Civilization 5 Viking Destiny Scenario Strategy and Achievement Guide

1066: Year of Viking Destiny Steam Achievements

The Viking Destiny Scenario for Civilization 5 comes with 4 playable civilizations and 9 Steam Achievements. 3 for winning the scenario on Emperor, Immortal and Deity difficulty. 4 for winning the scenario with every playable faction. And finally 2 achievements tied to specific actions in the game. Below you’ll get an overview of the achievements and playable factions. For detailed strategy guides please refer to the specific posts.

You can do all achievements in 4 playthroughs, if you play on the required levels of difficulty. I started with Anglo-Saxon England on Emperor, played Normandy and Denmark on Immortal and finally also won playing Norway on Deity.

All guides linked here are much less detailed than the usual strategy guides. This is purely due to the fact, that the Year of Viking Destiny scenario is less complex and shorter than most other scenarios.

Before you get started with this scenario, you might want to have a look at the Viking Destiny Scenario Map.


Pillage, Then Burn

Pillage, Then Burn Steam AchievementUnlocked: 10 Jan 2014 @ 9:18pm

Pillage 9 Farms on the same turn

This might very well be one of the trickiest Steam Achievements of this scenario. Not because it’s particularly difficult to pillage farms, but because it’s difficult to find 9 of them on the entire map. I did this playing Denmark and pillaged farms in England and Normandy.

UPDATE: A reader of this blog provided a nice shortcut to doing this achievement, which is also much more reliable! Check it out.

This was their Finest Hour

This was their Finest Hour Steam AchievementUnlocked: 7 Jan 2014 @ 9:33pm

Win as Anglo-Saxon England (any difficulty)

As you can see below, I made both this and the “You the Conqueror” achievement in one game. A good choice, because playing Anglo-Saxon England is the hardest faction to chose in the Viking Destiny scenario. All 3 other nations will try to conquer you, but defending and eventually throwing them back is more than possible on Emperor difficulty. Here’s my guide for playing Anglo-Savon England on Deity.

You The Conqueror

You The Conqueror Steam AchievementUnlocked: 7 Jan 2014 @ 9:33pm

Win scenario on Emperor (any civ)

See above – done with Anglo-Saxon England in the first playthrough.

Fetchez la Vache!

Fetchez la Vache! Steam AchievementUnlocked: 7 Jan 2014 @ 10:11pm

Build a motte and bailey improvement

This improvement is unique to Normandy, so it can only be done playing them. Other than that, there’s nothing to it. Just play them to win – you’ll build one or more motte and bailey improvements anyway!

Time to Stitch a Tapestry

Time to Stitch a Tapestry Steam AchievementUnlocked: 8 Jan 2014 @ 10:33pm

Win as Normandy (any difficulty)

Again, compare the timestamp of this one and the one below: I made both this and the “Surviving Domesday” achievement in one game. Playing Normandy on Immortal is fun and a bit challenging, but still far from frustrating. Plan your attack well and crush Anglo-Saxon England between you and the Danish. Take care the Danish don’t conquer London before you!

Again, in my endeavor to beat this scenario on Deity with all factions, here’s how to win on Deity playing Normandy.

Surviving Domesday

Surviving Domesday Steam AchievementUnlocked: 8 Jan 2014 @ 10:33pm

Win scenario on Immortal (any civ)

See above – done with Normandy in the second playthrough.

Odin’s Chosen Warrior

Odin's Chosen Warrior Steam AchievementUnlocked: 10 Jan 2014 @ 8:51am

Win as Denmark (any difficulty)

I did this on Immortal difficulty as well, winning in the first attempt. Your base of operation is East England and you’ll want to advance not too far North not to mess with Norway at first. Eventually you’ll need some Norman cities to build your shrines though, as Anglo-Saxon England will have lost most it’s cities until the end of the game. Click here for the guide to win on Deity playing Denmark.

Purple People Eaters

Purple People Eaters Steam AchievementUnlocked: 12 Jan 2014 @ 4:21pm

Win as Norway (any difficulty)

This was challenging and a close call in the end. Advancing on England from the North means capturing some City States first. Some units from your Scottish Island cities will have to march a looong way before entering battle, but you’ll need everything.

In the end, dominance on England was so strong, that I even captured one Danish city.

Update: On my 2nd playthrough as Norway I captured almost all of England and completely conquered and defeated Denmark. Read all about it in the guide to win on Deity playing Norway.

Surviving Ragnarok

Surviving Ragnarok Steam AchievementUnlocked: 12 Jan 2014 @ 4:21pm

Win scenario on Deity (any civ)

See above – done with Norway in the fourth playthrough.


Year of Viking Destiny Strategy

The “1066: Year of Viking Destiny” scenario for Civ 5 has research, happiness and religion disabled. This is purely about warfare. It’s also great for me, because it’s less effort to write a guide 🙂

Battles and the random seed

It seems battles in Viking Destiny are a good bit more unpredictable than in normal games of Civilization 5. The battle-preview you get when mouse-overing on the potential attack is not always correct. Sometimes you destroy an enemy unit, whereas the preview predicted it would survive. Other times you deal a lot less damage than planned for. Deal with it – reload if you must. I made all achievements, including the deity ones without excessive reloading (compared to other Civ 5 Scenarios).

Terrain and promotions

I exclusively gave my units promotions for battles in open terrain. Meaning “Accuracy” for ranged units and “Shock” for melees. Most of Britain is open terrain, with the exception of some forests in the south and around Nottingham. Also: Don’t underestimate the power of instant heal. In this scenario time is of essence – a unit healed instantly can make a difference when it comes to capturing an enemy city one turn earlier or later (or playing as Anglo-Saxons, coming to the rescue).

