We understand the business model of the Vikings

Hello! We are now making a game about the Vikings, and while I found out about them, a couple of unclear details came to light. But while important:

• They reached Africa with raids and late settlements.
• There is a Norman theory of the foundation of Russia - they say, these are our ancestors. She is controversial, much more testimony about the constant cooperation of peoples (read: almost all the Vikings = Vikings, and Thor and Perun are in fact almost the same man).
• These guys made the coolest ships and the coolest navigation of the seventh-tenth centuries, and already knew the phenomenon of the polarization of light (or rather, did not know, but used).
• They introduced direct democracy, which then became an alting (and still works in Iceland).
• A lot of things in everyday life are the same or similar to what our Slavic ancestors did.

That is, you can once again simplify, saying that the Vikings were heavily armed tech pirates. Such a pirate special forces. And they launched a bunch of historical processes. And they also have a huge cultural layer of sagas, which you still know about in theaters.
')
The starting point of the search was different: the guy from New Zealand, who stumbled over the Vikings, made a cool game. So, was he able to pass the setting correctly?

All the time it seemed to me that the Vikings were some kind of northern dudes from Norway, who sometimes came to Russia and the neighboring countries on their drakkars, robbed, killed, traded and raped - what would happen. And that their culture is extremely far from ours - approximately like Loki, who turned into a horse and became pregnant from a giant horse, and then gave birth to a GMO foal - it is incomprehensible by Slavic logic.

It turned out that almost all Vikings are Vikings. That is, these brave parties did not just happen in Russia, but were regularly here. I mean, the debate is still going on, but I’ll just quote Wiki :

Various foreign written sources, archeology and language data can also testify to the Scandinavian origin of the Vikings. Items of Scandinavian origin were found in all the ancient Russian trade and craft settlements (Ladoga, Timerev, Gnezdovo, Shestovitsa, etc.) and early cities (Novgorod, Pskov, Kiev, Chernigov). More than 1,200 Scandinavian armaments, jewelry, amulets and household items, as well as tools and tools of the 8th — 11th centuries, originate from about 70 archaeological sites of ancient Russia. About 100 finds of graffiti are known in the form of separate Scandinavian runic signs and inscriptions. A number of words of the Old Russian language are of Scandinavian origin. It is significant that not only the words of trade vocabulary penetrated into the Slavic language, but also marine terms, everyday words and terms of power and control, proper names. Thus, the names Gleb, Igor, Ingvar, Oleg, Olga, Rogvolod, Rogneda, Rurik were borrowed, the words: Varangians, kolbyagi, gridi, tiun, vira, pud, pood, anchor, slayer (old meaning - official), whip, golbets other.

But as long as we haven’t done a classic historical holivar here, I’ll tell you right away - I don’t want to tell it.

Base settlement

Here is the playing field. At the bottom (near the players) we have our Viking settlement, and above - targets for raids. It is possible that the Vikings saw their world differently (not upwards), but this structure is dictated by the ergonomics of seating players at the table.



In fact, the hikes were as follows:





We look at the bottom of the playing field, at the settlement:



Viking settlement is, in fact, a winter base. I recall the main profession of the Vikings was to rob. They left the base in a raid on ships, went almost the entire season before the winter and returned with the loot to their base.

They built settlements on elevations near the water. Near the water - it is clear that for logistics with ships. On the dais - because it was still necessary to protect the settlement from other thugs, especially from those Vikings who robbed this year badly, and who have no other choice but to visit their neighbor. The best position is a hill in the depths of the fjord in order to notice a foe from afar.

At the edges of the settlement, a palisade is visible - he had the task to increase the effectiveness of the actions of the defenders. That is, the settlement was built so that if there was a Viking battle group inside, no one wanted to even take it, and in the absence of a battle group, those who stayed (old men, women, intellectuals-masters) could defend well enough that the attackers would choose more accessible target.

The long house was built one of the first, and this is the architectural dominant of such a settlement.


