Note: This guide is not yet updated to the Rulers of England pack.

Following this guide requires the Gathering Storm expansion.

It also assumes you have all other Civ 6 content, listed below, though it is not necessary to have these to utilise the key strategies of each civ.

• Pre-Rise and Fall content packs
  
  • Vikings, Poland, Australia, Persia/Macedon, Nubia, Khmer/Indonesia
• Rise and Fall Expansion
  
• New Frontier content packs
  
  • Maya/Grand Colombia, Ethiopia, Byzantium/Gauls, Babylon, Vietnam/Kublai Khan, Portugal

These content packs include exclusive civs, city-states, districts, buildings, wonders, natural wonders, resources, and a disaster, but not core game mechanics - all you need is the base game and the Gathering Storm expansion for those.

The wealth of the world is wasted on those who do not intend to use it. Opulent palaces of idle gold and idle rulers! What glory is there in gluttony? It is only right that we take this refuse for a better cause: for the kingdom and for the faith. Let our fleet set sail! Let our armies storm the coasts! The world shall fear us once again.


This guide is divided into multiple sections explaining how best to use and play against this specific civ.

• The Outline details the mechanics of how the civilization's unique features work and what their start bias is if they have one.
  
• The Victory Skew section describes to what extent the civ (and its individual leaders where applicable) is inclined towards particular victory routes. This is not a rating of its power, but an indicator of the most appropriate route to victory.
  
• Multiple sections for Uniques explain in detail how to use each special bonus of the civilization.
  
• Administration describes some of the most synergistic governments, government buildings, policy cards, age bonuses, pantheons, religious beliefs, wonders, city-states and Great People for the civ. Only the ones with the most synergy with the civ's uniques are mentioned - these are not necessarily the "best" choices when playing as the civ for a given victory route.
  
• Finally, the Counter-Strategies discusses how best to play against the civ, including a consideration of leader agendas if the civ is controlled by a computer.

Note that all costs (production, science, etc.) mentioned within the guide assume a game played on the normal speed settings. To modify these values for other game speeds:

• Online: Divide by 2
  
• Quick: Divide by 1.5
  
• Epic: Multiply by 1.5
  
• Marathon: Multiply by 3

Terminology used in this guide and not in-game is explained here.

AoE (Area of Effect) - Bonuses or penalties that affect multiple tiles in a set radius. Positive examples include Factories (which offer production to cities within a 6 tile radius unless they're within range of another building of the same type) and a negative example is nuclear weapons, which cause devastation over a wide radius.

Beelining - Obtaining a technology or civic quickly by only researching it and its prerequisites. Some deviation is allowed in the event that taking a technology or civic off the main track provides some kind of advantage that makes up for that (either a source of extra science/culture or access to something necessary for a eureka or inspiration boost)

CA (Civ Ability) - The unique ability of a civilization, shared by all its leaders.

Compact empires - Civs with cities close together (typically 3-4 tile gaps between city centres). This is useful if you want to make use of districts that gain adjacency bonuses from other districts, or to maximise the potential of area-of-effect bonuses later in the game.

Dispersed empires - Civs with cities that are spread out (typically 5-6 tile gaps between city centres). Civs with unique tile improvements generally favour a more dispersed empire in order to make use of them, as do civs focused on wonder construction.

GPP - Short for Great Person Points. Districts, buildings and wonders generate these points and with enough you can claim a Great Person of the corresponding type.

GWAM - Collective name for Great Writers, Artists and Musicians. All of them can produce Great Works that offer tourism and culture, making them important to anyone seeking a cultural victory.

LA (Leader Ability) - The unique ability of a specific leader. Usually but not always, they tend to be more specific in scope than civ abilities. Some leader abilities come with an associated unique unit or infrastucture.

Prebuilding - Training a unit with the intention of upgrading it to a desired unit later. An example is building Slingers and upgrading them once Archery is unlocked.

Sniping - Targeting a specific city for capture directly, ignoring other enemy cities along the way. Typically used in the context of "capital sniping" - taking a civ's original capital as quickly as possible to contribute towards domination victory without leading to a drawn-out war.

Start bias - The kind of terrain, terrain feature or resource a civilization is more likely to start near. This is typically used for civilizations that have early bonuses dependent on a particular terrain type. There are five tiers of start bias; civs with a tier 1 start bias are placed before civs of tier 2 and so on, increasing their odds of receiving a favourable starting location.

Super-uniques - Unique units that do not replace any others. Examples include India's Varu and Mongolia's Keshigs.

Tall empires - Empires that emphasise city development over expansion, usually resulting in fewer, but bigger, cities.

Uniques - Collective name for civ abilities, leader abilities, unique units, unique buildings, unique districts and unique improvements.

UA (Unique Ability) - A collective name for leader abilities and civ abilities.

UB (Unique Building) - A special building which may only be constructed in the cities of a single civilization, which replaces a normal building and offers a special advantage on top.

UD (Unique District) - A special district which may only be constructed in the cities of a single civilization, which replaces a normal district, costs half as much to build and offers some unique advantages on top.

UI (Unique Improvement) - A special improvement that can only be built by the Builders of a single civilization. "UI" always refers to unique improvements in my guides and not to "user interface" or "unique infrastructure".

UU (Unique Unit) - A special unit that may only be trained by a single civilization, and in some cases only when that civilization is led by a specific leader.

Wide empires - Empires that emphasise expansion over city development, usually resulting in more, but smaller, cities.

Norway has a tier 3 start bias for coast and a tier 5 start bias for woods tiles. The coastal start bias makes it easier to use Viking Longships, while the woods start bias allows you to get more out of Stave Churches.

• Naval and embarked units may cross ocean tiles with the classical-era Shipbuilding technology instead of the renaissance-era Cartography technology.
  
• Naval melee units may heal in neutral territory even without the Auxiliary Ships promotion.
  
  • By default, healing in neutral territory restores 10 health per turn.
• Embarking and disembarking land units costs just one movement point
  
  • Units always end up with fewer movement points remaining after embarking or disembarking regardless of whether or not their maximum movement points changed in the process.

• All melee naval units can perform coastal raids, an ability otherwise restricted to naval raider units.
  
• +50% production bonus when constructing naval melee units.
  
• Pillaging and coastal raiding of mines grants science in addition to gold.
  
  • The science yield is equal to 30% of the gold yield.
• Pillaging and coastal raiding of camps, pastures, plantations and quarries grants culture in addition to faith.
  
  • The culture yield is equal to 60% of the faith yield, not including additional faith from pillages via the Grand Master's Chapel building.

An ancient-era naval melee unit which replaces the Galley

• 35 strength, up from 30.
  
• +1 movement point if starting on a coast tile

A medieval-era melee infantry unit which replaces the Man-at-Arms

*Purchasing units with faith requires the Grand Master's Chapel government building, which requires either the medieval-era Divine Right or renaissance-era Exploration civics.

