Explanation of my viking troops

A short explanation of my viking troops

Summary

Recently, someone asked me to make a tutorial on how to make my units. But I'm afraid I can't because I'm not talented at teaching someone and making units too.

Instead, I have finished reworking of my viking troops today, so I can explain you about them.

Before we start, I apologize for mai veri bed engrish :v

Viking Units

There are 7 Viking units that I made and reworked.
All of them have a prefix 'Nord' which means literally 'North' in English.

When I make historical units, I like to get inspiration from illustrations by historical illustrators. And while making viking units, I got inspiration from illustrations by a British artist, Angus Mcbride (1931-2007, May God rest his soul in peace.)



Some Viking illustrations by Angus Mcbride

Nord Raider & Nord Short Spearman

Nord Raider



Nord Short Spearman

They are common melee units that you can easily buy and use.
They wear quilted cloth armors (gambeson/not all of vikings did wear chianmail), steel helmet and use axe, spear and shield as their weapon.

Although they are cheap units, they are hardened bandits, so they can block enemy's attack and charge into enemy's line but they have low stats of HP



Gjermundbu helmet from 10th-century Norway

And for your information, historical vikings did not wear horned helmets on battlefield. Instead, they used eye goggle helmet, nasal helmet and etc.

Nord Archer & Nord Axe Thrower

Nord Axe Thrower



Nord Archer

As you can see, they are ranged units who use longbow and throwing axe

Nord Archer arms with bow and arrows, wears cloth armors and has no helmet. Since he lightly armed he has low stats of HP.

Nord Axe Thrower arms with throwing axe (of course, throwing axes in real life and history don't look like that.) and shield to protect himself. wears cloth armors and steel helmet just like Nord Raider and Nord Short Spearman. He literally throws his axes to enemy. Based on history that the Viking did use throwing axes

Nord Swordsman& Nord Axeman

Nord Swordsman



Nord Axeman

They wear a hauberk(chainmail). Hauberk was expensive, so not all of viking soilders can afford it.



Hauberk with short sleeves by Henrik Nordholm

Nord Swordsman arms with sword and shield. Unfortunately, there isn't Viking Sword in the game, so I make them wield a Squire Sword of Medieval era instead.



For all those who wonders what Viking Sword does look like, these are historical Viking Swords displayed at Hedeby Viking Museum, which is located in Denmark.

Nord Swordsman has high stats of HP unlike cheap units. He can block enemy's attack and charge

Nord Axeman arms with two-handed axe, wears hauberk and steel helmet like Nord Swordsman.
Presumably his two-handed axe is Dane-axe.



Modern reproduction of a Dane Axe from https://www.epicarmouryunlimited.com/

He has high stats of HP. He can parry, charge and dodge.

Nord Berserkr

Nord Berserkr

His (Odin's) men rushed forwards without armour, were as mad as dogs or wolves, bit their shields, and were strong as bears or wild oxen, and killed people at a blow, but neither fire nor iron told upon them. This was called Berserkergang ('going berserk' in English).
- From Ynglinga saga written by Snorri Sturluson (1179–1241)

Nord Berserkr arms with Berserker Axe and shield. He wears no armor but bear head and cloth pants. He can block the enemy's attack, charge, kick, dodge and enrage

Berserkr is an old norse word, originally it means 'people who wears bear skin'. They believed that they can use the power of bear if they wear its skin.

And also according to history, they have fought in trance-like fury.

Conclusion

And that's all about my Viking units.
I tried to make them historically accurate, but don't expect them to be perfectly accurate.

And by the way before finishing this guide, for all those who don't know how to make mail hauberk, here is how I make one for my units. I hope Landfall adds proper hauberk soon.


It's not hard to make mail hauberk. All you have to do is change the color of a cloth to a metallic color. I personally like to use Medieval Shirt 5, because it has 2 parts where you can change the color (arm, torso)



Just like this.

But some of you might think that it looks so thin and weak. For that, you can add additional items.



like this. Now it looks better.

But again, some of you might think that it's too short.

For that matter, you can use two options to make it longer

1. Add a Roman Shirt
2. Add a Skirt

Roman Shirts are long, so you can use it to make your mail hauberk longer.



Just add shirt



And change its color like this. Of course you can use other shirts that are long



or you can add a skirt. I like to use Artemis Skirt, because it's the longest skirt in the game.



Done.


And that's all. I hope someone finds this helpful and useful. Thank you for reading this.

[adsharp12]

amongus

[AlexanderOttoman]

This is very helpful now I can make some better troops Thank you

[wormyjb]

Nice man! I also took inspiration from crusaders sometimes!

[Monsignor Enrico]

@(VN)wormyjb Thank you for your kind words! And about the chainmail, an artwork named 'It's crusader time!' inspired me to make it.

[Nogard]

This last one is really usefull

[wormyjb]

Lol, me and you both have the same idea when it comes to chainmail addons like the medieval shirt and artemis skirt. We also happened to use the same chainmail color before I even saw this! This is nice! keep it up!