^{The surviving long house in the Lofoten Islands (Norway)}

Meetings were held inside, the canteen was located and masters worked. In the absence of other buildings, the long house replaced everything else. With the development of the settlement, a forge was taken out (in which the Vikings worked with the metal that they dragged during the raid), barracks for living and various outbuildings and workshops. Separately made a meeting place. Separate houses for families quickly appeared around (they are not on the map in the game to simplify the interface), where different people lived depending on their rank.


<sup>A master archer from a long house, a museum actor depicts a member of a battle group capable of repairing weapons in a campaign. I was very surprised that I, Russian, know how to shoot. He does not know about role-playing games.


This is in Iceland, for the most part blocks of residential houses have been preserved, windows and doors have been changed into modern ones.</sup>

Women were both stolen and their own. Children were brought up collectively: in the family, plus boys — in fact, by all men, girls — by all women. Parents were loved and appreciated; they were tied to their families, but boys were raided from the age of six. Places on the ship such a young man held very little, and bring-serve did well. Well, there was no school, it was necessary to study somewhere in the main profession. So we can say that the squad coaching such a young man.


^{Food was prepared on the hearth, water could be directly in the house in barrels or even in a well in one of the rooms.}



Here the maiden of the shield for some kind of devil is on the sea and in war paint. Women were not taken to Drakkar for the same reasons as the pirates - since there are significantly fewer of them than men (ready for battle), the fighters will fight for their attention and losses will begin even before the destination. A virgin could really defend a settlement in winter, but in the game as a whole it is a tribute to the political correctness of the West. She also has a very interesting thing in her hands - the Novgorod ax. This is quite realistic.

Here is a reconstruction of women's classes in the museum on Lofoten with actresses:





The second lady shows not so much an almost Slavic costume as the game Nheftafl or Kneftafl, a convergent prototype of chess. Here is about her more details in our telegram channel.



The jeweler in the hands of women's jewelry and you can see the temporal rings. These are things for displaying social status. As epaulets from the military and the clock from the officials. And here the major will meet with the official, and it is not clear who will get someone to “ku”. Jewelry such questions are excluded. Women also have many different beads, and jewelry was used in marriage rituals as a dowry. In men, the social status also conveys a shirt with a color code for quick reading.

The base of the Vikings could lay not only in a new place, but also capturing someone's settlement. For example, a monastery. Then they rebuilt everything for themselves.

There were quite strict social groups: slaves, peasant workers, junior squad, squad, further officers and label. Separately, the craftsmen, who at first were incomprehensible types, and then began to be valued as a source of knowledge and unique skills. In fact, sometimes critically important specialists were recruited, hired, or banally stolen for settlement. It was normal practice to hire a person to train them for the season, and then try them on their own.

In the game, social inequality is depicted directly on top of the settlement with the necessary jobs (multi-colored figures, and white - a workshop) and different production of resources from different people. Here is another picture:



As you can guess, the intellectual elite have already begun to be appreciated.



The old men were respected, they didn’t take retirement into the ravine, but if the enemy came - here you have a piece of iron, fight with us. And they fought because to die with a weapon in hand is far more honorable than from old age. And so they were often the most important experts and custodians of the knowledge of the settlements. Writing appeared very late, already because of Christianity, and before that there were only sagas. From the sagas only one thing is clear: no matter what the bad happens, Loki is to blame. Definitely. Everything else is questionable, because the sagas were first transmitted orally many times, and then many times copied closer to modern times. The sagas were a learning system because they created role models and situations with methods of solutions in the Viking brain.

Operating activities

The Viking Age begins in 725 and ends with the fact that 1066 Norman Wilhelm became King of England and received the war name Conqueror. At first, they were not paid attention, and they included mostly pictures about sea thugs who rob honest people. By the way, an interesting version of the origin of the myth of horned helmets: it seems that in one of the monasteries they were portrayed by demons attacking from the night and from the sea. And the demons must be horny and scary, otherwise the viewer can confuse who is the hero here. So that the picture of the destruction of the monastery does not look like something like a call to break other monasteries, it was slightly modified by explaining who is bad here. Since then, the rumor about the identification of horns on helmets.

UPD: homocomputeris leads in the comments link, from which it follows that horned helmets were, but very rarely.