**If you have insufficient nitre, you may continue to train Berserkers beyond the Gunpowder technology.

• -5 strength when defending against melee attacks
  
  • Any kind of melee attack counts, including from naval melee units while the Berserker is embarked.

• Requires the Military Tactics technology instead of Apprenticeship

• Costs 10 iron to train, down from 20 (-50%)
  
• Has 48 strength, up from 45
  
• +10 strength when attacking
  
• +2 movement points when starting a turn in enemy territory
  
  • If you capture the territory, Berserkers starting in that captured land will still have 2 extra movement points until the end of the turn.
• -1 movement point cost to pillage
  
  • This does not appear to function as intended due to a bug; Berserkers seem to be using three movement points to pillage rather than the two you'd expect.

A classical-era Holy Site building which replaces the Temple

• +1 faith per adjacent woods tile
  
  • This stacks with the standard +1 faith per two adjacent woods tiles.
• All tiles containing coastal resources within the city limits provide +1 production.

In this section, the civ is subjectively graded based on how much it leans towards a specific victory type - not how powerful it is. Scores of 3 or more mean the civ has at least a minor advantage towards the victory route.


Culture can be a reasonable route for Norway. The faith and production bonus of Stave Churches can aid with Naturalist/Rock Band purchases and wonder construction respectively. Culture from pillages and coastal raids can help you get through the civics tree to key wonders and tourism bonuses.

Despite Norway's incentive to engage in extensive warfare, the civ has some potential in the diplomatic game. Pillaging doesn't create grievances, and you can use military emergencies as an excuse to pillage while gaining diplomatic favour. Pillaging is also a great source of gold - handy for aid emergencies. The exploration advantages of Viking Longships and early ocean crossing helps maximise the number of full civs and city-states you meet early on, allowing you to complete more city-state quests and emergencies.

Domination is Norway's best option. Stave Churches offer a production advantage; something that's always good for a domination-oriented civ. Harald Hardrada takes it further by giving you a 50% production bonus to naval melee units. Viking Longships have good early-rush potential on very water-heavy maps, but still can be good otherwise supporting your other military efforts. Berserkers are stronger attacking than Musketmen for a significantly lower cost, earlier arrival, and with the ability to easily pillage farms to recover health. Both UUs also benefit from Oligarchy for a +4 strength boost. Being able to cross oceans early combined with easy embarking and disembarking allows you to bring your medieval-era military strength to the entire world, and being able to get bonus science and culture from pillages helps keep your military technology up to date.

Religious victory is a reasonable path for Norway. While the unique faith bonus from Stave Churches isn't especially high, being able to send your religious units overseas sooner can give you an edge in the race to convert the world's heathens. Norway also has a good shot of getting both a classical and medieval era Golden Age thanks to their exploration advantages and having both UUs and the UB arriving early enough for their era score boost to be applicable - this allows you to get a lot out of Exodus of the Evangelists.

Scientific victory is a possible route. Science from pillaging mines is very dependent on how your opponents develop - if they build them extensively and keep them repaired, you could potentially get a significant scientific advantage. It's also map-dependent - on larger archipelago maps, Norway can potentially be one of the strongest civs in the game in terms of science output through pillaging alone. Production from Stave Churches can provide a slight advantage to space race projects as well.

Dominate the seas before anyone else has even embarked upon them!

There's a lot of little distinct features to Norway, but the ones that arrive earliest are the naval advantages. Harald Hardrada offers a powerful early naval unit, a strong production bonus towards them and the ability for them to pillage coast-adjacent land tiles. Norway's civ ability also adds healing in neutral seas to naval melee units, and ocean crossing two eras early. These advantages interweave with each other heavily, but each individual benefit will be mainly discussed in the appropriate unique section.


Three of Norway's five uniques (including Harald Hardrada's leader ability) modify naval melee units, so before anything else, it's useful to know how they function.

Naval melee units are reasonably fast, great at exploring and are the only non-land units that can capture cities. However, having a melee attack, they always take damage when they engage in combat, and they have an 85% damage penalty against city walls (use naval ranged units against those). Furthermore, like all naval units, they by default can only heal in friendly seas (Norway allows healing in neutral seas as well, but not enemy seas).

There are four types of naval melee units: Galleys (ancient era, replaced by Viking Longships), Caravels (renaissance era), Ironclads (industrial era, requires coal) and Destroyers (atomic era, requires oil). They all share a set of promotions:



All four naval melee units can be constructed faster with Harald Hardrada's leader ability. Keep in mind that "+50% production" does not mean "build them in 50% less time" - discounting other bonuses, it's essentially a 33% reduction in build time.

You can build upon the production bonus (making it 150%) with the appropriate policy card:

• Maritime Industries (Requires the ancient-era Foreign Trade civic, covers ancient and classical eras)
  
• Press Gangs (Requires the renaissance-era Exploration civic, covers up to the industrial era)
  
• International Waters (Requires the atomic-era Cold War civic, covers every era)

That makes naval melee units essentially 60% cheaper than it would be for another civ without the policy card (though that ignores any other production multipliers like the Ruhr Valley wonder). Or, in other words, you can get five naval units for the price of two.

Remember that the production bonus does not affect gold purchasing. it's best to refrain from buying naval units considering the high cost involved. If you have lots of spare gold, consider instead buying land units in coastal cities you may capture so you can defend them.

All of Norway's melee naval units can perform coastal raids, an ability otherwise restricted to naval raider units. This is essentially a form of pillaging, but with a few special rules and restrictions.

To carry out a coastal raid, you need the following:

• Be on a coastal tile adjacent to land. Being on a lake or city tile does not count!
  
• Have at least 3 movement points remaining, which will be used up for the action.
  
• The adjacent land tile must be one of the following:
  
  • A tribal village without a Barbarian present
    
  • An empty Barbarian Encampment
    
  • A tile improvement (not a Qhapaq Ñan, Mountain Tunnel nor Ski Resort) or district (not an Encampment) owned by another civ, city-state or free city which does not have a military unit present and has not already been fully pillaged.
    
  • An enemy civilian unit without any military unit escorting it
    
    • Settlers and Builders are captured and converted to your side, with no remaining movement points until next turn.
      
    • Great People and Archaeologists are returned to an enemy city.
      
    • Other civilian units are destroyed.

Coastal raiding can be used on tribal villages to earn rewards as if you entered them using a land unit. Obviously, this can only be used on villages adjacent to the sea, but this can still result in you getting gold, research boosts and era score (among other things) other civs wouldn't get.

You can also clear Barbarian Encampments this way. That's really useful for isolated islands that churn out annoying Barbarian naval units. Take some Quadriremes or other naval ranged units so you can clear the camp ready to be raided.


If an enemy is foolish enough to leave civilians on the coast unescorted, you can use coastal raids to convert them to your cause. This can be useful for snapping up Builders that Barbarians managed to take, or even to take unescorted Builders or Settlers off full civs.

