stand a new wave of the ambitious and hungry, ready to stake their claim to Britannia.
Kings will rise.
One will rule.
Greetings my valiant subscribers.
Today I thought we should have a look at thrones of Britannia.
I haven't actually played this.
I had a brief look at it and then I thought to have a brief look at it again, but also showing you all the game so you can decide if it's glorious enough to investigate further.
And I will say one thing and that is I always get the comment, always get the question in regards to should you play games, should you be gaming and it all depends if you can successfully incorporate it in an otherwise productive schedule.
I have always managed this quite well.
I've always managed to utilize gaming and epic games as motivation to do other things.
So when Attila came out a few years back, I remember the motivation kick I got from that was unreal, both in terms of training and the holy work and YouTube videos and just everything.
It was truly a truly great sensation.
So if you can get that and if you can find motivation from games such as this, it's perfect.
But then again if you are skipping other things such as the gym because you want to be at home gaming then it's not a good thing.
So it all depends on if you can do it successfully or not.
Obviously I have always been interested in British history and that's for the reason that I've read a lot of here that I've read a lot of historic fiction of British history.
So let's look at the look at the campaign here.
So we have English kingdoms, Welsh kingdoms, Gaelic kingdoms, Great Viking army and Viking Sea Kings.
So we have the West Saxons and the faction leader Alfred And here you see we can.
Also I've never seen this before in a total war game that you can decide the political difficulty so goes from easy to legendary, as with the rest of the things.
And then they have some cultural features.
Burgal taxes are needed to support the army, but whether you are at war or peace will change how the people feel.
And then you have firud, part-time soldiers pledged to leave their farms for military service this year can recruit live units based on number of owned settlements.
And then we have 50% plus commanders, aura.
Alright, that seems cool.
I suppose we can read through this little faction information too, because after all, the charm with these games is the historic context.
After decades of Viking raids, the West Saxon succession passed from brother to brother down to Alfred, whose temperament some say was best suited to a life of piety and learning.
However, having defeated the Vikings in battle, he now negotiated for a lasting peace.
Unfortunately, the Vikings renegade and their raids have since intensified, even driving the West Saxon king from his capital for a while.
Naturally, Alfred is preparing to fight back.
So that's the starting position for the West Saxons right there, and quite cool map cell.
We will go into the actual campaign map after we've read the other factions.
AHA, you can choose here Mercia.
The men have trained for this and they have also the same cultural features, a few different faction features that are special to Mercia or Mercia perhaps you pronounce it as once the greatest Anglo-Saxon kingdom in Britannia.
Mercia has fallen on hard times.
The glory days of Offa and Penda are long gone and the Vikings have annexed much of Mercia's eastern territory, while the Welsh threaten from the west.
Mercia's recent rulers have been accused both of hiding behind the West Saxon skirts and of using Mercia's dwindling riches to appease the Vikings.
Seowwolf walks a difficult path, but pride still burns in his people's heart.
Alright yeah, they are in a bit of a predicament there.
If you look at the map, stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Having a look at the Welsh kingdoms, we have two, Gwynedd and Stratklut, for the glory of the Cymru and we look at the cultural features.
Heroism Wales is a land of heroes.
Earn heroism by winning battles, owning Welsh land and ranking up generals to gain bonuses.
Alright, that's a cool feature definitely, indeed.
Then 50% charge for cavalry units and unit morale plus 5 in your own regions.
The people of Gwynedd have some claim to the title of true Britons, having been driven to the far west by invaders who now call themselves English.
Renowned both for their bardic art and their skill with a longbow, the Welsh of Gwynedd thrived under the leadership of Rudri Mavre not sure how to pronounce that, but hopefully I got it right.
Rudri kept Gwynedd largely free of Vikings and other invaders, while expanding its borders.
Now he is gone and his lands are divided, can Anaraut live up to his father's legacy?
It remains to be seen.
And the Stratkloot...
We will serve you well.
Oh, they're all the way up there in good old Scotland, it it looks like, or perhaps by the border.
Stratklut is a kingdom of the old north and while much of northern Britannia was ravaged by invaders or infighting, it has stood firm.
Whether Run Stratklut's new king can resist the vikings remains to be seen.
His father died in mysterious circumstances and Run has been fighting a rear guard action ever since raiders from Dyflin Dublin, besieged his stronghold and carried off his family as hostages.
However, they may have pushed him too far.
Alright, a bit of a bad situation there, and the initial challenge hard for him.
We have Gaelic kingdoms Sircen Highland Scots, then.
Sircen is a land of misty hills and open moors.
Its folk, a mixture of Gaels, Picts and odders, driven to the edges of Britannia by invaders.
So far however, they have resisted the Viking incursions.
Skoan, the capital of Sirsen, was once home to the legendary stone of destiny, said to bestow divine strength.
Ayed Sirisen's new king will need all the strength and divine support he can, not just against the vikings but to face potential threats closer to home.
Alright, sounds uh, epic enough.
And the stone of destiny, if i'm?
If i'm not completely mistaken, that was actually stolen back to Scotland by some Scottish nationalists just a few decades ago.
It was kept in London uh, since the middle ages, I suppose um, but it has since been returned to England yet again, if i'm not completely mistaken.
Anyway, we'll look at the The East Engel, and then we'll head on into the campaign itself to have a look at the game.
Any other cultural features?
Great Viking army.
Income plus 200% from raiding and sacking.
And plus 6 melee skill for all units when in enemy territory.
So good for raiding I suppose.
And Hearking, the king of the Danes here in Britannia, must play a delicate game to stay at the top.
Find a balance between appeasing the English and your army.