Well, everything of value traveled with the battle group. That is, they came out of the raid with stocks for the winter, lived this winter, then went off to the raid again. Interesting things happened when it didn’t work properly to loot or it didn’t work to get back on time. At this point, professional warriors were hired to join someone, that is, they were mercenaries. Sometimes to our Russian princes. We have a central point of one of the main trade routes - Smolensk. There are still archaeologists digging Vikings in the range. Approximately from here and the monetary system - the Vikings traded a lot with whom and received a lot of payment. To the same prince Vladimir it was necessary to pay off something. Well, all sorts of useless nishtyaki Vikings in large settlements tried to bargain for the right ones. If so grab it did not work. This required an intermediate unit (gold or silver in the form of different coins).


^{The coins in the game are metallic. Since there was almost no practical value for money at home, they were often buried in the form of a treasure. Treasures are still. So it is better to study the Viking banking system with a metal detector.}

The Vikings went on a campaign on the Drakkars (this is a large boat), the goods were carried on Knorrah (trading bellied ships), and along the rivers-lakes and generally not far went on small boats for 5-7 people.

Drakkar - the top of the shipbuilding era. This is a very light for rowing vessel, whose crew has almost all the rattling. Rhythmic songs were used for synchronization, and there was a special fighter who sang them. Sail allowed to gain decent speed and make steep maneuvers until the wind overlap another ship in the pennant direction with its sail. At the same time, the ship was small enough to enter small and shallow rivulets and swim right up to the target, shouting “SURPRISE”. In Norwegian.

Very deep optimization and integration: for example, the shields of the fighters were put on board and became part of the skin (protected from rowers' arrows), and then snatched at the beginning of the landing or boarding. At the same time, the rowing hatches did not overlap with the design shields. About 20-30 people usually got into Drakkar. We slept right on the deck, stored in the superstructure valuables like weapons (to protect from moisture). The task force was assembled from several drakkar and, if necessary, knorr (40 people on board). Knorra were the ships of the colonialists.

The current repair was done by a carpenter with an ax, the saws were hardly used. This ax seems to have been used quite universally, which tells us the name “Brodex” (carpentry ax) for this weapon:



Navigation - on the stars, so they could walk away from the coast, which gave an incredible ability to "get the hell out" for a long pursuit. A crash happened near Iceland, where stars are often not visible - they used crystals to polarize the light to see which part of the sky is the sun. So do bees and ants, by the way. More used ravens - it is worth releasing the bird into the sea, as it rises and looks where the earth is. And then fly there.

Now about the weapons. At first, it is clear that grabbed, then used.



But with the development of bases, the selection of the most popular types of weapons and progress in crafts, a more interesting system appeared. So, the first and simplest - a spear. Cheap, deadly and more can be thrown. Blades are convenient in the clinch and on boarding boards, work well with a shield. Sharpening the bottom two-thirds did not bother, especially the guard, also made carolings (blades with the same width for almost the entire length, which pushes the balance away from the usual European tradition) and with the sweep of them clobbery. Later, there was a problem with picking out enemies from armor - small axes, brakes, brodexes (“bearded” axes for splitting helmets), and so on, came to the best. Shields for protection from arrows. The armor was layered - lamellar lamellar on top of the chopping blows (this is the most expensive and the latest part of the armament), then riveted-cut mail, then a leather shirt, then the Viking. At sea, a layer of chain mail did not leave a chance to swim, so the leather shirt was the basis. For helmets, they can’t find out whether they themselves made owls or not.



These cute people are painted with characteristic camouflage. It's like in sailors on zebras: a psychological attack. Last but not least, the Vikings were portrayed as demons because of these features of the image. Again, note that by the number of helmets per capita, it can be roughly established that we are in the game in the first third of the Viking era. Helmets are expensive, and having a good one is a luxury.

Luke used a lot and often - at first it was a cheap way to attack from afar, and then they came up with something like an English long bow and got their snipers. Which is very useful on the sea before boarding. At the same time they threw everything suitable from sulits to axes. In later centuries, more protection appeared, but the need for metal mittens was never justified, it seems.



The gatekeeper has a helmet owl on their head (officially they are called differently), an early version, without a barmitsa, but with protection on the sides. In the course were also on the cheek, upper lip and full face. Note that no one wore a bucket on his head - the helmet’s second goal was to let the blow slip. The horns upwards would obviously prevent this and would approximately double the force of the blow to the helmet with most of the tools. The shield from the picture is questionable: they all had fist knuckles without elbow attachment (almost all were round), this one he could grab somewhere with a very small probability.



And this is a berserk, who has remarkably gotten on various dietary supplements. Taking into account that there were fly-agarics in the course, and they did not know how to clean them of side components, I would note that the romanticized Asterix and Obelix had to go into battle with saliva dripping in all directions and slightly trimmed. But this is not the most important thing in life, the main thing is to kill everyone!

What is it all over? Viking business ceased at a time when the population of the northern countries fell, the feudal system made the raids more difficult (it was hard to storm the fortress with the army) and the world changed in general. In Iceland, the Vikings became predominantly farmers and healed peacefully, and on the continent they followed the path of the feudal system. Judging by the aforementioned Wilhelm the Conqueror, it is very effective in some places.

About the game as a whole

In short, you act as follows:

1. Get ready for the raid. That is, you complete the ship with resources and people, repair weapons, and so on. This is the base part, and everything is very cool there. There are a couple of unexpected mechanics with "put a man - took a man", but this is already a igromechanical conversation. It seems that this mechanic was the thing that gave the author an award for his contribution to the development.
2. When your "cow" is ready - you run in and rob. There is not much different from the usual combat mechanics: rolls of dice, which are modified by different actions of your fighters and heroes. Accordingly, against different goals it is necessary to recruit different units with different abilities.

And in these two places the spirit of the Viking society is reflected even further. Let me remind you, death was perceived as an honorable part of life. There, beyond the horizon, Valkyries in Valhall were waiting, and everything went to the point that the data were at the documentary level (from the point of view of a resident of the era). Therefore, the Vikings were cut without fear and doubt. Igromechanic effect - when you rob a settlement, you take the loot. Sometimes you come across Valkyrie chips. Then there is a great success for some members of the squad: they die and come to visit them.

The game is very good for introverts in that the core does not require direct competing actions. You have one settlement, and the competition is at the level of "who will take more booty and glory." There are actually interactions between the players, and they are very deep, but it is clear that this becomes the game after the fifth one. And before that, a very simple igromechanical core makes it possible to run on without a backward glance and enjoy how well everything works out. So you can even play with children. They will then be able to surprise the teacher of history with a couple of stories in the spirit, “Yes, we went to these waters, oh, and they have notable fortifications.” Well, or just a little better will understand how the life cycle of this people is arranged.

Vikings or “Raiders of North Sea” made Shem Phillips from New Zealand. New Zealand is a country almost as distant as possible from the Viking habitat. It sounded very funny, until he broke a couple of awards in 2017, did not start selling wildly, entered the first hundred of the top table ranking around the world and did not take two more awards in 2018, and one for outstanding services in game development.

We got interested, played and got a license.

This is what a box looks like (a test copy printed on a figure with low quality) and Sergey Gulyaev, a man who reconstructs Vikings even in modern times and fights at times from festivals:


^{He helped in the tests and checked this post for fact. And once again I asked to convey that once he tried to fight in a horned helmet (captured in another era) and got on the horn so that he almost broke his neck. Therefore, no horns up the Vikings!}

Here he made this knife with his own hands, this is also a reconstruction:



That is, the author of the game Shem hit the market - almost the entire planet knows the Vikings. Even some dress up for them, reconstructing the costumes from the finds. Add cool mechanics, great art, pour in iron coins ... And here we have a bestseller.

In Russia, the game is now in a crowdfunding campaign, it has already been collected for circulation, and it is already being done (components, not yet boxed). That is, now it's just about pre-order at a discount. There will be 1,500 pieces, those that do not disassemble on pre-orders, will go into retail in the country. There is a game on the shelf of 3500 rubles, in pre-order 2900 and still comes with promotional cards. Link here . By the same link more than any about the game itself.