You can use the threat of capture to deter enemy Builders from trying to repair their pillaged coastal improvements. That's especially useful late in the game if you're trying to stop a cultural victory by pillaging Seaside Resorts. If military escorts do show up, ranged naval units with the Preparatory Fire promotion are pretty good at handling them.

The main application of coastal raiding is to pillage coastal land tiles - denying use of them to your opponent while granting yourself a helpful yield or healing your unit. Remember that pillaging coastal tiles is still an option as well - Harbours for example are good to pillage for gold as, like all districts, they may be pillaged multiple times. Yields from pillaging can ensure you get something good out of war even if you can't capture or hold any cities.

In alphabetical order, here are all the tile improvements and districts you can pillage, and their base yields. Districts are shown in bold. All yields except for health will increase over the course of the game.

*Cannot be pillaged by naval units whatsoever; included in this list for the sake of completion.

The classical-era Raid policy card (requires the Military Training civic) and the industrial-era Total War policy card (requires the Scorched Earth civic) increase the yields from pillaging by 50%, which includes coastal raids.

Late in the game, it's worth looking out for Seaside Resorts - they have to be next to the coast so they're all vulnerable to coastal raids, they produce double the gold of typical gold-yielding improvements per pillage, and pillaging them sets back your enemy's tourism output.




Pillaging and coastal raiding can be a great source of gold and faith, but that's not all. Mines will grant science when pillaged, helping with technological progress, while camps, pastures, plantations and quarries yield culture - helpful for civics.

Your Viking Longships will be able to get plenty of coastline scouted out early on. That'll allow you to see where rival cities and city-states are located. Look around the map between turns, and you'll be able to see when they build new coastal camps, mines, pastures, plantations and quarries.

• If it's a city-state you have no envoys present in, start a war and you can raid their coastal improvements with relatively few consequences. The grievance penalty will erode quite quickly considering you're only starting a war and not capturing anything. When all coastal improvements are pillaged, move out your naval units and wait for them to repair them before moving back in again.
  
• If it's a city-state you have some envoys present in, it's best to avoid war unless it's a particularly lucrative coast (e.g. lots of coastal mines).
  
• If it's a neighbouring full civ, it's best to avoid starting a war unless they have a very lucrative coast, you have a strong defence at home or you have access to Berserkers (and hence can fight them on two fronts).
  
• If it's a distant full civ, you should be able to start and resolve a war with relatively few consequences - especially if their navy is weak. This is particularly effective if they're on another continent but can't cross oceans yet, as they have no means of retaliating.

These improvements should generally be the highest priority to pillage, unless a unit is on low health and would benefit more from pillaging something like a farm. Even when you're sieging town a city, it's still worthwhile to try and pillage any of those tiles you found - the benefits are immense, and repairs can easily be done later with a Builder.

Pillage Farming

Conventional means of using the ability aside, there's another way to generate lots of science out of Harald Hardrada's leader ability. You'll need the following:

• A hilly city with rapidly declining loyalty (e.g. a coastal city captured by Viking Longships, or a city founded on another civ's continent)
  
• Some military units strong enough to quickly retake the city when it runs out of loyalty
  
• Some additional land-based military units for pillaging tiles (strength doesn't matter)
  
• A fair number of Builders.

Build up plenty of mines in the city's radius while it's under your control, but be sure to keep all the Builders on at least one remaining build charge. When it flips out of your control, pillage all the mines and re-take the city. Then, while the city's back in your control, repair all the mines.

A similar principle applies for cities with lots of improvements that yield culture when pillaged, though it's harder to find a good city location for that.

• Make use of naval production-boosting policy cards to help create a huge navy.
  
• Bring a melee and ranged naval unit together when exploring and you can take out any coastal Barbarian Encampments you encounter.
  
• Coastal raiding makes war worthwhile even if you can't take cities.

If Harald Hardrada's leader ability wasn't enough, here's another load of naval bonuses!


While not quite as effective as the Maori ability to cross oceans from the start of the game, this still considerably speeds up the path to ocean-crossing relative to other civs. It also helps that the eureka for Shipbuilding requires you to build two Viking Longships, which is really easy to do.

The obvious benefit of early ocean crossing is the exploration potential. You can easily meet every civ and most city-states in the game, start trading luxuries to civs on other continents (which will have different ones to you) and use the coastal raid function on tribal villages you may encounter long before anyone else can get there. You may even find empty landmasses you can settle a few cities on, making it a good forward base of operations for your navy later - or just extra spots for districts and their yields.

Meeting all city-states in particular can be very powerful. City-states give you one quest per game era. If you discover them two eras early, that could mean up to two envoys per discovered city-state. Even if you can't complete many quests, finding more city-states early means you have more choice regarding where to send envoys for the best envoy and suzerain bonuses.

Being able to reach new continents early also gives you safe options for warfare. Declaring war on a civ or city-state on another continent allows you to raid their coasts without them being able to retaliate against your core cities, allowing you to get lots of good yields for no risk.

Another benefit is the ability to withdraw units in war-time. Withdrawing a naval unit into the ocean, with at least a tile gap between them and the nearest coastal tile, will render them safe from attacks until either the enemy civ reaches the renaissance era, has the medieval-era Great Admiral Leif Erikson or has a Quadrireme with the Coincidence Rangefinding promotion (which is very rare, and in that case you can just retreat the unit another tile). Being able to do this works very well with the next part of Norway's civ ability...


All Norwegian naval melee units can heal in neutral territory for 10 health per turn. This isn't an especially fast source of health (and it's important to remember that it doesn't work for naval ranged units such as Quadriremes) but it nonetheless significantly aids your lasting power in naval warfare. This is especially usefull early in the game when you don't have many farms or fishing boats to pillage. Make use of your ability to retreat into ocean tiles, and you can safely restore health and quickly get back into the fight when the unit's healed up.

Outside of wartime, this also helps with exploration. Barbarian naval units (and their land-based ranged or siege units) can be a pain at times, but if you can move far enough to lose them, you can heal up and get right back to exploring more sea rather than having to go all the way back to land.


The slow process of moving units from sea to land and back again can be partially alleviated with a Harbour district, but Norway can ignore all that and instead easily move land units between land and sea tiles. This can save time when escorting armies to new continents and making hasty escapes if units get injured, but it also can help speed up your religious units. Faster religious units means more cities converted to your faith sooner, which is very handy if you're going for a religious victory.

Later in the game, when embarked movement limits increase, you can use it to rapidly get large numbers of units from being embarked to moving inland. That's particularly powerful if you're launching a surprise war against another civ, as you can be a serious threat on land right from the start rather than needing to spend time securing your position.

• Early ocean crossing is great for exploration
  
• Retreat to ocean tiles to heal up prior to enemies entering the renaissance, so they can't hurt you
  
• Quick disembarking can be used to flood enemy lands with your own land units on the first turn of war.

I've talked about various tricks and tactics, but the Viking Longship is what helps to bring Norway's unique abilities together into effective strategies.


