Strategies for Viking raids?

[Lisento]

Hi all. I am the owner of the fishing dock in Abercombe and am loving the setup I have going here. My issue is that the Viking raids always land right next to my fishing dock and always burn it down before the town(s) can react.

It's very discouraging as you can imagine!

The first time it happened there were only three Vikings, so I started training my melee up. The second time there were over 10 and I had to run away anyways.

Is there anything I can do to fend them off? It seems like they are programmed to always land their boats right next to the dock.

[JohnnyG]

Kite them away with ranged attacks.

[Lisento]

Originally posted by JohnnyG:

Kite them away with ranged attacks.

I managed to get 3 of them to chase me but a bunch of the others stayed behind and burned the dock to the ground.

[listless]

Fire proofing your buildings is a big help because it forces them to waste a lot of valuable time trying to set it on fire. You may even want to buy the two buildings nearby just to fireproof them and slow them down even more.

Meanwhile, you can target torch throwers with your bow. Hits will make them stop what they're doing, and by switching targets you can further slow them down. If they come after you, you can draw them up the hill and into town to get wiped out.

I had two dens full of well-equipped mercs protecting that dock during dawn and dusk shifts. It was very expensive, and I don't know if it was worthwhile because the vikings never came back after I did that. I'm not sure if hardening it up had anything to do with that or not.

Arming the community helps too. You'd have to gift chainmail, but they'll buy up any shields you send to market as well as weapons to a lesser extent.

[Atorcoppe]

If you’re on the Essex map, there are 5 different landing zones. And the number of Vikings defends on the number of ‘defenders’ within a certain range. Though this has been tweaked for the next update.

If you are able, I’d highly suggest a den. Then you can hire people and arm them and they will defend you during a raid.

[Bloody10th]

If raids come between 12:00am-04:00am, give or take an hour, the chances are good that something will get burned down regardless. No one works or patrols during those hours, and you and your mercs won't really get there in time to draw them away in some cases, and it takes people awhile to wake up and react. If the AI did something like build farms on the outskirts of the city and you bought them, I'd recommend relocating all businesses on the very edges of the map further inward, and placing homes there instead. But obviously this can't be done with fisheries. Will take a ton of dosh but it'll save you a ton + potential grief, or reloading saves because the workers disappear from the workforce once the place burns down (more of a late-stage tycoon issue).

[JaydubbWlr]

Set the auto save to twice a day... when they attack reload the auto save. That resets the time until they attack. lol

[Atorcoppe]

Alternatively you can just edit the config file in the save folder that stipulates the range of time that the raids happens. Change it to some astronomical.

[Lisento]

Originally posted by Atorcoppe:

If you’re on the Essex map, there are 5 different landing zones. And the number of Vikings defends on the number of ‘defenders’ within a certain range. Though this has been tweaked for the next update.

If you are able, I’d highly suggest a den. Then you can hire people and arm them and they will defend you during a raid.

I'm on the Whit-land map. I think I could get a Den built between Abercombe and Atorcoppe. I haven't tried getting one and hiring guards from there (didn't even think about that).

I might just have really bad luck as all of the viking spawns have been right next to the only fishing dock on the map so far.

[listless]

That's where I always got the raids on that map too, but recently they struck somewhere else. Den placement doesn't matter as much as how close the mercenaries live to the dock. When you have them set to guard duty, they head straight there from wherever they are when the shift starts. If you have an empty job opening at the dock, you could use it to see who's nearby and make a note of them for when you start hiring at the den.

[MLMariss]

My strategy to single-handily deal with them: get 2 weapons - 1H bone crusher hammer, that will apply the slow effect (random chance) and 2H axe for the highest(?) damage.

Upon attack, they come (and go) in a straight line from the spawn point (sometimes ship) to their target.
1) Attack 1 by 1 with a 1H hammer (hit them until a slow effect is applied) also pay attention when they receive damage they flee back to the spawn point. Sometimes you need to hit more times (block/status not applied)
2) Once slowed (it helps your villagers to get them faster) switch to 2H axe and take them down one by one
3) Debatable 2 strategies here a) either kill them one by one (and loot for extra money) or b) keep hitting each one sending them back in flee mode with slow effect disabling them as attackers
4) Of course prioritize the ones throwing torches, secondly target the first in line (furthest from the spawn spot), but also keep in mind that if others gather enough loot - they will go away (in terms of damage to the village it's a good thing, but in terms of not looting them for high income selling items it's a very bad ending or the raid (keep in mind that none of your business work while there are raiders, so you lose a lot of money without getting their loot)

Also sidenote - keep an eye if those are your buildings that are threatened, because if NPCs house is burned down you can buy the spot back way cheaper :smirk: