Civilization VI’s Rulers of England Pass brings one of the most interesting leaders to the table. Harald Hardrada’s Varangian persona is not only one of the best economic empires but also one suited to war. Being an addition to the game along with Victoria (Age of Steam), and Elizabeth I. Using mercenary forces levied from other city-states, it’s easy to see the Norwegians as a gold-building empire for the world. Pumping its allies full of resources and gold with little in the way of drawbacks. Mixing Norway’s impressive units with his own ability to plunder faith, culture, and science from his enemies to build an empire of enlightenment. To this degree, he becomes the perfect empire for an all-around dominance victory; mixing the sword with the mighty pen!
By building an economic empire, Harald Hardrada is able to dip his toes into whatever pie he needs to; developing advanced nations and militaries. His ability to not only fund his own people, but also his allies makes him perfect for playing with friends, or public games! By dominating the seas and plundering its enemies, Norway is often considered a powerful harasser. In the Varangian persona, Harald Hardrada is capable of being a potent warrior by plundering his victims; gaining fifty percent of the civil bonuses from his expeditions. These bonuses make him an especially formidable enemy, especially when he rallies several mercenary bands under his banner
Leader Basics – Harald Hardrada (Varangian)
Harald Hardrada’s Varangian persona can drastically change a battle using nothing more than coins and connections. Gaining the suzerain title in as many city-states as possible allows him to buy out their forces at 25% of the normal cost. This allows him to create temporary armies that are both well-oiled and capable of overwhelming most stand-alone forces. By taking the harassing nature of Norway’s raiding forces, and giving them bonuses to wartime plundering, Harald becomes a true force to be reckoned with. These conflicts allow him to gain more bonuses quickly, as he can spend less time on infrastructure, and more on troops.
Leader Ability – Varangian Guard
Harald’s ability, the Varangian Guard is by far one of the most interesting additions to the Norwegian nation. Acting as a means of levying the city-state’s forces at a 75% discount. Additionally, all forces will have an upkeep cost reduction of two gold, making larger armies more accessible to this nation. While using these levied troops, killing enemies grants faith, culture, and science points worth up to half the slain unit’s combat strength. This is a massive boon, making these levies worth more than simple manpower. One of the important aspects of The Varangian Guard’s ability is that you can build a military when it is needed, rather than having one all the time.
Leader Strategy – Massive Army
Norway’s potent strategy is to build a large army worthy of conquering the world. To this extent, Harald Hardrada will spend faith, gold, and production points in order to craft whatever army he can. No army is large enough, and thus his ability to lower the cost of upkeep for his troops makes him an unstoppable horde. By plundering his neighbors and enemies, Harald can make his empire as large and shining as it once was. However, his time should be spent on army growth. Whether it be a large army or an advanced one, Norway can become a problem quickly if left unchecked militarily.
Harald Hardrada’s abilities
Leader Religion – Eastern Orthodoxy
Eastern Orthodoxy is the religion which Harald Hardrada subscribes to. This is a faith shared by notable civilization leaders like Basil II, Menelik II, Peter, Tamar, and Theodora. This religion can be represented by cathedrals, however, have no basis on how a civilization progresses overall. Under the Varangian Guard persona, this religion should be used to dedicate faith points to religious monks and warriors. As your civilization expands, this religious expansion will allow your troops to potentially gain additional attack power or even heal quicker. These are especially useful given the fact that large armies are hard to maintain.
Leader Agenda – Harald’s Saga
Harald’s Saga is all about Norway trying to build up as many city-state suzerain titles as possible. Harald Hardrada needs this title on as many city-states as possible so he can levy his armies. As a result, he hates other nations taking over city-states, threatening to kill them. To regain control of these city-states, players should send as many envoys as possible. As long as players don’t mind using envoys, these city-states allow Harald to remain protected and have footholds across the globe.
Special units – Levied Armies
While there are no specific special units available for Harald Hardrada’s Varangian Guard persona, he does have access to cheap levy armies. This powerful method of gaining temporary armies and mercenaries can’t be overlooked as they are almost a specialty of their own. Usually, these are hefty units to purchase and require the upkeep and randomness of their allies. This is somewhat circumvented by his leader ability which lowers upkeep costs, as well as grants great bonuses when plundering enemies. It’s incredibly important to build up as many of these potential armies as possible; keeping your gold reserves ready for a war should it break out.
Harald Hardrada is a powerful warlord
Country Basics – Norway
Norway is one of the more war-worthy nations in Civilization VI, using coastal raids as a method of victory. Absolutely no one is safe when these warriors descend upon them, resorting to pillaging and looting whatever they can to profit from the war. It is not simply enough to take land. These raiders must exploit their enemies and gain riches. To this end, the Norwegians are excellent combatants and are capable of traveling into ocean waters with lightning efficiency. From Norway’s unique position, it can be one of the most potent warriors available; ambushing nations from the sea, or from the northern sections of land.
Other Leader Variants
There is only one other variation of the Norwegian leader, Harald Hardrada. The Konge persona is great for building up a sea-raiding empire that can plunder coasts, and decimate anyone who tries to enter their waters. Because of this lack of variation, Norway has struggled to do much outside of raiding warfare; however, it can make a great fishing empire as well! Since the new leader passed, the Rulers of England include the Varangian persona of our favorite Norse raider. We can only hope that in the future Norway will receive more than a combat leader with the rich history it has!