Then Guthrum's will, the king of the Dane law, and the Dane law is the Danish or Viking occupied territory in England.
The king of the Dane Law rewards those who raid and conquer in his name.
Get missions to fight and unique rewards for your aggression.
And then they have very strong axe infantry and a good balance of other infantry units.
Has access to Berserkers and powerful Anglian champions.
Alright, that sounds epic.
Then you also have plus 50 in reinforcement range.
And the faction information.
Since killing Edmund, the last Anglian king nearly a decade ago, the Vikings have made themselves at home in East Anglia.
Now Guthrum, not content with his Eastern holdings, has ambitions to become the most powerful Viking warlord in English territory.
As well as making considerable inroads into Mercia and challenging the borders of Northumbria, he has raided as far as Wessex, even hitting Alfred in his capital in a surprise attack.
Guthrum is a man to watch.
And we can also have a look at the Viking Sea Kings in Dublin.
So they have expedition, the world is yours for the taking.
Send your ships to conquer new lands.
Sounds Viking-ish enough, I suppose.
And tribute.
Other kingdoms pay tribute as a sign of their submission.
Get tribute from other factions to gain bonuses.
Immune to seasickness and high attrition.
And one last introduction here before we head into the game.
The Vikings began staying on after their raids against Ireland about half a century ago.
Dublin, the settlement by the Black Pool, soon became the most important of their well-defended coastal bases.
Or Longford, housing the largest slave market in Britannia.
Before succeeding his father to rule Dublin five years ago, Barder had already proved himself in numerous raids and skirmishes.
Proof positive that those who cross the Vikings of Dublin can expect no mercy.
Alright, cool.
Let us head into the battle with Alfred and see what the crack is.
Long had the Vikings raided our lands, but nothing prepared us for their great army.
For a decade we fought them.
The tide of battle ebbing back and forth, until finally they were defeated.
And their great army fled our lands.
Now, England lies divided.
Its old political order washed away.
Too long have we fought amongst ourselves.
Now is the time to unite as England.
England is divided, weakened from a decade of fighting.
West Saxa has suffered greatly, but its star is on the rise.
It is your fate to bring order back to these lands.
You have vassals under your protection who are sworn to aid you in time of war.
They are Gwent and Gluisig to your northwest, Defen and Kurnu to your west, and Sooth, Saxa, and Kent to the east.
It is important to maintain good relations with your vassals.
If you do not, they may choose to break your treaty rather than join your war.
Rumors abound of new Viking incursions in the south.
You will need to build up your defenses there to make sure you are not caught off guard when they strike.
One of your armies is ready to attack the southern rebels.
Dealing with this threat promptly will bring much needed stability to your lands.
Alright, an epic intro and some wisdom from this wise woman here.
So I really like the art here as well.
Looks comfy and good.
Aesthetically pleasing.
So we have gotten a mission to defeat this rebel army and we have an army there to handle that threat.
So yeah, the map itself looks quite a bit like Attila.
I like that because it was a good map and we start with quite a bit of settlements here.
Since I've mainly been playing Warhammer Total War where you basically start with one settlement in each campaign this is a bit different and you have also something that we didn't have in Warhammer Total War is the food production.
So you have units consuming 110 but you also have some income there.
Look at the diplomacy.
See the other factions and yes, it's a quite big map, actually quite detailed map, with a lot of different factions, as you can see in the in the list here.
Yeah, that's quite a few, quite a few factions indeed.
But yeah, this is basically what the map looks like and the starting position for Alfred's Wessex.
We will illuminate these heretics so that we can get a good look at how the battle is looking.
So we're just gonna get straight into it right, let us start the battle here.
We can see the various characteristics.
So, 29 same age as yours truly, command 6, governance 2 still 4, and we are having the roughly the same amount of troops.
Ah right, we can choose the weather conditions and I don't really want to fight in the rain so we'll wait and see.
No, still rain.
Wait again.
Fog.
Can see if we can get some sun maybe.
Okay, right, that's good.
Alright, mate.
But we can actually do that as we go.
So, what do we have here?
We have some archers, and we have some archers here too.
There we have horsemen, and that means that our spearmen will have to be in close proximity so they can counter the horsemen there.
And here is Alfred and his royal companions have a look at them Yeah, they look highly aesthetic.
So, Oswald, royal companions, who want to get to these lads at least.
Curled axemen.
Okay, what I will do is, I suppose, simply try to engage these lads and keep this in at the flank.
See if we can actually get some flanking action going on.
Now, let's see if we can actually get a charge in here.
I suppose we can't really, because they will counter with their royal companions, but we can threaten them just a bit or utilize a hit and run tactic so we can lure them in.
Alright, I utilize a little edit there.
Try to capture this horseman, and then we can send in the spearmen to illuminate them.
And then we also have some curled spearmen coming in and gonna try to engage them as well there.
And we have broken their horsemen, then it's just a matter of turning around and chasing down this archer brass.
Then we should have the battle in our hand.
We can actually look at the aesthetics a bit.
The enemy general is dead.
Alright, cool.
And battle.
There we go.
I utilized some edits there, as you might have understood, and that's simply because I couldn't come up with insightful commentary during the entire time.
And again, the point with taking this battle is to show a bit more about the game.
And when you have the field of them, you can take on warriors, kill captives.
Right, we're gonna take on these warriors to glory.
And then another really aesthetic art scene comes up there.
So, anyway, that was the video for today.
I thought to show off this, I thought to show this game for you all.
I will not do a Let's Play series of this, I will probably do it on Kingdom Com Deliverance.
But yeah, that will be at a later moment.
So, thank you for watching, and I wish you a glorious rest of your day.
