How not to be COMPLETELY terminated as Godwinson in 1066 scenario

I made this guide so people can have some enjoyment or, maybe even win as England like i once did in '1066: The Year of Viking Destiny' scenario. (this is pretty much the problem with hystorically accurate scenarios; if you are the nation meant to lose, you will most likely lose). Anyways, see if these make sense and keep in mind it's pure observation and logical thinking. Im no pro and Diety is my worst nightmare.(Also beating this scenario as England grants an achievment wich is why i'm tagging it here)

Immediate action

the first turn is decisive because after you moved all your units,only God knows the result when the invasion train start rolling. So in the first mobilization,i do this:
>move 2 huscarls to Lincoln,move the last one to Winchester
>move the crossbowman in Exeter near Winchester.
>Send all pikemen to the east coast
>buy an alliance with a welsh city-state and move longbowmen to London and the other one to
east coast (if you buy a second alliance,send one to the east coast and the other to Lincoln
>move all horsemen to the east coast or north

Go for the iron

This is the most important resource of the game. It allows you to build your powerful longswordsman replacement, the migthy Huscarl! You might consider dangerous building mines on the cities encircled by norwegians, but they never seem to capture my workers (and i play on King). The importance of this is that some cities that will be captured have iron,and running out of this resource is very dangerous;so defend your cities with mines preferably.

Evacuation

As a historically accurate scenario, you are supposed to lose. And the best way civ 5 found out to do this is to give more cities than units to defend them; so DO NOT waste time and effort scattering soldiers around to defend.You have 3 huge armies heading your way from all directions, dividing your troops will only make them go down faster, and when you last notice, you are already out of time and personnel to defend London.
The cities you should evacuate first (and most likely to fall first) are:
-York
-Ipsiwich
-Norwich
-Dover
-Chichester

Now,what's most important is to make a defensive wall on the neareast city. For instance,while the norwegians take York, make a shield wall (most preferably with your Huscarls located near London) to prevent further progress.

USE DEM MONIS

You might be the outnumbered one in the middle of everything, but you are RICH. England has the largest treasury out of the 4 competing civs in this scenario and the biggest GPT, and this perfectly pairs up with the low production rate. Buy the Huscarls, as many as you need. Soon enough, you will have a considerably better defense. And if you start running out of money, you will receive the taxes from the populations (and it's a pretty generous war bond) regularly! But knowing how to administrate this money is essencial, so here is a small hierarchy on what to buy:
- Huscarls and crossbowmen (really expensive but pretty damm worth it)
- Horsemen and pikemen
- Walls
- Barracks
But don't go crazy buying just yet. Go saving the money and rely more on production,as you never the know the next city to be attacked. I usually panick-buy Huscarls,but if you have troops to reinforce nearby,try to buy a pikeman or a crossbowman.

BRITON ALLIES!

Thanks to jonleggett, this CRUCIAL part now exists. Thanks jon,old chap!

Anyways,you may notice Saxon England's wonderful trait,wich is based on influence and using city-states to your very war effort. Indeed,a single gift of 500 gold may make you allies for the rest of the game. And let me tell ya,these allies are a valorous addition to your army;here's why:

- They give you longbowmen, that are powerful ranged units and have LONGER range than your enemy crossbowmen (!!!!) and swordsman that you can later upgrade to Huscarls
- They are all militaristic for the game's sake, yet, they are able to provide essencial resources such as Iron and horseys!
- In Scotland's case, they are also quite a distraction to that motherlover Hadrada and can slow your pummeling by his insane amounts of soldiers!
- Let's face it,any extra units, considering this crazy war, are VERY welcome

Get it? Amazing,right? So go on and make some damm friends. Welsh are there pretty much for that purpose and these longbowmen are the most lovely things you will get.

Maximize production

This includes purchasing buildings and citizen managment. Buy forges and stables. On citizen management,move those citizens working on basic food tiles and put them in a mine or a hill to increase production. If your city enters in stagantion because of it,buy a watermill or a granary (and not just buying,produce if you can). In the cities closer to the action in preference, buy workshops and again,populate them with the people from basic food tiles, leave fishing boats or wheat farms populated. Sheep pastures are also a great choice to populate.

Defending properly

The thing you will be doing the entire game once your enemies step on England.But know how to make a good defence,because the other guys sure as hell want London at any cost.

>Keep Reinforcing
Once you set your defence don't forget to mind it just yet. Always block possible holes on your shieldwalls,back it up with ranged units,have a cavalry to sweep trough when the enemy is trying to attack the wall,have an emergency army standing way back if the wall is breached; anyways, don't just place any units in there. If you can put a Great General behind everything, this will give you a HUGE advantage.

>Keep Vigilant.
If the norwegians are not attacking your wall,don't think they gave up already because it's the very last thing they will do. They are probably circling their way around the wall and attacking another city in which you don't have any defences. Lincoln,for instance. If the norwegains rarely attack,make sure to send a horseman north of Notthingam just to see what they are doing. I fell in the moistake of not watching and when i least expected,Hardrada was already attacking Chester and Stamford.

>Good Logistics
It will happen. You will be encircled somewhere you didn't expect to be attacked. Hopefully,you have an awful lot of roads at your disposition. But be wise when moving. If you have a citiy's defense nearby,don't move ALL of it. It's hardly their entire army that is invading,so if you move everything to the other city,it will become vulnerable and be attacked. Instead, pick half of each nearby city if you can and send it there. Buy a unit and if possible,walls aswell

Final considerations

Well, this is it for my guide, hope you could learn something from this and thanks for coming. I don't really expect one to be crazy enough like me to play as England in this particular scenario, but if they do, it will be a pleasure to help them from my own experience c: by the way it was pretty damm fun to write this and please do tell me if i wrote nonsense in some parts XD
And then you ask "why playing as Godwinson ?" To be honest, i really can't tell. something about that wicked look in his face completed by one hand holding a sword and the other holding the nothing heroically like a true king. Something about that cool cape and his groovy mustcahe. Something about the Huscarls. Something about that charming cross in a green banner. Something about HAROLD GODWINSON and Saxon England. have fun!

[casualpoint]

luck is what matters most, i dont know how but literally the first time i tried this senario i won it as england, i didnt even have all my men in the north for the fist attck and then proceedewd to get surprised by norway. ofcource i lost 3 of my citys, but thats a small price to pay (btw i was on prince difficulty so i wasnt exactly challenging myself)

[Mr. Ken Tucky]

Thanks mate, its been a while

[Joshybones]

good job on the guide

[Mr. Ken Tucky]

But i guarantee, there is nothing close to the quality. I like many take that stab on the wallet because there is no competition.

Besides, it's not like i feel interested in every single expansion and content pack

[Steee]

wow, fuck off and enjoy paying over $200 for your full games

[Mr. Ken Tucky]

Go easy on me guys, i'm a total scrub and my thing now is Paradox Games

[Steee]

it's all about holding london

[Steee]

leedle, i won this on my first try as prince

[JohnBlaze]

great post. Would be great to see it played and won on the harder difficulties

[Mr. Ken Tucky]

it's the WINNING factor. If you don't build the courts,you can't write the book and if you can't write the book,you CAN'T WIN; so yes,extremely necessary