Country Ability – Knarr
Norway’s unique civilization ability comes in the way of Knarr. Knarr allows Norway to enter ocean tiles after they’ve acquired shipbuilding science rather than cartography. Additionally, all units pay zero movement costs to embark and disembark from coast tiles, making them perfect for amphibious invasions. Finally, naval melee units that belong to Norway will be able to heal themselves in neutral waters, being one of the largest bonuses to this civilization’s ability. Knarr is a powerful ability that allows Norwegian raiders to harass individuals off their coasts quickly, and before most other nations can get into the water. This ocean availability also allows Norway to become the explorers of the seas, and build strong trading ties whenever available.
Berserkers
Unique Units – Berserkers
Berserkers are the unique unit available in Norway, replacing the usual Man-At-Arms. This unit is unlocked once the player has researched military tactics, and will not become obsolete until the advent of Replaceable Parts. These unique units move faster when in enemy territory, and have an additional ten combat strengths when attacking. Unfortunately, these units are only good for offensive actions, being easily defeated when they attempt to defend something. These units require 160 production points, 640 gold, and have an upkeep of three gold per turn. Due to the abilities of the Varangian Guard, this will be lowered to one gold per turn.
Unique infrastructure – Stave Churches
Unique to Norway, Stave Churches are infrastructure that can be placed in coastal regions for great production bonuses. Replacing the standard temple, these are unlocked once the theology civic has been unlocked. For 120 production points and two gold a turn, they give you four faiths, a citizen slot, and production for every coastal resource. These also grant relic slots, great prophet points, and standard temple bonuses, which are great for grabbing faith points. The Stave Churches can swell armies quickly with their production points, so they’re great for building up cities on the coast.
Location Bonuses (True Start)
Norway has the unique pleasure of being a northern seafront nation. They are great at spreading out through exploration, and building large fleets; while also having enough land to spread downward. Norway has a lot of resources and traversal hazards around it, being mountainous and cold. These factors can protect your nation from opposing armies while you harass them with your raiders and naval forces. There are a lot of issues that can come from the cold atmosphere and slow start on land, however when building out to sea, Norway becomes the king of the ocean quickly.
Sprawling Empire
Leader Strategy – Levy Armies
The real bread and butter of the Varangian persona of Harald Hardrada is to simply build up city-state friendships, and utilize their armies. By creating as many suzerain titles as possible, the Norwegian armies can swell in size quickly during times of war. By plundering your enemies, and harassing them both on land and at sea, Norway will show its true dominance over others. Remember to strike quickly, and to strike hard; as with shipbuilding comes oceanic capabilities. With powerful berserkers and good natural defenses, Harald Hardrada can focus on conquering rather than defending his own land.
Strengths
The main strength of the Varangian persona for Harald Hardrada is that he can easily acquire other people’s armies at a fourth of the cost of the usual levy armies. This makes him an exceptional combatant when dealing with armies of similar size. Due to this fact, she tends to leech other nations off by plundering their lands during wars of any variety. In many senses, he is a perfect warmonger and is capable of waging these wars on the backs of other nation-states. Finally, with sea dominance rivaling England, Harald’s navy can prove an extraordinary coastal raider against his enemies.
Weaknesses
Due to the fact that Harald will consistently be seeking to create a larger army, he tends to miss out on country development. The personal problems with this align with the fact that your military will require several strategic resources like iron to maintain. Another issue will be maintaining political alliances with others due to the constant war-like nature of Norway. All of this combined creates a severe need for isolationism, or to constantly pillage your enemies. There’s no middle ground when using Harald Hardrada. As a warrior, there are few nations who can stand in your way!
Stave Church
Military Tactics
Harald can fund his city-state ambitions by creating as many naval troops and berserkers as possible. Having as many envoys as possible serves both a political and a military purpose since you want to levy armies fast. Getting more city-states makes your army stronger. Produce as much good as you can to do this, unless you can create religious units that fight. As Harald Hardrada, no matter how you build these units, you can overwhelm any force that opposes you by levying your allies’ armies.
Trading/ Politics
When it comes to trading, Harald Hardrada can do as much as other nations will tolerate. Often he is forced to do so from a position of isolationism when it comes to resource trading. Trade routes between city-states on the other hand, provide a key means of income for his army levy strategies. Politically, Harald Hardrada is often hated both by his neighbors and enemies alike due to the constant coastal raids he embarks on. For this reason, adopting isolationist standards with other plays, and focusing on city-states ensures the best results. In order to acquire these city-states, you’ll need to build as many envoys as possible, something that can be done through political civic cards.
Religious Spread
If religion is the way you wish to go about acquiring these large armies, Stave Churches and Warrior Monks make a powerful combo. This grouping can both defect troops to your side from other nations, while also spreading your religion nicely. Focusing on both building gold and Faith points can work in Harold’s favor when trying to amass new levy armies. Remember it’s expensive to operate mercenary forces, so the more stave churches you have, the more potent your forces will be. Especially when considering their industrial bonuses, these churches can hyper-expand your city’s defenses.
-Source: AngryPanda
The Varangian Destiny
Countless ways exist to conquer the world, some through their own numbers, both physical and ranged. Some through the might of technology or the torch of God. Others flatter themselves with cultural enlightenment, and the power of diplomacy to win their wars. Yet still, Harald Hardrada seeks to shine both gold and steel into war, amassing the largest force in human history. Civilization VI offers you countless ways to seek victory, and through his Varangian Destiny, anything is possible! Remember that your power lies in your ability to plunder your enemies, and to rule both sea and land as a great ruler of Europe.