You only need the Sailing technology to build Viking Longships, and it's very much worth your while to get one built quickly. You'll gain a massive +7 era score from building your first one if it's the first naval unit in the world, giving you a good shot at securing a classical-era Golden Age.

With the Maritime Industries policy card, Viking Longships are essentially cheaper to build than Scouts, allowing you to completely overwhelm enemy cities or uncover vast portions of the map quickly.


With 4 movement in coastal tiles,Viking Longships are one of the fastest things around at this early stage of the game, making them ideal in an exploration role. Exploration can find you city-states (and handy first-discovery envoy bonuses), tribal villages (which grant +1 era score each if explored/raided in the ancient era), potential pillage spots and vulnerable enemy cities.

It helps to have at least two Viking Longships early on so they can scout the coast on either direction of your capital, though obviously you won't want to neglect early expansion too much.


The ability of Viking Longships to coastal raid can potentially help you generate a lot of gold, faith, science and culture - if you have a target to hit. Look out for city-states you lack envoys in or distant civs with coastal camps, mines, pastures, plantations and/or quarries in particular. A quick war allows you to pillage those tiles for excellent yields without the civ having the means to cause you any trouble.

Civs will eventually start positioning military units on their coastal tiles to prevent coastal raids - if that happens, bring along some Quadriremes to attack them with. They may also stop repairing their coastal improvements - if that happens, it might be time to find a new target.

Aside from giving you good yields, coastal raiding early on can put pressure on other civs, and encourage them to pour more resources to defence rather than development. This can give you an advantage over them in the long-run, as the cost of a Viking Longship is small relative to the cost of means to prevent their pillaging.


Viking Longships have 35 strength, or 39 with the Oligarchy government. This can take down enemy cities without walls fairly quickly. That being said, loyalty pressures make it quite hard to hold onto captured coastal cities unless you can push inland and take other cities, so you may want to hold off doing so until Berserkers are available.

By the time you have enough sources of loyalty to hold onto captured coastal cities, enemy cities will probably fortify themselves with some walls. As such, you may need to bring Quadriremes with your Viking Longships to help handle city defences. They're a bit slower and don't benefit from Norway's unique abilities (aside from the ability to cross oceans early), so they're less disposable. Resist the temptation to pillage fishing boats with your Viking Longships so you can pillage them with your Quadriremes to heal up.


Viking Longships can be used in early-rushing strategies, for exploration or to pressure other civs into neglecting peaceful development in favour of stronger defences. This can help lay the foundation for Berserker wars, but it can also give you an early edge which helps the religious game.

The units themselves will be useful right up until the renaissance era, where they're completely eclipsed by Caravels. Caravels are stronger, faster, and still have access to Norway's unique abilities (healing in neutral land, coastal raids, and you can build them faster than other civs can), so upgrade all your Viking Longships you can to them once you can spare the gold.

• Training a couple of Viking Longships early on provides you with a great exploration advantage
  
• Look out for vulnerable distant civs or coastal city-states you lack envoys in - you can then start a quick war to pillage their tiles.
  
• Viking Longships are capable of taking cities, but loyalty pressures tend to make that unviable unless you can push further inland with your army.

You can have a lot of fun messing around with Viking Longships, but unless you're on a very water-heavy map, they generally won't win you the game. Something that can help you with the next step is the Stave Church, which offers both bonus production and faith. Faith can buy you military units at an affordable rate with the Grand Master's Chapel Government Plaza building, so both yields can help you in the domination game - it's not just useful for the religious game!


Holy Sites (and hence Stave Churches) are much more useful if you can found a religion of your own, but Norway's naval-heavy early game can make it hard to fit that in. Here's a plan of action to help you secure a Great Prophet:

• Build a Viking Longship before any other civ builds a naval unit so you gain a total of +7 era score
  
• Build 1-2 Holy Sites fairly early to start accumulating a few Great Prophet Points
  
• Train a small number of land-based units to fight Barbarians (Warriors are good - they can be upgraded to Berserkers later if you have both Iron Working and Military Science)
  
• Use your Viking Longships to track down and raid coastal tribal villages for extra era score.
  
• Securing a classical-era Golden Age should be fairly easy - use it to take Exodus of the Evangelists for the bonus Great Prophet Points (unless you're on track to get a Great Prophet anyway)

Taking that course of action does mean not choosing one of the other strong Golden Age bonuses, but you can always take one of those in the medieval game era. You can usually get both a Stave Church built and a Berserker trained before the classical game era ends for a total of +8 era score, so you'll have a decent shot at getting another Golden Age.


This is not a spectacular bonus by itself, but has great potential seeing as it builds on the primary yield of Holy Sites. Woods next to the Holy Site become better than mountains!

One thing this allows you to do is settle exclusively in coastal areas without having to worry about how many mountains are available - you have a backup. Admittedly, there will be times where you have neither woods nor mountains, but you'll still have more flexibility than most civs.

The bonus adjacency pairs very nicely with the Work Ethic follower belief for a boost to production. This can be boosted even further in tundra regions with the Dance of the Aurora pantheon.

Furthermore, a single Stave Church can provide a huge amount of science. You'll need the Dance of the Aurora Pantheon, a Holy Site surrounded by as many tundra woods tiles as possible, and to obtain the medieval Great Scientist Hildegard of Bingen, who makes a Holy Site add its adjacency yield to science. A Holy Site with a Stave Church completely surrounded by tundra woods would provide +15 faith per turn, and therefore +15 science per turn. This doubles to +30 per turn with the Scripture economic policy card.



I don't even have a Lighthouse in this city yet, but thanks to the Stave Church and God of the Sea, the yield of this tile is great.

Unless you have the Work Ethic follower belief, this is usually the main reason you'll want Stave Churches, making them worthwhile in any coastal city with more than a couple of water-based resources. If you build a Holy Site fairly early, you can quickly secure the God of the Sea pantheon so together with this building your coastal cities will have strong production outputs. Add a Harbour with a Lighthouse, and that's an extra +1 food on top.

Coastal tiles can become even more productive if the industrial city-state Auckland is in your game and you're suzerain over them. One coastal city can produce particularly strong yields with the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus wonder, which adds 1 faith, science and culture to all their coastal tiles.

Small islands often have high numbers of coastal resources nearby. For many civs, these islands tend to be very unproductive, but Norway can make them quite powerful.

Bonus production will be really helpful for getting Berserkers trained, considering you can't upgrade other units into them. If you want to continue on the warpath beyond that point, it'll also be great for churning out naval melee units at ridiculous speeds.

• If you want a religion as Norway, aim for a classical-era Golden Age and get the Exodus of the Evangelists dedication.
  
• Building the Grand Master's Chapel lets you buy military units with faith, giving Stave Churches a good use even if you're not after a religious victory.
  
• Take the God of the Sea pantheon to complement the production bonus Stave Churches offer, or alternatively Dance of the Aurora to maximise possible adjacency bonuses.
  
• Take the Work Ethic follower belief to add your Holy Sites' strong faith adjacency bonuses to production.