To further refine your Year of Viking Destiny strategy – have a look at the Viking Destiny scenario map. It’s not only nice to look at, but also helps see the road layout and plan your strategy.

Civilization 5 1066: Year of Viking Destiny Strategy Scenario Description

Domesday Shire Court and the Domesday Book

To win the scenario you need to build the Domesday Book. It can only be built in London, so gaining or keeping control of London is crucial.

The historical Domesday Book is actually quite interesting: To determine what each landowners land and livestock was worth and how much taxes every they owed, William the Conqueror sent delegates all over England. Everything was neatly listed in that book and because what got written in that book was final and could not be disputed or contested, it got called the Doomsday Book, which in middle English was Domesday book!

A precondition to build the Domesday Book is having built 6 Domesday Shire Courts (sending out your men), which again can only be built in cities at least 8 hexes away from London. This excludes the cities of Dover, Winchester, Chichester, Oxford, Northampton, Thetford.

Once more not only the historical setting of the scenario is interesting and fitting, but also the victory conditions are incredibly well designed!

The combatants struggling for England in the Viking Destiny scenario

Anglo-Saxon England

civilization-5-emblem-anglo-saxon-england

civilization-5-leader-anglo-saxon-england-harold-godwinsonStatus: Achieved (Deity)

Harold Godwinson – England

Briton Allies:
City-State influence degrades at half and recovers at twice the normal rate.

Norway

civilization-5-emblem-norway

civilization-5-leader-norway-harald-hardradaStatus: Achieved (Deity)

Harald Hardrada – Norway

Viking Fury:
Embarked units hat +1 Movement and pay just 1 movement point to move from sea to land. Melee units pay no movement point cost to pillage.

Denmark

civilization-5-emblem-danish

civilization-5-leader-danish-harald_bluetoothStatus: Achieved (Deity)

Sweyn II – Denmark

Viking Fury:
Embarked units hat +1 Movement and pay just 1 movement point to move from sea to land. Melee units pay no movement point cost to pillage.

Normandy

civilization-5-emblem-normandy

civilization-5-leader-normandy-william-the-conquerorStatus: Achieved (Deity)

William the Conqueror – Normandy

Castle Builders:
Swordsmen can construct the Motte and Bailey unique improvement in the same time it takes a Worker to build a Fort.

14 thoughts on “Civilization 5 Viking Destiny Scenario Strategy and Achievement Guide”

  1. Thanks for all of your excellent guides, Robert! I’m closing in on completing all the achievements and they’ve been a great help.

    I engineered “Pillage, Then Burn” with a duel, plains-heavy map. I built up farms on three or four cities, placing nine troops strategically outside the cities but next to nine farms. Then I traded the cities to my AI opponent for 1 gold, declared war, and then pillaged away.

    Not the organic solution the developers probably had in mind, but less artifice than “Raiders of the Lost Ark” required!

    1. Yeehaa! Congratz already! Nice one on setting up “Pillage, Then Burn”. And yeah, “Raiders of the Lost Ark” was really awkward – so much setup required that it’s basically not an achievement anymore.

  2. I found that the mentioned method for farm pillaging did not work. What does work extremely well is to play as Norway.
    1) Turn invasion fleet around. Go north a bit to avoid the Danes. Take over Viborg and northern Denmark city.
    2) Buy a couple tiles and make your farms in Viborg (I made roads too while waiting for farms to be built) while fighting off the effort to retake it which will vary in strength depending on setting I guess
    3) Move everyone out of the area and back a bit, when I was right off shore the AI would not attack Viborg
    4) Go back in and raze all the farms.

    Super quick, assured to work and easy.

    1. Hey there, thanks for posting a viable alternative approach! (That achievement used to be a pain in the neck and kind of unnecessary, too…)

    1. Where did you state above that norway was the easiest deity win?

  3. After winning this scenario on Diety once, does it matter which difficulty to win again with other civilizations for the achievements?

    1. Hey merkezekrem, no, that doesn’t matter: All that matters (achievement-wise) is to win on Deity once and then with each civilization, but combinations don’t matter 🙂

  4. Thanks for al the info guys. Just wanted to let u know that I unlocked this achievement in a regular ‘brave new world’ game. Large map and lot’s of opponents, easier then unlocking it from within the scenario. Cheers.

  5. Concerning the “Pliiage, Then Burn” Achievement, somehow you can get this in a standard non scenario game too. I didn’t even realise that it belongs to this specific one until just now. I never played the viking scenario so far, but got the achievement (did it on purpose at the end of a game with some Death robots)

    1. Hey Macgki, thanks for that! I had missed your comment somehow, but the above Anonymous comment confirms it. That’s great to know, because, well… Doing “Pillage, then burn” with Giant Death Robots is much easier for sure 🙂

  6. Thank you a lot for all your strategies, it helps me a lot getting all the success !

    For the “Pillage, Then Burn” success, I found a strategy (without waiting for random farm to be built) : you have to build or buy every pioneer you can in the first turns, then send them to a city-state (I prefer Scotland because it is huge and has many farm to build). Then, declare war on it, so it will catch your pioneer and… build farm with it.
    But here is the thing : you have to wait the English units to leave before sending your pioneer (if not, they will kill your pioneer) !!! That mean waiting some turn after they ally with Scotland : waiting for the city-state to have other unit belonging to it.

    As this, with the first army on the coast, I could pillage the whole 9 farms only in Scotland territory, saving a lot of time, and a lot of stress !

    1. Hey there, thanks for that! I didn’t even get the idea of supporting someone else in BUILDING farms! 😀
      I linked down to your comment from the post above.

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