While Viking Longships dominate the seas, Berserkers give you considerable power on land. For a lower production, maintenance and resource cost, they have mobility and offensive power superior to a Knight with the addition of bonuses against anti-cavalry units and the ability to impose Zone of Control - though they lack the ability to ignore Zone of Control.


Berserkers arrive at the medieval-era Military Tactics techology. Although it's possible to beeline it, there may be many other pressures for research. Here are three possible approaches:


This is more suited for maps heavy on land and lighter on water. The aim is to get Berserkers out quickly while cutting out most things not directly relevant to that path. Here's one possible research route, but remember this isn't set in stone and some prerequisite technologies aren't listed here:

• Research Sailing so you can improve coastal resources and build Viking Longships. If you don't start on the coast, pick up a different Builder technology if necessary instead.
  
• If there aren't any coastal mines or Campuses to raid, research Writing so you can build Campuses for science.
  
• Research Bronze Working to reveal iron. It'll also allow you train a Spearman; send them to kill a Barbarian for the Military Tactics eureka.
  
• Now, beeline Military Tactics.
  
• Pick up Masonry afterwards so you can build Battering Rams.

The problem with this approach is it reduces your odds of founding a religion.


This is good when you want Berserkers reasonably early, but you also want to not neglect other uniques. Here's a vague potential research order, but remember again that this is only an example and nothing to strictly follow:

• Sailing
  
• Astrology for Holy Sites (can be delayed a bit if necessary)
  
• Clean up other necessary Builder technologies
  
• Writing for Campus districts
  
• Bronze Working for iron revealed as well as Spearmen and the eureka boost they offer. If you have time, building a couple of Encampments with Barracks will help you secure a Great General.
  
• Potentially Iron Working so you can train Warriors/Swordsmen and upgrade them later for immediate Berserkers.
  
• Now, beeline Military Tactics.
  
• Masonry for Battering Rams
  
• Shipbuilding for ocean-crossing.

If you're taking a slower route and manage to found an early religion, consider taking the Crusade belief and spreading it to your neighbours for a powerful +10 strength boost. It should at least partially compensate for delaying Berserkers.


You can train Berserkers faster with the Feudal Contract military policy card available at the medieval-era Feudalism civic. Here's one possible civic route to get there, while not neglecting other bonuses:

• Foreign Trade (unlocks the Maritime Industries military policy card, allowing you to build Viking Longships faster).
  
• Political Philosophy (needed for Oligarchy, which synergises very well with Berserkers)
  
• Military Tradition (needed for flanking and support bonuses - don't forget this one!)
  
• Theology (needed for Stave Churches)
  
• Feudalism

Once more, this is not a definite route you have to follow. You may want Military Training sooner for the Raid policy card (+50% yields from pillaging) for example.


Berserkers are great on the attack, but can be vulnerable in defence. For that reason, it helps to train them in reasonable numbers so you can rotate out ones that are injured while still placing pressure on your opponents. Bring some siege support as well (Battering Rams or Siege Towers are good) and you should be able to fight reasonably effectively.

A classical or medieval-era Great General is a great help for Berserkers, but requires you to dedicate time towards building Encampments. The Oligarchy government will be particularly useful - it's worth a +4 strength boost, making your Berserkers defend better than a generic Men-at-Arms unit and attack on a par with Cavalry!


Berserkers are slow in your own lands, but if they start a turn in enemy territory they'll have +2 movement. That can be used to surround enemy units (allowing flanking bonuses) and cities (placing them under siege and hence preventing them from healing), as well as for retreating if things go wrong.

Because Berserkers are so much stronger attacking than defending, it's important to play aggressively. Leaving enemy units alive is dangerous - even if they only have 1 HP left, they'll still generally do more damage attacking your Berserker than your Berserker would receive when attacking them. Flanking bonuses will really help when attacking. To boost your defence, consider keeping Berserkers clustered together so they can gain support bonuses from each other.

As a helpful extra, the speed bonus works even when embarked, as does the attack bonus and defence penalty. The attack bonus makes Berserkers great at amphibious assaults, but be sure to escort them with your Longships or Caravels as their defence against naval melee units will be particularly low.

It's not unusual to start a turn with a few very injured Berserkers. Thankfully, their additional movement allows them to burn an enemy farm for health and still move a tile or attack in the same turn. Easy pillaging can also be nice if you want to tear apart enemy mines for gold and science or suchlike in the middle of war. Be careful about pillaging districts - if you take the city later, you're going to have to dedicate production to fixing it.

Once you can start promoting Berserkers, they become much better in defence. The Tortoise promotion is great, ensuring that Crossbowmen are significantly less of a threat, while Zweihander helps them to handle Knights. Elite Guard is particularly interesting, as it allows you to attack and then pillage the tile the Berserker's on, ensuring the unit has enough health left to survive counter-attacks.


Berserkers attack at 58 strength - 3 points stronger than a Musketman. However, against melee units, they defend at a mere 43 strength, or 12 points weaker than Musketmen. This makes using Berserkers a bit of a gamble into the renaissance as Musketmen can kill them in just two hits.

Nonetheless, the high mobility and excellent pillaging capabilities of Berserkers make them still worthwhile to continue using through the Renaissance era - just bring along some Knights to help handle counter-attacks. Berserkers and Knights in enemy lands are about as fast as each other and cover up each other's weakenesses.

Once industrial-era units like Cuirassiers, Cavalry and Line Infantry enter the battlefield, Berserkers will be too vulnerable in defence and insufficient in attack, so it'll definitely be time to upgrade them.

So, assuming Berserkers weren't enough to win you the game, it's time to consider where to go next. Having lots of cities from Berserker wars (and maybe some wonders) can support a religious victory path fairly well, and that's quite a good route to take. Alternatively, you can emphasise naval units once again as you go down the road of warfare some more.


As strong as Berserkers are offensively, they have to be used with care. Injured Berserkers can be vulnerable to being taken out by opponents, so use their superior mobility to retreat if need be. While excellent against cities, Berserkers are also great in the role of pillagers, giving you some flexibility if enemies have particularly good defences.

Note that the Administration sections strictly cover the options that have particularly good synergy with the civ's uniques. These are not necessarily the best choices, but rather options you should consider more than usual if playing this civ relative to others.



Norway is unique in having two unique units that both benefit from Oligarchy's strength bonus, making it the obvious choice.

Complement it with the Warlord's Throne so conquests grant you bonus production.


Theocracy and the Grand Master's Chapel is a great combination for letting you use your faith to support your military, as faith-purchasing is relatively affordable. Even if you're playing religiously and don't need to faith-purchase military units, getting faith from coastal raiding will make the Grand Master's Chapel worthwhile.


Fascism works best if you want to carry on with warfare. If you're after a religious victory, Democracy tends to work best due to its high number of economic policy cards.

Complement it with the War Department and it'll help your units heal from regular and theological combat alike.


Corporate Libertarianism's production bonuses can be lucrative for a domination game, though the science penalty can be a limitation. Synthetic Technocracy is a good alternative - the bonus power is a versatile bonus and the loss of tourism shouldn't matter.



Conscription (Military, requires State Workforce) - This makes Viking Longships free to maintain, allowing you to spam as many as you like without trouble. It also helps you handle the maintenance cost of Berserkers.

God-King (Economic, requires Code of Laws) - Using this policy card improves your odds of getting to the God of the Sea pantheon before someone else can take it.

Limitanei (Military, requires Early Empire) - Loyalty is a huge problem when you're trying to capture coastal cities. If you want to hold onto those cities for more than a few turns, you'll probably need a policy card like this one.

Maritime Industries (Military, requires Foreign Trade) - Produce Viking Longships at breakneck speeds, and Quadriremes pretty quickly as well.


Equestrian Orders (Military, requires Military Training) - Securing plenty of iron can be difficult when you're balancing coastal settling and woods-heavy spots. This policy card allows you to support more Berserkers with just one or two iron spots.

Praetorium (Diplomatic, requires Recorded History) - Grants bonus loyalty to cities with Governors, helping you hold onto captured coastal cities for longer.

Raid (Military, requires Military Training) - Coastal raiding and Berserker pillaging can produce some nice yields - particularly where culture or science is on offer.

Scripture (Economic, requires Theology) - Build on the bonus Stave Churches offer.


Feudal Contract (Military, requires Feudalism) - This allows you to produce Berserkers quite a bit faster.


Colonial Offices (Diplomatic, requires Exploration) - Capturing coastal cities on new landmasses? The loyalty bonus on here will be very helpful.

Press Gangs (Military, requires Exploration) - A huge production boost for the Ages of Sail and Steam, allowing you to build Caravels and Ironclads extremely quickly. It's also good for Frigates and Privateers, and still works for Viking Longships and Quadriremes if you still want to build them for some reason.

Simultaneum (Economic, requires Reformed Church) - The Stave Church adjacency bonuses make it easier to reach the requisites of this policy card's full yield.

Wars of Religion (Military, requires Reformed Church) - A good way to tie together Norway's religious and military skews.


Total War (Military, requires Scorched Earth) - Same effect as Raid. You can continue to raid coasts using your melee naval units, but remember that Privateers and other naval raiders are invisible to most other units meaning they can raid without as much of a threat of being attacked.


Levee en Masse (Military, requires Mobilisation) - A huge navy is going to cost you an awful lot of gold to maintain. Thankfully, this will help alleviate that.

Martial Law (Wildcard, Fascism only, requires Totalitarianism) - A handy loyalty boost to help you handle coastal cities you capture.


International Waters (Military, requires Cold War) - Churn out Ironclads at incredible speed! It's also good for Battleships, Submarines and Missile Cruisers, as well as any earlier naval unit.


Communications Office (Diplomatic, requires Social Media) - A loyalty boost for Governors to help with late-game naval warfare.


Integrated Attack Logistics (Wildcard, requires Information Warfare) - More movement in enemy territory means more ability to pillage or conduct coastal raids.

Only bonuses with notable synergy with the civ's uniques are covered here.

Monasticism (Dark Age, Classical to Medieval eras) - This is a good way to put a Stave Church infrastructure to use - every city you own with a Holy Site will produce 75% more science, helping you work your way to Military Tactics, Cartography or whatever else you want to research.

Exodus of the Evangelists (Golden Age, Classical to Renaissance eras) - Norway's ease in gaining era score in the ancient era combined with their lack of other advantages to founding a religion makes this a good choice of Golden Age dedication for its Great Prophet Points. The movement speed bonus also goes well with Norway's easy embarking and disembarking, so you can rapidly get your religious units converting foreign cities.

Monumentality (Golden Age, Classical to Renaissance eras) - An excellent alternative choice, this lets you use Stave Church faith to cheaply purchase civilian units.

Hic Sunt Dracones (Golden Age, Renaissance to Modern eras) - Faster naval/embarked unit movement is great for a civ that already has advantages to embarking and the naval game. More importantly, the loyalty bonus helps you hold onto coastal cities you capture.


How you should vote in the World Congress will often be specific to your game - if you have a strong rival, for example, it might be better to vote to hurt them than to help yourself. Furthermore, there may be general bonuses to your chosen victory route or gameplay which are more relevant than ones that have stronger synergy with civ-specific bonuses. Otherwise, here's a list of key votes that have high relevance for this civ relative to other civs.

Mercenary Companies - Effect B (Producing, or purchasing military units using the chosen currency type, is -50% of the cost until the next World Congress) for production, unless it'll clearly help a rival more than you.

Builds on the production boost Norway has towards melee naval units, and also really helps with Berserker training.

Military Advisory - Effect A (Units of the chosen land promotion class gain +5 strength) on melee infantry units if you are currently using or will soon use Berserkers.

More strength helps cover Berserkers' defensive weakness while making their attacking strength even better.

Migration Treaty - Effect B (+5 loyalty per turn but -20% population growth in this player's cities) on yourself

Helps you hold onto captured coastal cities so they won't become free cities.

Public Relations - Effect B (The chosen civ generates 50% fewer grievances, and other civs generate 50% fewer grievances toward this civ) on yourself

While a useful resolution for any warmonger, for Norway specifically it can allow you to pursue a pillage-heavy game without harming your standing in the World Congress too much from the frequent declarations of war.

Urban Development Treaty - Effect A (+100% production towards buildings in this district) for Holy Sites

Stave Churches require a fairly significant investment initially, and cutting their cost down helps you redirect production elsewhere - such as towards additional naval units.

City Patron Goddess - A reasonable choice if you failed to get God of the Sea, helping you to build the first district in a city faster. Constructing a Holy Site first and spending some gold to buy a Stave Church can help get production up and running.

Dance of the Aurora - Holy Sites in the middle of tundra forests can create massive amounts of faith with this pantheon. Pairs very nicely with the Work Ethic follower belief.

God of Healing - Berserkers are prone to losing a lot of health very quickly when in war, so this belief really helps them recover and get back in the fight sooner.

God of the Sea - A reliably good choice for Norway. God of the Sea stacks with the production boost of Stave Churches, making coastal cities much more productive than they are for other civs.

River Goddess - For a civ that likes to build Holy Sites and go to war, this pantheon is rather helpful as it can aid in alleviating war weariness.


You can have one founder, one follower, one enhancer and one worship belief.

Choral Music (Follower) - Norway's incentive to build a lot of Stave Churches could help you to really up your culture output with this belief.

Crusade (Enhancer) - An excellent choice and one Norway is particularly good at making use of. If your faith output is half-decent, take this belief, convert a few cities of another civ in time for Berserker invasions and enjoy being incredibly hard to stop.

Feed the World (Follower) - If you're not so bothered about the faith aspects of Norway, this belief is a good way of ensuring you're making the most out of your Holy Site districts by offering food and housing for Shrines and Stave Churches.

Jesuit Education (Follower) - A good way to use excess faith if you're not so interested in the religious game. This lets you buy Campus and Theatre Square buildings with faith.

Meeting House (Worship) - Essentially a mini-Stave Church, combining the faith and production advantages.

Missionary Zeal (Enhancer) - Your units already have good mobility between land and sea, but Missionary Zeal ensures your religious units can move rapidly though land as well.

Religious Community (Follower) - A powerful way to make Holy Sites more useful even if you're not necessarily after a religious victory.

Tithe (Founder) - Large navies cost a lot of money, and this helps manage it.

Wat (Worship) - Like Jesuit Education, a good way to turn unneeded faith into science, something more relevant to domination victories.

Work Ethic (Follower) - Holy Sites with Stave Churches present can produce decent faith adjacency yields, and together with this belief can produce significant amounts of production as well.


Akkad (Militaristic) - Berserkers in conjunction with Siege Towers are powerful against enemy cities, but Siege Towers are slow. If you're suzerain over Akkad, you can get the same effect without needing to bother with Siege Towers, allowing you to capture cities faster.

Auckland (Industrial) - One of the best city-states around for Norway thanks to the strong synergy with Stave Church production bonuses. With the God of the Sea pantheon on top, you could get +4 production on all fishing boats tiles from the industrial era.

Hattusa (Scientific) - Provides iron if you can't obtain it by other means, ensuring you can train Berserkers.

Kandy (Religious) - Norway's strength at exploration means you can win a few relics from this city-state if you plan things out right. Make sure you have enough Stave Churches to store them in!

Mohenjo Daro (Cultural) - The best city spots for sea resources (and hence production via Stave Churches) are not necessarily next to a river. This city-state helps you to use those spots effectively.

Nan Madol (Cultural) - Norway's skew towards coastal cities as well as their skew against building Theatre Squares (Harbours, Holy Sites and others vie for attention) makes this a good city-state in Norway's hands.

Preslav (Militaristic) - Capturing cities with Encampments will provide you with bonus loyalty - rather helpful for holding onto captured coastal cities.

Valletta (Militaristic) - A great city-state if you're conducting naval warfare with Norway. You can capture a city by the sea, then spend faith to quickly boost its defences. That buys you enough time to purchase or move in land units to keep it defended.

Wolin (Militaristic) - Helps you get Great General and Admiral points without needing to build as many Encampments and Harbours respectively.

Oracle (Ancient era, Mysticism civic) - Offers an excellent way to burn off excess faith if religious victory doesn't interest you.

Great Lighthouse (Classical era, Celestial Navigation technology) - Faster movement complements early ocean crossing very well, helping you to explore the world sooner. It's also great for naval warfare and to make coastal raiding easier.

Jebel Barkal (Classical era, Iron Working technology) - Provides a backup source of iron for Berserkers if you can't obtain it otherwise.

Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (Classical era, Defensive Tactics civic) - A great boost to a city's coastal tiles, which in conjunction with the Stave Church and God of the Sea pantheon can make a particularly strong city. For best results, build this wonder in a city with a high number of coastal resources.

(Religious) Meenakshi Temple (Medieval era, Civil Service civic) - Norway's free embarking and disembarking gives religious units a mobility advantage - build on it by building this wonder and using Gurus to boost the speed and strength of your Missionaries and Apostles.

Venetian Arsenal (Renaissance era, Mass Production technology) - Norway's naval production speed is already so fast that their ships catch fire from friction burns while being constructed. The Venetian Arsenal doubles that output. Try and get to the Electricity technology fairly soon after getting this wonder as well as the Mobilisation civic so you can build Seaports for fast armadas. That way, you have both quantity and quality in your navy.

Panama Canal (Industrial era, Steam Power technology) - Panama Canal can save a lot of travel time for your navy if well-positioned, and it can also allow you to use your navy for inland defence in one area.


Great Generals and Admirals are only mentioned if their retirement bonuses have specific synergy with the civ; not merely for providing a strength bonus to a unique unit.


Euclid (Great Scientist) - Mathematics is on the way to Berserkers, but its eureka boost can be tricky to pick up sometimes. Euclid solves that problem.

Gaius Duilius (Great Admiral) - While unfortunately there's no ancient-era Great Admirals to boost your Viking Longships, you can still make an early fleet with Gais Duilius and enjoy an early 40-strength monster to raid the coasts of the world.

Hanno the Navigator (Great Admiral) - Produce a very fast Viking Longship!


Abu Al-Qasim Al-Zahrawi (Great Scientist) - Berserkers can take a lot of damage very quickly, so someone who can speed up healing is very welcome.

Æthelflæd (Great General) - When Berserkers and Musketmen are obsolete and it's time to retire her, she can help you hold onto a captured coastal city.

El Cid (Great General) - A Berserker corps is strong enough to get through the renaissance era, though you may want to keep the general around for the speed and strength bonus for units in a radius instead. Multiple Berserkers with 5 movement points and 63 attack strength (67 with Oligarchy) are better than just one with 68 attack (72 with Oligarchy) and 4 moves!

Hildegard of Bingen (Great Scientist) - Turn that Holy Site surrounded by woods into a healthy source of science!

James of St. George (Great Engineer) - Naval conquests can often leave you with cities that are hard to defend. With James of St. George, however, you can simply send him to freshly-captured cities and use a charge to provide strong fortifications. That should buy you some time until the counter-attack comes.

Leif Erikson (Great Admiral) - Denies other civs getting early ocean-crossing, and the sight bonus is useful both for exploration, and looking out for potential threats to your naval raiders.

Rajendra Chola (Great Admiral) - Makes all naval units stronger, meaning you can have both a quantity and quality advantage over other civs.


Santa Cruz (Great Admiral) - Very powerful in conjunction with Yi Sun-Sin. If you can't get either, then simply enjoy a 67-strength Caravel armada which rips apart the undefended coasts of your enemies without a care in the world.

Yi Sun-Sin (Great Admiral) - An early Ironclad is powerful. An early Ironclad that can raid coasts is scary for your opponents. Add Santa Cruz and that's an early Ironclad Armada with 87 strength, which is simply cruel. Add Oligarchic Legacy and they're at 91 strength. Just send it on raids around vulnerable civs and city-states you don't have any envoys present in, and enjoy ripping up their coastal tiles.


José de San Martín (Great General) - Provides loyalty to a city.


Togo Heihachiro (Great Admiral) - Provides quite a bit of loyalty to a coastal city.


Sudirman (Great General) - Provides more loyalty to a city.

Norway can be a nasty pillager and a threat both on land and in the sea. Still, there are some vulnerabilities you can really exploit.



Unless Norway lacks access to the sea, you can't stop them from using this ability. Still, there are ways you can be prepared for it.

For a start, Norway's ability to cross oceans early often means they start settling other continents sooner. Different continents have different sets of luxuries. Keep an eye on which ones Norway has, and if you can get on their good terms, they might be a good trading partner. On the other hand, their warmongering on one continent is going to be known on others - once you meet those civs for yourself, you might find civs which are having as much trouble with Norway as you are.


If Norway's exploiting the ability to retreat units into ocean tiles and heal them, consider focusing your fire upon individual units at a time. Destroyed ships can't escape and can't heal up again.

A little trick you can use in some cases is to purchase tiles you suspect Norway's ships are healing on, It's quite expensive to do so, but it will deprive the units of some health until they move and find a new healing spot.


Keep your coast well-defended with land units, and it'll be hard for Norway to flood your lands with their previously-embarked military units. Melee infantry units are good because they defend pretty well and provide Zone of Control, preventing any disembarking Berserkers or the like slipping through. Siege units, however, are better at handling Norwegian ships. Keeping the coasts covered with military units is also the best tactic against coastal raids.

As far as religious units are concerned, it might help to line your coast with some Inquisitors. You don't need to cover the entire coast - zone of control will help prevent Norway's religious units slipping through.



Harald's high naval melee unit production may result in their navy being lopsided. A lack of naval raiders in particular is quite likely considering they can conduct coastal raids using naval melee units. As warfare on the high seas works in somewhat of a rock-paper-scissors fashion (raiders beat range, range beats melee, melee beats raiders), you simply need to emphasise naval ranged units if you ever have to fight them on the high seas.

Cheap units also means Norway has to deal with high maintenance costs. They may at first use the Conscription policy card to cover the costs, but once Viking Longships obsolete, their costs will skyrocket. If you're a peaceful civ, trading them gold in exchange for their luxuries they've obtained from other continents means they'll rely on you more to cover naval maintenance costs. If they declare war on you, they'll suddenly have a much harder time supporting their huge navy.


Coastal raids can be prevented simply by protecting your improvements and districts with military units. Districts take a higher priority than improvements to protect as they're harder to repair.

Eventually, Norway may get wise to this and start using naval ranged units against you. In that situation, bring forward your siege units or promoted land ranged units and injure them. Unlike Norway's naval melee units, their naval ranged units can't conduct coastal raids (so they can't heal off your farms) and can't heal in neutral seas, so only a bit of damage might be enough to persuade Norway to leave you alone.


If Norway's in your game, consider carefully what coastal tiles you improve. Early on, mines, camps, pastures, plantations and quarries on coast-adjacent tiles should be defended with military units so they're safe from coastal raids.


If you start near Norway, be sure to avoid settling city spots that are very exposed to the sea - at least until the threat of Viking Longships dies down. Early on, even just one or two can take a new city out! Also make sure you scout out the coast for tribal villages before Norway raid too many.

You can't really engage Viking Longships by sea very easily because of the fact they're both stronger and can be built faster than regular Gallies. For this reason, avoid improving coastal resources if you suspect Norway is going to fight you early on - it'll just get pillaged.

So, how do you beat these things? One possibility lies in promoted Archers. Archers can damage Viking Longships while Viking Longships can't hurt them at all, though be aware of the big strength penalty Archers have against them.

A side-effect Norway's Viking Longships have that they make Norway quite likely to enter a classical-era Golden Age. The first naval unit trained in the world is worth +3 era score, the first Viking Longship will grant Norway +4 era score, and they can get additional era score in the ancient era by raiding tribal villages. As such, you might want to consider not settling anywhere too prone to Norway's loyalty pressure early on.


One of the simpler agendas, Harald likes you if you have a good navy and dislikes you if you don't.

This can be a tricky agenda to meet early in the game. Having a decent navy early on might keep Harald at bay, but if he chooses then to attack you, he's likely to still have the upper hand thanks to his UU. Instead, you might be better off just training some Archers and preparing for the worst - building up a navy can come later.

Harald won't ever have the Great White Fleet or Paranoid hidden agendas. The former overlaps with his main agenda, and the latter clashes with it.


Isn't it lovely - a UU with a downside built in!

Berserkers are vulnerable in defence to melee attacks - Knights are probably the most effective units against them, but Men-at-Arms are great as well.

Try if possible to engage Berserkers before they enter your lands. If there's a bit of a gap between your lands and theirs, keep watch over it for possible incoming Berserker forces. Scouts are great at this role as they're cheap to replace if they get killed. If a Berserker army is on the march, get your Coursers, Crossbowmen and/or Knights ready to meet them. You may have to declare war on Norway yourself just to ensure you have the tactical advantage.

If there's not much of a gap between your land and Norway's, know where good defensive terrain (e.g. forested hills) is, and place Swordsmen or other units that defend pretty well on those tiles.

If instead Norway is aiming for an invasion by the sea, get Catapults/Trebuchets, Crossbowmen or even promoted Archers lining your coast in defensive locations such as on a cliff. You can pick them off as they arrive while also keeping your coasts safe from coastal raids.


The main advantage of Stave Churches is dependent on Norway having good access to coastal resources. Take city spots slightly inland from the coast, and not only will you prevent Norway having it, but the cities will be safe from Viking Longship attacks.

When at war with Norway, you can pillage their Holy Site to pillage the Stave Church, denying them access to the production bonus, or alternatively block them from working coastal resources by placing naval units on top.

If you capture a Norwegian city, but know you can't hold it, consider dedicating a Builder to chopping down the woods around the Holy Site so Norway loses the faith bonus.

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• Civ summaries (Start here for an introduction for all civs)
  
• Civ-specific tricks, secrets and clarifications (Ideal for more experienced players)

• America - with persona packs* (Cultural/Diplomatic/Domination/Scientific)
  
• America - without persona packs* (Cultural/Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• Arabia (Religious/Scientific)
  
• Australia (Domination/Scientific)
  
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• Georgia (Diplomatic/Religious)
  
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• Gran Colombia (Domination)
  
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• Sumeria (Diplomatic/Domination/Scientific)
  
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• Vietnam (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Zulus (Domination)

*The Teddy Roosevelt Persona Pack splits Roosevelt's leader ability in two, meaning the game with it is substantially different from without - hence two different versions of the America guide.

The guide to France does not have two different versions because the Catherine de' Medici Persona Pack only adds an extra optional leader ability and does not change the existing gameplay - as such the guide is perfectly usable by players without it. "Black Queen Catherine" with the Persona Pack is identical to Catherine de' Medici without it.

These guides are for those with the Rise and Fall expansion, but not Gathering Storm. They are no longer updated and have not been kept up to date with patches released since Gathering Storm. To look at them, click here to open the Rise and Fall Civ Summaries guide. The "Other Guides" section of every Rise and Fall guide has links to every other Rise and Fall guide.


The Vanilla guides are for those without the Rise and Fall or Gathering Storm expansions. These guides are no longer updated and have not been kept up to date with patches released since Rise and Fall. To look at them, click here to open the Vanilla Civ Summaries guide. The "Other Guides" section of every Vanilla guide has links to every other Vanilla guide.